Friday was a long day at work, I put in another 10 1/2 hours but it just sucks because I won’t get any overtime because last Monday was a holiday. But I will confess, my bank account balance on Friday was beautiful, just beautiful. Too bad over half of it had to get sent out to pay those pesky things called bills. Well, on the brightside at least I’ll get caught up on some of them! I’m setting aside some extra cash because I suddenly realized that my bird needs a new cage. Since I’m at school or gone the majority of the week (I’m up before he wakes up and home after he’s asleep) he started to develop some screaming habits again and his cage is so full of toys and interactive things that it’s like a jungle. Plus some extra wingspace would just be good for him.

Friday night I wound up having the leftover black beans and rice (which is like my new favorite love. I didn’t realize how tasty black beans were!) before heading out to the chosen hangout spot. Brother-in-law and I played 2 games of pool (my Sister didn’t feel like it, I suppose!), I downed two virgin Shirley Temples (one of my favorite non-alcoholic drinks. I’m lame. What can I say?) while we were playing bowling. We decided that The Bears were going to beat The Colts today (but I think I missed the game, drats) so I’m not sure if I won the bet or not, I’ll find out in a little bit I suppose.

I wound up not getting a goodnight sleep Friday night and I don’t know why. I do know that my parents neighbor on my side of the house had his light on until the wee hours of the morning and that annoys the heck out of me. Am I the only one that has to have total darkness while trying to sleep? I use my cellphone as an alarm clock and when it’s being charged it’s lit, so I have to cover it up. I cover up the clock so I don’t see the digits change, and I wish that I was able to hang up some dark curtains in there, it drives me nuts. When I first moved in, it took me forever to get used to having a fan on again from the sound, I’m not a big fan of noise either. Friday gave way to Saturday which was absolutely beautiful.

View the rest of this entry…

Man, if I had my debit card in my pocket right now, my pocket would be on fire! I have used it this weekend to buy new tops from Aéropastale and Hollister, an anniversary gift for my wonderful sister and her hubbie (nope, not telling!), earrings from JCPenney’s, new slacks and a blouse from Target, countless bottles of Dr. Pepper from work to drink while at work (Dr. Pepper, you’re the only thing that gets me through some times!) and last night….I went to Bealls and bought new sneakers that should be here today or tomorrow (darn my big feet….heh). Phew, I’d like to cry just thinking about all those things and my money! I still have jean-envy, and wished that I had picked up those pinstripped jeans from Aéropastale on Sunday (they were on sale!) but alas, I didn’t.

Speaking of Dr. Pepper, I won! Of all the bottles of soda that I buy that say You could be a winner!….it’s never me. I never win! So, the other night as I twirled off the cap of the soda and looked at it - faint little letters on the bottom spelled out “uwin” mixed in the code. I practically jumped up and down and hugged people (okay, so I didn’t hug people, maybe just thought about it….) I went home and eagerly typed into the box online my code and big bold letters seemed to shout “You win, You win!” I scroll down………..yeah. I won alright. I won an Indiana Jones screensaver (pardon me, while I gather my composure). Just what I always wanted, a screensaver! a wonderful screensaver of a movie I’d never go see! Yay! (you do realize that I’m being sarcastic, right?)

So, today I called the other College, and in my best bubbly adult-please-help-me-before-I-explode voice, I tell the lady on the other end of the line my dilema. She tsk-tsks in that “I could care less” kind of manner, then tells me that I have to call the main campus. “Did you pay the fee?” she asked me. Fee?! There is a fee for my College to get my transcripts from the other College? omgwth?! If I had known that I would have driven over to Daytona today and used my already burning debit card and paid the fee and then shipped it off myself. How absurd! They have had my request for almost four weeks and not only did not bother to call me but they didn’t even shoot me a letter or email to tell me to pay up! I sat here and wasted four weeks waiting for these transcripts (that really kind of makes me wonder why I didn’t call earlier. I gave them the benefit of the doubt). I have nineteen days to get my transcript and in those nineteen days, I have to get my financial aid set up so that I can start school on the twenty-fifth. I feel like acting like a five year old and jumping up and down and stomping the floor and then doing a faceplant and having a tantrum.

