New Year's Eve 2009

I start off every year trying to make resolutions and to stick with them and every year I fail. So I think I'm with Jessica on the idea of making goals instead of resolutions and giving myself a shorter time period to accomplish said goals. I think that I'll partially steal Jessica's idea and try these out for a quarter and see how that goes. If I am successful, then I might decide to extend their applicability into the next quarter or whatever.

Goals:
* Excercise more often (because of potential wedding(s) this summer)
* Argue less (mostly with Jake but in general, as well)
* Drink less soda (hoping to average about 2 cans/1 bottle a day)
* Keep up with my reading for my classes
* Put my resume together/make an appointment with the Career Services Coordinator

I think that 5 goals is enough for me to keep up with during my 1st quarter of the New Year. Some of these things really need my attention, and so I hope that I can put forth the effort needed to accomplish my goals.

Wishing everyone a safe and magical New Year and hoping that it brings you happiness!

Book list 2008

I decided to revise my book list, yet again, but this time I put down all of the books that have been on my lists since the beginning and before they were crossed off after I finished reading them. I thought that maybe this would make me feel more accomplished, and it worked.

After finishing 4 of the books on my list over this break, I thought that my list could stand to be updated. I added another book, which I'm sure I can finish over the next 2 days (The Tales of Beedle the Bard) because it's not very long at all. So, don't be surprised if I make changes to this a little later on. :) (Original post at 8:55 AM - Revised post at 12:00 PM; That didn't take too long ;p)

And I added another book. I really want to read The Tale of Despereaux because I read an excerpt from the first couple of pages of the book and it seems really interesting. Plus, it caught my interest and so I want to see where the story goes from the first couple of pages.

Harry Potter (books 1-7) (Finished)
The Tales of Beedle the Bard (Finished)
A Night in the Lonesome October (Finished)
The Dark Tower series
The Belgariad Volumes 1 & 2 (Finished)
The Mallorean Volumes 1 & 2 (Finished)
Stardust (Finished)
The Tale of Despereaux
The Chronicles of Narnia
The Sword of Truth series
Eldest
Brisingr
The Dune series (old and new)
The Xanth series
The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Dark Elf Trilogy: Homeland/Exile/Sojoum
Daughter of the Blood series
Guilty Pleasures (Finished)
The Laughing Corpse (Finished)
Circus of the Damned (Finished)
The Lunatic Cafe (Finished)
Bloody Bones (Finished)
The Killing Dance (Finished)
Burnt Offerings
Blue Moon
Obsidian Butterfly
Narcissus in Chains
Cerulean Sins
Incubus Dreams
Micah
Danse Macabre
The Harlequin
Blood Noir
Skin Trade (coming in 2009)
The Talisman
The Vampire Chronicles (- Interview With a Vampire)
Starship Troopers
Ender's Game (Finished)
Ender's Shadow
A Song of Ice and Fire series
Angels & Demons
The Da Vinci Code (with pictures)
The Historian
The Wheel of Time series (Book 4 - ?)
Undead and Unwed (Finished)
Undead and Unemployed (Finished)
Undead and Unappreciated
Undead and Unreturnable
Undead and Unpopular
Undead and Uneasy + any new releases that come after this
The Catholic Girl's Guide to Sex

Happy Holidays!

I just wanted to wish everyone a fun and Happy Holiday season for 2008/2009. I know I'm a little late for Christmas, but I still hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas holiday! I know I did! Since my gift exchanges aren't finished, I still feel like it's Christmas.

This was probably the BEST Christmas that I've had in my entire life. Not because I got a ton of stuff that I wanted (even though I did), but because everyone was able to get together without conflict and just have a good time. I also enjoyed the fact that everyone got so excited when they opened my gifts to them. It makes me feel good when I know that they won't be exchanging their gifts on 'Box Day.'

My big gift this year was an iPod touch, which is amazing but I don't have the money just yet to buy music for it. If I could find any of my CDs, I could just load them onto iTunes, but no such luck there. So, all I can really use it for right now is checking the weather, looking up videos on Youtube, leaving notes for myself, adding things in my calendar or contacts list (which I really should use to keep track of everyone and their addresses!), and a few other assorted features. Even though I don't have music on it yet, it's still pretty freaking awesome!

I got tons of great stuff at Jake's family Christmas yesterday. A few articles of clothing, some smell-goods, a movie, a cookbook!, a talking Grinch plush, boots!, ruby earrings!, a beautiful heart necklace!, a couple of non-winning scratch-offs, and some candies for my stocking.

All-in-all, it was an awesome Christmas and I still have at least one more exchange left, so it'll keep being awesome for at least another day!

Autumn 2008 - DONE!

I finished Autumn quarter '08 with 2 As and a B-. Not as great as I was hoping for, but it's done and over with, so I can live with it. Anthro turned out to be harder than expected, so the B- that I received in there is fine by me. I'm just glad that I didn't bomb the final and get a C or worse! That really would have screwed up my GPA!

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I'm almost done Christmas shopping! After buying presents for my brothers and maybe Mom, it'll be finished, with the exception of a few after-Christmas purchases that need to be made. I did end up breaking one of my presents (a painted wine glass), so one person won't be getting one, but that's okay. It probably works out better this way, anyways. I still feel bad, but I can deal.

I'm still pretty excited about Christmas this year. We'll be giving our gifts to the kids that stay with us sometime early next week, and I can't wait to see their faces! I still have so much to get done before everything is ready (most of that involves wrapping the presents), but I know that it's getting close and that I work well under pressure, so it'll get done.

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Finals

As far as finals go, I have a pretty easy quarter this quarter. I have a 2-3 page final reflective analysis paper due for my Adolescent lit. class, basically an 8-page paper for my take-home final in English, and a final for my Anthropology class. I sucked hardcore on the last homework assignment for my Anthro class, so I need to get an A on the final in order to get a decent B grade, or maybe an A, if he uses a curve.

I've got about 1 1/2 pages done for the reflective analysis paper done and I've done a little thinking on what I want to write about for the English paper, but I haven't even begun to study for the Anthro, which I'll probably end up regretting after the final. That said, I'm pretty proud of myself for having gotten this much done already. :)

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Brittany and I went to Walmart today because I needed to pick up a few things and I decided to get some garland to put up outside and I got some of the cottony 'snow' stuff with the sparkles on it and some pre-lit (fake) pine garland for the inside of the house. I figured that would be enough for me to make the house look Christmas-y without overdoing it just yet. Plus, I didn't want to spend too much on decorations when we haven't even pulled the stuff we already have out of the boxes in the basement to take inventory.

So, with Britt's help, we strung the garland up outside and I put the 'snow' up on the gas fireplace mantle and the pine garland up on the mantle in the dining room. I spent about 45 minutes collectively cleaning off said mantles before putting the decorations on them, and had to literally scrape one of our candles off of the wall because, with the help of the Ben Franklin stove in the dining room, it had melted to the wall. ;p

I'm very pleased with how the mantles turned out, even though I think that we need to get some little village pieces to set up on the 'snow' and maybe a nice picture to hang up on the wall above the dining room mantle because, since it's cleaned off now, the wall looks so bare without all of the junk up there! Lol!

I'm in a really Christmas-y mood today for some reason. The shopping that I did earlier and the putting up of the decorations might have contributed to it, but I'm just really pumped up about Christmas this year. I can't wait until we put our tree up!

Close to halfway there

I worked on my paper while I was at work today because I was alone for a good part of it and I can't really do any filing or make copies or stuff like that when I'm covering the front desk alone, so I sat there and worked on my paper. I about about 2 1/3 pages finished, which is close to 1/2 of the paper (it's got to be at least 5 pages). I'm not feeling very confident about the grade that I'll receive on this paper, but I'll just be glad to have it finished!

I spent the last 20-30 minutes changing the layout of my Myspace page and making a playlist of Christmas songs to put on my page. I've gotten a decent collection of my favorites together, but I know that there are more out there, but I couldn't think of any more when I was searching for the songs.

