Saturday night, July 26, 2008: Samantha confirms that she will in fact be moving in with us and taking my old room.
Sunday morning, July 27, 2008: Samantha posts a bulletin on MySpace notifying everyone that she is moving out and super excited.
Sunday afternoon, July 27, 2008: Samantha receives a text from our boss asking where she is moving. After asking me what she should say, she told her that she was moving in with me and Andrew. Never received reply. Later on after a late-night visit, Ashley returns and tells me that Carrie told her, "Well, I can't schedule them together anymore."
[Honestly, what does living together have to do with working together? I guess that if two people live together, they must only goof off at work. Sam and I have worked together many-a-time and always get things done--more than I can say for our boss and any other employee when she interrupts them for the most random things, has them do every single thing for a customer while she's on the phone with her friend or coloring a zone sheet for a day that is three weeks away--and living together wont change that. Ashley and I live(d) together and although she makes it a point to not schedule us together, it happens and we work together just fine. We might have more of a connection than other employees because I hardly see anyone outside of work that doesn't live with me, but that doesn't mean that I'm going to give them some kind of discount or steal things with them. It's bullshit.]
Monday morning, July 28, 2008: Sam texts me that she isn't looking forward to working with our boss because of the moving situation. I told her to be nonchalant about it and say, "They simply had an empty room opening up and offered it to me. That's it!" To which our boss replied, "You know, you could get fired if anyone finds out you're living together."
[Honestly, knowing Ashley and I live(d) together, our boss still hired her back. If for some reason someone could get fired if they lived with another employee, did she intend for me to get fired for living with Ashley? Does she honestly hate me that much? I don't get it.]
...Our boss then tells her that it's going to be bad living with a couple all "lovey dovey," to which Sam replied, "It doesn't really bother me what-so-ever." Our boss then tells her how uncomfortable living with someone is.
[A.) Andrew and I aren't all "lovey dovey." We are "happy" and our boss is jealous that someone she knows is happy while she is not. Even if Andrew and I were "lovey dovey," we wouldn't coo at each other everywhere. Yes, when Andrew and I are together, we will snuggle a little on the couch and watch a movie or a television show, and yea, we'll hug and occasionally kiss--not some huge PDA show though, calm down--but it's not "lovey dovey" in the slightest. B.) She always complains about how lonely she is at her place all by herself. How can she "claim" that it's uncomfortable to live with someone when she is lonely all by herself and she always tells stories about the fun times she had living with her friends Julian and Andrew (different Andrew). It's a big fat lie wobbling out of her mouth when she says it's "uncomfortable" to live with someone.]
Overall she was trying to convince Sam to not want to move in and at the end Sam said to her, "I'm excited to move in. It's going to be lots of fun!" Response, "No one can know about this." So now it's a big secret because she doesn't want people thinking that I'm bundles of fun and she's a bundle of emotions ready to explode at any given moment.
Monday afternoon, July 28, 2008: Ashley gets home after work and tells me more about her time at our boss's house last night. They mostly talked about other things, but when the Sam-texting-incident happened when she found out that Sam was moving in with us, they got on the topic of Andrew and me. Our boss said to Ashley, "Andrew and Miranda are always together. She never hangs out with me anymore. It's just like her other relationships." To which Ashley explains that he and I are not always together--he works at night and I work during the day--and we see each other for a couple hours at a time during the days where we both work. Our boss apparently has the idea that when Andrew and I are together, we just sit like bums on a couch. Did I not blog about two separate occasions this month where he and I went to the beach? Honestly. We do spend a lot of time at home, but I'm cleaning or blogging or making hemp jewelry and Andrew is either on his Volksrods website, working on one of his car projects, or cooking something. Yes, we do watch movies and television shows a lot, but it's not all we do! We are not bumps on logs; we are human "beings," not human "doings."
I just don't understand how someone can assume these things about other people, spread rumors about these unsubstantiated "facts," and try and convince people that I'm this horrible person and am not worth living with or trying to spend time with because all my attention is on Andrew and being "lovey dovey" and attached at the hip.
Monday, July 28, 2008
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Sort it, Serve it, Paint it, Enjoy it!
My first full day off was today. I started it out with a nice long shower. Why not? Then Andrew and I brought my folks' vacuum back to their house. After visiting for a while [and agreeing to spending more time with my youngest sister, Samantha, who is turning out to be the exact replica of my out-of-control now-18-year-old sister, Brittany], we got some Jack-in-the-Box and came home to enjoy an episode of Six Feet Under.
Can you believe Andrew's already halfway through season four? There are five seasons total and he is literally catching up to me with how many full television series I have seen. I'm pretty sure he doesn't want to watch Sex and the City all the way through [not many guys do and that's okay], but I have the first 10 seasons of South Park that I have yet to devour [although I have seen quite a few episodes and a few full seasons] and I hope he'll be up for that next.
South Park is a little overlooked. The show is much like The Daily Show with John Stewart, the news segments of MadTV, and The Onion with its commentary and humorous edge over news events and hot topics of society. Sure, some of it is a little controversial, but its comedic timing and long-running side plots [references to past episodes, sex- and orientation-changes through characters continuing past one episode, two- and three-part episodes, etc.] keep the audience's attention--and anticipation for new episodes--high. Yes, it is a cartoon show, but sometimes that's how it has to be. The Simpsons was an extremely popular and amazing show [watched and analyzed in my high school's Humanities class] and it too was a cartoon. I think the method in delivering the message is irrelevant these days, and hopefully cartoons for adults can keep the world filled with humor as well as an attention to current events.
Anyway, after Six Feet Under, I organized the tupper ware in our cupboard [lids with no containers!] and found a nice place to put my two contributions, one of which is the Smart Spin:
Pretty amazing huh? I made room for this bad boy and then I cleaned my room while Andrew cleaned his brother's carpets. I got everything organized, moved my shelf into the "drum" room [space between the kitchen and the living room where Andrew's drums are] and put my extra DVDs, books, beads, etc. on it. I then cleaned up everything else--including the inside of my closet filled with plastic and tote bags, hats, shoes, CD albums, etc.--and swept swept SWEPT! I had a dust rabbit the size of Murphy when I was done. I don't understand where it all came from! I'm hardly ever in there! Not that I'm dusty or anything. I then left my dresser at an angle, brought out my DVD shelf to give to Ashley as a house warming present, and called it good!
After this, Andrew and I went to WalMart because I wanted to look at under-the-bed storage containers, paint for my future room [I was going to leave it the color it is, but if I can have it whatever color I want, why not do it that way?], and some housewarming stuff for Ashley. We first looked at $5 movies to see if Emperor's New Groove happened to be there. It wasn't. From here we went to look at paint! I picked out a paint chip called "Gaucho" [2096-40]:
I wanted that and Andrew said I had to have a white ceiling or else it will look dark and much like a "poop room." So we decided on that color with a white trim and ceiling. I'm excited! But I didn't know how expensive it was! Andrew said it ranges from about $35-40 a gallon. Ah! So I didn't get any while we were at the store because we could possibly find a better deal elsewhere. From here we swung by under-the-bed storage. I decided against it because what on Earth do I have to store under my bed, besides dust bunnies? So we went through the laundry section and got basically the sweetest contraption I have ever experienced:
We got a different one than is shown, but it's a three-section laundry sorter. Ours has a dark plastic frame, wheels, and a nylon sectional with a fold-over cover with a weighted end so that your dirties don't get exposed! I was very excited about that. And considering it was under $15, it was basically a steal! We then looked at housewares and picked out some glassware for Ashley's new place:
The glasses have a square base and a circular top. Neat! We hope she likes them. We also got her some straws, matches [we all use them frequently in the bathroom; I had no idea how great they actually worked!], and two picture frames [one for Andrew, one for me, so that we can always be at Ashley's!]. I also snagged some scissors from the back-to-school section [less than $2 for these amazingly good scissors with the most comfortable grip ever!] which by the way is an absolutely necessary stop when shopping because--like we discussed at my folks' earlier in the day--it is insane what they are doing! We saw a 24 pack of crayons for 17¢! Insane.
We then swung by my folks' again to see if my dad had a certain tool Andrew needs for his truck and then came home. We took pictures for Ashley's frames, printed them, and I tried out the laundry sorter.
Verdict: absolutely amazing! 100% satisfied! Although the frame is plastic and not too expensive [I.E. "cheap"], the thing rolled from my room--over carpet!--to the garage/laundry room with no problem! The size of each section is the absolute perfect size for a load of laundry in our machine. Honestly, this is an amazing buy.
Andrew left for work and I started laundry, made some Pasta Roni, and sat down to blog. And by the way, I had to go back to the original Blogger layout [not draft.blogger] because the spell check function is too important for me to not have. I am a perfectionist and seeing that I spelled the word "people" wrong in a previous post makes me sick to my stomach.
One of the dogs just farted; I'm going to spell check and then vacate this room!
Can you believe Andrew's already halfway through season four? There are five seasons total and he is literally catching up to me with how many full television series I have seen. I'm pretty sure he doesn't want to watch Sex and the City all the way through [not many guys do and that's okay], but I have the first 10 seasons of South Park that I have yet to devour [although I have seen quite a few episodes and a few full seasons] and I hope he'll be up for that next.
South Park is a little overlooked. The show is much like The Daily Show with John Stewart, the news segments of MadTV, and The Onion with its commentary and humorous edge over news events and hot topics of society. Sure, some of it is a little controversial, but its comedic timing and long-running side plots [references to past episodes, sex- and orientation-changes through characters continuing past one episode, two- and three-part episodes, etc.] keep the audience's attention--and anticipation for new episodes--high. Yes, it is a cartoon show, but sometimes that's how it has to be. The Simpsons was an extremely popular and amazing show [watched and analyzed in my high school's Humanities class] and it too was a cartoon. I think the method in delivering the message is irrelevant these days, and hopefully cartoons for adults can keep the world filled with humor as well as an attention to current events.
Anyway, after Six Feet Under, I organized the tupper ware in our cupboard [lids with no containers!] and found a nice place to put my two contributions, one of which is the Smart Spin:
Pretty amazing huh? I made room for this bad boy and then I cleaned my room while Andrew cleaned his brother's carpets. I got everything organized, moved my shelf into the "drum" room [space between the kitchen and the living room where Andrew's drums are] and put my extra DVDs, books, beads, etc. on it. I then cleaned up everything else--including the inside of my closet filled with plastic and tote bags, hats, shoes, CD albums, etc.--and swept swept SWEPT! I had a dust rabbit the size of Murphy when I was done. I don't understand where it all came from! I'm hardly ever in there! Not that I'm dusty or anything. I then left my dresser at an angle, brought out my DVD shelf to give to Ashley as a house warming present, and called it good!
After this, Andrew and I went to WalMart because I wanted to look at under-the-bed storage containers, paint for my future room [I was going to leave it the color it is, but if I can have it whatever color I want, why not do it that way?], and some housewarming stuff for Ashley. We first looked at $5 movies to see if Emperor's New Groove happened to be there. It wasn't. From here we went to look at paint! I picked out a paint chip called "Gaucho" [2096-40]:
I wanted that and Andrew said I had to have a white ceiling or else it will look dark and much like a "poop room." So we decided on that color with a white trim and ceiling. I'm excited! But I didn't know how expensive it was! Andrew said it ranges from about $35-40 a gallon. Ah! So I didn't get any while we were at the store because we could possibly find a better deal elsewhere. From here we swung by under-the-bed storage. I decided against it because what on Earth do I have to store under my bed, besides dust bunnies? So we went through the laundry section and got basically the sweetest contraption I have ever experienced:
We got a different one than is shown, but it's a three-section laundry sorter. Ours has a dark plastic frame, wheels, and a nylon sectional with a fold-over cover with a weighted end so that your dirties don't get exposed! I was very excited about that. And considering it was under $15, it was basically a steal! We then looked at housewares and picked out some glassware for Ashley's new place:
The glasses have a square base and a circular top. Neat! We hope she likes them. We also got her some straws, matches [we all use them frequently in the bathroom; I had no idea how great they actually worked!], and two picture frames [one for Andrew, one for me, so that we can always be at Ashley's!]. I also snagged some scissors from the back-to-school section [less than $2 for these amazingly good scissors with the most comfortable grip ever!] which by the way is an absolutely necessary stop when shopping because--like we discussed at my folks' earlier in the day--it is insane what they are doing! We saw a 24 pack of crayons for 17¢! Insane.
We then swung by my folks' again to see if my dad had a certain tool Andrew needs for his truck and then came home. We took pictures for Ashley's frames, printed them, and I tried out the laundry sorter.
