Meandering

Music and First Impressions

2012-01-19T20:53:00.000-08:00

I know it's been ages since I've posted, but tonight I've been thinking about something that is too long for facebook. Shocking, I know, that facebook may not always be the best way to communicate every thought.

Anyhow, my cats have always like boys better than girls. Except for Fuzzy during the day, but that's just cuz she's crazy and is terrified of everyone other than me when the sun is up. Vampire cat. *ahem* Because they like boys, especially ones they know, it's pretty common that when I come home from work, or the two of us are watching tv (at the moment it's Ottawa vs. San Jose and we're LOSING!!!! AAAAGGGHHH!!!!) or whenever, at least one of the cats will be curled up in Joe's lap. And every single time, it reminds me of that line from the George Strait song- "She thinks I'm perfect and that I love her cat, but you know me better than that!" Now, I know that Joe really does like animals, and that he (mostly) really does like my cats, but I'm always a little curious. Does he REALLY like them? Or is he only pretending? Dammit! George Strait has poisoned me!

But then that reminds me of something else. I dont know if everyone has a moment like this, but I distinctly remember the first time I actually listened to music. I mean, sure, there was always music in the background at the store, or on tv shows, and of course we'd all sing at church, but I never really paid attention to the fact that it was music. It was different from other forms of communication, and the melody and the mood and the instruments could convey as much meaning as the words themselves. That song, sitting in my parent's car, driving away from the music store, was Thunder Rolls by Garth Brooks. I'm not going to make any sort of hypothesis as to how that has affected me or my tastes in music, but I remember how dramatic it was and how it felt like desperation, even though at the time I didn't even know what the word desperation meant.

And I almost hate to wrap up this way, which no real closing statement (my various English teachers would be so mad), but sometimes blogs dont have a point. Anticlimactic, I know. I was just thinking about music, and the music of my childhood, and felt a desire to share it. Feel free to share your early memories. Or don't. That's totally ok too. :)

Go Sharks! Woo!

2011-04-13T19:07:00.000-07:00

I have no pics to post. Sad, I know, but I just don't really feel like posting pics. It's kinda a pain in the ass on here, and any pics I have are on facebook anyway, and since I'm friends with all of you on there too, it's just not worth it.

*ahem*

I haven't done much hiking lately. Actually, I haven't done any hiking at all since Death Valley. Unless you count walking around Whale Point in Garapata with Marc and Sonrisa, which I guess most people would, but I don't because I didnt even need a backpack, and if you can go "hiking" without any gear at all, it hardly counts as a hike. It was nice though. Lots of pretty irises and other flowers. No whales though. Hmm. Death Valley was fun though. We explored many canyons and climbed on lots of rocks and I made friends with lots of lizards and bugs and stuff. Didn't really make friends with any people though, which I think proves that I have my priorities straight. I do feel bad about making that raven gag though. Watching a raven trying to throw up is somewhat uncomfortable.

Tomorrow is the first game of the playoffs! Woo! Go Sharks! We'll be there to see them beat the Kings. Last time we saw the two play we won 6-1, so I'm looking forward to seeing that again. During the regular season I like to watch games that are a little closer, but not during the playoffs. Ideally they'll be up for the cup against the Bruins, because that would be too much fun. We have a very nice bottle of Pinot Noir that we (he) splurged on and have decided that seeing the Sharks win would totally count as a special enough occasion to drink it, which just makes me want them to win even more.

Also I'm going to Massachusetts at the end of June. Fun!

Newt crossing!

2011-02-26T18:03:00.001-08:00

neat, Joe just handed me a thumb drive with some pics on it, so uh, read the post prior to this, and then look at the pics. Do as I command!! Or don't, whatever.

Newts!! Neato!!

I want to be a part of the ecological study.... I mean, not a part of it, but I want to be the one studying the ecology... Or something? I wanna run around the woods!

Double rainbow from our bedroom balcony Sat morning. Pretty...

Me after wine tasting on Friday on Cannery Row.

It's a pterodactyl!! AAAaaaa!!!

Happy post!

2011-02-26T17:51:00.000-08:00

Since my last post was so complainy, I figured I should post a quick one about today, cuz it's been a very good day (even though my back is KILLING me, but that's the last I'll mention it, because luckily Joe also has back problems, woo! so he has a bunch of drugs lying around that I'm gonna take.)!

Anywho.

We got to sleep in all late (which for us is around 9:30), then we headed to REI to get some wine glasses for our upcoming camping trip in Death Valley. I pointed out that we could just drink wine out of regular glasses or even nalgene bottles, but he just gave me a look of death and insisted that we drink wine out of the proper glasses. Whatever. Then we headed to Paraiso winery in the Santa Lucia highlands because we'd never been there and we've liked most of the wine. I was absolutely thrilled to see snow covering all the hills, so pretty!! So we had some yummy wine and bought a few bottles and then took the long way back here, through Carmel Valley. Joe said he thought he saw some snowflakes, but I told him that he was crazy cuz it was still 46. But! The temp kept dropping! And soon the occasional snowflake turned into actual snow!! It was very exciting. I was bouncing up and down in my seat and shrieking like an overexcited 6 year old. So fun! Alas, Joe didn't want to stop. Until!! OMG!!! Coolest thing ever!!!! (I'll put pics up later) There was a newt crossing sign!! An actual, official, Please Do Not Run Over the Newts sign!! So then we had to stop so we could take a pic of it. Because, seriously, OMG!! EEEEEeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SNNNOOOOOWWWW!!!! and NNNNEEEWWWTTTTSSSS!!! Ok, to be fair, we obviously saw no newts, but Joe promised that the next time it rains when it's at all warm out we can drive up there and go newt hunting.

Then we drove back into Carmel, went out to eat and our server happened to be a former CPK employee, so that was fun. Then back to PG where we had to drive by Asilomar because it was breathtakingly beautiful out. We even had to pull over to gape at the ocean and the clouds. We were there right at sunset and the waves were all huge and angry looking and there were lots of white caps, but the air was so clear that we could see individual trees in Santa Cruz. It looked like we were looking across a river. So cool! Unfortunately taking pics of scenes like that is really hard. They never come out looking as amazing as they do in real life, so we didn't even take any, but trust me. It was pretty.

And now I'm home! Yay!

Is that a cheery enough post? :)

Stupid rain! And facebook! And blogspot! And work!

2011-02-25T14:30:00.000-08:00

Of course, I decide to write about every hike I go on in an attempt to keep my blog more up to date, and what happens? Rain. Endless, ceaseless, annoyingly cold and dreary rain. Needless to say, we haven't really be able to go hiking. We were going to try to go on Sunday, but the snow level is down to 500 feet tonight. And no, I did not forget a '0' there. Joe thinks we'll see flurries here in PG, but that it just won't stick. Last night it was raining so hard that I couldn't sleep because it was too loud. Stupid rain. Right now it's sunny and 50 degrees, but I'm sure it wont stay like that long. Bah.

We did manage to sorta hike last... uh... Sat? Sun? We'll just say last weekend. Because most of the trails that we wanted to go on were closed due to the rain and mud, we ended up just walking along Old Coast Road, which is the little dirt road right before (or after, depending on which direction you're coming from) Bixby Bridge.

If you've ever seen a car commercial you should be fairly familiar with this site, although usually the angle is from the other side. This is a pic from Old Coast Road itself. I was going to put up a better pic that Joe took, but apparently you can't just copy pics from facebook anymore. Annoying!

I have a cat laying on my feet. She's very cute and all, but I kinda need to move them (my feet) because they're falling asleep. Sorry Cassie.

Anywho, so the road starts off with nice views of the scrub covered hills, pretty typical of the area, then almost immediately goes down into a nice mossy, foresty valley.

(Can I take a brief moment to complain about how difficult putting pics on here is? Why do they automatically go up at the top, instead of where I was typing? Do I have it set wrong? Cuz it is a major pain in the ass to have to move the pics down every time.)

There were a few cars that passed us as we were walking along, but it was still very nice. Lots of pretty little streams, a cute little mouse, etc. And I just tried to put up pics of that, but because they're vertical and the little box for typing is so small, it wont let me move them past the other vertical pic of Joe walking along the road. It's probably a good thing you can't hear me, because there is some language that is inappropriate for some audiences. Point being, there are going to be no more pictures in this entry. In which case, it's kinda pointless to go over the hike in any more detail, cuz you really do need the visuals. I mean, when I tell you that we stopped at the crazy gate withe spikes, barbed wire, and 4 locks, it means a lot more when you can see how truly insane that thing was. There are pics on my facebook, but that's not the point dammit!! AARGGG!!!!

*ahem*

So, moving on! I am officially done with my apartment in Marina, woo!! I've basically been living with Joe since December, but since my lease isn't up until March, we've been taking our time. I already did my final walk though and all though, and should be getting my deposit back soon. The guy looked at it for about 30 seconds before declaring it immaculate and told me that I'll get everything back from my deposit except for the carpet cleaning. I seriously never thought that anyone would ever call my apartment immaculate, but I guess miracles do happen! I've been working very hard to keep Joe's apartment (and my current place) clean though, which I'm sure he appreciates. But talking about cleaning apartments is boring. So I'm not going to anymore.

Let's see... I switched to working only days, which has been nice. This way I have the same schedule every week (Mon-Thurs, in at 11:30ish, out at 3:30ish), and I get to see Joe. And I have weekends, woo!! Still no luck on surgical tech jobs though. The career services person emailed me yesterday about a surgery center that was hiring, but it was in Bakersfield. She knows that I don't live there anymore, or, should at least. I've spoken to her on the phone a few times, and the last time she started with "How's Monterey?" so I was a little confused by the email. Whatever. Finding a real job might make my life tricky right now anyway, because I have a lot of trips planned for the next few months. We're going to Death Valley at the end of March, Mount Shasta in June, and I believe Mass. in July. Which is not to say that I'm not still trying, it's just that there is a part of me that is appreciating still having a job that is so flexible. Although I am starting to get really tired of serving, and minor annoyances that happen every day are getting very irritating. Like when you're sitting at a table by yourself with 4 menus down, and I walk up and ask if I cant get you anything while you're waiting for the rest of your party, the correct response is not "Oh hi! I'm waiting for my friends!" No shit. I didn't actually think that you needed 4 menus all to yourself, and I did just acknowledge the fact that there are more people coming. Joe thinks I need to start writing about all the annoying things that people do in restaurants, but I'm pretty sure it's just because he's tired of hearing me whine about it.

I'm sure no one wants to listen to me whine though, and since I've already whined about facebook, blogspot, the weather, and my job, I think I'll stop now.

Willson Peak (Henry Coe State Park) and Eagle Peak (Toro County Park)

2011-01-17T17:37:00.000-08:00

Ok, I know. It's been just under forever that I last posted. Since then, I've moved twice. To two different cities! And I keep doing all these super fun hikes and stuff, and I want to keep track of what hikes I liked and what ones I kinda hated and all that, so I figure I can do that here? I do fully understand that I will probably forget about this by the time we go hiking next though (either Fri or Sun), so yeah. At least I'll have these two officially documented! And with that, I shall get started.

Last Friday Joe and I went up to Henry Coe State Park outside of Gilroy. Prior to this I didn't really realize just how pretty that area can be. I don't think I'm alone when I say that all that comes to mind when I think of Gilroy are outlet malls and lots of garlic. Needless to say, I was very pleasantly surprised. We left from the Hunting Hollow parking lot and headed up the trail to Willson Peak.

Because of all the rain we've had lately (it is January after all) we immediately ran into a minor obstacle.

Luckily we found some rocks that we could climb over without getting too wet. Not yet anyway, on the way back we had to cross that creek several more times, and we both got out feet pretty soaked.

Anyway, you can see the main trail (that we came back on) directly across the flooded creek, but the trail we went up was off to the left.

And that's where the fun really began.

Steep. Very steep. In just under a mile we climber over 1,200 feet, in a about 35 mins. Which I believe is a damn good time for something so steep, because I, unlike that crazy boy I'm with, do not run ultra marathons up mountains for fun. Anyway, while I absolutely want you to notice how steep it is (which is hard to see in pics, I know), you really need to take a good look at the background too. Soooo pretty!! And we could hear frogs calling the whole way up. Most of them from the creek down in the canyon, but we did pass a couple little ponds as well.

Joe was mean though, and wouldn't let me stop there. Mean! Mean mean mean mean mean! Whatever. After not too long we made it to the top! Woo!!

Aw, aren't we cute!

Going back we went the other way, towards Hunting Hollow. The going was slow cuz my knee has been acting up (seriously, I have no idea what I did too it, but it's been hurting a lot lately), so I had to be really careful on the downhill part, which was almost as steep as the going up was.

See what I mean about really pretty?

Parts of it had some nice creepy mossy trees too, which were a lot of fun.

But eventually we made it down the the flat part and enjoyed the wide path in the valley.

And then! Beer!!

This is El Toro Brewing Company (obviously) in Morgan Hill. Really good beer and very decent food too, which is always appreciated after the 7 or so miles we'd just hiked. After food we headed back to Gilroy to go to Barnes and Noble so Boy could spend his gift card (yay books!) and then to BevMo where we spent way too much, but hey, it was cheaper We were saving money! And, come on! Were we expected to not buy alcohols? Psh.

And that was the Henry Coe trip on Friday.

Then on Sat I worked. We were busy and I made $150 and I was happy. Yay!

Then on Sunday we hiked more! Woo!! We had planned on going down to Andrew Molera, but the trail we wanted to go on was closed, so instead we headed to Toro County Park, which is a nice little park in between here and Salinas. We'd been there before, trying to get to the top of... uh... San Simas Peak? I think? So we were going to try to do that again. Unfortunately, niether of us slept well the night before and since I've stopped drinking caffeine, I couldn't even grab a

monster for some quick energy. That whole trip was kinda a disaster. We wanted to go up Coyote Ridge, but the trailhead starts at the youth overnight center, which is closed to non youth overnight people. So instead we headed up Bessie Canyon. The views were pretty enough, but the trail itself was just ugly.

It got pretty steep at some parts, and unforunatly those parts were all rocky and wide and the trail half washed out and despite being only in the 60's, with the sun beating down on us with no shade we were both pretty miserable. I just got to the point where I didn't even want to stop because I was afraid that if I did, I'd quit. So I just turned off my brain and kept going. And then, cows!

Apparently part of the trail has cows on it. And that part of the trail was way better. Much prettier and just nicer in general. A little while later we made it to Eagle Peak.

The original plan was to keep going from there, but we were kinda over it, so we just stopped for a quick bite (I had a cliff bar, he had jelly beans), then headed down the Coyote Ridge trail that we had wanted to go up.

I found a flower! :) You can see the trail we took going off into the trees. I loved those trees. They were all nice and shady and pretty and the trail itself was soooo much nicer. We figured out how to get to the trailhead when we got back, so if we go again we're definetly going up that part. Sadly, I have no good pics of that part of the trail.

Ok, I had one good pic. At the end of that trail we came to the youth center and a little pond, then the trail veered to the right because we're not actually allowed at the youth center.

And then we walked down the road to the parking lot. And I'm tired of writing, and I still have to figure out how to arrange this all pretty on my blog (I started to try to write this in blogspot, but it was annoying the hell out of me, so now I'm using my word processor). I think we're going to do Garrapata next, so I'll try to post about that too. And anything else you guys may be interested in?

Oh, I should also probably mention that I didn't take these pics, Joe did. I have some in my camera, but the cord to download them are still in Marina.

4X4

2010-02-21T21:30:00.000-08:00

4 Things I have asked my neighbors to stop doing that I shouldn't have had to
1. Please stop playing music at 3am at full volume.
2. Please stop letting your dog crap under my stairs and then leaving it there.
3. Please stop unscrewing the light bulb that lights my stairs.
4. Please stop parking an inch in front of my garage so I can't open it.

4 Stupidest things my tables have said to me recently
1. I didn't know there was corn in my White Corn Guacamole!
2. Can I just get small pieces of all the appetizers on one plate?
3. Can I get only half of a pizza?
4. I didnt know that was a pizza! (we actually hear that one all the time)

4 Awesome things I've bought recently
1. Contacts!
2. Cappuccino gelato
3. Espresso martini
4. Cadbury creme eggs (yay, easter candy!!)

4 Best surgeries I've gotten to scrub in to so far
1. Emergency craniotomy
2. Bilateral full thickness and split thickness skin grafts on arms, shoulders, and neck
3. Robotic nephrectomy
4. Total hip replacement

Why do drugs when you can get contacts?

