The Life and Stylings of Lee

My First Tattoo

2011-01-28T12:50:00.000-08:00

Andrew got Mickey on the inside of his arm. It's a "hidden mickey" like at Disneyland.

Hairy Situation

2011-01-11T18:13:00.000-08:00

I've gone through a lot of hairstyles in my life.

Not to mention...

And, last but not least...

Ever since the day I dyed my hair "redder than the devil's d--k," as Andrew likes to refer to it, I've refused to go back to anything else. My hair has been blonde, brunette, purple... but I always go back to red.

Part of me thinks that my refusal to change it up is due in part to the attention I receive for my hair. When people look at me, the first thing they notice is the giant pile of flames on top of my head.

Random people on the street compliment me, and I seem to get a reaction out of everyone.

I can't spend my entire life with hair like this. I don't need to be the lady in the nursing home that everyone feels sorry for because she won't "let go" of her youth. But I'm honestly not sure what to do.

Do I just continue on down my path and see where it takes me, or do I bite the bullet and go for something entirely different?

I don't know, I really don't. But what I do know is, for now at least, I love my fire-hair.

Aw... it's a picture of me right this very minute. I feel nostalgic.

Long Time Coming

2010-11-03T13:49:00.001-07:00

I haven't really taken the time to blog in a while. I've had a lot of sources of tension about my blogging, mixed with the time-consuming University lifestyle.

I've been at NAU in Flagstaff since August. I'm currently taking six classes, working at the school paper, "The Lumberjack," as copy chief, working at the school radio station "KJACK," and holding down a part-time job at a diner downtown as a waitress.

In July, things drastically changed with my family dynamic. A rift in relationships caused my fiance, Andrew, to move here with me to Flagstaff. We currently live with my mom, but are considering relocating to our own place sometime in late December/early January.

My father and I no longer speak, and he and my mother are currently battling through a divorce. I've chosen to side with my mother after seeing how quickly my father turned on me for his girlfriend. Who, in fact, he was seeing while he was married.

Andrew and is parents have mended their relationship, and I hope to one day get to know them when the time is right. Right now we're focusing mainly on building our life together.

We did recently visit some of his aunts and cousins in California on our "family vacation" to Disneyland.

I've started going to Catholic services with Andrew so that I may begin my transition into the faith. Being with Andrew has helped me slowly overcome my fears and doubts, and my faith and relationship with God feels a lot stronger.

Andrew and I are planning a trip back to Vegas at the end of the month so that I can see my friends, and he can visit his family. Hopefully it all works out, because I really do miss my friends.

Things, for the most part, have been very happy on my end. Andrew and I still enjoy being with eachother just as much as the first day we met, and it just keeps getting better. There have been a few bumps in the road, but it's nothing we can't overcome. While I'm currently a bit of an icy subject with his nuclear family, eventually we hope that things will change.

So as I said, this post has been a long time coming. Hopefully I'll get around to posting again soon, but until then, at least you have an update glimpse into my life.

Catching Up

2010-07-11T22:38:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've posted here.

I just lost the buzz to blog. Lost my motivation. Lost the initiative. It was less about expressing my feelings, and more about popularity.

But I have missed you all. So, I've decided to check in. Let you all know about the huge changes in my life.
I'll start with school. On May 18, 2010, I graduated from college.I now have my Associate's Degree in Journalism, with an emphasis on media studies.

I was accepted into Northern Arizona University, and will be attending for one semester this Fall. I'm currently living up in Flagstaff, but have made the choice to move back to Las Vegas after this Fall to attend UNLV instead.

Flagstaff is beautiful, but I've realized now that I've left Vegas just how precious it was to me.

I've dated a few guys since the last time I blogged. The infamous "Drew" and I broke up back in February, and I never looked back at it. It was the final step in removing myself from that situation.

I then dated a guy named Kyle. It was a short relationship, and it didn't end particularly well.

I also dated a guy named Matt, who I had gone to church camp with a few years prior. That didn't end particularly well, either.

I don't regret those relationships, though. They steered me in my current direction, to the person I feel I was meant to be with. And yes, that sounds cliche. I know.

This is Andrew:I can't explain it. But it's just so simple when I'm with him. We've never fought about anything, we've never gotten on each other's nerves. We talk to each other 24/7. We make each other happy. And it's not just some teeny-bopper romance.

I wish I could explain further, but for now, for the sake of privacy, I won't. But I can tell you it's very serious, and that I'm looking forward to the future.

We met through my friend Cassie.

Andrew and Cassie are in a band together. He's the guitarist and she's the singer. They're both very talented, to the point that it's almost intimidating just singing along with the radio around them.

It's fun, having the two people you care about most playing in a band together. Makes it easy to spend time with both of them.

I've also been spending more time with Shelby lately. I'm glad I'm moving back to Vegas in December, since we've become a lot closer.Oh, and I've also lost a lot of weight. I now weigh 103 pounds.Just adding to the whole appearance thing, I also now have hair as red as FIRE.But this is my life, so far. Things have changed drastically, and my future seems set in a direction that I never would have imagined.

As of today, July 11, I am an 18-year-old. An 18-year-old college graduate, that celebrated at a strip club and Denny's at 3 AM.

I regret nothing.

Everything in my life has been hectic and complicated, but I have someone to count on that makes me happy. I have my education. I have my family. And I am blessed in so many ways.

My skin's even managed to clear up so much more than it used to be.That was this morning, sans actual base makeup. Huzzah.

I've missed all of you, and I hope this at least gives you some insight into what my life has become and is still becoming to this day.

To round this off, I'm going old-school. I'm doing what I used to do after every post. A picture of me, right this second.

I Think I'm Done

2010-03-29T18:27:00.000-07:00

I think I'm done blogging for a while.

I'm too tired of updating.

I'll be back, eventually. With probably half of my followers missing.

But the people that matter will stay.

I Have No Idea For a Title

2010-03-25T09:03:00.000-07:00

I'm tired right now, so honestly my creative juices are not flowing like they should be.

But that won't stop me from blogging right now. I'm at work, it's a slow day, so I need something to occupy my time.

Of course, I would be doing something productive like homework, but I actually have no homework due.

Scratch that, I just finished the paperwork for my DJ Project, but that took 5 minutes.

My project is due next Thursday, and I'm finally recording it today. I'm nervous that I'm going to mess up. It's literally 15 minutes of watching the timers and pressing the right buttons, talking inbetween.

The timing has to be just right. You can't stop recording, you can't splice things together. You mess up big, you have to re-record the entire thing.

But at least I get to dance to some awesome music while it's recording.

I would chat with my boyfriend right now, but he's otherwise occupied. So I'm all alonesie on my ownsie. Which is a really annoying phrase that I hope I never say again. But I bet I will.

My classes have been relatively simple this week. They were completely canceled on Tuesday, so I spent the day hanging out with friends at school.

Today I'm hanging out with my bestie Anna, and we're going to go eat and then come back to the house to video chit chat with my guy. And watch movies. And shovel junk food down our gullets.

It's going to be awesome.

For the most part life has been good recently. Except I found out yesterday I may not actually be able to walk in graduating in May, which means I'll still never have walked in graduation.

That, and my mother and I are going to be on food stamps when we move to Flagstaff. Living in government housing.

Yeah, it's gotten that bad.

My mom's applying for food stamps soon. Of course now it's like a food "credit card" now, but that doesn't make it any less embarrassing. I've never been in a situation like this before.

But it's fine. I'll be in Flagstaff, in my dream school. That's all that matters.

I hope.

Marrying a Canadian

2010-03-22T20:29:00.000-07:00

So in order to remedy the crap I've been going through, I married a Canadian.

It's not innuendo.

It's not real, either.

But my Canadian friend and I declared ourselves married, for the hell of it. And it's actually been a lot of fun.

Until his mother freaked out at our changed Facebook statuses.

But I still laughed.

My mother and I have decided to move to Flagstaff in June. It's going to be a very strange shift, and rather sudden.

I'm excited for the adventure, but very scared at the same time.

I've decided to take less time blogging so that I can focus on school, work and my Canadian.
Ha, my Canadian.

I'll still be blogging. But, I'm kind of sick of losing followers and having it bother me so much. It's not fair to me.

Changes

2010-03-19T13:27:00.001-07:00

I've actually enjoyed taking a break from blogging for a while.

Although right now I'm getting REALLY ANGRY because my "E" key is sticking and making a really annoying POP sound everytime I type something with an E in it.

I think I may scream.

I've been dealing with things in my personal life, which is frustrating. I've said I'm not going to talk about it, and I really want to stick to that.

I'll just say that I hate being jerked around. Hate it, with a passion.

But that's okay.

I ordered my cap & gown a few days ago, and I'll be able to pick them up... I think it's April 1 or May 1. Either way, I get to wear a cap & gown! I'm also ordering honors chords and everything "honor" that I can wear.

I really want to order a class ring from the honor society, but it's $450, and I don't know if it's worth it. But I never got to wear a class ring, and all of my friends did. It's like a right of passage that I never got to have.

I'm worried about where we'll be after May, because in May the money runs out and we'll be broke.

I just hope that everything can work out.

Retail Therapy

2010-03-17T19:06:00.001-07:00

I went shopping today. Since my dad lost his job, we won't really have any spare money for a while. But while we still have some cash, I decided to get some clothes for the summer.

I have created a montage for the pleasure of your eyeballs.I'm trying to grow up with my style. Less t-shirts, more dresses and blouses. And skirts.
I did get a flowery tank, but honestly? I don't care. It's adorable.

I also bought a new pair of jeans, but jeans are nothing special, so I didn't want to clutter my montage with them.

IT'S MY MONTAGE, I MAKE THE RULES.

I noticed that I dropped 2 followers overnight. I said this wouldn't bother me, but I hovered at 85 for a long time. I was happy to be above 85. I want to hit 100, somehow, some way.

I should be thankful I have 85. But I don't need you deserters to start a trend. I WILL HUNT YOU DOWN.

I'm also blogging on Tumblr now, much more frequently (since it's a more mindless form of blogging.) You can see it at leemariefink.tumblr.com.

Spring Break Blahs

2010-03-16T13:28:00.000-07:00

I'm tired and sore and pretty sure I'm getting sick.
So I'm not in the best mood to sit here and post a long rambling blog post.

Instead, I'll just show you a picture.

I feel like TeeTee.

Polaroid

2010-03-13T11:04:00.000-08:00

Class of 2010

2010-03-12T16:40:00.000-08:00

THEY ACCEPTED MY APPLICATION FOR GRADUATION!I'LL GET TO WALK IN GRADUATION IN MAY.

I.AM.EXCITED.

I wish I could moonwalk right now. Because I would. I would moonwalk and sing.
Because I'M GOING TO BE A COLLEGE GRADUATE!!!

Life As I Know It

2010-03-10T15:51:00.000-08:00

I broke up with Drew again.

Probably for the final time.

It wasn't like the other splits.

It didn't start with a fight. It didn't end with crying and pleas for "Just one more chance."

It was 6 text messages, 20 minutes, and barely any emotion. Except my friends staring at me asking why I wasn't crying.

It's because I was done. I was done with the blistering arguments that we would have. I was done with the lack of care that either of us had. I wanted more. I didn't want to be in a relationship because I wanted to be in a relationship.

I wanted to be in a relationship because I wanted to be with the person.

So I ended it. Finally, right? I've been dumped 3 times. I deserved to hold the reigns at least once.

I care about him. I always will. But I want someone that I don't have to struggle with. Someone sweet, funny, cute. Someone that I don't have trust issues with. Someone I don't have screaming contests with.

I'm already interested in someone, but we're taking it slow and I'm going to keep it private because I don't feel like making it into a sideshow. I really like the person, and I really want to make it work without laying it out for the world to see.

----

My journalism professor handed me a brief note on a piece of paper today.

I expected it to be a graded assignment, maybe some kind of reprimand (which is why I got nervous).

When I read it, I got so excited.

My professor nominated me for an award as an outstanding student in the communications department.

How awesome is that?

My day has been great. I've been talking to a great guy, getting all my work done, no problems with anyone.

Hopefully the rest of my week is the same.

The Meaning of Life

2010-03-05T15:36:00.000-08:00

And it was on SALE.

Slummin' It

2010-03-03T19:20:00.000-08:00

I've been really tired lately, which is unusual for me.

Of course if you asked any of my friends, they would say that's not true.
My typical response to "How are you?" is "Tired."

But that's just the first thing that pops into my head.

I'm usually pretty spry. Sometimes my impaired vision makes me dizzy, causing me to think I'm tired, but otherwise I'm wide awake.

But today I could barely keep my eyes open. I was so slow. I felt like I was going to pass out.

Our group paper is due tomorrow, so we have to put the finishing touches on it tonight.

And by the way, why is coffee so expensive? I spent $4 today on some coffee with chocolate syrup poured in it. Seriously? I can make it SO much cheaper at home. I could buy an entire lunch for $4.

Not like it helped. The caffeine crash is what killed me today.

Hopefully this weekend I can relax. I really need it. I have a midterm next week, and then spring break the week after that.

Luckily, I won't have any homework over spring break.

I also will be taking the week off work because I literally cannot tolerate being there on a week I could take off.

Too much stress at my job. My mom has given me free reign over whether I decide to quit or not. That's how stressful it has been getting.

I'm working two jobs, doing four classes, and having a relationship. Things are not as simple as I wish they were.

Six more classes and I'm a college graduate... just six more. That's 1 1/2 semesters. I can do this. I can do this.

Invasion of the Body Snatcher

2010-03-01T11:28:00.001-08:00

I'm pretty sure that my body has been snatched by a massive girly-girl.

Never in my life have I been that interested in girly things.
Sure, I wear makeup. Sure, I do my hair. But that's just because I like to look nice.

Plenty of people that are not girly do those things.

But suddenly, everything has changed.

I like the color pink. All of my electronics are pink. All of them.
Oh, except my laptop. It's white.
In a pink carrying case.

My Ipod is in a pink silicone cover.I think that's what started it. Ever since then I've started incorporating pink into almost everything that I buy.

Except my clothes. For some reason they're always in lovely hues of gray and black.

I did my nails this weekend pink with gold tips.

My trip to walmart consisted of $10 worth of fruit, bubble bath, lip gloss, mascara and a nail kit.

It used to consist of Yugioh cards and other really guyish things. I feel like I've lost my way.
I've turned into a girl.

Last night I was up until 11 pre-curling my hair to insure perfect bouncibility when I woke up this morning.

I also had to replace my cellphone this weekend because it was malfunctioning. I managed to also scratch the (bottom) of the screen with an exacto knife trying to put on the screen cover.

Needless to say, it didn't work. So I bought new screen covers, and am currently using the temporary one until the new ones come.

The new ones are really cool anyway. They're mirrored.
There's actually a video about how it works that's pretty neat.

While I was buying all that stuff, I took the liberty of fully embracing my girly side and bought some more cellphone accessories.