Verdict: absolutely amazing! 100% satisfied! Although the frame is plastic and not too expensive [I.E. "cheap"], the thing rolled from my room--over carpet!--to the garage/laundry room with no problem! The size of each section is the absolute perfect size for a load of laundry in our machine. Honestly, this is an amazing buy.
Andrew left for work and I started laundry, made some Pasta Roni, and sat down to blog. And by the way, I had to go back to the original Blogger layout [not draft.blogger] because the spell check function is too important for me to not have. I am a perfectionist and seeing that I spelled the word "people" wrong in a previous post makes me sick to my stomach.
One of the dogs just farted; I'm going to spell check and then vacate this room!
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Moving Out and Growing Up
Today is the first bit of my 3.5 days off in a row. How exciting! At midnight, Ashley and I sent our boss a text saying "Happy Birthday..." and "...to you!" After hearing her whine about how her friends don't care about her and all that jazz, we figured out that it was the least we could do without having to listen to anymore whining. It worked.
I am transferring this blog from a handwritten "journal" entry on my way to Ashley's new place. Ashley (and Andrew)'s mom [Linda--what a cool name!] drove, with Ashley riding shotgun and Sam and I backseat-ing it up. I gave my cursive a run for its money and it was pretty difficult with the bumps and sways of the freeway [and getting a little carsick!], lack of practice, and a hangnail on my right index finger where my middle finger rests while writing [why do I write like that?]. With the focus of this blog not being my horrible handwriting skills, I am excited to see Ashley's new place, now that we can say "her new place" with certainty. With the excitement comes the sadness of seeing her leave. She was a sweet roommate with fun stories and with whom I would experience many late night trips to Haggen and WalMart for the most random and interesting things.
Her new place is in Lynnwood and a couple minutes from her salon at the mall. It is pretty basic from the outside, but inside has a lot of spunk. It is a two-story townhouse with two bedrooms, a full storage closet, a linen closet, and a full bathroom upstairs and a living room, kitchen, half bath, and huge storage space downstairs.
This is the outside. Pretty basic, like I said, but inside holds the secret:
After going down the stairs you get to the main living room / dining room. There is a little hole in the wall that "connects" the room to the kitchen:
Pretty spiffy! Working upstairs:
That's right; I'm sticking my head through the rails of the deadly lookout. Murder central! The rooms are cool because they have tracklighting instead of basic lighting and the main bedroom has basically a walk in closet. Look how deep in it is!
And making our way back down to the landing...
Total candid shot, by the way! Haha!! Overall a pretty cool place.
With Ashley moving out, that leaves an empty and bigger room in the house that I can move my stuff into. How cool is that? There might be room for my futon in there this time. I will have to measure to see if everything will fit. I will make room on my shelf for my beads so they won't be in the living room on the printer, possibly weighing down the scanner top and ruining everything that we paid for. Not cool. If it all works out as planned, my room will be laid out like so:
Pretty sweet, no?
So then this means that my room will be empty and there will be one less provider of rent. Andrew and I thought about it and decided to ask Sam to move in with us. She was all for it when I asked her this morning, but we're giving her time to think it over and talk to her dad [with absolutely no pressure or feelings on the line!] and soon we will know if we have a sweet new roommate!
It's a cool feeling moving out and growing up. I always joked about living with my folks until I was 40 years old. Now that I have moved out, I have taken responsibility of keeping things clean and organized more so than at my folks' place. I pay rent and feel that it's partly my house too [although I'm not on the lease at all] and I feel the need to take care of it. Fixing up the house with Andrew sounds like a lot of fun [redoing the kitchen, bathroom, electrical stuff (I.E. light fixtures and outlets so that they have ground holes instead of just the two basic slits) and pulling up the carpets]. I would never have wanted to be a part of "home remodeling," but I want to and it's a very "adult" and "grown up" thing to feel, I think.
I hope that through all of the drama that is going on over at my folks' place with my sister has an eye opening result for her. She honestly never talks to me unless she needs something. either to bring her Subway or a mocha back when she was in school, needed me to bring her the spare key for her car that was locked a half hour away, and most recently to ask to stay in our house while she fights with my mom and dad over childish opinions on household rules. Honestly, if you're a [now] 18-year-old girl living with your parents and they say for the last time that your boyfriend can't sleep in the same room as you because it sends off the wrong message to your almost 10-year-old sister, but he can sleep on the couch and stay at the house if he A.) gets a job, B.) pays a whole $50 a month for rent [which is nothing], and C.) shows some kind of respect for other people and their things. But this is absolutely unheard of [because no one has ever stood up to her before and it's nobody's fault--she is just crazy and it's easier to just go with whatever she wants to do than to put up a fight] and she is apparently moving out because of it, with no place to stay. Well, I hope that moving out [and not staying here] will open up her eyes and make her mature passed her selfish and childish way of life.
I'm full.
I am transferring this blog from a handwritten "journal" entry on my way to Ashley's new place. Ashley (and Andrew)'s mom [Linda--what a cool name!] drove, with Ashley riding shotgun and Sam and I backseat-ing it up. I gave my cursive a run for its money and it was pretty difficult with the bumps and sways of the freeway [and getting a little carsick!], lack of practice, and a hangnail on my right index finger where my middle finger rests while writing [why do I write like that?]. With the focus of this blog not being my horrible handwriting skills, I am excited to see Ashley's new place, now that we can say "her new place" with certainty. With the excitement comes the sadness of seeing her leave. She was a sweet roommate with fun stories and with whom I would experience many late night trips to Haggen and WalMart for the most random and interesting things.
Her new place is in Lynnwood and a couple minutes from her salon at the mall. It is pretty basic from the outside, but inside has a lot of spunk. It is a two-story townhouse with two bedrooms, a full storage closet, a linen closet, and a full bathroom upstairs and a living room, kitchen, half bath, and huge storage space downstairs.
This is the outside. Pretty basic, like I said, but inside holds the secret:
After going down the stairs you get to the main living room / dining room. There is a little hole in the wall that "connects" the room to the kitchen:
Pretty spiffy! Working upstairs:
That's right; I'm sticking my head through the rails of the deadly lookout. Murder central! The rooms are cool because they have tracklighting instead of basic lighting and the main bedroom has basically a walk in closet. Look how deep in it is!
And making our way back down to the landing...
Total candid shot, by the way! Haha!! Overall a pretty cool place.
With Ashley moving out, that leaves an empty and bigger room in the house that I can move my stuff into. How cool is that? There might be room for my futon in there this time. I will have to measure to see if everything will fit. I will make room on my shelf for my beads so they won't be in the living room on the printer, possibly weighing down the scanner top and ruining everything that we paid for. Not cool. If it all works out as planned, my room will be laid out like so:
Pretty sweet, no?
So then this means that my room will be empty and there will be one less provider of rent. Andrew and I thought about it and decided to ask Sam to move in with us. She was all for it when I asked her this morning, but we're giving her time to think it over and talk to her dad [with absolutely no pressure or feelings on the line!] and soon we will know if we have a sweet new roommate!
It's a cool feeling moving out and growing up. I always joked about living with my folks until I was 40 years old. Now that I have moved out, I have taken responsibility of keeping things clean and organized more so than at my folks' place. I pay rent and feel that it's partly my house too [although I'm not on the lease at all] and I feel the need to take care of it. Fixing up the house with Andrew sounds like a lot of fun [redoing the kitchen, bathroom, electrical stuff (I.E. light fixtures and outlets so that they have ground holes instead of just the two basic slits) and pulling up the carpets]. I would never have wanted to be a part of "home remodeling," but I want to and it's a very "adult" and "grown up" thing to feel, I think.
I hope that through all of the drama that is going on over at my folks' place with my sister has an eye opening result for her. She honestly never talks to me unless she needs something. either to bring her Subway or a mocha back when she was in school, needed me to bring her the spare key for her car that was locked a half hour away, and most recently to ask to stay in our house while she fights with my mom and dad over childish opinions on household rules. Honestly, if you're a [now] 18-year-old girl living with your parents and they say for the last time that your boyfriend can't sleep in the same room as you because it sends off the wrong message to your almost 10-year-old sister, but he can sleep on the couch and stay at the house if he A.) gets a job, B.) pays a whole $50 a month for rent [which is nothing], and C.) shows some kind of respect for other people and their things. But this is absolutely unheard of [because no one has ever stood up to her before and it's nobody's fault--she is just crazy and it's easier to just go with whatever she wants to do than to put up a fight] and she is apparently moving out because of it, with no place to stay. Well, I hope that moving out [and not staying here] will open up her eyes and make her mature passed her selfish and childish way of life.
I'm full.
Friday, July 25, 2008
I Wanted to Believe
Today, Friday July 25, 2008 was the release date for the second X-Files Movie, I Want to Believe. Of course, Andrew and I went to the first showing at the local mall [that's right, 11:30!]. I had mixed emotions about how the movie was going to be, but I mostly had the feeling that the movie would have the X-Files "episode" feel throughout the entire thing.
Turns out, I was right. The movie was 1 hour and 40 minutes long and although the way that the story line picks up from the end of the series was "okay" with reality considered, it didn't have the X-Files vibe. The movie focused more on the pedophile ex-priest / psychic and his lame acting skills than Mulder and Scully. There was tension between M&S, but their relationship was unclear throughout the movie. The new FBI agents were good actors, but they drew attention away from the fact that Mulder and Scully were helping to solve the case.
Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny looked more than six years older than the last episode they did [which was six years ago]. It was odd seeing Gillian with long hair and David with a fatter face than before. But non-the-less seeing them together again was pretty sweet.
All in all, it was an okay extended episode with a focus on the actual "X-File" and the process of solving it with all parties involved. So far IMDb.com has it rated as a 7.5. I'd rate it as maybe a 6.8/10 as far as movies go, but I think that's pretty safe to say considering it is a movie based on a television show. Still worth the long wait!
Turns out, I was right. The movie was 1 hour and 40 minutes long and although the way that the story line picks up from the end of the series was "okay" with reality considered, it didn't have the X-Files vibe. The movie focused more on the pedophile ex-priest / psychic and his lame acting skills than Mulder and Scully. There was tension between M&S, but their relationship was unclear throughout the movie. The new FBI agents were good actors, but they drew attention away from the fact that Mulder and Scully were helping to solve the case.
Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny looked more than six years older than the last episode they did [which was six years ago]. It was odd seeing Gillian with long hair and David with a fatter face than before. But non-the-less seeing them together again was pretty sweet.
All in all, it was an okay extended episode with a focus on the actual "X-File" and the process of solving it with all parties involved. So far IMDb.com has it rated as a 7.5. I'd rate it as maybe a 6.8/10 as far as movies go, but I think that's pretty safe to say considering it is a movie based on a television show. Still worth the long wait!
Personal MyVent.com
Dear Boss,
I wish you would stop being such a hypocrite and start being the manager you are being paid to be. You wrote me up for being negative at work. Are you now going to write yourself up for crying at work because you fear the absolute worst: being fired from a shithole job? I know that you make a little under double what I do, and it kills me; I don't care much for my job, but when I'm there, I bust my ass and get things done. What do you do? Absolutely nothing. You go on vacation, come back to an increased workload, and ask me why I didn't cut hours? When I suggest I have a half day, you dismiss the idea because you don't want to work the whole day the only manager there until I arrive. It is selfish and not how a manager--concerned with payroll--should act.
Last night at floorset you did absolutely nothing. Nothing! You worked on paperwork, took forever to close the registers, had me follow you around to make a list of things we needed to get finished, and then didn't work on getting any of it done. I single-handily completed an entire 12-foot shop in the hour and a half you let us get things done (after spending an hour telling us stories from your vacation in Mexico where you made out with a married man every night and expecting us to side with you when the question "Was that wrong?" comes up), Ashley got lots of tedious projects done, and you did what? Start working on mannequin outfits a half an hour before we left. No wonder I left at 1:00 on the dot--I don't want to stay there while you finish a job you should have started hours ago just because you have your priorities out of whack. Don't do paperwork for the next morning when you're supposed to be moving merchandise across the store and repositioning hardware. Don't make unnecessary lists at unnecessary times. And don't nit-pick when details aren't done the way you want them to be if you don't help at least a little bit every once in a while!