2010-01-25T14:15:00.001-08:00

So I finally got some contacts, yay! Sorta anyway. I just got a trial pair to make sure that these will work for me. I haven't worn any in forever though, so everything is all warped and my eyes are having to relearn how to focus on stuff with contacts in. I'll be able to see normally in an hour or so though. I hope.... If not, I'll get a different trial pair! Woo! :)

I did my taxes today. I'm getting just over $1,000, which is good. I'm quite pleased. That money will pay off one of my credit cards (I have three, terrible, I know), pay off the school (not completely, just pay the past due bills, ugh), and I'm thinking an iphone. Not to use as a phone, mind you, but to use as an ipod.

My snake is better. His skin still looks pretty bad, but it will until he sheds a few times. There's no new dead scales though, and he's being way more active. At least, as active as kingsnakes are supposed to be. Which isnt very. But sometimes when I come home from work he's in a different spot, so thats good. :)

I got 6 free samples of nescafe taster's choice instant coffee in the mail yesterday. That was fun! Although I greatly prefer real coffee, having some instant lying around is nice. Although one of these is decaf, and seriously, what is the point of that? Doesnt coffee make good fertilizer? Maybe I'll toss it in my herbs that I grow... (and yes, I mean actual herbs (cilantro, parsley, and basil, so don't go accusing me of growing weed)

Blah. I have to go to class in an hour. I've had three people ask me to pick up their shift at work today. Too bad I cant. I could use the money since I've been sick and missed Fri and Sat. Oh well.

Ew. I burped and it tasted like Del Taco.

And I think I'll end on that note.

Yup. Bye!

Poor Simon!!

2010-01-06T18:27:00.001-08:00

I think my snake my have scale rot, which sucks, cuz that means I have to pay for a vet. The good thing is that the only decent herp vet in town works at a 24 hour hospital, so I was able to schedule an appt for early monday morning. I might be late to work, but that's ok. This week when I worked the opening shift it only took me 30 mins to do all my opening stuff, and I had an hour to do it in, so I don't think they'll care if I show up 30 mins late. Obviously I'll ask them, but yeah. Ugh. I just hope it's something easy to treat, I don't like that my snake is sick!!!

I also need to see an eye doctor. Which is tricky given my schedule. But I really need new glasses/contacts. Probably contacts and then I'll have these glasses as an emergency back up.

I have no beer in my fridge. It kinda makes me sad.

I finish school on March 4. THANK GOD!!!! I miss having free time. And not having to deal with complete idiots wasting my time all day.

Happy list and Annoying list

2009-12-17T17:53:00.000-08:00

Things that annoy me-
A girl in my class today was complaining about those morons who drive 25 miles an hour down the freeway when it's so foggy that you can't see 5 feet in front of you, so when she's driving along at 65 she cant stop in time and risks hitting them. I was about ready to call CHP right then and there. Let's see, she acknowledges that it's really foggy, that most people slow down for the fog, and that when she drives 65 she is in danger of hitting them because she cant see them soon enough to stop, and yet, think they're the morons. She also had her license taken away for two years because of excessive tickets (seriously, I've known people to get 5 tickets in a month who didnt have any problems, how many tickets was she getting???), but still insists that she's a good driver.

Speaking of driving, people who drive 30 down Ming and Stockdale. During the day. When it's nice and clear. And the speed limit is 45.

Doctors/techs/nurses who have abhorrent sterile technique. I wont go into more detail here, but yeah, some of the stuff that goes on in OR's is scary.

People who clap their hands and stomp their feet every time they laugh at one of their own jokes.

People who raise their hand after the teacher says "If there's no more questions you can leave now."

Getting up at 4am.

Filling out job applications.

Filling out job applications for a job that will require that I get up at 4am.

Things that make me happy-
Good books!

Food!

Sleep!

Cuddly kitties in my lap when it's cold and they're all warm and soft and cute!

First scrubbing a case from start to finish ("first scrub" is the person who set it all up and passed all the instruments), without having the doctor have to ask for a single instrument (it was only a circumcision, which is a pretty easy case, but still!).

Walking into a room when people are not only talking about how well you're doing, but are actually arguing over who noticed it first (this really happened today. Very cool!).

Christmas is 8 days away!

Where am I going for Christmas anyway? Do we know yet?

It's everything that is connected and beautiful and now I know just where I stand

2009-11-09T19:54:00.001-08:00

Today at Vons it took me three tries to enter my phone number, not because I kept hitting the wrong buttons, but because I kept forgetting what my number is. Then I'm at my door, trying to get into my apartment, but I can't find my keys in any of my pockets, or my purse. I set down the grocery bags to get my phone to call somebody when I realize they're in my hand. The following is an explanation as to why I'm so tired.

Thursday, Oct 29- SJCH Endo from 6:30-12, class from 1-whenever we finished our final exam(it took my 20 mins, I got 167/170 questions right), supposed to meet with my trainer at the gym, but I got sick, so I canceled. Went to bed at around 9.

Friday, Oct 30- Woke up at 10:30 (I was sick!). Work from 4-9

Sat, Oct 31- Work from 4-8, then a Halloween party with some people from work until midnight or so.

Sunday, Nov 1- Work from 10-4, gym for an hour.

Mon, Nov 2- Signed up for a new checking account, then random errands all day, walmart, petsmart, groceries, etc, then Monday Night Football at Firehouse, where I got a little drunk, and then spent the night with some friends.

Tues, Nov 3- Picked up my car from Firehouse, then work from 11:30-2:30, then LA with Michael for a concert (I feel bad, everytime we go to a concert together I fall asleep on the drive home. I try really hard to stay awake, but dammit, it's after midnight and I'm sleepy!)

Wed, Nov 4- Gym for an hour, work at 4.

Thursday, Nov 5- Hmm, it took my editing this post three times to remember Thursday. Interesting. (edit one)I know I cleaned Tabasco's tank at some point recently... That was probably today. (edit two)Oh! And I think I made soup today too... Which takes like an hour and a half (including all the time it takes to cut the veggies and boil the water and let everything simmer and all that). I still have a little left. (edit three) Then I met up with a friend at the Marketplace and hung out at Starbucks until they kicked us out at 11.

Friday, Nov 6- Hiking all day (we left at 8, got back at 5:30) with Kim

Sat, Nov 7- Work from 11:30-4, late lunch/early dinner with family, then walked around the mall a bit, then Girl's Night Out with some girls (obviously) from work. home at midnight

Sunday, Nov 8- Cleaned the apartment (trash, dishes, vacuum, kitchen, laundry), then work at 5:30 (closing shift, luckily we close early on Sundays)

Monday, Nov 9- KMC from 6-3, class from 3:30-5:30, then more laundry, and groceries.

Tomorrow, Nov 10- KMC from 6-3, class from 3:30-5:30, then maybe sleep.... that sounds good.

Wed, Nov 11- Holiday (I dont know which one.... hmm.... Not important.), if they're open I need to get my oil changed. And go to the gym. And then sleep some more.

It's a good thing we dont get weeks off of school very often, cuz if we did I might just die of exhausted. Damn vacations!!

And seriously, how do all of you do this when you have kids and husbands/wives? I am impressed!

I am boring.

2009-11-05T12:12:00.000-08:00

Hmm, it's been over a month since my last post. I suck, sorry.

So I only have 3 more months of school, yay! Sorta. I have three months of actually being in school, but there's a gazillion breaks until then, so it'll take 4 months. Starting Monday I'll be working 2 8 hour shifts at KMC, then in 5 weeks I'll be somewhere else (hopefully doing more than two days).

So that's fun.

I actually have this week off though, which has been awesome. Because I have this weird thing (free time is what I think most people call it....) I've been trying to actually do stuff. I went to a party on Halloween (as a faerie), I hung out at Firehouse watching sports, I went to see the Silversun Pickups and the Dany Warhols in LA with Michael (The Loss Adjuster), and tomorrow, provided the weather cooperates, I'm going hiking with a girl from work. Yay! :)

Today... I don't really have anything to do. I need to go the gym at some point, and I need new pants for work cuz we're getting new uniforms, which is awesome (black shirt, no tie), but I have to have spiffy new pants cuz faded ones will stand out too much.

And.... uh... this is why I havent been posting much. I just really cant think of anything to say.

So, bye!

I have mad skills!

2009-10-03T22:30:00.000-07:00

So I'm walking up my stairs after work and I notice a praying mantis kicking it under my lamp. Neat. I happen to have my phone in my hand, so I snap a couple pics, and continue up the stairs. And trip a little, but recover, and keep going, and trip again and land on my knees. Seriously, who manages to trip TWICE while going UP the stairs?

Tonight I made $78, which sounds good until you consider that my sales were $750 and I was there for 6 hours. Ugh. Given that the last three shifts I worked I made over $100, I can't really complain too much, but still!

A girl I work with is a trainer at Body Exchange, and she's agreed to give me a discount for personal training sessions, which is awesome. I signed up to do a 5 or 10k charity run next month, and I'd really like to be able to do it without dying.

Happy birthday, Abby! :)

There was totally something else that I was going to write about but I dont remember what it was.... hmm....

Yeah, I give up.

Ok then, bye!

Yay, it's Surgical Tech week!

2009-09-24T15:16:00.001-07:00

So I walk into the break room at SJCH to get my paper work and change so I can go home and this guy calls my name and is like "Hey, you worked at Copelands, right?" omg! It's been 5 years since I've been there and Mike, who I worked with for a few months actually recognized me. Which was awesome. Unfortunately, I was kinda busy, so I couldnt talk much, but still. Apparently he saw me at Memorial, but wasn't quite sure it was me until he saw my name tag.

Crazy!

So in honor of surgical tech week we had a big competition between our class and the freshman class, and then a huge potluck. I was excited cuz I won a travel mug as a door prize. Woo! I competed in the blindfolded sponge stick competition, but I only got third place, oh well.

Ummm.... oh yeah! I'm on my new computer, yay! I couldn't figure out how to hook it up to the internet, lol. Apparently with Scientific Atlantic modems you have to unplug the modem completely before you plug it in to the new computer. Oddly enough, Matthew is the one who came over and fixed it for me. He randomly emailed me a week or so ago, and we've been sorta talking, and he kept offering to hook it up, so I finally let him. I was a little nervous about it, but it wasn't as awkward as I thought it'd be. He seems a lot happier, which is good. I think I'm just gonna get some thumb drives for all my pictures and stuff from my old computer. That seems easiest, and that way I wont have to worry about it if I get another computer.

I guess that's about it for now. Fuzzy is trying to climb onto the keyboard, and it's kinda hard to type.

Bye!

(oh, we took a "quiz" in class today to kill time, and one of the questions the teacher asked was "who's the quietest person in class, and one person actually said me. The teacher was like, "what? trust me, Susannah can talk!" It was funny)

Happy Constitution Day!

2009-09-17T16:56:00.000-07:00

Yay! I got my evaluation for my 5 week rotation at Mercy Southwest, and I got the highest score possible in ever single category cuz I am just that awesome apparently.

And then I went to class and was ready to kill some people cuz they were being seriously obnoxious. A

nd then I went to Memorial to turn in my paperwork and got lectured by the lady at the front desk because they leave at 4, and I really should come earlier. Um, yeah, it was 3:30 and it took all of 30 seconds. If they're open until 4, I should be able to come in any time before then. *rolls eyes* Lazy people.

And now I'm doing laundry.

I'm thinking at some point I really should eat something, cuz I'm starving.

Random Susie Thoughts

2009-09-04T11:29:00.000-07:00

I am happy that Starbucks has the pumpkin spice latte again. This makes me happy. It is yummy.

If Vons didnt have a Starbucks inside I'm pretty sure I'd never go grocery shopping and I'd slowly starve to death.

I bought a parsnip today, which confused the check out guy. He didn't know what it was. It was kinda hilarious.

I have decided that I want a window in my bathroom. It's too dark in there.

Cassie would like the world to know that she is starving TO DEATH and needs to be fed. Unfortunately, I disagree with her.

I was all sad that I got a 94% on my midterm until I realized that half of the class did way worse. The other half got around a 94%. :) It sounds like it should be a good grade until you realize that every single question was taken, word for word, from the quizzes.

I introduced myself to a tech I hadnt met yet at Mercy Southwest and she said "Oh you're Susannah? I've heard a lot of good things about you!" Which was awesome. And then I got a review from my teacher who had apprently came to watch me. I didnt notice her. I didnt get a very good score cuz I wasn't really doing anything. She just came in at a bad time. I was first scrubbing (being the main tech, doing most of the work), but the case suddenly got way more complicated, so me and the preceptor switched places and I just watched. My teacher said I need to take more initiative in handing the surgeon's instruments. grrs!!! I explained what happened and she was like "Oh, I figured it was something like that," to which I have to wonder, "then why did you give me a bad score?"

Whatever.

Wed we were surprisngly busy, which was nice cuz I made $110. I'm hoping I do that again tonight so then I can throw this useless piece of electronics in the trash and buy a computer that works. :)

This morning I dreamt that Mom and I were looking for a lost piece of luggage and accidently stepped into a magical universe that was being controlled by an evil wizard. We then helped innocent people escape his clutches and brought them to a really pretty oasis in the middle of the desert. I have the best dreams.

music is my hot hot sex

2009-08-21T10:40:00.000-07:00

The line in the book was "The urachus, a type of connective tissue that forms the umbilical ligament, is excised." The moron from my class was reading this and interrupted the teacher to ask "what's the urachus?" My response? "It's a type of connective tissue that forms the umbilical ligament."

I'm kinda surprised I haven't gotten in trouble for being such a smart ass, but come on, she was reading the definition of it when she asked! (keep in mind that she did (or should...) know what connective tissue is and what the umbilical ligament is and what excised means and all that, and that I don't expect you to know that, but still, if you were reading that sentence wouldnt common sense tell you what the urachus is, even if you dont quite understand what you're saying?)

In other news, I've been listening to a lot of Brazilian techno lately, thank you very much Michael. :)

This scares me.

2009-08-15T16:06:00.000-07:00

So I go to sit down with some hosts while I was on a break.

Moronic Host (MH): "When I was in Florida there was this alligator like right next to where we were practicing our cheers, it so freaked me out that I stayed inside the rest of the week!"

Me: "Aw, alligators aren't gonna hurt you!"

MH: "They could! Haven't you ever seen Lake Placid? Same thing with Jaws! I wont go swimming in the ocean past my knees cuz I dont want to get attacked by a shark!"

Me: "When I was in Australia there was a bunch of poisonous jelly fish everywhere, it was kinda neat"

MH: "Wow, could you actually see them?"

Me: "Yeah, I mean, they're clear, so it can be hard to see them, but they are visible."

MH: "Oh yeah! They glow, right? Like in Finding Nemo!"

Other Host (OH): "No... They sorta look like toilet paper floating in the water."

MH: "Really? Did you touch them?"

Me: "Did I touch the poisonous jellyfish? No."

... Conversation moves on to Hawaii for some reason...

MH: "I would never go to Hawaii, have you seen The Getaway yet? So scary!!"

OH: "I went there when I was a kid, it was boring because my parents just did tour buses and that kind of thing."

MH: "Is there actually a trail in Hawaii?"

OH: "Like, through the mountains? Yeah there's lots...."

Me: "That's sorta like saying is there a trail in the Sierra Nevadas"

MH: "What are the Sierra Nevadas?"

Me: "Seriously? They're the giant mountain chain that runs all through California..."

MH: "Oh, the Rockies!"

Me: "What? No... The Rockies are in Colorado up through Canada..."

MH: "Oh, well I dont know, I'm not good at my atlas!"

OH DEAR GOD!!! This girl is 20 years old and apparently believes everything in horror movies, and doesnt even know what the Sierra Nevadas are? At that point I had to just walk away, cuz there was no way I could still sit with her without saying something mean. But COME ON!!! This is the same girl who asked me "What's a gas? Like, farts?" when I was talking about gas explosions (in particular propane, we were talking about some of my cases at the hospital, in the most general terms obviously). She's nice enough, and she's a good host, but she may be the dumbest person I've ever met. And this includes the dumbasses in my class (like the girl who announced that she doesnt think drugs kill brain cells, cuz all her years of drug use didnt kill any of her cells).

Good eye sniper! I'll shoot, you run

2009-08-11T18:16:00.000-07:00

Yay it's Susie! I'm updating my blog! I know you're all thrilled. You should be anyway cuz I am the awesomeness, and therefore my blog is also the awesomeness.

Or something.

It's my last week at SJCH. At least, for the time being. I might go back. I don't know. The next 5 weeks I'll be at Mercy Southwest on Mondays and Tuesday, and Bakersfield Endo on Thursdays. CPK is getting annoyed at the fact that my very limited availability changes every month, but they can just suck it. :) Yesterday my preceptor told everyone that I'm the best student ever and she wishes we were all this good, today my surgeon told me to request his room whenever we're both there, so I'm taking that to mean that I'm doing very well. Hopefully I'll have a job before I graduate! Sorta. Cuz then I'll feel somewhat obligated to stay here, but it'd be worth it. I figure if I get a job before I finish I'll just stay for a year and then leave.