I have to keep this phone for 2 years, so I'm doing everything humanly possible to keep from breaking it.

I bought another cover for the phone. (I already have a plain pink one.)

And then I bought a leather pouch to carry the phone in so that I REALLY can't break it.
Needless to say, I feel like I'm going to cry if I break a nail, and I fear that I've gotten one step closer to dying my hair bleach blonde.

This cannot end well.

edit: I FORGOT, MY BLUETOOTH IS ALSO PINK.

Skin Matters

2010-02-24T22:43:00.000-08:00

As most of you know, I've been struggling with acne pretty much my entire teenage life.

For the past 7 years I've dealt with breakouts that were mild, and some so painful that I would cry looking in the mirror.

Recently I developed a lot of cysts and acne that was completely unmanageable.

I could not move my face or smile/frown because it would painfully twinge one of my cysts.

When people think of acne, they automatically relate it to being unclean. This is a very unfair assumption. I clean my face 2-3 times a day, depending on whether I'm wearing makeup or not.

For a while my skin was doing okay. It was not clear, but it was manageable. But then I had to switch birth control, and my topical medicine was not working anymore.

Long story short, this was my skin on February 12.Yeah, that bad.

It is embarrassing when you can't feel comfortable leaving the house without make. I didn't even feel comfortable leaving the house WITH makeup.

Makeup only goes so far to cover up the redness.

I stopped taking my birth control and started using this:My doctor suggested all of them. I thought the last two were weird, but after only a few weeks my skin is looking a lot better.

It's not perfect, not by a long shot. I've got redness to fade and a few tiny leftover breakouts to clear. But if I had to leave the house right now, it wouldn't be the end of the world.

Unless it really is the end of the world right now... then yeah. It'd be the end of the world.

Peter Facihottie

2010-02-22T11:42:00.001-08:00

Because I work for an entertainment website, oftentimes I have to go out and cover different events.

I don't care if it's for my dad. I get a press pass. YOU DON'T GET A PRESS PASS!

While it's cool to see local celebrities going down the carpet in front of the media line, it can get very boring very fast to always see the same faces.

Trust me, seeing Criss Angel and Carrot Top a hundred times is not much of a treat.

I squished myself into the press line, full of photographers and interviewers, and grabbed the best spot that I could to do my duty.

Trust me, it can get really crowded when hundreds of people are crammed behind a few velvet ropes.

I figured that I would snap a few pictures of the local celebs, and then go off and mingle or get a drink. Anything to numb the boring pain that the locals tend to cause.

Imagine my surprise when Peter Facinelli turned the corner with his wife.I. Died.

For those of you that don't know, Peter Facinelli plays Dr. Cullen in the Twilight movies.In other words, he's like Twilight royalty to those of us that are fans.

I'll admit it. I squealed. I squealed like a little pig being chased around a farm.

I started rapidly snapping pictures, hoping to get the perfect glimpse of him. My camera is rather wimpy compared to the other photographers, and they're rather bulky. So I was standing on my tip-toes trying to shoot over their heads.

But I did get some good shots, even if they are only profile.

After he walked away, none other than Neil Patrick Harris walked up.Once again, I squealed. I just couldn't help myself. I don't care if he's gay, he's sexy.

Once again, snap snap snap taking pictures. I was loving every minute of it. I got some better shots of Neil than I did of Peter.

Then who showed up? Perez Hilton.

He's kind of a douche. I wanted to take a picture with him later, and he snubbed me to take a picture with one of his little blonde bimbo friends. Jerk.

I also saw Taye Diggs. He is HOT.Of course the list goes on and on of cool celebrities that came my way. It was a very good night.

Now I've got a lot of schoolwork to do, and barely enough time to do it. I have two assignments due on Wednesday, both I haven't started. (I didn't even know we had them.)

I have a group paper due next Thursday, which I would be working on now except NONE of my group has told me WHAT I'M SUPPOSED TO DO. I am NOT going to fail this because of them, so I'm considering sitting down and writing an entire paper by myself, and letting them plug their things into it so that I KNOW it will be done.

I'm tired of people that aren't motivated. It is infuriating.

I bought some new clothes this weekend, and my mom is going to get me a Bluetooth so I can talk on my phone hands-free again.

This week is going to be way too busy, with not enough time.

"Miss J"

2010-02-18T20:16:00.000-08:00

This week has been nice. Really.

It's been less stressful. More me-time, more friend-time.

Of course, the whole "walk into class on Tuesday only to realize there's a test you didn't study for" thing didn't help with the stress. But I guessed my ass off and pulled an 8/10.

I'm a good guesser.

We have a group paper due in two weeks. I really hate group papers. I don't hate working with other people. I simply hate resting my grade on someone else. I want credit for my work and my competence, no one else.

We have been working in the studio in the radio class. We've been working on our "DJ" personality. We simply have to know how to speak like a radio DJ. It varies based on the format of station you're speaking for, but the basic concept is the same.

For whatever reason, I decided to go with "Hot 97.5." My teacher said we have to have "attitude" when doing a station like this. I had to create a "DJ" name, so I went with "Miss J" for absolutely no reason.

I didn't think about "Miss J" from America's Next Top Model until I had already taken the plunge, and even then my friend pointed it out before I noticed. There was no going back.

Now whenever I say "You're listening to Miss J," I imagine myself as a cross-dressing man with amazing legs and an attitude.As if this wasn't bad enough, my Professor told me I should do a "sassy snap" after I say my name.

I lost it. I was laughing too hard. I started yelling about being a transvestite, and blamed my friend Heather for reminding me of Miss J from ANTM. Everyone in the class was laughing hysterically, including the Professor.

I got it together, did my thing and got through it without stumbling over anything.

It went a little something like this:

"You're listening to HOT 97.5, your music all day, everyday.
I'm Miss J *sassy snap*, and you just heard Poker Face by Lady Gaga.
Coming up on June 2nd the Running Rebels will be having a charity event at the Thomas and Mack arena.
There's going to be lots of special guests and fun, so make sure you come on down to support Saint Jude Children's Hospital!
You can get tickets at ticketmaster.com.
Don't turn that dial, you're listening to Miss J *sassy snap* on HOT 98.9, the music you want, all day, everyday."

And then everyone applauded.
No, really. Everyone applauded.

I'm surprised I got through it. The first time I "sassy snapped," I could see the professor laughing hysterically through the glass. But I just rolled with it.

I stayed after with my friends to practice more.I feel like a real DJ when I'm in front of the mic. It's really fun.

While practicing I said something remarkably stupid.

"You're listening to 87.9, Las Vegas' classic music station.
You just heard Beethoven's symphony.
Would you like to win ticket's to Beethoven's conce...eeee...rr... wait."

There's no recovering from that.

I am learning recovery though.

"We'll be at Mood nightclub tonight for ladies night!
We'll be setting up at around 8 AM... well wait, 8 AM is too early for a nightclub!
We'll be there at 8 PM!"

Oh yeah, I'm smooth.

I have recordings of myself with music doing this, so maybe I can find a way to show you.

You're listening to Miss J on PerpetualBurnBlog.com, today's hottest blog from yesterday and today.

My Realization

2010-02-15T15:09:00.000-08:00

I've realized now, after taking this break over the weekend, that my blog has become less a place for me to enjoy myself, and more a place that I feel obligated to maintain.

Blogs shouldn't be popularity contests.

I was always trying for the most comments. If I didn't crack 10, I was disappointed.

Sometimes I would even delete a post if it didn't get much attention.
I would come home at night, exhausted, wanting to just lay down and not do anything. I work, go to school, work my second job (as webmaster), deal with friends, boyfriends, family, exercise.
So even when I just wanted to lay down, I felt obligated to sign on and write something.

It shouldn't be like that. I shouldn't feel forced into posting.
This all came to after the freedom I felt this weekend. I wasn't obligated. I was nothing. I did what I wanted. I barely ever touched the computer. I actually didn't touch my computer at all for 2 days.

What did I do? I read. I wrote up a list of books that I wanted to read. I went to the library. I went to shows. I went on a great date with my boyfriend, complete with dinner, bowling and an arcade.

I watched movies. I talked to friends. I took pictures. I took BUBBLE BATHS.

I really, finally, paid attention to life. My eyes weren't glued to the computer screen.

So from now on, I'll post when I feel like it. But I won't post every single day, unless I feel like doing it. I'll comment on blogs, but if the post doesn't interest me, I might not. I'm not going to wear myself out sorting through 100 blogs. Some nights I sit here for hours commenting, and for what? 10 people commenting me.
It doesn't add up, and it doesn't matter to me anymore.

Now my posts will be relevant. They'll have more substance. Why? Because it won't be something crammed together in 10 minutes.

This weekend was my awakening. And it all started with these:My boyfriend took time out of his life to appreciate me, to send me beautiful flowers.
So I need to do the same for myself. I need to stop being consumed in the electronic universe, and start really appreciating myself and the world around me.

Read more books, talk to more people. Go out more, do more things.

So honestly, my blog will be my place. When I feel I have something to say, I will say it. If you have something to say that I actually care about, I'll let you know.

But this will not run my world anymore.

Real life will.

Break Time

2010-02-11T17:55:00.000-08:00

My hair is f#$%ing purple, my face is covered in cysts (and so is my back), the flowers Drew sent from Proflowers had FECAL MATTER on them (WHICH WAS ON MY FINGERS AND I CAN STILL SMELL IT), my grandmother passed away, I'm putting up 70 articles on my dad's website...

I need a break.

Just a few days. Stress free. No commitment to anything.

So I'm going to take a break.

I'll be back on Monday.
I need it.

Plus, MY HAIR IS F#&%ING PURPLE.
PURPLE.
PURPLE.

My Favorite Superbowl Commercial

2010-02-09T17:35:00.000-08:00

I'm still laughing. That commercial was ridiculous.

Figured I'd post something funny. Nothing much has happened today. More class, more quizzes.
They're holding a memorial service for my grandmother, but it's snowing so hard and we're so broke we couldn't make it.

So it's nice to laugh.

Made my mom laugh when I told her I felt uncomfortable getting undressed to take a shower because I felt like my grandma was watching me naked.

It's true.

My Weekend in Review

2010-02-08T16:17:00.001-08:00

I don't exactly know how to start this post, since the last post was really upsetting to me.

My grandmother passed away early Friday morning after being in hospice since December.

I haven't cried. I've barely thought about it.

Not because I don't care. It's because I refuse to believe it happened.

My Lala was so full of life. I can still remember the way she laughed. The way she smiled. I always remembered her with a cigarette in her hand, and the way she called my mom "Susie" in that thick accent.

It's hard to imagine that someone that full of life could be gone. It's so hard for me. It's even worse for the rest of my family.

My mom has been stoic, but deep down I know that she is really distressed. I'm worried about my Grandfather, because my Lala was his entire life.

It feels like the core of our family is gone, and now we're aimless. We used to always go to Lala's house whenever we would go to Tennessee. Now what? Where do we go when my grandpa doesn't have it?

On top of that, we've had to do a lot with electronics this weekend.

I had to go get a new laptop. So now I have this:

I also had to get a new phone, so I got this one:It's the Samsung Rogue. I also bought screen protectors and a pink case to protect the phone.
I had to pay $132 out of pocket for it all. Which really sucked.

But that was my weekend.

Oh, and I updated TheJerryFink.com. So make sure you check it out.

Rest in Peace

2010-02-05T10:17:00.001-08:00

My grandmother passed away this early this morning.
Please keep my family in your thoughts and prayers.

Looking Up

2010-02-04T21:08:00.000-08:00

Made my week so much better. He shipped it over to me from the U.K.! It's so beautiful and detailed in person. I can't wait to frame it and hang it!

I also got my business cards today, and they look great. :) Plus I got my webcam repaired "remotely" by Geeksquad, and had a new phone ordered and shipped to me.

But the verizon bi... witch needed to mind her own business. I wanted a new model, so we were going to get a new model instead of the phone I have now. She pretty much did everything possible to convince my mom to not let me get the new model. She undermined me, and that really is not professional. I am due an upgrade, so she had no right to do that.

But hey, I got my cards, I got my picture, and I have just a little homework left to do.
Oh, and I hear Drew's getting me a surprise for Valentine's. Hopefully it's good!DAMNIT HE DIDN'T FIX IT.

Homeworkin'

2010-02-03T22:06:00.000-08:00

I really despise homework.

My Philosophy teacher doesn't really give it. He gives homework, but not for a grade. It's for personal review.
And I just reminded myself that I have philosophy homework to do, too. Awesome.

Right now I have a paper due, homework exercises, a homework assignment, three tests next week... too much.I just finished one of them. So this is what my daily planner looks like:
Monday - Philosophy Test 1 AND Test 2
Philosophy Homework Problems (50)
Journalism Homework Problems
Tuesday - Journalism Chapter 3 Quiz
Wednesday - Journalism Homework
Thursday - Journalism Paper Due

There's a lot to get done. But the bold ones are already finished or 4/5 of the way done. And the italicized ones are just things I need to study. So actually I only have two assignments that haven't been touched, and one of them isn't even for a grade.

I'm really hoping that I can keep everything in order.

The school financial office had the nerve to call me today and tell me that I am being switched to "regents." This means that instead of being paid by the national government, I will be paid by the state.
Which means I will be screwed, because the state is bleeding for money.
They have the NERVE to try and switch me to state pay the day after a highly publicized meeting on our campus by the board of regents that CUT 22% OF THE SCHOOL'S STATE FUNDING?

They said it's because I have a "low need." Excuse me. My father lost his job. I have more need now than when I started working. Don't EVEN try and pull that with me. My mom's gonna cut a butcher she's so angry about it.
I have a feeling I won't be in this job after a few months. They'll pull some bull and I'll just leave. I don't have time to deal with it.

Now I need to ask those of you on Facebook to do me a big favor.
Since my dad lost his job, soon we won't have an income. That's why our website is so important. We need readers, or at least to seem like we have readers, so that we can get people to buy advertising space from us.

What I need ya'll to do will only take a few minutes at most.
If you aren't a fan of TheJerryFink.com on Facebook, please become one. Do so by visiting the page HERE and clicking on "Become a Fan."

If you're already a fan or become one, please click on "Suggest to Friends" under the logo. Select as many friends as you want and send the invitation. If they become fans, great. If not, at least you tried. But we need more fans.

Any help is appreciated, and it really only takes 5 minutes to do at the most. :)

Work Advice

2010-02-02T22:50:00.001-08:00

Alright, so I need some advice.

I'm not going to name names, because that's pointless. If the person I'm talking about reads my blog... well, I don't see why they would really. And if they do, I'm just being honest. I already told them how I feel, so this is nothing new.

I have recently been having trouble with a co-worker.
The co-worker often rags on me and puts me down, sometimes in front of people we're helping. They acts like it's a joke, and that they don't mean it, but when it's constantly coming at me it really wears at my nerves.
An incident occurred last week where I felt sick and had a migraine because it was "that time of the month."

