10 Boxes of Cheez-Its on the Wall...

I woke up this morning to find Andrew still sleeping next to me. After being awake while he hit the snooze button a million times for his get-to-work-on-time alarm, I fell asleep shortly after to wake up and find him still in bed at 8:30am. His first alarm was at 6:00 with an absolutely-have-to-leave alarm at 6:30. I freaked out and screamed, "ANDREW YOU ARE GOING TO BE LATE FOR WORK!!" ...come to find out, it was Murphy laying next to me. His fawn coloring resembled skin enough for me to freak out in my not-so-awake state. Although I was sad to not have my Valentine laying next to me when I woke up, I was very happy to have Murphy to snuggle with.

Today, Valentine's Day, marks the one-year-anniversary of when Andrew and I met. We ladies at PacSun decided to have a "Chicks... No Dicks!" Valentine's Day Party and low and behold, Andrew was there. Kind of ironic, but it seems that Cupid was doing his job. One week from today is Andrew and my one-year-anniversary of when we started seeing each other. Our first date was at Bob's Burger and Brew. I got a burger loaded with onions and enjoyed watching Andrew and our double daters, Jake and Megan, play RockBand at Andrew's house afterward. No big deal that the screen they were playing on was the entire wall. Being as it was our first "date" and I hadn't really known him for all that long, I was pretty shy and merely watched; I didn't want to make a fool of myself and have him not want to hang out anymore [because that's what happens in real life, right?]. But he did want to hang out more, and we did for about a consecutive week, having late night lounges and eventual over-nighters. I felt oddly comfortable and happy with him right from the start, and it has yet to fade away.

This guy is a keeper.

After realizing that Andrew was indeed Murphy, I got up and ready for the Saturday morning Zumba class. I got to the stand to find out that Jeena and Shelley both weren't going to make it. Katie and I headed out to our first class with Antonio instructing. Ashley mentioned how intense it was when he was leading because he doesn't let anyone stop and it is constant and fast-paced. Apparently, Antonio was recovering from a cold of some sort, so today's class was a little "toned down", but in my book: I've never sweated so much in my entire life! It was super fun! An older woman came up to Katie and me and said, "You girls are really good at this!" Haha! It's really cool the variety of people that take the class. There are younger adults, elderly, special needs, overweight, underweight, weight... just EVERYONE! And you aren't there to impress anyone because everyone else is doing the same thing you are. It's a pretty cool experience. This is Katie and I on our way home after sweating our asses off and getting a Valentine's Day Zumba Rose on our way out!

I didn't have all the ingredients I needed for our Valentine's Day dinner, so I hopped to WalMart and Haggen to pick up some stuff. I got Andrew some goodies for our special day [including TEN boxes of Cheez-Its! ...see below] and as I was getting rung up, the couple in front of me decides to go into incredible detail about how they are getting over being sick. The woman has a mullet and apparently it's the man's birthday. So they take forever gabbing about germs [I don't want to hear this] and then the woman goes to pay with a check. The cashier, who is an older woman, says, "If you just sign it, we scan it and then you get it back," to which Mullet Ma'am says, "ANYONE who does that is an absolute FOOL! I don't trust anyone with ANYTHING these days! I will fill this all the way out so I have a record of it." ...which makes sense, but she just gives the cashier her opinion anyway. "I don't even use my DEBIT card anymore! I went to Office Depot not too long ago and went to buy a couple monitors that were like $500 and I swiped my card, the girl asked for my card and ID to verify that it was me, which is fine with me, but then she swiped my card again and I gave her a piece of my mind! I said, 'NOW YOU LISTEN HERE! I ALREADY SWIPED THAT CARD AND YOU DID NOT ASK ME IF YOU COULD SWIPE IT! THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE!' and I cancelled the transaction and left without anything." Now, at PacSun, there is a customer-usable pin pad card swiper machine that will let you swipe the card but won't read it until a final button is pressed. We would ask for ID and after verifying the card, we would swipe it. Just because this woman swiped it before the cashier asked for ID doesn't mean that it read the card. But this woman went OFF and I was just thinking in my head, "Just hurry up and go. I don't want to stare at your hair any longer." She started to leave after everything was done and then she came back and said to me, "When you get old, you'll talk a lot too. We can't go hang out with friends anymore, so we make friends wherever we go!" All nice and jokingly. I smile and laugh it off, but I'm thinking, "DON'T THINK YOU'RE MAKING ME YOUR FRIEND!" Good Lord!