Leave your feelings at home. Me leaving at 1:00 was not some kind of attack on you as a person. God damnit! I don't want to work longer than I'm scheduled because a certain someone chose to do other "projects" and didn't get as much accomplished as she had in mind. If I don't agree with your actions with a married man on your vacation, don't get all upset about it. If I say that I'm sick and tired of hearing Coldplay's new songs play every six minutes (a reasonable and shared opinion by many co-workers after hearing it literally every other song for eight hours straight!), it's not an attack on your music preferences. Just because I don't agree with you on policies, don't think that I'm disregarding your opinion entirely. Get over the fact that the world doesn't revolve around you and just relax!! So what if your ex-boyfriend plans his birthday party on your birthday; the Saturday after his birthday so that his friends can make it is a reasonable time for a birthday. You wanna know why both your friends are going to his party and not hanging out with you? It's because you are absolutely insane and let your emotions go wild at totally inappropriate times. Don't call me bawling when I am trying to close the registers at work because your friends chose him over you. Yea, he was an ass when you two were together, but maybe he changed, and maybe people would rather be with someone who just relaxes and goes with the flow than with someone who throws a fit over not getting her dream birthday.
You also need to realize that a fantasy is just that: fantasy. Being married at 24 and having kids with the perfect guy in a small town (whom you will always compare to your exes who left you--have you ever left someone? Hmmm...) is a childhood dream and needs to just vacate your mind this very instant. Your brother and sister both have families and children (or on the way) and you can't compare yourself to them. You are you and no one else. And your life is ending up how you lay the path for it. Being crazy and unreasonably emotional will not lay the path for your "dream life"; it will only lead you astray into the unhappiness that you claim you're wallowing in already.
And yes, your birthday is tomorrow, but so what? Honestly. People have lives and just because it's your birthday doesn't mean that everyone has to drop everything they have going on to be with you. Trying to make your friends feel guilty because they have prior engagements (I.E. moving to a new apartment, family reunions, other friends' birthdays, etc.) is not cool. If it was my birthday, I wouldn't care what people were doing; I would want to relax and just have a day with no obligations. If someone wanted to hang out with me or go out to dinner or something, that'd be fine, but I wouldn't freak out if I had nothing to do.
Having nothing to do is what I look forward to. Sitting at home and relaxing, watching a movie, blogging, making a bracelet, etc. is what I enjoy spending my time doing. It is not "unhealthy" to sit at home with my boyfriend and spend time doing what we both enjoy: being happy. Just because I'm not out partying it up with friends all the time (I am not a social person as it is) doesn't mean I'm "unhealthy" and unhappy. Happiness is different for each person, and you need to figure out how to define your own.
In a nutshell: figure it out, do your job the way you're supposed to, stop being so god damn emotional, and stop being so selfish. Everyone is sick of it.
Sincerely,
Your Employee
I wish you would stop being such a hypocrite and start being the manager you are being paid to be. You wrote me up for being negative at work. Are you now going to write yourself up for crying at work because you fear the absolute worst: being fired from a shithole job? I know that you make a little under double what I do, and it kills me; I don't care much for my job, but when I'm there, I bust my ass and get things done. What do you do? Absolutely nothing. You go on vacation, come back to an increased workload, and ask me why I didn't cut hours? When I suggest I have a half day, you dismiss the idea because you don't want to work the whole day the only manager there until I arrive. It is selfish and not how a manager--concerned with payroll--should act.
Last night at floorset you did absolutely nothing. Nothing! You worked on paperwork, took forever to close the registers, had me follow you around to make a list of things we needed to get finished, and then didn't work on getting any of it done. I single-handily completed an entire 12-foot shop in the hour and a half you let us get things done (after spending an hour telling us stories from your vacation in Mexico where you made out with a married man every night and expecting us to side with you when the question "Was that wrong?" comes up), Ashley got lots of tedious projects done, and you did what? Start working on mannequin outfits a half an hour before we left. No wonder I left at 1:00 on the dot--I don't want to stay there while you finish a job you should have started hours ago just because you have your priorities out of whack. Don't do paperwork for the next morning when you're supposed to be moving merchandise across the store and repositioning hardware. Don't make unnecessary lists at unnecessary times. And don't nit-pick when details aren't done the way you want them to be if you don't help at least a little bit every once in a while!
Leave your feelings at home. Me leaving at 1:00 was not some kind of attack on you as a person. God damnit! I don't want to work longer than I'm scheduled because a certain someone chose to do other "projects" and didn't get as much accomplished as she had in mind. If I don't agree with your actions with a married man on your vacation, don't get all upset about it. If I say that I'm sick and tired of hearing Coldplay's new songs play every six minutes (a reasonable and shared opinion by many co-workers after hearing it literally every other song for eight hours straight!), it's not an attack on your music preferences. Just because I don't agree with you on policies, don't think that I'm disregarding your opinion entirely. Get over the fact that the world doesn't revolve around you and just relax!! So what if your ex-boyfriend plans his birthday party on your birthday; the Saturday after his birthday so that his friends can make it is a reasonable time for a birthday. You wanna know why both your friends are going to his party and not hanging out with you? It's because you are absolutely insane and let your emotions go wild at totally inappropriate times. Don't call me bawling when I am trying to close the registers at work because your friends chose him over you. Yea, he was an ass when you two were together, but maybe he changed, and maybe people would rather be with someone who just relaxes and goes with the flow than with someone who throws a fit over not getting her dream birthday.
You also need to realize that a fantasy is just that: fantasy. Being married at 24 and having kids with the perfect guy in a small town (whom you will always compare to your exes who left you--have you ever left someone? Hmmm...) is a childhood dream and needs to just vacate your mind this very instant. Your brother and sister both have families and children (or on the way) and you can't compare yourself to them. You are you and no one else. And your life is ending up how you lay the path for it. Being crazy and unreasonably emotional will not lay the path for your "dream life"; it will only lead you astray into the unhappiness that you claim you're wallowing in already.
And yes, your birthday is tomorrow, but so what? Honestly. People have lives and just because it's your birthday doesn't mean that everyone has to drop everything they have going on to be with you. Trying to make your friends feel guilty because they have prior engagements (I.E. moving to a new apartment, family reunions, other friends' birthdays, etc.) is not cool. If it was my birthday, I wouldn't care what people were doing; I would want to relax and just have a day with no obligations. If someone wanted to hang out with me or go out to dinner or something, that'd be fine, but I wouldn't freak out if I had nothing to do.
Having nothing to do is what I look forward to. Sitting at home and relaxing, watching a movie, blogging, making a bracelet, etc. is what I enjoy spending my time doing. It is not "unhealthy" to sit at home with my boyfriend and spend time doing what we both enjoy: being happy. Just because I'm not out partying it up with friends all the time (I am not a social person as it is) doesn't mean I'm "unhealthy" and unhappy. Happiness is different for each person, and you need to figure out how to define your own.
In a nutshell: figure it out, do your job the way you're supposed to, stop being so god damn emotional, and stop being so selfish. Everyone is sick of it.
Sincerely,
Your Employee
Sunday, July 20, 2008
A Jewel-y, Beachin' Day
Today, Sunday, was my first day off in about five days. Not a real big feat, working five days in a row before getting a day off, but I was getting real sick of it. The first three of the five days went pretty smoothly. We focused on customers, small projects--nothing too stressful. Then, Friday morning, we got the freight. We received 36 boxes of new merchandise for processing. Thirty-six! The first half of my shift that day was devoted to sorting the freight, and the second half was devoted to getting as much freight processed as possible. I got through 9 boxes of young men's branded zip-up sweatshirts. I folded them onto our miscellaneous tables [originally meant for backpacks. We didn't set them up that way because we got them a week and a half after the floorset] and backstocked the rest. Then it was time for me to leave.
Saturday I worked 2:00 to close--eight hours straight with a break in the backroom. I woke up and after doing 3 loads of laundry, putting away dishes, and drinking a mug of coffee, I wanted to call in sick and crash. I don't think I've ever, ever, called in sick [with the exception of this one time when I had, quite literally, the worst headache of my entire life and wouldn't cover someone's shift when they called in sick. The stipulation in which our store manager could go on vacation was that we couldn't borrow anyone from another store. Also, the other manager working that day was getting off at 2--only working a half day--so she can hang out with a long-time friend she hadn't seen in a while. So I grumbled and groaned and left.
When I got to work, there were still boxes of freight leftover from the day before. That's not a big deal, I just didn't want to deal with it. I had a mild headache on the right side of my head [not the left side, like before] and was not in the mood to process anything. We had a plethora of employees on the sales floor, so I had everyone in his or her zones with specific projects and I went in the back to process freight, organize the mess I made yesterday with the freight boxes, and make some kind of sense out of the backstocked merchandise which was literally a leftover mess of a combination of a tornado, a tsunami, and an earthquake [no, not the one from the 10th; that would have been way too much time in between that wouldn't be accounted for].
While back there, I got a lot done; I had the employees bringing certain processed merchandise to specific places in the store, re-fixtured the mobile "shoe walls" that hold our backstocked product so that the product could be housed easier and less damaging, and I cleaned up the mess, leaving only one box of freight by the end of the night.
The first half of my break, I made my gramma a hemp anklet. I used tan hemp [basic color] and some beads I picked out especially for her.
These aren't the ones I picked out for her, but of course if I'm looking for something online, I absolutely cannot seem to find it. The beads were Blue Moon beads, metal diamond shapes with a cobalt blue colored stone in the middle. The hole on the bead wasn't big enough for the two middle strings so I re-worked the hemping so that I used five strings instead of four, with three "core" strings and two "weaving" strings. The three core strings stayed in the middle until time came for a bead, which I then strung onto the middle of the three strings and then used the four unused strings to make a square knot to hold it together. The strings were taut behind the bead, which made it look like a diamond bead on top of a square hemping pattern. It was really cool looking! Considering it was my first attempt at doing something out of the ordinary with hemping, I ran into a knot in my spool of hemp [causing precise measuring difficulty that ended up being perfect beyond belief at the end], and I didn't have a whole lot of time to make something on my break, I got it done extremely fast and it looked really good. I was excited to give it to her.
The second half of my break I spent laying down on the floor in the backroom with my head on a sweatshirt that we had damaged out. I took some Ibuprofen [I'm pretty sure I have a high tolerance for pain medication so it doesn't really help me at all] and tried to relax and not think about it. After my break I finished my shift and went home. Knowing that I didn't have to go to work the next day, I felt somewhat relieved, although my headache was still somewhat present.
Now we reach today, Sunday, my day off. I woke up, put dishes away, got dressed, and had a cup of coffee. I had planned on visiting my gramma [unbeknownst to her] and gave her a call to see if she had plans. She said that she was going out to lunch with a friend at 1:00 and I offered to go visit her new place up in Bellingham before her lunch. I grabbed the first two seasons of Six Feet Under [we just finished season two last night; Nate is undergoing surgery for his AVM. What will happen?? I know...] because she doesn't have cable, does have a DVD player, and enjoys the work of Alan Ball just as much as I do. It'll give her something to do when she is bored or whatnot [even if I'm not bored, I'll watch it over doing other things!]. I grabbed those, her anklet, and a free recycled bag from PacSun and headed on up to Bellingham [not before making a mixed CD called "Sweet As Canday Mix!" ...playlist follows:
...and a little FYI: I understand that a couple of these songs are on the Top 40 right now and that normally turns them off from my interest, but I don't have to really let that get to me if I like the song. Like I said, the U.S. is finally understanding what sweet music is like. It may not hold the classics found in the 70s and 80s, but it's still good. And, the song "Ur So Gay" isn't Gay-bashing. She is upset at her boyfriend and throwing some nasty lyrics at him. I am 100% supportive of any sexual orientation--within the same species, please--so this is in no way me trying to disrespect the Gay community. I hate when people use any kind of slang for "homosexual" as a demeaning term. Get over it! Anyway, this was mainly a dance mix so I'd have something to bounce to on my way up North].
After seeing her new place--amazing!--I went to Bead Bazaar. I think I spent a good 40 minutes in there just looking at everything. I'm not sure why, but I can't stop buying beads! I just can't! I only spent around $20 there, signed up for their Bead Club so that every $100 I spend there, I get a $5 coupon [pretty cool!], and headed back to town.
At WalMart I got a tackle-box for my new beads [and probably more beads in the future!], some house-hold items we needed, and some wine glasses that I've been eyeing for a while. From there I hooked up with Andrew and we headed out to La Conner to his family's "July Birthdays" get together. I couldn't believe my luck when I saw the food.
Seriously, I had about two platefuls of stuff [including apple pie and home-made whipped cream!]. After eating and visiting a bit with people [me observing / Andrew visiting], he and I made our way to the little beach nearby--surprised?
There were rocks with barnacles covering them everywhere! We flipped over big ones and looked for crabs; we found a lot--big ones too! I saw some coloring on a nearby "cliff" and we made our way over to check it out:
From the tides and such! Speaking of, the tide was literally about a mile out and we could see muck and mud for a long ways. We threw rocks at a "mud pile" for a bit and then realized that the tide was coming in at an incredibly fast speed!
