Nano Time 2012

NaNoWriMo kicks off in just TWO DAYS!

This year, i'm really nervous.

1. I'm doing a NaNo no no by re-writing a previous nano. 
2. It's the same NaNo from last year which took several thousand words in which my characters revolted and i couldn't get them off the damn boat!
3. I'm running not one but two write ins which i often don't get a whole lot of work done during.

So this could be the first year i can't win. Or i could blow it all out of the water and have the most epic story on the face of the planet.
.......
more likely the former.

This will be my fifth year doing NaNo. It's hard to believe that four years ago, my buddy somehow talked me into doing this.

I remember thinking to myself, "self! you couldn't even write your Elixir story that you've been working on for 13 years. Why would this be any better?"

And yet the story that came out of that year was awesome. Reading through it even now, i still enjoy the story.

Last year's story, the idea was good and solid. It hasn't even changed that much. Just the premise and the order of things and small tweaks to my characters to make them more believable. Less of the majestic heros and the drop dead gorgeous heroine. More of realistic 20 somethings that have quirks, odd habits, and drive each other crazy.

I believed so much in this story from the beginning even after the 30,000 words on the stupid boat that i started a re-write back in February. I woke up one morning and just had to write a scene that i had dreamed about. 4,000 words later, i had two chapters, a new way of going about my story.

Over the course of the last year, I've talked through several points of my story with Boyfriend Jon and many many other friends. Slowly finding the reason for my story. Finding new characters that belong in my world. New ways to seed foreshadowing, and themes. Very quickly, everything falls into place. I should be excited, and exuberant, and enthusiastic. But instead, i'm just nervous.

What if i get caught up in all the problems that held me back last year? Like the fact that i don't really know much about pre WW2 fasion, society, landmarks, culture, and just the history of WW2 in general. What happens if all these new ideas run me into corners? What happens if for the first time i fail NaNoWriMo?

Genes I wasn't born with

Summer is undoubtedly wedding season. In the northwest, i'm convinced that while you almost never have a perfect chance of full on sunshine...your odds of less or no rain are greatly increased between June and September. So every relation i know of seems to think this is a great time to get married. I don't think i was born with the "lets get married right away" gene. I'm much more of a fan of "eh, we'll get there eventually" and "why can't this just be a simple thing?"

As a fellow 20 something...with many friends in the 20 something range, weddings are around every corner.

I have people whom i barely talk to the rest of the year asking what i think about these paint chips for their wedding colors. Especially those who respond to my polite "its your wedding you should be happy" with "NO!!! What do YOU think???!!!!"

I've been invited to multiple bridal showers, bachelorette parties, wedding favor making parties, putting stamps on envelopes parties and thankfully only one wedding that i plan on attending.

There's a distinct influx of "So when are you and Boyfriend Jon getting married?", (most of this comes from our mothers).

I even got a wedding cataloged that was misdirected to me instead of my neighbor. Seriously...are those prices REAL? put half of the basics together and that'd pay off my car!

I hear about the games that were played at the bridal showers and think "WHY? who wants to be trussed up in a toilet paper wedding dress?" I don't see the point. Why do i need to know this inside joke between the bride and groom? And, call me a prude all you want. I'm uncomfortable buying sexy lingerie for another woman!

I'm very happy for the couples i know that have made this huge decision and i genuinely hope they have a happily ever after ending. But it's all this extra stuff that i recoil from. I can't help it. Too much of it in a short amount of time and i start searching around for something very anti-wedding. A motorcycle ride, a marathon of blow-em-up blood and guts games...anything to get it out of my mind.

The only wedding decision i have come to is that i want to set up a pay pal account instead of a registry. Tradition be damned. I'd rather have a solid start of a nest egg than a gravy boat or candelabra....whatever that is.

Post San Fran Adventures

San Francisco was a whirlwind. It was going going gone. There was so much to see and so little time to see it. And yet i'm still not tired of the place. I would gladly go back again.

But nothing slowed down when i returned either. Friday was spent unpacking, cleaning and getting back to working on the end tables. They are so close! I began to iron on the edging for my tables so that you wouldn't be able to tell that i used plywood at first glance.

This took the remainder of Friday, and part of the day Saturday.