Umm... That's really about it. I pretty much just go to school, go to clinicals, go to work, and do homework. And occasionally housework (I cleaned the house on Sunday, I keep having to debride (I have no idea how to spell that... we'll just say "surgically clean out") spider bites and it's making me kinda paranoid about bugs and stuff).

Hmm..... Yeah. It's realyl hard to have a social life when you have to get up at 5am. I'm usually in bed by 9 and unconcious by 9:30. Which is kinda nice actually. I'm not used to sleeping so well. I don't even wake up when people call or text me, even though the phone is right next to my pillow. :)

Oh no! Simon is trying to escape!

2009-08-06T11:18:00.000-07:00

Rawr.

I was kinda feeling like shit yesterday (for lots of reasons that I don't feel like going into here) so I ended up going to bed at like 9. Which meant that I woke up feeling all refreshed and awake at 8:30. Since then I have gone to the grocery store, gone to Target, gone to Petsmart, done 2 loads of laundry, cleaned the litter box, made a new fruit fly culture, cleaned out my animal room, took out some trash, took a nice hot shower, and enjoyed some Starbucks (but now I have no more gift cards, it is sad). In about an hour and a half I'm going to class, then off to work.

I feel so accomplished!

So the clinicals are going well, I think... I haven't actually had any feedback yet, which is kinda annoying, but whatever. I feel like I'm doing well. I'm more confident than I was anyway, and I've learned a LOT, which is sorta the whole point. Next week I'm going to start asking my preceptors to stand back and let me do more when that's an option. I'm also already learning what specicialties I like, and which ones I don't. I don't like the laproscopic stuff cuz there's not a whoole lot for me to do, I don't like ENT cuz it's just gross, but ortho and burns are really interesting and tend to keep me busy, which is good. I'm sure by the end I'll have changed my mind at least a dozen more times though. :) Today I should get my assignment for the next 5 weeks. Next week is my last one at SJCH. So we'll see!

In other news... um... Actually that's about it. I did go see Jarvis Cocker at the Wiltern with Michael a couple weeks ago. That was a lot of fun, despite me only vaguely knowing who he is, and not getting home until 1 when I had to get up at 5 the next morning.

I can't believe I did that

2009-07-14T15:59:00.000-07:00

So I started my clinicals this week, yay! I'm at San Joaquin Hospital 3 days a week from 6:30-12. It's pure torture! At least, the having to get up at 5 thing is. My body is just so not used to that. I've decided that that's the reason that I almost fainted today. Seriously. It was really embarrassing. We were in the middle of an ENT surgery (not entirely sure what they were doing... Something with the nose, obviously) and all of the sudden I got really nausous and really hot and lightheaded. Luckily, I'm not a complete moron, so I had enough sense to back up and say "I need to break scrub and sit down," which I did, just for long enough so that I was sure I wasn't going to pass out, and then I went outside so I could take off my mask. I did feel a lot better when I found out that right after this happened, another student actually did pass out. Like, hit the ground and everything.

But other than that it's going well! I was kinda surprised cuz there was no orientation or anything, we got there, they told us what rooms to go to, and that was it. My first case ever I was passing instruments and suture and was holding the retractors and the suction and I gowned the surgeon (in every surgery I've done actually... hmm) and yeah. So far everyone has been really nice too, which always helps. The first day the tech I was following around was actually a former teacher at SJVC and was the one who did my interview. I walk up and say "Hi, I'm Susannah," and she's all "Hi! How are the frogs?" It was funny. :)

Better pics, otter pops, and being a kid again

2009-07-08T13:47:00.000-07:00

Ok there's a better pic of my new tattoo. It is the awesomeness. :) And that concrete was really hot. lol

So I'm kinda getting used to this whole not having to do anything all day thing. It's quite nice! I've actually cleaned up my apartment a little even. And then today I went by Starbucks and got a a triple venti espresso truffle or something? and a fruit and cheese platter. It was heavenly. I only $4 left on my gift card though. It's sad. :(

Last night I got to babysit Lauren and Alex. We had a blast. We played t-ball and ate otter pops and I felt like a little kid again. I had the blue one. It tasted like summer. :)

I've been wearing my new bracelet from Portugal everywhere and getting tons of compliments, which is always super fun. Yay!

Ok, that's it for now. I really just wanted to post the better pic.

star tattoo on my foot

2009-07-07T14:17:00.000-07:00

Yay I got a new tattoo yesterday! I'd been wanting it for a long time, but it's tricky to get your foot tattooed when you work and go to school and all that, so since I have Mon-Thursday off this week for some bizarre reason, I thought I'd go get it.

You'll have to forgive the shitty phone pic. I might get around to taking some decent ones, but eh. It's the top of my left foot. You can kinda tell that one of the points is red. It's the Star Trek symbol. :) I am just that cool. My friend Andrew drew it for me ages ago. Ed at Naked Al's did it.

:)

Yay a picture of me!

2009-07-02T13:34:00.000-07:00

Yay me in Florence Lake! :)

So I just got back from the mall. The mall is scary. *shudders* I'm trying to learn how to be a girl though. I'm even wearing a dress! It's the only one I own. Well, the only one I own that actually fits. I bought some shorts. And a cute lacey top.

Yup.

So I'm on vacation, yay! And, of course, they only scheduled me for TWO shifts this week, which pissed me off. I was able to pick up three though, so that's good, although one of those is on Sat, which means that I wont be able to make it to Rachel's for fireworks. But that's ok. Once I start clinicals I'm not gonna be able to work very much, so I need to be working as much as possible now.

hmm.... yeah. exciting stuff!

Yup, this is my life.

2009-06-23T15:32:00.001-07:00

Hulu finally has season 4 of Stargate SG1. I am very pleased with this. :)

My teachers are awesome. They both gave us "study guides" for the final that consist of about 150 questions (complete with the multiple choice answers) and are strongly advising us to just study those. The final will consist of 200 multiple choice questions.

The ignition in my car is going out. When I left school today it took me turning the key about 10 times before it finally started. When I got gas at AMPM I just left it running. I'm gonna get it fixed tomorrow, but I need crickets today, so I guess I'll be walking to Petsmart.

Walking past all my neighbors hanging out in the parking lot while carrying dirty underwear is somewhat awkward. Especially since they all try to talk to me. I hate doing laundry.

I should probably start either putting away my left over stir fry, or at least, dont eat it after it's been sitting out all day and night, but dammit, it tastes good and I'm lazy! I just wont be suprised if I get sick later tonight.... *munch munch*

I haven't hung out with Michael in forever and am starting to miss him. It makes me sad. He keeps insisting that nothing is wrong, but only sometimes answers my texts and is being vague about when his days off ate. He tells me I'm just being paranoid.

Today Thelma beat Dustin at arm wrestling twice. The second time looked like she might lose, but then Jonsie called her Mexican (she's Salvadorian) which gave her a surge of power and she beat him. Dustin cried.

And that is my life.

Big fires, cold toes, and scary surgeries

2009-06-15T11:14:00.000-07:00

Ok so I didn't conquer any rocks. But that's only cuz it was freezing cold. Like, one night I woke up with toes that were completely numb (I couldn't move them at all) and had white splotches on them, despite being in a sleeping bag that's supposedly rated to 20. And it was raining half the time.

But aside from that! It was still a lot of fun and I'm really glad I went. We went fishing for a bit, hiking for a bit, played lots of cards, drank lots of beer, made lots of good fires, it was grand. :) I took like 80 thousand pictures, which I don't normally do, so I'm very proud, so I'll post more when I get those. I think I'm just gonna take them to walgreens and get them all printed and put on a cd cuz I didnt just use my digital camera, I also used an old disposible one. I have no idea if any of those pics will come out, but that's ok. If they do I think there's some of Peru on there.... It'll be a grand surprise. Actually, I think I'm gonna go ahead and drop those off now before class... Then I can pick them up afterwards, and then go to work, and then come home and maybe put some on here.

Oh! I got my hospital assignments! Starting July 13th I'll go to San Jaoquin Community Hospital from monday through wed from 6:30-12. Yay! I'm really excited and terrified all at once. :) I'll be there for 5 weeks, then go somewhere else after that.

Yay!

I'm so excited I started jumping up and down

2009-06-04T19:28:00.000-07:00

campingcampingcampingcampingcampingcampingcampingcampingcampingcampingcampingcampingcampingcamping YAY!!!!! :)

In other news, I just found out that I did indeed get next weekend off, despite being the fifth to request it off, so yay! I so didn't think I was going to be able to go, but now I can. Which is the awesomeness. Because I need some wilderness. So... um... Can I borrow some camping/fishing gear from anyone? :) I kinda want to actually fish myself this time, which requires a pole and all that. Which I dont have.

AND I AM GOING TO CONQUER THAT FUCKING ROCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GGGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

*ahem*

So I start clinicals next month, yay! Oh! And I have the first two weeks of July off from school, so, anyone want to go camping then? :) Or something else?

umm.... yeah. My life is boring these days. Except, of course, for the awesomeness that will be Florence Lake next weekend.

Yes. That is all.

camping.*nods*

lots of water, algea, and laundry

2009-05-21T18:36:00.000-07:00

I think I drink too much water. My water filter pitcher thingie is supposed to last 2 months, but I have to replace the filter every 3 or 4 weeks cuz I refill it at least twice a day. I can't help it, I'm thirsty! And that's like all I drink. Granted, not ever having to buy juice or soda or anything really helps me save money, and helps keep me skinnier, but still. I just need to move somehwere that has good tap water.

Anyway. It's been all warm and sunny which means that the algae is growing out of control in my turtle tanks and I have to clean the filters every week. It's gross and smelly.

Damn turtles.

I think I'm going to Florence Lake from June 12-15. Yay for camping! :)

I was only getting 3 shifts a week at work, but then we started getting busier and we suspended one of our bartenders/servers and I was bitching a lot about only getting three shifts a week, and now I'm working all the time and it's nice cuz I have lots of money, but it's also really annoying. Cuz I'm always working.

Except last night cuz I didn't have any hot water and I wasn't about to go into work without showering.

Ew.

But it's working now, so that's good.

Today I was actually scheduled to have the night off, so I've done 4 loads of laundry (yay for clean sheets and towels!) and various other chores.

I need to go to the bank . I have lots of money to deposit. It's hot outside though, and, well, I'm lazy so I don't think I will tonight.

Seriously why does the radio still insist on playing nickelback? Isn't it kinda common knowledge that they suck? I don't know anyone who actually likes them...

grrs.

Anyway. I just figured I'd better update this before everyone starts complaining about it.

So there ya go.

Isn't it so exciting.

Go me!

2009-05-13T21:07:00.000-07:00

I went jogging this morning. As all of you who know me know, I do not jog. It is just not something I do. But I'm getting tired of being in such terrible shape. I've been doing pretty good with my diet and actually cooking and all that, but I really would like to be in better shape, so I ran a couple miles today. Ok, well, I half jogged/half walked a couple miles. It took me 25 mins. But still! I'm proud of myself dammit.

:)

I'm at Chris and Lacey's right now watching the kids. We watched Elmo, ate some dinner, played with some play dough, played outside for a long time, and now we're watching Elmo again cuz I couldnt find the choochoo movie.

Lauren had one of the grossest diapers I've changed in a very long time today too. ick.

But other than that she's been super easy. Trying to catch a football while holding a baby was a little tricky though. :) I kept trying to get Alex to play soccer instead, but he wasn't really interested.

Blah blah.

Ummm... Yeah, that's pretty much it. My life is boring these days. I've been insanely busy, but not doing anything really blog worthy. *shrug*

Neon and pink and orange

2009-05-12T09:05:00.000-07:00

Oh yeah! Somehow I keep forgetting to mention this. On my way to Tehachapi on Sunday I almost ran over an albino corn snake. How weird is that? Obviously it was someone's pet that they had released, but still. Craziness. Usually I just see lots of rattlesnakes and the very occasional king snake.

Also, I was insanely busy last night and actually made more than I did on Mother's Day. Which was the awesomeness. Yes. Especially since A. it was a Monday night, and B. I normally only work weekends. Gotta love those extra shifts where I make $130! I only had $750 in sales too! Go me! Actually, go professional football player's wife who has a black amex and gave me an extra $20 on top of the $22 autograt, and go cool people who gave me $15 on $66, and other cool people who gave me $20 on $66. With three tables equally about $260 I got $77. Like I said, awesomeness.

OMG I'm alive!!!

2009-05-11T11:16:00.000-07:00

Shocking, I know.

For some reason I'm in a really bad mood today. I dont know why. My neck and back kinda hurt, maybe that's it... I need a cute boy to give me a massage. hm...

Anywho. I know I haven't posted in forever, sorry about that. What can I say? I suck! :) yay!

Get over it.

So! What have I been up to? Let's see.. work. More work. School occasionally. Going out drinking with friends a little more often than I should. That's just what happens when you're best friend is somewhat of an alcoholic though, lol. And then of course, we had to celebrate Jen (girl from work) finishing her internship, etc.

Umm, yesterday was Mother's Day. Work was crazy, as was expected. But I still made it up to Tehachapi and went out for a fabulous dinner with Carina, and gave Dad a present. Yeah, there wasn't so much of my mother involved in my Mother's Day, lol.

Umm.... see this is why I haven't update in forever, I don't really have anything to talk about.

I think I'm gonna go eat some leftovers now.

A sad story.

2009-04-13T23:57:00.000-07:00

Michael's battery died today.

And so did my turtle.

The end.

Bakersfieldvivicosis

2009-03-27T12:13:00.000-07:00

I am sick. I have decided that I have Bakersfieldvivicosis.

Roughly translated- a condition of living in Bakersfield.

Symptoms include- coughing, dry throat and the inability to light your fireplace.

Treatment- Move somewhere else.

Possible side effects of treatment- Insufficient decent tacos, cold weather.

Benefits of treatment- the ability to breathe without choking, the ability to walk across a parking lot in the summer without your shoes melting.

My cats are on crack.

2009-03-26T11:01:00.000-07:00

Yeah I dunno what's gotten into my cats this morning, but they are insane! They've been running around meowing and playing and fighting and jumping for over an hour and they're still going strong.

Crazy kitties.

It occured to me yesterday while I was at Petsmart that since I have a seperate room for my animals I can finally get a hamster! I only didnt get one before cuz the kitties would mess with it too much. But now it'll be ok. :)

I'm not saying I'm getting one now, mind you, just that I just realized that it's an option that I didn't have before.

I'm gonna go get ready for school now though. :)

My week.

2009-03-24T21:19:00.000-07:00

Lets see, I guess it's been a week since I last updated, sorry about that.

I've been working a lot, which is good.

I'm getting sick though. Stupid cold. It started this morning with a tickly throat, and now I'm coughing a lot from deep in my chest, which is annoying cuz it really hurts and I haven't actually gotten anything to come up yet either, but meh.

And yesterday me and the Loss Adjuster went on a picnic to Hart Park. It was grand fun. And then we came back here and played some Trivial Pursuit. He won. And then we went to Mama Roombas and sat next to the most obnoxiously vapid woman ever, so we left pretty quickly and came back here again. And played Trivial Pursuit again. And he won again.

I suck at that game. I knew all the purple answers though!

Umm.... school's going well enough I guess. It's school. *shrug* I should probably be doing homework right now, but I'm really tired.

Stupid getting sick.

blech. I made some yummy soup today though! Creamy potato with kale, green onions, and celery. It is fabulous. And incredibly filling. I was barely able to eat one bowl. :) It did have an entire stick of butter in it...

Umm... yeah that's pretty much it.

Bye bye Froggies!

2009-03-17T16:44:00.000-07:00

I had to sell some of my frogs. Actually, almost all of them. I've still got the luec (the orange and black dart frog), but I sold all the mantellas. The problem is just that I've been too busy to be cycling them properly, or feeding them properly (they do better on a diet of crickets, and I don't breed those, and apparently they need supplements cuz they can't process vit a as beta carotene or something or another) and I am one of the very few people known to have a certain bloodline of one of them, so when an experienced breeder contacted me about buying them I went ahead and sold all of them (at a very good price too, the guy should consider himself very lucky). I'm kinda bummed about it, but it does take a huge load off my back cuz now I don't have to worry about fruit flies, yay!! Those were a pain in the ass. I'll still have to buy crickets for my geckos, so I'll just switch the one remaining frog that I have to a staple of crix and just give her the occasional fruit fly from those little containers that Petsmart sometimes has.