Oh, so then I write on my message board that I’m a part of, (even though I am dogless), just an update on how I am. I posted some of my recent photography and the next day someone writes on there about how to leave the photography to the professionals, and it’s not a great business to be in and yadda, yadda, yadda. Okay, first beauty is in the eye of the beholder, don’t you agree? What I find interesting may not interest you - and just because I don’t have a Nikon D40x or a Digital Rebel XTi does not mean that I can’t shoot some good pictures. And who said that I wanted to be a professional? It’s a hobby; if people like my work and want a picture, then that’s their perogative and I’ll be happy to sign it and sell it - it’s my enjoyment. I never said that I wanted to be a Photographer - as a matter of fact, I was accepted to a Photography school in Tampa based on my portfolio alone a few years ago. But when they failed to proved me proof that I could earn what they were telling me, I decided that it just was not worth the effort. I just wish people could tell me to my face these things instead of writing about it for the whole world to see - and before you go all pointing fingers and “omg, that’s what you’re doing!” on me, I already messaged the person and told them.

And by the way Home Before Dark by Susan Wiggs is an awesome book; I’m currently reading it and it’s wonderful. And this is my new candleholder from Michaels.

So, today, I officially became “one of those girls” who shopped at Aéropostale and Hollister. I figured, if I’m going to be in school in August, I don’t want to go dressed as someone who doesn’t care about their looks. Clothes don’t make the person, but they make the first impression! I also bought a nice pair of slacks and a blouse at Target, just in case I happen to need to go somewhere and look professional or go somewhere that’s casual dressy. I saw these awesome pin stripe jeans and was going to get them, and they were on sale and I didn’t get them. Frankly, it was a choice between those jeans and a new pair of sneakers for work/school. My Sketchers that I wear, even though they are almost a year old, still look alright. But I found a new pair that I was just dying to have at Bealls, and they were 30% and I have a coupon for an extra 15% off. That would make them like $20.

I also feel a little disloyal to my major because I’m already second guessing it and I haven’t even started yet! I’m thinking about switching my major to become a Registered Nurse (RN) instead of majoring in Education. If I got my Associates degree in Nursing, I would be making about five or ten thousand more a year than I would be as a Teacher and if I continued on and got my Bachelors in Nursing, I would get about fifteen thousand more a year and let’s not even get into if I kept going and became an ARNP. That’s a lot of money! And I’m not going to lie, money is a big deal to me right now because now that I don’t have to sit here and scrounge to make ends meet (don’t get me wrong, I’m still not rich but you catch my point…) and I can finally buy clothes and whatnot and still have money to send off to pay my bills - I really enjoy it and I’ve learned that it’s not as shallow as I thought it was.

If I want to be able to afford the things I want, then I’m just going to have to work a little harder at other things. I really love the patient-care aspect of being a Certified Pharmacy Technician but frankly, the pay scale sucks in a retail setting. You really have to work in a Hospital or a managed care setting in order to get the most for your title. I love the people I work with and I love the benefits but having an extra dollar or two an hour wouldn’t hurt either. Every day is something different and I do enjoy that. On one hand, I’d be making a lot of money - but on the other hand, I would have to give up a set schedule and maybe have to even work some holidays that I don’t want to (Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter to name a few) and I am really going to sit down and seriously consider getting into it.

So, I wound up going to the gym on Saturday anyway. I felt so guilty about not wanting to go, that to punish myself I went anyway. My friend brought her sister, who in turn brought her friend from softball. J and I wound up going into the aerobics room to do our warm up, crunches, and some push ups. We did some free weights and some on the machines. To celebrate, I bought myself a pair of Adidas gym shorts, and a gym shirt (both black, Jamie doesn’t do white yet).