On Saturday, i also went and got my very first queen size mattress! Lindsey was getting a new frame anyway, so she gave it to me. But now i'm left with the problem of being in a 1 bedroom apartment with a double mattress and box spring AND a queen size mattress. I'm seriously lacking on extra room. With the bed bug scares, most mattress recycling places aren't taking them anymore without you having to pay them. So I'm turning to Craigslist to see if i can help someone out. I might have connected with someone, but given that it's craigslist...i wont' count my chickens before they hatch.

On Sunday, with all the glorious sunshine in the Pacific Northwest, i pulled out the wood stain and got to work.

With any luck, the tables and legs will be ready for the first finish coat tomorrow at the latest. Yay!

And the dogs missed me so much, they wouldn't leave my side all day: Yes the Wallet Thief fell asleep in that position and was snoring loudly. These dogs are soo good for entertainment value.

Geeking out in time for camping

I have an opportunity to play with a Kindle for a few months for free. I'm just as excited to be playing with a new piece of technology as i am to start a few new books. I think I've downloaded about 55 novels to it already. Mostly that i haven't read in years, Science Fiction, and Fantasy novels with a few oddballs thrown in for some flair. It will be a great addition to the camping trip.

As a teenager, with no bills, no work, no obligations...55 books would normally pose little challenge to me. That was a standard summer. Of course they were young adult novels like Anne McCaffrey, Tamora Pierce, Piers Anthony, and Mercedes Lackey. Not...Frankenstein or The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I read like my dad, who's been known to plow through a  Tom Clancy novel or Clive Cussler thriller in less than a weekend. My mom on the other hand takes somewhere near a month to read a 300 page novel.

The geek in me is also really excited because it looks like a PADD from Star Trek!!!! I will admit I've daydrempt a little that i was wandering the corridors of the enterprise and might run into Captain Picard. (I'm a geek! Daydreams like this really do come to mind and make me smile).

The same time i got a hold of the Kindle, Boyfriend Jon got a Nook-Color. Which, in comparison...is SOOOO PRETTY! Given the choice between the two, i'm much more interested in the Nook. But the Kindle is free for now. Not to mention i have much better battery life and it's lighter. Now if only i could stop accidentally hitting the keyboard at the bottom.

My future e-reader will probably be color, small, light, with wifi and a minimal amount of buttons. And while i'm busy day dreaming, it will connect with the enterprise main computer and respond to voice commands too. Just kidding.

Our camping plans are moving along a lot faster now that Boyfriend Jon and I are taking the time to sit down and collaborate on meals,  equipment and how to pack everything into my tiny economy car. I feel a lot more confident knowing that we're already on the same page. On the menu is egg, sausage and potatoe hash combinations for breakfast, grilled cheese and soup for lunches, and Mac&Cheese plus hotdogs and Hobo style for dinners. Also going to try my hand at making popcorn in an pot (not my dad's super cool old fashioned popcorn maker with turn wheel and not an air popper). Oh yeah, and the making for smores are a must. Right now, i feel like this weekend can't come fast enough.

I'm so thankful this week is moving along quickly. It's been two and a half weeks since my counterpart left for a trip to Hawaii. And two and a half weeks since I've had a day of work not accompanied by a migraine as everyone tries to convince me that their work has highest priority even though it's not due for a week. The two of us, normally cover an array of jobs that used to be covered by five people. It's just not feasible to expect one person to do the job of 5!

So, i look forward to her return later this week. Mostly so that i can dump HER work back on HER desk and then escape to a world that has neither work nor desks for a long weekend with Boyfriend Jon to celebrate a year and a half long relationship that is composed of frequent Geekery.

Hodge Podge of Happenings

Today I'm at the point where I've become so tired, that i'm actually wide awake. Most of my alertness, i'm convinced, comes from this massive headache which has a firm grip on not one but both of my temples.

My lack of sleep comes from a late night talk (good kind) with Boyfriend Jon as well as the start of a cold which had me producing very unladylike snores which kept waking me up. I ended up banishing myself to the couch so as to not interfere with his slumber. If not for the headache taking hold almost as soon as i opened my eyes, i might just still be there.

No, I haven't gotten around to taking pictures of the corset back and for this I apologize. I know what it's like to be following a how to and not have any results pictures. Between celebrating the official end to Boyfriend Jon's soft diet after his surgery, Wallet thief/Molly-proofing my apartment, and doing the normal prep for the work week; i haven't even taken the dress out of my back seat.