My co-worker came up to me and told me how to do something, even though they knew I knew how to do it. So they weren't really trying to help, they were trying to boss me around. Just in a more subtle, condescending way.

I told the co-worker that I know how to do it, that they don't need to tell me. Out of 50,000 signatures, if I forgot to do one, you could at least just say, "Hey Lee, you forgot to put this. No big deal, just thought I'd let you know."
But when you come over and sort of condescendingly tell me how to do it, even though it's a basic thing, that's rude.

I told them that I was in pain and that I didn't need to be told how to do it. The co-worker told me that I needed to "leave my personal problems at home."

I am diagnosed by a doctor with migraines, which I had and said that I had. And I had cramps and other womanly issues.I was keeping to myself and doing my work and this person came into my space to tell me I did something wrong, that wasn't even something really important. It was nothing that would really effect anything. Honestly.

And by the way, if I say I'm in pain you shouldn't keep hounding on me. The fact that I almost had to say, "I'M ON MY F---ING PERIOD, LEAVE ME ALONE." Is not okay. When someone is repeating that they are in pain, it's never okay to continue to hound them because you think you're "right."

Being told to "leave my personal problems at home" really burned me. I didn't come crying into work because my boyfriend dumped me or something. I was in physical pain. The only reason I came to work was because I had to go to class that day. I was getting my work done, too. So I wasn't just sitting on my ass. I was just keeping to myself. I wasn't even sitting around complaining. I didn't even mention it until someone invaded my personal space.

A few minutes later my supervisor asked me to work on a project for her, and told me if anyone asked me to do something to tell them I couldn't because I was doing something for her.

So as I'm working on the project, this co-worker walked over to me and asked/told me to put someone on a reading test. They very well could have taken the 30 seconds to do it, and didn't need to walk over and ask me to do it.

I was already irritated with them, and I told them no, that I was working on something. They tried to get me to do it anyway by handing over the person's cellphone. I put the phone away, but would not put the person on the test.

This was not just me being stubborn. I was told to do something by a supervisor, so I was following what I was told. Supervisor trumps same-level co-worker.

This same co-worker said it was "wrong" of my supervisor to tell me to do something and have me "not help" everyone else. Excuse me, the front desk was NOT busy. The person you were supposed to put on was the ONLY PERSON IN LINE. And my supervisor is my supervisor, she can tell me to do whatever she wants.

The co-worker later said that the other supervisor told them to ask me to put her on the test. Well, you never told me that, and I still would have told you no because there were 3 other people sitting right there that could do it and I was already doing something for a supervisor.

Me and this co-worker off and on talk to each other friendly, but at the same time I dread the moment that they'll once again say something hurtful. When I'm working on something and they come up to me and ask what "stupid stuff" I'm working on, and say that I'm "not doing anything" when I'm trying to work, it's irritating. "You're not doing anything, don't lie. You're not doing anything."

I was talking to someone today and when my co-worker walked up I stopped talking because it was a private conversation. The co-worker rudely told me to "keep talking. Go on, keep talking."

I tried just letting it go. But when it comes to the point that you contemplate quitting your job because you feel bullied, it's ridiculous. I never wanted to talk to the boss, because I am NOT a tattler.Sometimes I get so stressed that I almost break down and cry. Today me and the co-worker got into it again about it being a "personal problem." I told them that everyone has bad days and that they need to cut me some slack. I have NEVER snapped before, but they pushed my buttons knowingly. They said that it's not an "excuse."
You are not my supervisor, you don't need to be telling me what to do in the first place. Let alone lecturing me on what's "proper in the workplace".

Yeah, they told me that that's "not okay in the workplace." Seriously. You're not my boss. You can't be lecturing me. It's not proper in the workplace to constantly put your co-worker down, either. So why do you keep doing it?

I work hard at my job and I do it to the best of my ability. With classes, running my dad's website, this job and my grandmother on her deathbed, I have enough stress going on. I don't need to fear coming in to work to feel like my self esteem is going to go down.

I already talked with this co-worker once and told them that the way they always put me down hurts my feelings. They said they would stop, but they have just gotten worse.
Since that didn't work, I don't know what I should do. Quit? Talk to the boss? Suck it up?

I'm TOUGH when it comes to people making fun of me. When they called me Ginger I laughed with them up until them trying to completely replace my name with it. I drew the line there. And yes, they call me Jerri now. I laugh if I slip up and someone's like "Jeese Lee!" But when I don't even do anything wrong and you put me down repeatedly, it's too much.

It was not my fault today that I had to sit at the furthest computer at the front desk, and from that computer it is nearly impossible to see in your peripheral vision when someone is waiting in line. That doesn't mean that when I didn't see someone standing there you had to go "Uh, hello?" and when I turned to look give me a face like I'm an idiot. Three times.

So what do I do? I'm only 17. This is my first job. I just don't know. My mom said talk to the boss, but you all have had experience in the workplace before. What do YOU think I should do?

(Note: I didn't acknowledge gender or name at all. So if they happen across this post, I swear they were looking for it. And I didn't lie, so I don't care.)

My webcam won't turn on right now. So I get to go back to Best Buy. THANKS FOR THE ADDED STRESS, P.O.S. COMPUTER. AND CELLPHONE THAT KEEPS TURNING ON IN CLASS. YOU'RE F---ING AWESOME, EVEN THOUGH I TURN YOU OFF BEFORE I WALK IN THE CLASSROOM.

Um... right. So, what should I do?

The Cut Down

2010-02-01T21:29:00.000-08:00

I cut down my work hours to 18 a week.
I was working 23. This will give me time to work on my radio projects and other homework, plus spend a little more time with my mom.

I've been working on my dad's website. I ordered business cards for my dad AND for myself. Because I've always wanted to buy my own business cards. They'll look like this:Except with my name, my email, and my NOT scribbled out phone number.
It's exciting.

I'm going to feel compelled to give everyone my card.
I got them from VistaPrint.com. I got everything for about $18. My dad got 500 cards, and I got 250.
I also got magnetic signs to go on the side of my dad's car.

I'm hoping with at least a little more advertising, we'll get some more traffic. I really need people to help me advertise, but no one is and I'm scared we're going to fail.

Since my dad lost his job at the paper, I'm worried that we're going to be in the hole and I won't be able to go to college. We can't get advertising for the site until we get more readers, and we won't have an income without advertising.

Gah. At least I cut down my hours. I have a test tomorrow! Wish me luck! It's journalism... so it's hard.

How to Report the News

2010-01-29T12:37:00.000-08:00

I wish every newscaster was as honest as this. (F-bomb at :25)
"ME has this report". Priceless.

When I do the news I WILL BE HONEST!
Except when I lie.

No one put me in front of a camera, I will mislead the masses.
Sure, it'll be funny. But it would be wrong.

Wrongly funny.

Video Killed the Radio Star

2010-01-28T20:09:00.000-08:00

Today was not the best day for me, but I'm not going to spend every day on this blog crying like a little whiner.

We had lab in radio class, which means we went to the radio station and messed around with the board.

The professor taught us how to do transitions between different songs, just like they do at the radio stations. Except at modern stations, everything is computerized. So we're learning the old school way.

We're retro.

I brought my Beatle's CD, and I'm going to burn a mixed CD or two to bring with me. I have a cool burner that can etch a custom label onto the CD, so I try to use it whenever I can.

On Tuesday we're going to work on a "cold read". This is where we read from a script into a microphone without any previous practice. We're reading the script "cold", for the first time while we're reading it.

Yes, he is going to record us. And yes, he is going to make us listen to it when we're finished.

I really can't stand hearing myself talk. Whenever I record myself for my voicemail, it takes me 30 tries to get it "right". Even then I try my best to never call my voicemail.

"Hey it's Lee!" "OH GOD I SOUND LIKE A 5-YEAR-OLD *click*"

I'm not the only one scared, though. And I'm secretly excited. I'm always so terrified of trying new things and embarrassing myself, but really, what's the worst I could do?

Stumble and have to start over? Breathe too hard into the microphone? I wouldn't be the first.

I'm excited about this semester. I feel like if I really segment myself well, I could have a successful semester.

Now that I'm taking notes with my computer, things are flowing smoothly. I can easily separate everything and find my way around.

In order to keep myself successful, I'm considering trimming down my work hours. I work 20-something hours a week, and I feel worn down. If I work 15 hours a week I'll pull in less money a week, but I'm only allotted $1,000 now as it is, and once I earn that I have to wait until I can work again.

What do you guys think I should do? Should I trim down my hours?

HP Sucks Right Now

2010-01-27T20:10:00.000-08:00

I have so much homework.
My teachers are piling it on. But that's okay. I'm going to do it.

I'm watching Surrogates right now. I like Bruce Willis. He's a sexy older guy.

I'm kind of creeped out, seeing these robot people.
I mean, I know they're just normal actors, but they look robotic in their movements.

And we all know robots are going to destroy the planet.
It's a fact.

I may have to take my laptop back because the webcam is stuck at the lowest resolution possible, and I saw someone else with the same problem. Even when they restored their comp, it was stuck. This is SO IRRITATING.THAT IS AS BIG AS IT WILL GO.
I HATE YOU HP. I HATE YOU SO BAD RIGHT NOW.

400th Post

2010-01-26T19:54:00.000-08:00

Apparently this is my 400th post.
Huh, I've done 400 posts.

I'll probably be doing a giveaway for this. I'm ordering some stuff online. If I order something for a giveaway, I'll host in within the next couple of days.

Right now, I'm tired and a little bit irritated with myself.
I messed up. I sent out my dad's newsletter to the 400 people I was supposed to. And instead of sending it in a blind copy, I accidentally sent it normal.
So the 400 emails were exposed.
I expect some pissed off people.

I've had a long day. I made a mistake. But I want to cry. It's a mistake I shouldn't have made. At all. I still want to cry. I feel like I'm going to get yelled at.

Today I had my phone on SILENT, triple CHECKED it was on silent, and LOW AND BEHOLD, it went off at full blast in my class. When I fumbled with it and hit ignore, I checked if it was on silent. It was. WTF?

It's like God just wants me to cry today. Get so frustrated that I just cry and can't stop.

But whatever. I'm going to shop online for a couple of little things. Maybe that'll cheer me up.
I doubt it. I hate spending my money.

yawn

2010-01-25T21:05:00.000-08:00

Too tired, too much homework, here's a picture.The end.

New Web Show

2010-01-22T20:55:00.000-08:00

If you have the chance, stop by tomorrow (Saturday, January 23) at TheJerryFink.com's new web show: TheJerryFink.com LIVE!

I'll be the host of the show, and it will be "call in", so anyone with a webcam can make calls, and I can answer questions.

I'm really nervous, and I really want people to stop by! I'll start broadcasting at 12:00 PM PST.

Check it out: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/thejerryfink-com-live

Hope you see you there!

Random Stuff Because I'm Lazy

2010-01-21T18:42:00.000-08:00

My teacher was absent again today.

It was okay, though. He got a sub for us this time.

The sub was the head of the Journalism Department. And he is awesome.

For the first class, we just went over the syllabus and blah blah blah. I did get my laptop to connect to the internet, though. So I had fun discreetly chatting on MSN.

The second class was the radio production class. Apparently, to gain entry to the station, we have to have a "badge". I have one. I feel awesome.
He told us that we have access to the sound studio from 9-4:30 Monday-Friday. He said we can bring our own music and play with the sound boards.
We're allowed to make a demo tape of everything that we mix to use with our resume wherever we go.

He also taught us how to use basic features on the board.

For one of our projects we bring in our own CD with our favorite music and record ourselves DJing, like the morning DJs on the radio.

We spent the day mixing 70s music with PSAs. So the guy was yelling about tornadoes dramatically while "Stayin' Alive" was playing. It was hilariously wrong.

This class is going to be fun.

I bought new acne medication today. Hoping it will help, because my skin has gotten kind of bad again. I also bought Hello Kitty bandaids because I got a booboo. (FREAKING PAPERCUT IN THE CREASE OF MY KNUCKLE).
Silly bandaids are the only real way to heal booboos.

College Shopping

2010-01-20T19:15:00.001-08:00

I did the homework for my journalism class.
Done, over with. Out of the way.

My mom and I have been discussing where I want to go to college for my bachelor's degree.
I've always told myself I would just go to the local University and settle for it.

But in all honesty, I've always wanted to go out of state.

When we drove through Flagstaff this past June, coming back from Tennessee, I told my mom there was nowhere I'd rather go than Flagstaff.

The mountains are so beautiful, and it's a fully wooded area.
Of course when we were there, the forest was kind of on fire.
But that's not THEIR fault.

We've been receiving a snot-load of emails from NAU (Northern Arizona University A.K.A the University in Flagstaff.)
It's re-opened my hopes to go to Flagstaff. After I finish this blog post, I'm logging back onto the website and continuing my application for the Spring of 2011.
This is the one school I'm happy to pay the application fee for.The buildings are so pretty. I love old campuses so much more than the newer ones.

I really hope it all works out for me.

I Will Rant, You Will Like It.

2010-01-19T20:16:00.000-08:00

Hands down, this was the WORST first day of school I have EVER had.

Let me count the f----------------ing ways.
That wasn't a dirty word. It's too long to be a dirty word.

1.) I had to get up at 6:30 AM because my mom had an early doctor's appointment.
- I never get up before 7:00 AM, because I can't function.

2.) I showed up to work, worked early and left at 10:00 AM so that I could go eat some lunch before class.
- I ate my lunch, walked to my class, and it was CANCELED.

3.) Both of my classes were canceled on my first day of school.

4.) I tried to use my laptop so that I could check my email and kill time since my classes were canceled.
- My wifi would not connect the entire day.

5.) I messed up a couple of times at work because EVERYONE went to lunch at the SAME TIME. I had 20 people in line, and I was the ONLY ONE WORKING UP FRONT. So I was doing 10 things at once, something got messed up, and it was my fault. I almost started crying.

6.) I found out that not only is my ONLY class canceled tomorrow, my teacher assumes we knew to log into the online section (the class is not an online class, or even a "hybrid", which is a combination of online and in class.) He assigned us homework for Monday on the website. Even though the class HASN'T EVEN MET YET. AND WON'T MEET UNTIL MONDAY.
- Something sounds absurdly wrong about that. I feel like a teacher shouldn't be allowed to "secretly" assign homework to us when he canceled class the first week of school. I'm sorry, that's not kosher.

7.) I found out that I'm missing TWO BOOKS for that same class. And that to get them, it will be $100. I already spent $125. I HAVE TO have these books to do the "secret" homework he assigned for Monday, which means I get to stand in the hour-long line to buy my books.

8.) I found out that we have two group assignments in my Journalism class. The same one with the books and the homework. I hate group assignments, because I LIKE WORKING ALONE ON MY STUFF.