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In other news. I have a pre-bachelorette party to attend this Saturday in Columbus. I'm not really sure what to expect from this party...mostly because I never even knew you could have a pre-bachelorette party in the first place. Lol!

So, I've got that coming up soon, and it should be an interesting new experience for me...I guess. Right now, I'm just trying to get thru this week, and hopefully I'll make it to the weekend without having a nervous breakdown. Tho, once Wednesday passes and I get my paper turned in, it won't be that bad, anyways. So, if I make it thru Wednesday, I'll be good. :)

Putting things off

I haven't even really touched any of my school work over this long weekend, and now I'm starting to regret that. I have a 5-page paper due on Wednesday and I only have the intro paragraph for that. I also have to read a 148-page junior novel for Tuesday and come up with 'instructional strategies' for the book. I just hope that I can get everything done on time without completely stressing myself out.

I really wish that I didn't procrastinate so much!

Black Friday 2008

I had originally wanted to venture out today, on 'Black Friday,' and do some shopping, but alas, I am broke. Since I don't have any money to spend in the stores, I think it's pointless to even stop in Walmart and see all of the awesome deals that I'm missing.

But, on the plus side, I won't have to get beaten down by any old ladies today. That's always nice. And since Thanksgiving Day is officially over, I plan to spend a good portion of my day today watching Christmas movies, maybe with some hot chocolate...mmmm!

I might even spend a part of today hanging my clothes up in my closet since I finally got around to putting up the closet rod. That will clear up a lot of space on my floor (since that's currently the space that my clothes are occupying) and also give me some more places/room to stash my Christmas presents. :)

Progress

Jake and I went Christmas shopping yesterday. 1st, we hit up the K-mart on the Lima Mall side of town. I really need to go there more often because they have a ton of cool gift ideas and possibilities! I got a bunch of stuff there because it was cheaper than I'd found it anywhere else, and I actually liked the stuff a lot more. He ended up spending more than me, which I thought was funny because it's not what you would have expected to happen, but we both got an awesome start on our shopping for this year!

After we left K-mart, we drove over to the Mall because I still needed to get a b-day present for my brother, and I had had something in mind for a while. His room is eventually going to be decorated with a 'Dr. Pepper' theme (don't ask me why because I don't know), and there's a shop at the Mall called 'Treasure Chest' and they have a bunch of tin signs that have vintage themes and such on them. Anyways. They have some from old Coke, Pepsi, Dr. Pepper, Mt. Dew, etc. adds, and I wanted to get him a Dr. Pepper one. Since the store is in 1 of the locations that changes stores a lot, I was afraid that they'd be gone by the time I got there, but they weren't! So, I got his sign.

After that store, I ran across the mall to Bath & Body Works for some 'quick' items. Yeah right! I thought they were having a 5 for $25 sale, so that's all I was planning on spending. Instead, they were having a 7 for $35 with the 8th 1 being free sale...so I ended up spending almost $60, because I had to get some things besides the 8 for Nick's g/f. My time in the store probably wouldn't have been as long if I hadn't be skipped over when another lady opened up another register. I had clearly been waiting longer than the other ladies, but she saw them and took them over to her register. But whatever, I was just glad that I didn't have to be in the guy-with-the-really-strange-hair's line.

All-in-all, I spent way too much money, but I got a lot out of what I spent, so I would say that yesterday was a very good shopping day. :) Hopefully I'll be just as successful the next time I shop and maybe I'll get the remaining 1/2 of my list finished? *crosses fingers*

Blast from the past

A few days ago, I had a friend that I was in Junior High with contact me on Myspace. I haven't talked to her since probably the summer we moved up to Ohio (2001), and I had searched for her on Myspace myself, but since she is now married and has a different last name, I was unsuccessful. I was totally surprised to find that I had a friend request from her. We spent a good portion of my time at work messaging each other and catching up, in general. I can't believe how much I've missed!

It's been so nice talking to her again. It brings back memories from my late childhood that I'd almost forgotten about. She and I have talked about meeting up half way sometime maybe next summer and getting together for a visit. Since she's now married with a 2-year-old son, I'd say we have a whole lot to catch up on!

I love getting back in touch with friends from my past!

1st snow

Yesterday, we had our 1st real snow of the season, and it actually stuck to the ground...until it started raining last night, and then it pretty much all melted away. But there is still snow sticking to roof tops and piles of sticks & weeds here and there. It's enough to remind me of how excited I was went it started yesterday.

Friday night, me, Jake and Britt climbed in my car and we drove to Van Wert to help Tabby celebrate her 21st birthday party. We drank a bunch (but nobody succeeded in getting drunk, and when we tried to buy Pucker and Schnapps and stuff to shoot and get a good buzz going on, the 1 place wouldn't sell any after 10 and the Walmart didn't carry the stuff we wanted), and we played a couple of games of 'Clue,' which is really fun!

When the 3 of us left Saturday morning, I looked out the window when we were getting ready to leave and asked 'Is it snowing?' and everyone seemed to think it was mostly rain, or maybe frozen rain. But, by the time we left Sonic and got onto 30, it was pretty much full-fledged snow. And when we were driving down 198, we saw that it was actually sticking to the ground and we all got excited! It was awesome!

Snow really gets me into the Christmas & shopping season. I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving, too. I like Thanksgiving and I'm looking forward to giving my little cousin the blanket that I've been making for her, but there's just something about Christmas that always makes me excited, and it's especially exciting this year. :)

Saving lives

I gave blood today and, even though I know that I'm helping to save the lives of others, it's just not something that I can do again. I had a terrible experience and I've been feeling crappy ever since. I didn't pass out at all this time, but I did come close several times.

After this donating experience, I know that I won't be able to do this again. My body just can't take it, which is really weird because the first time I donated, I didn't have any troubles at all.

Oh, I've got the funk...I don't want the funk

I'm starting to slip back into the 'funk' that I was experiencing last week. I think it's mostly a result of the change in weather, but there might be more to it that just that, and I wish that I could figure out what the heck it is!

I've just been feeling a little...depressed. Not all of the time, but there are times during the day when I feel it. It's probably hard for others to pick up on because I'm usually upbeat around my friends, mostly because I don't feel depressed around them. It's usually just when I'm alone that I feel depressed.

It's possible that this feeling is stemming from feeling like I'm in a rut right now, with my weekly schedules being mostly the same over and over again. I'm really not looking forward to winter quarter because I'll have mostly night classes (except for the one that starts at 3:30), which means that I'll be working in the mornings, and so I will be on campus pretty much all day Monday-Thursday.

On a happier note, Jake and I watched 'Meet the Robinsons' today (the animated movie), which we haven't seen since it was in theaters, and I remembered how much I liked it when we first saw it. It really is a cute movie, and if you like animated movies and haven't seen it yet, I would recommend it do you. :)

News to me

Have you ever heard of a 'pre-bachelorette party'? I haven't. But my friend's Maid of Honor decided that she was going to throw my friend a pre-bachelorette party this December. I have a feeling that it's going to involve sex toys and other interesting things like that, but it might be fun...? At the very least, it will be an interesting experience.

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I'm actually feeling better than I was earlier today, but my parents just pissed me off and today is just one of those days where I wish that I could have my own place and get away from them for a while. Some of my friends seem to get along better with their families since they have moved out of their parents' houses, and I'm looking forward to the time when I can get out on my own.'

I know that I'm not financially ready to have my own house, but I've really been looking forward to it more than normal over these last couple of months, and I'm not really sure why theses feelings have been surfacing. I'm pretty sure that I'll need to get a roommate because I won't be able to afford living expenses on my own, but it will be so nice to have some independence from my parents and be able to leave their house after an argument/conflict and go to my own home to cool off.

Part of me is so ready to get out on my own, and the other part, the more sensible part, knows that I'm not ready just yet. Hopefully my sensible part stays in control!

In a funk...