Ok where was I? Mom just called to ask me about the frogs. :)

And apparently it's St. Patrick's Day! Woohoo! Or something.

Today one of my neighbors asked me why they never see me. Which I thought was a kinda strange question. I mean, they don't see me cuz I don't hang around outside in the parking lot like everyone else. I actually go to work and school and all that. I see people while walking to and from my car (and having minor arguements over where I can park, I say it's a public street and I can park wherever I want, but one of my neighbors thinks that not only is his driveway his, but the street in front of his apt is his too, a point on which I disagree, so he keeps yelling at me when I park there, so I always just smile and wave and pretend to not hear him as he's telling me to move my car) but that's pretty much it.

I've been hanging out with Michael (The Loss Adjuster), and Michael (boy I'm sorta dating), and Kim (bartender from work) a lot lately. It's been quite nice, but it barely leaves me any time to do things like homework and laundry, but of course, the busier someone is, the more they get done, so I've actually been keeping up with my homework (it helps that it's annoyingly easy) and sorta keeping up with laundry. The dryer still doesn't really work, but it's been so nice out, and so hot on my porch/balcony/front step thingie that my clothes dry within about 15 mins outside anyway. See! I'm saving the environment! Go me.

Ummm....... That's pretty much it. I actually need to go do some laundry now. My blanket on my bed is fuzzier than Fuzzy is, which is annoying.

:)

Veggies are good for the soul.

2009-03-12T16:24:00.000-07:00

mmmm..... that was soooo yummy!!! I finally went grocery shopping today, and since I've basically just eaten fast food for the past like, 2 weeks I was just craving vegetables, so that's pretty much all I got, but then when I got home I made a lovely caprese salad (I think that's what it's called? tomato, mozzerella, basil and o&v?) with some fresh french bread, oh it was heavenly. :) And I have enough to make more later. Tonight I'm gonna make a huge batch of veggie soup for me to eat for the next week or so (I seriously got a LOT of veggies), so yay! :)

S-M-R-T

2009-03-12T10:57:00.000-07:00

So continuing in the vein from my last post, I was also the only one who knew what the doppler effect was. One girl tried to explain it by saying that it had to do with the vibrations off of other cars, and like, when an ambulance is closer to you it's louder because there's more cars around it to be vibrating.

*bangs head against wall some more*

No, hon. It's louder because IT'S CLOSER. oi!

But anyway. I went to Smith's yesterday and bought a bunch of smiley face and shamrock cookies. I was just going to go pick some up, but then Amanda said she wanted to go with me, so ok. I had to go to the bank first, so I do that, and she waited in the parking lot for me, and then I buy some cookies, which took all of 2 mins, so then we went and got some enchiladas and Mauricios next door, even though that place isn't very good and has the world's worst service.

And apparently charges $2.50 for a coffee, which she never refilled.

Whatever.

My life lately has been sleeping in until 10:30 or 11, going to school at 12, coming home, going to work for the shift that Judy asked me to pick up on behalf of someone else (I've only been scheduled 3 days the last two weeks, last week I worked 6, this week I'll work 5), working, then maybe going out after work. And on my rare days off (or work or school) I'll hang out with some non work friends. With the exception of last Friday it's been quite fun being busy and social and whatnot.

I'm also doing at least one chore a day (not including the cat litter and sweeping the kitchen floor, which I do every day), which I know, isn't enough really enough and I should be doing more (dishes should probably be done every day too... but that's not gonna happen), but it helps!! Right? Or something?

blah.

I need to call my landlords cuz they still haven't cashed my rent check and it's making me nervous, like maybe they didn't get it. And I forgot to pay SJVC last month, so I owe them twice as much this month, which isn't good. There wasn't any penalty charge though, so tha'ts nice.

Yup, that's pretty much my life lately. It's not all that exciting. I mean, it's been more interesting than when I was with Matthew (when it just consisted of getting up, watching tv all day, going to work, and then being annoyed cuz I never saw him), but still. It's not like I'm off having grand adventures (that I want to blog about).

But I guess that's ok.

It's not that I'm smart, it's that you're stupid.

2009-03-10T16:52:00.000-07:00

So my whole class thinks I'm a total know it all because, unlike every single other person there I:
knew what the "c" stands for in E=mc2,
knew what absolute zero was,
and knew what a calorie is.

I get that most of them haven't had a chemistry or physics class in a long time, but none of that is particularly complicated or difficult, and knowing it does not make me some kind of super genius, it just makes me someone who's paid attention in school once or twice.

*bangs head against wall*

Chores are just no fun!

2009-03-05T15:36:00.000-08:00

Last night was my night off, so I hung out with some friends, which was fun, but then today I've been watching tv and they keep playing commercials for Hoover and well, it's all making me feel dirty (meant in a totally pg way of course). So today I have unpacked a couple boxes, vacuumed a little, did the dishes, cleaned the stove, and (just cuz I've been needing to) trimmed my hair. So I feel very accomplished.

Of course, what I meant to do was laundry, but somehow that never happened. I suppose I could now, I still have 2 hours before work after all... I really do need to wash my blankets too. They're starting to turn white and fuzzier than my cats.

Fun times!

I'm a dinosaur.

2009-03-04T16:54:00.000-08:00

I got a new turtle today. It's a baby red eared slider from a girl at work. I named it Patty from Priscilla (cuz I like to be allerative, and it's flat and round) and if it turns out to be a boy, I'll just change it Paddy from Priscilla and say he's Irish.

Score!!!

I have the best sister ever!

2009-03-01T17:11:00.000-08:00

Yeah, so Abby came into town today, took me out to lunch, then took me grocery shopping at Trader Joe's, then got my Starbucks, then we went to Target where she bought me a toy, then we went to PetCo and I finally used my gift card that I got from work. So much fun! I got to play with Aiden and Abby bought me food and toys, good day all around. :)

And now!! Now I can make CEREAL!!! Woohoo!! I have MILK!!!

It's an exciting life.

Now I just need a cute boy to call me.

hmm....

secret money, stamps, and stupid security questions

2009-02-28T16:49:00.000-08:00

I'm sitting here reading random blogs and procrastinating (I need to do chores, but I don't particularly feel like it) and then I saw that I got an email! Yay! It was just a message from Discover saying "Hey, feel free to pay us now," which normally would kinda suck, but then I looked at the balance and remembered that I'd gotten it to below $4,000 a couple months ago, and I didn't use it in OZ, like for some reason I kept thinking I did, so it was way less than I thought it was. For some reason I thought that card was maxed out. And it's totally not! I could still spend another $1,500! Woo!

Not that I'm going to, mind you.

It's just nice knowing that I can.

And, more than that, it's nice knowing that that's an extra $1,500 that I don't still owe.

I need to buy stamps so I can mail fuckface the deposit check. I'm not going to mail it until I get the check from him, but still. I also have another credit card payment I need to send out, and that one is due on the 4th, so I kinda need to send it now. I'd just pay online like I normally do, but I can't figure out what the answers to my security questions are. What is the foriegn country I'd most like to visit? What was my most unusual job? How the fuck am I supposed to remember what I put to those? I set that thing up years ago! And I've never had an unusual job!

grrs.

This is why I always try to pick easy questions like "What is my father's middle name?" Cuz now I'm gonna have a late payment, which is never good. I don't think it'll hurt me cuz it wont be that late and I do have a grace period, but still!

At least I'm back on CA time. And I've had some good shifts and made good money. I still can't make rent by myself (I love you Mom and Dad!!), but now I only had to ask for $300 instead of $600.

I hate being poor. grrs.

Me in Oz

2009-02-22T21:31:00.000-08:00

So I stole some pics of me off of Carina's blog to post here, yay! I know most of you have seen them already, but there are a few people who go to my blog who actually don't read hers, so yeah. Those of you who have seen them already, well, you can just deal with it.

Here's me in Surfer's Paradise in Queensland. It was kinda awesome. Definetly not the Pacific we're used to here.

Here's me petting a red kangaroo in the Australia Zoo. It was VERY soft.

Here's me and Carina at Barwon Falls, on the way to Kuranda, which is in the rain forest outside of Cairns. It was lovely and wonderful.

angry commercials

2009-02-22T12:57:00.000-08:00

Commercials for syrup make me angry cuz they make me hungry and crave pancakes. And I don't have any pancakes. grrs.

Back to the real world

2009-02-20T14:43:00.000-08:00

The trip is over. I am back home. :(

Kinda. I mean, it was grand fun, I'd love to go back someday, but I'm glad to be home. There's just too much going on here!

I promise to post something better later, but I'm actually going to work now. I wasn't scheduled today, but I got a text at 11 this morning asking if I could, and since I had just slept for 14 hours I was feeling quite refreshed and ready to work, and of course, I'm poor, so yeah. :) But then I realized that I had no clean work clothes, so I tried to do a load, but they all came out dirty (dark brown spots all over my white shirts, I'm kinda pissed) and of course the dryer doesn't work either, so yeah.

Hey Dad! Wanna come down to Bakersfield tomorrow and try to fix my washer and dryer? Yeah? Awesome! :)

So instead I'm wearing some of my old clothes from OG. At least I managed to find some that didn't have marinara stains on them.

2009-02-15T15:07:00.000-08:00

Last night we arrived in Sydney! Yay!! It's the last leg of our trip, which is kinda sad, we've been having fun, but we still do have all sorts of fun things planned for here too. Last night we went out for a nice fancy dinner with Will, which was fun. He wanted to hang out some more while we're here, but I'm not sure how that's gonna work, so we'll just have to see. Right now Carina's wandering around some shops and stuff downstairs, and then we're gonna meet up for lunch, and then go to the aquarium cuz it's right across the street, cheap (only $10 a person!), and everyone has told us that it's really good, and then we have our dinner harbour cruis tonight, which should be fun. It's been somewhat cold and rainy here, but that's ok. The rain looked really pretty on the water last night, so yeah. I don't knowabout the whole dancing outside on the boat while it's raining thing though. That might not be so fun.

Anyway.

The internet here is insanely expensive, so I'm gonna take off. You'll pretty much just have to wait until we're back to get better updates.

Adios!

Dingoes (or is it dingos?), Uluru, and stupid itchy rashes

2009-02-13T21:48:00.000-08:00

Well I'm out in the middle of the AUstralian outback, and it's actually quite lovely. Much greener than I was expecting, and also a lot cooler (I guess we just got really lucky, last week was really hot, and with the heat comes the flies). Unfortunately I don't have any pics. We've been taking them, but Carina lost the cord to dl her pics onto her computer, so then we started using Mom's camera and then we don't have wifi here, so the pics from that camera are still on her computer, and yeah, I know, we suck.

Get over it.

You'll see pics when we get home. Not from me, mind you, but when we make the book.

Anywho. Uluru was lovely, although we were too sleepy to appreciate it. Last night was our "Sounds of Silence" dinner out in the desert, which was very nice (I ate the crocodile (somewhat fishy) and kangaroo (tasted like roast beef) but I don't know that Carina did. We met some really cool women there too, and really enjoyed ourselves. They gave us lots of champagne and wine though, and then we had a presentation by an astronomer, which was a lot of fun. Needless to say, we didn't get back until 10:30 and apparently our bar here at the hotel is the place to be, and I was still wide awake, so Carina went to bed, but I felt like being social. So I grabber a beer, sat down, and approximetly 7 seconds later some guy sat down next to me (I hadn't even taken a sip of my beer yet!) and we ended up staying up all late talking and whatnot. I actually stayed up later than I meant to, when I got back to our room I saw that it was after 2, and Carina wasn't there, which was a little worrisome. I guess she couldn't sleep and was in the hotel lobby and seemed a little irratated at me for staying out so late. I saw a wild dingo though! :) That was fun!

Anywho, so then when the alarm went off at 4:30 it was a little tricky getting out of bed, and then our bus didn't even show up until 5:30, which meant that we could've slept for another 45 mins, but whatever. We watched the sunrise on Uluru and then walked around the base of it for a bit with our guide. That was pretty cool. There were a bunch of really neat cave paintings that I got a bunch of pictures of. They don't know how old they are cuz everytime scientists ask to date them the aboriginals say "no thanks." The paintings have been around for "awhile" and that's good enough for them. We tried to get several shots of the both of us too, so hopefully they come out. Either way, you'll get to see them later.

But not now.

Ummm.... yeah.

Apparently Grace is living in Vermont with her boyfriend, their son (who looks EXACTLY like her) and is expecting a girl any day now, which is kinda awesome.

I'm getting all tan, and my hair is getting lighter, which is also kinda awesome, but in a more shallow way. :) I think I'm allergic to the sunscreen? or something? though which sucks because I'm covered in very itchy rashes. I've been taking benedryl and using both the benedryl cream and the hydocortisone, which helps, but it's still annoying and pretty ugly. And somewhat tricky cuz I don't want to just not wear sunscreen until it goes away, but I also can't really wear sunscreen when it's giving me rashes.

Very tricksy.

Luckily I brought my super lightweight pants and long sleeve shirt that I got for Peru, so I was wearing that today to protect my skin, so that was good.

Still though. It's annoying.

Alright, well I think I've killed just about as much time as possible on this thing, so i'll go ahead and stop writing now.

Jealousy

2009-02-11T01:03:00.000-08:00

I just got back from snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef.

You are jealous.

Cheap Mexican beer, greedy bastards, and wildfires

2009-02-10T13:18:00.001-08:00

Right. So I'm on again. After dinner last night we were sleepy and the internet was being slow so I just went to bed.

I'm less than thrilled with this hotel. It looks nice, and it's in a great location as far as swimming in that very fun lagoon/pool that Carina had a picture of, but on closer inspection it's probably not worth the money we paid for it. For one thing, if we want them to clean our room it's an extra $20. It's $2 for beach towels. It's $2 to get new shampoo, conditioner, etc. You get one of each when you check in, and that's it. It's not like I really need to have our room cleaned (we're only here for three nights), or extra shampoo (although that would've been nice since I have long hair) but come on! How much more can they charge us for? Also, the furniture is all faded and cracked, the toilet seat isn't attached straight, it's tiny, the mini fridge/freezer barely gets things cool, much less actually freezes them, the restaurant is closer due to "unforeseen circumstances," etc.

But I do like Carins! So far we haven't had any really great, ohmygod this is unbelieavable food, cuz it seems like all that food is insanely expensive. Every time we've asked for suggestions on where to eat they tell us somewhere that's really good, and over $50 a person. When we ask for something a little cheaper (there are tons of them) they tell us to try one of the many cafes along the boardwalk. Not too helpful.

But the beer's good! Although at the first place we went to they tried to sell me a Corona, which I just thought was hillarious. I didn't fly 7,000 miles to get a Corona.

Yesterday was, unfortunately, our only free day while we're here in Cairns, which is too bad cuz apparently the casino next to us has a cool little zoo complete with the option of taking your pic with a koala. The guy who told us about this said they have evening tours too, but I think by that he meant 5-7, and we don't get back until 7, so yeah. Maybe next time.

Oh! And for the reef today we rented a nice camera witha 2 gig card, so we'll get TONS of pics. We were only going to buy a disposable, but the girl quickly talked us out of it. Granted, it really didn't take much convincing. It's $40, which is a little expensive, but well worth it.

At least, I think it is.

I mean, how many times am I gonna get to be here? Do I really want to risk shitty pics?

Oh, and not to worry, the fires are nowhere near us. At least, not right now. When we're in Sydney they may become a problem, though. I guess there are 34 uncontrolled wildfires in NSW at the moment, although most of the deaths have been in Victoria. Which is all very sad, and not something I particularly feel like dwelling on while I'm on vacation.

So I'm gonna go grab some breakfast.

:)

Bats, lungfish and a lot of art

2009-02-10T01:01:00.000-08:00

Hi everybody! I'm in Cairns (pronounces "cans" not "cairns" as one might expect). It's quite lovely. I mean, it's a rain forest resort town on the pacific coast right next to the Great Barrier Reef. Obviously it's lovely. And humid. And a little hot. And there are a gazillion bats swarming around. They're huge too! Like 2 foot wingspan! Ok, so maybe that's not huge in the strictest sense of the word, but they are bigger than most bats I've seen. They're sure fun to watch too. :)

I have a rash covering my entire left arm, half my right arm, and parts of my legs. I'm thinking maybe it's from sunblock? It's itchy and annoying. And ugly. It looks like I'm covered in zits. And if I accidently touch them they hurt. Not cool. Luckily I have a mommy who loves me and cares for me and made sure that Carina brought a nice supply of meds, including benedryl cream, which I have been liberally applying to all itchy areas. It's helped stop the itching, although the rash is still there.

Oh, apparently we have to go to dinner RIGHT NOW cuz we're falling asleep and we didnt realize how late it is. I didn't anyway.