9.) It was raining when I left work. Pouring. I had to walk through it. I didn't have an umbrella.
- I opened up my backpack and found my umbrella once I got home. I'm still pissed.

I am tired, sore and angry. Fine, cancel classes. DON'T F--------ING ASSIGN HOMEWORK TO THAT CLASS THEN. Only those people that have taken his class before would even KNOW to check the online portion of the class, since most teachers don't use their online portion. And now I have to spend another $100.

Plus the nurses have told my family that my grandmother is going to pass on "any time now."
I am SO NOT IN THE MOOD FOR THIS.

Spring 2010

2010-01-18T18:28:00.000-08:00

Classes start tomorrow. I get to get up at 7 AM to get to school on time.

Whoopie.

Tiffany shares my feelings.

I am excited because since today was MLK day, I didn't have to go to my Philosophy class.
I only have Philosophy on Monday's. For 3 HOURS.

Instead I get to go to radio and visual imagery class, the two classes I'm most excited about for the semester.

For radio we'll be meeting at the radio station on campus once a week. We'll get to use the booth and sound board. He said that not only will we be learning how to broadcast news and write scripts, we'll be learning how to DJ music too.

I'm glad I got my new laptop, because I'll be using it to take notes in all of my classes. I finally got tired of taking handwritten notes, because I have carpel tunnel. My wrists still start to hurt when I'm typing, but I've learned how to do it in a way that doesn't cause as much pain.

If only my history teacher would have let us use computers to write our midterm and final essays.

How hard would it have been to rent a computer lab for the period, turn off access to the internet, and let us choose to write or type the essay? Print when we're done?
They would've been a lot easier to read, and would have caused a lot less hand cramping.
Sometimes I think certain teachers are just sadists.

Tonight's my last night of rest before a long 16 weeks.
Guess I need to make the most of it.

Curious

2010-01-16T01:43:00.000-08:00

Ginger

2010-01-14T18:05:00.000-08:00

I don't know if anyone I work with actually reads my blog.
I know they've SEEN it before, but I doubt they actually read it.

Even if they do, I don't care. I'm not saying anything negative towards anyone.

When I went back to work on Monday, they had hired 2 new people.
Funny how much of a difference a week can make.

One of them was a guy named Andrew from South Korea. He's nice and we get along, so there's no problem there.

The other person was a girl named Lei (pronounced Lee).
She's a very sweet girl and I have absolutely no problem with her.

I have a problem with the fact that while my coworkers all refer to her as Lei, they now refer to me as Ginger.
And her name isn't even Lei. Her name is something they "can't pronounce", so they just call her by her last name.

When they started calling me Ginger, I figured it was just a joke nickname that would pass.
They'd been calling me that ever since I started working there, but it was rarely used. It was mostly in a joke capacity.

Today my boss said that the other girl is Lei, and that I'm Ginger.

I didn't correct her, and I really don't have the courage to say anything to anyone.
The truth is, it hurts my feelings that while I have been there for almost 5 months, I have to give up my name.
I've been Lee the entire time I was there. I come back from being gone for a week, and I'm not Lee anymore. I'm Ginger.

Plus, it's as if they've completely forgotten the fact that my name is actually Jerri, and that they could easily call me by that.
I've seriously considered dying my hair another color so that they couldn't call me Ginger anymore.

I don't know why it bothers me so much. Hearing someone say "Ginger, come here" in a serious way, as if I don't have an actual name, stings.

Am I overreacting?

Go, Power Rangers, Go!

2010-01-13T17:41:00.000-08:00

Every once and a while, someone will walk through the complex I work in and get a text message.
And when they receive this text message, their phone will ring.
And when it rings, it gives a very distinct ringtone.

That tone is the Power Rangers communicator tone.
And I must have it.

Ha, I found it. For free.
http://www.mytinyphone.com/ringtone/251351/

I also must have some pretties for my laptop, and a skin for my cellphone.
Or some stickers for my phone.
Oh, oh! Jewels! Jewels for my phone!!!

My mom's considering not making me pay for my laptop, so that's good. Save my money!

I'm really falling in love with my new laptop.
It takes 30 seconds from opening the lid to checking my email when it's completely powered off.
Plus now that I have a cute laptop case, I'm happy to take it with me everywhere.

I had lunch at Tropical Smoothie Cafe today, and was very excited to find that the WiFi from my school reached across the street to the Cafe.
Drank my smoothie and munched my sandwich while reading MyLifeIsAverage.com.
So it was a great day.

Hopefully things keep going this great!

Pastel Delight

2010-01-12T17:54:00.000-08:00

COMMENT THIS ONE, NOT THE BOOK REVIEW.

The artist that was drawing my pastel portrait (by his own choice, he asked me if he could!) finally finished it.
I was so excited when I saw it.

Here's the original picture it was based on:And here's the pastel version:His username on the art website Deviantart.com is bazzathe, and the original like to the image is HERE.

I love it, I love the detail, and I love how realistic it is.

I'm excited for the portrait, I'm excited for the fact that Yaya gets her kid finally, and I'm excited that my image on Deviantart (that was TOPLESS *gasp*. Okay, it was my BACK topless. BUT STILL. TOPLESS!) got over 500 hits in one day.

Today was just a good day.

Plain Promise - Book Review (Comment Previous Post, More Important)

2010-01-12T15:19:00.000-08:00

Taking part in Thomas Nelson Book Review, I was able to read the book "Plain Promise" by Beth Wiseman.

This book felt like more of a fluff novel than anything.

It is a basic love story, except it is centered around an Amish town and main character. Love stories that are unique and fresh can be very exciting. This book is not an example of that.

The fact that the plot can be summed up so quickly is disappointing to me.
The plot is simple. Man moves to Amish town, Amish girl falls in love with him. Things keep them apart, things bring them together, trials and tribulations, etc. etc.

The ending was predictable, which left me disappointed, feeling as if I had wasted my time.

I really had hopes for this book. I wanted the characters to develop, and I wanted the story to unfold into something more complex that sucked me in.

"Plain Promise" was just like an other love story, and the Amish element did nothing to help this. In fact, I feel like the writing being centered around an Amish character left it somewhat stale. Maybe a different author could have created a more gripping story, but for now I think that Wiseman should find a different genre to write.

If you want a simple book to read, I’d recommend “Plain Promise”. If you want a book that is gripping and a great read, look elsewhere.

Fearless - Book Review

2010-01-11T19:00:00.000-08:00

In reading "Fearless" by Max Lucado, I was able to overcome many of the fears that I have been riddled with over the past couple of years.

Many books about fear and anxiety focus only on the clinical side of the fear. Fearless focuses in great detail on the spiritual side of fear.

He points out that one of the main things that Jesus ever said was that we should not fear. In any situation, it was not fear that we should be feeling. Fear is an emotion that weighs us down and makes life miserable.

Lucado makes it easy to understand why we should not live our lives in fear. He is a great writer, making things very clear. He also adds hints of humor, and sometimes blatant jokes that make a topic that could be bland very light and enjoyable to read.

Infusing personal stories with stories from the bible, Lucado makes the idea of becoming "fearless" much more accessible.

My favorite chapter was the one on death. I have suffered from a fear of death for a very long time. Lucado made me see that death was not something to be afraid of. God told us that he has prepared a place for us, and that should be enough to give us courage.

If you or anyone you know suffers from any kind of fear at all, this book is a great tool. It gave me a whole new view on life, and I know it will do the same for many others.

My Celebrity Encounters

2010-01-11T18:49:00.001-08:00

Let's round off the list of the awesome celebrities I met on Friday, for those of you that haven't already seen the pictures on my Facebook.

There was...Kevin Sorbo (Hercules! :])

Alice Cooper (If you don't know him, you live under a rock.)

Richard Burgi (Carl on Desperate Housewives. He's really nice. And hot.)

Richard Burgi (For those of you True Blood fans. He's also the "stapler guy" from Office Space.)

And the mystery man in the photo my dad originally botched.......................
Patrick Warburton! I love him, and his voice. His voice is awesome.
If you don't know who he is, youtube him. You'll instantly recognize him.
But if you don't know who he is, I will punch you.

It was a great party. I hope I can stumble upon a new pile of celebrities soon.

--------------
I took my laptop to work with me today. It was fun, since I could sit there during my lunch break, pull out my laptop, and play with it.

I felt all grown'd up.

I'm going to use my laptop to take notes in class this semester, something I've never done before. It should be interesting, but if I can learn an effective way to pack up the computer and chords, it should be relatively simple.

I take care of my computers, so this sucker will be okay.

I'm still working on my dad's website. Make sure you check it out, we posted some new articles. TheJerryFink.com!

Going to take a nap, maybe color. Then snack time.
Not even kidding.
I've got a disney princess coloring book, crayons and no shame.

Just a Quickie

2010-01-09T23:18:00.000-08:00

Since the majority of bloggers don't read or comment on the weekend, I thought I'd just throw in a quickie since I missed out on Friday.

I went to a charity event, took pictures with some celebrities.
I'll post them on Monday, when you guys won't "mark all as read".

My mom weighed me yesterday, first time in a couple of months.
Weighed 104 pounds, and was pissed about it. I've been eating and trying to gain weight, and I weigh the least I've weighed... since I hit puberty.
Bought a weight-gain shake mix. Hoping that'll help.
I've been eating healthy, normal portions. I think something may be up with my thyroid.

Got a brand new laptop, and I'm very excited about it.

For those of you that speak computer, it's an HP with 500 GB of storage space and 8 GB of ram.
Which means compared to most laptops, it runs really fast.

I'm just jealous that I can't get the laptop they've been showing at the consumer electronics show this weekend.

The screen is see-through. I can't even figure out how they've accomplished that.

The website is slowly gaining a following. I'm hoping that with more advertising we'll actually be successful.

I got a little pitter in my heart when I was at the charity event, in front of that screen where the celebrities take pictures and walk down the carpet. I felt like I didn't belong.

And then I looked down at my feet and realized there was a sign there specially for me to take pictures.

I belong.

Before I go, for those of you that are reading, let's play a little game.
And if you saw it on Facebook, you aren't allowed to play.

Name that celebrity! (You'll see the good picture on Monday... my dad had to re-take it since he messed up, but said celebrity was really nice about it.)

Mommy's Home

2010-01-07T20:04:00.000-08:00

My mom came home today.
I'd made dinner for her, so she got to sit down and eat right when she came in the door.

I made chicken, green beans, rice and caesar salad.
It was nummy.

I also made chocolate boiled cookies, which has always been one of our favorites.
I am an awesome daughter.

Last night my dad and I went to see a performer at a small restaurant here in town.
Imagine my surprise when I turned around to see Pink and Carey Hart walking out the door, not half a foot away from me.

I was so excited I almost peed myself.

My hand was clutched around my camera, but I was so paralyzed with shock that I didn't think to take a picture.
Even if I had, they probably wouldn't have let me take a picture with them. They seem like the type that would say no.

Tomorrow night I'm going to a dinner hosted by Canon (the people that made my camera, so I'll get brownie points while I take pictures).

Here's the article my dad did about it:

"Canon’s Annual Benefit is Jan. 8

Shock rocker Alice Cooper Cheech Marin and Emmy winner Bryan Cranston will be among the stars appearing at the annual Canon U.S.A. Event to Benefit the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children this weekend.

This event is sponsored and produced by the Canon Corporation U.S.A. and Baskow & Associates, will benefit the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), a private non-profit.

A Customer Appreciation Red Carpet Reception will be held at the Bellagio from 6:30 to 11 p.m. Friday (Jan. 8). The following day there will be a 7:30 a.m. breakfast and at 9 a.m. a celebrity golf tournament at the Tournament Players Club.

More than 25 celebrities will attend the reception, including “Desperate Housewives” star Richard Burgi and Davy Jones of the ‘70s group/TV series The Monkees.

John Walsh, founder of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, will be a special guest."

The selling point was that I get to take pictures of all the celebrities.

I am excited as crap. I wonder who all 25 will be.

I'm definitely going to try to take a picture WITH at least a couple of them. Especially Richard and Bryan. I love them. (WHY DID YOU KILL CARL ON DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES CHERRY? WHY?! I LOVED HIM AND HIS SEXY ALLURE.)

At least I get to see him in the flesh. *sighs*.

Oh, and "Dawn", the reason you aren't getting comments on your blog is because your comment box is glitched, so you may want to change your layout. Just thought I'd let you know.

Workin' Hard For... Wait.

2010-01-06T15:39:00.000-08:00

I'm not getting paid for my dad's website, so technically I'm working hard for the recognition.
Works for me.

I've been having trouble getting the site off the ground.
We have about 300 fans on facebook, but we need more.
We need people that will read the site and really enjoy it.

The good thing is that yesterday, for whatever reason, there was a massive jump in hits.
Went from about 30 hits to 170.
Still nowhere near what you'd like for a website, but to go from 30 to 170 in a one day period is pretty good.

If you guys want to see this week's articles, check here:
CLICK!

When we went to my dad's party on Saturday he had me be his photographer.
You can see the pictures I took in the slideshow here:
Our Town

I'm really hoping we can consistently get the hits up. That way we can get advertising, and start bringing in some money.

Remember the pastel portrait that's being done for me?
He's already started working on it and sent me a picture of it in progress.
I posted it on facebook, so if you have me you can see it. I won't post it here since a lot of artists don't want their not finished work out in public.

But I'll show you some pictures I took today while waiting for the dishwasher repair guy to come (1-4 my ASS. It's 3:45 and he's not here.)

Lazy Day, You Basterds

2010-01-05T19:40:00.000-08:00

Today was a lazy day.
I didn't even get up until about 12:00 pm.
I've been so wiped out from working 28 hours a week (I know, not much, but that was on top of school), that having this week off has really made me a sleeper.

When I finally got up my dad and I went out shopping.
We had a giftcard to walmart, so we bought some essentials. We bought District 9 for my mom for when she comes back home.

Then we went to Office Depot, Best Buy and Blockbuster.
We picked up Inglourious Basterds, which I'm watching right as I'm typing this.
We also got Public Enemies with Johnny Depp. So a night of Brad Pitt and Johnny Depp... it's a good night.

We went to Olive Garden for dinner, which was nice. It meant I didn't have to do dishes tonight.
Tomorrow night I'm probably going to fix leftovers, and then Thursday I'm going to make chicken and vegetables because I know my mom loves it.

I'm hoping I finally get over this spell of being tired. It's ridiculously annoying.
I haven't used my camera in a couple of days, but I take it with me everywhere.
I did take some pictures a few nights ago.When I went out on Saturday I made some new friends while my dad mingled with his party guests.It was nice to be able to hang out with younger people. Of course they were drinking, but that made them all the more fun.
I didn't drink, obviously.

Now, back to the Basterds...

From Scratch

2010-01-04T19:50:00.000-08:00

I've been playing house for the past few days, that's why I haven't been around.
Which is why I lost a follower. (You suck, dude.)