I should have taken a picture of the tide when it was out, but here is a shot when it is in:
It was mesmerizing how fast it came in! Seriously, it was unbelievable.
This is Andrew and I at the beach with my walking stick I found and Andrew's Mountain Dew.
On our way back, this was what we saw. How gorgeous!!
When we came home, I turned on my computer and started uploading pictures, videos, and looking around on the Internet. I still had that Amazon.com gift certificate for $25 I had to use, so I was looking around on there. I found some rings that I've been wanting for a while [well, that style, not the exact rings]:
And FYI, the red and green rings both now say, "Currently unavailable. We don't know when or if this item will be back in stock." Yea, that's right; I got the last ones in stock. No big deal.
So basically I had an amazing day off, filled with beads, food, beach fun, rings, and some quality time with some very important people in my life. Can't complain.
Saturday I worked 2:00 to close--eight hours straight with a break in the backroom. I woke up and after doing 3 loads of laundry, putting away dishes, and drinking a mug of coffee, I wanted to call in sick and crash. I don't think I've ever, ever, called in sick [with the exception of this one time when I had, quite literally, the worst headache of my entire life and wouldn't cover someone's shift when they called in sick. The stipulation in which our store manager could go on vacation was that we couldn't borrow anyone from another store. Also, the other manager working that day was getting off at 2--only working a half day--so she can hang out with a long-time friend she hadn't seen in a while. So I grumbled and groaned and left.
When I got to work, there were still boxes of freight leftover from the day before. That's not a big deal, I just didn't want to deal with it. I had a mild headache on the right side of my head [not the left side, like before] and was not in the mood to process anything. We had a plethora of employees on the sales floor, so I had everyone in his or her zones with specific projects and I went in the back to process freight, organize the mess I made yesterday with the freight boxes, and make some kind of sense out of the backstocked merchandise which was literally a leftover mess of a combination of a tornado, a tsunami, and an earthquake [no, not the one from the 10th; that would have been way too much time in between that wouldn't be accounted for].
While back there, I got a lot done; I had the employees bringing certain processed merchandise to specific places in the store, re-fixtured the mobile "shoe walls" that hold our backstocked product so that the product could be housed easier and less damaging, and I cleaned up the mess, leaving only one box of freight by the end of the night.
The first half of my break, I made my gramma a hemp anklet. I used tan hemp [basic color] and some beads I picked out especially for her.
These aren't the ones I picked out for her, but of course if I'm looking for something online, I absolutely cannot seem to find it. The beads were Blue Moon beads, metal diamond shapes with a cobalt blue colored stone in the middle. The hole on the bead wasn't big enough for the two middle strings so I re-worked the hemping so that I used five strings instead of four, with three "core" strings and two "weaving" strings. The three core strings stayed in the middle until time came for a bead, which I then strung onto the middle of the three strings and then used the four unused strings to make a square knot to hold it together. The strings were taut behind the bead, which made it look like a diamond bead on top of a square hemping pattern. It was really cool looking! Considering it was my first attempt at doing something out of the ordinary with hemping, I ran into a knot in my spool of hemp [causing precise measuring difficulty that ended up being perfect beyond belief at the end], and I didn't have a whole lot of time to make something on my break, I got it done extremely fast and it looked really good. I was excited to give it to her.
The second half of my break I spent laying down on the floor in the backroom with my head on a sweatshirt that we had damaged out. I took some Ibuprofen [I'm pretty sure I have a high tolerance for pain medication so it doesn't really help me at all] and tried to relax and not think about it. After my break I finished my shift and went home. Knowing that I didn't have to go to work the next day, I felt somewhat relieved, although my headache was still somewhat present.
Now we reach today, Sunday, my day off. I woke up, put dishes away, got dressed, and had a cup of coffee. I had planned on visiting my gramma [unbeknownst to her] and gave her a call to see if she had plans. She said that she was going out to lunch with a friend at 1:00 and I offered to go visit her new place up in Bellingham before her lunch. I grabbed the first two seasons of Six Feet Under [we just finished season two last night; Nate is undergoing surgery for his AVM. What will happen?? I know...] because she doesn't have cable, does have a DVD player, and enjoys the work of Alan Ball just as much as I do. It'll give her something to do when she is bored or whatnot [even if I'm not bored, I'll watch it over doing other things!]. I grabbed those, her anklet, and a free recycled bag from PacSun and headed on up to Bellingham [not before making a mixed CD called "Sweet As Canday Mix!" ...playlist follows:
"Shut Up and Let Me Go" -- The Ting Tings
"I Kissed a Girl" -- Katy Perry
"Damaged" -- Danity Kane
"When I Grow Up" -- The Pussycat Dolls
"Until I Stay" -- Jully Black
"Hot 'N Cold" -- Katy Perry
"Lollipop" -- Lil Wayne
"Ur So Gay" -- Katy Perry
"I Wanna Love You" -- The Maine
"See You Again" -- Miley Cyrus
"All Eyez on Me" -- Monica
"Give Me Love (No Llores)" -- Monte Negro
"She Wants to Move" -- N.E.R.D.
"Laugh About It" -- N.E.R.D.
"Leavin'" -- Jesse McCartney
"Umbrella" -- Vanilla Sky
"Whatever You Like" -- Nicole Scherzinger
"Untouched" -- The Veronicas
"Leave Out All the Rest" -- Linkin Park
...and a little FYI: I understand that a couple of these songs are on the Top 40 right now and that normally turns them off from my interest, but I don't have to really let that get to me if I like the song. Like I said, the U.S. is finally understanding what sweet music is like. It may not hold the classics found in the 70s and 80s, but it's still good. And, the song "Ur So Gay" isn't Gay-bashing. She is upset at her boyfriend and throwing some nasty lyrics at him. I am 100% supportive of any sexual orientation--within the same species, please--so this is in no way me trying to disrespect the Gay community. I hate when people use any kind of slang for "homosexual" as a demeaning term. Get over it! Anyway, this was mainly a dance mix so I'd have something to bounce to on my way up North].
After seeing her new place--amazing!--I went to Bead Bazaar. I think I spent a good 40 minutes in there just looking at everything. I'm not sure why, but I can't stop buying beads! I just can't! I only spent around $20 there, signed up for their Bead Club so that every $100 I spend there, I get a $5 coupon [pretty cool!], and headed back to town.
At WalMart I got a tackle-box for my new beads [and probably more beads in the future!], some house-hold items we needed, and some wine glasses that I've been eyeing for a while. From there I hooked up with Andrew and we headed out to La Conner to his family's "July Birthdays" get together. I couldn't believe my luck when I saw the food.
Seriously, I had about two platefuls of stuff [including apple pie and home-made whipped cream!]. After eating and visiting a bit with people [me observing / Andrew visiting], he and I made our way to the little beach nearby--surprised?
There were rocks with barnacles covering them everywhere! We flipped over big ones and looked for crabs; we found a lot--big ones too! I saw some coloring on a nearby "cliff" and we made our way over to check it out:
From the tides and such! Speaking of, the tide was literally about a mile out and we could see muck and mud for a long ways. We threw rocks at a "mud pile" for a bit and then realized that the tide was coming in at an incredibly fast speed!
I should have taken a picture of the tide when it was out, but here is a shot when it is in:
It was mesmerizing how fast it came in! Seriously, it was unbelievable.
This is Andrew and I at the beach with my walking stick I found and Andrew's Mountain Dew.
On our way back, this was what we saw. How gorgeous!!
When we came home, I turned on my computer and started uploading pictures, videos, and looking around on the Internet. I still had that Amazon.com gift certificate for $25 I had to use, so I was looking around on there. I found some rings that I've been wanting for a while [well, that style, not the exact rings]:
And FYI, the red and green rings both now say, "Currently unavailable. We don't know when or if this item will be back in stock." Yea, that's right; I got the last ones in stock. No big deal.
So basically I had an amazing day off, filled with beads, food, beach fun, rings, and some quality time with some very important people in my life. Can't complain.
Friday, July 18, 2008
Sore Spot
I woke up yesterday with a tingly feeling. No, it wasn't a tingly feeling of excitement or nervousness; it was a feeling on my upper lip that seemed eerily familiar. Yes, that's right... a cold sore. Once you get the feeling that it's coming, there's no stopping it. It's called "prodrome stage" [source]; it actually has a name. Anyway, so I get right on it and put on some Zilactin. The cold sore didn't show up at first, but I felt it and kept using the liquid remedy anyway.
It started showing and after a good, relaxing night's rest, I woke up with a gigantic fat upper lip. Now, if you don't know me, you can take my word that it is no small exaggeration that in the creation of my physical being, both of my lips merged into one large bottom lip, and my top lip is a thin, almost non-existent line of skin resembling lip texture. Someone even called me "Bubba" once, in reference to the character from Forrest Gump. Now, with this fat upper lip, I now had a "regular" sized bottom lip and a "regular" sized upper lip with the middle part of my upper lip swollen to the same plumpness as my bottom lip. With this swollen-ness comes the hardness that embodies the term "fat" lip. I iced it for hours and after half a day, it started getting back down to normal size. I joked and said that I had turned into a snap turtle [you know how they have that beak thing?].
Anyway, why does a lip get fat when it has an outbreak of a cold sore? It doesn't really make sense; I didn't punch it or anything. Whatever I suppose; there's not much I can do about it. I know I sound like a disgusting, infected, disfigured freak of nature, but cold sores are an every day occurrence, an every day annoyance, and an every day reason to remember that beauty is on the inside, and making judgements on how people appear is not okay.
But making judgements on actions and behaviours is acceptable. This woman living in our neighborhood is literally being unreasonable. Recently, the city/town/county [whoever!] decided to expand the nearby highway in order to ensure safer travel [55+ mph--I say "plus" because no one goes 55--on a two-lane highway, one lane per direction, with no median/barrier between the lanes]. In doing so, they also decided to re-do the freeway on/off ramp location. With all this construction, they tore down two gas stations, bought out many homes, and paved the way for new roadwork. Apparently now there are plans to put up a new gas station and this neighbor woman of ours is causing an uproar over said gas station. She printed out the notification letter she received, highlighting the fact that one of the additions to the roadwork is a "24-hour gas station and convenience store." She wrote in large letters, "Write a letter of protest! This will cause increased traffic, crime, and pollution!" A.) They tore down two gas stations and are putting one up. When the two gas stations were still in business, no one complained. B.) With the highway and freeway renovations, a traffic increase is expected. C.) As Andrew put it, "The gas station wont cause pollution; people putting gas in their cars and driving around for no reason cause pollution!" Anyway, this woman sent out another letter [one that I have handy and am looking at word for word].
Honestly, lady. This is absolutely ridiculous. Save some trees: don't send out these ridiculous complaints. We don't want them and it's not going to stop a project that is already fully underway. Leave it be.
I just saw a flea on my arm. This is not okay. Off to clean house!
It started showing and after a good, relaxing night's rest, I woke up with a gigantic fat upper lip. Now, if you don't know me, you can take my word that it is no small exaggeration that in the creation of my physical being, both of my lips merged into one large bottom lip, and my top lip is a thin, almost non-existent line of skin resembling lip texture. Someone even called me "Bubba" once, in reference to the character from Forrest Gump. Now, with this fat upper lip, I now had a "regular" sized bottom lip and a "regular" sized upper lip with the middle part of my upper lip swollen to the same plumpness as my bottom lip. With this swollen-ness comes the hardness that embodies the term "fat" lip. I iced it for hours and after half a day, it started getting back down to normal size. I joked and said that I had turned into a snap turtle [you know how they have that beak thing?].
Anyway, why does a lip get fat when it has an outbreak of a cold sore? It doesn't really make sense; I didn't punch it or anything. Whatever I suppose; there's not much I can do about it. I know I sound like a disgusting, infected, disfigured freak of nature, but cold sores are an every day occurrence, an every day annoyance, and an every day reason to remember that beauty is on the inside, and making judgements on how people appear is not okay.
But making judgements on actions and behaviours is acceptable. This woman living in our neighborhood is literally being unreasonable. Recently, the city/town/county [whoever!] decided to expand the nearby highway in order to ensure safer travel [55+ mph--I say "plus" because no one goes 55--on a two-lane highway, one lane per direction, with no median/barrier between the lanes]. In doing so, they also decided to re-do the freeway on/off ramp location. With all this construction, they tore down two gas stations, bought out many homes, and paved the way for new roadwork. Apparently now there are plans to put up a new gas station and this neighbor woman of ours is causing an uproar over said gas station. She printed out the notification letter she received, highlighting the fact that one of the additions to the roadwork is a "24-hour gas station and convenience store." She wrote in large letters, "Write a letter of protest! This will cause increased traffic, crime, and pollution!" A.) They tore down two gas stations and are putting one up. When the two gas stations were still in business, no one complained. B.) With the highway and freeway renovations, a traffic increase is expected. C.) As Andrew put it, "The gas station wont cause pollution; people putting gas in their cars and driving around for no reason cause pollution!" Anyway, this woman sent out another letter [one that I have handy and am looking at word for word].