So, Mom and I went out to start doing our Christmas shopping. It was a blast. Marshalls, Ross, Bealls. I wound up getting something for my Brother-In-Law and something for my Mom. I have no clue what to get Sidney because all he ever wants is Benfica this, Portugal that. I usually just cheap out and buy him red shirts, because hey, Benfica is red. I once lucked out and got him a Red and White Nike t-shirt that could have passed for a Benfica shirt (not jersey). I think we might go to Kohls next week, or Fashion Bug for my sister. I really don’t know what to get anyone this year. What is it that when you grow up you have everything you want or need already? My Dad’s got quite possibly all the Guy Harvey shirts anyone could possible dream of. So does my Brother-In-Law. Two peas in a pod. I tend to want the more preppy clothes but wear drawstring pants, jeans, t-shirts. My sister wears thost constantly, but I don’t know what style looks right on her. I did find the cutest clogs yesterday at Marshalls, and was tempted to buy them, but they weren’t marked down yet (they were still at $35.00) and I still can’t do that yet. But they looked SO awesome with my jeans.

And the plus side to all of this, the weather is beautiful. Simply, beautiful. It is in the early sixties at night, and in the day it’s in the 70s. Crisp blue sky. I love this time of year!

Taking Zinc and extra Vitamin C have done nothing to boost my immune system for this God awful cold Sidney has. It’s the kind of cold where you want to slink into a really dark, comfortable, chilly hole and just go to sleep. I started feeling it come on last night. I know it’ll be a bad one when it comes on suddenly. In the span of a half hour last night, there was a fever to be had, nose to get stuffed and runny at the same time (how on earth is this possible?), and the roof of my mouth down to my throat was itchy and sore. Ugh. Stupid germs. I have people hack on me, sneeze on me, cough on me, hand me their stuff with pink eye - and yet I’m immune to all of it. Oh but no. I have to get the worst cold of the century from Sidney who has now mostly recovered. He’s the type of person that believes in “sweating it off.” Which means, he’ll don his favorite sweatshirt, sweat pants, two pairs of socks and turn the air conditioning off (or in the “winter” turning the heat on high). No matter how hot he gets, he says this will kill the cold bug. I want to say “You can not kill the cold!” The flu yes, but not a cold. So, I’m going to do the best I can to not sneeze, cough or anything while he’s home or else I’ll suffer the same treatment. Sigh.

Tomorrow we’re doing my birthday dinner (yum, Stuffed Cabbage, just like always!). I had forgotten kinda because I had plans to start going through the things in our apartment. You know like, keep, donate, trash and actually doing it. We have just so much stuff that it’s ridiculous. The apartment has got to only be 650sqft and we have stuff from wall to wall in each room basically. It’s driving me nuts. But, again, I might just save that for Wednesday instead of tonight or after we come home tomorrow.

I hate titles - it’s like putting a lable on your life. I can’t and wouldn’t do that! We spent last night totally cleaning; the girl from next door is letting us use her steam cleaner tonight (thank you, my great neighbor!) My only problem is that if I could just sew Keegans butt cheeks together so she’d stop pooping in my house, I’d be all set (I’m totally kidding, folks). We got rid of our old table and coffee table that I hated. It was missing a pane of glass and it was faux formica - and black at that. Yuck. I’m going to start looking at the thrift stores to see if I can find a better coffee table (or two end tables that I can push together). Maybe some older ones that just need to be sanded and restained. Maybe I could get that old antiqued look. That’d be killer.

I was going to go to a Joannes Fabrics this week to see if I could pick out some fabrics for my next crafting idea (one that might involve Claudia). Now it’s just off to research my competition to see how much they charge for these wonderful creations so I can figure out what ours will go for. Then she and I have to work out who gets what and then [after all that] I have to figure out how much to keep aside to pay for taxes because of added income. I’ve got to figure out a pattern. Gah. I’m so excited.

I just want to make something and do something I enjoy, you know? I just can’t handle working as hard as I do and making didly squat. “Your day will come,” everyone says about making money. Yeah, well - here I am going to be twenty-four (OMG) in October, and I’m barely making over minimum wage. If I want to be that person who has what she wants, I’ve got to work hard for it. I want that house with the wrap around porch. I want those rocking chairs and to sip tea watching the birds in the bird houses. I want my future children to have a nice cushy grass to crash on playing whatever. And in order for me to do that, I’ve got to stop stalling. Life is calling. My dream is calling me. I want that more than anything. I’m going to do it and I mean it this time.