Snail Reincarnated

I woke up this morning from a dream where I was interviewing for another job because BigFoot didn't hire me. I was sitting in the food court of the mall interviewing for a position as a manager for one of the stores. The woman asked me a question and I started rattling on about product knowledge.

Thank God I woke up.

...but then I fell back asleep. Until 1:00. Before the main sleep, I managed to get up, move to the living room, and read another 70 pages of Harvest. If this book was a movie, it would be pretty sweet. It's kind of weird how when you read, you picture everything going on--the setting, what the people look like, how their voices sound, etc.--and someone else who reads the same words on the same pages will picture something entirely different. I think that's why watching a movie based on a book is so weird to me, because I see it through someone else's eyes.

Everyone is going ape shit over this Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer. It's really cool that people are interested in reading though. When a good series comes out, everyone gets really involved in the book business. Reading is good for your vocabulary, and you always learn something new. Movies these days are all the same. Sure, there'll be the occasional big hit that is totally different from other movies out there, but for the most part they are all the same. The music industry is basically covering all the old songs [and even some not-so-old songs, I.E. the Punk Goes Crunk or Pop stuff] and has no originality. Sam [roomie] bought all the books in the Twilight series day before yesterday [in chronological order: Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn] and has been reading them non-stop. It appears she is 1/8 done with the second book and possibly will be late for work because she is caught up in the story.

I would choose to be late too if I had to do floorset tonight. Never again!

After a couple people read her copies, I'm going to give it a shot. The movie comes out in November but it didn't look all that great so I'm not sure if I'll see it. Depending on what IMDb.com has to say, I might rent it when it gets out on DVD. Which is also what I'm going to do with Sex and the City, which comes out late September, the 23rd to be exact.

Anywho, I slept in the recliner in the corner [called a "recliner" for a reason; it's basically a cushiony bed with arm rests] and dreamt a dream that I have dreamt before. I've had the dream maybe three other times. It is about a boy whose parents are killed and he gets kidnapped by the killers. The boy is played by Trevor Morgan. Each time I have the dream, he tries to escape and he fails every time. This time, with the help of roomie Sam, he escaped when he was supposed to bring a bowl of spaghetti to the dining room. From there, he stayed with a bunch of different people, like chapters in a book, or scenes from a movie [which makes sense due to an actor playing the role of the kid].

When I awoke, I had two dogs in my face. They wanted to go outside and play before the rain came so I let them out. And yes, the fence was still closed. Apparently while I was sleeping, the dogs were in my face whining. I felt kind of weird last night, which might explain why I slept so late today. Dogs know when something is wrong, and I think they were worried about why I was sleeping so much. After letting them back inside [before the long-awaited and typical Washington rain], I took a bath. Floating is absolutely the most relaxing thing anyone can do; I think it has to do with being in the womb or something. Either way, it's calming and I love it. I showered, dressed, and found myself not hungry but instead craving coffee [which I haven't made in over a month], so I made me some. I filled a mug to the brim, brought it to the living room, and instead of chancing a spill on any of the new furniture or the floor, I snagged a throw pillow and sat Asian-style on the floor by the table. With Sex and the City playing on the screen, my coffee beside me, and my laptop in front of me, I basically had everything I needed.

During a conversation with Laura, I decided that in the Winter after I get my camera, I'll get myself a new phone [seens how mine keeps resetting the wallpaper and ring tone randomly] with a QWERTY-keyboard and Internet connection so I can blog from wherever [work, maybe??]. I would just blog from my phone, send it to My Journal online, and copy/paste into my blog, but T-Mobile's online services are the least accessible I've ever experienced. I looked at the phones on T-Mobile.com and found the phone I want:

T-Mobile Dash™

Retailing at $299, the instant discount of $150 and a mail-in rebate of $50 price the phone at $99 if I wanted to buy it right now. The instant discount doesn't look like it'd apply to me, but if I waited for my upgrade, it'd be around the same price, if not cheaper due to it being a later time. It has a 1.3mp camera [what I have now, which isn't too bad and not too important because I'll have my sweet 12.2mp camera by then], Windows Media Player, web browsing, a memory card slot, myFaves [which I have], and Microsoft Outlook [which I love]. It also comes with a case [which I would need because I drop things all the time] and a USB cable [necessary these days, especially with T-Mobile's horrible online services].

Perfect phone.

I love my phone that I have now, but I need to really get with the times. And this'd be perfect at my new job, which I start tomorrow. I am so excited!

