Outside Context 172nd Post Celebration!

I hoped that would get everyone's attention. Can you believe we've had almost 172 posts?

I'm back from a whirlwind weekend back home in Texas. My stepsister graduated from Trinity University with her masters degree in elementary bilingual special education, which makes her an extremely lucrative commodity in the state of Texas. The day she graduated, she was also hired by the San Antonio Independent School District, so she'll be staying in the Alamo City for the foreseeable.

My weekend began with a night of crazy drinking with coworkers on Thursday. It started out as "happy hour," and ended when someone looked at his watch and realized it was almost 10:00pm and we all had work the next day. I spent Friday morning crawling around my apartment, alternating between vomiting, moaning, trying to pack for my trip, attempting to drink Gatorade, and vomiting again. This was a Force Ten hangover, the likes of which I have seriously not seen since college.

Eventually I went to work, then to O'Hare, then to Texas. I landed at 5pm, and at 9pm we left to drive to San Antonio, where we arrived at 2am the following day. Ever driven 250 miles with a raging hangover while your mother and younger sister sang along to the music on the radio?

San Antonio was really nice though - lots of sun and quality family time. I managed to get thoroughly broiled at the hotel pool, so I've spent the last two days smearing cocoa butter on myself. Now I smell like the crowd at a Luther Vandross concert, but at least I won't peel.