I don't know what it is about today...maybe it's the weather or maybe I didn't get enough sleep last night or woke up 'on the wrong side of the bed' this morning, but I just feel kinda crappy and somewhat...angry? Maybe I'm feeling a little of the depressive funk that most people experience when Winter comes? I don't know what it is, but I know it's there and that it needs to leave ASAP.

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In my last blog, I was all peppy, cheerful, and excited about Christmas and shopping for gifts for everyone, but today, it's like I could care less about all of that and about the upcoming holidays. Hopefully everything will turn around and I'll feel better by the end of today, but right now, I just can't seem to care about much at all. Not even the prospect of shopping for Christmas gifts for my friends and loved ones...

What a waste of a blog...Sorry.

Success!

I went to Cato in Celina and I got a pair of jeans, a cowl-neck purple sweater, and 1 blue and 1 burgundy long-sleeved shirts, along with 4 new bras. I spent ~$100 and I got all of that stuff. I was amazed!

After finishing up at Cato, I walked back to my car, dropped my bag off, and headed down the plaza to Game Stop. There, I succeeded in finding a used copy of a DDR game and a DDR pad for Darien (the little girl Mom babysits for), and a used copy of Super Smash Bros. Brawl for her brother, Jeff. I spent ~$100 in that store, too.

Overall, I would say that it was a very productive day for me. I got some more new clothes (and I desperately needed new jeans!), and I was able to cross 2 people off my Christmas shopping list, which is always nice considering that it's almost 30 people long!

I still have about $50 left for clothes, but I might put that towards my Old Navy Credit Card bill the next time I made a payment on that. There are definitely still quite a few people on my list, and that money that I would normal put toward the credit card bill can go to Christmas presents, and that will help a lot!

P.S. Sorry if you readers aren't ready to hear about Christmas and shopping and everything that the season entails, but this is what's going on in my life and I'm really excited about it this year! :)

Shopping!

I'm going shopping for clothes, and maybe some Christmas presents, today! I'm excited because I like shopping, but I'll most likely be depressed after about an hour or 2 when I can't find any clothes that fit me. That always happens to me. I start out being really excited at the prospect of getting new clothes, but then get depressed after about an hour because I can't find pants that aren't too long or shirts that don't look like they're going to explode from being stretched across my chest.

But, if I can do some Christmas shopping afterward, that will probably cheer me up because I don't have a problem shopping for other people! I have a huge list of items to look for, but this weekend, if I get nothing else, I would like to get picture frames for a few people on my list so that I can frame their pics and cross that off my list!

Yay shopping!

I don't wanna

I really wish that my class would be canceled tonight so that I could just go straight home after work. I have a headache, which has gone from throbbing to just a dull ache now, and my stomach was feeling weird earlier. I wonder if I'm having caffeine withdrawls, since this will be Day 2 of my anti-soda 'diet'? That might be the cause of my headache, but I would have thought that it would have come yesterday...?

Anywho....

We're covering 2 chapters in my class tonight since it was canceled on Tuesday, so I'm very glad that I brought my lappy with me, because it would have sucked to hand-write all of the notes that we're going to be going over tonight!

I did it!

I voted in a Presidential Election for the 1st time today. I was a little disappointed in myself for not knowing more than I did about the issues on the ballot, but it wasn't a terrifying experience!

My night class was canceled tonight, so I got home before 5:30 instead of after 7:00! Yay for not having to be in class after work! I was really excited because I got up at 7:15 this morning so that I could vote before my 10:00 class this morning. So, I've been up for a while and I know my brain would have been dead by 5:30 (when my night class starts).

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I'm kinda excited about this weekend because I might be getting to do some Christmas shopping. I know that most of you probably don't want to hear about Christmas right now, since it's only the 1st week of November, but I'm really excited! I love giving presents to other people, putting so much thought behind my gifts, and watching their faces light up when they open them. It's better than getting presents from other people! It's what I look forward to during the Christmas season. I'm so ExCiTeD!

Halloween 2008

Well, I didn't really have any big party plans, except Jake's parents' party on Friday. That was pretty fun. I dressed up as a gypsy and my costume came together pretty well...I was amazed! I have pics, but it'll take a miracle to get them on my lappy since I can't find the cord that connects my camera to my compy right now. If I ever get that, I'll post the pics. :) I was really happy with how it turned out, though.

On Saturday, I went along with my family, my younger brother's girlfriend, and my friend, Britt, to the Tuttle mall in Columbus (sorry we didn't call you, Jess, but I didn't know if your car was working and we didn't have time to stop by and pick you up because we weren't sure how long my dad was going to last!) and we (my brothers and parents) spent some money and got some clothes and stuff.

It was pretty fun. I ended up spending close to $30 at the Godiva store on chocolate, chocolate-covered pretzels and the bat kitty that the pretzels came with. I also got a really cool pair of black slouchy boots. They were a little under $40, but I thought it was worth the expense because I really like them and they were awesome looking! Oh, and I also stopped in Bath & Body Works and used my $20 gift card and bought 2 refills for my wallflower, 1 in Black Raspberry Vanilla and 1 in Cinnamon Stick. I also got a really neat looking makeup bag and a clip-on air freshener that is Apple Cider scented.

In all, it was a good shopping trip, but I only wish that I would have been able to actually find some clothes. Since I failed at that, I'm planning on going either to the Lima mall or maybe even Cato in Celina this upcoming weekend and trying my luck there. I hope I can find some dressy winter clothes because my dressy wardrobe sucks right now...and so does my winter wardrobe, for that matter.

Oh yeah! Today, when I was at Walmart, I saw a shirt that has the Bumble from Rudolph on it, which says 'Where are the presents?' and the Bumble's head glows! It's really awesome! It's 1 of those thermal-type shirts and it's white with blue snowflakes on it. It's really amazing and I'm glad that I saw it before I left the store!

Feeling better now

I don't feel as 'blah' today as I was feeling yesterday after my class. I'm really glad that it's Thursday, so my weekend can start tomorrow! I've got some kinda big plans, such as a Halloween party tomorrow night, and shopping in Columbus on Saturday with my family. I'm not excited about having to drive there, but the shopping should be fun. :) Unfortunately, Jake has to work on Saturday, so he can't go with me, which means I'm stuck driving with my brother and his g/f in the car...weeee.

I'm hoping to get some nice clothes and hopefully a pair of nice boots for the winter. I don't have anything that covers my whole foot except for my 2-3 pairs of tennis shoes, and those aren't very dressy, and I figure that now is the time to 'beef up' my professional wardrobe since I'll be doing interviews soon...eek!

I just hope that I can find some warm clothes right now. I've been looking at what I've got, and it's basically a few sweaters, a couple long-sleeved button-up shirts, and a couple pairs of pants, and that's not really all that much. I always feel like I'm wearing the same stuff over and over. I want to break out of my wardrobe rutt!

I feel...

blah. That's about the only way I can describe my current emotional state. My day was going fine until I was coming home, and I'm not really sure what changed, except that I was happy when I got off work at 6:00, and by the time I was heading home, I wasn't feeling great anymore. It's a very strange feeling, and I don't like it one bit. Hopefully I can crawl out of this funk and be happy again today before it's over.

Bummer...

Yet another Saturday is going to pass without Jake and I going to King's Island to use the tickets that I got for my birthday. I really wanted to use them before the season ended, and after this weekend, we only have next weekend, and I'm not sure that's going to work out, either. :( It's probably better that we're not going, tho, because I have a 5-page paper due on Monday and a midterm on Tuesday that I desperately need to study for. Jake also has a paper and a couple of midterms to work on/study for.

So, it's really for the best, but I just wish that it wasn't so darn hard to get down there! I really don't want to let the tickets go to waste, but it's just such a long drive to make and if we can't dedicate at least 1/2 a day to being there, it's not really worth it.