Our celebration included going to see "The King's Speech" to see what all the fuss was about since it's the predicted front-runner for the Oscars. We had already watched the other contender "Black Swan" and had mixed feelings when leaving.

I had gone into "The King's Speech" dreading a similar story to My Fair Lady. I was instead surprised to see the marble scene poked fun at by Helena Bonham Carter who handled her character flawlessly. The wife of a man plagued by his inadequacies trying to gently find a solution while helping to fend off ridicule. Colin Firth played the king's frustration, humiliation and embarrassment so palatability, that I couldn't help but root for him. Though i don't typically call him a favorite actor, he undoubtedly was an excellent choice to play the King.

My one grip was that I completely did not feel Geoffrey Rush 's character as an aspiring actor was either poignant or plausible. I felt like it had been thrown in there as something to fill the void of the character's time outside of helping the king. Though to be honest, i can't think of a better option. All other aspects of his character were magnificent. I have said before that sometimes it takes stronger emotions like anger and indignation to overcome hurdles and this was the epitome of that. The time Lionel spent with the King was excellently orchestrated by the writer. Everything from the diagnosis as being not biological to their unfolding trust and friendship was a wonderful journey. I understand why it is the forefront for Best Picture of the year.

All said and done, the movie was excellent. There are even twists and turns that you won't notice until it is pointed out. But the best part of this movie is that it will make you laugh at the sheer ridiculousness that begins to work. Even though I am lucky to be rather good at public speaking, I will evermore hear one of the lines running through my head when I do get stuck: "Fuck!Fuck!Fuck!Bugger!Fuck!"

The other side of Chaos

It's over, I've survived.

It's been three weeks since i realized my month of August was going to be a trial for certain. First the family members from New York arrived. It meant a whirlwind of family get-togethers. And then the brother from Texas arrived...which meant we got to do it all over again.

This was coupled with an unplanned stressful week at work. I not only lost my dear friend, and Administrative Ally, but one of the single most bitter women i have EVER met, decided to try and throw me under the bus and focus every ounce of her snarky attitude on me. By the end of the second week, i was talking with my boss asking him to get her off my back.

And then there was the wedding. The ceremony was GORGEOUS. At an outdoor gazebo over looking the lake. The breeze off the water cooled us all down which was a blessing in the 90 degree weather. The reception was filled with delicious foods, heartfelt well wishes, and a generous helping of humor.

Between the best man retelling a roast tale that the groom didn't remember, the garter flying in the wrong direction, the bride promising to obey her new husband...sometimes and the Final Fantasy theme song upon their entrance as Mr and Mrs... overall i enjoyed myself.

Baking the cake was a pleasure. Doing two hundred cupcakes....was decidedly not. I have decided that while i don't mind making the wedding cakes... I will not be making cupcakes again. Ever.

Good idea in theory... but completely unrealistic for one person alone. With two it was still a solid day of work and way to much frustration on top of a cake. Never again. I'm only glad that Josh and Christabelle both were extremely appreciative of all my work and said so numerous times. Not to mention the look on their faces when they took their first bites was thanks enough. I'll get pictures up soon.

In other news. Boyfriend Jon deserves some serious praise. He tolerated me dragging him to family functions so as to not go alone, venting my frustrations from Bitter woman at work nearly every day, and having to take a rain check on our 9 months while i did major wedding prep. (we got together on Friday the 13th, and our 9 months also happened to fall on a Friday the 13th). And then best of all, he gave me a neck rub when it was all over. He is the BEST BOYFRIEND EVER! Spending Sunday after it was all over with him all day was so perfect, i can't describe.

Now if you don't mind...my apartment is a disaster. No corner was left untouched by this fiasco...and i must clean.

Apartment Gremlins

I seriously MUST have a massive Gremlin infestation. Things have gone missing without so much as a "by your leave". Most confounding is the disappearance of my curtain rod. It's 4 feet long, brown, with distinctive ends. Three people have confirmed that they are certain it was moved out of the moving truck and into my bedroom. I myself, am certain that I saw it while setting up my bed.
Since that point...i have checked: Under my bed, in the closet, behind every single door, inside my laundry closet, inside my pantry closet, under my couch, behind my tv, in the entry closet, along every single square inch of floorboard, behind the water heater, in my patio storage, my only window sill and behind my toilet.