I've made dinner every night, and since the dishwasher is broken I've had to do the dishes by hand.
I cleaned the house, so I haven't had to clean anything since then.
I'm going to do laundry before my mom comes home, so that she doesn't have to deal with that.

Tonight I made some really simple food that was healthy, but still really yummy.

I'll share the recipes...

First I made little personal pizzas.
Trust me, real easy.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Get a package of pita pockets. They're the right size for a personal pizza.Get some low fat mozzarella cheese, or normal if you don't care as much for the health value. Shred it up and set it to the side in a bowl.

Get a jar of tomato/pizza sauce. I used Ragu pizza sauce, even though my mom doesn't like it. I figured I would try it. It barely had sodium or calories etc., so it was a healthy choice.

Spread a layer of pizza sauce onto a pita pocket. Then sprinkle as much cheese as you'd like on top of the sauce.

Put in the oven for about 8-10 minutes, until the cheese starts to brown. Take them out and let them cool for 5 minutes.
Tada, personal pizzas.

So you need:
As much Mozzarella cheese as you'd like. I only needed about a 1 1/2 cups.
A jar of pizza sauce (I used Ragu)
A package of pita pockets

-------------

I also made mozzarella sticks.

Turn the oven down to 350 degrees.

Get a block of mozzarella cheese. Chop it up into as many sticks as you'd like, whatever size you'd like. (I made them about the size of half a string cheese stick).

Mix two eggs in a bowl until they're really mixed together.

Get a cup of plain bread crumbs. Mix in any kind of seasoning you'd like. I used some italian pasta seasoning.

Pour the crumbs and seasoning in a skillet and cook over medium heat for about 5 minutes until it's browned.

Taken the skillet off of the heat and mix in about 1/3 a cup of grated parmesan cheese.
Dip the cheese sticks into the egg, and then roll in the crumb/cheese mixture and put on a cookie sheet.

Once all of the sticks are coated and on the sheet, put in the oven for about 6-7 minutes. Make sure to watch that they don't get melted into a blob. I didn't have a problem with it, but it's still something you need to watch.

Take them out, let them cool, serve with more pizza sauce.

Honestly it all took me about 20 minutes. The mozzarella sticks were a lot healthier since they weren't fried, but they tasted just like they do from a restaurant.

So you need for that:
Sticks of mozzarella cheese
1 cup bread crumbs
Italian seasoning (as much as you'd like)
1/3 cup parmesan cheese
2 eggs

-----------------
Sorry for the crapload of recipes. It was really good, and a lot healtier than other things.
Plus it was quick to make.

My mom's been calling me to let me know how it's going in Tennessee.
My grandma is doing a little better. But she's still in hospice.

My mom's coming home on Thursday, so I'm excited to have her back.
Hopefully since I'm not working at all this week I don't get cabin fever.

New Years 2010

2010-01-01T13:49:00.001-08:00

Sorry that I've been kind of random with my posting.
Since my mom isn't here, I've had to take over the duties of the house.

Doing the dishes (dishwasher is broken), doing the laundry, cooking dinner, cleaning, feeding the cat, cleaning the litter box, etc. etc. etc.

So far everything's been going okay. My mom's been checking in from time to time.

For New Year's my dad and I went to go see Avatar in IMAX 3D.
But when we got to the theatre, we decided we also wanted to see Sherlock Holmes.
So we bought the 4:50 showing of Sherlock Holmes and the 7:30 showing of Avatar.
It worked out perfectly. We got out of Sherlock right as Avatar was seating.

Despite some people not like Sherlock Holmes, I really enjoyed it.
It was a little slow in some parts, but most movies are nowadays.
I loved the chemistry between Jude Law and Robert Downey Jr.
I'm usually not a huge Jude Law fan, but him playing Watson was oddly sexy.

I liked how Guy Ritchie handled the scenes where Sherlock was supposed to attack somebody. Instead of him just attacking, he would go through a step-by-step plan of attack. It would show what he was about to do, explain what it did, and why he was doing it.
It sounds stupid, but if you actually see it in the movie it's pretty cool.

Avatar was a GREAT movie. It was a little long, but that was okay. The graphics were AMAZING. I can see why it took 10 years and 500 Mil. to make it.
The 3D was lacking a little, at least for me. At some points your eyes got so used to watching it in 3D, it felt like it was just a normal movie.
It was nice that James Cameron didn't feel like he had to focus the movie on being in 3D. A lot of directors fall into that trap, so you spend most of the movie having things fly at your face instead of actually following a storyline.

Beautiful graphics, beautiful story. All-in-all, it was a beautiful movie.
And for those of you that get nauseous during 3D, I'd actually check it out. I get motion sickness, and there were only one or two scenes where I had a problem, and that was in part due to it being late and me being tired.

Sadly the whole night was almost ruined when I realized a soda had overturned and filled my purse.
My camera and cellphone were in the soda, but they seem to be working okay.
I was freaking out, plus I was covered in soda. That really stunk.

I spent today cleaning the house. I cleaned my bathroom, cleaned the dishes (even though there were only a few), cleaned my room, did the laundry, and cleaned the kitchen.
Now I'm just going to wait until about 5:30 and make dinner for when my dad gets home.

I hope you guys had a happy New Years. Happy 2010!

Excited

2009-12-30T19:21:00.000-08:00

Even though lately I've been in a constant state of worry, I do have something to be excited about.

I post my pictures on Deviantart, which is a website for all kinds of artists to showcase the work that they do.
Someone saw my photos and asked if he could do a pastel portrait based off of one of them.
I said of course, thinking nothing would come of it.
But then I saw some of his previous work...(created by bazzathe on Deviantart: http://bazzathe.deviantart.com/art/Pastel-Blue-Eyes-96496765)

I knew I just had to have my portrait done.
I asked him if he could send me the actual portrait so that I could frame it and hang it up.
I wanted it for my mom, since she loves my photography.
He gladly agreed, and now I have something to look forward to.

I haven't taken any pictures the last couple of days. I've been too tired.
My mom's in Tennessee now, so I'm the woman of the house.
I made dinner tonight, did the dishes, cleaned the kitchen, and now I'm just relaxing for a little while.

My mom says my grandma isn't doing too well, but I knew that.

Hopefully things start to pick up. I'm going to see Avatar tomorrow night in 3D with my dad, and we're going out to dinner.

Tomorrow

2009-12-29T12:46:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow my mom is flying to Tennessee to finally visit my grandmother.
A week or so ago they moved my grandmother from the hospital back to her house, under hospice care.
Her kidneys, lungs and other organs are all failing.
Instead of subjecting her to dialysis, my family decided that it was better for her to pass on in peace at her own home.

She has been crying out for a while now about wanting to die. She's been asking different family members to "open the door".
She thinks heaven is behind the door, and she wants to go through it.
My mom will be gone from Wednesday until next Thursday.

In any other situation I wouldn't be advertising someone going away, but my dad will be here with me instead of my mom.
So no, the house will never be empty.

I figure I'll just throw this in here since I haven't said anything in almost a week:
For Christmas I got a sewing machine, new camera, and a few other knick-knacks.
It was a quiet Christmas, more stressed than anything because of the situation with my grandmother.

Hopefully once my mom sees my grandma, she'll be able to go in peace. (She's been crying out my mom's name the past few days.)

So that's how things are.

Oh, I re-dyed my hair.
Before:After:I missed my dark, dark red. Put me in a better mood to finally get rid of my nasty roots.

Also, final grades for the semester were posted.

NAME	CREDITS	GRADE
---------------	---------------	---------------
INTRO TO CULTURAL ANTH	3.00	A
U S HISTORY I	3.00	A-
INTRO TO JOURNALISM/MEDIA	3.00	A-
GENERAL PSYCHOLOGY	3.00	A

Oh, here's another picture, if you haven't seen it already:

My New Camera

2009-12-28T12:18:00.000-08:00

Needless to say, I had a Merry Christmas.
Want to see more? http://www.cosmopolite.deviantart.com

Holiday Greeting

2009-12-24T13:33:00.000-08:00

Happy Christmas Eve and Merry Christmas!

2 Things...

2009-12-22T12:03:00.000-08:00

My post from yesterday was made the day before.
This post was made... yesterday.

So let's go with that.
Sunday night, my cat at tinsel off the Christmas tree.
Late Sunday night, my cat projectile vomited all over my room.
And then flung her head around and vomited on me.
And my sheets.
And my floor.
And my wall.
And my cellphone.

EARLY Monday morning (3 AM), my cat woke up to vomit on me.
(5 AM) Said cat woke up to puke on me AGAIN.
And my sheets.

She is the devil.

The smell was so horrible that I plugged my nose, ran into my mom's room, and yelled about how "Tiffany is puking EVERYWHERE. YOU HAVE TO HELP ME!!!!"
I felt bad for the cat. I bundled her up and slept with her in my arms. She felt so sick she just passed out.
I, on the other hand, got no sleep because I was waking up in intervals to clean up her vomit.
So that was great.
Sorry if that was gross.My day wasn't great, since I was exhausted.
Until I bought markers.
I bought expensive markers for the soul purpose of coloring.
I wanted to color, and damnit all if I wasn't going to color!
So now I'm sitting here coloring like a child, but you know what? I like it, and there's nothing anyone can do about it.Twelve dollars well spent. (They are NICE markers.)

Shameless Promotion? I Think So!

2009-12-21T12:18:00.000-08:00

My dad's website is officially up and running.
It took a couple of weeks of planning, and coding, and editing, and blah blah blah.
But the website is up, and so far I think it's off to a good start.

We got him a digital camera so that he could take pictures of all of the stories he decides to cover.
I posted the "grand opening" link of his website to his facebook page, and even created a fanpage for it.
So far it has 24 fans, and it's only been up about an hour.
I feel accomplished.

I went with my dad today to cover his first story for the website. I was the designated photographer.
I took all of the pictures, and the videos, that are seen on the website. Pretty nifty, huh?
I'm posting about the website everywhere I can. If we want to receive advertising money, we'll need a website that's actually got traffic coming to it.
So far I think we're doing pretty well. I'm hoping that people will come back, though. Not just visit it once and be done with it.

So if you guys want to help me out, which I really bet you do, visit my dad's website:

I designed the whole site by myself, with a little help from borrowing certain codes from certain templates.
"Borrowing" is probably "stealing", but I'm not taking their graphics... so I don't exactly know the etiquette behind that. Still took me so many hours to design.

Once you're done there, hop on over to his fanpage on Facebook:
FAN PAGE!

Really, I'll appreciate it so much. Every since my dad was laid off he hasn't been doing any reporting. This is his outlet, and hopefully a new way to supplement our income.
Thanks for the support!

Website Startin'

2009-12-17T18:05:00.000-08:00

Since my dad was laid off from his job, we decided to create a website for him.
I bought a GoDaddy domain name for the website, and I'm in the process of buying a few more tools from GoDaddy to get the website off the ground.
I'll be using blogger as the main site, because Wordpress is too confusing for me.

I'm hoping that I can easily get the site off the ground.
Because of freaking ADSENSE I can't put ads on his site.
Because I have my own account.

And you can't call them for customer service.
So I'm going to ask the GoDaddy guy what he thinks I should do.
He talked to me for like an hour and a half trying to get me off the ground and situated. They're a great company.
The domain name came with a free email account, which is actually really neat.
I hope I can do this successfully.

I'm off to make a gingerbread house... I'm SO EXCITED!
(I love Christmas, don't judge me.)

p.s. I just spent another hour on the phone with the guy. I now officially have my own domain name, another for my dad, and another for me. Because I'm shpecial.
I almost spent $50 on some kind of website software.
It goes over my head, but the way the guy said it made it sound great.

Politically Correct

2009-12-16T19:35:00.000-08:00

I really want people to post their opinions on this post. It's something that I have noticed and been thinking about a lot recently now that I am in the workplace. No opinion will be singled out and scrutinized, so say whatever you'd like.
I don't know if this post will really cause that much of a problem, but I never know how people will react.
And I honestly don't care.

Now for the post.

I am tired of people getting so bent out of shape if I tell them "Merry Christmas".
You could easily say thank you, or not say anything.
But do you really need to give me a lecture about how you're jewish/atheist/whatever?
Yes, I get it. I could say Happy Holidays. But I celebrate Christmas. That is the holiday that I choose to acknowledge.
And Hanukkah. Hanukkah is also completely legitimate to me.

Atheists are the ones that get under my skin, and this is where the real problem comes from.
If you are an atheist, you do not believe in a higher power. You believe that this is it.
(Which is ridiculous to me, but that's a completely different story.)
So why is it if I say "Merry Christmas", you feel the need to get COMPLETELY OFFENDED about it and tell me in detail about why Christmas is stupid and there is no God?
Why? Who am I hurting by saying Merry Christmas? If you don't believe in anything, then there should be NO issue there. You are honestly just trying to fight and cause a scene when you cuss me out for saying Merry Christmas when you don't even believe in God.

When someone tells me they're atheist, I don't lecture them on it. That is their belief. I don't agree with it, but it's not my place to try to thrust God into their life.
We disagree, that's it.
So why is it when I tell an atheist that I'm a Christian, they feel the need to tell me exactly why I'm "wrong" in my beliefs?
I don't tell YOU that, why do you need to tell ME that?

The billboards popping up around the country are very offensive to me. The pro-atheist billboards.Why are you trying SO HARD to convert people to atheism? What does that achieve, other than hurting the people that do believe in God?
I actually cried when I saw one of those billboards. Not because I'm some crazy Christian, but because with my doubts and fears of death, seeing something telling me there is no God sucked all of the hope out of me.
Whoever organized those billboards should be ashamed, because they are very hurtful and even terrifying to people that have a crippling fear of death/doubts about their faith.

So during the holidays, stop shoving your atheism down my throat if I say "Merry Christmas". Say thanks and walk away, or else you're just trying to cause a scene.

My Plans... Foiled!

2009-12-15T18:45:00.000-08:00

I woke up today determined to eat healthier.
While I weigh as much as a cloth bag of feathers, I still need to keep my cholesterol down.
Plus everyone hates stomach bloat from overeating.

So why is it that my mom brought home Krispy Kreme donuts?
And why did the office have an ever-refilling plate of homemade cookies?
And why oh why did my co-worker bring in a homemade meatball sub and beg me to eat half of it?
And why did I eat all of these things?

They tasted great, don't get me wrong. But the whole "pregnant stomach" look isn't sexy to me.
Yes, when I bloat it makes me look pregnant.
It is not attractive.
Pregnancy is attractive, but I'm 17.
Not attractive.

So please everyone, stop tempting me with these ridiculously good/fatty foods.
I want to be a good girl.
Is that so wrong?

...Oh god my mom made brownies."Heeeeeeeeeeeey, stop biting my wire!" Me, in that picture, to my cat Tiffany.