The good news is that I'll be able to babysit for Sophie tomorrow, and since we're not going to be at the park during the day, we can go over a little early so I can spend time with her before she goes to bed. I'm excited about this! :D I didn't get to spend much time with her at her party because there were so many others there who wanted to see her. Now I'll get some 1-on-1 time with her! :)

I have a project

This weekend, my brother's friend and his little sister stayed the night with us Saturday night. Darien, my brother's friend's sister, did not bring any long pants with her to wear either on Saturday or Sunday. So, when Mom sent me to the store Saturday night, she told me to take Darien along and buy her some jeans and some long lounge/pj pants.

While we were at the store, she informed me that she really only had about 2 pairs of jeans that she could wear (when her mom came over Sunday night, we found out that she has a few other pairs of pants besides her jeans that she can wear). Anyways. We ended up finding her a cute pair of jeans, which are a little big in the waist, but if she wears a belt, they'll be fine. And she also picked out a pair of 'High School Musical' *gag* lounge/sweatpants.

We didn't even spend $20 on her pants, but I felt like I'd done a really great thing that day. I know that Jeff (Nick's friend) and Darien don't have a lot right now because their mom (a single mom) is struggling to make money right now. So, when I was able to give Darien those pants, it made me feel very good.

I decided later that night that I wanted to get those 2 gifts for Christmas this year, since I'm not sure what their money situation is going to be like by that time. My mom said she wouldn't mind pitching in, too. We usually buy gifts for the 'Giving Tree' at our church, but she said she'll just take the money she'd normally spend on that and put it towards gifts for these kids. Since the 'Giving Tree' is designed to help 'needy' children get Christmas presents, I don't feel that we're depriving anyone of anything. I might still even get a gift for the 'Tree,' anyways.

I could tell that I was very passionate about this little 'project' when, after I told Jake my plans, he told me that he would be willing to donate some money to the cause, and I almost got a little teary-eyed when I read his text message. I'm really glad that I'm doing this! :)

Getting there

Well, I'm starting to feel better, even though my nose is still stuffy sometimes. I'll be very glad when it all goes away, which seems to be happening rather quickly. I'm hoping that I feel even better tomorrow since I'm going to a 1st birthday party and I would rather not get the birthday girl sick!

Still yucky

So, I'm still feeling pretty bad today. My throat isn't as bad, unless I'm trying to sleep, which is awesome, of course. My nose has now decided that it likes to be runny more than stuffy, which means that I can sort-of breath some of the time, I can't taste anything, and it runs a lot when I'm in class.

I had a low-grade fever last night, so it was pretty uncomfortable temp.-wise in my room last night, which made falling asleep pretty difficult. I actually laid down a little before midnight and tried to sleep, but my nose kept running and my throat kept drying out and being painfully sore, so sleep didn't come as quickly as I'd hoped.

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Maybe I can blame this on being sick, or maybe I'm just getting forgetful, but either way, I forgot to type up my discussion questions for my class this morning. We have 7 of these assignments throughout the quarter and they are only worth 10 points a piece, but I was still mad at myself for forgetting to do the dang assignment.

So, when I got to work, I quickly typed up my questions and sent them to the teacher in an e-mail, asking her, if she has the time, to look them over and give me a little feedback on them because I won't be getting that from her since I didn't turn them in in class today.

The assingment is a really easy 10 points, and I wish that I could have kept "on the ball" and brought them into class with me today, but I failed at doing so. I'm really not worried about the grade because we have a total of 500 points in the class, but it would have been nice to have that 10 points in case I didn't get full credit on another assignment.

Maybe this will motivate me to keep on top of my work and make sure I have everything completed for each class before I go to it?

Yucky

That's pretty much how I'm feeling today. My throat is still sore and my nose is now intermittently either running or stuffed up. I've also got the cold aches that go along with being sick, and that's really no fun, especially since my classroom this morning was really chilly. Right now at work, the temp. isn't really too bad. I don't have to keep my sweater on in here.

Fortunately, I can still taste some things, so that tells me that I'm not completely conjested. Still, this coming Saturday is Sophie's (my goddaughter) birthday party and I won't be able to go if I'm sick. :( So, I have to keep taking the garlic pills that I've been taking (natural antibiotic) and try and get plenty of rest (yeah right!) this week and hope that I'm better this weekend.

Weird request

I know this will seem strange to most of you, but I recently joined a site called dragcave.net, and you basically collect eggs and try to hatch them into dragons. The only catch is that other people have to view your egg before it will actually hatch. So, I was hoping that a few of you might be willing to go to my egg incubator and view my eggs? :)

http://dragcave.net/user/silversquirrel

If you decide to join the site, I would be more than happy to return the favor! :)

Yeah...

It's pretty late right now and I can't sleep. I was trying to get some homework/reading done for my classes on Monday and Tuesday, but there's only so much a person can read without getting a headache and needing to take a break. Plus, I have pretty much all day tomorrow to work on it because Jake's going to the Ren. Fair with some friends tomorrow. I wish I had something that awesome to distract me from my homework, but I wasn't invited, so no such luck there.

In other news. I got some more Christmas shopping done today. Jake and I walked downtown to a little shop that I browsed around in last Friday and I picked up a few things. It wasn't enough to be able to start crossing people off of my list, but it's a decent start. I'll have to keep checking the stores downtown every couple of weeks because they're always getting new stuff, and the chances of me finding things for more people on my list are pretty good. Plus, they're all within walking distance from my house, so I save on gas money, and I don't mind giving money to the shops downtown. At least my whole paycheck isn't going to Walmart or into my gas tank!

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Sophie's (goddaughter) 1st birthday party is next Saturday and I'm really excited about it. I got her a really cute stuffed kitty from Build -A- Bear (which I posted about previously) and I can't wait to give it to her! I had thought that having a title like 'godmother' would give me more opportunities to see her and spend time with her, but that's not the case. By this time next year, I will be out of school and will hopefully have a job, and my schedule should be more regular, so hopefully I'll have better luck around her 2nd birthday.

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We're coming up on the 5th week of the quarter soon and it's starting to feel like I'm falling behind. For example, all of the reading that I should be working on right now. I'm about 2 1/2 chapters behind in my Anthropology class, I haven't done the reading for my English class (Monday morning), and I'm only about halfway through 1 (out of 3 or 4) reading assignment for my Education class on Tuesday morning.

I was trying to keep on top of these things at the beginning and had thought that things were going pretty well, but apparently that isn't true. I really wish that I was able to sit down one full day this weekend and just read and get caught up on everything, but I get so bored with the reading, and then I'm easily distracted, and it's just not going to happen!

I really do try to get some homework done while at work, but it's usually pretty busy, at least for the past couple of weeks, and it's really hard to get much read when you have to keep stopping every 15 minutes or so to help someone. So, it's great that we're allowed to work on homework, but it never really seems to be possible because we almost always have someone in the office or on the phone. There are slow times, and I do try to utilize them, but I get distracted easily, as I stated previously.

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Lately I've been trying to commit to taking more walks and eating better because I'm starting to feel crappy about my weight (more so than usual). It's really something that I want to work at, and I get all fired up, and then the next day, I seem to lose all of my motivation. I just can't seem to work out a menu plan that allows me to eat when I'm able to and still make good choices, especially when I'm on campus for 7+ hours a day.

Another problem that I'm having is that, since I still live at home with my parents and brothers, I can't go out and buy a bunch of healthy foods to pack in my lunches because they will get eaten before I have a chance to pack them. So, since I know that I won't get much out of snacks and foods that have to be stored in the fridge, I usually avoid buying them. If anyone has any suggestions for healthy snacks that I can buy and keep in my room, I'm totally open to hearing your suggestions!

Yuck..

It's pretty nasty and depressing outside right now. It's also making the inside all dark and gloomy. It's really hard to believe that it's not even 3:00, when it feels like it should be 7:00 or 8:00.

I'm all alone at work right now, except for my boss, and it's pretty boring. I can't wait until 5 rolls around so I can run out of here. Unfortunately, starting next week, I will be staying at work until 6 on Wednesdays. I'm actually switching from working Mondays until 6, but it's still no fun. The 5:00-6:00 hour seems to go pretty quickly, so it's not like it will be too horrible, but I have to be at work again at 10:00 on Thursday mornings and it just seems like I'm going to start feeling like I'm at work even more than I am.