Can you guess what also excites me? I'll give you a hint: I mentioned Washington rain earlier. ...Do you know yet?




























I know, I know... they're just snails. But I can't get over how incredible they are! They move fast too:


AND they do weird things with their mouths:


Maybe I was a snail in a past life or something; snail reincarnated.

That Brand New < Clean and Old Car Smell

There's something therapeutic about cleaning. This morning, after taking the dogs on a big walk, I did a little bit of errand work [including getting myself a camera fund tin that is disguised as something else. No one will suspect a thing!], came home, and did some cleaning. I cleaned up the living room a bit [left overs from last night's dinner and snacking, dirty socks, sandals, etc.] and then did the dishes. I then made room for the folding cutting board on the counter, chopped up another head of Romaine lettuce [I went through that other one already! Go salads!], cleaned up the knife and cutting board, and headed outside to the smelly box that rolls.

That would be my car.

It's interesting how many of my cars I've seen around here lately. I've had my car for a couple years now and until about a month and a half ago, I hadn't seen as many as 10 other ones. Now they're all over! I'm not complaining; what's not to love about my sweet Sentra? I just wish my bumper looked as sexy as the immaculate ones that I pass on a daily basis. And how weird is it to be stopped at a light right beside a car that mirrors your own in make, model, year, and COLOR as well?? With Sapphire Blue being my car's shade, it's a rarity to see something like it. Makes me feel a little weird.

So my many plastic bags [from grocery shopping mostly; I've been doing pretty good about not buying things I don't need] and I went outside and started cleaning out the ol' vehicle. Would you believe that I had a bag of beef sticks from about 2 months ago on the floor behind my passenger seat, rotting and stinking up my car? That and about five Mocha flavored Starbucks Frappucino bottles, 20 pieces of dental floss, receipts up the pa-toot, Jack-in-the-Box bags from who knows when, and in the trunk a blanket with vomit on it from the ride home when we got Murphy...

...in late May.

I then got the shop vac out, plugged it in, and sucked the nasty out of my car. I pulled off the seat covers and steering wheel cover [saved them in case I need them in the future], and my car looked like a brand new one. I then used some Armor-all[?] on the dash and my door panels, Windexed the inside of the windows, and then washed the outside of the car.

Monday needs to hurry up and arrive, or else I'm going to start sweeping the roof.

While I was at GoodWill getting the tins for both me and my sister, I picked up two books; one was a book published in 1995 and is basically another episode that neither Andrew nor I have seen of... drum roll please... X-Files! Oh yeaaa! The other one is by Tess Gerritsen, a favourite author of mine. The title is Harvest. There were actually two copies of the book next to each other; one was the newer version with this cover:


The other was the original released copy with this cover:


I flipped through some pages and the wording was exactly the same. The only difference was the back cover's description. The older version was this:


And the newer version [a picture I cannot seem to find on the Internet] said basically the same thing with slightly different wording; the first sentence went something along the lines of, "Dr. Abby Matteo is elated when Boston's Bayside Hospital's elite cardiac transplant team taps her as a potential recruit." It's the same words basically, just a different order. And the newer one says "Abby Matteo" instead of "DiMatteo." I checked inside the newer print and the name inside is "DiMatteo." Odd that Amazon.com's listing of the book has the front cover of the newer version and the back cover of the older one. Interesting.

I started reading this after eating a nice salad [from the new Romaine]. I got about 80 pages through, surprisingly with the distraction of South Park and phone calls. For some reason, Murphy decided to sleep in his bed, in his pen, in the kitchen, all by himself. I got up, grabbed him, and moved to the old couch so that he could lay in my arms while I read my book. It was relaxing and comforting having him snuggle with me.

It was not comforting when he ran away though.

Andrew let the dogs out to go potty after his friend Charlie showed up. I realized that I might have forgotten to close the back yard gate after bringing the shop vac back to the shop area. After going outside, I confirmed my suspicions. I called for Moses and Murphy; Murphy came trotting back to me right away. Thank goodness he didn't go far. I closed the gate and told him to stay. After walking down the street a bit and back, I got the big flashlight, got in my car, and started driving around the block. I then got the idea that maybe he would take the same route that we take on our walks.

I was right.

There he was, sniffing around right around the area where the random stop sign is. We saw a dog there earlier [no leash, no fence, no nothing] and he was probably smelling its scent. I yelled his name through the window and he took off. I started driving home, hoping I would see him again [it's hard to see a black dog in the night] and I did. I called his name and he trotted next to the car and followed me home.