I know, I know...you're probably thinking it's there somewhere or I'm just forgetting where i put it. But that's not all.

Other missing items:
Half size mirror, A skirt i made, single egg size fry pan, and two shelves from my book case!

I pride myself on having a very good memory especially for things that I have seen. This is baffling me. Needless to say, I'm at the point of blaming the darn gremlins!!!

The cleanse

This year sucked. Plain and simple. 9 months of constantly adjusting took so much out of me. And I did a lot of it under a bevy of disharmony. I refuse to live like this anymore. So it's time to put an end to all of the stress I'm still carrying with me. So here is my final vent on last year. This is meant to cleanse my mind so i can move on. I'll be taking care of cleansing my soul and body later.
In college, i took a psychology course from a teacher that really knew her stuff. I loved the class. It was supposed to be difficult, but it seemed to click and i pulled out some of the top test scores. Of course, I passed the class with a C- due to the fact that i 100% forgot about the midterm paper. The day we turned them in, I was looking around going "Oh Crap!" with nothing in my hands but air.
In the class, one thing i remember was Maslow's Hierarchy.
Basically, if you think of it like an actual structure...each level is only as stable as the one below it. And if your foundation, (food, water, shelter, the essentials for life) is constantly in flux, so is the rest of your life. It turns into a game of Jenga; how long till the pieces fall apart? For instance: the last time i did something creative, was in November. Before all of this nightmare started; when i didn't know where i would be living at the end of every month, or who with, or if Katherine would actually pay her rent.

I know that i'm tired of comparing Kelsie and Katherine. Yet can't seem to stop. I'm hoping that getting all of it out of my head will help.

The final paperwork has been dealt with and hopefully will not pop it's ugly head up again. I truly hope to never hear from Katherine again. I'm not really sure why the numbers in the end played out the way they did, but I'm not complaining :-) It left me with a returned check for the last 8 days, and Katherine didn't get her old roommate's half of the original deposit. I feel like for the first time, justice prevailed.

I find myself, living again with someone whom I barely know and have no basis for trust. And despite all signs pointing to "You can trust Kelsie" my rational side still remains conservative. Both of us lived alone for a while and got used to the freedoms and liberties that comes with having absolute control over your domicile. Now again, we have to remember to compromise and communicate. While so far, the friction we have experienced has been barely perceptible, I can't help but look back at how i felt living with Katherine.

I thought I could trust her too. I thought she was too nice to try and screw me over. She promised me that I could treat the apartment as though it was half mine. Yet my normal habits became a matter of contention. I wasn't able to fold the couch blanket JUST right. I didn't leave the sliding door open enough for her cat to get out in the dead of winter when there was 10 inches of snow on the porch and the cat looked at her like "yeah, right, me? get my feet cold? i think not!" I tried to be compromising, but ended up all but barricaded in my room. Everything became a discussion which was basically her telling me how it was going to be. To which I ignored and continued to behave in a reasonably courteous manner.

With Kelsie, she seems to be less rigid and more open to merging our belongings. I didn't find myself with all of my stuff left stored at my parents house. This isn't to say that things might not change, but I'm trying to remain optimistic. And while she no doubt was there first, I haven't run into the mass amounts of opposition at simple changes so far. Mostly the change was necessary because she's a good deal taller than I am.

Dealing with Katherine always seemed to be an endless downward spiral. Yet i seem to have found the end of the string. I rode the emotional and mentally exhausting roller coaster rides, I held on to my convictions and now i sit, holding that metaphorical string end in my hands unable to let go because of how wronged my emotional side felt. So it's time to analyze with my rational side.

• Basics: Food was never an issue, my parents always say if you leave our house hungry, it's your own fault. Water, also never an issue. I have shelter and i know where I'll be living at the end of the month. I don't think i can accurately convey how much of a relief that simple fact is.
• Safety: I've lived with Kelsie for nearly 2 months. She has given me no reason to doubt that her portion of the rent will be paid on time. And we have a written agreement which protects both of us should something happen. Our place is in an overall safe city, safe part of town and there really is only one point of entry which we are both vigilant in locking up.
• Belonging: I have some great friends, some good friends, and some ok friends, but at least i have you all. Love has not really entered my life this last year but maybe that Jenga piece will fall back into place as soon as I'm ready.
• Esteem: All i can say is that i'm happy and proud to be standing on the other side of the downward spiral...because it goes back up from here.
• Self-Actualization: This is what a lot of people refer to as feeding your soul. I haven't been able to draw, paint, sculpt, write, or create for so long. There was too much stress or fatigue or my own schedule in the way. And it's the part of me that i missed the most. It's part of what defines me, and makes me happy.
  