Finals Fall 2009 - Part I

2009-12-14T19:53:00.000-08:00

I missed 20 out of 100 questions on my journalism final, giving myself an 80% (B).
In total, my final grade for the class is...
90% (A-).
I will take it, thank you very much.

As for psychology, on my final I missed 6 out of 33, giving me a 90% (A-).
My overall grade in the class isn't completely calculated, but I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt that it is an A.

Anthropology final wasn't graded today, but I have a feeling I didn't do particularly well on it.
It was harder than the last one. Want to know how I know I'm not the only one that jacked it up? When the guy next to you says "Holy shit" when he first looks at the test, and he studied for it ALL WEEKEND, you know you're in some serious trouble.

History final isn't until Wednesday. I have a feeling I'll pull an A, or at least a solid B. In the class I'm hoping I'll pass with an A. I think that I will, but I can't completely guarantee it. There's very little room for error in the grading scale. VERY little.

It's 7:49, which means I can clock out in a couple of minutes, come home and crash.
For those of you that've taken finals this week, how'd you do?
For those of you that didn't, I hate you you lucky bast... I mean, you guys are the greatest.

I Wanted to be a Working Woman...

2009-12-13T15:03:00.000-08:00

And then I got laid...
Seriously, sim-version of me. Would you please keep your legs closed? You'll never become a star news reporter when you're constantly knocked up.
I don't care if "woo-hooing" is fun for you.
Knock it off.

Thanks a LOT Sheri!

2009-12-11T13:54:00.000-08:00

I blame you for this, Sheri.
Because of your review of the Sims 3, I went out and bought it.
And now I can't study for finals, because I'm addicted.

Oh well.
I've done the math. I can miss up to like 40 questions on my Journalism final and leave the class with a passing grade, a B+.
But I refuse to miss that many. 20 at the most, but his questions are HARD.
I have done studying, by the way. Just not the crazy sitting there staring at a book for hours on end kind of studying. More like I read my stuff once and then considered myself done.
It actually works more for me than intense studying.

History is an essay, and I feel plenty confident about the material, so I'm not worried.
Anthropology we get a double-sided page of notes that we get to create. So I'm really not worried about that. She also gave us a review guide.
I love my teacher.

Hopefully I don't start answering all of my questions in simlish...
Have any of YOU ever played the Sims?

Also, if you still need gifts for Christmas, check out thinkgeek.com.
I had issues with certain products that came, and they were happy to let me send them back and refund me my money.
Then I had an issue where I had to receive store credit (through no fault of theirs). I found that I didn't have enough money to replace the item and pay shipping with the store credit, so they gave me an extra $10 to pay shipping.
How cool is that? They were super helpful and resolved my problem in a snap, so I would highly recommend them.
Plus they have some REALLY cool stuff.

And if you just happen to want to get your favorite blog-girl a gift...
https://www.thinkgeek.com/brain/gimme.cgi?wid=81dd96a44
;)

Where were you guys yesterday? 4 comments? Jeese! You guys must've fallen off the face of the earth! (I'm not offended, just wondering where ya'll went!)

Note to Self...

2009-12-09T21:03:00.000-08:00

If you're going to bring your gifts to school to give to your friends, don't show your other friend something you know they'll love that's going to someone else.
Because then you'll feel compelled to give it to them instead and pretend you never got the first person a gift to begin with.
I couldn't help it. When I saw Houston squeal at the plush microbe I got for my friend, I knew I had to give it to him.
I'm a bad person.
Not a big deal, though. I'll just buy something else when I get the chance.

Other than that, school was boring and I have all weekend to study for finals.Yep, my mom made a cameo in my photo.

Things I Hate...

2009-12-08T18:04:00.000-08:00

I hate when you ask someone "Can I help you?" and they stare back at you as if you're speaking an alien language. And choose not to step forward until someone else asks if you can help them.

I hate when you order something, wait over a week for it to come, and open the package just to find that it was broken in transit.

I hate when you buy something for yourself to eat, and find that after you've had only a couple of bites someone has eaten the rest of the bag. Without asking.

I hate when you spend hours cleaning up your workspace only to have it trashed within a few minutes.

I hate when I get my cat nice and comfortable on my lap to go to sleep and the air conditioner screeches on outside of my window, thus terrifying my cat and making her dig her claws into my legs as she goes to run.

I hate when you wait all day for an email from someone, go to sleep, and find out the next morning that they emailed you right after you got into bed.

I hate when you hold the door for someone, they don't say thank you, and then they proceed to walk through the next door and slam it in your face. (And a PROFESSOR did this to me.)

I hate when you tell someone to "Have a nice day!", and they don't say anything back.

I hate when people just hang up the phone instead of saying some sort of departing words. (Goodbye would be nice.)

I hate store credit only returns.

I hate a lot of things when I'm tired. I need some sleep.
(seriously though, why are people so rude?)

p.s.
http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts-apparel/womens/6388/action/2138f63/

Lazy Monday

2009-12-07T18:05:00.000-08:00

Haven't really done much lately.
I went over to Drew's house on Saturday. We played games for a while, I got a piggyback ride.
I made him a biiiiiiiiiiig cake, and took pictures.
But I'm at work right now, and I can't really download all the pictures to upload them.

I've set up my hours for the Christmas holiday at work.
9-5, Monday-Thursday.

28 hours a week. So that's more of a workload than I'm used to.
And yes, we are working through Christmas. Christmas Day off, but that's it.
It's going to be harsh, but if I request a couple of days off they won't freak out or anything.

I showed off my new hair and outfits today.
Oh, yeah. I went shopping this weekend. Bought a bunch of new clothes (while we still have the money.)
Everyone said I looked grown up. Which was what I was going for, so perfect!
I'm hoping that I can get home tonight and sleep well before work tomorrow. I haven't been sleeping the greatest.
Drew's been trying to comfort me at night, but it hasn't been working as well as I hoped. Usually I pass out before he can even call me. He's been working until 12:00 am every night.

I've got my classes for next semester sorted out. I'm excited about the radio class. I've always been interested in radio. I would much rather hear myself reading the news than see myself. Television is a no-go for me.
I got 50/50 on my interview project, so that's a load off my shoulders.
Hopefully things start looking up for me.

My grandmother has been rapidly declining. Overall she has suffered 3 heart attacks and 15 strokes within the last couple of months. We don't expect her to last much longer. She's a fighter, but she can only fight so long.

That's been my weekend and a bit of a ramble if I do say so myself. Hope it wasn't too boring.

A Shirt We All Should Have...

2009-12-04T14:40:00.001-08:00

I don't know about you, but I'm never taking it off.
Or the matching underoos I've got on.

The Short of It

2009-12-03T18:18:00.000-08:00

So I decided to cut my hair again. I cut it 6 days ago and just got it trimmed, but I decided I wanted something completely different.
I looked on the internet and picked out 3 pictures and took them in.

I told her, "I want it a LOT shorter."
I showed her three photos. I showed her one and told her if she did it, I still wanted it shorter, not shoulder length.She said okay.

So she cut it. It was shoulder-length, and maybe even a little past that.
It didn't look that great. It looked like my old hair, just a little shorter.
I told her this, and she started getting huffy.
Gee, I'm sorry you can't follow directions.

So I told her to just modify it to match the other picture I had with me, since it was as short as I wanted. Since she apparently CAN'T FOLLOW DIRECTIONS.
She pretty much yelled at me in front of everyone. "I wish you had told me this before I did a WHOLE haircut. Now I'm doing a WHOLE SECOND ONE."
Okay first of all bitch, I told you what I wanted. You didn't do it.
Who's fault is that? Yours. Secondly, it's not a completely new haircut. Cut it a little shorter, snip some layers in.
TADA!
I felt like she was intentionally trying to embarrass me in front of everyone by raising her voice and acting exasperated.
The customer is right, not the whiny hairdresser from Supercuts.
So I had her do the second picture that I had.If she was a good hairdresser she could've told me that the first cut wouldn't be short enough. That was her fault, and she wasted her own time.
But at least I got my hair done.For the record, me and Drew have been dating for 2 months. I just didn't think it was the biggest deal to tell ya'll. We go back and forth so much it's just easier to not announce it anymore.

Ew, You're Old!

2009-12-02T20:14:00.000-08:00

I'm dating a twenty year old. That sounds so weird to me.
We started dating when he was sixteen man. Now he's twenty.
Time passes so fast... but also so slow.

I keep messing with him about it. "I'm dating an old man... I need to trade you in for a newer model."
He's been nervous about it. He's officially not a teenager anymore.
I've got another three years to worry about it, but today is his day to be an adult.
His "party" is on Saturday, but it's more like us just hanging out.
I'm going to make him cupcakes, bring his presents. He knows what I got him, but I'm going to wrap them up regardless. Why not?

Happy birthday, grandpa. UPDATE:
Grandma had another heart attack.

My FANTASTIC* Day

2009-12-01T20:25:00.000-08:00

*Note the sarcasm.

My dad was fired from his job today.
He was there for 13 years.
Now our financial stability is up in the air, and I am stressed to my limit.
My grandmother, my schoolwork, my dad's job.

I mean honestly, how sad is it to lay someone off 25 days before Christmas?
That's ridiculously upsetting.

I do respect the company for keeping my dad employed for 13 years.

I was silent when my mom told me. I couldn't really think of anything to say.
Then I just started crying. I cried when I saw my dad. I've cried a lot today.
I'm tired of all of the stress, and of the rich corporations firing their middle-class workers so that they don't get a little less rich. It's happening EVERYWHERE now.
It's selfish.

I'm tired, I want to go to sleep. I want to sleep and just not wake up for 20 hours. Just pass out and wake up rejuvenated. Except that's never going to happen.
So that was my day. I wish it had been better. Now I get to fear where we'll go from here.
Sorry this post wasn't particularly "cheery". You can understand.

The School, The School, The School is on Fiiire

2009-11-30T20:07:00.000-08:00

So today was relatively normal.
Went to class, watched a movie, went to lunch, went to work.
Worked until about 4:30-5:00. It was a quiet day.
Spent most of that time joking around with my co-workers, having a good time.
Helped anyone that needed it, nothing too complicated.

And then I hear a yell from across the room.
At first I thought it was just someone that didn't really have great social skills and spoke too loudly.
"Listen up!"
Huh, that's odd. *turns to look* Oh... uh oh. That's a security guard.
"We're going to need to evacuate the building. Everyone grab your things and evacuate immediately!"
Oh... oh awesome.

So I grabbed my things, went in and told the testers to get out, handed out their cellphones and evacuated.
While leaving the building there was a horrible odor of burning rubber and a fine amount of smoke in the air.
I was scheduled to work until 8:00 PM and I was still on the clock, so I had to wait outside with everyone else while we waited for the building to re-open.
I took this opportunity to take pictures of our ordeal.That's Daniel, my co-worker and Tim, my supervisor.Me and Daniel. He tried a thousand times to take a picture, but my phone was being super stupid. FINALLY got it to work. And resulted in my "ghost face". Why am I so white?!Me and Kriz. Thank the frickin' lord that my face is NOT washed out for once.This is me and Richard, my "work boyfriend". Hahahaha. (Don't be threatened Drew, it's a joke!)
We weren't permitted back in the building for the rest of the night, so I got to go home early. While I waited for my mom to come get me Richard and I hung out in his car and watched videos on his in-car computer thingy.
Came home, ate dinner, blogged about my night.

Too bad tomorrow won't be as exciting... unless the school spontaneously combusts.
But I'd prefer that didn't happen.

Strong Spirit

2009-11-27T11:00:00.000-08:00

My grandmother and my sister. Keep her in your prayers!
I'm thankful that after everything, she can look as good as she does.

Hey, wait a minute...

2009-11-26T19:04:00.000-08:00

"Where's MY dinner?!"
Happy Thanksgiving!

A Book to Look Into

2009-11-25T21:33:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago I was watching the news, suffering from my anxiety as usual.
Suddenly this segment pops up with a scientist talking about his new book.
The book?Once again the TV brings me some kind of calmness.
More and more I've seen why the atheists I've talked to are probably wrong.
Especially because many of my friends are so positive of an afterlife.

My mother laughs at me now. "I had a near death experience, I've told you about it. What more do you want from me?!?!"
It's just something that bothers me. It doesn't cause me panic attacks every night like it used to. It's just a nagging feeling that follows me throughout the day.

Now I try to focus more on my relationship with God.

-----------------------------
My grandmother fell out of her hospital bed today. She was rushed to the ER, and now apparently she is talking gibberish and she sees dead people.
She sees her dead parents and many of her dead friends. She swears they're right there in the room.
We're worried she's not going to live to Christmas.
So please pray for me and my need for more spiritual stability, and for my grandmother, mother and other family members.
This could be a very stressful holiday season.

Should I Justify This Stupidity? (Oops!)

2009-11-24T18:25:00.002-08:00

I accidentally hit "enter" and it posted this blank.
Which was stupid.

OKAY, here we go.
I have turned off anonymous commenting. NOT because of what I'm about to justify, but because I've been getting a rampant amount of ads posted in my comments lately.
I don't know who got a hold of my blog address, but I seriously don't appreciate it.

Now another anonymous comment I got needs to be addressed.

Anonymous: Thats awesome. How many times did you have to trow up to get yourself into those pants? Bet self respect taste good coming up.

First things first, "thats" should be "that's".
Secondly, I never had to "trow" up. If I did ever "trow" up, at least I would know that it is spelled "throw".
And finally, self respect can't "taste". What you may have been going for was that it "tastes" good, but you seemed to drop the ball there.

I'm skinny because I work my ass off, literally, at work all day. When it's busy, I never sit down. Because of this, my metabolism is constantly going.
You're jealous because I'm thin, and you're stupid because your grammar is horrendous and you're too cowardly to come out and let me know how jealous I am without hiding behind an anonymous comment.

Sure, if I puked to make myself thin, that comment would probably make me cry.
Except I don't, so it makes me laugh. A lot.
I wasn't planning on justifying that comment, but the bad grammar and absurd accusation made me laugh so much I wanted to share it with everyone.
So anonymous, come out. Show your face.
I want to know who I'm laughing at.

(OH, I got Left 4 Dead 2. I can't wait to play it... when I'm not EXHAUSTED.)

Dear Everyone...

2009-11-23T21:05:00.000-08:00

THIS:Is NOT drugs.
It is a CACTUS.
WHY would I be carrying around drugs connected to my cellphone?
If you ask me again, "Oh my god, is that drugs?" I will literally flip a sh*t.
You have to be a new kind of stupid to think the little cactus connected to my phone is a vial of drugs.
Or that I would be CARRYING IT IN PLAIN SIGHT.
Not that I DO drugs. I don't. But if I did, would I seriously be whipping them out in front of everyone anytime?
Seriously.

Some people shouldn't be allowed out in public.
1.) People that ask if my cactus is drugs in a shocked voice.
2.) People that carry drugs connected to their cellphone in a little glass vial.