I could kick myself!

I've spent most of my free time today, in between my class and work and the time that I had at work when we weren't super busy, reading the book and chapters that I'm supposed to have ready for my 10:00 class tomorrow morning. I have no fear that I won't get the reading done before class tomorrow, but I am afraid that I won't have time to finish my reading for my night class and have time to study for the quiz that we're having at the beginning of class.

I should have started this stuff yesterday morning at the very latest, but I didn't realize I had this much to get done, I guess.

Slacking

Right now, I should be reading the book that I'm supposed to have read by my morning class on Tuesday so that I can write up the discussion questions that are supposed to go along with said book. What I'm actually doing is poking around on the Internet and looking for possible Christmas gift ideas. That's totally the opposite of what I should be doing, but I can't seem to help it. When I said in an earlier blog that I hadn't really been effected by the fact that this is my Senior year in college, I guess I should have waited a few days before saying that, because it's definitely hit now!

Christmas '08

I just realized that there's only a little over 2 1/2 months left before Christmas, which means that it's now time to get serious about shopping for gifts. I don't want to end up going out the week before and having to buy gifts for 15 people in one day. Not only do I not have the money for that, but it's so frustrating having to shop for that many people all at once.

After all of my items come in from Ebay, I'll be able to cross about 4 people off of my list, but that still leaves about 20 others... I also have to buy birthday gifts this month and next month, in addition to all of the Christmas presents. I have already picked up 1 b-day present, for my goddaughter, Sophie.

It's called 'Pumpkin Fun Kitty' and it's from Build -A- Bear workshop. It's so cute!

I just thought this was too cute to pass up, and since her birthday is in October, it makes perfect sense to me for her to have a cat with pumpkins on it. :D I figure that each year I can take her to the store and let her pick out an outfit or some accessories.

Fall '08 classes

I've had all of my classes for this quarter now. I have to say that I'm going to be doing a large amount of reading, but this quarter shouldn't be too bad at all. It always seems that the classes that are only 3 or 4 credits are the ones that involve the most work.

So far, 'Senioritis' hasn't really kicked in, at least no more than is normal for me during Fall quarters. I've been feeling the symptoms of this 'infliction' since I started college, and it doesn't appear to be worsening now that I am actually a senior. That's got to be good, right?

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My English class was cancelled this morning because the prof's daughter was sick. I don't mind not having class, but I do mind that I rushed up to the building this morning because I had thought I was going to be late, only to find out that we didn't even have class today. So, since I didn't have to work until 1 today, I sat in the staff lounge for about 45 minutes and read for my class tomorrow night, and then I decided to poke around the 'Halloween USA' that's in a plaza down the road from the campus. That took a whole 30 minutes up of the hour and 15 or so minutes that I had to wait before work.

I ended up coming back to campus at about 12:30 and just sitting in the office and talking to my coworkers until I was actually 'on the clock.' It would have been so great to just take my time getting ready this morning, maybe do a little extra-curricular reading, and then come into work at 1. But, that's not how things happened, obviously.

This sucks

I let my mom use my debit card to pay the cable bill because she doesn't have one and she promised to deposit the money into my account by this morning because she was convinced that it wouldn't post until sometime today, which was not the case. It posted last night, so I was charged $20 for an overdraft fee, and then, while my balance was still below $0, my purchase at Godiva this past Friday finally posted, which incurred another $20 overdraft fee. So, now I'm out $20 (because mom said she'd pay for the one fee), which is awesome considering I don't get paid again until next Friday.

I really need to stop bidding on things on Ebay. That's probably going to be the cause of my financial demise. ;p There are just so many cool things on there that I keep wanting to bid on. The good thing about all the bidding that I've been doing is that I'm making progress on my Christmas shopping list. I'm going to have to put an end to my bidding until I get paid again, tho.

I won!!

I won the auction on my dress for Halloween! It ended up being $10 more than it started at, and I was hoping that it wouldn't increase at all, but at least it was that small of an increase. I'm so excited about it and I can't wait until it gets shipped here! Now all I need to do is find some accessories to go with it!

My new best friend

After my friend was telling me that she was doing a bunch of her Christmas shopping on Ebay, I decided to browse around the site and see what I could find. I rediscovered Ebay and now it's my new best friend. I've been browsing around on the site for the past week and waiting for the auction to end on my *possible* Halloween costume for this year. I just keep looking around and finding things to bid on or buy for Christmas presents. I have a feeling that I'm going to get myself into some financial trouble if I don't take a break soon. ;p

I'm guessing that school and work are going to help me keep myself away from it for a bit...

Awesome...

I found out yesterday in my Anthropology 200N class that the bookstore ordered the wrong edition of our textbook, so we're supposed to try and get the newest edition when it comes in next Wednesday. I really don't want to return the book I have that I was able to get used for a new book that I'll have to pay full price for. This really sucks. The instructor told us that if we wanted to risk not having all of the info for the readings, that we could keep the 10th edition, and if they want too much more for the 11th edition, that's probably what I'll end up doing.

Au08 Day 1

Well, I went to my first class of the quarter yesterday. English 291. US Literature: 1865-Present. The prof is pretty...interesting. She says "Yeah, uhhuh, yeah" after someone says something...and I mean pretty much any time someone says something. The class itself doesn't seem like it will be too difficult, except I'm not very excited about the 2 5-page papers we have to write. But, the final is a take-home, so that shouldn't be too bad.

I'm not looking forward to my night class tonight. I'm praying that we get let out early, but I'm not familiar with the instructor, so I really don't know what the chances are of that happening. It's my second Anthropology course, and I enjoyed the other class, for the most part. It would have been really cool if the instructor for this class was the same 1 from my other class, but it's not. *sad face* It's Anthropology 200N. Intro to Physical Anthropology. I hope it's a fun class, or at least enjoyable.

I placed a bid...

I just placed a bid for a potential Halloween costume on Ebay. The dress is kinda expensive, with the starting bid begin $89.99, but I'm really hoping that nobody else bids on it because it starts out so high and that I get it!




The 1st image is of the front of the dress, and the second is of the back view, obviously. But, the 3rd image is a closeup of the corset/bodice, which was what really made me fall in love with the dress. I really like the whole thing, and it's very versatile, so I can use it for different costumes each year, depending on the accessories I choose to go along with it.

I'm super excited about this! I really hope I get it!

I don't wanna...

Tomorrow begins Autumn quarter 2008, and I'm really not looking forward to going back. I only have 1 class, which is fortunate, but I also have to work, so I'll be on campus from about 10 to 5. Not a horribly long period of time, but it would be nice to just be able to head home after class is over.

This quarter, I only have 1 day where I have 2 classes a day, and that's really nice. The other 3 days of classes, I only have 1 class to go to, but I still work all of those 4 days. It was really nice that I was able to have Fridays off this quarter, so I will hopefully use that extra day off wisely and get my homework done, leaving me the rest of the weekend to enjoy...yeah right!

I might post tomorrow after my class once I figure out what to expect there. It's an English class, so I'm hoping that it'll be an easy class!

Dress shopping, Round 1

Yesterday, I met up with my friend, Amanda, & her maid of honor and another bridesmaid to go dress shopping. We, along with her mom and her friend, piled into her mom's SUV and traveled to the JCPenney outlet store in Columbus. Before we went to the store, we stopped at Olive Garden and ate. I didn't realize how hungry I actually was until we were eating. I ate 2 bowls of salad, 1 bread stick, all but 2 bites of my pasta and my entire piece of Tiramisu. The best part of it all was that I didn't have to pay for it, even tho I had planned on it. Her mom had a gift certificate and she used that and covered the rest of the bill. So, that was a nice surprise.

After we left the restaurant, which had only just been built in April, and it was really fancy-looking, we headed over to the outlet. We didn't have any luck there because they had sold all of their wedding dresses a while ago and didn't carry them anymore. So, after we poked around in the returns/clearance section for about 30 minutes, we left and headed to Easton (which I had never been to). That was an experience in itself.