The only way to recapture who I am is to let go of this pitiful thread of the past and pick up a paintbrush or a pencil instead. I think at this point, the paintbrush is looking more appealing.

In the few brief moments i have to myself this week

Let me preface this by saying: I am thankful to have a job, with benefits, good pay and a relatively safe work environment.

and let me end it by saying: If diana tries to go on vacation again i'm going to duct tape her to her chair.

It is not feasible for 1 person to do the job of 2 and a half people with only 1 and 2/3's hand usage and to still meet deadlines.
And i wish fervently for a boss's boss who would actually realize this...

Catch up = 3.75 hours

This is a bit of a rambling post, but to sum up:

Morganne's application was denied so she's not able to be my roommate. Quite a bummer since i think she and i would get along really well. I'm back to the drawing board...again.

I have been very very sick since about Saturday midday. Starting out as a headache that would just NOT go away, soon i was barely able to get off the couch to open the door. My fever of about 103, (i'm guessing because i don't have a thermometer or a mother's calibrated hand, but i had some minor hallucinations) finally broke Monday morning, only to be replaced with another one Monday night. My mom showed up to just drop off soup and proceeded to force feed it me and make me drink about a gallon of water. And i slept soundly all day and all night long. I pulled a half day on Monday, another half day Wednesday, and finally made it into work for a mostly full day thus far. And for the week, i managed to catch up in about 3.75 hours. And now i'm sitting waiting for the axe to fall.
I also completely lost my voice on tuesday, which was quite a pickle since i really needed to talk to Katherine. As it turns out, typing 70wpm has some uses, like dictating my response to her. We think we've worked out a plan for how to deal with the living situation and it's current status of unaceptable. While i don't believe her financial status is any of my business, when it affects me, i don't tolerate being lied to very well. I was told "i can't afford to pay march". Now i hear "it would be a bummer but we could pay through the end of the lease". I was less than calm to hear that, since our lease is up in august. But never fear,

The art of negotiation is letting everyone else have your way

Adventures in Roommate Searching

A situation that pretty much everyone can relate to from some point in their lives: Finding a roommate.
The only people I believe that are spared from this..."adventure"... are those who are financially able to live on their own right away after leaving their parent's keep (koodos), or those who never leave their parent's keep.
I was careful enough with my money when i was younger in order to fit into the former, and my parents made sure i would never, ever want to live with them for the rest of my life. So as i realized my college era was ending, i found a roommate and moved out. It was a pleasant six months, with an underlying stress that steadily grew until it exploded and I was forced to look for another roommate.
I put up an ad on craigslist and roommates.com and considering my complex is amazing, queries started pouring in. I forced myself to meet with anyone who fit my three main criteria: Female, Non smoker, financially able to afford the place.
So far i have been able to classify them into four categories:

1) The students: these are the ones who are pulling part time jobs and taking classes or are running solely on student loans and somehow have deluded themselves that they can afford to live with me.

These include:
The 19 year old who didn't know what utilities were much less that they were extra over rent,
The one who showed up 3 hours late and expected me to say yes because she was so awesome,
The ones who asked me if i was 420 friendly (i adamantly am not and turned their names over to the police department),
And the one who brought her bum ass boyfriend with her asking if he could essentially live with us (overnight guests are one thing, this was another)

2) The Not Impressed: The ones who walk through the door and you can visibly watch their faces fall, then they sit and half heartedly get to know you for some odd reason. Then they get up and leave and don't have the decency to tell you they're not interested.

These include:
the 28 year old who decided that she would rather live on her own
the snob...there's no other way to describe her manerisms
and the one who told me yes and then the next day told me about a much better apartment she found for 100$ more

3) The Robots: The ones who come and are as stiff as a board acting like they are in a job interview with donald trump, sit precariously on the edge of the couch and deliver pre-memorized, full fledged, complete sentence, answers to something as simple as "what are your hobbies". They are unable to carry a conversation unless it is a question - answer form.

These include:
the 'afraid to sit on anything' girl
the 'terrified 18 year old'
the 'all but silent' one who stared at me waiting for the next question.
and 'one who couldn't STOP selling herself' to me about why this appartment would be perfect for her.