Oh, and a woman wouldn't move her cart or her fat ass in the DVD aisle, so I had to literally go down the next aisle just to see what was as close to the end as possible, because she took up the whole damn aisle--side to side, front to back. How are people so unaware?

OH, OH! And on my way out I see a truck with a handicapped mirror hanger parked in a handicapped spot, as well as the two lined spaces on either side. Handicapped people should NOT be driving. If they have designated drivers, that's fine for them to park up close, but they should NOT be driving themselves.

That's basically all that happened so far today besides me getting three cans of Nalley Chili. No one is going to want to Zumba next to me for a while.

It's a } Shape

What car now-a-days doesn't have cupholders? Let me tell you... mine doesn't. It is the only car in existence without the luxury of having a place specifically designed to hold beverage containers. It's a 2001, no less, so why does this have to be? I have found an alternative to this missing link between my car and all others in society: the infamous wedge between the e-brake and the passenger seat. But please remember: this does not work if the seat is too far forward or too far back. The perfect six-inch-range must be occurring to make this space usable.

So, in looking for a new vehicle, I need to take the advice of Miss Pam Beasley in a season three episode of "The Office" ["Grief Counseling", if I'm not mistaken] when she says of her new car, "It was the cupholders that sold me." And if I haven't already mentioned it, I am looking to get me a sweet SUV sometime soon. Although I made a grown up decision to spend my savings and tax return on paying off my car loan, I am looking to save up for an SUV and maybe get one in the summertime. After careful consideration, I have narrowed it down to a few models and generations:

1996-2002 Toyota 4Runner


1990-1995 Toyota 4Runner


1996-2004 Nissan Pathfinder


1998-2004 Isuzu Rodeo


1998-2002 Honda Passport

1993-1997 Honda Passport

I've got a pretty wide selection, considering I like all of these models, but all I know is that it HAS to have cupholders. I really don't care if it's manual or automatic, dark or light... just gotta have the cupholders. And I especially don't care if it has a cracked windshield because MY CAR HAS ONE! Oh dear Lord! It is absolutely symmetrical, started about a foot from the bottom center of the glass and shot across to be a } shape [turn your head to the right and you got it!]. And I got it from going to get white chocolate powder from an Everett stand because we almost ran out, finding out later that our order came in early and I didn't have to go down there anyway. Ahhh!

Whatever. With all the construction all around town, it wouldn't surprise me to get another crack. It's absolutely ridiculous! Highway 20's expansion, I-5's exit 230 [both northbound and southbound], College Way's expansion, I-5's exit 231 no longer having a connecting overpass?! It's all too much to handle at once. If they focused on ONE project at ONCE, they could get it done faster, and I wouldn't have to see it ALL DAY EVERYWHERE I GO!! And it's especially annoying when you see this:

*Notice my windshield. Anywho, you see TWO groups of construction workers just STANDING AROUND GOSSIPING BY THE WATER COOLER... er... water bottle. Haha but funny story about this picture: I took it and then a couple of them turned around and looked at me--as if they could hear the silent flash--so I pretended to be texting everyone I knew with the phone above my steering wheel while I waited for the light to turn green. I fooled them!

Once I got home, instead of coming home and stuffing my face with delicious chips that Andrew bought for me that sound amazing, or the yummy beef jerkey that he got at the store, I hopped on here and started blogging. That's right: no snacks until dinner! And my stomach isn't clenching either, so that's a good thing. It's probably because my delicious cheese omelet I made this morning before work filled me up good! I'm trying to cook more and more so that I can get better. How else are you supposed to get better at cooking? Just wish and wish and hope that a fairy comes by and waves her wand over you while you sleep and you wake up as the Iron Chef's number one competition? I don't think so. Anyway, today was my third day in a row making an omelet WITHOUT Andrew's help [haha!] and it turned out absolutely scrumptious! I love me a cheese omelet!

As for cooking, tomorrow night is Valentine's night and to be a romantic housewife--err--house girlfriend, I am going to cook a delicious meal: Olive Garden's Chicken Fettucine Alfredo! Ex-roomie, Sam, made it one night [sans chicken] and it was delish! So with the secret recipe still on the fridge, I will wander to the store tomorrow for groceries to make this feast possible! With a little wine / grape juice for Andrew, candles, and a romantic movie, I think this Valentine's Day night will be pretty good.