After Andrew put them in time out, we started watching Farce of the Penguins. Charlie fell asleep a couple times [I guess this isn't surprising] but I'm surprised that I didn't; it wasn't that great. I would have rather watched Planet Earth; which I should do anyway.

Because Planet Earth rules.

A Blogging Barista

It is so incredibly frustrating when your computer does not cooperate. Mine has been running slow for the last few days--so slow in fact, that I restored my operating system to see if that would help. Now my computer is back to basics [a completely refreshing feeling if I do say so myself] and I am still having a hard time with the speed that my programs are running. The Internet is running very slowly as well, but that isn't my computer's fault. It's just very time consuming getting all of my programs re-installed [PhotoShop, IE7, WMP11, Microsoft Office, Macromedia, etc.].

With my interview being about an hour away, I took the time to put PhotoShop back onto my computer as well as update my Internet Explorer. I cannot deal without Internet Tabs and I don't know why. Once you get used to something, it's hard to revert to older ways.

At least Notepad stays the same.

A bagel with strawberry flavored cream cheese and a banana mocha smoothie later, I got dressed up for my second interview. Nervous, I carefully placed Murphy in his pen so that his light and fine hairs wouldn't get stuck to my entirely black outfit. Considering that the manager told me that the dress code was black tops, the optional colored layer underneath, dark bottoms, and close-toed shoes, that's what I wore! Of course, I dressed it up a notch wearing dress pants, shiney flats, a v-neck thin long-sleeve "sweater," a pink sash around my waist, and a matching pink underlayer tank. It looked business-y with a little flair!

I drove to the stand and parked in the same spot I parked in for the first interview. I got there fifteen minutes early and waited for an opening at the drive-up window to ask if the manager was there yet. There wasn't an opening until noon on the dot when I went in. The manager from the Bellingham branch was there and the manager of that location was not. She basically sat me down, said she heard great things about me and wanted to meet with me, asked what my plans were and if I could be there at 4:00 on Monday.

I have a job!

It is minimum wage [$8.07/hr in Washington State] but tips on top of that might make up for my decrease in pay. The dress code is actually plain black tops, jeans, and black close-toed shoes [a memo hadn't been received at that branch so the other manager didn't know], so that's what I'm going to wear on my first day! I am so nervous.

I drove home, called a bunch of people to tell them the news, and then went to the mall to pick up two basic black tops and a pair of cheap black close-toed shoes. I do believe that was a little bit of a rhyme there. From here I picked up the dogs and went to my mom's house for a dog play-date and to visit for a bit. Goose and Cracker [her dogs] aren't too friendly. Cracker is a yapper and very territorial. Moses is a billion times his size and it's very intimidating, I imagine. Goose never used to be a brat, but I think she's just getting old and sick of everything. If Cracker gets to bark and be a brat, Goose can too. Why not? So Moses and Murphy wanted to play with them and they didn't want to play back. Cracker ended up freaking out on Moses, barking like CRAZY, and Murphy stood up for him. My little corgi standing up for an almost 4-year-old Newfie/Chow mix. Imagine that.

I then came home and started working on a little project. Danielle [now ex-coworker] said she would pay me to fix up her MySpace. She told me what she was looking for design-wise and I told her I would play around with stuff if she found the right pictures. I also said that she should sketch out what she wanted, scan it, and send it to me so I could get it exactly how she wants it. I just came home and played around with Photoshop, some pictures online, and her profile.

This is her old profile. And this is her newly re-designed one. I hope she likes it. If she doesn't, that's alright. I think it's pretty cool; much more reader-friendly than the other busy layout.

And now I'm going to watch some more Sex and the City because I have the night off. Andrew should be home in an hour and a half, so the time should go by fairly quickly.

My first blog as a hired barista. Sweet!

The Day The Living Room Stood Still

I heard the rumbling around 11:25 in the morning. After showering a long and hot shower, I was helping Andrew make a hearty breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast. It has been proven that his scrambled eggs are the best in the entire world [proven by word of mouth, of course]. He also makes the best food with cheese; no matter what it is, if it has cheese in it or on it, his version will be better than anyone else's. Back to the point, I heard the rumbling while I was spreading the peanut butter and jelly on Andrew's toast. He didn't hear what I heard but noticed that Moses was barking outside. While I remained in the kitchen, finishing up the toast, Andrew pulled up the projector screen to see the delivery truck with United Furniture Warehouse along the side.

Our couch and chair have arrived.