4) The Potentials: These are the ones whom after speaking with them, I wanted them to move in. However in 3 out of 4 instances, they ended up saying no to me for various reasons:

one got a surprise engagement
one's boyfriend put an offer on a house and she figured she would be living with him more than at the apartment
the one whom i can only describe as fung shui, incense burning, mandala fan whom i later found out was a smoker and then said no to
and the most recent who has a very well behaved dog and i get along great with.

I have two more people to meet with tomorrow. I've had a stressful February and I'm done. I fully intend to make a decision by Sunday and be done with it all. I'm ready to know the answer to what will happen as of March 1 and just get it over with.

Getting by unscathed...by way of laughter

It seems like my life hits a lot of lows all at once. It likes giving me the finger like that.
No roommate for me yet. She backed out of the deal last minute (decided to try living on her own instead, so i can't blame her too much). And i'm back to the drawing board.
The worst part is: it's not even literal. I've been running around like crazy. Now I remember why i don't have time to draw like i used to. I'm too busy being an adult!
I believe in the philosophy that you get old because you stop laughing. Well, i guess it's true.
With all the stress i've been hit with the last few weeks, having a genuine chuckle at anything has been quite an ordeal.
This morning however, my own clumsiness finally caught up with me. By the time I was able to take a drink of my coffee, it had cooled to perfectly my body's temperature. I didn't feel it spill over the sides of my mouth and down into my shirt until the air had cooled at long about the time it hit my leg. Meanwhile i was concentrating on reading something and had zoned out so completely, that it took me a second to register back into the real world. At that point; half my coffee was down my shirt and in my lap.
My one stroke of luck though, was that i was wearing black. I couldn't help myself. I started cracking up. Co-workers called over the partitions and made sure i was ok. And soon i realized my shirt must have been protected with scotch guard or something cause it rolled right off and into my lap, the shirt barely gathering a dampness. Except now my cleavage smells like coffee. >.>
Ironically, it put me in the best mood i had been in all month. Having been bitten by a girly cootie yesterday, i went out and bought a purse (much needed considering my old one was 2 years and several re-stitchings old). And in said good mood, I went around to all the girly girls at my work and proptly shoved it at them (at a distance, not like it was touching their noses) proclaiming it to be pretty! My quirky happieness seemed to amuse them and they gave the pretty purse it's much needed appreciation. (You must appreciate the pretty red purse!!)

Unbeliveable string of bad luck...

Ok, I do believe in Karma, what goes around, comes around and that she is as big of if not a bigger bitch than i am.

Even though my previous post was titled about how evil I am, I cannot believe that had anything to do with this. the girl was laughing the entire time and smiling after her initial mortified look when she didn't know how i would react.
That is in no way possible justification for how unbeliveably shitty my weekend was. I can't make this kind of stuff up....

Friday: recieve a text message. My phone was in my bra because i was wearing coveralls since i was working in the woodshop and that was the easiest place to put it where i could get at it easily. In the process of trying to get my phone, i hooked my finger in my grandmother's necklace and broke the chain and lost the charm somewhere in Home Deopot.
Open the text message and find out that my roommate has decided to take a job in Pennselvania and is going to move out. Now i have to find a roommmate at the worst possible time of the year...the holidays! FUCKING WONDERFUL

Saturday: MY TV BLOWS UP. Like smoke and everything. And my roommate is in the shower so i can't exactly barge in there and ask where the circut box is. It's not THAT old of a tv, but jeeze...not what i want to deal with.
I then later that day broke my heel to a pair of shoes that i happen to really like, not my favorites at least.....Then the damn cat trips me. I swear to god cat if you do that again, i'm going to drop kick you into the lake at our appartment complex.