We, of course, stopped in Hot Topic, I got "yelled" at because I was trying to take a pic of a 'V for Vendetta' mask, and the lady said that they don't allow pics to be taken in the store. That was fine, because the pic I had snapped didn't turn out, anyways. It was just a blur. After we left there, we went to Macy's, which was a mistake because every girl in Columbus was there looking for a Homecoming (I'm guessing) dress, and there really wasn't much of a selection to begin with.

We left Macy's and headed to Nordstrom's, which was a mistake. Not only did they have a shitty selection, but we would have had to pay 3X as much as in a bridal store to buy a dress there. We had been informed that there was a David's Bridal store around the mall, but we weren't exactly sure where. Someone happened to look out of a window and we saw this huge sign that said "David's Bridal" on it, so that's where we went next.

That's where we hit the bridesmaid dress jackpot. We found a couple of styles that Amanda and the rest of us liked, so we tried those on and finally picked a dress. It's not exactly what Amanda had wanted, but the price was right and they're nice dresses. The only problem is that they're black, and it's going to be a summer wedding.



As you can see, it's a tea-length black dress with spaghetti straps and a bow around where it hits the waste. The plan is to get red high-heel shoes and red flowers to accent the dress. Her wedding colors are supposed to be red and black, so that's how we're planning on incorporating the red. I guess you learn to work with what you've got. The best part was that the dress that I tried on fit me really well (except that we couldn't zip it up all the way over my chest, but I'm working on that), and it was on sale for $79.99 and we got an extra $20 off because they were having a bridesmaid special or whatever. So it was like $65 after tax. It was amazing!

Poor Amanda was afraid that we weren't going to be able to pick a dress out that day because the other regular bridesmaid there besides me didn't like any that had been picked out. I think Amanda finally realized that it didn't matter what she thought because it wasn't her wedding, and I'm glad because I like the dress choice that she made. The same bridesmaid also made a comment about how she was going to ruin all of Amanda's wedding pictures because she refuses to smile and be serious in pictures. I was pretty pissed off when she said that, but I didn't say anything. Later, I told Amanda that she should tell her that if she can't behave, then she can be replaced.

I hope everything else works out. Her poor maid of honor didn't realize that it fell on her and the other bridesmaids' shoulders to plan the bachelorette party and the bridal shower. I told not to be afraid to ask me for help because I'm willing to help her out. I'm starting to get excited about this. :)

Autumn '08

I went and got my books for my classes today. I guess it wasn't really too bad this quarter. I only spent $232, and hopefully I don't have to buy some more random "optional" books that the profs decide we need for their class. So, I still have money left over from my loan disbursement, which is good because I'm driving to Marysville on Saturday and I'll need the extra gas money. Plus, if we actually find any dresses, I might have to buy one.

I'm really looking forward to the dress shopping, though. I haven't spent a whole lot of time with my friend, Amanda, and she asked me to be in her wedding, so I figure now's the time to start hanging out more. It's funny how you never realize just how much you miss someone until you talk to them or see them after not having done so for a very long time.

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Since this is the last weekend before school starts, there was a lot that I wanted to do, but I know I can't squeze it all in, and that's disappointing. I found out that the King's Island season lasts until like November 2nd or something like that, so I'm not as stressed about having to use the tickets, but I would still like to go before the weather gets too bad.

This summer just went too fast and it didn't give me enough time to do half the things I had planned on. Next summer is going to be really weird because I'll be done with school and hopefully will have a 'real job' and everything. And I'm sure I won't know how to act next Fall when I don't have to worry about going back to school....I can't believe it's already my last year!

Electronic leash-less

I left my cell phone at home today and I feel incomplete without it. I was at Walmart today and I kept wanting to pull my cell out and check the time. I felt like I'd been in the store for a very long time, so I headed out to my car and realized it was only 12:30, and I didn't have to be back at work until 1:00. This is the 2nd time within the last week that I've not had my phone with me and it just feels so alien to me...better not forget it again tomorrow!

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When I was wandering around Walmart, I looked at all of their Halloween decorations and, since Mom had said that she wanted to decorate the porch, I was getting ideas. Since the Walmart in Lima is set up differently from the 1 in Wapak, it took me a little while to find everything and I know that I didn't see it all because the 1 in Wapak had some cute stuff that I was looking at yesterday and they weren't in the section that I looked at today.

I have a few cute ideas, but I'm not sure if I'll have the money required to pull it off. There are so many other important things to spend my money on and frivolous spending cannot be justified right now, not with all of the expenses coming up in the near-ish future. So, I'll have to be a thrifty shopper and hope that everything doesn't look like it's cheap (even though it is).

Fall frenzy

I was at Walmart over my lunch break and I was looking at all of the Fall decorations, and now I really want to buy a cornucopia and some flowers and stuff and make a Fall centerpiece for the diningroom table. I was looking at everything they had in the craft section and getting a couple of ideas forming in my head, but I'm not very craft-inclined, so I don't know how my attempts will turn out.

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This Saturday, I'm supposed to meet up with my friend, Amanda, and all of her other bridesmaids and go shopping for dresses. We're supposed to head into Columbus, but if they don't have power back by then, then our 'Plan B' is Dayton. I hope C-bus gets their power back!

Pre-Christmas season anxiety...

I was poking around on the Joann's Fabric website, originally looking for yarn, and then I started looking at various other things offered at the store and started to think about Christmas gifts for family and friends. There were so many cute things and I just wanted to get 1 of almost everything, but I was looking at the prices, even though a lot of it was on sale, it still added up to a huge amount.

So, now I'm paranoid that I won't have enough money this year to get good presents for everyone, and it seems like my list keeps growing every year. I know that I always manage to get everyone something every year, but this year it seems like I've got so many people and only a small amount to stretch across for everyone.

This makes me want to start shopping now so that it doesn't all have to come out of the same paycheck. I'm really going to have to do some thrifty shopping this year and try and catch things on sale. I've already picked up my gift for the "White Elephant," so that's covered. I picked up a bottle of "Anti Monkey Butt powder" at the Tractor Supply Company because I saw it and laughed my butt off for about 5 minutes.

So, that's 1 thing crossed off the list, and I only have 4 million other things to go.

So...

We lost power last night for about 2 hours thanks to the lovely strong winds we were having. Most of the time that the power was out, it was still daylight outside, so we didn't really have to light any candles until about that last half hour of the outage. I was really nervous about having to get up for work this morning because, if the power didn't come back on, I wouldn't have an alarm clock and my phone alarm doesn't always go off.

I didn't sleep very well last night. Even though I didn't have to worry about the power because it came back on around 8:30 pm, it still seemed to take a while for me to fall asleep. So, now I feel tired and I'm stuck at work all day...woohoo.

Bored

I've still got a little over 3 hours of work left and I'm extremely bored right now. I want to read my book because it's getting really interesting, but I want to save what little I have left to keep me busy while I'm waiting on Jake and his family to get to Lima for the P & G tour. So, I'm poking around on the Internet, but there really isn't much left to do before I run out of that option. Since I don't have to work tomorrow and Jake has tonight off, maybe he and I can do something fun when we get done with the tour? Maybe there are some good movies we can rent and watch or something, but I doubt it.

Speaking of books, I'm almost finished with Volume 1 of 'The Mallorean' and I have the 2nd volume to read after that, and then I have a handful of other books that I've picked up or have been given that I need to work on, and hopefully I can do that over the span of Autumn quarter, since I only have 3 classes and they only add up to 13 credit hours. I wish that I could have gotten more read this summer, and that I would have been able to do more with my months off from school, but I was denied. Unfortunately, I think that the King's Island tickets that I got for my birthday are expired because I think the season is over now. I wish that I didn't procrastinate so much!

Big weekend

I was busier this weekend than I had expected to be. I can't remember much of what I did on Friday (mostly because I slept for half the day) or Saturday, but yesterday was packed full of stuff. When I woke up, around 11:30, everyone was downstairs because my brother's friend brought over his wood cutter and he was chopping up the wood and everyone else was transporting it down to the coal bin in the basement.