In other news I got new jeans. They're a size 5. They have no button or zipper.
They look like they're painted onto my legs they're so skinny.
It's AWESOME.

That's my day in a nutshell. Or apparently in a cactus-containing drug vial.

Sunday Sweets

2009-11-22T20:15:00.000-08:00

I thought I'd share a recipe with you weekend readers. My mom made these on Friday, and they taste really great!

Apple Enchiladas

Ingredients

1 (21 ounce) can apple pie filling
6 (8 inch) flour tortillas
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup water

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 2 quart baking dish.
Spoon about one heaping quarter cup of pie filling evenly down the center of each tortilla. Sprinkle with cinnamon; roll up, tucking in edges; and place seam side down in prepared dish.
In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine butter, white sugar, brown sugar and water. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly; reduce heat and simmer 3 minutes. Pour sauce over enchiladas and let stand 30 minutes.
Bake in preheated oven 20 minutes, or until golden.

Eat them with ice cream if you want. They're sooo good!

Tag, I'm it!

2009-11-21T18:00:00.000-08:00

I was tagged over at The Mighty M Family to do this meme. I usually don't do tags, but for some reason when I saw my name on the "tag 5 people" part, I felt the urge to do it.
I felt elite.
I'm a dweeb.

Anyway, here goes nothing.

1. Name someone with the same birthday as you:

John Quincy Adams. Don't ask how I know that. But I know.

2. Where was your first kiss?

Church, during a "lock-in".

3. Have you ever seriously vandalized someone else's property:

Never in my life. Have I wanted to? Sure. But I never would.

4. Have you ever hit someone of the opposite sex?

Yes. One in particular...

5. Have you ever sung in front of a large number of people?

I've performed in a play and a few talent shows, but I was never singing. I'm not comfortable enough with my voice to do that.

6. What's the first thing you notice about your preferred sex?

Sense of style. If you're sloppy, I'm not interested.

7. What really turns you off?

Sloppiness, unintelligence and "i'm too cool" attitudes. This guy I referred to as "cute information desk guy" instantly lost any attraction for me when he opened his mouth and acted like he was just awesome. In a stuck-up way. NOT interested.

8. What do you order at Starbucks?

Tall mocha frappucino with whipped cream and java chips.

9. What is your biggest mistake?

Not being more outgoing when I was a kid.

10. Have you ever hurt yourself on purpose?

Yes.

11. Say something totally random about yourself.

When I'm dancing by myself, I like to pretend I'm Lady Gaga.

12. Has anyone ever said you looked like a celebrity?

I get Angelina Jolie sometimes, which I don't get. I used to get Julia Stiles all the time. I really don't like her, so it was more of an insult than anything else.

13. Do you still watch kiddie movies or TV shows?

I watch Disney Channel sometimes when I want to laugh. I'm still a kid, kind of. So I'm allowed!

14. Did you have braces?

Nope, never.

15. Are you comfortable with your height?

People tell me I'm tall at 5'8". I don't think I am, but I'm happy with my height. I don't feel like I'm a giant, or a tiny person.

16. What is the most romantic thing someone of the preferred sex has done for you?

Well, Drew got me a Twilight blanket last year and sat down and watched Twilight with me. That was really sweet, since he doesn't like Twilight much. Other than that, I can't think of anything.

17. When do you know it's love?

You can just feel it.

18. Do you speak any other languages?

Um... no.

19. Have you ever been to tanning salon?

Never. Pale is power!

20. Have you ever ridden in a limo?

For my 16th birthday I did. Drove to and from my house when we went to Gameworks. The limo was the best part of the entire birthday.

21. What's something that really annoys you?

When someone repeats themselves when you didn't ask them to. Sometimes I feel crazy, because I start crying and putting my fingers in my ears. When someone just keeps talking when I ask them not to... it just drives me insane.

22. What's something you really like?

When my skin clears up. It's nice when it's smooth for once.

23. Can you dance?

Some people say I can. I'm skeptical.

24. Have you ever been rushed by an ambulance into the emergency room?

Funny you should ask. I never have, but just a couple of days ago I asked my dad that very same question when I saw an ambulance go by. Odd coincidence.

25. Tag 5 people!

The Evil Doctor's Scale

2009-11-20T19:00:00.000-08:00

Everyone knows about the evil doctor's scale.
The one that makes you seem like a cow, even when you don't feel like you are.
The one that you SWEAR has got to be 10 pounds off.
Yeah, that evil doctor's scale.Well, I had to come face-to-face with that scale yesterday.
I put on my lightest clothes, ate my normal food (bagel, sandwich for lunch, etc.).

Once I got to the scale, I took my shoes off, because we all know shoes add 10 pounds.
I got up on the scale, held my breath, expected the worst.
*scraaaaape* Goes the metal weight. *scraa...* *thud*
That would be my jaw dropping.

110 Pounds.

What. The. Eff.

Yeah, I didn't want to be 130 like I thought I might be. I felt heavier recently. But I mean, 110?
Come on. Even I, the perpetual weight-loser, knows that that is too thin.
Last time I was there, I weighed 119 on their scale. And that was when I was weighing around 115 on the home scale. I do not even want to TOUCH that home scale now.

I've been eating! I had tacos for desert a couple of nights ago. TACOS. I had dinner, and then TACOS.
I had LOADED FRIES and a PULLED PORK SANDWICH for dinner last night.
LOADED. FRIES.
For the record, if I HAVE to die, I want to die with one of those fries in my mouth.
Because they are heaven.
HEAVEN.

Anywho, how in the WORLD did I get down to 110 pounds? I've never weighed that! Even when I was born I was... okay, 11 pounds 7 ounces, but still! For a baby, I was huge!
My doctor gave me the whole speech about how I need to be eating calories because I'm working now and burning more than I eat, yada yada.
But how can I eat any more? I eat like a garbage disposal as it is.

I guess it's a task I'm willing to conquer... bring on the food.Halloween Candy, doctor's orders.

Elaboration

2009-11-19T18:21:00.000-08:00

There will be no spoilers for the movie, so you can feel confident in your decision to continue reading my brief review.
Because we all know my review is the only one that really matters.

I really enjoyed the movie. I felt it was a bit slow in some parts. The actors took too long to answer a question, or stared into the camera longingly for a little bit more time than they should have.
The score, while better than the first one, was used a bit too much to cover up the fact that CERTAIN actresses *cough*kristen*cough* can't act past the whole "pouty" face. That's seriously her only face.2 1/2 hours of that face did wear just a little bit.
That being said, the quality was much higher than the 1st movie's.
You could tell the budget was higher, and you could also tell that the director actually knew what he was doing.
Chris spun the camera around a little too much. I got dizzy during a few scenes. Catherine Hardwicke did that a LOT during the first movie. He at least lightened up on it.

Things didn't feel as awkward during parts that were awkward in Twilight. It flowed just a bit better. There was more comedy. ACTUAL comedy. Not an awkward chuckle.
Instead of feeling it had to be this "edgy" movie, like the bane of my existence Catherine HardICan'tDirect, Chris made this the romance that the books are.
Oh, and he followed the books a LOT closer than HardISuckBad. A couple things were tweaked, but other than that, it followed extremely close.

See? No spoilers in sight.
And that was my opinion.
I hope Chris gets to direct the 4th one. Just please, cut back on the long awkward stares. It gets annoying.

For Those of You That Are Wondering...

2009-11-18T22:11:00.000-08:00

It Was Epic.
(more tomorrow, since it's late)

FML

2009-11-17T19:27:00.000-08:00

The ONE CLASS that I DESPERATELY NEED in order to graduate on time was full when I tried to register.
I called my teacher and begged and pleaded for him to sign me into the class. I'm seriously hoping he'll do it. He told me he would before, but I'm probably not the first one to ask.

Honestly, I am so sick and tired of the incompetence that is my school.
Financial aid? Incompetent. Says you have to be TWENTY-FOUR before you can file your aid without your parents. Yeah, we'll see about that. You cannot legally tie someone to their parents past 18. At least not forcefully.

Counselors? They don't know JACK SQUAT. Even the teachers admit that. There's only one counselor that I like. It's a man. That's all I'll say.

You're better off coming to me. I've had 3 people come back to me to ask me questions about stuff that I'm not even a part of. Because I actually KNOW THE ANSWER.
Can you tell that I'm mad?

But back to my rant on incompetence. Knowing full well that a trillion people log on to register on "priority registration" days, our school is too stupid to upgrade their servers. The entire server crashed. So there went MY "priority" day.
At least I got my other 3 classes. Just this one radio class is really making me angry. I literally need it.

On a better note, I get to see New Moon tomorrow! Get to see my boyfriend!Judge us all you want. OUR LOVE IS PURE.

Christmas Shopping

2009-11-16T20:59:00.001-08:00

I already did all of my Christmas shopping for the year.
I took the liberty of spending $30 on myself... because I'm worth it.
Loreal told me so.

For Shelby and Anna I bought:
Pet cactus'! Lay off, I don't have a lot of money to go around. They're really neat. You never, ever have to water them. The gel that they're placed in keeps them alive. Just gotta put them in the sun for a little while each day. You can leave them as a cellphone charm.
I think they're awesome.

For Anne Marie I got:For my little vampire lover I got a pack of blood energy drink. She also plays Dungeons and Dragons all the time, so I got her the little necklace with the DnD dice in it that you can take out to play with.

For Drew I got:A tin of Yugioh cards (Black Rose Dragon)... (I bought one for myself, too.) They don't sell them in stores anymore, so I knew it'd be special. I also got him a year subscription to Shonen Jump magazine. Then I bought him a new binder for his cards, since he filled his other one. (Once again, bought one for myself, too. I filled mine up a while ago.)

For my parents I bought... well, I spent $60. But that's all I'm saying, since I never know if my mom will look at the blog.
But pretty much, Shelby, Drew and Anna all know what they're getting because I really didn't think it was a big deal.
And Drew strong armed me to tell him what I got him for his birthday (Dec. 2) and for Christmas. So I just obliged.

Doing my Christmas shopping I realized I seriously don't have any friends. I sat there going through my head of what to buy... parents, shelby, anna, boyfriend, anne marie.
Nope, that's it.
I still blew through $200 though. But it was worth it. I love my friends. And obviously my boyfriend. Spoiled little bastard.

My (Long) Day

2009-11-13T11:44:00.000-08:00

Yesterday started at 7 am, when I had to get up and get ready for work.
That's something I'll never get used to. Having to get up so early 4 days a week.
I used to struggle to get up early even a couple of days.

I went to work... worked. Then at 5:00 I met up with my friend Anna and we went to a communications meeting. Ended up converting her to becoming a Journalism major. Pretty funny actually.

We left and went to the casino to go bowling. I kept telling her that I had a feeling I was going to die in her car that night. She's a perfectly fine driver... it was just a hunch.
We got to the parking garage at the casino, and suddenly panic set in. Looking at the ramps going up in the parking garage, I realized...
"Anna, why are those arrows only pointing DOWN?"
"OH MY GOD, OH MY GOD!"
"I TOLD YOU, I TOLD YOU WE'RE GOING TO DIE."

Turns out the up arrows were just faded. But still. TERROR.

After that minor heart attack, we went bowling. We shared lots of laughs.
I threw the ball straight into the gutter with such force it almost bounced right back out... I shouldn't be allowed to throw heavy things.

Then we went to the arcade. The second we walked in, I saw a stuffed cookie monster plushie that I had to have. Sound familiar?
Let me remind you."I HAVE TO GET THE TWEETY".

So we shoveled money into the machines, got tokens, and started testing the games to see which ones cashed out the good tickets.
The cookie monster was 750 tickets. We wound up with...
490.
Balls.

We went up to the prize counter, handed him the ticket, and he said we had 500. It was nice of him to round it up. We asked him what we could get, and he said ANY of the stuffed animals.
*gasp* CAN I GET THE COOKIE MONSTER?!
My goal was complete! But that meant Anna wouldn't get anything...
He walked out of the back room with a cookie monster AND an elmo doll, and gave them to us.

Is it sad that the two of us, one 19 and one almost 18 year old, got so excited by Sesame Street dolls? And squealed like little girls?

But you know what? We did. And I'm STILL excited."C IS FOR COOKIE!"

Dancing is Evil

2009-11-11T16:55:00.000-08:00

You see, I was watching "18 Kids and Counting" last night, and daddy Duggar let slip the family's views on dancing.
It's evil.
It causes promiscuity. Especially among the boys.
That's why the family is only allowed to listen to classic gospel. And they cannot dance.
"Even classic rock music can make the toddlers start bopping along".I don't see what makes dancing so promiscuous.
I mean sure, I may run around the house in my underwear doing my best Cameron Diaz impression...But who DOESN'T do that?
Except the Duggars.

Yeah, sure, my moves may bring "all the boys to the yard". But is that so wrong?
My hip-shaking and hair-flipping isn't promiscuous in the least bit. I couldn't IMAGINE someone getting the wrong idea about me if I were dancing in my usual manner in public.
Especially in my underwear.

You want to know the real reason I think the Duggars won't let their kids dance?
They haven't heard Lady Gaga's song, because they were too busy listening to that gospel music. Her lyrics are POWERFUL, and they're missing out and depriving their kids of her genius!

Just Dance... gonna be okay, da da DOO DOO!

Come on, that's REAL gospel.
So Duggars, live a little. Daddy Duggar, take some time out of knocking up your wife every five minutes and DANCE. Cuz it's gonna be okay (dadaDOODOO).
(but seriously, you guys are crazy.)

Oh, and by the way. I'd like to know why instead of being at 1,000,000 followers like I should be, I've lost 2 in the past 2 days. Not cool people. It DOES bug me. And where are my comments!?
I think ninjas are involved... I have to investigate.

Busy Day

2009-11-10T17:43:00.000-08:00

Since registration for Spring starts this week, lots of people have been coming in to take the placement tests.
It has been RIDICULOUSLY busy. I'm so exhausted, I barely sat down at all today.

You know who I ran into today?
I'll give you a hint. He's in this picture:
It was HIM:Funniest thing ever actually. I was walking through the computer lab on my way to grab some lunch, and out of the corner of my eye I saw him. I went "Huh, that guy looks a lot like Jaco... OH MY GOD IT'S THE HILLYWOOD GUY."
Then I held a debate in my head. Do you go say something to him? Do you keep your mouth shut and spend the day a little disappointed that you don't have the balls to say hi?
Well, I grew some balls.
I mean not really, because then I'd probably be crying in a hospital bed somewhere, but yeah.

I went up to him and said that I knew it seemed weird, but I thought he was in that Hillywood video. He said he was, I was glad that I didn't look like an idiot, and I talked to him for a minute.
Made my crappy day quite a bit better really.

It's actually eerie how much he looks like Taylor Lautner.

So yeah... that was my story for the day. Man, my life is dull.

Is it cuz I'm fat?

