Credentials

I've been a bit out of touch, okay waaaay out of touch. So sorry!

BUT this is what I've been up to: GETTING MY MASTER'S DEGREE!! After less than 2 1/2 years I completed 48-hours of Community Counseling courses and 700 hours of practicum and internship, while working full time.

Friday night we went to a Pinning and Medallion ceremony at the Merket Alumni Center where the friends and family of the graduates were honored and we were presented with a COE medallion to also wear at graduation. After that we went to Cafe J's to celebrate with a Fuzzytini and a couple bottles of merlot.

Graduation was Saturday. I was so proud to wear my medallion and my honor cords to the ceremony (I guarantee it was a miracle I got through undergrad, and I certainly never excelled!). I've come a long way! TBF, my parents, and my grandmother were there to celebrate with me - we ate at Texas Roadhouse afterwards (best prime rib in the universe!), went to Holland Gardens (an amazing local Christmas store) and Target, then home to open a couple presents. TBF got me one of the fantastic diploma frames, and my folks got me a great ivy green TravelPro luggage. Love it!

Today I changed my work email signature to:
Texas Biscuit, M.Ed.
How awesome is that?!! And soon to have an LPC (Licensed Professional Counselor) to follow that.

The craziest part about the whole thing is how fast the past couple years went by. If I'd decided that getting my master's was too hard or too time-consuming or whatever, I would've been stuck at the same job with the same credentials and the same experience. And now, here I am, time passing either way, and I have a master's degree. It wasn't easy, but it sure was worth it.

I'm HOT!

So things have been going well, nothing out of the ordinary, nothing particularly exciting to post about this week (oh, and have been sick, making everything a little "less than"). Anyhoodle, tonight after work TBF and I went to my fave Chinese buffet (excellent peppered shrimp) then headed to Blockbuster to rent movies. And now, something has got me hot enough that I just have to rant!

Came home with 3 new rentals: War of the Worlds (I'm not the hugest Tom Cruise fan since all the Katie Holmes craziness, but want to see it anyway), Saw (never seen it, didn't see part II either), and My Date with Drew (a documentary about this guy who wants to meet Drew Barrymore, never heard of it, but I love Drew too, so how bad could it be?!).

We started with Saw - pretty cool idea for a movie. TBF just told me that the producer just died this week - went to the hospital with neck pain - and just died! Anyway, we were really into the movie - right after the little girl went to tell her doctor father that there was a man in her bedroom. AND THE DVD FROZE UP! Everything was at a stand still. Then went to a black screen. And got some horrid message about the menu or the button or some crap. It wouldn't pick up where it left off, had to go back to the main menu then scroll through the chapter selections to figure out where we left off. Did this twice, and it kept jamming up at the same point. Ugh. Used some CD/DVD cleaner - no help - the disc was a mess, completely scratched up. But I couldn't bear to get this far and give up!

((This movie has been out for ages, surely I don't have to warn you about spoilers?!!))

So we had to skip the rest of that chapter and jump to the next one. I got over it shortly as we were sucked into the plot as the detectives uncovered that scary ass clown mask and the live guy with the screws to his head. We carried on - I was on the edge of my seat, clutching my knees to my chest - the doctor sawed off his leg, promised to return with help for Adam - then the "dead" man lying in the puddle of blood struggled to his knees, and began pulling his plastic face off, and - HOLY CRAP! At that very moment, the damn thing froze up again. Dead. Black. No picture, no sound, literally seconds before the movie ends. ARGGGHHHHH!!

I am so pissed. I know it isn't Blockbuster's fault - so why do people treat rental DVDs so badly? Do you really have to play frisbee with you rented DVDs? Is it necessary to let your 4-year old chew on then? Must you drop them in the gravel AND run over it before you return it to the store?! Seriously - THIS is why we own so many DVDs that we only watch a couple of times. At least we can get through the whole thing uninterrupted.

AND thank goodness for Ruined Endings - you kept me from running up to Blockbuster in my PJs and throwing that damn DVD through their damn window!