I'll try to post more later since I still have a lot to say.

I mean, I didnt even have time to talk about all the lungfish we saw!

:)

Continuation of previous blog.

2009-02-08T15:26:00.000-08:00

Make sure you read the blog below this one first. :)

Alrighty! So right after I said that I was just gonna leave the cops showed up!

Well, security did first, and I described in great detail what happened to her, and then the cops (a constable and a senior constable). Which was fun. They all looked at me like I was crazy when I said that I didnt immediately call down to the front desk, but come on, I was half asleep! So I gave them my email cuz we don't have a contact phone number, but they said they shouldn't need it.

I have to admit though, now I'm more curious than ever about what the heck happened. We tried to ask, but they were reluctant to tell us. grrs.

Anywho, so now that that's over (I hope) I'm going to beach.

It shall be wonderful.

Yes.

Mysterious Strangers, a silver bag, and an angry blonde woman

2009-02-08T14:55:00.000-08:00

So I have an interesting story.

Last night I was chatting with Will about our trip and all was lovely and whatnot and after awhile I got sleepy. I'm not quite on CA time, but I'm not quite on Queensland time either. So I went to bed at 9:39.

I get all comfy in bed and was about to fall asleep, I'm sorta in that half asleep/half awake everything is nice stage when I look up and see someone on the balcony. Since we're on the 30th floor I was like "Hey Carina, what are you doing on the balcony?"

silence.

"Hi Carina!"

silence.

I look a little closer and see that this person is A. way taller than Carina, B. way skinnier, C. male, and more to the point, Carina is still asleep in bed.

"Ok.... Umm.... Hi?"

So this guy walks in. He asks if he can pass through.

"Sure go ahead" I mean, what else am I supposed to say to this strange man in my room who just walked in from the balcony on the 30th floor.

He mumbled something about his girlfriend kicking him out, and walked out. I told him to have a good night cuz I'm just nice like that.

So Carina wakes up and was like "Was there someone in the room?" "Yeah, some guy just came in, it's ok though." and I get up and close and lock to balcony door, and lock the regular door as well.

So then this morning.

I go outside and find a silver bag full of lingerie stashed behind a chair. Interesting. I take a quick shower and me and Carina go downstairs to turn it in and tell the front desk what happened. I told the girl who was there and she was just like "Oh my God. Ok... Lemme go get my manager...."

So he comes out, sees the bag and was like "Ok, so what happened? I've been looking for that bag all night." I tell him the story and then request a room change. Sadly, they had no more regular rooms available, so instead we got stuck with a suite with a huge bathroom, a spa, and a view of the ocean. So very sad. (see Carina's blog for pictures, which she'll put up later)

Right now I'm waiting for security to come up and take my statement and my limited description of the guy(it was dark after all).

Except that they're not here yet and we've been waiting for like an hour and I wanna go to the beach, so I might just leave.

We'll see.

In other news though, it is a beautiful day, the ocean looks way calmer so I might actually able to swim, and I have discovered that I drink what is called a "flat white" coffee. We just refer to it as a lattee, but they have crazy names for coffee here. Also, when getting a regular coffee at, say, the breakfast buffet of your hotel (for $20 a person, eek) make sure to only fill up the cup halfway to leave lots of room for milk or water (if you put water in it then it's a long black) cuz it is insanely strong. Also, they apparently love stewed tomatoes here and serve them with every meal, which is awesome cuz they are the yumminess. I didn't go for the canned beans for breakfast though, that just seemed weird. And waffles are made with cake mix, so don't worry about putting syrup on them.

Yes.

So that was my morning, how was yours?

Surfer's Paradise, Cute Koalas and expensive breakfast

2009-02-08T02:34:00.000-08:00

Hi! I'm in Australia. I know you're all insanely jealous. I'd put up lots of pics to show off to you, but well, I'm lazy, and I haven't been able to figure out how to put batteries in Mom's camera (I have hers cuz I forgot mine, oops). You'll have to amuse yourself with the pics on Carina's blog, although the one of me at the beach is a truly bad picture. I look fat. And you can't even see the water. The waves were all huge and crazy. The have different colored flags stuck in the ground every few feet, and you're only allowed to swim in between the yellow and red ones, and only out to about your knees. Try to go in an deeper or swim (you had to keep both feet on the ground at all times) and the two lifegaurds who are watching that 10 foot stretch of beach will come yell at you. Needless to say, it's pretty crowded, but those waves really were crazy, and even in the "safe" part right close to the shore you could feel the rip tide pulling you.

Anyway, where was I?

Ok, so today we got up all early (at 5, cuz last night we laid down to rest for a couple minutes before dinner at 4:30, and then I vaguely remember Carina getting up at 10, and then yeah, I was out) and went to the zoo.

Dude.

I got to pet a freaking koala.

Awesome.

We got to pet lots of kangaroos too. They were super tame. At first I was a little nervous, but I dont think they even noticed us. We didn't get a picture, but there were dozens of them in this little area. The red kangaroos (the ones that Carina put a picture of us petting) were super soft too.

Oh, and I petted a wallaby, but I didn't know that that's what it was, I just thought it was a different kind of kangaroo. The Australians thought that was funny.

Come on, it was the first time I'd ever seen these things!!

blah.

So we went to see the croc show at the zoo. That was funny. We got Carina to stand up and be silly in an attempt to get birds to land on her arms. And then she got a free picture of Terri Irwin feeding a crocodile.

Umm.... yes. So it's really pretty here. The pictures Carina took of our view are very nice, but still. You kinda have to be here.

Anywho. I think that's about it for now. More to come later!

I got to pet a KOALA!!!!

Brisbane, new nieces, and pretty bracelets

2009-02-05T10:20:00.001-08:00

I'm going to Australia today!!

And I have a new baby niece!

She's like, 2 hours old! :)

What an exciting day!

Now I need to go pack, but first I think I need to eat something, which is tricky cuz I have no food. Hmm.... Maybe I should just pack first, and then grab some food after class.

I think I"m ready...

2009-02-04T19:57:00.000-08:00

Alrighty

Bought crickets- check
Showed Mom how to feed my animals- check
Did laundry- half check (the heat doesn't turn on in my dryer, so I can only air dry, which is taking awhile, but I have completed one load, and I have two loads to dry)
Paid rent- check
Packed-not check (kinda hard to do that with wet clothes)
Called the bus depot- check (it leaves for LAX at 6, which should still give me three hours to check in at the airport)

So let's see.... that means that all I have left to do is pack and go to Australia! Yay!! :) It'll be nice and warm (HOT)! I'll get to go swimming in my cute new bikini (also hot! lol)! I get to pet koalas and feed crocodiles and tour the Sydney Opera House! And go on a REALLY long flight... I get to LEAVE BAKERSFIELD!!!!

YAY!!!!

Orange bikinis, leftover Thai, and mean Mommy looks

2009-02-04T15:40:00.000-08:00

Yay we leave TOMORROW!!! :) Awesomeness.

I'm busy doing laundry, Mom should be here in an hour or so so she can learn how to feed my animals, I still need to call the bus "depot," and pay rent... and.... uh.... I dunno. Pack I guess! lol, that might be helpful. But I can't do that until I have some clean underwear to pack.

That's really it. I'm boring these days. I've just been busying doing nonfun, nonblog worthy stuff. Although I did hand out with The Loss Adjuster last night. That was fun. But other than that it's just been school and work and homework and many, many trips to Target. I swear I've spent like $200 there in the last week. Ugh. I did buy a cute new bright orange bikini though. And some shorts. And little mini shampoos and soap and all that.

And now I think I'm gonna try to put my apartment in some semblence of order cuz otherwise Mom will give me dirty looks.

*nods*

mysterious boys

2009-02-02T22:31:00.001-08:00

So I still don't get what turned Matthew into such a jerk after being nice for so long.

I don't think I ever will know what happened.

blah.

I'm cold and white, I'm holding on, I'll try to breathe for you

2009-01-30T08:48:00.000-08:00

Alright Matthew, here's the deal. You want me to stop blogging about how you're being such an asshole? Fine. Stop being an asshole. Then I won't have anything to write about. But when you hack into my computer without telling and try to steal pictures of me you're being an asshole and I'm gonna blog about it. You don't seem to get it. I don't want your passwords. I don't want to get into your email. After the way you've been acting the last couple of days I don't want anything to do with you. I'd kinda like to forget about the past three years.

Ok? Ok.

In other news, I'm in LA waiting for my passport. We drove down here last night and got a hotel room cuz my appointment was at 7am. Then we got up bright and early and went down there, the whole thing took about 45 mins, which was awesome. At first she said that I'd have to come back on Tuesday or Wed, but then I asked if I could get it today cuz I came down from Bakersfield, and she was like "Oh! I didn't see that that's where you live! Sure, we can get that today." So that was nice. :) It always helps having an early appointment and giving them a big "Good morning! How are you?" when you want to get things done your way. So that means that I'll be able to get to work on time too, which is good.

We had a big fundraiser at work last night. It was funish. I didn't like the idea of being on tv while working, and the mascot and Jam dancers kept getting in the way, but that's alright I guess. All the guests were having fun, which makes our life easier. Except for one table I had. I didn't like them.

*ahem*

hmm.... I think I'm gonna read some more of In a Sunburned Country. :) yay for Australia!!

And now that I have a passport, yay for being able to get back into the country!

Matthew is an asshole.

2009-01-28T20:06:00.000-08:00

So after blowing me off yesterday because he had a headache, Matthew finally came over to help me clean today. He was there for about an hour, told me that he was lying about several things during our three year relationship, and then announced that he was done cleaning and was leaving because he did way more than he needed to anyway.

FUCKING PRICK!!!

So the apartment is still not clean. I just came home to grab some food and empty the van. Honestly I'm pretty tempted to just not clean it at all. I mean, what difference does it make? It's not like I'd get a deposit back anyway (well, I would, but it requires both our signatures to cash it, and if I did that then he'd probably end up getting some of it, which is NOT HAPPENING so I've decided to just not cash it) so I don't really have to worry about cleaning it.

fucker.

Staphylococcus aureus, lame excuses, and not nearly enough sleep

2009-01-27T21:32:00.000-08:00

I find it entertaining that despite the fact that I am totally busy these days and always stressed and exhausted I still find time to blog.

I think my priorities are a little messed up.

Anyway.

So Matthew was supposed to come by the apartment today to help me clean cuz we have to be out by Thursday, but then he said that he actually was working until 7, not 3 like he normally does, and then low and behold, he calls me at 6 to tell me that he wont be able to make it all cuz he has a headache.

Whatever.

So I cleaned a little bit, made several trips to the dumpster, and then came home cuz I have a presentation to do tomorrow for Gomez. It should be pretty easy. It's on Staphylococcus aureus, which is really common, so it was really easy to find a TON of info on it. And it's only a 5 minute presentation, so no worries there. I couldn't find my printer though, so I had to draw and stuff for my "visual aid" so hopefully that's ok. I'm not exactly the most artistic, but it's bright and colorful and I think it looks ok. I put a paper on there that says "Fun Facts!" in big letters and then says stuff like "Causes Toxic Shock Syndrome!" and "Has several antiobiotic resitant strains!" and "Can give you food poisoning!"

I mean, come on, does it get any more fun than sudden, possibly life threatening fevers that don't respond to any medication?

:)

So, I go to clean my litter box the other day and it was suspiciously not full. I think Adam cleaned it out while I was in the shower. He threatened to do that while we were all drunk, but the only time he could have was the next morning, when we were sober again (we're responsible people, we decided that we were too drunk to drive so he crashed here and Monje drove home cuz he hadn't drank nearly as much as us). And then I noticed that all the empty beer bottles were lined up on my counter with all the labels facing the same way.

I don't know if that was really nice or kinda creepy... Either way I've decided that I need to invite him over more, I could use all the help I can get to keep this place clean.

Anyway. The last few nights I've been going to bed after midnight and then having to get up at 6, so I really just want to go to sleep now.

Night!

my boyfriend is music, my boyfriend is music

2009-01-26T15:27:00.000-08:00

I've had that song stuck in my head the last few days, which is a good thing I guess. I only listen to upbeat music when I'm in a good mood, so yeah.

School was soooooo boring today. I'm pissed that my anatomy class isn't more interesting. I mean, I LIKE anatomy! ugh. I hate boring teachers. And then in my other class we were going over basic chemistry again and OH MY FUCKING GOD PEOPLE THIS IS NOT COMPLICATED!!!!!!!!!!!!!GGGAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH By basic I mean "This is an atom. It has electrons, protons and nuetrons." "Wait, I thought they had a nucleous?" This is like the 5th time we've gone over it. The teacher has started to just give us information that's only sorta right to make it easier for people. Like saying that the atomic number (referred to simply as "that number in the corner") is the number on electrons. The thing is, he obviously is a smart guy who totally understands chemistry, and I'm actually very impressed with his patience. I don't have any. Not when it comes to trying to teach people stuff that's easy for me and hard for them. But SERIOUSLY???? This is very basic stuff. I learned this stuff in FIFTH GRADE!!!!!!!

ugh.

In other news, I have an appointment in LA to get my passport on Friday morning, which is good. I made sure that I have my birth certificate (at least I didn't lose everything), and I've already got the applications, so all I need is to get my pictures. And talk someone into going with me. I'm trying to get Adam (a friend from work) to go with me. At first he said he was busy, so then I was like "Oh, well that's ok then. I just get all freaked out when driving around LA when I don't really know where I'm going and I'm by myself." "Oh, you're going by yourself?" "Looks like it. I don't really know anyone else who could go with me. I know you work that night, but so do I, so I'd be back by then anyway, which is why I asked, but it's ok if you're busy." "I might be able to go...."

bwahahaha I love manipulating boys.

That makes me sound terrible, but I don't want to drive down there by myself!!! It's kinda tricky to ask people to voluntarily get up early (I made an early appointment so I'd be sure to have plenty of time before work) and then go hang out at a passport office all day.

Anyway.

yawn sleepiness, lost passports and killer spiders

2009-01-23T10:58:00.001-08:00

I'm still sleepy. Wed night I hung out with some friends after work. It was fun, we played some pool, drank some beer, and crashed at around 6 am, and then woke up at 8, and then after making sure everyone got home safely I went to school, then searched for my passport which I cannot find anywhere (I knew where it was in the old apartment, but moving kinda screws everything up, I think I'm just going to try to get another one expedited cuz mine expires in a year anyway) then went to the old apartment to help "clean" it, but I was too tired to do much. That and when the third spider jumped on me I was too freaked out to actually touch anything. I did get another load in the van, and Matthew started cleaning one of the bathrooms, but that's it. Given how busy we both are these days I don't know when we're gonna have time to clean it. I guess they're promoting him so he's working more hours than usual.

Anyway.

I'm gonna go buy some bug bombs, go set them off, go the bank, the post office, and then to work.

I am seriously ready for a vacation.

Australia, water heaters, and a depressing lack of photographs.

2009-01-21T15:23:00.000-08:00

So I paid for Australia this morning. I am officially going. Craziness!

I still haven't figured out what to do with my animals. Anyone wanna volunteer? You'd only have to come over 3 or 4 times while I'm gone. I was going to ask Amanda (well, her son), but she turned me down before I could. She said I could still use her as an absolute last... uh.... brain fart! What's the word? last.... umm........

Ok moving on!

I'll try to get some pics of the new place up soon, but no promises. I'll have lots of great pics to put up in a month or so! :) Carina said she'll bring her laptop so we'll be able to update while we're there, but no promises about that either. When I'm vacation I tend to not be too interested in blogging. I'd rather be laying out on the beach or petting a koala or whatever. :)

I'm gonna see if I can pick up some extra shifts at work. It shouldn't be too hard. People always want days off, but people also always want extra days. I'd like to use my credit cards as little as possible, so that'll mean having as much cash as possible.

I have some sad news. I do not, as it turns out, have hot water. Nope, I only have warm water. Which is annoying, but at least I can take a shower. I'll have to talk my neighbors into letting me into their garage so I can turn it up. I think they're getting irratated with me, but whatever. It'll be less annoying to get this all taken care of at once so I'm not bugging them every other week. Much better to just bug them every day of one week, right?

Anywho, I have homework. As always. So I'm gonna go do that so I don't have to do it tonight after work.

Bye!

FINALLY!!!

2009-01-20T18:01:00.000-08:00

Hmm, apparently this is not my first post entitled "FINALLY!!!" Interesting.

Anyway, I have internet, yay!!

And even better than that, I have HOT WATER!!!!

Oh man am I looking forward to taking a nice hot shower. Since the PG&E guy came while I was at school (for the THIRD time) and the Brighthouse guy was supposed to come right after I got out of school I was waiting for him, but then he was late, and now I figured I really needed to write on here, cuz, well, it's been a long time, and I have a lot going on.