2009-11-09T22:00:00.000-08:00

I was sick all weekend, dripping into today.
Probably following me into tomorrow, too.

All of my friends automatically assumed I had swine flu.
Who knows? Maybe I do, and my flu shot has just lessened the effects. I have no idea. Another friend had a different idea.

The conversation went like this:
"Ugh, I've been sick all weekend."
"Oh that sucks. With what?"
"Well I've been nauseous, had a headache, really congested nose..."
"Dude, that sounds like you're pregnant."
"... um... yeah. Totally."
"No seriously, are you?"
"... no?"

Let's run down the whole pregnancy check list here.Nausea? Check!

Headache? Check!Runny nose? Check... but how is that in any way related to being pregnant?
Now, here's the biggie:Sex? NEVER. (You have NO IDEA how long it took to find an appropriate picture for "sex". I'm scarred for life now.)

Next time you want to accuse someone of being pregnant, make sure they're NOT A VIRGIN.

That's your lesson for the day.
Learn it, live it, never forget it. EVER.

Facebook

2009-11-06T16:32:00.000-08:00

I've actually switched most of my stuff over to Facebook.
I had always complained about how I thought Facebook sucked hardcore, and that anyone not using Myspace was crazy.
Facebook is like a crazy hybrid of myspace, twitter, and some kind of gaming platform.

The one problem with Facebook is that once you join... there's no getting out of it.
So many people have raised hell about the fact that there is no way to delete your Facebook account. You can "deactive" it, but it's still sitting there with all of your photos and everything. Forever.
The "delete" function errors when you try to use it. I tried to delete an old account today. No go.

I've been trying to get more friends on Facebook so that I don't look completely pitiful. I'm up to 60. That's a pretty good number, right? Of course my DAD has 132. Way to completely show me up.

A few of you have added me on Facebook so far. You wanna get in on the action, be a part of my inner circle.
It's pretty elite, ya know. Only 60 people have ventured in so far.

PLEEEEEEEASE ADD ME. I DON'T WANT TO BE A LOSER.
*coughs* Wow, that was embarassing.

I'm watching The Proposal now... and I'm proposing that you add me on Facebook.
Save me from being a loser.
Er... more than I am now at least.

Fox News

2009-11-05T17:44:00.000-08:00

You know what I'm sick of hearing about?
How I'm a Republican.
Why am I so sick of that?
I'm NOT a Republican.

People automatically assume that because I choose to watch Fox News, I'm a Republican.
"Oh yeah, I watch Fox." "Oh... so you're a Republican?"
No. No I am NOT.
I am just sick of watching the people with their lips all over Obama's butt all the time.
Yeah, I get it. You like Obama. I don't. Not because of his race (yeah, by the way, calling me RACIST is JUST as irritating), but because I do not agree with his policies.

I have never talked badly about the President. I have disagreed with his policies, but I disagree with a lot of policies. Everyone has their opinion. Stop giving me crap about mine.

When Bush was elected, I was cheering on the Democrats. I support who I believe in, not who fits into my political party.

I'm tired of everyone hating Fox News. They're somewhat biased, yeah. But they STILL show both sides of the story, even if they don't agree with those sides.
And I'm not the only one that watches Fox. It's been highest in ratings out of all of the news outlets for a long time.

Why is it that if I watch something enjoyed by Republicans, suddenly I am one?
If I watch a movie about gay rights, does that make me gay?
If I watch a documentary about legalizing marajuana, does that make me a pot smoker?
Seriously people, stop being so closed minded.

Ethnography Paper

2009-11-04T19:50:00.000-08:00

I'm working on an ethnography paper.
Basically, I give my opinion about a culture's behavior.

I'm doing mine on Anime Vegas because... well, I went there. And it's easy enough.
Who wouldn't want to read about this:One of the only places in the world where THAT is considered completely normal.
That's what I love about my Anthropology class. It's fun.
She wants our papers to be fun. She doesn't want boring stuff. We can put our pictures from the events with the paper, anything.
Of course, the teacher probably just doesn't want to fall asleep while she tries to grade everything.

As for psychology, it's been pretty easy. History... easy. Journalism... well. Not horrible. I love my professor, he's great. But there's a LOT of work. I have an interview assignment due after Thanksgiving.

Don't forget, add me on Facebook if you play Farmville... tickled_grey@yahoo.com

Happy Dance

2009-11-03T19:52:00.000-08:00

Drew came to my campus today and took the ATB.
The ATB is a test that determines whether or not you qualify for financial aide or not.

Well, he passed! That means once he gets his paperwork filed with financial aide, he'll qualify for it, and pretty much go to college for free! (Just like me!)
In other words, he's one step closer to getting his college life started.

As for me... nothing new.
Psychology is still going on. I have one last big assignment for Anthropology, due in December. One last big assignment for Journalism, due in a few weeks. That's basically it. I'm worried about getting it all finished, but I always do.

You guys have been quiet lately. Where is everyone?!
I know where I've been... Farmville...That's my farm. It's pretty small right now. I'm still gaining money and everything. I really want more neighbors and people that send out gifts and stuff. Play Farmville, or just want another Facebook friend?
Add me: tickled_grey@yahoo.com

Halloween Recap

2009-11-02T17:36:00.000-08:00

We started out the day with a gigantic fight, spurred on by absolutely nothing.
I had my panties in a twist. That's the gist of it.
(Should've had a midol!)

When Drew came over, we went to Walmart and blew a wad of money on Yugioh cards. I got all the cool cards, Drew got the crappy ones. Honestly, I think you CAN have too many Yugioh cards. And I'm reaching that limit.

I couldn't decide if we should go trick-or-treating or not. I felt like I would be uncomfortable out there. I thought we would get a lot of weird looks or people telling us we were too old.
A couple of people commented about the "older kids". A couple of people gave us the weird looks.
But we made bank in the candy department, and most people told us that they don't care how old you are. Just as long as you dress up and say trick-or-treat. (I always do anyway.)

I filled an entire messenger bag with candy. Yummy, scrumptious candy.

I'll post the few pictures we took together when I get the chance. I uploaded them onto the right computer.
What did I get from this Halloween? Lots of candy and some deep, philosophical answers to questions that have always plagued me.
Can you trick-or-treat at my age?
Well, I got my answer.

"You're never too old for free candy."

Did I or Didn't I?

2009-11-01T11:03:00.000-08:00

Oh yes, I did.

To Treat or Not to Treat?

2009-10-29T21:58:00.000-07:00

That's the sucky question.

I enjoy trick or treating. But there comes a time when OTHER people think that it's inappropriate for you to continue trick or treating because you're "too old".
I personally believe that that is a myth perpetuated by the lazy people that don't want to buy enough candy for the entire neighborhood.

Halloween is (just about) tomorrow, and I'm conflicted.
Do I go out and beg strangers for candy while pretending to be a fictional character, or do I do the "adult" thing and hand out candy to the greedy little children?

Now, I can understand where some people are coming from. There comes a point in time when certain people just need to stop. Imagine looking through your peephole expecting some cute little costumes... and instead feasting your eyes upon this:"Quick honey, get the gun, I'll hide the children."

...

Now imagine looking through the same peephole, after firing a few warning shots at the previous visitors, and seeing this:
Nowhere NEAR as bad, right?
Right?
... Right.

So what do I do? Do I revel in my last Halloween as an "adolescent"? Throw caution to the wind, and blow chunks from too much candy?
Or do I sit by the door, weeping over the fact that instead of gathering candied goodness from my neighbors, I'm giving a bowl of it away to selfish kids?
In my spiteful, jealous nature I could easily give only one piece to the kids.
Or I could just give away the little flashlights we have, and save the candy for myself.
But would that be fair?
Would I end up like this?I've always wanted a tan. It could work for me.

What do YOU think I should do? To treat, or not to treat?
or beat up kids at my door and steal their candy? <------ I like that one. You decide! Vote in my poll in the sidebar!
(Also let me know in the comments why you chose what you chose!)

Did You Know...?

2009-10-28T23:12:00.000-07:00

Did you know that people who have had ties between the left and right side of their brains severed can only blindly name objects placed into their right hand?

Say you blindfold said person and put a fork in their left hand. They will have NO CLUE what it is.
I would start having fun with it.

"Can you tell me what is in your left hand?"
"Nothing? Okay, okay... do you know what you're touching now with that same hand?"

"Still nothing? Well yeah, a pencil. But I said in your left hand. Well... that sucks. Whatever, put everything in your right hand and get to crafting. Only two months until Christmas, and those poorly made paper ornaments won't make themselves!"

Did I forget to mention I own a factory of crappy paper ornament-making slaves?
Huh, thought I told you guys.
Eh, hindsight is 20/20.

Psychology Mumbo Jumbo

2009-10-27T17:28:00.000-07:00

Today my 8 week psychology course opened up online.
I was dreading this day.
"Oh no, ANOTHER class."

It's really not that bad. 13 chapters, each one has a quiz. A few of them have homework assignments. One final exam.
She gives us all of the assignments up front so that we can work at our own pace. I LOVE when teachers do that. I'm reading chapter 1 right now, and plan on doing the quiz later tonight. If I do 4 chapters a week, it'll only take me about 3 weeks to finish all of the quizzes and homework.
That'll leave me with the rest of term to study my other classes and prepare myself for the final.

Apparently I pulled a solid B for my journalism midterm. Now I have a B+ in the class. I'm hoping that future assignments will pull me back up.
I got an A on my History midterm, so that's awesome.
No word yet on Anthropology, but I'm assuming a B just like in journalism.

Next on my agenda is preparing my Anthropology ethnography for the end of term, finishing up a quick journalism assignment, and highlighting the snot out of my psychology book.I have a pack of colored highlighters and an urge to ace this class... it's going to be epic.

My Weekend in General

2009-10-26T10:08:00.000-07:00

My Saturday was spent doing fun things, since Sunday was supposed to be study day.

First we decorated the outside of the house. It's not finished yet, so I'm not going to show you!

I felt that we didn't have enough decorations, so my mom and I went to Walmart, and then Target, and then Party City.
At Walmart, we couldn't find any decorations. I did buy something for my room, though...Oh yeah, you betcha. I bought another New Moon poster. I was torn between that one, and one that was just Edward. I realized afterward that I did something STUPID.
I had been DYING for THIS poster:But of course, I was over-eager. I jumped the gun. Now I don't get the Cullens on my wall.
Phooey.

At Target, I bought Tiffany a little present...I've never been the type to dress up my animals, but you know what?
Every cat in the world deserves a chicken hat. And it's a crime if they can't have one.
But it also makes your cat develop a hatred for you.
You win some, you lose some. CAT IN A CHICKEN HAT = WORTH IT!

After our Halloween shopping, we went to see Law Abiding Citizen.I liked the movie a lot, but the ending was a let down for me.
You'll have to see it to understand.

The last thing I did was add a little more henna to my arm. Hi, I'm Lee. I'm an addict.And that was it... that was my weekend.
Pretty dull, eh?
By the by, where'd all the commenters go? It's WAY too quiet around here. I used to average 10 a post! Here, I'll coax you guys back. Here's a picture of Tiffany the day we got her (6 weeks old)Awww, right? Now COME BACK! (Plus, vote for tiffany HERE)

Because I was webcam chatting with a friend, I couldn't use the cam to take a current picture. So, I took it upon myself to come up with a solution.

This Weekend

2009-10-23T19:14:00.000-07:00

... will be spent sleeping and studying.
I've got one last midterm on Monday.

I haven't really slept at all this week, because I've had to get up so early for school and work.

The good news is that Drew's decided to go to college.
Less "decided" and more "was forced...by me".
I realized by watching so many people do it just how easy to is to go to college for cheap.
So I told him that if he didn't go, I would kill him.

He enrolled, and next week he's going to get everything sorted out with school and everything.
Gears are finally grinding, lives are finally changing for the good.
And that's how my week will end.

They've put my grandmother into a nursing home. They didn't do ANY surgery, so we're furious. Over a month in the hospital, and they fixed NOTHING. All they did was suck money out of her insurance for physical therapy.
So we might be suing them.

I'll leave you guys with a funny quote I just read, hope you have a great weekend:

Until one gains the credentials to be regarded as a professional, a person who has sex for money is called an "amateurstitute."

Heh heh, Suckers...

2009-10-22T18:27:00.000-07:00

You know, all of us Twilight fans are being suckered by Summit.
Why?
Because the New Moon DVD has already been made, packaged, and shipped to the stores.
How do I know?
My friend Seth works at Toys R Us, and he had his hands on 15,000 copies of New Moon yesterday.

So then, dear production company... why does it take FOR. FREAKING. EVER. for you to come out with the DVD, when it's SITTING IN A WAREHOUSE?
I call shenanigans.
I tried to bribe my friend into stealing one to no avail.
Not FAIR. I want to touch New Moon!
But, I do get to see it before (almost) everyone else. My dad's friend does movie previews, where he gives tickets to certain people to come and give their opinion. He had remembered that I wanted to see New Moon, and when he got tickets he asked my dad if I'd like to go.
So, I'll be seeing New Moon on November 18th.
Sure, it's only two days early. But... it's still two days early. AWESOME.
I would invite you all... but I only have two tickets, and if all of you got to come, it wouldn't be as special for me! So neener.

Top Hats

2009-10-21T22:42:00.001-07:00

Today in History, I zoned out. A lot.
You know, it happens.
But while I zoned out, I doodled. A lot.

I decided to share with all of you the doodles that I created.Can't see it? That's fine. I split it up into chunks for you. I even took the liberty of coloring it in! Except the first one. I'm lazy like that.Turtles! Yes, the turtle is wearing a top hat. And a bow tie. This is what started it all... the loss of my mind.Bird with a top hat, and a monocle. Oh, and don't forget the cane. "Tweet tweet good sir". Aw, he's a gentleman.
Plus a dolphin with a top hat, holding a knife. Why the knife? I have no clue. Just one of those things.A tree with a noose... and a top hat. I have to say, I'm rather proud of the tree.
Grapes... wearing a top hat.A pencil wearing a top hat. And of course, a top hat wearing a top hat. Who could resist?

Now I know this makes me look crazy, but this is just a small look into my strange mind. But this embodies me so perfectly. Everything has to have a top hat, because top hats make everything classy!
In honor of this odd doodling session, I created a few t-shirts that you can buy with my doodles and my new saying.It looks better on the shirt, trust me.
You can purchase it by following this link: http://www.cafepress.com/cosmopolite
I'm going to hold a contest soon involving pictures of people in my shirt.
Why?
Because I want people to buy it, and getting something free is good incentive.
It'll be hand-chosen by me, and yes, worth more than the shirt. (It'd be stupid if it wasn't).
By the way, the cheapest shirt happens to be this one: http://www.cafepress.com/cosmopolite.413154855
So you can be snazzy, and not spend loads!

Go ahead, buy one. Or three. Or a thousand! You know you want to.