And you better believe that I am reclined in the sectional right about now. I'm pretty sure my back is in heaven; this is a much better blogging center than the previous couch where I would sit with my feet under me, knees sideways, and my laptop on my thighs with my spine twisted and my neck kinked.

Anyway, the couch arrived in its five pieces, all packaged up in a cloth covering and plastic over the top, and the recliner came in two pieces in plastic wrap. We took the recliner pieces out of the wrapping and slid them together; the pieces literally slid together, like a puzzle with only two pieces. With the help of felt foot stick-ems, we slid the recliner to its final place in the corner of the room.

The sectional took a little bit longer to assemble. We moved the black couch that we still have into the hallway, unpackaged the five pieces, added the felt stick-ems to the feet [only one short with the package we got, and that's okay!], and assembled the sectional, which was like a five-piece horizontal puzzle. It slid to its final position and magically was centered underneath the black cabinet we mounted without measuring.

It was meant to be.

The black couch was then positioned in its original spot against the wall that adjoins to the door-wall. With the rugs in place, the furniture ready to sit everyone, and the sweet cabinet in place, everything looks amazing.



The chair...



Don't mind the mess on the table. :-(


With the house looking amazing, I started getting grumpy knowing that the sink was overflowing with dirty dishes. Instead of doing them, I wanted to get out of the house and get some fresh air and some exercise. So Andrew, Moses, Murphy, and I all headed out for a walk. We went the same route but flipped directions around the block, walking toward the random stop sign from the back. On the way, we walked over a sewer grate with slits. I told Murphy to watch his paws and he literally pulled a ninja move and jumped, tapped the curb beside it, and landed on the other side of the grate.

Not lying.

Then it was off to the dump. Let me tell you, it was one stinky trip. Gross gross gross! We pulled into the bay and Andrew's friend pulled into the bay next to us. This means I didn't have to get out and help! Not lazy, just a little sore from bending over the day before getting tack strips and staples up out of the floor. Apparently everything in the truck bed slid right out; we laid Ashley's old mattress into the bed first, the box spring next, and all the carpeting and the carpet padding last. The box spring slid right off with everything on top. Good times!

We came home and I was still grumpy. I'm pretty sure it was because A.) I was sore, B.) the stack of dishes in the sink were so high, C.) the fact that I don't have a job, D.) wondering why I have to do a second interview at BigFoot Java [who does a second interview now-a-days, especially a coffee stand?? I'm bringing a change of clothes in case they want me to start working instead of doing an interview; maybe she got her wording wrong and instead of "interview" she meant "training"], D.) worrying that I won't do good at the interview and that I'll be out of luck with a job again, E.) knowing what camera I want, seeing it everywhere, and not being able to have it yet, especially without a job to help pay it off, and F.) knowing that Murphy can't come cuddle with me in the new couch or the new recliner.

But it's amazing how much doing the dishes can make you un-grumpy. It's a productive chore and although no one likes doing the dishes, it's comforting knowing that all the dishes were clean, the counters were wiped off, and the kitchen looked semi-decent, matching the new living room and dining room.

After the dishes were done, we went to Fred Meyer and picked up some curtains for the dining room. We wanted some tan/brown ones that block lots of light because that window light makes the projector screen hard to see, so we got them. It's crazy how expensive house stuff can be! We needed two curtains and each was $30. Ah! We also got some croutons because I was running low. And I needs my salad.

I needs it.

And now here I am, burger in my tummy, feet up, kickin back, listening to Andrew visit with his mom with a chirp from Sam every now and then. Tonight is about a relaxing time watching Reality Bites with Ben Stiller and Janeane Garofalo. Anything with Janeane is fine by me.

She rocks.

Hardwood Floors 1; Carpet 0

Today was the day of the dog's de-balling. After waking up bright and early, Andrew, Moses, Murphy, and I headed over to the vet clinic on Cedardale. Turns out, there are two vet clinics within a block of each other and the one I made the appointment at was the wrong one. So we made an appointment at the other one for September 3. This place charges $110 for both dogs to get done, while the other place required an exam for each before they could get done, costing around $200. Ugh!

After this we went to Home Depot and snagged two trim pry bars. Then we went to Hollywood Video to return Field of Dreams and pick up a new movie. We went to go inside and it was locked. How weird was it that we were out and about getting chores done before most businesses even open? In the parking lot, three policemen and an Animal Control were leaving. What happened?! Ah!

We then went home and started pulling up the trim and carpets of the hallway and dining room. We borrowed Andrew's friend's truck, packed up the reclining couch, and brought it up to Bellingham. After trudging up to the second floor of an apartment building, we went to Fred Meyer and got some rugs. We then came home, made some food, and watched some South Park before working on the living room.