And to get in the Valentine's mood, I wore pink to work today! After discussing it with another barista earlier yesterday, I asked our manager if we could have pink day and it was approved! But, alas, I was the only one to wear the designated pink. My excuse: I'm not working tomorrow and wanted to celebrate early. Oh yes, that's it. Tomorrow will be another pink day [with the option of red] so I guess I wasn't really lying. I'll wear pink again tomorrow to the morning ZUMBA CLASS! Oh yea! Sweaty in my pink top and Aladdin-size sweat pants! Ha.

Speaking of work, poor Katie had the rudest customer last night. Let me educate you a little bit: at BFJ, a 20-ounce coffee beverage comes with a standard three shots of espresso. Our espresso machines have two heads that pour out two shots of espresso each. This customer [let's call her Bea, which is a lengthened version of the letter "B", which starts off what we all refer to her as... if you catch my drift] ordered a 20-ounce Mocha Breve with four shots, "Because you throw one of them away anyway." Makes sense, right? If you fill both heads with espresso grind and let the shots pour out, you get four shots, three of which you would normally put into the 20-ounce cup and the fourth would go into the machine's grated tray, down the drain, into the waste tank or wherever it really goes; Espresso Shot Heaven sounds good. So here Katie is, enthusiastically making Bea's drink. She puts in the chocolate, steams the half-n-half, pulls the four shots, and finishes making the drink [deliciously perfect, I might add]. She then rings up the drink [20-ounce Mocha + Breve + Extra Shot] and tells Bea her total, to which Bea replies, "That's fucking BULLSHIT!!" Katie is taken back and says, "Excuse me?" to which Bea replies, "What did you charge me for?!" to which Katie explains the extra charges for the breve and the fourth shot. "That shot was going down the drain! Why did you charge me for it?!" Katie replies, "Well, the shot went into your drink, so I have to charge you." "That's FUCKING BULLSHIT!" I don't know what I would have done in that situation, but I doubt she's coming back, because we don't just give things away for free, because we are a business trying to stay in business in these hard economic times. So sorry that you are unhappy with how much your drink costs; the charges are noted on the menu for extras. Holy cow!

Well, now that I ran out of items of note that I texted myself while waiting by the construction workers, I'd like to end this blog with an image of what JUST happened to me. I opened MSN Messenger for the first time in months and I had a contact add me to their list. I didn't know who it was, so I added them and asked nicely, "Who the hell is this?" Well, you can see for yourself what happened next.

...why??

One Month!

I think I'm going for a new record here. Good LORD why haven't I been blogging? It's most likely due to the fact that there is some kind of dust ball stuck under the [?/] key on my laptop and it makes things somewhat difficult to express.

...Yea, that's it.

So it seems like everyone is in the mood for looking better. I know I've gained some weight since starting at BFJ--understandable--but of the 30+ pairs of jeans I own, the only ones that fit me are the ones that I bought a few sizes bigger so that they would fit loose. Either I'm seriously laundry-inept or something has GOT to change; and it's not going to be me deducting money from my bank account and adding more jeans to the already towering stacks in my closet [yes, they are folded in accordance with the Pacific Sunwear fold for YM denim--both YM and JR now, right?--and organized from least-likely-to-wear on the bottom to most-likely-to-wear on the top, with the left pile being guys' denim and the right being girls'. Does ANYONE ELSE do stuff like this?! My shirts are hung up from lightest to darkest with basic t-shirts first, then dressy tanks, polos, long sleeves, sweaters, and miscellaneous stuffs next. And why do I say "stuffs"? This is too long to be a side note]. Back to my original thought, I decided to get the ball rolling and STICK WITH a fitness strategy [not sure if I said it in my last blog, but I was going great for a while working out on my amazing elliptical machine, but then I started slacking for a day or two. And that was about three weeks ago], which includes the addition of three days a week of Zumba:



Miss Ashley and Miss Emily raved about it at a BFJ get-together [happened to be a surprise party for my birthday, totally had NO IDEA, my first one ever, and it was a total BLAST!!] and after missing the first BFJ girls trip to the class, I made it to the second and am definitely looking forward to incorporating it into my weekly routine. Fortunately, my work schedule allows me to make it to the three classes on time, so let's see if I keep up with it! I hopefully will...