So here's the full story for those of you who didn't know. My old apartment flooded and was sucky anyway, and then my boyfriend (of almost 3 years) dumped me so I found myself needing a new place to live. After much procrastination and drama with apartment managers I found a place that looked ok so I applied for it, and was approved about a week after they said they'd let me know. So all excited and happy I start the very long process of moving in. Granted, it could've gone much faster, but I'm lazy, and as mentioned earlier, like to procrastinate. That, and I couldn't get my gas turned on. See, way long ago in the dark ages when this place was built some genius decided that I can't be trusted with a water heater, so to be safe, they put it in my neighbors garage. Really quite considerate of them. I mean, had I had access to my water heater (or less flaky neighbors) I only would've gotten to experience the joy of waiting for the PG&E guy once, instead of three times. I also wouldn't have gotten to get up bright and early every morning in my nice new (to me) apartment and then drive to my shitty, old, dirty apartment to shower. There was one time when I just couldn't be bothered to do that so I just took an ice cold shower, but that gave me a really bad headache, so I'm not doing that anymore. I didn't have hot water in Peru, but since the air outside was so warm the water was much warmer, and it didn't feel nearly as bad anyway. I mean, who wants a hot shower when you've been hiking all day and it's 100 degrees out and so humid you feel like you're drowning?

Anyway. So I finally have hot water, and Brighthouse finally came by to turn on my internet (I made this appointment 3 weeks ago, and this was the soonest they could come) so all is well.

Mostly.

I'm still not completely out of my old apartment, which is kinda tricky cuz Matthew is coming by on Thursday to help me clean it, mwahahaha! Little does he know! He's actually helping me to finish move out! And then clean on Saturday!

He dumped me! I don't have to be nice to him!

meh.

So there's that.

And then, on Sat, Carina tells me that she's going to Australia, yay!! On February 5th! And wants me to come with her!

uh...... welll..... I'd love to Carina, but that's really short notice, there's no way I'll be able to talk school into letting me miss two weeks, in two weeks.

Or.... will I?

So I go and talk to them today, opening with "So my older sister has brain cancer and it's been her lifelong dream to go to Australia and her church just gave her a bunch of money to go and she doesn't want to go by herself..." and of course by that time, who could say no? Granted, I almost couldn't cuz they have a maximum number of days that you can miss in a row before you're automatically dropped (no exceptions), but there's a holiday in there so that means that I'm at the max, instead of over it. I'll also be going to lab two or three times for the next couple of weeks, which kinda sucks cuz I don't like getting up at 6, but it'll be good practice for when I"m working and will be getting up at 4.

Actually, right now, I can't even comprehend getting up at 4am on a regular basis.

That's just too freaking early.

And it's not like I can be lazy and just shower the night before cuz when you're in surgery you really have to be as clean as possible. It's an actual, stated requirement that I shower in the morning.

grrs.

For some reason Mom and Dad are more concerned that work wouldn't let me leave, but I'm a server. It's kinda just understood that I'll be taking a few weeks off all the time. Everyone does. We're all young and well paid, so why wouldn't we take vacations? And since we all want to work as much as possible when we are here getting shifts covered is NEVER a problem.

Umm.... I think that's pretty much it. They let us out of lab early today so we could watch the inauguration, but I didn't. Yes, I know, very exciting, historical moment, and definitely cause for celebration that Bush is gone, but I'm just not one for speeches. They're boring. Even the good ones. So instead I used that time to drink some Monster and then get really hyper, so that when I had to go to anatomy and sit "quietly" for 2 hours I was having trouble, but that could've been cuz Dustin kept poking me. With his nice sharp pencil. It hurt!! Finally I had to move seats (I don't think the teacher even noticed me getting up, much less me laughing and yelling at Dustin for the previous hour and a half) but then I was bored.

It's a conundrum alright. Sit near Dustin and Amanda and be distracted the whole time (although still do very well on the tests cuz I'm just that awesome) or don't and then be bored.

Tricky.

Alright, well, this is a very long entry. And I really want to take my first hot shower in my new apartment that I've been living in for a week and a half, so I'm gonna go.

You all have fun.

New apartment!!

2008-12-29T14:09:00.000-08:00

Yay! I called Diamond Realty and found out that I did get the new apartment, so that's wonderfully good news. This place is so gross; I'm so desperate to get out. :) I can go get the keys and all that tomorrow afternoon, and I'm putting in my 30 days notice today. I have to have Matthew's signature on that, but since he's coming by soon anyway that'll work great. So yay!! :) Adios Pine Brook!

Bitchiness and dirty pots

2008-12-29T11:31:00.000-08:00

Yay! I just paid $258 on my credit card, which brings it to below $4,000. :) I need to find a new card though, or maybe just transfer it back to my other card cuz I'll have to start paying interest in March, and I'm just really enjoying this whole no interest thing too much. It's making it way easier to pay off.

So I know I just posted about Matthew like an hour ago, but whatever. Apparently I'm not quite done. So he's supposed to come by today after he gets off work. I can't decide if I want to be nice just to make it go easier, or if I want to be bitchy and petty (is that spelled right? it doesn't look right..) cuz that's how I'm feeling. I have already decided that if he wants to take Fuzzy he can catch her himself, I'm not helping.

Meh.

I need to call about apartments. I'm having too much dancing though (thanks Loss Adjuster for introducing me to some fun music!)! I'm going to go meet up with Mom at the Burlington Coat Factory in a few minutes though. Really, what I need to do, more than anything else, is dishes. But I really don't want to. Especially cuz all the dirty ones are Matthew's. Like I said, I'm feeling petty and bitchy.

I think I owe Mom some money for texts though. I've been texting kinda a lot lately. Well, a lot for me. It's not like I'm Abby or anything. lol

At least I did laundry so I have cute clothes to wear when he comes over. :)

I've decided that Matthew is a jerk.

2008-12-29T10:20:00.000-08:00

Grrs to Matthew! He just sent me the most condescending email ever, full of things like "I will have to get my computer back now, I'm sorry I held out as long as I could, I just honestly thought you would be out of there by now." Whatever. I guess that means he has a new place now though, which I guess is good. Or something.

Last night I thought I worked at 4:30 in the lounge, and accidentally got there way early cuz I hit all green lights, so I got there at 4, but actually I was closing and didn't clock on until 5:30, so I had to wait an hour and a half. I was just going to come back home or something, but there were some other servers there waiting for their ride/to clock on/to go out and get some drinks, so I just hung out and talked and whatnot, which was nice, until I realized that everyone who left did so without even saying bye or anything, which kinda pissed me off. Ok, I say everyone, I really just mean.... uh.... wow, my mind blanked on her name. Anyway, we were sitting talking for like an hour and then Kim was ready to go so she just got up and left. She even left her glass there on the table for me to pick up.

So grrs to her too!

I dunno, the more I think about all this mess with Matthew the more pissed off I get.

I need a boy to flirt with.

2008-12-28T11:06:00.000-08:00

Good morning! How are all of you doing? I'm good! Tired though, I didn't sleep well last night, which is weird, isn't alcohol supposed to help you sleep? Meh.

So me and Ryan just ended up going to Que Pasa for some margaritas and then back to my apartment to hang out until like 11:30. I kept calling Dustin to try to get him to come over too cuz Ryan has a girlfriend and it's just not as much fun to drunkenly flirt with guys who have girlfriends, but he was out playing pool and making money so he didn't come over, but he said he would tonight so I'll call him after work.

I think I've been drinking too much lately though. Wait, let me rephrase, I've been drinking way more in the past two weeks than I have in the past like 5 years, and I've been bad about making sure to drink enough water to counteract the alcohol, so I'm all dehydrated. I kinda didn't realize how much until I weighed myself this morning, and saw that I'm FOUR POUNDS lighter than I was before Christmas, and I've been eating a lot. lol. Needless to say, I've had two water bottles already and I'm feeling better. :)

And my pizza is almost done, yay!

Pizza should NOT take an hour to make!!

2008-12-27T10:07:00.001-08:00

Last night sucked. A lot. We got totally slammed, which normally would be a good thing, but for some reason pizzas got WAY behind, so tickets were taking an average of 45 minutes. Ugh. That meant a lot of unhappy people, and a wait when there shouldn't have been, and a very slow table turnover time. So even though I had a totally full 6 table section for 4 hours, and even though my average ticket was between $50-100 I only did $650 in sales and walked with $81. And then, just to top it all off, some creep flashed one of our take out girls when she was bringing him his pizza. She (being unbelievably naive) thought that he might have just accidently had his pants unzipped and didn't even mention it until he'd already been gone for like 40 minutes, and then wasn't going to tell the managers, which I completely disagreed with, so when the regional manager (who got to witness the mess with the pizzas, not good) was leaving I told him he needed to go talk to her. So then they wouldn't let me walk to my car by myself (despite the fact that this had happened like 4 hours before I was leaving) so I had to wait for someone to walk me out, which always makes me feel silly, especially since I parked close last night cuz someone was talking up my normal parking space (along with 5 other spaces).

So THEN, I come home and the internet hadn't been working all day, and the lights in my room wouldn't turn on, even though I flipped every breaker like 4 times, so that was frustrating, so I decided to just go to bed cuz I was tired and it was like 10:30, so I lay down and the lights come back on by themselves. So I got up, turned them all off, and then finally got to sleep.

Ugh.

Now I need to go to my apartment manager's office to see if I have some geckos waiting for me (I shouldn't, but I need to double check) and to mention the lights to them, although there's not much they can do. And I need to call Matthew to tell him how much he needs to pay for rent, and then I think I'm going to call Ryan (now that he remembers who I am) and see if he wants to hang out tonight. I hope he does. I don't need a repeat of yesterday.

I thought it was supposed to be a white Christmas?

2008-12-25T11:32:00.000-08:00

On all the news stations all they've been talking about for the past few days is how much snow Tehachapi is supposed to get on Christmas. Well where is it? I stayed the night up here with my parents and there's no snow! grrs!!! At least there should be some at Rachel's.

Anyway. It's a little weird to not have Matthew around during Christmas. It's nice to not have to deal with his mother, but kinda weird to not be exchanging presents or anything. *shrug* I sent him a text saying Merry Christmas, but he didn't respond.

Umm... yes. Mom and Dad gave me $250 and some books on Portugal, awesome!!! :) And then a nice sweater, a calander, and a Princess Bride video game for my computer, lol. And then in class I got a pound of Starbucks coffee from another student. She brought enough for everyone to get a bag, which was really nice, cuz that's not cheap. I mean, they're like $10 each and there's 20 students. That's like $200! I barely know her name! It was very nice though. Dustin (he sits behind me, he's the one who looks like Ian and the one I played pool with) kept stealing mine, so I was stealing his banana. Yes, that's right, during anatomy we get so bored we resort to 7th grade and make banana jokes and steal stuff from each other. And then he found out that I'm ticklish, which is very, very, very bad.

Anyway.

I think we're about to leave to go to Rachel's, so I guess that's it. Merry Christmas everyone! Hopefully it snows later (although not so much that we get stuck anywhere). :)

Woohoo, I beat Terask on insane!

2008-12-22T21:02:00.000-08:00

Yay, I finally beat neoquest II on insane difficulty! I won a 3 million np item for it. :)

In other news, I'm hungry. As always. Well, sorta. The last few days I'll be really hungry and take like two bites of food and totally lose my appetite. I had some oatmeal for breakfast this morning with Dad, and then a piece of pizza for lunch, but nothing sounds good. I think I might be getting sick or something. I dunno. I have had a headache for a couple days. Oh, I did buy some empanadas (well, she called them cookies, but whatever, I think she just said cookies cuz I'm white, lol) from some lady who knocked on my door. They're strawberry. 3 for a dollar. The inside of them wasn't all that great (kinda just tasted like jam), but the pastry part was very yummy.

So even though I only got 82 questions right according to the scantron, I got a 91% on my midterm, yay! Apparently the teacher realized that we hadn't gone over a couple of the questions, so he gave us the points if missed them, and the scantron missed a lot of questions. The guy behind me (Dustin) scored 67, but actually got 86%.

Anyway, I think I'm gonna go make a tomato sandwich and take an aspirin.

Once upon your dead body

2008-12-21T16:05:00.000-08:00

I'm bored.

I don't go to work for another hour and a half. I was going to get up and go to church, but the stupid cats were playing all night long and didn't actually quite down until about 8, so when the alarm went off at 9:30 I just turned it off and went back to bed. Stupid cats. Matthew said he's going to come by to get his, but I don't know when he was planning on coming. He can't next week, at least, not if he wanted me to be here (and I kinda want to be here cuz he wants to split up some of the kitchen stuff and I'd like to be there for that, not that he'd screw me or anything (this is Matthew we're talking about) but still) cuz I'm busy all week. Tomorrow Dad's coming by to look at the apartment and buy me food (he might claim to have different reasons to come to town, but I know that really it's just about buying me food), Tuesday I have school all day, then I get my geckos, then I go to work, Wed I'm going up to Tehachapi for clam chowder (again, it's all about the food), Thursday he'll be stuck with hs family (HA!) and Friday... well, I'll just be getting back into town, and then I have to go to work. So that's just not gonna work.

hmm...

I am realizing now that I have very little time for homework next week. I don't have class on Wed or Thursday, but I do on Mon and Tuesday, so I should probably do everything I can tonight.

That's the responsible thing to do anyway.

And, as we all know, I would never dream of being irresponsible.

Umm....

I guess that's about it. I really am a very boring person. Well, I lead a boring life anyway. I think I'm pretty interesting, I'm just too lazy to ever actually do anything blog worthy. Which doesn't stop me from blogging, mind you. It just means that I never have anything meaningful to say.

Yes.

awkwardity (I can make up words), loud bass, and nonexpired milk

2008-12-19T14:33:00.000-08:00

I feel very accomplished today. I tend to put off chores until the very last minute (why is the "t" and the "y" button sticking? That's really annoying) so today, it is unfortunately the last minute. I called about another apartment (I decided that the one I looked at yesterday was just too small for how much they were charging) and liked it much better, so I went ahead and applied for it. It's a 2 bedroom, 1 bath with a garage and hookups that's off of Ming and Akers, so still in my general neighborhood, but it's not a huge complex, which is nice. The only bad thing about it was that when I went to look at it the downstairs were playing some rap so loudly, and with the bass turned up so high that I could understand every word they were saying while inside the apartment (it's upstairs), and I could feel the floor vibrating through my feet. I asked them about that and they said they'd take care of it though, so that's good. And anytime they do it while I am living there (if I do move there) just call them and they'll send someone by to have them turn it down.

So that's good. Hopefully. I really hate my current apartment. Between the flooding, the roaches and the pot smoking 8 year olds I really feel like it's time for a new place.

Besides, it's weird living somewhere that you used to live with your ex, but he's gone now. Kinda weird. It'd take way too long before I stopped thinking of the other room as "Matthew's room."

Then after I did that Mom called and we went to Mama Roomba's where I had a fabulous Cuban pork sandwich and some sweet potato fries. Yummy. :) Of course, since I ate it with 2 cups of coffee there was no way I could actually finish it, so I have a half a sandwich to eat tonight when I get off work, unless I end up going to a party at some girl's house from school. Well, I guess it's actually her ex's house, where she doesn't live anymore, and he's not invited, so she's kicking him out? Or something? It all sounded very strange, but whatever. She turned 21 on Thursday, which was fun, cuz that was when we had a midterm and someone brought cake for her, so we got to take our test while eating yummy chocolate cake. woohoo!! :)

I didn't do quite as well on my midterms as I'd hoped, 87 on one and 82 on the other, but I suppose that's still ok.

At least I passed.

And I did way better on the second on that the smart guy behind me (Ian's twin) did.

Not that I'd gloat or anything.

heeheeheee

And THEN, after food we went to Goodwill to kill some time before Mom had to go back to jury duty, and then I went to the bank to make sure I had money in there so I could go grocery shopping, which I did, but then I got home I realized I had no counter space or anything, so I had to do some dishes and take out the trash.

And now I"m gonna take a shower and then I'll go to work.

And then maybe to a party.

But maybe not.

I dunno. A bunch of drunk 20 year olds doesn't really interest me much.

Heaven!

2008-12-17T19:17:00.000-08:00

Oh man, this is wonderful. I got a new space heater for my room, and, unlike my last one, it actually works. It's blowing lovely warm air all over me. Mmmm......

