**Input Needed**

Dear friends and family,
I have narrowed down my desk hardware choices to the following 5 pretty knobs. Please vote on your favorite. I have two that I'm leaning toward, but have much faith in your judgment and taste. Yes you. Kindly reply to this message with your choices or even other drawer knobs not posted below. If you have no earthly idea what desk I'm talking about, read the post under this one. Yep, I know it's amazing I've posted twice in one day! :)
Thank you,
your loving Deb

New Stuff!

I found this adorable antique desk today when I visited a little store in downtown Grand Prairie. I've been looking for a desk for about a month now, and am so glad I held out! It pays to be picky :)


I think it looks like an old fashioned vanity. Also notice the cute coasters Lauren sent me for a housewarming gift!


I also bought this flower painting last weekend when I was in Waco. I'm enjoying my blue, green, and gold color scheme :)


I'm trying to strike a balance between fun/personality and young-woman-elegance. I think it's beginning to work!

For British Eyes Only

This past weekend was amazing. Who knew that one extra day off could make such a difference?

Friday, I trekked back to Waco once more to take care of some payroll issues. I ran a few leisurely errands and ended up picking out a painting I've been coveting a while for my bedroom, as well as a real grown-up hamper. Baylor graduation was over, so I had surprisingly few friends left in town! I finally ended up at my old Starbucks with a former co-worker named James who is now working as a flight instructor. We chatted it up, reminisced, and graded papers. I had such awesome co-workers at that store and still keep up with a good handful. It's crazy though guys- our old manager put in her 2 weeks notice last week, so in the year since I work at the 'bucks, the store has had complete turnover! Whoa.

The next morning I took care of my banking stuff and headed back to Dallas. I finally finally finally started cleaning my apartment and putting stuff away. It's beginning to look quite homey, if I do say so myself :) I need to order some photos to put in frames and maybe get some wall art, but it'll come in time.

Sunday I went to FBC Irving again and enjoyed Sunday School and the service. My first impression still holds- an altogether warm, and growing church! :) After doing more grading, I drove to Waxahacie..however you spell it...for the best part of the weekend: The Renaissance Festival! I met up with a group of theatre chums and reveled in the glorious nerdiness of sellers wearing pumpkin pants and pantaloons, hawking their wares in the worst of British accents! We watched a live chess match where chess men had to actually fight to the death, the Doktor Kaboom exploding science show, jousting, some crown and cup shopping, and finally (after the rain) a mud sliding contest between slightly tipsy attendees. I tried on a very nice tooled leather corset that I was very tempted to buy...maybe next year!



Monday was a nice lazy day spent half-heartedly cleaning, whole-heartedly napping, and watching a movie.

5 days of school left (including finals)! Heck yes!

The Beginning of the End

When I was a kid in school, I remember the last few days of school were simply the doorway to summer. Paper-thin, they were weak barriers that made those first days of freedom all the sweeter. Now, on the teacher side of things, they're the final hill of a marathon. Lungs burning, calves tightening, I'm stinkin' gonna make it up this freakin' hill to the finish line!!
:)
Seriously though, the students are going nuts! Every teacher I've talked to is tiredly shaking their head by the end of the day, trying to begin reviews for finals or get in that last new lesson. I decided to take it easy this week and show a movie. However, they'll find out on Friday that I secretly planted a makeup review in their question sheet over the movie. Mwahaha.

Next week, I"m planning on a few days studying theatre history. We'll see how that goes! :P I'm a bit nervous about lecturing... I think I"ll throw in a few class play readings to change it up.

In other news, I went home last week for Mother's Day! It was lovely. I was only in Waco for a day, but I got to hang out with Jordan and Chris and go out to brunch with Mama and Papa.

16 days of school left, 3 1/2 weeks until England!

Weekend Travels

Do you ever get to the point where you're so bone tired and burnt out that you find it near impossible to motivate yourself to do anything? That's where I'm at right now. We have two "probable" cases of swine flu in my school district, so I'm hoping that just maybe we'll close down for a few days. Plus, a lot of the kids are sick with some kind of flu, and are already missing a lot. It would do all of us good to get some rest. However, my hope is that kind I had as a kid when I wanted snow for Christmas. There's that persistent longing, but a realization that I live in Texas, and snow simply isn't even an annual occurrence. Lé sigh. I'm ready to be in England! :)

I had a fantastic weekend in Waco though! My main intention was seeing the final Baylor Theatre production of the year- Blood Wedding. I drove down right after school on Friday and dinner with Mama and Papa and then drove to campus to get some coffee at Common Grounds. I swung by the theatre first to see if the box office was open but ended up running into a bunch of theatre friends and old professors.

Saturday, I went shopping with Mama and bought new jeans and polished off birthday shopping. For dinner, I met up with Amanda, Zack G, Kirstin, Shelly, Lindsay, Zach K, Brittney, and Joey at Johnny Carino's. Yuuuummmm! I'm sure we amused the tables around us with our bantering, singing, and laughing...at least I hope it was amusement :) Zack also managed to eat about 4 loaves of bread entirely by himself! Later that night, I went to the final G-Troupe comedy show of the semester. I have never laughed so hard as when Graham became Napoleon telling us about his summer camp at Elba Island. Wow. Afterward, I went out for a late-night drink and snack with some of the G-troupers and stayed up way too late. Ahh how I miss college days!

Today I went to brunch with my old roommates, Amanda and Kirstin (I did a lot of eating on this trip...). It was wonderful to catch up with them! They were the best roommates- we spent many hours baking cookies and watching Arrested Development! I hurried home and did a few loads of laundry before packing up and heading back to the theatre for Blood Wedding. It was pretty good! Some of the acting was extremely impressive, and I enjoyed the flamenco dancing. Once the show was over, I met up with Jordan for a quick last cup of coffee at Common Grounds and then hit the road!

I'm looking forward to the time when I have these kinds of friendships in Dallas too. It takes time! Now back to the daily grind. 4 weeks to go!