Seens how I mentioned my birthday, I'd like to say that it feels pretty weird to be 21. It's like, when you're growing up, you get really exited to turn 10 because you now have two numbers in your age, then it's looking forward to 13 because you're officially a "teen" [because that's the cool thing, right?], then it's 15 for a permit, 16 for a license, 19 to get into Canada for some fun, 20 to officially be in a new age decade, and then 21 to be able to do basically whatever you want. The only thing I really have to look forward to now is the senior discount, which I will take advantage of religiously. Is that an oxy moron? "Take advantage of religiously"?? I wonder if I'm the first one to ever think of that...

You ALWAYS think you're the first one to think of something and then, of course, someone else thought of it three years prior. Unless it's a sweet new invention, like my little sister's idea for pumping gas [having to swipe your driver's license in order to get the pump to work and if you have a warrant out for your arrest, the pump dispenses gas really slow in order to allow time for the cops to show up].

Netflix has proven to be one of the best inventions of life, by the way. I recently watched Smoke Signals, based on the writings of Native American Sherman Alexie and expanded into screenplay by himself, and if I do say so myself, it was a pretty good time. Although there wasn't a huge plot in the movie, it had pretty good values, a pretty good dialogue, and really great characters, including Thomas Builds-the-Fire, the inspiration for Kickin' Wayne in Joe Dirt, played by Adam Beach, the actor playing the role opposite of Thomas Builds-the-Fire's. Interesting, eh? But you hear the famous, "Hey VICtor!!" lines about a million times, and it doesn't get old!

And SPEAKING of famous lines, Andrew and I watched Full Metal Jacket and I learned the absolute location of all quotes of "Me so HORNY" and "Me love you LONG TIME!" Did anyone else know that's where those lines came from? I think I'm just uneducated about that kind of thing. Which is hard to believe, considering from first glance I knew that the actor playing Lt. Touchdown also played Nikolai in "Six Feet Under". I don't know which was better though, me catching this or Andrew catching Jack's dad from "Lost" at a young age playing the role of Lt. Lockhart.

Aaaaahhhhhhh!!!!

I guess you can see what I do on my time off from work. Make delicious Pizza Pinwheels, watch some TV on DVD or Netflixed movies, and clean house!

And I've been trying to get Murphy to speak. You know, like those animals in the YouTube videos...



It looks like there is some fierce competition. I'ma go work on Mr. Murph...

Atchoo! [It's Really A Word]

So I'm pretty sure a woman just saw me sneeze while driving. Come to think of it, I don't think I've EVER seen someone sneeze while driving passed me. It's weird enough to see someone sneeze or to even partake in the act of sneezing, but while driving? This might not sound odd to anyone else, but it is to me. It just is. And you hardly ever see people sneezing in movies. Not even in the background of a city. ...well, unless it is one of those scenes where it's supposed to be the object of the scene's humor.

Why is it that I don't blog in three weeks and I find it necessary to talk about sneezing? I think it was just something I wanted to say to get me started again. Where's my groove? How do I get back into my flow? I don't like the blogs where I say "Work" and "Home" and just update on things, because that's no fun. Blogs are places to vent or just ramble about a thought or idea; sneezing can make for fairly decent blog-writing material, I suppose. Let's see...

Well, when I was driving--you know, that one time I sneezed and a woman saw me?--it felt like one of those movie scenes from a "The Night The Meteor Hit" or whatnot where all mankind just up and disappears and the only person left is, well, me. From the moment I turned onto the road connecting to the lane I live on [I live on a lane?? That sounds odd saying it out loud...], I had no vehicles in front or behind me the entire time until I pulled into my driveway. I even watched in my rearview mirror to see if any cars passed by the lane entrance [again, odd] with no luck.

Well, I guess with luck, because everyone driving is an idiot. With the snowy weather lasting for weeks, people became even bigger idiots driving than I thought was possible. Then came the stereotypical Washington rain, making drivers freak out beyond all belief because, "Oh no! The snow is melting! What is this liquefied snow that looks eerily familiar but I haven't seen the likes of in three weeks?? What should I DO?!?!?!" And then it gets back to normal with the overcast and drizzle, leading to rear-ending accidents in front of the coffee stand, bringing policemen, an ambulance with multiple EMTs, and a pumper truck filled with firemen looking for some kind of action, all disappointed because someone didn't stop when they should have and accidentally kissed bumpers with the car in front of them. Dear lord, is it necessary to call in the cavalry? I guess when the big action in town [according to a regular customer who happens to be a county sheriff] is tracking down a specific car with expired tabs, a fender bender is enough to call in the cavalry.