"...This will cause more crime, night time light pollution, dust and air pollution, noise, traffic congestions (estimated 3,700 more cars passing by your houses) ... We need to stop this project to protect our neighborhood and children."
Honestly, lady. This is absolutely ridiculous. Save some trees: don't send out these ridiculous complaints. We don't want them and it's not going to stop a project that is already fully underway. Leave it be.
I just saw a flea on my arm. This is not okay. Off to clean house!
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
My Flowers and Album
Today was overall an amazing day. I'm not quite sure what made it so amazing at work for the first bit, but I was in a terrific mood and was extremely optimistic about everything. I think it's due to the fact that my manager (with whom I worked for the first half of my shift) is leaving for Mexico about 3 hours from now. The fact that she will be on vacation, enjoying herself, and not stressing about work takes a lot off of my shoulders [I'm not quite sure if it's on my shoulders so much, but it feels as if an unknown weight has been lifted]. I wore American Eagle jeans to work in a half-retaliation / half-"want to look more professional as a manager and Carrie said it was kind of expected from corporate so it's okay" way. It gave me a feeling like I was getting away with something, and maybe that fact right there put me in my good mood.
I helped customers all day, joking with them and talking about things I normally wouldn't talk about [I asked a guy if he made his puka shell necklace. Who would honestly say yes to that? Well, he said he fiance made it which brought on the conversation about how long they've been engaged, if he's from around here, etc. But seriously, who asks that and expects anything other than a "no" response? I also commented that I liked the fact that this woman had two nail files in her purse pocket. Seriously, who says something about that? We then got on the conversation of the kiosk in the mall every winter selling the nail buffer product that makes your nails super shiny. Was this conversation necessary? No, but it was a lot of fun talking to this woman about something completely random!]. We didn't work on any projects and didn't have any freight to process. All we did was talk to customers, work on re-doing our binder library [corporate switches up the requirements all the dang time! Why not just be consistent with one method?].
I took my break a bit early and worked on some hemping in the back room [is it called "hemping"? Because I've been calling it that and it sounds pretty cool]. I fixed the length of Andrew's bracelet [ended up fitting perfectly!] but before I finished this, my manager buzzed me to the sales floor. I always get frustrated when I get buzzed out from the back room because A.) it's usually for a dumb reason, I.E. a funny song, or to say hi to someone I don't know, B.) it's usually not something that I should be buzzed out for, C.) it's to do a return or exchange that I have to do even though I'm on my "break," and D.) it's louder than heck! So I grumble out to the sales floor and I see Andrew standing toward the front by the young mens' tee shirt fixtures. I walk up to him and I see a flower in his hand. I pause, smile really big at him, and make my way to him. When I get there, I see that he has a whole bouquet of flowers in his other hand and a card. He picked and mixed the types of flowers together at the store and brought them to me for no reason other than to show me that he cares about me. How romantic and sweet is that??
I took this with my camera after my camera phone produced less than worthy photos:
Even though this photo is manageable to the eye, it is not manageable online at https://www.t-mobilepictures.com/myalbum/. Seriously, I've never experienced something so absolutely dysfunctional in my life!
So this here is the basic layout. After it takes a million hours to load, it "says" that I have 146 items in My Album [if you can see in the picture, it says it at the very top-left of the screen as well as by the "All" and "From Handset" categories on the left side menu. Most of these pictures were sent accidentally because with my old phone, after I took a picture it automatically asked me if I wanted to send it to My Album. I would forget that it popped up each time and hit "Yes" thinking it really said "Back" so I could take another picture. Most of these are of my fish from over a year ago [Adolf and Izzy, rest in peace]. The pictures shown are the lame pictures from the private performance from yesterday, the flowers Andrew just got for me, a picture of a truck with some sort of canoe on top of it:
...well, I was going to rotate the picture and put it on here, but after clicking on the thumbnail in the middle, it took forever to load up in the right-side preview panel. Then, when it finally loaded up, I clicked "Rotate" under the preview and it didn't do anything. I then tried to get back to this tab [using I.E. 7 with tabs used religiously] and the whole thing froze for about a minute. So when it loaded up, I copied my HTML and pasted it into Notepad, where I am now typing. If I'm not mistaken, when you are in the "Edit HTML" section, it doesn't save drafts as you go. Either that or this draft.blogger has yet another drawback [besides the Spell Check function that I am very upset about; am I missing it somewhere?].
And after clicking on the Rotate button about five million times in a row psychotically, it finally worked.
How odd is this scene? But anyway, if I click on the last page of pictures ["8" for the moment], about six pictures show [out of 20 slots available] which is acceptable considering there may not be a full page of photos at the end, but I have it sorting all from Old to New, and these last pictures are older than dirt. I clicked on page "2" just now, and no pictures showed up. Page "3" has both old and new photos, sorted from old to new, which is what I wanted, but not all of the photos are sorted this way! For random pictures to show up on random pages and have them sorted that was is not acceptable to me. Page "4" has new, old, and new pictures--in that order--and four sound clips [my voice notes where I am screaming an angry blog to type later, recorded months and months ago] scattered in no particular order. Page "5" had both old and new photos scattered and unorganized, with two photos at the end of the section available to look at, but with no thumbnail. Now I can't click on page "6". When I click on anything, the corner of I.E. says "javascript:helper.getPage(7)" for example. I think T-Mobile's JavaScript designer needs to do a little cleaning up or organizing because this is not doing it for me.
My blog about Jackie and Bender's Private Performance was typed up as a note on my phone [actually, it didn't fit on one document! I had to use two!]. Doing this allows me to send it via text message to "My Journal" and receive it online to put on a blog which is perfect for me. I sent it to "My Journal" and T-Mobile has no links anywhere [neither the T-Mobile homepage or its pictures page]. I had to look at my phone, type what was on the screen, scroll down, type what was on the screen, hit a button if the screen went dark before I was done typing... lather, rinse, repeat.
So unless this draft.blogger gets a spell checker, I'm going back to the original dashboard. And unless T-MobilePictures fixes its JavaScript problem, I'm going to rely on my USB cord when I am too lazy to hook it up. Never too lazy to blog!
I helped customers all day, joking with them and talking about things I normally wouldn't talk about [I asked a guy if he made his puka shell necklace. Who would honestly say yes to that? Well, he said he fiance made it which brought on the conversation about how long they've been engaged, if he's from around here, etc. But seriously, who asks that and expects anything other than a "no" response? I also commented that I liked the fact that this woman had two nail files in her purse pocket. Seriously, who says something about that? We then got on the conversation of the kiosk in the mall every winter selling the nail buffer product that makes your nails super shiny. Was this conversation necessary? No, but it was a lot of fun talking to this woman about something completely random!]. We didn't work on any projects and didn't have any freight to process. All we did was talk to customers, work on re-doing our binder library [corporate switches up the requirements all the dang time! Why not just be consistent with one method?].
I took my break a bit early and worked on some hemping in the back room [is it called "hemping"? Because I've been calling it that and it sounds pretty cool]. I fixed the length of Andrew's bracelet [ended up fitting perfectly!] but before I finished this, my manager buzzed me to the sales floor. I always get frustrated when I get buzzed out from the back room because A.) it's usually for a dumb reason, I.E. a funny song, or to say hi to someone I don't know, B.) it's usually not something that I should be buzzed out for, C.) it's to do a return or exchange that I have to do even though I'm on my "break," and D.) it's louder than heck! So I grumble out to the sales floor and I see Andrew standing toward the front by the young mens' tee shirt fixtures. I walk up to him and I see a flower in his hand. I pause, smile really big at him, and make my way to him. When I get there, I see that he has a whole bouquet of flowers in his other hand and a card. He picked and mixed the types of flowers together at the store and brought them to me for no reason other than to show me that he cares about me. How romantic and sweet is that??
I took this with my camera after my camera phone produced less than worthy photos:
Even though this photo is manageable to the eye, it is not manageable online at https://www.t-mobilepictures.com/myalbum/. Seriously, I've never experienced something so absolutely dysfunctional in my life!
So this here is the basic layout. After it takes a million hours to load, it "says" that I have 146 items in My Album [if you can see in the picture, it says it at the very top-left of the screen as well as by the "All" and "From Handset" categories on the left side menu. Most of these pictures were sent accidentally because with my old phone, after I took a picture it automatically asked me if I wanted to send it to My Album. I would forget that it popped up each time and hit "Yes" thinking it really said "Back" so I could take another picture. Most of these are of my fish from over a year ago [Adolf and Izzy, rest in peace]. The pictures shown are the lame pictures from the private performance from yesterday, the flowers Andrew just got for me, a picture of a truck with some sort of canoe on top of it:
...well, I was going to rotate the picture and put it on here, but after clicking on the thumbnail in the middle, it took forever to load up in the right-side preview panel. Then, when it finally loaded up, I clicked "Rotate" under the preview and it didn't do anything. I then tried to get back to this tab [using I.E. 7 with tabs used religiously] and the whole thing froze for about a minute. So when it loaded up, I copied my HTML and pasted it into Notepad, where I am now typing. If I'm not mistaken, when you are in the "Edit HTML" section, it doesn't save drafts as you go. Either that or this draft.blogger has yet another drawback [besides the Spell Check function that I am very upset about; am I missing it somewhere?].
And after clicking on the Rotate button about five million times in a row psychotically, it finally worked.
How odd is this scene? But anyway, if I click on the last page of pictures ["8" for the moment], about six pictures show [out of 20 slots available] which is acceptable considering there may not be a full page of photos at the end, but I have it sorting all from Old to New, and these last pictures are older than dirt. I clicked on page "2" just now, and no pictures showed up. Page "3" has both old and new photos, sorted from old to new, which is what I wanted, but not all of the photos are sorted this way! For random pictures to show up on random pages and have them sorted that was is not acceptable to me. Page "4" has new, old, and new pictures--in that order--and four sound clips [my voice notes where I am screaming an angry blog to type later, recorded months and months ago] scattered in no particular order. Page "5" had both old and new photos scattered and unorganized, with two photos at the end of the section available to look at, but with no thumbnail. Now I can't click on page "6". When I click on anything, the corner of I.E. says "javascript:helper.getPage(7)" for example. I think T-Mobile's JavaScript designer needs to do a little cleaning up or organizing because this is not doing it for me.
My blog about Jackie and Bender's Private Performance was typed up as a note on my phone [actually, it didn't fit on one document! I had to use two!]. Doing this allows me to send it via text message to "My Journal" and receive it online to put on a blog which is perfect for me. I sent it to "My Journal" and T-Mobile has no links anywhere [neither the T-Mobile homepage or its pictures page]. I had to look at my phone, type what was on the screen, scroll down, type what was on the screen, hit a button if the screen went dark before I was done typing... lather, rinse, repeat.
So unless this draft.blogger gets a spell checker, I'm going back to the original dashboard. And unless T-MobilePictures fixes its JavaScript problem, I'm going to rely on my USB cord when I am too lazy to hook it up. Never too lazy to blog!
Jackie and Bender's Private Performance
So yesterday was the day of Jackie and Bender's private performance with Good Charlotte, Metro Station, and Boys Like Girls. Danielle won free tickets and we headed out at 10:30 to make it to the Golden Gardens Park Bathhouse in Ballard by 1:00. Traffic was absolutely amazing and we got to Seattle before noon.
We had some time so we swung by the infamous Fremont Troll under the Aurora Bridge [seen in 10 Things I Hate About You]:
We then found the bathhouse, parked, and played at the beach part of the park. I think I honestly love beaches and need to live where there's at least a beach nearby. I had so much fun with Andrew the other day, I brought some of that fun with to this beach! We attempted to skip rocks [lame attempts!], hit rocks with a stick [until Danielle broke it on a swing!], and we threw up a rock and then tried to hit that rock with another rock we threw afterward. We did this until we saw a line forming shortly after 1:00. In line we got a free beach ball, some free Vitamin Water, and some sun on our exposed flesh. After 1:30, the crew started letting people in. The event was catered by Qdoba Mexican Grill and everyone got to enjoy some nacho-ey goodness! The bands were a little late but after 2:00, both Benji and Joel from Good Charlotte went on stage and sang 3 acoustic songs. They answered some interview questions from the DJs and then left the stage after about 40 minutes. I guess Nicole Richey was in the audience watching and a few people saw her.