If people don't start living off of Caesar salads, I think I am going to go on a killing rampage.


Honestly. With my recent tries to stop eating all the time, a huge Caesar salad at lunch ties me over basically all day. It's pretty amazing.

Before:


And now presenting our new place:




How productive!! It looks really really good!

Oh, and I called the girl from BigFoot Java and she said she was just about to call me to see if I was available for an interview on Friday at noon with her and the manager of the Bellingham location. Interesting...

Oh, oh, and it started raining insanely and we had some more visitors:












Yea, one of them is pooping. Gross.

Jenna Fisher is Dead?!

How is it that during the day I can think of a billion things to blog about, but when I wait until the end of the day to blog about them, they seem so trite and unimportant?

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This morning I woke up after having an interesting dream. I was shopping at a mall with an entire school of people. We went into this store that was literally taking up half of the mall and it had absolutely everything you could imagine in it. I was very short tempered and upset that there were so many people all around me that anything anyone said to me pissed me off and I ended up screaming bloody murder at anyone that so much as looked my way. I don't know how, but I ended up outside of a butterfly hutch and I watched a butterfly come out of its cocoon. It was pretty cool, but when I went to walk away, there was a basket full of clothes and groceries that someone picked out and gave to me to buy. I got super pissed and started throwing everything all over the store and breaking all the fixtures and hurting people.

It was about ten minutes until the mall closed and people were still shopping, but they had finally left me alone. I walked looking at clothes. I found a cool grey top that sat off the shoulders with a built in top that kept it from falling down. It wasn't one of those tank tops inside; it was different. Anyway, I grabbed my size in that and started finding some more cool clothes that I liked. Turns out, everyone got $600 to spend today and when the mall closed, we were rushed out and I only got to spend around $40. I was super pissed that I was such a two-year-old brat and I missed out on spending over $500 on sweet clothes. The cashier felt bad for me [who would?] and gave me the difference on a gift card for the mall. We all then got onto a bus and started driving home.

The next day I talked my folks into driving all the way to this mall [a few hours away from our town] so I could use my gift card. We got there, split up, and started looking around. I met an older man who was pushing a metal cart; he offered to pay me to help him for an hour or so. I agreed [we were spending the whole day at the mall; who wouldn't agree to help out a strange old man pushing a metal cart?] and we pushed the cart out of the mall, across the parking lot, and into the building of an old folks' home. He explained to me that he delivers the food to the residents and needed help because that day was hamburger day and they were running low on supplies.

We took the cart into the basement, loaded it up with buns, meat, and condiments, and headed down to the other end of the wing. I didn't realize it until we were there, but it was the morgue. He loaded up two dead chopped up bodies [one was Jenna Fisher from "The Office"] onto the cart, and we started walking back toward the elevator. I was freaking out at this time [who wouldn't?!] and was trying to figure out a way to get back to the mall safely. We went up to the ground level, went outside, and started rolling the cart up the hill where the barbecues were. I was pushing the cart and the man was pulling it. We stopped because an old black man resident wanted something to eat. I handed the creepy man a plate with three patties on it and a bun and when he was handing it to the black man, I started running down the hill. He threw things at me to try and get me to stop, but I managed to get back to the mall.

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After a mighty breakfast of a plain bagel with strawberry cream cheese and a mocha frappe around 11:00, I took the dogs for a walk. It was the same route we took before with the same odd stop sign. This time, we encountered a woman and a black dog. She "pulled off" into a driveway to let me and the two dogs pass. I thought it would be a pleasant passing, but the dogs barked and wanted to sniff each other incredibly bad. I had to tug and tug to get them focused. They did very well, other than this bit of excitement.

Then I cleaned the kitchen and living room. In the kitchen I put away the clean dishes, did the dirty ones, cleaned the counters [both the visible spaces and those underneath and behind the deep frier, microwave, and toaster], the stove top, and then underneath the cupboards where the sweat of grease and cooking oil rises and sticks. Then I swept and mopped. Although you can't really tell that I cleaned the kitchen floor, it smelled a lot different [I.E. ammonia city!]. I let the dogs outside for a bit while the smell seeped out through open windows. I then cleaned off the couches, the table tops, and windexed the glass. I also took pictures of the couch and chair set we might put up on Craigslist as well as the set of tables with the glass top.