Whatever, I suppose. I'm fine with driving the speed limit, always second-guessing and waiting until I am 100% sure with any move I make, and...

...oh my dear Lord, there is a spider on the ceiling. Granted, it's teeny tiny, but it's one of those ones that is so light brown that it almost seems transparent. It's a spider, none-the-less, and I don't want it ANYWHERE NEAR ME! ...Now I feel something on my foot. It's like in elementary school when the office personnel reports that there is a lice outbreak in the school and you start feeling tickles in your hair. I can also hear the light bulbs buzzing in here. I think I'm paranoid.

Moses just burped. I'm surrounded by transparent spiders, buzzing light bulbs, and burping dogs. This is why I am blogging.

Actually, I'm blogging because I just got home from work and Andrew is going to be late getting home, which means that it'll be me and the dogs for a few hours and there's not much for me to do besides blog, watch movies or TV shows that I have already seen, eat [and you shouldn't do that unless you are truly hungry, which I am not. I had a burrito at work. It was delicious], work out on my elliptical [which I've already done today and have done for the past five days or so], or read. I plan on reading after this because I am in the middle of a really good book ["A Mercy" by Toni Morrison. A gift from Andrew, the love of my life, who remembered that I wanted it after only once hinting when we passed it in a store] but when I read, I get comfortable, and when I get comfortable, I get sleepy. And you know what happens when you get sleepy.

You dream of spiders dangling from the ceiling and you wake up at the end of the bed freaking out because you think it is real. It happens to everyone... right?

...right?

This book I'm in the middle of is a hard read. No, I'm not mentally challenged and no, I don't have the reading capabilities of a Kindergartner; it is simply a hard read. The first chapter really got me all twisted up. The book, so far, is about slavery and love [but not loving slavery]. Each chapter is told from a different character's point of view, and each character's word choice and even punctuation usage is different, making it obvious when a change of character occurs, but makes it difficult to read when the lesser educated characters are doing the talking. I sometimes have to read sentences out loud to figure out how exactly the character means it to sound. It is a good book so far: lots of detail, emotion, analogies / similes, and outlooks on life, love, and religion. I'm kind of looking forward to ending this blog so that I can pick up the book. Maybe I'll get really uncomfortable so that I'll be awake enough to read more than I normally would.

That spider has not moved. I actually forgot it was there until I stretched and saw it again. Yuk.

It's weird not having Sam living here anymore. She moved back home due to lack of money for rent [understandable], in addition to her forward-moving relationship that is headed toward moving away to California. It was fun while she was here; there was always something funny going on! But now that she's gone, we moved lots of big items [a desk, a drum set, the printer and a small table, Christmas wrapping stuff, etc.] into the empty room, freeing up some much needed space in the bedrooms and living room. Although taking down our Christmas tree would also help with that, we have yet to accomplish this task. Yes, it is January 12th and we still have our Christmas tree up. I think it's like having a plant in the corner of the room. Yea, that's what it'll be until we take it down: "the plant in the corner of the room." We just need to remember to water it [have we done this more than once? I don't think so...].

It's almost midnight and I say this is an okay length for a blog, considering I'm trying not to make it a boring "update." The dogs are rough housing as usual, I am still alone, and my book is staring at me longingly. Now the real question is: where are my chips that I don't need to eat while reading before bed at midnight??

Gasp! ...A Blog?

So there was this one time that I used to blog every day. It was amazing and I always had something to say. Remember this one time? Yea, I can't either. Because I have only blogged once in A MONTH!! That is almost enough to put me in jail or something. I don't understand. I guess it's just that at the end of the day [when I end up doing most of my blogging], whether it be a boring-on-autopilot day or one full of crazy stories and definitely blog worthy, I get home and just kick back and doze off. Please explain this to me. I don't even know where I last left off on my previous blog! [*Opens in a new tab; thanks IE7!*]

Alright so here's updating on the last blog and I'll do a real blog after.

As far as the returning-drinks-for-free-ones goes, we haven't had much more of a problem since my last blog [13 days ago; shame shame shame]. About a week ago I had a woman bring back two 12oz hot drinks a few hours after getting them saying that instead of one shot in each, there was two in one and none in the other. They were obviously only missing the initial "Whaaaaat the..?!" drinks and we remade them for free. And yesterday I had a man bring back a 12oz eggnog latte, say "Can I trade this for a new one?" and claim that it was "too thick." I suggested cutting it with milk to make it not so thick and he agreed to give it a shot. I brought the finished drink to him, he gave me the money for it and drove off. Apparently he just didn't want his old one anymore. But those are the only two semi-remotely "want a free drink" post-blog scenarios.

