Twenty Years Ago

Not that I know the exact date by any means. But roughly 20 years ago I stole the book my brother received for Christmas and spent hours flipping through the pages. Can you guess what that book might have been? It was about Frank Lloyd Wright and after I finished looking at the amazing drawings and photographs from some of his most famous projects I knew I wanted to be an architect. Well I at least wanted to be him; I had no real idea what it meant to be an architect. I still have that book....I should probably ask my brother if he wants it back. And I spent years wondering why big brothers get so annoyed by their little sisters. I have endured a pretty long and arduous journey to get to today. But like childbirth (or at least what I have been told), I have completely forgotten all of that pain and struggle and I am just reveling in the beauty that is my baby....my metaphorical baby anyway. Yes I received my final pass letter and a letter that starts off with "Congratulations! You have successfully completed the Architect Registration Examination." Yea bit**es!....whoa I am sorry about that. Apparently I curse like a sailor when I get excited.
We arrived back home yesterday morning at 5am after driving all night from Waxahachie. We were both zombies basically as we made our way to bed, but Andy had grabbed the mail and located the one piece of paper that would be worth staying conscious for five more minutes. Poor guy, I was so nervous I made him open it. I kept thinking it came too fast, it must be a fail. I was expecting another three weeks to go by before it arrived. He said he almost had a heart attack, but he opened it and said 'you're good'. Not like "Woohooo You're Good!". It was like someone was helping you parallel park and you got in the right spot 'you're good'. Granted we were both basically dead. But then I do a little exhausted happy dance, look at the letter, breathe a sigh of relief and crawl into bed. Then he says 'I thought you would be more excited'. Hey mister 'you're good' I thought you would be more excited. After complaining of years and years of neglect you should be jumping for joy too. And we both did, but after five hours of sleep. I should have technically slept a lot longer, but at 10am I was so excited to call basically everyone we knew to tell them, that I couldn't sleep any more.
So I didn't call everyone I knew. I just called my buds Bret and Emily. Technically the call to Emily was a multi-purpose call because she and Dylan watched our dogs. And we left them money in an envelope on the fridge and they only took like $40 of it. I had to call her to give her crap for not taking the whole envelop and then also tell her that I passed. We decided to compromise, Andy and I are taking them out to dinner on Friday since they aren't taking all the money. Punks!
Then I called my father-in-law to tell him. I know technically I should have called like a zillion more people, since everyone has been waiting with baited breath to hear the news. But I just wanted to spend the day celebrating the idea by myself I guess. Plus everyone's reaction is the same 'how are you going to celebrate?'. And I didn't want to fess up to my answer of 'sitting in my PJs watching girl movies, trash TV and cleaning the bathroom'. No one wants to hear that.
But today, it is on! I am bouncing off the office walls I am so excited. I made the office manager cry, she was so happy. What a sweetie! She has been like a rock for me this past year. So amazing. I was chatting up a couple co-workers when my boss walks in. I shook the letter and he said 'what is it?....do you have to retake it?' What a jokester. He was so cute, he told me to frame it and then he comes over a few minutes later with a frame. Then he asks me if I have any architect friends in the Denver area because he wants to invite them all out to celebrate. What a cutie pie right? Sadly my architect buds are in California, but he did joke that they could fly here. Now that would be a party. The big boss called me from the airport telling me that he is so proud of me and he has lots of plans 'this is just the beginning' he said. I think he is talking about something else, but there was definitely a part of my brain that said 'aww crap more tests?'. Hahaha.
The whole world is just sunny and bright and beautiful. I wasn't even mad this morning when I go to start my car and the battery was dead. As Andy and I pulled out of the driveway I noticed that grass is popping up in our front yard, score! Maybe we will have to seed less than we thought. There was no traffic on the highway, but I do hope the way back for him was equally as fast, poor guy had a paper to finish before class.
There is definitely lots to tell about our trip to Texas, not to mention the e-mail back from E.T. Draaaama! Let me tell you. But all that is going to have to wait.