Sunday: backing out of my parking stall at my apartment (I go slow because i can't see around the other car and i've had a few close encounters so i go very very slow so hopefully another car would have time to see me and stop or at least honk), and another car (who was speeding) glances off of my bumper like he didn't even see my car backing out. He didn't stop untill i pulled out as fast as i could safely and took off after him, so pissed i was about to pull some stunt man style driving to cut him off. Luckily for his fucking ass, he saw i was comming after him and pulled over. He gets out of the car and doesn't even ask me if i'm ok. he just keeps going on "it's ok it's ok" Like it's my fucking fault! uh no buddy, it's your fault for hitting me and trying to run. i quickly write down his liscence plate number on my palm so he can see it just in case he gets the idea to try and drive away again before i'm finished with him. He gets the picture and starts looking at HIS vehicle to assess the damage. I go over to mine and try rubbing the marks now on my bumper. Thankfully, my first stroke of good luck and it rubs off like a scuff mark on lenoium. I'm glad karma is a bitch because his wheel fender had a nice big crack in it. Since he didn't want any information and my car was just scuffed i let him go. And turned in his liscence plate number to the front office so they can cite him for speeding though the residence.

No worries...it gets better....

Later that night i made the mistake of going out (in general) with my buddy Kenny for dinner and to at least laugh some at this whole damn weekend. We decided to get ice cream afterward and i paid. I had decided to not take my whole wallet with me that night and instead had just my ID card, debit and credit in my pocket. Apparently i didn't get my Debit card back deep enough in my pocket because it as i found out later, obviously fell out. I get a phone call about two and a half hours from my dad who's yelling at me. When i finally make out what it's about, i discover that my debit card is missing and someone picked it up. At least they were nice enough to call around in the phone book for people with my last name. Since i'm not listed, they got ahold of my parents who then got hold of me. So i'm getting chewed out by my dad, i can't hear him because a friend of Kenny's and mine brought his pill of a 2 year old (i've never wanted to smack a kid so badly in my life) and she's screaming as loudly as possible, my dad isn't listening to me that i don't have anythign to write with at the moment and if he could just hold on and stop talking for a second i could get something.

In the middle of this whirlwind, i did a pretty good job keeping everything together. but that finally broke me. when i got home I called my best friend and started crying to him. I just couldn't deal with all of it anymore. He calmed me down and gave me a starting point to fix it all.
So today that's what i'm doing. I have a new tv, i got my debit card back, my mom i guess chewed my dad out for yelling at me and told him all that i'm going through so he emailed me to appologize and ask how he could help, my car is ok so i'm not too freaked out about that anymore, and i've basically decided that if one more thing goes wrong today; if i so much as break a nail...i'm going to go home and crawl under my comforter and not come out till spring.

In which I finally realize that i haven't cleaned my room in a month

My room is a mess. For a normally tidy person having 3/4 of the floor covered in clothes and a desk that's pilied high with .....what the hell is that?

Perhaps this is one of the reasons why I haven't been able to stay focused for hmm going on a week now. e.g: I've sat her for 9 minutes staring at this exact screen.

Now that NaNo is done, hey guess what...time to clean and change stuff.
#1: Fold all the clothes that are spilling out of my rack (i don't have drawers so it's all in those metal snap together cubes in my closet) and off the floor because they're all clean anyway. Make sure laundry basket is empty for use in #6.
#2: Return those rented movies, thank god for Blockbuster not having late fees if you do actually return them. and go through all that paperwork on top of your desk.
#3: Get all food into garbage receptical not in room, take all dishes to kitchen and wash them.
#4: Clean anything not mentioned above until room is at desired level of order.
#5: Vacuum and dust....yes there is such a thing as a dust rag and you can use it without it biting you.
#6: Take all books off of bookshelf and place in laundry basket to make bookshelf easier to hang up on wall with help of dad or neighbor.
#7: Sweet talk said dad or neighbor to help me move the rectangular desk out of my room and over to my dad's workshop.
#8: Cut desk into desired kidney shape, edge with plastic to prevent partical board from crumbling and reattach legs.....somehow.
#9: Sweet talk said dad or neighbor to help me get it back over to my apartment and put it back in room in new arangement that allows me to watch TV and work on my computer without having to turn around! WIN! If all else fails, it is possible for me to do this by myself by why try to cram it into my economy car when neighbor has Ford F150 truck?
#10: Get life back in order.

Surviving the worst week in a very long time...

Monday: car accident, getting locked out of car, standing in the rain for an hour till the locksmit arrived, co-workers stopping buy to make sure i'm ok but not a single one offering a jacket or umbrella.

Tuesday: Smashed finger in a door, let out a very loud cuss word and was reprimanded for it.

Wednesday: Color printer is still broken and i'm getting pestered by the same people multiple times in an hour if it's fixed yet. It's affecting my ability to get the rest of my work done. Needless to say, i snapped at them. And was reprimanded again.......

