Word of the Day: gauntlet Christmas at Uncle Dale's was kind of interesting. Dale makes me nervous, and, coincidentally, he makes JD nervous as well [which made me feel a little better about him making me nervous]. Their house is beautiful and they live in an equally beautiful neighborhood in the hills north of Austin. His wife is very nice and seems like the kind of lady who finds something nice to say no matter the situation, and their daughter is sixteen [which explains a lot]. So it was weird, to say the least. And when we drove home on Sunday afternoon, there was still snow on the ground and on the roofs of the houses. There were still snowmen all over the place. It was really nice to come home to a snowy Victoria. It's been slow at the hotel because it's the end of the year. We've had a lot of calls and reservations for New Year's Eve because of the big party thing that's going on [which I think is gay, but I'm trying to sell it so it's really fabulous and grand]. We should be making a lot of money that night, so Mr. Owner-Man should be happy about that. We found out today that corporate office fired Velma from her management position effective immediately, right now. That really sucks a whole lot. I just hope the person they hire to replace her is flexible with scheduling and things because I'm going to have a lot of requests when I come back from maternity leave. If I still have a job when I come back from maternity leave. I guess I should start looking for a replacement job now just in case we lose our flag. I was really hoping I wasn't going to have to worry about this, especially with Baby coming and things, but now I have to worry about getting along with this new person. I'm really hoping I'm overreacting and this new person's going to be awesome and spectacular and amazingly kind and considerate and generous. That, however, is a long shot. Bring it on. Although I am proud of myself. A guy walked in tonight and asked if I spoke Spanish, and I said a little, and so I checked him in using the little Spanish I can speak. After taking three years of Spanish in high school and one year of intermediate Spanish my freshman year of college, I'm pretty good at understanding the language, I just can't speak it well. So I went ahead and did the basic things, all in Spanish, gave him directions to the room and everything. He was all like [in Spanish], 'You understand Spanish well, don't you?' and I was all like [in Spanish], 'Yeah, I understand but I can't speak it well.' He was all like, 'That's okay.' It was pretty cool, and I felt good after that. I just wish I was able to formulate sentence that make sense and weren't just fragments of things. JD tells me I'm verbally abusive. Which I probably am but haven't ever realized it before he said anything. I don't mean to be mean and I don't realize what I say hurts, but I suppose I need to pay attention a little more and fix this. Because I don't want to make JD feel like I'm doing this on purpose or something, just to hurt him. I'm thinking it probably stems from either my father [on whom I blame most things in general, so why not this too, eh?] or from feeling inadequate because he's a lot smarter than I am and I don't know how to compensate or deal with it. So, that's one of my resolutions for the new year, I suppose. Ashley, stop being verbally abusive. Oh, and I punched JD in the eye this morning. But I was asleep and didn't even realize I was going to hit him until I did. I'll go ahead and blame my father for that one as well. I forgot to mention previously that JD, super-awesome man that he is, bought a corner desk and rearranged the room. It's so so nice now, it seems like we have so much more room. And it's really funny--we put Cleo [JD's big computer] in the middle of the desk with Betty to the right and Harold [JD's new laptop and Betty's boyfriend] to the left, so that when JD's sitting at the desk and all three computers are on it looks like he's taking over the world. I'll have to take a picture for posterity. The whole point of this paragraph was to say that it's much better in the room. It's going to be easier to keep the room clean and litter-free and it's going to releive a whole lot of stress for the both of us. Praised be Jesus. I'm telling you, my husband's going to take over the world someday.