I picked up A Beautiful Mind and went to Hollywood Video to make a trade [originally going for Million Dollar Baby at #133/250, I picked up Field of Dreams instead, forgetting what I had gone there for]. After this I went to Target and did an amazing job of only getting what I went for [razor heads, glass cleaner, and a trim remover for the carpets].

I came home and around 3:45 [24 hours after my interview!] made myself an absolutely ginormous Caesar salad. Getting the head of romaine really paid off. It tastes delicious! I watched what I didn't watch of Fargo and played around with my MySpace.

Sam came home from work and announced that the BigFoot scandal was a hoax. I'm hoping that the coffee stand isn't that way as well, because they have yet to call and it's 10:00. If she doesn't call by 6:00 or 7:00 tomorrow, I'm calling her cell phone number [like she told me to]. I want to know! If I'm not going to get it, I have to start pushing super hard at other places. Ah! I need a job. I need money.

And I need this Canon camera. It would be perfect if I worked at the coffee stand because I would save my tips in a jar labeled "Camera fund."

Here I go again, getting my hopes up.

Getting 'em Up Again

I wanted to take the dogs for a walk this morning, but a welcomed change in the weather prevented me from doing so. The trickling of a misty and hardly noticeable Washington rain dissuaded me from getting the small bit of walking exercise that the dogs and I needed. Instead of walking, I got myself ready for the day; this means I actually got dressed, brushed [wow!] and straightened my hair, and put make-up on. My goal was to apply at more places because it is getting ridiculous how much money I am going to take out of my savings to pay for bills and my out-of-control spending habits [not so out-of-control when I have a job to support it], and I had to look presentable.

With gas prices as high as they are [even after a slight dip], why waste it driving around and asking if places are hiring and look like a fool if they're not? I called a bunch of places, all of which were not hiring but "always accepting applications" [a line I programmed into my auto-response function at PacSun when job inquiries came]... all of which until I dialed BigFoot Java's number.

Is it because BigFoot's body has allegedly been found? Is it because of this that fate had me dial the number? I applied a long while ago [last October!] and being as it is a coffee stand [tips = compensation for pay decrease from a position of management to the bottom position in a new company], I was still interested. It was about 1:30 and the girl who answered the phone passed it on to the manager [who wasn't supposed to be there at the time... fate again?] who asked if I could come in for an interview at 3:45. Literally, this one phone call got me an interview two hours and fifteen minutes later.

Now what was I going to do to pass the time without passing the interview time? I grabbed the video from last night, swung by my folks' house, picked up two of the movies there, went to Hollywood Video, returned the three movies, and picked out a movie with the MVP deal for free [I grabbed A Beautiful Mind. Although Russell Crowe is heinous to look at, he was good in Gladiator and the movie won best picture in 2001, so why not? It has the dad from Stepmom, the girl from Requiem for a Dream and the kid from Rent, Adventures in Babysitting, and I just now see an episode of "The X-Files" and my favourite movie, Twister].

From here I went to the mall to Ritz Camera to learn some more about SLR digital cameras [the big fancy ones with the removable lenses]. The employee told me about the good ones to start out with, and I'm thinking I want a Canon EOS Digital SLR Camera with at least 10.1 megapixels [12+ would be amazing!] with the basic 18-55mm 1:3.5-5.6 image stabilizer lens to start out with, getting a 28-300 mm f/3.5-6.3 IS lens later on, a flash, and a tripod when the time and funds came. This'll be kind of spendy.

I then went to PacSun to visit people and see my old manager and see how things were going. I was basically ignored and rushed out. I'm not quite sure if that's how it was meant to go, but I don't really feel welcome in there anymore, and I guess I can see why: I got out and they're still stuck in the bullshit that is PacSun.

Then, I drove to BigFoot Java, parked, and waited until the drive-up window was empty. I walked up, resume in hand, and asked for Kiara [I remembered cause it sounded like "tiara" but with a "k"; how juvenile]. She wasn't there, so I waited inside the stand. Inside. I saw everything from the employee's location; let me tell you, it looked super fun and super organized. When she arrived, I went around the corner to the manager's room and had a brief chat with Kiara, the manager. She was 22, not even two years older than me, and seemed super nice. We ended up chatting about her vacation she had just gotten back from as well as how things run at the stand. She said I would find out either tonight or in the next couple days whether or not I got the job. So basically it went extremely well and I'm getting my hopes up, like I always do.

I then came home, made a delicious salad from my recently chopped up romaine head, ate some pizza and some cheesy bread wheel slices, drank a soda, and watched about five episodes of Sex and the City.

What else can I do to distract myself from staring at my phone like a creep?