I got dressed after I figured out what was going on and went into the coal bin to start stacking the wood up on the shelves in the room. It didn't take very long to get the left side filled up to the ceiling, but we still had space under the shelf to stack wood. The right side was 2/3s full when we stopped. And that wasn't even half of the wood that we had stacked up outside. I'm pretty sure we'll be doing that again next weekend, and Mom's cousin is bringing us more wood, so we'll probably never finish it!

After we stopped loading wood, the guys headed over to pick up the piano and bring that to our house. After that was successfully placed in the spot we cleared out for it in the entryway, I headed downstairs (again) to take a shower. After I was clean again, I headed over to Jake's to help his mom make apple pies. We got 5 pies done and that didn't even finish off 1 basket of apples...and we have 4 more full baskets to go. They won't all be turned into pies, so I'm looking forward to learning how to make all kinds of apple goodies. :)

So exciting!

Last night, Britt, Jake and I took Jess to Olive Garden for her birthday (which is today), and tonight we get to take her to a bar and buy her drinks. It's kinda unfortunate that she can't get smashed tonight because she has to leave early tomorrow for C-bus. I'm still planning to get her feeling pretty good, tho. :)

A little ticked

Today, I was planning on taking my lunch break from 12:00-1:00 like I normally do, but my boss was back in her bosses office talking to him, so I didn't actually get to leave until 12:40, and I was pretty dang hungry. So, I scarfed down my leftover chicken nachos (from El Azteca last night) in about 5 minutes and proceeded to browse the campus bookstore for the ISBN numbers for my Autumn quarter books.

I also got some reading in my current book done. It's really getting interesting right now and I'm having problems turning away from it to answer the phone (cuz we're allowed to read at work), and that's probably/definately not a good thing. I still have about 15 (or fewer) more chapters left in this book, and then I get to start on the 2nd volume of the series, which only has 2 books in it. Then I will have finished the series, hopefully before the start of the school year.

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I'm pretty excited about Wednesday and Thursday evening this week. Wednesday we're taking Jess out for dinner at Olive Garden to celebrate her 21st birthday. And then on Thursday, once she's actually 21, we're going to take her out to a bar and buy her some drinks. That should be a lot of fun, and it'll be a new experience for me because I haven't been to a bar since my mom and a few of her brothers, their wives, and some of my parents' friends took me the weekend after my birthday.

I'm still not sure what to get her as far as presents go, but I may just buy her a couple of drinks and call it a day. I was able to rearrange my work schedule so that I have Friday off, so I'll be able to enjoy a couple of drinks, myself, so Thursday night should shape up to be a pretty fun evening. :)

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In other news, I priced some of the books that I'll need for Autumn quarter, and it doesn't look like I'd be able to save a great big bunch by ordering online, so I think I'll just buy my books from the bookstore and skip the 'shipping and handling' fee. It'll probably amount to the same amount in the end, anyways.

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In a previous blog, I wrote about how I was a little frantic because of all of the money I'm going to have to spend between now and next summer because of the 3 weddings that will be occuring. Well, I've started saving up money (since I got paid last Friday), and I'm keeping a log of how much I'm putting aside and what my total amounts to after each addition, and I think that it's going to be easier than I had thought. As long as no major emergencies come along, which they have a way of doing lately, I should be able to save up the money, and then some.

I also realized that I'm not going to be required to just drop all of that money on the table all at once. I will be making payments on dresses and such before the summer, so that will lessen the burden a little and I won't have to come up with the whole amount at one time. That helped to calm me down a little. I can handle paying out a little money every paycheck, but if I had to hand over the entire sum at once, I think I'd probably faint.

Even though it's going to be expensive, I'm really excited about these upcoming weddings! Not sure that I'm too thrilled about having to be in all 3 of them, but I guess it's a blessing in disguise, and I know that these people wouldn't have asked me to be a part of their wedding party if they didn't care about me. I just pray that they don't pick out dresses that are really freaking expensive and full of all sorts of fabric and layers, since they'll all be summer weddings. I know that 1 is having full-length gowns, and 1 is not, but I'm not sure about the Florida wedding, and that's the 1 that I'm worried about the most!

Freaking out (a little)!

Over the last week or so, I've come to discover that I'm going to be a bridesmaid in 3 weddings next summer. I hadn't expected to be involved in 3 weddings which appear to be happening over a period of 2 months. The wedding in June doesn't really bother me, but I'm concerned about the 2 that are tentatively scheduled for July because 1 is taking place in Ohio, while the other will be in Florida.

I'm starting to worry that these 2 weddings will be scheduled for the same day and that I'll have to pick which 1 I go to. It's really not a hard decision because I'm going to be the 'maid of honor' for the wedding in Florida, so of course I would have to back out of the other 1 and go to that 1, but I really don't want to hurt anyones' feelings, so I'm praying that they pick different weekends. And I'm also hoping that those weekends are as far apart as they can be!

Another big issue that I'm having is that I'm (completely) broke and I have to come up with not only the money for 3 bridesmaid dresses, but also for getting my hair done and buying wedding gifts...not to mention the plane ticket that I'll need for flying down to Florida. I'm really concerned that I won't be able to afford everything. Because of this fear, I have decided that I -will- be putting money aside every paycheck and that I won't touch it unless I absolutely have to because of an emergency.

Wish me luck!

I want to kill things...

I was just completely overwhelmed at work about 10 minutes ago. I was trying to finish up a filing project, which involved putting labels on folders for students who don't have a folder yet and then putting their papers into said folder. While in the midst of this project, about 3-5 people walked in for Late Registration meetings with the advisors (not all at once, but pretty close). I was also on the phone for about 10 minutes with some woman who wanted me to answer a question that I couldn't because the only person that would have been able to answer it was gone for the day.

Even while I was dealing with all of this, more people came in and I kept getting more phone calls. Thankfully one of the advisors was up front speaking with a student and she helped me out with the people who were walking in while I was busy answering the phone. I probably would have thrown something at the next person (or the phone) if she wouldn't have been here to help me.

I swear that the world always knows when I'm at the front desk by myself! My co-worker left at 1 and my boss didn't come in today, so I'm completely alone up here and everyone seems to know that and they all flock here as soon as I'm by myself. It's ridiculous!

Well...

We didn't move the piano yesterday because we couldn't find enough people that would have been available to help us lift it. So, we rescheduled the move for a couple of Sundays from now and hopefully all of the big, strong guys we had lined up to help us won't have any other obligations and we can get this move done and over with. I honestly think that the dread that I'm feeling about having to help move this huge piano is worse than the actual moving is going to be, so I should just stop. I don't have to worry about it for a couple of weeks, anyways.

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I've been reading one of the books on my list (The Malloreon, Vol. 1) and it's taken me a while to actually start getting into the book and being excited about what's going on. Now that I've gotten to that point, it's hard for me to put it down sometimes. Even with that, it's still going to take me forever to finish it because it's technically 3 books in 1, and I still have the 2nd volume (which has 2 books in it) to go. I was really hoping to have more books crossed off my reading list by now, but this 1 is taking forever for me to get thru.

I have so many more books that I want to read and there is only about a month before Fall classes start, and I'm guessing that I won't have much time for extracurricular reading once classes begin, tho I am only taking 13 credit hours that quarter, so that could be promising. :)

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I feel like I never have anything important to say in this thing, like I'm just writing crap down and there really isn't a point to it because it's stuff that nobody cares about or wants to waste their time reading. I know that I've had a few good blogs in the 5 years since I started this, but it's been 5 years and I've probably had only a handful of blogs that were worth reading...it's kinda sad, really.

That just shows you how exciting my life is. I wish that I could blog about taking road trips and going on vacation, and about doing crazy/fun things with my friends, but those things seldom happen in my life. I always make big plans, but nothing really ever goes thru. So then I just end up blogging about how I hate school, which will be over soon. What will I blog about when that's done?