Our work party went pretty well! Only three people didn't show up [which apparently was a great turnout compared to previous years] but it was due to the weather [which I will get to in a minute]. We ate our appetizers, played bingo for prizes [everyone got a prize, but we played to see who would get prizes in what order and such] and then drew numbers to see who would get the extra three prizes [sorry to those who didn't go, but that was part of the party!]. My bingo prize was a make-up utensil set with different brushes for liners, blush, shadows, and lashes, a mirror, a cute utensil cup to put them in, and a little traveler bag for them all. Mind you, I wrapped all the presents and remembered which most of them were and I spotted that one when it was my turn. Cheating? I don't think so. Plus, I needed a brush for my eyebrows. I'm sorry; I am NOT going back to the pre-sixth-grade bushy caterpillars perched above my eyes, and I needed a brush for trimming and making them look pretty. I was doing the world a favour by picking out a gift I knew. And I was also one of the three that won prizes out of the second round of prizes [NOT cheating to win!] and of the three left, I knew what two of them were and I already had two in the house [a 20 Questions handheld game--lost in the tree room-- and a Hangman handheld game--on the back of the toilet with Yahtzee!] so I picked the third one and it ended up being a set of massager tools [the wooden ones with wheels and such]. Kailey wanted one so I gave her one I already had, a reflexology roller bar that came with a reflexology kit I got at a bargain price at Borders. After games and gifts, we had spaghetti [delish!] and Secret Santa exchange. The girl who had me couldn't make it, and the girl I had couldn't make it either; par! So I watched everyone else open their gifts and I brought mine back to the stand for the recipient to pick up when she worked next [still there, Miss Caitlin! Get your butt to work PRONTO!]. We left shortly after the gift exchange and called it a night. Pretty fun little get together! I got my gift from my Secret Santa [Jeena!]: a delicious candy cane, cream colored slippers, and green plaid pajama bottom! A-MAZING! Have been wearing them every night!

I haven't been drinking my Americanos lately because I'm feeling more of a juice / water [I know!] / non-espresso thirst. I've been drinking Cranberry-Grape XS Energy Drinks on ice and they are pretty fricken good. Well, the first half of the drink is; the second half is all watered down and non-carbonated. Nasty! And I did try a new drink: an Italian Cream Soda made with our fruit smoothie mix instead of syrup, at the suggestion of our manager. Verdict: amazing!

Andrew and I opened our main Christmas presents early, as you already know, but we thought about it and all three of our schedules [his, Sam's, and mine] would conflict on Christmas Eve Eve, Eve, and Day, so we opened our presents and stockings last night [I KNOW!!]. I got lots of fun goodies including lots of socks, FIVE... count 'em... FIVE seasons of TV on DVD [Lost 1-3, The Office 4, and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia 3], tons of one of my favourite candies [Rafaello--a coconut and almond treat!], lots of knick-knacks, TONS of colored Sharpees [both thick AND thin tips], a sweet centerpiece vase with candle holders going around it, a dual paper cutter [a slider cutter as well as a guillotine side], and a sweet hat! With my Elliptical Machine in my room and Chi Straightener on it's way here, I'd say it was a pretty successful Christmas!!

Moses and Murphy got treats and toys in their stockings and they have been tearing up everything ever since! Murphy got a winter jacket that should have fit him but doesn't velcro like it should [my baby's growing up so fast!] but he wears it like a vest and love-love-LOVES it! And I'm not just saying that like the owners of those silly toy dogs that dress up in tutus and such; he actually enjoys being in coats and sweaters [as long as they aren't too big].

I rebooted my computer system the destructive way [don't know why it sounded so scary before, but it really seemed to help out everything! No more viruses, thank you!] and everything is smooth again. But when I tried to comment someone on MySpace TWICE and started to blog on here but couldn't unless it was on the HTML setting on my phone, I got kinda ticked. Which is why I am on my computer doing this [I also wouldn't want to be using that tiny little keyboard to type all of this... no thanks!].