They were pretty good acoustic, much better than Metro Station. I really liked Metro Station when I first heard them at work a few months ago. I remember texting a few managers some risque lyrics from the main song I liked at the time.
I obsessed over the song because it was very easy to dance to, catchy, and unheard of. Danielle told me a while ago that she heard the song on the radio, which made it lose a lot of its appeal. I like to enjoy something and not have it be a fad. I hate fads and being part of the latest trend. But whatever, I suppose. I can't get too upset over the fact that the United States has finally realized that dance music (even songs with techno-ey beads or backgrounds) is where it's really at. But anyway, I loved Metro Station and got ahold of their self-titled debut album. The songs were, for the most part, really catchy and easy to dance to, much like "Shake It" held. So when Danielle invited me to see them live if she won, I looked forward to seeing them, despite the fact that they had become a fad. I had a feeling that they weren't going to be very good live and it turns out that I was right. The two out of the four band members who sang basically whispered until time came for a loud spurt [chorus, catchy line, etc.] and relied on the voices of the crowd to keep the volume audible. This wasn't a hard feat to accomplish due to the fact that basically everyone that showed up to see Metro Station more than the other two bands and they all were screaming along to the songs anyway. This cemented the notion that Metro Station is now too popular for my liking. I'll listen, but not in the same pure way as before. They definitely have their own style ["emo extreme"] but I learned that one of the main guys is Miley Cyrus's brother. He wore a shirt with her face on it. Although the performance was less than amazing, that wardrobe feature was pretty sweet.
Almost immediately after Metro Station's exit, two members of the band Boys Like Girls came on stage to do a sound check. Their performance was definitely the best of the three bands. I'm not a huge fan of their stuff, but the first song they sang Hero/Heroine had a part where he sang the chorus:
...and everyone sang along. Well, everyone besides me, because I was mind-blogging during the entire concert; you can even see it with my head tilting, critiquing and figuring out what I'm going to say, in the following picture:
The harmony with everyone's voices was kind of amazing. One of the DJs even said it gave him goose bumps. Anywho, they performed their three songs and after Danielle got her VIP neck badge signed by the band member who looked like a mix of Jesse Bradford from Bring It On and Pete Wentz, she managed to snag Jackie and Bender out of their car for a quick photo op.
On our way home, we swung by the Alderwood Mall for bathrooms, store browsing, and a visit to Ashley at the salon. We ended up getting our hair done [Danielle got a color job and a cut while I got a desperately needed deep conditioning and a cut/trim]. How exciting! We then drove home [with an early-arriving Andrew from work!], ate too many tacos, and relaxed with some Six Feet Under!
We had some time so we swung by the infamous Fremont Troll under the Aurora Bridge [seen in 10 Things I Hate About You]:
We then found the bathhouse, parked, and played at the beach part of the park. I think I honestly love beaches and need to live where there's at least a beach nearby. I had so much fun with Andrew the other day, I brought some of that fun with to this beach! We attempted to skip rocks [lame attempts!], hit rocks with a stick [until Danielle broke it on a swing!], and we threw up a rock and then tried to hit that rock with another rock we threw afterward. We did this until we saw a line forming shortly after 1:00. In line we got a free beach ball, some free Vitamin Water, and some sun on our exposed flesh. After 1:30, the crew started letting people in. The event was catered by Qdoba Mexican Grill and everyone got to enjoy some nacho-ey goodness! The bands were a little late but after 2:00, both Benji and Joel from Good Charlotte went on stage and sang 3 acoustic songs. They answered some interview questions from the DJs and then left the stage after about 40 minutes. I guess Nicole Richey was in the audience watching and a few people saw her.
They were pretty good acoustic, much better than Metro Station. I really liked Metro Station when I first heard them at work a few months ago. I remember texting a few managers some risque lyrics from the main song I liked at the time.
Shake It Now if she does it like this will you do it like that
Now if she touches like this, will you touch her right back
Now if she moves like this, will you move it like that (come on)
Shake, Shake, Shake, Shake, uh shake it
I obsessed over the song because it was very easy to dance to, catchy, and unheard of. Danielle told me a while ago that she heard the song on the radio, which made it lose a lot of its appeal. I like to enjoy something and not have it be a fad. I hate fads and being part of the latest trend. But whatever, I suppose. I can't get too upset over the fact that the United States has finally realized that dance music (even songs with techno-ey beads or backgrounds) is where it's really at. But anyway, I loved Metro Station and got ahold of their self-titled debut album. The songs were, for the most part, really catchy and easy to dance to, much like "Shake It" held. So when Danielle invited me to see them live if she won, I looked forward to seeing them, despite the fact that they had become a fad. I had a feeling that they weren't going to be very good live and it turns out that I was right. The two out of the four band members who sang basically whispered until time came for a loud spurt [chorus, catchy line, etc.] and relied on the voices of the crowd to keep the volume audible. This wasn't a hard feat to accomplish due to the fact that basically everyone that showed up to see Metro Station more than the other two bands and they all were screaming along to the songs anyway. This cemented the notion that Metro Station is now too popular for my liking. I'll listen, but not in the same pure way as before. They definitely have their own style ["emo extreme"] but I learned that one of the main guys is Miley Cyrus's brother. He wore a shirt with her face on it. Although the performance was less than amazing, that wardrobe feature was pretty sweet.
Almost immediately after Metro Station's exit, two members of the band Boys Like Girls came on stage to do a sound check. Their performance was definitely the best of the three bands. I'm not a huge fan of their stuff, but the first song they sang Hero/Heroine had a part where he sang the chorus:
"I feel like a hero and you are my heroine"
...and everyone sang along. Well, everyone besides me, because I was mind-blogging during the entire concert; you can even see it with my head tilting, critiquing and figuring out what I'm going to say, in the following picture:
The harmony with everyone's voices was kind of amazing. One of the DJs even said it gave him goose bumps. Anywho, they performed their three songs and after Danielle got her VIP neck badge signed by the band member who looked like a mix of Jesse Bradford from Bring It On and Pete Wentz, she managed to snag Jackie and Bender out of their car for a quick photo op.
On our way home, we swung by the Alderwood Mall for bathrooms, store browsing, and a visit to Ashley at the salon. We ended up getting our hair done [Danielle got a color job and a cut while I got a desperately needed deep conditioning and a cut/trim]. How exciting! We then drove home [with an early-arriving Andrew from work!], ate too many tacos, and relaxed with some Six Feet Under!
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Earthquake
On Thursday the 10th, I got off work at 5 after working a long day [which started out with the "Electric Feel" song by MGMT, if you can remember that far back]. I came home and was on my computer, most likely blogging, and Andrew was in the bathroom. It was a little after 6:30 and I felt the house shake. I asked Andrew if he felt it, to which he replied, "Yea..." I said that I thought it was an earthquake and he laughed. I then went online to different news websites around the Seattle area to see if there were any earthquake updates [since we don't have cable for news via television] and there were no reports. I didn't want to think I was imagining things--the floor literally felt like it was a ripple!--so I called work.
The next day, Friday the 11th, Ashley was on the Skagit Valley Herald webpage and saw a news article that looked interesting. She read it aloud:
Can you guess where abouts I live?? Anywho, it stated that it was a 2.7 magnitude earthquake and local residents felt it. If I do say so myself, I would consider myself a local resident! And I felt it!! How interesting! A small worldy feat only experienced by a few people. I told the story to a few of my co-workers on Saturday [who loved it!] and happened to say that the epicenter was under my house. This might be a stretch, but I am literally just down the highway from it! Isn't it true that if you're at the epicenter, you don't feel anything? If so, then the epicenter couldn't have been under our house! Either way, how neat is that??
Alyssa: "Thank you for calling PacSun! This is Alyssa; how may I help you?"
Me: "Hey it's Miranda. Did you just feel an earthquake a couple minutes ago?"
Alyssa: "Uhh, no..."
Me: "Did anyone else?"
Alyssa: "Erica, Danielle, did either of you feel an earthquake just a few minutes ago? ... No, they didn't feel anything either."
Me: "I swear I felt it!"
Alyssa: [laughs]
Me: "Okay well I'll let you go."
The next day, Friday the 11th, Ashley was on the Skagit Valley Herald webpage and saw a news article that looked interesting. She read it aloud:
"A 'micro' earthquake occurred Thursday evening about three miles south-southeast of Bay View..."
Can you guess where abouts I live?? Anywho, it stated that it was a 2.7 magnitude earthquake and local residents felt it. If I do say so myself, I would consider myself a local resident! And I felt it!! How interesting! A small worldy feat only experienced by a few people. I told the story to a few of my co-workers on Saturday [who loved it!] and happened to say that the epicenter was under my house. This might be a stretch, but I am literally just down the highway from it! Isn't it true that if you're at the epicenter, you don't feel anything? If so, then the epicenter couldn't have been under our house! Either way, how neat is that??
A Hemp-Filled Sun Day
So I've started using the new draft.blogger dashboard stuff and I think it's pretty sweet! It's basically the same get-up with a new snazzy twist! I like the formatting buttons on the post page [I clicked on Trebuchet font--one of my favourites--is it different than what I've been using? Because I want everything uniform, thank you]; the "Link" and "Image" buttons have text so you don't have to hover to insert stuff; but where's the "Video" link? There was one, wasn't there? I don't really plan on using video on here much--if at all--but if that's a difference between the older version and the Draft version and a blogger uses the video uplinks [is that even the right word to be using?] frequently, he or she is going to be pretty upset! I suppose said blogger would be smart enough to insert the proper HTML coding in the "Edit HTML" section [which I frequent often and use before I'd ever use the "Image" or "Link" buttons]. And I also just realized there's no "Spell Check" in the new editor. Definitely not okay in my perfectionist eyes.
So today, Sunday, was the first of my two days off in a row. Tomorrow is the free concert in Ballard[?] and then I work for a billion days in a row because my manager is on vacation. Not looking forward to being as full-time as you can get, but I'm sure it'll be pretty stress-free with the stressing manager being in another country [Bienvenidos a Mexico!]. It was the epitome of "sun"days with temperatures in the mid 70s all day long and not a cloud in the sky. Andrew and I slept in until about noon or so, ate some eggs and toast while watching another episode of Six Feet Under [1.5: "An Open Book" where David comes out to his brother Nate, where we are introduced to both Brenda's crazy brother, Billy, and her "mind-fucking" psychologist parents, Bernard and Margaret, and where we see David's relationship with Keith diminish when he accepts the role of Deacon at his mother's closed-minded-conservative (aka not-Gay-friendly) church], and then we both took our hobbies to the yard in the blindingly bright weather. He worked on his dune-buggy project [welding in the hot weather!!] while I made some hemp jewelry.
The first thing I made was a bracelet for Andrew. I used one of the long, dark beads with divots in the middle with two dark round beads for accents. Of course, it was too long and I need to shorten it up a bit [re-do is more like it so I can practice getting the right length of hemp without wasting so much! I wasted 2 yards on the last bracelet I made! 2-yards!!!], but here's what it ended up as:
As you can probably see, I used the alternating square knot to have a flat bracelet, utilizing the knotting every so often for half-inch sections. I put knots on the sides of each of the beads, with two knots on each side of the main bead so that even while rotating, the main part is left visible:
Somehow, the divots in the wood came together in the divoting process and formed a heart. I think I mentioned it in a previous blog, but I saved it specially for Andrew's piece.
The other piece I made was an anklet for Sam. She told me to make something that I would wear, so I did. I gave it to her [fit great!], came home, and made one for myself. I really need to work on measuring right, because the one I made for myself is absolutely gigantic! I'll maybe save it for when I have fat ankles or something. But this is what both hers and mine look like [mine shown]:
I used the square knot repeating so that the hemp pattern came out as a spiral. I didn't use sectional knotting because it looks weird with the spiral.
I used small metal beads [that got hot hot HOT in the sun when I was beading!] and a cylinder metal bead for the clasp. I looped the first part and had the bead at the second part. When I connected them, it looked like it would fall off fairly easily, so I utilized a looping strategy I found on this website to make a slider to tighten the loop when it's around the bead.