Thursday: Trying to deal with insurance company, and rental company hasn't called me back to confirm my reservation. Dad decides to get mad at me for no apparent reason then ignores me in favor of talking to his brother on the phone. Didn't even say goodbye to me. Go to bed at 8:30 cause i'm just that emotionally drained. At 11:30 my roommate decides it would be a good idea to FRY SOMETHING. I'm woken up with this very loud hissing noise, my heart starts pounding and i race out of my room half dressed to see what's on earth could be going on. And my roommate has this horrified look on her face and is saying "i'm sorry, i'm sorry" over and over as she tries to get the food in the fry pan to be quiet. The black cat is crouched on the white floor looking at me clearly in terror with this look on his face like "if i don't move maybe she won't see me". My heart wouldn't calm down for almost two hours so i really didn't sleep well.

Friday: no word from the rental company, and no reply to messages. Drop off my car at the shop, initial estimate is like 900$. Final estimate is 1700$. The shop had to call in the renal company who finally responded. I took out the extra insurance just in case because of my luck this week. Go home to try and talk to my dad again, he's on the phone again. Didn't say hi, nothing. I was there for over a half hour and he didn't say goodbye again when i left. I have no idea. Broke my high heeled shoe and scraped up my knee.

Saturday: just stayed home and cleaned and did my yoga. It didn't help. My appartment lost my confirmation for my renter's insurance so i had to go through that whole mess again. The cat tripped me and i have rug burn on my hand now. And my manicure didn't even last a whole day.

Sunday: Went home and delt with mom and her hovering, then went and babysat the girls while the parents went out to get errands done. Smacked my bad knee on the corner of a table and got Aleah's head smashed into my nose. Went home and locked myself in my room then went and visited with kenny after he got off work. And poor guy, i started crying and whining to him. I don't whine very often but he was very sweet and let me get it all out of my system.

At the same time, I look at all of this and go "is this as bad as it gets? this is nothing! This is all managable." Yes it's frustrating, yes it sucks, and yes it really wore at me. But in the end, i'm fine. My battle wounds from this week will heal, I've never had a reprimand before so i doubt they'll seriously affect me, my roommate has promised to never do that again, my dad can't not talk to me forever, mom's just....mom, and my car is being fixed.

This is all just part of life; the wheel goes up and the wheel goes down. I think mines just gotten a slight flat and is sluggish this last week. It will get better though.

Pet sitting, the ultimate weight loss strategy

Who would have thought that the best trainer I could possibly have is a dog.
Though not just any dog seeing as I have a miniature poodle who is good for nothing but being terrified of a leaf, keeping your feet warm as a travel size hot water bottle (that follows you around non the less), and hogging the bed.
No, the dog I am referring to is Ozzie, the Australian Shepard. He is about 5 or so years old, a beautiful brown and white color, an enormous pink tongue, and energy to rival a pack of 8 year old boys.
While his family is out on vacation until tonight, I've been taking care of said dog and a cat (who is too lofty to listen to what I say even when I bribe her with treats and toys). Part of the arrangement was to take Ozzie to the dog park every day.
Ozzie LOVES the dog park, and I can't say that I mind it all that much especially with the regionally unusual nice weather. Between skipping breakfast to let him out in the morning, spending half my lunch throwing the ball to Ozzie in the back yard, and then running around after him at the dog park, I have no time to eat!
See Ozzie is probably one of the smartest dogs i know. You take him for a walk, and he'll want you to throw the ball to the exclusion even of sniffing other dog's butts. JUST THROW THE BALL! Once you throw the ball, he'll sort of run back to you and drop it on the path in front of where you're walking. He'll do his business, possibly pay a dog or two a little mind, but by the time you walk up to where he dropped the ball....he's waiting for you to throw it again.
However, when i tried to steer him back to the car, Ozzie tried a new ploy. Instead of putting the ball down in front of me...he runs by me and drops it behind me away from the car. When that ploy didn't work because, i needed to pick up the girls soon, he decided to run away and hide from me in some very tall grass. Every time i got him into my sight...he would look at me like "see, isn't this more fun?" Then take off again.
I finally got him back on the leash and dropped off last night.
I checked my weight this morning; since starting to pet sit Ozzie....I've lost 6 lbs in 5 days...............*begrudgingly thanks Ozzie with a treat*