Fun, fun

We get to move a 2000 pound piano today. Hurrah... I'll be very glad once that's all over because I'm sure it's going to be difficult and unpleasant. Hopefully everything goes well and we don't have any accidents, injuries, or casualties.

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I know that I've complained about this recently, but yesterday I realized that it's the end of August and we only have about a month left of summer...and I haven't really done much with my summer. I had all of these big plans and I guess that I had thought the summer would be a little longer than it was. It was probably the fact that I took classes this summer and lost about 5 weeks of my summer as a result. I really wish that I could have those weeks back!

It's really hard to make any plans right now because Jake and I are working pretty much opposite shifts at the moment. I work mostly the beginning of the week during the day and he's working at night on the weekends. That makes it very hard for me to come up with a day during the week (besides Sunday) that would work for both of us.

But, soon he'll be starting his job at Grandview Video & Tanning and then he won't have to work nights, and that'll mean that he can get up relatively early the next day and go do something. I really hope that he enjoys his new job and that he sticks with it, even tho the pay isn't quite as good as what he's getting a the store, but the hours are going to be so much better for him, especially since school is coming up.

Wow!

I just realized that I've been blogging on this site for a little over 5 years. I can't believe it's been that long since I started my blog! I was looking at my archives and I looked at the first month that I had and posts, and it was April of '03. I just can't believe that this blog holds a record of the last 5 years of my life and I didn't even realize I'd written that much in it!

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In other news, today is Jake's 22nd birthday. His parents are taking him out to dinner at Texas Roadhouse. I'm meeting them there after I get off work, and then I have to buzz over to Community Market, buy him a bottle of Spice Rum, take that home and wrap up his gifts. Then, I get to head over to his house for cake and, I'm guessing, ice cream. :)

Strange dream...

I had a pretty strange dream last night. I don't remember much about it except for the last maybe 10 minutes. I do know that in the dream, Jake and I were getting married. But, the priest or whoever was marrying us didn't seem to have everything in order and he left some important parts out (like the exchanging of the rings). So, Jake and I were standing in the lobby (I'm guessing it was of the church we were married in) and he pulls my ring out of his pocket and we exchange rings, each saying a little something while we put the rings on each other. I can't remember exactly what I said, but it was to the point of, "As long as this ring is around, I will be, too." The way I said it in the dream was a lot more romantic and poetic, but I can't, for the life of me, remember what I said.

The strange part about this dream, besides the whole marriage thing, was that the ring Jake put on me, when he first put it on my finger, appeared to have little green spikes coming up from it. I'm not really sure what significance that has, but the next time I looked at the ring, they weren't there anymore, and I remembered commenting to his mom that I thought he had given me a ring with spikes on it. I really don't know what that was all about.

But, this dream made me realize something. The wedding was a lot like our relationship...we argue quite a bit and nothing ever seems to go as planned, but at the end of the day, we're still together and we still love each other. In the dream, at the end of the day, we were married and no matter how well (or not) the ceremony went, it didn't change that fact.

I still don't really understand the point of the dream, but it did give me hope that, if we do marry sometime in the future, that we might be happy. It may be from all of the weddings that are coming up in the coming year that made me have this dream, but it kind-of caught me off guard because usually the guys in my dreams don't have a face, and this guy that I married was definately Jake. I'm not sure how to take it, so I've decided to take it as a good sign for the future.

'As You Like It'

Last night, I watched 'As You Like It' with Jess. It's based on the Shakespeare play and maybe that's most of the reason that I was confused throughout the whole movie, but it could also be that we had the volume turned down a little low at the beginning cuz Jess's niece was over and she was sleeping. Whatever the reason, I spent most of the movie being confused about what was going on. It wasn't until about half-way thru it that I realized that 2 of the main characters were Rosalind and Orlando, which are the characters in the play that Josie's English class is discussing in 'Never Been Kissed.' Even after this dawned on me, I still didn't really know anything that was going on.

It wasn't a bad movie and some parts of it were actually pretty funny, but of course, it's Shakespeare, so everything is painfully drawn out and the issues seemed like they could have been handled more effectively in about 1/3 of the time. But, it was still pretty good.

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Tonight is the Lynard Skynard concert and I'm pretty excited about it! It looks like I'm going to end up driving to the Allen County Fairgrounds tonight because it appears that Jake doesn't want to drive. This will make my 6th trip in the past 7 days to Lima. I'm not too happy about so I'm going to try to talk Jake into driving once he comes over. :)

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While I was at the mall yesterday taking my brothers school clothes shopping, I picked up a few things for Jake (because his birthday is Wednesday). I got him 2 nice shirts from Old Navy because it's been a while since he's gotten any new ones. I picked him out one short-sleeved shirt and one long-sleeved shirt. Both of them can be either worn for casual-wear or dressy-casual, so they're pretty versatile.

After we finished up in Old Navy, we crossed the little hallway and went into Spencer's. It didn't take me very long to get his presents from there because I already knew what I wanted to get him. They had some Captain Morgan's paraphernalia which I saw the last time I was in there, and I had decided that I would go back and get him some of that stuff. I ended up picking him up a Captain Morgan's throw, which is made out of material that somewhat feels like a hoodie, and I bought him 2 glasses that have 'Captain Morgan's' on them. I figured he can use those for his rum -n- cokes. I also plan on picking him up a bottle of CM Spiced Rum for his party.

I ordered him a book online that's called 'Tigerheart.' I figured he would like it because it sounded like it was pretty similar to 'Peter Pan,' which he's a pretty big fan of. So, all of these presents should make for a pretty good birthday. I always go a little crazy when it comes to buying birthday and Christmas presents for him, but I don't think that I went as crazy as I usually do this time. I'll probably make up for it around Christmas. :)

Busy weekend ahead

I've got a lot of plans for this weekend and I'm hoping that I can fit everything in. I have to take my brothers shopping for school clothes tomorrow...yay. And tomorrow night I'd like to watch movies with Jess. Sunday night we're going to the Lynard Skynard concert at the Allen County Fair. I'm sorta excited about that, but I don't know many of their songs off the top of my head, so I'm not sure how many I'll actually know.

I'm hoping that I can trade days with my coworker so that I have next Tuesday off instead of Thursday so that Jake and I can use our King's Island tickets before the season ends. I spoke with my coworker about trading days off and he seemed fine with it as long as I gave him a heads-up. I hope that Jake and I can go soon because I'd like to go when we have nice weather and not when it's too cold to ride all of the water rides.

Wasted...

It's almost the end of the summer (even though we have a little over a month before college starts back up) and it feels like I've gotten 0 things accomplished. I haven't really even been able to have much fun, either.

This past weekend, we had 2 family weddings on Saturday, and 1 of my friends was having friends over to celebrate her 21st birthday, which I really wanted to be at, so I told my mom that I was going there Saturday night. She pretty much flipped out and was like "I see where your loyalites lie...with your friends," and all that bullshit. So, we argued about that for awhile, and finally I said "whatever," and went upstairs because I was tired of arguing about it and I had made up my mind that I was going to the party.

Later that night, she had finally calmed down enough for me to explain to her that I was planning on going to the receptions and that I wasn't going to leave 5 minutes after I got there, so she was okay. But I was really pissed that she had gotten all mad and tried to guilt-trip me into not going because she thought I was choosing my friends over my family.

First of all, I don't even know the 2 family members that got married very well, and second of all, neither of them would be willing to stay the entire time at my wedding reception, so I didn't really feel the need to stay the whole time at theirs.

Secondly, I haven't gotten to go and hang out with my friends very much. Usually, if I want to see them, they either have to stop by my house or we meet up somewhere in town. It's not fair for me to keep asking them to drive into town (because most of them now live in other cities) to see me all the time and not offer to go visit them. So, I figured I could at least handle driving the 45 minutes to Katy's house at least once this summer. It turned out to be a lot of fun, and now I'm hoping that I'll get the chance to do it again before the summer is over. :)