Everyone around me is sleeping as I type this. Ashley's napping after a long day at work, Jet is napping at the top of the couch next to her, Spartacus is napping in the corner of the other couch closest to us, Moses is napping in front of the chair in the other corner of the room, and Murphy is napping with his nose on my outer thigh on the couch between Ashley and me. Am I supposed to take this as a hint and nap myself? I slept in a lot this morning and seens how it's only 8:00, I don't think I'll nap quite yet. What I should do is make something yummy to eat; something like Betty Crocker's Suddenly Pasta Salad. I have a box of the Classic in the cupboard waiting to be made and devoured. I've tried all three flavours. I'm not a huge fan of the Ranch & Bacon flavour, but it's still pretty good! I should also make some of my favourite noodles [penne rigate] with warmed up red sauce. I should also make some of that Banana Bread Quick Mix because that has to be just plain amazing! I'm making myself hungry. Let's see what the kitchen leads me to make...
So today, Sunday, was the first of my two days off in a row. Tomorrow is the free concert in Ballard[?] and then I work for a billion days in a row because my manager is on vacation. Not looking forward to being as full-time as you can get, but I'm sure it'll be pretty stress-free with the stressing manager being in another country [Bienvenidos a Mexico!]. It was the epitome of "sun"days with temperatures in the mid 70s all day long and not a cloud in the sky. Andrew and I slept in until about noon or so, ate some eggs and toast while watching another episode of Six Feet Under [1.5: "An Open Book" where David comes out to his brother Nate, where we are introduced to both Brenda's crazy brother, Billy, and her "mind-fucking" psychologist parents, Bernard and Margaret, and where we see David's relationship with Keith diminish when he accepts the role of Deacon at his mother's closed-minded-conservative (aka not-Gay-friendly) church], and then we both took our hobbies to the yard in the blindingly bright weather. He worked on his dune-buggy project [welding in the hot weather!!] while I made some hemp jewelry.
The first thing I made was a bracelet for Andrew. I used one of the long, dark beads with divots in the middle with two dark round beads for accents. Of course, it was too long and I need to shorten it up a bit [re-do is more like it so I can practice getting the right length of hemp without wasting so much! I wasted 2 yards on the last bracelet I made! 2-yards!!!], but here's what it ended up as:
As you can probably see, I used the alternating square knot to have a flat bracelet, utilizing the knotting every so often for half-inch sections. I put knots on the sides of each of the beads, with two knots on each side of the main bead so that even while rotating, the main part is left visible:
Somehow, the divots in the wood came together in the divoting process and formed a heart. I think I mentioned it in a previous blog, but I saved it specially for Andrew's piece.
The other piece I made was an anklet for Sam. She told me to make something that I would wear, so I did. I gave it to her [fit great!], came home, and made one for myself. I really need to work on measuring right, because the one I made for myself is absolutely gigantic! I'll maybe save it for when I have fat ankles or something. But this is what both hers and mine look like [mine shown]:
I used the square knot repeating so that the hemp pattern came out as a spiral. I didn't use sectional knotting because it looks weird with the spiral.
I used small metal beads [that got hot hot HOT in the sun when I was beading!] and a cylinder metal bead for the clasp. I looped the first part and had the bead at the second part. When I connected them, it looked like it would fall off fairly easily, so I utilized a looping strategy I found on this website to make a slider to tighten the loop when it's around the bead.
Everyone around me is sleeping as I type this. Ashley's napping after a long day at work, Jet is napping at the top of the couch next to her, Spartacus is napping in the corner of the other couch closest to us, Moses is napping in front of the chair in the other corner of the room, and Murphy is napping with his nose on my outer thigh on the couch between Ashley and me. Am I supposed to take this as a hint and nap myself? I slept in a lot this morning and seens how it's only 8:00, I don't think I'll nap quite yet. What I should do is make something yummy to eat; something like Betty Crocker's Suddenly Pasta Salad. I have a box of the Classic in the cupboard waiting to be made and devoured. I've tried all three flavours. I'm not a huge fan of the Ranch & Bacon flavour, but it's still pretty good! I should also make some of my favourite noodles [penne rigate] with warmed up red sauce. I should also make some of that Banana Bread Quick Mix because that has to be just plain amazing! I'm making myself hungry. Let's see what the kitchen leads me to make...
Saturday, July 12, 2008
SFU: Pilot
After seeing every episode of Six Feet Under at least twice, watching the series all over again for a third time is unexplainable. I know everything that happens and understand every reference that would be confusing to a newcomer.
Even as a newcomer, this show is amazing from the start. Upon news of Nathaniel's death, his wife, Ruth, absolutely goes bizerk and throws her pot roast onto the ground, knocks over everything in the kitchen, and wails like a banshee. I have no idea what I would do if I was in her situation, but her absolutely primal reaction is so real. David, on the other hand, is statuesque and unemotional throughout the entire ordeal, waiting for his family's return from the morgue standing on the stairway, hands clasped, suit straightened, posture erect, with a face of stone. He picks up his father's body from the morgue and speaks of it as if it is purely a business transaction ("Things have to be done. Federico's downstairs ready to start. Every second that we wait will only make Dad’s restoration more difficult"). Claire is high on Crystal Meth so her reaction is moot. Nate is understandably upset but it seems that his emotions come more from his guilt of leaving and not spending more time with his father than the basic notion that his father is now dead.
Reactions aside, the famous quote from the Pilot comes from Nate toward the end of the episode, "My father's dead, my mom's a whore, my brother wants to kill me, and my sister's smoking crack." Literally, all in the span of about 4 days he experiences all of this. His mother confesses her betrayal with a hairdresser. Nate--by allowing natural emotions to override emotionally-numbing funeral business "traditions"--pisses David off who attacks him after the funeral by basically telling Nate that he's not welcome in the family. And, as previously mentioned, Claire gets high on Crystal Meth before being notified of her father's death, and tweaks for a couple days. Basically a dysfunctional family dealing with a dramatic and ironic situation [death of an undertaker].
The drama that the family experiences is relatable, even in its extremity. Death of a family member, sibling rivalry, guilt, adultery, acceptance, new love, old love, business and pleasure, and all that holds it together. David is secretly gay and afraid of his family's rejection. The bottled up emotions over that as well as that which comes with the job description of an undertaker, it is understandable why he is such a statue and always business-like. But like a bottled soda, if shaken it will explode. When will this happen for David? [It's a sad day when someone hides his or her sexuality to prevent discrimination. You shouldn't have to hide it, but it's understandable when there are people out there who are so close-minded and unaccepting that it's not really an option to "come out." That's why I don't label my sexuality. It should just be "orientation" and not something to be called out on. Not okay in my book].
My favorite character on the show is Claire. She has her own side story throughout the series and, in a weird way [as Andrew put it after a brief discussion of her character], could have been cut from the show and had not as much of a dramatic effect as if it were Nate or David being cut. Her experiences and actions are amazing to go through as a viewer, relatable as they may or may not be. The first episode doesn't go into too big of depth into her life, but it's a great step onto the path of what she ends up doing.
As moving and exciting as this episode is, I still cringe thinking that "That's My Dog" is on the way [even though it is in Season 4]. I'm sure there'll be a blog when it comes time to experience it again. Very controversial and freaky! Hope I make it through without a blanket!
Even as a newcomer, this show is amazing from the start. Upon news of Nathaniel's death, his wife, Ruth, absolutely goes bizerk and throws her pot roast onto the ground, knocks over everything in the kitchen, and wails like a banshee. I have no idea what I would do if I was in her situation, but her absolutely primal reaction is so real. David, on the other hand, is statuesque and unemotional throughout the entire ordeal, waiting for his family's return from the morgue standing on the stairway, hands clasped, suit straightened, posture erect, with a face of stone. He picks up his father's body from the morgue and speaks of it as if it is purely a business transaction ("Things have to be done. Federico's downstairs ready to start. Every second that we wait will only make Dad’s restoration more difficult"). Claire is high on Crystal Meth so her reaction is moot. Nate is understandably upset but it seems that his emotions come more from his guilt of leaving and not spending more time with his father than the basic notion that his father is now dead.
Reactions aside, the famous quote from the Pilot comes from Nate toward the end of the episode, "My father's dead, my mom's a whore, my brother wants to kill me, and my sister's smoking crack." Literally, all in the span of about 4 days he experiences all of this. His mother confesses her betrayal with a hairdresser. Nate--by allowing natural emotions to override emotionally-numbing funeral business "traditions"--pisses David off who attacks him after the funeral by basically telling Nate that he's not welcome in the family. And, as previously mentioned, Claire gets high on Crystal Meth before being notified of her father's death, and tweaks for a couple days. Basically a dysfunctional family dealing with a dramatic and ironic situation [death of an undertaker].
The drama that the family experiences is relatable, even in its extremity. Death of a family member, sibling rivalry, guilt, adultery, acceptance, new love, old love, business and pleasure, and all that holds it together. David is secretly gay and afraid of his family's rejection. The bottled up emotions over that as well as that which comes with the job description of an undertaker, it is understandable why he is such a statue and always business-like. But like a bottled soda, if shaken it will explode. When will this happen for David? [It's a sad day when someone hides his or her sexuality to prevent discrimination. You shouldn't have to hide it, but it's understandable when there are people out there who are so close-minded and unaccepting that it's not really an option to "come out." That's why I don't label my sexuality. It should just be "orientation" and not something to be called out on. Not okay in my book].
My favorite character on the show is Claire. She has her own side story throughout the series and, in a weird way [as Andrew put it after a brief discussion of her character], could have been cut from the show and had not as much of a dramatic effect as if it were Nate or David being cut. Her experiences and actions are amazing to go through as a viewer, relatable as they may or may not be. The first episode doesn't go into too big of depth into her life, but it's a great step onto the path of what she ends up doing.
As moving and exciting as this episode is, I still cringe thinking that "That's My Dog" is on the way [even though it is in Season 4]. I'm sure there'll be a blog when it comes time to experience it again. Very controversial and freaky! Hope I make it through without a blanket!
Paid Off Credit Card = Bead Bonanza!
Yesterday began with a very good feeling knowing that I paid off all my credit cards. I only had to transfer $75 from savings in order to make this happen. I had a very large balance on my Amazon Credit Card [still haven't used that gift certificate--it can't go toward a balance payment which is kind of a cool thing because that means I have to buy something with it! Yay!], a somewhat chunky balance on my PacSun credit card, and a small bit on my Victoria's Secret card. That was all paid off and next paycheck will cover rent, phone bill, and possibly car insurance/payment. How did I use to manage putting a couple hundred dollars into savings every month? I need to stop shopping as of now. I say "as of now" because later on that day, I spent the last bit of money I had in my checking account and had to transfer another $35 so I wouldn't be overdrawing my account [how responsible of me!]. I do not regret this because look what I got!:
Look at all this STUFF! I had to buy a new container to hold everything! [New one is one in the top left].
I got shells [why didn't I have these before? Aren't these the bare essentials of hemp jewelry?], metal pieces, some thin pieces that'll look good when a few pieces are strung together, lots of wood pieces, and some blue pieces.
These are the beads I got the other day. The beads in the 3x3 square in the left half of the container are the ones that came in that wood bead mix set. I then have some finished pieces in the far right section, along with a safety pin and some bendy hair clips to make using the long strands easier.
These are bone pieces [already had most of them] and lots of new colorful glass pieces!
The small black beads came in between the colorful round beads [top right] on their strings. They look good for in-between designs! These are the ones that Andrew used on my beautiful necklace gift from floorset night. I also have some pendants in the small container for necklaces.
And these are the essentials! The scissors aren't mine [Ashley's!] but I got a small, retractable measuring tape and I've had the two different colors of hemp for a while, although I haven't used the dark brown one much besides a half-assed attempt to make a necklace that Murphy destroyed one night after I left [I can't get mad because he just missed me and took it out on my necklace] and a small bracelet for Danielle.
So basically you can see that I'm never ever going to have to go to a bead or craft store ever again, right? I was going to go up to Bellingham and check out Bead Bazaar but I didn't want to waste the gas getting up there to get beads so I looked in the Yellow Pages for craft stores. I made a note to go to JoAnn Fabrics [apparently has at least a small selection] and Michael's [the bead sale ends today so I had to go before it was too late!]. Before leaving, I thought, "Why not check out the 'beads' section of the Yellow Pages," thinking it was funny because why would there be a beads section in there? Turns out there actually is a section and listed were some stores in Anacortes and Orcas and then I saw it: Island Beads. It was no longer on Burlington Boulevard so I called the number to see what would happen. Turns out, they just moved! They didn't shut down! So I swung by 7-Eleven [free slurpee day! I ended up getting a too-big size, paid for it, and learned that next year, I'm getting a Dixie sized one for free] and went to Island Beads. They have lots of those tiny glass beads that my sisters and I used to make anklets with, and lots of specialty beads [jade, bone, coral, etc.]. I managed to find the sweet bowl with mixed wood beads in a pack for $1.99 each. I grabbed three packs [second picture from the top; the three sections bordering the shell section on the left side of the container], entered my name into a drawing for either a $25 or $50 gift card [wouldn't that be just amazing to win?!], and signed up for their e-mail newsletter. Wonder what it'll be like??