I almost had a chance to blog a huge blog while I was waiting in my car at a red light tonight. Let's get into why this was almost possible. A week and a half ago on a Saturday, it started snowing. I can't remember the last time it truly snowed in our area, but it was so long ago that everyone was freaking out and calling it a "BLIZZARD!" I worked a 4am-10am and a 4pm-10pm that day, allowing for the morning customers to say, "Nah, it won't snow!" and allowing for the evening customers to literally throw snowballs into the stand while I make their hot cocoas. It was an odd day. I drove home on the boulevard, providing for a basically straight shot with no scary turns in the fresh snow. The next morning, I had Andrew drive me with his truck because it had snowed about eight inches and none of the roads were plowed. I think our town needs to get its act together and get prepared for these kind of weather changes. It was forcasted as a snow storm and when it came, no one was ready. Then all of a sudden, all stores in the three surrounding towns are sold out of snow shovels, ice scrapers, and snow toys. There are chains on every other car, people sliding around on the slush in the intersections, and me in my low-clearance 2001 Nissan Sentra scraping the middle pile of waste in the lanes where the tires don't ride and barely making it into the work parking lot because of the nasty "sidewalks"; thanks construction workers for conveniently working to tear up everything and cancel all work a few days before the storm was even predicted. Thanks.

So anyway, my big thing was having to go to stores for everyday things like groceries or batteries or what not because A.) Christmas shoppers are nut jobs on crack, B.) apparently this town is the shopping hub of the county and everyone in the world decides to start driving all at once to go to the exact spot I need to go to, taking the exact back roads and everything, and C.) the extreme weather provides for idiots who think they can either drive like it's completely sunny and snow-free or drive like there is five feet of ICE everywhere and go one mile-per-hour on a busy street, blocking all traffic because he or she is a pansy. I went to get a regular customer a gift today and was going to go to GoodWill to get some books [because I've been into reading more and more lately] and I had to go to GoodWill first because the line to turn into the place I was going to get the gift at was the same line to turn to get to... guess where? ...WalMart.

WalMart. Now there's a blog of it's own. Did you know that out of the top ten richest people in the entire world, numbers five through ten are all Sam Walton's grandchildren, who didn't do ANYTHING BUT GET BORN?!?!?!? They are worth BILLIONS of dollars because of their grandfather, make up HALF of the top ten richest people in the world, and they didn't do diddly squat. I can hardly afford my bills and my outrageous Christmas shopping, and they can wipe their asses with gold-plated toilet paper. Not fair to those who actually have to make a living. Whatever though. I wouldn't complain if I was a Walton. But then again, I would have a live-in masseuse who would be massaging my lower back because the left side is hurting so incredibly fiercely that yesterday during my 12-hour shift, every 20 minutes I had to stop what I was doing, hold my back, and breathe deeply.

Anyway, so I went to GoodWill and got a ton of books! Of these is a cook book, Alive [the book before the movie], The Lovely Bones [which I've heard nothing but good things about], and basically a bunch of either murder mysteries or comedic romances. I'm reading The Lonely Girls Club right now about a group of girls who know a secret about their murdered headmistress and 20 years later it risks exposure. I am about 3/4 of the way done and I still don't have a clue who killed her, but there is a little bit of sexual tension, and if I had a period of time where I had no other obligations or tendencies to fall asleep [not due to the book], I wouldn't be able to put it down!

After here I was going to swing by and get pizza and go home, no big deal, right? Yea, everyone on the roads is still stupid. I saw at least four different heavy duty SUVs and trucks with old and rickety people driving and an adult in his or her late twenties to late thirties in the passenger seat. This is not okay with me. There is an age where you should stop driving and OLD is where it's at. Get someone else to drive you, ESPECIALLY if that someone else that could be driving is sitting in the passenger seat!

Ahhh! Oh, and the main point about me grumbling about weather and traffic was to explain that I had to go to Haggen to get some parsley for my Salmon Bites that I was going to make for my family's Christmas Eve get together [and I just realized I might not have enough tortillas... go me for being prepared!] and on the way TO the store, I passed a row of 15 vehicles waiting for a green light to leave Haggen. When I went to LEAVE the store, I ended up in that same line waiting for ten minutes for the light to change. The line ended up going around the curve and back up into the Haggen parking lot by the time the light changed to green. And only seven cars were allowed through at that light change. Stupid idiots with the traffic controls.

Ugh! Well, I'm about burnt out on blogging right now. I didn't blog about going sledding / tubing and I didn't blog about Christmas bonuses or the fact that we now own Twins and I am super excited to watch it all the time, but maybe I'll get into it next time.

