Wow, so the roads really ARE treacherous.

Uhh, a lot of unusual and rather scary things have been happening around Austin since the cold weather has come in. First of all, everything around us is iced over like 2 inches, which I've never seen before in my life. It's weird to see everything covered with a blanket of ice and snow. That never happens in Houston. The last time it did, I was like 8 or something and I don't remember it at all.

First, a guy decided to open up a sewer tunnel and jump in for some reason. And lo and behold, he got stuck and probably fainted due to hyperthermia. This happened at 25th and Rio Grande, a pretty major intersection West Campus. I saw and heard the sirens right before I was getting ready to walk Tequila, and then a spectator told me what had happened. I saw the guy get wheeled away on a stretcher! But, what the hell? What kind of strange desire is it to open the sewer tunnel and jump in, especially on a day like this?? It's like 0 degrees celsius outside, and the ice someone dumped out from their drink has been sitting on the porch outside my door for the past 2 days, UNMELTED!

Second, as I was driving on the feeder of I-35, I saw a bunch of police cars huddled near the exit. What happened was an Accord slid off the freeway, down the side of the highway which was a hill covered in ice, and smashed into the feeder. The car's front was totally destroyed, and you could see where the tire marks had ripped through the ice on the hill.

Third, as I myself was on the highway driving home, a huge shard of ice from another car decided to come loose and the wind smashed it into my car, going about 50 mph. I was scared shitless when it made its way towards me because it looked like a huge shard of glass, but when it hit my car, it just crumpled into a million pieces and did not hurt my car at all. Phew.

We also went to HEB to get some food for the night, but it seemed like everyone and their mama was there. ALL the Hot Pockets, Lean Pockets, and all brands of frozen pizza were GONE! This isn't y2k people! *Sigh. Stop acting like it is. It's going to warm up tomorrow (meaning that school is starting finally, yay)

wheee it's finally winter foreals!

i almost busted my ass on the patch of ice right outside of my door. And it's been there for quite a while, yet I keep walking over it stupidly and almost busting my ass each time. Silly me.

IT'S SNOWING! Yay for snow. But then that also means a possibility of MORE school cancellation. Boooo. I need to get things started and I need to talk to my professor and the OOA but I can't do that until UT opens back up! ARG!!

I knew this would happen sooner or later.

There's this really cute dachshund/terrier mix at the SPCA named Patterson. He's reddish brown, quiet, and very cute. I haven't had the chance to play or walk with him yet because he is color-coded a level higher than I am, so I'm not allowed to do so yet. But today I pet him through his cage and opened the door a little to pet him more. He put his paws over my hand and it was the cutest thing ever. [picture from austin human society site.]

And now I want to bring him home. Damnit... I knew this was going to happen.

There's also another cute chihuahua mix there named Lenny that's my color level so I've walked and played with him a lot. He is the sweetest thing ever and loves playing with toys. I like him a lot too but he has an awkward butt. Also he's kind of small for Tequila to play with (he seems so fragile that Tequila could break him if she pounced on him) and doesn't seem like the type to play well with other dogs. He's very sweet though - I hope he gets adopted into a good home soon. [picture from austin human society site.]

As I was heading toward the SPCA today there was ice EVERYWHERE! Yay, winter is FINALLY here. I've been waiting for cold weather for the longest time. Now I can put my cute furry boots to good use! I was worrying about it staying warm and me spending money on boots that I would never get to wear.

I think they're going to cancel classes tomorrow and I'm kind of sad about that. Call me a nerd, but I like school. And plus, cancelling classes also means they;re going to take away a day of holidays from spring break or something. So really, there's nothing to be happy about because we still have to make it up one way or another.

I'm still deciding whether or not to do undergraduate research. With it, my schedule becomes very full and I'm going to be waking up every day at 10AM (I'm NOT a morning person). Without it, I'd only have 1 class on Mondays and Wednesdays (see picture below, you can click on it to enlarge too). Every research thing is in red on the schedule below. See how uncluttered and free it would be without it? Thursdays and Saturdays times are exchangable. For example, on one week if I worked Saturday 2-7, then I wouldn't be working on Thursday 3-7. Same thing vice versa. But still...*SIGH. It sounds like a cool research project though - it has to do with FROGS! And I've never done a research project at UT even though I've wanted to for awhile, plus it would help me out with my animal behavior class. Ahh, decisions, decisions..

I also might add more volunteer hours to the schedule because I really like working at the SPCA, and 2 hours/week is the minimum.

Also today on the way to SPCA I went to Starbucks to get coffee and ran into my brother. That was the awkwardest moment I've had in awhile. It's just weird to see him back in Austin as a student. Oh well, I guess it'll be fun. Free food at the Castillian!
:)