Then I went to JoAnn Fabrics and got some shell beads [half of the shell section] and some boney beads [white with black designs in the upper left petal of the flower-shaped container]. They didn't have a great selection, but it's a fabric store so I wasn't expecting much.
After swinging by PacSun--to pick up my paystub [direct deposit baby!], got some jeans, a light gray tank ["grey" looks darker than "gray"--I think that's the difference between the two; it's not a preference... it's a shade difference], and some new brown sandals [guys' size 8 which is wayyy too big but I'll learn to walk without shuffling the heel]--Ashley and I went to Michael's. I ended up buying 18 different bead strands/packages and the new plastic container. And are you ready for this? I don't think you are, but still. Drumroll please...
Look at all this STUFF! I had to buy a new container to hold everything! [New one is one in the top left].
I got shells [why didn't I have these before? Aren't these the bare essentials of hemp jewelry?], metal pieces, some thin pieces that'll look good when a few pieces are strung together, lots of wood pieces, and some blue pieces.
These are the beads I got the other day. The beads in the 3x3 square in the left half of the container are the ones that came in that wood bead mix set. I then have some finished pieces in the far right section, along with a safety pin and some bendy hair clips to make using the long strands easier.
These are bone pieces [already had most of them] and lots of new colorful glass pieces!
The small black beads came in between the colorful round beads [top right] on their strings. They look good for in-between designs! These are the ones that Andrew used on my beautiful necklace gift from floorset night. I also have some pendants in the small container for necklaces.
And these are the essentials! The scissors aren't mine [Ashley's!] but I got a small, retractable measuring tape and I've had the two different colors of hemp for a while, although I haven't used the dark brown one much besides a half-assed attempt to make a necklace that Murphy destroyed one night after I left [I can't get mad because he just missed me and took it out on my necklace] and a small bracelet for Danielle.
So basically you can see that I'm never ever going to have to go to a bead or craft store ever again, right? I was going to go up to Bellingham and check out Bead Bazaar but I didn't want to waste the gas getting up there to get beads so I looked in the Yellow Pages for craft stores. I made a note to go to JoAnn Fabrics [apparently has at least a small selection] and Michael's [the bead sale ends today so I had to go before it was too late!]. Before leaving, I thought, "Why not check out the 'beads' section of the Yellow Pages," thinking it was funny because why would there be a beads section in there? Turns out there actually is a section and listed were some stores in Anacortes and Orcas and then I saw it: Island Beads. It was no longer on Burlington Boulevard so I called the number to see what would happen. Turns out, they just moved! They didn't shut down! So I swung by 7-Eleven [free slurpee day! I ended up getting a too-big size, paid for it, and learned that next year, I'm getting a Dixie sized one for free] and went to Island Beads. They have lots of those tiny glass beads that my sisters and I used to make anklets with, and lots of specialty beads [jade, bone, coral, etc.]. I managed to find the sweet bowl with mixed wood beads in a pack for $1.99 each. I grabbed three packs [second picture from the top; the three sections bordering the shell section on the left side of the container], entered my name into a drawing for either a $25 or $50 gift card [wouldn't that be just amazing to win?!], and signed up for their e-mail newsletter. Wonder what it'll be like??
Then I went to JoAnn Fabrics and got some shell beads [half of the shell section] and some boney beads [white with black designs in the upper left petal of the flower-shaped container]. They didn't have a great selection, but it's a fabric store so I wasn't expecting much.
After swinging by PacSun--to pick up my paystub [direct deposit baby!], got some jeans, a light gray tank ["grey" looks darker than "gray"--I think that's the difference between the two; it's not a preference... it's a shade difference], and some new brown sandals [guys' size 8 which is wayyy too big but I'll learn to walk without shuffling the heel]--Ashley and I went to Michael's. I ended up buying 18 different bead strands/packages and the new plastic container. And are you ready for this? I don't think you are, but still. Drumroll please...
Everything I bought was $1.99 each!!
It took a little over an hour to organize everything and snip all the stringing material off, but it was so worth it! Basically I scored, have a billion beads, and not many people to make stuff for. If you want something, let me know, because if I don't have any preferences or "orders," I wont be motivated to make stuff. Motivate me!
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Music is a Pretty Ol' Thang
What is it about hearing a song for the first time that makes your body just freeze? At work, we receive new satellite-mixed CDs every so often with song updates to keep up with the Californian trends, style, and way of life. Also, the music is selected to subconsciously prevent theft [doubtful! If anything it only encourages you to buy stuff, distracting your money-saving thoughts momentarily]. But most importantly, we receive these song updates to make me feel the way I feel when I hear something new. This morning after a regular song [I don't remember which one because I've learned to block out the old songs; they're just so "everyday" and usual! It's similar to blocking out the sound of yourself breathing or the noisy belt under your car's hood--if that's by chance your particular situation too], I heard a new song that made me stop and examine how it made me feel. Songs are either absolutely perfect in the respect where it makes your mood alter to its liking, or it lacks something and loses all its listening value. This song in particular is MGMT's "Electric Feel." Nothing out of the norm, but it was out of the norm for my morn and took me back. I know music affects people in different ways, but what is it about hearing something for the first time? What is it exactly?
And what is it when you hear something for the first time and swear that you've heard it before? For example, in the car I heard Michael Jackson's "Pretty Young Thing" on the radio and it seemed eerily familiar:
Michael Jackson "Pretty Young Thing" 0:29-0:45
So I swore up and down that I'd heard the song somewhere else. Turns out, I was right. Did anyone else catch this?
Monica "All Eyez on Me" 2:11-2:29
Odd. And if anyone is curious on how I'm getting only the music chunks and not the entire song, I'm using Audacity... fo' free!! Pretty sweet.
What's also pretty sweet is that we finished watching the X-Files series [ready for the movie!] and tonight we are starting Six Feet Under. I have no words to describe my exitement.
And what is it when you hear something for the first time and swear that you've heard it before? For example, in the car I heard Michael Jackson's "Pretty Young Thing" on the radio and it seemed eerily familiar:
"Don't You Know Now
Is The Perfect Time
We Can Make It Right
Hit The City Lights
Then Tonight Ease The Lovin' Pain
Let Me Take You To The Max"
So I swore up and down that I'd heard the song somewhere else. Turns out, I was right. Did anyone else catch this?
"Don't you know now is the perfect time
I can make it right
Makin' you all mine
Baby tonight if you hold it down
I can give you all that I got"
Odd. And if anyone is curious on how I'm getting only the music chunks and not the entire song, I'm using Audacity... fo' free!! Pretty sweet.
What's also pretty sweet is that we finished watching the X-Files series [ready for the movie!] and tonight we are starting Six Feet Under. I have no words to describe my exitement.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Life's a Beach
Andrew and I both had the day off today. Instead of driving up North a half hour for beads that I didn't know whether or not I'd end up liking, I asked Andrew if he'd like to get some chicken and go to the beach. So, around noon or so we packed up absolutely nothing and drove out to the Anacortes KFC. With 2 party-packs of Popcorn Chicken [eating left overs as I type] and a 6-piece fried chicken in hand, we headed to Safeway for soda and a visit with Andrew's mom. After here we headed across the Deception Pass bridge and onward to West Beach. We took a trail to a more secluded part of the beach where we could see the bridge and enjoy a little bit of privacy.
After eating some chicken, walking the beach, picking up cool looking rocks and agates, and feeling my back getting a little warm, we got a good idea:
Get ready, get set, AIM! Andrew's best action shot follows:
...and here is mine (after 50 un-actiony shots on both our parts!):
During all this we took many pictures, one of which has an uncanny resemblance to an X-Filey story:
Interesting... and a comment for my picture: my shirt is a flowy silky one with a pouch pocket on the front. That's why I look pregnant. And ignore the buttcrack. I'm pretty sure that it's impossible for a picture of me to be taken without the crack. Also, can you see my hemp jewelry? Amazing!
Speaking of, on the way home from the beach (after seeing amazing sights out the Stanwood/Conway area--including an under-the-freeway road that neither Andrew nor I knew about) we stopped at Michaels for some crafty things. I received a coupon the last time I went for 40% off of one regular priced item as well as a notification that this week (July 6-12) certain beads are 50% off. So we went to check it out and use my coupon. I ended up getting a wood beads mix [similar items and same brand here], a long string of wooden beads, blue ceramic beads, and green ceramic beads. The 40% off coupon went toward the mixed wood set and, silly me not noticing, the other beads were part of the 50% off deal. If I would have known that, I would have gone NUTS there! Ahh! But I organized my beads at home and have now more beads than I know what to do with. Now I HAVE to make jewelry with them. I still have to make a bracelet for Matt sometime, but he didn't want any beads. I should make them and sell them online. Maybe I'll make a super cool website for them. Most likely I wont because knowing my luck, there'll be nothing that comes out of it. I'll just tell people that I'll do it for like $2 a bracelet/anklet and $3 for a necklace or something [cheaper than buying it at the store; makes me money on the side to pay for stuff]. Who knows really.
But I came home and changed into some night-time clothes and found that when my back was "getting warm," it was really cooking like the chicken we ate. I am now as pink as, well, the only thing pink I can see is a Good & Plenty and it very closely resembles my exposed-and-burnt skin color.
I'm listening to Jason Mraz's "We Sing..." album again, and I can't help but hear Ray LaMontagne in the song "Details in the Fabric." I guess some guy named James Morrison helps out. Let's see if there are any relations between the two, and let's see if anyone else notices the similarity:
James Morrison "Details in the Fabric" 3:38-3:50
Ray LaMontagne "Empty" 1:09-1:18
Both entries on Wikipedia mention Van Morrison; James's entry says Van is one of his "favourite artists" [notice the "u" in "favourite"] and Ray's entry says, "Critics have compared LaMontagne's music to that of ... Van Morrison." What a coincidence!
Time for ice cream cake and a movie!!
After eating some chicken, walking the beach, picking up cool looking rocks and agates, and feeling my back getting a little warm, we got a good idea:
Get ready, get set, AIM! Andrew's best action shot follows:
...and here is mine (after 50 un-actiony shots on both our parts!):
During all this we took many pictures, one of which has an uncanny resemblance to an X-Filey story:
Interesting... and a comment for my picture: my shirt is a flowy silky one with a pouch pocket on the front. That's why I look pregnant. And ignore the buttcrack. I'm pretty sure that it's impossible for a picture of me to be taken without the crack. Also, can you see my hemp jewelry? Amazing!
Speaking of, on the way home from the beach (after seeing amazing sights out the Stanwood/Conway area--including an under-the-freeway road that neither Andrew nor I knew about) we stopped at Michaels for some crafty things. I received a coupon the last time I went for 40% off of one regular priced item as well as a notification that this week (July 6-12) certain beads are 50% off. So we went to check it out and use my coupon. I ended up getting a wood beads mix [similar items and same brand here], a long string of wooden beads, blue ceramic beads, and green ceramic beads. The 40% off coupon went toward the mixed wood set and, silly me not noticing, the other beads were part of the 50% off deal. If I would have known that, I would have gone NUTS there! Ahh! But I organized my beads at home and have now more beads than I know what to do with. Now I HAVE to make jewelry with them. I still have to make a bracelet for Matt sometime, but he didn't want any beads. I should make them and sell them online. Maybe I'll make a super cool website for them. Most likely I wont because knowing my luck, there'll be nothing that comes out of it. I'll just tell people that I'll do it for like $2 a bracelet/anklet and $3 for a necklace or something [cheaper than buying it at the store; makes me money on the side to pay for stuff]. Who knows really.
But I came home and changed into some night-time clothes and found that when my back was "getting warm," it was really cooking like the chicken we ate. I am now as pink as, well, the only thing pink I can see is a Good & Plenty and it very closely resembles my exposed-and-burnt skin color.
I'm listening to Jason Mraz's "We Sing..." album again, and I can't help but hear Ray LaMontagne in the song "Details in the Fabric." I guess some guy named James Morrison helps out. Let's see if there are any relations between the two, and let's see if anyone else notices the similarity:
Ray LaMontagne "Empty" 1:09-1:18
Both entries on Wikipedia mention Van Morrison; James's entry says Van is one of his "favourite artists" [notice the "u" in "favourite"] and Ray's entry says, "Critics have compared LaMontagne's music to that of ... Van Morrison." What a coincidence!
Time for ice cream cake and a movie!!
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