Bangs head into wall

2008-12-16T15:29:00.000-08:00

So the circuit breaker tripped last night for the dining room/living room and wouldn't go back on until after he switched the main breaker, and then the breaker for that area. Very frustrating. Of course, still not nearly as frustrating as the fact that my bedroom floor is, once again, soaking wet. It's not as bad as it was last time, so I'm not even mentioning it, but I do have a appointment to see a condo tomorrow. It's in kinda a crappy location (basically it's behind SJVH) but it's cheap(ish), has a cool tree in front (I like trees dammit!) and has laundry hookups as well as a fenced yard. So hopefully that works.

In other news, having very little food, very little money, and even less time is forcing me to get creative with what I eat, but I did manage to make some pretty good breakfast burritos. yummy. :)

Oh, and I hate the program director at school. Well, ok, so I don't hate her, I just hate her tests. They're totally unfair. And I'm not a person who normally whines about that kind of thing. But when you have the same question repeated three times on a midterm ad expect different answers each time, that's not fair. When you ask a question that has two different answers depending on what book you are reading, and then you give both answers as choices, that's not fair. When you ask a question that could mean two different things, that's not fair. I know the material. I do. But I am sure that I only got a C on the midterm because she sets it up so people will fail. The average on the tests that she writes is a full two letter grades lower than the tests that she just took out of the book. Obviously there is something wrong there.

GRRS!!!

Whatever though, I'm in this program to learn the information so I can get certified, and the people who write the tests that I've been getting all A's on are the same people who write the certifciation exam, so I should be good.

Now let's hope I can find a better apartment.

Mysterious....

2008-12-15T17:42:00.000-08:00

I came home from work last night to find what looked like dirt spread all over the floor in the living room. WTF? I thought maybe the apartment people had been in to see if I flooded, or maybe someone broke in and they had really dirty feet or something? But then I looked closer and saw that it wasn't dirt, it was bits of dried leaves. Hmmm.... Then I noticed how freaked out the cats looked. They were all hanging out in the living room with wide eyes and poofy tails. And that's when I solved the mystery.

Catnip.

I guess when I mailed a check a few days ago I didn't close the drawer all the way, and the same drawer that has the envelopes also has the catnip, and they got it out. Needless to say I figured I'd better clean it up before they all OD. :)

Silly kitties.

Margaritas, beer, and pool= a good time for all

2008-12-14T00:15:00.000-08:00

It is a sign of how seldomly that I drink that one margarita and two small beers got me this drunk, but well, they did. I'm feeling much more sober now, which is why I'm able to write this.

Anyway.

I hung out with some people from school today. It was a lot of fun. We played some pool, and hung out here for a bit (despite the fact that one of them, Dustin, is allergic to cats, oops) and all in all, I had a fun time. And since Matthew did move out today, it was nice to spend my first night of living by myself (after 3 years) hanging out with friends, instead of actually being by myself. I definitely think that they were only humoring me towards the end, but it was still nice. And it's nice to know that they were willing to do that, although I suspect that that's cuz they totally have a crush on each other. I'll post some of the pics I got of them later. Totally cute.

But now, it's midnight and I"m sleepy, so I'm going to bed. Night!!

I'm so proud of myself

2008-12-12T23:36:00.000-08:00

So I know you were all expecting me to like, shut down, or at least be depressed, or something, but I'm not! Quite the opposite in fact. Tonight after work I went and hung out with everyone at the Elephant Bar, something they do almost every night, and something I've never had the courage to do (it's stupid, I know, but I'm too afraid to go somewhere with someone unless specifically invited, so even though I've always known that it would be totally cool if I went to EB with everyone, since I've never actually had someone say "Hey Susannah, wanna go next door after work?" I never have. When I showed up tonight everyone was all excited. :) )and tomorrow night I'm hanging out with someone from school. This is the first time I've hung out with people from work since John Paul, and the first time I've hung out with people from school since.... umm.... Nick... like 4 years ago....

So yay!!

In more sad news, I managed to cut my hand, right in between my fingers with the lid on the trash can at work today. It's one of those swingy triangle lids and the corners are sharp! It hurt, but then the antiseptic stuff that I sprayed on it was also a pain reliever, so it doesn't hurt anymore, but cuts there tend to take FOREVER to heal, and I'm not looking forward to trying to scrub in with it.

But that's ok.

Umm.... let's see... Matthew is staying with his sister. Well, sorta. He started moving his stuff over there today, but he didn't finish apparently, cuz he just walked in. :) He said that if I can't find an apartment by the end of the month and have to stay here longer he'll pay his half of next month's rent too, which was nice, but kinda unnecessary. I mean, why should he pay when he's not living here? On the other hand, he broke up with me and said that living with me makes him suicidal, so I dunno.

I guess that's about it for now. :)

I'm still all proud for actually making an effort to make friends. Yay!

Sasha is crazy

2008-12-10T22:13:00.000-08:00

I'm sitting on my bed with the laptop on my lap (weird place for it, I know) wearing my sweatshirt (you all know the one, it's that thing that I wear every day during winter for the past 7 years) and Sasha comes up and tries to get into my pocket. Now, I know she's a small cat (although way bigger than Eek), but there's no way she's gonna fit in my sweatshirt pocket. She did successfully get her head into it, but not the rest of her body. Not that she's gonna let a little thing like that stop her. She laid down with her entire body sticking out, and her paws underneath my sweatshirt, and promptly started purring.

Matthew is so gonna miss her.

Ha!

He did buy me a pumpkin pie milkshake though. It was yummy.

Turtle poo is stinky.

2008-12-10T19:22:00.000-08:00

So Matthew's insisting that he didn't break up with me. All he did was tell me that A-I am incapable of changing, B-He is incapable of changing, and C-Living like this makes him suicidal. But that doesn't mean he wants to break up! Apparently what he wants is to move into different apartments and stay together, which I told him I didn't want to do. So then I asked him point blank if he wants to stay together and stay living together, or move into different places and break up. There's only two choices. He just sat there quietly for about 2o mins and then walked out of the room.

So that's pretty much what's going on there. We're not really talking to each other much. Like, he asked me how Fuzzy was doing without as much fur (he cut a bunch off a few days ago cuz she was getting matted) and... umm... Actually that's about it. Needless to say we don't have much of a relationship right now, but we're not fighting... so that's good I guess. Chris came over today to help me move my bed back into my room cuz it was still in the living room, which was just annoying. Matthew's in his room. Obviously.

Hmm... Now that my APMT class (Anatomy and Physiology and Medical Terminology) has finished with the MT part we're getting a ton of homework, so that's keeping me busy. Yesterday we were assigned 25 key terms to define, and today we were assigned another 50 or so, along with several work sheets, which are all due on Monday. And I still have my other 2 classes. So all in all I have at least two hours of homework every night, or an entire day of homework if I put it off until Sunday, which I'm trying not to do, which is easier since this is Matthew's computer and he does actually need it sometimes, which means that sometimes I have no computer at all, like today when I didn't have one for like 3 hours, so I got caught up on some homework (I still have a few hours more) and fed all my animals (even the snake!) and cleaned out the turtle tank. :)

I've called about some apartments, but haven't filled out any applications yet, which I know will make some of you annoyed (Hi Mom!) but, well, um..... I don't really have any good excuses. I mean, yeah, I've got hw and all, and all the drama with Matthew, but that is all stuff that I could do during the evening and then still have time to look for apartments during the day. What can I say, I'm lazy. And if you ask Matthew, that's never going to change.

Oh, and to answer your question, I'm ok. Which is kinda weird, but I'm honestly not depressed or all that upset or anything. We'd been having a lot of problems lately and it kinda got to the point where I just didn't really care anymore and it's not like this was unexpected anyway.

yup.

whatever

2008-12-09T07:25:00.000-08:00

Hmm. I think Matthew might have broken up with me last night. That kinda sucks.

What the fuck?

2008-12-08T20:14:00.001-08:00

So apparently is totally unacceptable for me to accidentally go into Matthew's email, but is totally ok for him to intentionally log into mine and then read my emails after yelling at me for reading his. Asswipe.

Ok, well, no, apparently it wasn't ok for him to do that. But he was interested in how much the geckos cost. It wasn't ok, but he was interested! I mean, he didn't yell at me for reading his, why am I yelling at him?

Whatever. We just need to move and each get our own computers set up. That should help.

maybe.

New geckos!!

2008-12-08T15:30:00.000-08:00

So today I ordered a couple new viper geckos to replace the ones that the kitties killed. I like viper geckos dammit! And they're the only species I've successfully bred. So successfully in fact, that another egg hatched today! It's the last one. But it's a little bigger than the other one when it hatched, which is a good sign. It looks very healthy, so yay! I went from one adult female and a juvie (who I know now is female, apparently they're sexable at 3 months) to one adult female, one adult male, 3 uknown babies, and one 4 month old female. :) Too fun! I'll get some pics when the new ones arrive.

I'm so boring.

2008-12-06T21:03:00.000-08:00

I'm bored.

My computer still isn't set up, which is a problem, because I don't know most of my logins to all my various sites that I use. So I'm sorta without anything to do. I mean, yes, I suppose I could do some homework or something constructive, but I don't particularly feel like it.

I got a $137 check for the lawsuit against OG, woohoo! :) Considering I don't think I was really cheated out of anything, and all I had to do was sign 2 papers and send in two letters, it's a pretty good deal. And I need the money too, cuz not only do I still need a new apartment, and a new car, but I got the ok from school to miss a couple weeks so I can go to Portugual! Yay!!! :)

I looked at a tank at someone's house today. Unfortunately, it didn't have the right kind of lid, and it's just not worth the trouble. It would've worked for my frogs, and I would've loved to buy it (it was a corner tank, very nice dimensions for building tropical frog tanks, and those usually run at about $350-$500 new, and this one was $85 with the stand included) but Matthew would've thrown a fit and pointed that we really don't have room for a big tank that I don't actually need, especially when I'll still have to buy a big tank that I do need. So I passed. :(

grrs. So now that I really have nothing else to do anyway, Matthew's stealing his laptop.

So I guess this is it.

Bye.

Hypothetical situations, gross fingernails, and hypothetical sitations. Really. Hypothetical.

2008-12-02T21:37:00.000-08:00

So my apartment flooded. We spent a night at the Hilton, which was fun. Kinda. Matthew still managed to be late, which is sorta hilarious. They dried the carpet, which was a nice first step, but we had to wait until today before they could clean it. Unfortunately, the mold is more in the walls and everything else than it is in the carpet, so our bedroom still smells REALLY bad (seriously, the turtles have nothing on 30 year old flooded mildew walls) so we're still sleeping in the living room. It makes it kinda tricky when he leaves for work at 6:30 and I'm still in bed. My computer is still in pieces, so I'm using Matthew's laptop. Oh, and speaking of which, let's just say, hypothetically, that you're apartment/house flooded and you have to use your significant other's computer. So you get on it to check your email, which happens to use the same site as his, so when you click on, for example, gmail, it logs him in automatically. Now, let's say, just for pretend, that you happened to notice an email from myspace that says "New message from *insert your sig. other's ex's name*" Wouldn't you click on it? And then, when you saw that it was an invitation to lunch, wouldn't you be interested in the rest of the SEVENTEEN MESSAGES OVER TWO MONTHS THAT HE NEVER TOLD YOU ABOUT? I mean, ok, so he wasn't cheating on me or anything, but I am still adamant that I didn't do anything wrong; all I did was the same thing that anyone would've done.

Hypothetically of course.

Cuz, it's not like any of this happened or anything.

*ahem*

In other news, news that actually happened, my fingernail is coming off. It kinda hurts. But they let me slide with the hole scraping under the nails thing during lab today, so that was nice. And work feels bad for me, so they've been buying my dinner. Not cuz of the nail, cuz of the flooded apartment. Umm.... I have all A's in my classes. Which I pretty much knew anyway, but I got the actualy percents yesterday. Yay for me.

Ummm..... We looked at apartments today, but that's always tricky and complicated when you're dating a crazy man. He whined that he didn't like any of the apartments that I had circled, expect the one that was already rented and wouldn't have another opening until Jan, so then I told him to find one, and then he whined about how he hates that he has to do all the work. grrs. I'm getting way better at managing his craziness though, so I was able to pause, take a breath, and come up with an alternative solution. Oddly enough, once I offer to do it exactly his way, he relaxes about it a lot, and then we can just do it the easy way. Which probably doesn't make any sense... I mean, ok, like he didn't even want to look at any of them because he thought the neighborhood might be bad, or it was too expensive, or whatever, but when I volunteered to call first, find out everything I can from them, go online to google street view (an awesome thing btw) so we can see what they look like, and even volunteered to make appointments that I had no intention of keeping, he was like "well, ok, we could just drive by this one and if it looks ok just go up to the office to talk to them," which was exactly what I trying to do in the first place.

There's a lot of reverse psychology that goes on when dealing with Matthew.

I guess that's about it. We're just doing what we can to deal with the current living situation, Matthew's trying to find a new job, I'm working and going to school. Life.

aw, Dakota said goodbye!

2008-11-24T14:56:00.000-08:00

So last night I dreamt that I was in bed and Dakota came to say goodbye. First he flung his paw onto my arm and I scratched behind his ears, and then he curled up with me for a few minutes before giving me one last woowoo and walked out with his tail held high. It was very sweet. And kinda sad. :(

I hate housework. Anyone want some free fish?

2008-11-22T11:10:00.000-08:00

I hear there's an ad for a free 50 gallon tank in the Tehachapi paper, yay! I called her, but she didn't answer. Hopefully she does. Now, the tank does have fish in it, which is a minor problem, but I'm sure I can find them homes. I hope I can. I don't want a 50 gallon fish tank. No, no, no! That's one of those things that sounds like it's totally easy. I mean, it's already set up, there's already fish in it, all I'd have to do is toss some food in once in awhile, right?

If only it were so.

My mantella laid some eggs, yay! But I can't find them. Which is kinda tricky. I'll wait another week or so (until the eggs are ready to come out of the tank) and then I'll tear it apart and get them. I'm pretty sure she laid them underneath a log that I have in there. They've dug several holes under it.

umm... I need to wrap Lacey's present. It's still in a Target bag.

Hmm... Rachel said she could bring me the tank (if I get it) but I'll have to have somewhere to put it. I guess I should wrap the present and then clean for the next couple of hours.

Ugh. I dont wanna clean!!

Pics of my black Kingsnake!

2008-11-19T22:15:00.000-08:00

Isn't (s)he so pretty!! :)

Ignore all the crap in the background. And, um, the crap on the wood. ;)

See, he's huge now! Three feet long! He's sure pretty though.

Pics of my gravid pulchra

2008-11-19T15:20:00.000-08:00

I got some pics of my very fat female mantella pulchra. The pics don't really show off the coppery color of her head, or the bright orange flash marks, but they definitely show how gravid she is. :)

Here's the side view-

And the top view. In this one her head is sorta in the shadow, but you can see how round her belly is.

Nifty!

Mushrooms are grand fun!

2008-11-18T17:52:00.000-08:00

There's a mushroom growing in my pulchra tank! lookie!

It's growing against the glass in the corner, so the only way for me to take a pic is through the glass, which doesn't make for a great pic, but that's ok. The fun thing is that while I was taking that pic the female frog hopped out from her hiding space. And why is that fun? Well, you may remember that the pulchras are the ones who've been bugging me with their constant calling. And this female is FAT! Like, HUGE! GINORMOUS!!! So in another day or so she'll be all skinny again and there'll be some eggs in the tank. Unfortunately, the first pics I took I apparently didn't have the CF card in my camera (so it didn't save them) and the second ones the flash was blocked by the tank lid. The really tricky thing though is that there's only like 2 places in that tank that I can get to, so if she lays them anywhere else (which she probably will because the spots that I can get to aren't exactly prime laying spots) so I might have to tear apart the the tank a little.

I am really pissed that I managed to screw up the pics so much. grrs.

I'd take some more, but I've already bugged her enough.

Hm, so let's see. Mom and I went shopping yesterday. It was fun. :) I got a new purse, and some nice grown up clothes, which is always good. lol

and... umm.... school is school. Lab is always fun though. Except that today after I scrubbed I had to wait forever before I could put on my gown and gloves, which meant that for about 15 minutes I was standing holding my arms and hands up, which is harder than it sounds.

And I didn't sleep at all the night before, and then last night Matthew was playing on the computer and keeping me up. Getting up this morning at 6 was very difficult.

That's pretty much it. We're starting to get a bit busier at work, so that's good. I'm making a bit more money. I want to go to Portugal, and for that I'll need money. I'll also need to talk school into letting me take my finals at least a week early. I asked the program director about it today, but she wasn't sure. She said that she's never had someone ask to take it that early (a week is a lot in an accelerated program) and that I'd need to talk to the dean, but that's it's definetly good that I'm doing this early, so maybe. I figure after we talk about it on Thanksgiving and I have definitive dates I'll make an appointment with the dean. If he says no then I wont get to go. :( I really want to go! Although, I must admit I don't have a huge interest in Portugal itself, I just want to get out of Bakersfield. Out of CA. Out of the US! That could be that I don't know much about it though.

anyway.

