jobs, friends, and gun wounds

Well, it has been a long time. I am not even sure if anyone read this anymore... I won't blame you if you don't. Anyway, if there is anyone out there that is still interested, here is an update on my life.

Work Factor:
I love my job. For those of you who don't know I am a teaching assistant for 6th grade special needs kids. It is pretty excellent. I work with some fun kids who are a challenge, but definitely worth it. I miss babysitting the twins every day, but they are in preschool now so I couldn't, even if I wanted to. Their mom has me babysit pretty often on evenings though, so I still get to see them quite a bit. I also just got a job for a catering company working as a waitress. I haven't started yet, but I think it will be fun. Plus, Celeste works for this company and the owner said she would try to have me working with Celeste. How awesome is that? Oh, and one more job -- Next week I have tryouts for the boys basketball team that I am coaching. How fun is that? So, I am busy, but enjoying every moment of the busyness.

Social Factor:
I have been having a lot of fun on the weekends. My friends and I found a great new dance club that is free on Fridays (before 10pm) so we try to get out there pretty often. The next time we are going is for Celeste's birthday in two weeks. My dog is getting HUGE... but he is as cute as can be and doing pretty well in his training. My friends Kendra and Brian just got engaged -- congrats to them. Let's see what else is going on??? Nope, that's about it. Good times had by all.

Injury Factor:
A direct quote from my friend Gerry: "You know, Monaca, it is mindboggling how much you hurt yourself." It is funny, because I haven't actually injured myself in a long time. Last time I was in the hospital (which was because of ear drum problems that were out of my control) was in august. And other than my back hurting from time to time, I have been alright. Until yesterday... this is pretty humorous though.

Yesterday, Ari and Celeste wanted to go to a shooting range to practice since deer hunting season is coming up. So they brought me with them and I had a lot of fun. I hit a bull's eye on my first shot fired and only missed twice out of the six shots I took. I was using Ari's shotgun which doesn't have a scope on it (a scope is the thing you put on the top of your gun to magnify what you are aiming at). Then I decided I wanted to try a scope so I used Celeste's gun. Let me set this up... When you shoot a shotgun, you need to have it really snug on your shoulder, otherwise it comes back it hits you really hard. But even if it's really close to your shoulder, it still pushes back. Well, if you have your face too close to the scope (as I did) then it comes back and hits you in the face (as it did to me). It was so cold outside that I didn't even notice how much it hurt but Celeste was like "ooh, we have blood" as she was taking off my saftey goggles. I cut open (pretty deep) the top of my nose right in between my eyes and my left eye is a little bruised. Needless to say, I can do without a scope.

And that's my life in a nutshell (help! I'm in a nutshell and I can't get out!)