I'm eating ginger snaps.

no furry tail for Cassie

2008-11-12T22:58:00.001-08:00

So I'm kinda worried about Cassie. In the last couple of weeks I've noticed her tail didn't seem to be as poofy as it was. I've pointed it out to Matthew, but he never really paid attention, until I finally made him look today, and he was surprised. You know how she used to have a super thick, poofy tail? Not anymore. Now the fur is very thin. It's weird, she's not losing fur anywhere else, and the skin on her tail isn't at all irritated, it's just not there anymore. I tried to look it up online, but didn't really find anything. Everything that I found were all skin problems, so the skin would be red, or have a rash, or be dry or something, and it's not! Her skin looks fine! She just doesn't have much fur! There's not even a real bald spot. So I dunno. I'll keep an eye on it, but if it doesn't get better soon (although, how would it, if I'm not doing anything about it?) I'll take her to the vet. Stupid expensive vet. He's gonna yell at us for not being on top of their vaccinations (none of them have gotten any in over a year), and not giving them any flea medication (which we stopped because the kind he said we needed (and we agreed) is only available by prescription, and with 4 cats that's a couple hundred dollars every 3 months). I don't wanna feel guilty dammit!

gah!

So if anyone knows why a cats fur would suddenly be thinning, please let me know.

Thank you.

And, of course, I still need that tank.

At least my frogs are happy. I actually saw two of them (two species I mean, the pulchras and the expectatas, so 4 frogs total) in amplexus today, which was kinda cool. They're being so noisy that we can hear them from outside, but they're only calling during the day, so it's ok. I mean, our neighbors used to have a bird that wouldn't shut up at any time of the day/night. A little light frog calling during the day is way better.

Anyway.

I have to go to school on Friday cuz our lab was supposed to be on Tuesday, but we didn't have school that day, so that kinda sucks.

Stupid fake holidays.

Matthew took me to Mama Toscas last night. It was very nice. :) Certainly not something to do every day, or week, or even month, but nice as an occasional treat. I got a nice glass of wine, Matthew actually liked the pork chops, it was nice. And yummy. I got some chicken covered with Swiss cheese and pancietta (and yeah, I know that's spelled wrong, but whatever, I don't know Italian). We even got all dressed up. Matthew looked very nice in his black pants, black shirt, and silver tie. He took a couple pics on his cell phone, but he hasn't sent them to me yet, so I can't put them up. I think I need to make him do that....

In fact, I might have to go bug him about it now!

Aw crap, anyone wanna give me a 50 gallon tank?

2008-11-08T14:57:00.000-08:00

So for the first time in quite awhile my snake shed all in one piece. Which means that I was actually able to accurately measure how big he is. 3 feet. My poor snake is 3 feet long and stuck in a 20 gallon tank. Which means that he can't spread out all the way, which means that he's very susceptible to a respiratory infection. Unfortunately, I live in Bakersfield, where people believe in charging twice retail for their used tanks. ugh. I mean, I guess I can sorta afford a new tank at retail, but I was really looking to spend less than $100 on it. grrs.

In other animal related news, my pulchra wont stop calling, which is cool, cuz that means that they might actually lay some eggs, but there's no way I could get eggs out of that tank. So I don't know what to do. Very tricksy.

Last night at work we had a million servers on, so I had a tiny section, so even though I was closing on a Friday night I only made $80.

That wont even cover my damn tank!

>:o

But other than that I'm good. :) How are you? Do you happen to have a large, empty fish tank lying around that you wanna give me?

Lots of homework, not a lot of free time, and cold, hard cash

2008-11-06T11:45:00.000-08:00

I figured out that I'm actually at school between 18 and 19 hours a week. Not terribly bad. And then I have at least an hour of homework every night, sometimes more, so we'll say that's like 27 hours a week doing school related stuff. Then of course, there's the 25 hours I work, and since I usually get there 20 mins early and hang out for a bit afterwards that goes up to 28 hours a week at work. So now we're at 55 hours a week where my time is not my own. I know, that's not really even all that much, but see, a few months ago, I didn't have ANYTHING going on. The whole getting up at 6 to go to school until 2:30 and then rushing home and going to work where I close so I'm there until 11 and then trying to get some homework done before I have to go to school again thing is just not fun.

I don't know how people do this with kids.

sheesh.

I think I'm just too much of a wimp.

Anyway.

So aside from how busy I've felt, school is going well. I like almost everyone in my class. It's not difficult yet, but it's a lot of memorizing stuff that I never thought I'd need to know. I also discovered that I suck at opening sterile "pill pouches." Of the 8 or so that I opened I only managed to get 3 on the table, and I didn't do a very good job on those three, but that's ok. I'll have the next 15 months to practice. :) We have daily quizzes in all my classes and I've done well on all of those, which isn't saying much, cuz like I said, it's not hard yet, although some people for some reason aren't doing so well. I think it's just cuz they're not used to actually having to study. It's amazing, the same people who complain that the flash cards are useless and not at all helpful so they wont do them are the same who aren't doing well on the quizzes (we correct each other's papers, so we all kinda know how everyone else is doing).

Work is going pretty well too. It seems to be picking up a little, which is nice. I haven't walked with less than $50 in awhile, and I did manage to save $500 this month, so yay!

Umm... let's see..... I haven't really been playing with clay too much. Which is too bad.

Matthew is doing well. He's getting a business license for computer repairs so he can fix the computers at work and get paid by Hilton (this was something his managers insisted he do) so that's cool, cuz they'll pay him a lot. He's also done a lot of work for people we know lately and has made some pretty decent money, so yay!

All in all, life is going pretty well I suppose. I wasn't the least bit surprised by the election results, although I do wish Prop 8 hadn't passed. I know there are those who were for it, but I'm not. It is really nice to be able to drive through the Stockdale/New Stine intersection with a gazillion people waving signs.

And with that I must be off. Class in 30 mins. :)

Crazy week, and it's only half over

2008-10-29T19:36:00.001-07:00

EDIT-Looking for the SJVC infozone portal to access email and such? Go to http://infozone.sjvc.edu. Make sure to put ed/ before your user name. So, if your name is John Smith and you were born on July 4th, 1980, your user name is smjo(your student ID number), and your password is js198007

And returning to my blog.....

I started school this week.

Finally.

It's going well enough I guess, but it's certainly keeping me busy. Monday and Wed I'm in class from 10-2:40, with a 20 min break in between, Tuesday I go in at 7:15 and don't get out until 2:40, this time with 2 30 min breaks, and Thursday I get to sleep in, I only have one class from 12:30-2:40. All that isn't terrible. I mean, yeah, that's a lot of time spent in class, but that's alright, I've had worse. The problem is the homework. The first night I spent 3 hours on homework, the second (Tues) I could only work for 2 hours cuz I also had to go to work, and by the time I got home at 9 I was exhausted from being up since 6 am so I wasn't able to do as much. Tonight I've been doing homework for an hour or so, but I needed to take a break. :) Yay for breaks! Luckily most of the homework I was assigned today isn't due until Monday, so that's good. Of course, since I have so many days to do it they gave us more to do, so yeah.

I got 100% on my first quiz though! yay....

ugh.

I feel bad cuz I meant to call Carina on her birthday, but by the time I had time to call it was like 11 and I was tired and knew I had to get up early.

Also, I don't get why schools must make everything difficult. Remember how I was complaining about having to use my school email? Wait... did I complain about that? I think I did...

anyway.

So stupid school email. Fine, whatever, I'll try to check it every so often. So I go to check it today. Hmm.... where is the link to my email? It is not (as you may have believed) on the SJVC website. It is also not to be found by searching for "SJVC student email" or anything likewise easy. Somehow Matthew stumbled across a help page somewhere and I happened to see it and see that it said "infozone" and then remembered that that's what the address was at school (I remembered it had info in it, but not the zone part) and was finally able to get to it. All in all, it took me about 30 mins to login to my email account, only to see that the email that my teacher had told us was there and was very important to read was just a notice that another teacher had lost a wedding ring, which I already knew cuz I was there when she lost it. Well, I mean I was there when she realized she lost it. Obviously we don't know where she was when she lost it or it wouldn't be lost.

My point is, the people who are in charge of this kind of thing should all be fired. Every single one of them. Because I have problems like this EVERY SINGLE TIME I try to access a school or work website. It's irritating. Infuriating. And someone needs to lose their job over it.

Other than that though, I like my classes! I have Medical Terminology (super easy since I already took it), Intro to Surgical Tech, Intro to Surgical Procedures, and my lab class. The lab and surgical procedures are the best. I learned how to put on a table cloth (ok, a "back table cover") and how to open towels without touching the outside of the package, and then I got to throw them on the table, which is always fun, and we learned about Metzenbaum scissors and Mayo stands and a whole bunch of stuff. Good times.

But now, alas, I must do more homework.

Bye!

I'm giving up on Sonic.

2008-10-24T21:51:00.000-07:00

I like Sonic. At least, I used to. But the last several times I've been there I've been very disappointed. The Cherry Limeade's are good, but that's about it. Tonight was the last straw. Here's how it went-
"Hi, welcome to Sonic, can I take your order?"
Matthew- "Yeah, we'll get a number 6 (for me, it's a Chicken Toaster Club, normally comes with fried chicken) with grilled chicken..."
*pause*
"Ok what else can I get?"
"Um... that was with a Cherry Limeade, and can I also get a large number 8 with tater tots and Cherry Limeade"
"What was that?"
"A number 6 with grilled chicken and a Cherry Limeade, and a large number 8 with tater tots and a Cherry Limeade."
"Ok, *she repeats all that* Your total is $13.15"

We wait a few minutes and it comes out.
"Alright, I've got a number 6 and a number 8, that'll be $13.60"

Oh, ok, maybe we heard the total wrong? I mean, it's possible that we both heard the same wrong number, right? So while Matthew is paying I look in the bag.

uh, wait, no, this isn't right. It's a number 5 (a grilled chicken sandwich), fries and Matthew's chicken wrap, but no tater tots.

When she brings us ketchup we tell her that it's the wrong sandwich and that we didn't get the tater tots. She apologizes, repeats back what we need, and goes to get it. Meanwhile, I'm eating my fries, which were rubbery, had no salt, and obviously were made in old oil, and a guy comes out- "Here ya go" throws a bag of food at us, and walks away before we can even open the bag. My sandwich is right, but there's no tater tots.

So we push the button and tell them that we still don't have the tater tots.

The first girl comes back out looking very embaressed and apologizes and asks if there's anything else we need. We don't, we've got out food so we're ok. (At this point I wasn't even going to bother complaining about the crappy fries)

We finish and order dessert. A banana split with nuts and a chocolate cream pie shake. The girl never asks what size, just gives us a total. It comes out, and there's no nuts on my banana split.

So! Let's recap. When ordering the girl never asked what we'd like to drink with our combos (strike one), it came out with the wrong sandwich, even though the correct one was repeated back to us (strike 2), it took asking for the tater tots TWICE after they'd forgotten them (strikes 3 and 4), she never asked what size shake we wanted (strike 5) and my banana split didn't have nuts on it (strike 6). Oh, and the fries were bad (strike 7).

I mean, seriously, how many ways can you fuck up an order at a fast food place? If I messed up this much at my work we would have comped the food, offered the dessert for free, and probably given them a gift card. And the manager would have come out personally to apologize.

Sadly, there's no way to send in an online complaint, the only way is to call the toll free number from their website, which I'm too lazy to do.

grrs!!

Did I mention that this cost us over $20? GRRS!!

My back still hurts dammit

2008-10-24T18:22:00.000-07:00

So I had my orientation at SJVC today. (Completely unrelated side note, but I really think I need to come up with a new way to start my posts. They all seem to start with "So I... " which must get tiring to read. Anyway.) It went pretty well I guess. They do that really obnoxious thing where they communicate to the students a lot via email, but will only email your school address. Does that annoy anyone else? I don't want to have to check a separate email address every day so I can find out that I have a quiz the next day or (as was the case for one student who didn't check her email) I'm having a ceremony to honor me because I'm so wonderful, but apparently I'm not good enough to call (I guess they told her through email that it was coming up, but she never checked it, so she never showed up). I've had a few teachers throughout the years who have actually asked me for my email that I use and then used that one to create their mailing list, and that worked way better. People actually got their emails that way.

It's just stupid. And annoying.

Whatever.

We got 80 million books. So many, in fact, that they didnt fit in the giant wheelie "back packs" that they gave us. Granted, included in there was a dictionary, a medical dictionary, a theasurous, a pocket guide to a book that they also gave us the big version of, and 3 books that we wont need for the next 30 weeks, but still. Just looking at them made my back hurt. Luckily I decided to drive, because otherwise I would've had to walk home, get my car, and drive back. They're still all sitting in my car because it took lying down for 3 hours for my back to stop hurting after carrying them to my car from the school, and I don't feel like doing that again. I think I'll make Matthew carry them in.

I also bought some books from Border's today. I think I'm going to return one of them though. It covers all the same stuff as the other one, only in a more ... umm... less advanced way, so I figure I'll just stick with the other one. I mean, the stuff in there is cute, but I'm not necessarily looking for how to do cute, and I think I can figure out how to roll a ball, stick two black pins in it for eyes, and then draw a half circle for a smile without having to spend $23 on a book telling me how to do that. The other one though, looks really amazingly helpful. It shows exactly what to do to make every part of the body (well, every PG 13 part), even including different how to make different races and ages and all that, which is kinda tricky, and good to know. Of course, it also makes it look super easy, which I doubt it is, but that's ok. It'll be fun to play with.

Hey look! Someone from Cookeville came to my blog! I used to live there! nifty.

I guess that's about it. Hmm... I think I should probably feed my snake. I'm gonna go do that now, yippie!

Bad backs, fairy hands, and Brita water filters

2008-10-23T20:00:00.000-07:00

I feel bad, I was supposed to babysit Alex tonight, but my back has been killing me. I've tried taking IB Profen (thank God I'm not allergic), aspirin, and even codiene, but nothing has helped. Well, laying down perfectly still works, but the moment I sit up or move it starts hurting again. Needless to say, even thinking about picking up a toddler hurts, so I called and canceled. Luckily she found someone else. It's annoying. If it doesn't feel better soon I'm going to have work pay for me to go to the doctor. I'm just assuming that it's work related.

Tomorrow I have orientation at SJVC at 8:30. I have to show up all dressed in scrubs and whatnot. I was always planning on walking, but with my back I really don't know if that's the best idea. At 8:30 it should be nice and cool too. I dunno. We'll just have to see how it goes.

I ordered some sculpting books at Borders. I'm not sure that I'm going to buy them, but I want to at least look them over.

I finally convinced Matthew to try using a water filter instead of buying so much bottles. I don't know that he'll use it much, but I am. I got the pitcher kind cuz those seem to taste better. I set it up yesterday and have already had to refil it three times. :) Yay for drinking lots of water and saving the environment from wasteful plastic bottles and whatever!

Matthew's secret allergies

2008-10-21T21:58:00.000-07:00

So apparently Matthew is allergic to IB Profen. Last time he took some a month or so ago his hands and feet got all itchy. Last night he took some again (forgetting about the previous time) and not only did his hands and feet get itchy, but he also developed hives all over his body, and his face got kinda swollen. And apparently if you're allergic to IB Profen you're way more likely to become allergic to aspirin, so you can't take either. So he's stuck with tylenol. Poor boy.

Hmm... I totally thought I had more to write about, but I can't think of anything else, so this is it.

Polymer clay elf heads!

2008-10-17T11:08:00.000-07:00

Looky what I did!!

This was my first attempt-

Ok, ignoring the creepy tin foil eyes, I think I did pretty good. I mean, come on, it was my very first try ever!! Matthew thinks it looks like a guy from World of Warcraft.

But then, I tried again!

Way better, right? This time I found some red beads for the eyes, which work better, but even without that, way better! It actually looks like a person, not a misshapen lump of clay!

Lets see what they look like next to each other!

So yes, that is what I did last night. See, me and Matthew went to Chili's, but they had a long wait, so we killed some time by going to Aaron's Brothers and I bought some cheapo polymer clay (even if I wanted to, which I don't, cuz these are just practice, I can't bake these or harden them in any way) and some tools cuz they were all half off, so it was only $4 and then when we got home I made those! I know, they're far from perfect, and really, they're not very good anyway, but it was the first time I ever tried something like that and they turned out better than I expected. They also took like an hour and a half each. So now I need to go buy some wire so I can make bodies! Yay!