But probably not. I need to go make some Salmon Bites and if I don't have enough tortillas, venture out into the world yet again. Cross your fingers and wish me luck!

A Listy Blog

This is a little unacceptable; not blogging in over two weeks?! Let's see if anything new and exciting has happened.

Work:

Work has been pretty alright. I have been working so much and covering so many shifts that two weeks ago, I finally got three days off in a row [like I'm scheduled to have every week] and it was pretty amazing. I am in the middle of another three days off in a row and it is filled with errands and fun things to do.

We did, however, run into a little bit of a problem scenario with customers trying to rip us off. At PacSun, the policy was to always make sure the customer was happy. If he or she threw a bitch fit because we wouldn't return their dirty and worn sneakers without a receipt or a box, we would end up giving them some kind of credit for it and they would get their way. Last Sunday around 7:00 in the morning, a man walked up to Jackie's window and his wife pulled up beside him in the car. He shouted, "We made it!" which doesn't really make any kind of logical sense to shout out to complete strangers. He ordered himself and his wife two 24oz hot mochas. Jackie rang them up because they were at her window and I made the drinks at my station. Note, I made them exactly how I make any of my 24oz hot mochas. I have constantly been trying to produce the best tasting coffee drinks and compared to how I was doing it in the past, I have definitely found a way to combat the bitter taste of the weirdly-timed and un-fixable espresso shots. By not leaving a whole lot of space between the time you pour your shots in and the time you pour at least a little bit of steamed milk in, the shots will not lose their rich flavour. With 24oz coffee drinks, three shots go into each one. With two heads on each machine, you can only pull four shots at a time. The two drinks required a total of six shots, meaning there was going to be another time gap between the time I put the four shots in until the time the last two shots were added to the cups. I stirred the two shots in each drink to melt the chocolate, added a splash of milk to each to prevent the bitter taste from arriving, and pulled two more shots. I finished the drink like normal and handed them to Jackie to give to the customer. I started cleaning my utensils so that everything would be ready for the next customer and I saw the customers drive away. Jackie asked me, "Did you see that?" "What?" "They started making out through the window." Mind you, this couple was in their 40s and extremely unattractive. To each his own, I guess, but PDA is something I am not really all about and it grosses me out to see people going at it. "Good thing I didn't see it," I say back and we went about our business.

About a half an hour later, the man backed his car up to my window [odd enough as it is] and said to me, "I need to talk to you about those mochas you made about a half hour ago." "Alright..." "They were completely undrinkable!" "...I'm sorry, what?" "The coffee tasted bitter, the milk was completely burnt, it was absolutely disgusting, and I want my money back." Knowing that this man's claim was completely false, I offered [like we always do] to remake the mochas for him. "I don't want another disgusting drink, I want my money back!" I tried to calm him down and explained, "I'm not sure exactly how to do something like that but I will give my manager a call and see if she can walk me through it." I walked to the back, picked up the phone, called Honora, and explained the situation. She said to just pull the correct amount of cash out of the drawer and give it to him, writing down on my shift report AND the complaint log what happened with the dollar amount logged. So this is what I do. I pulled out the $9.07, handed it to him, and said, "I'm sorry about that," to which he replied, "Call it a learning experience," and sped off. Jackie asked me what was going on and I told her what happened. She said, "Are you kidding? He handed his wife the drink through the window and she started chugging it. Then he got in the car and she chugged it as they pulled away."

The thing that bothered me the most was his final comment, "Call it a learning experience." Because, apparently, I don't know how to make coffee or something.

Honora called back a couple hours later to find out what ended up happening. I told her everything, including what Jackie said about his wife drinking the drink as she sped away, and she asked if I had taken the drinks back. "I didn't know I was supposed to!" She said that if it were more than 1/4 gone to never give a refund and that we're not supposed to do refunds anyway. I told her what he said before he sped off and she said, "WHAT AN ASSHOLE!!" So I was upset over the whole situation all day and about eight hours later or so, I got a call from Jackie, who was doing a double, saying that another man wanted a refund. Turns out, he got a drink for his wife, brought it home to her, and she didn't like the way it tasted, so they came back and demanded a refund. A few days earlier, something happened to Kailey when a customer ordered a blended mocha and after drinking a lot of it, came back for a refund because they didn't like the ice cream base.

So we are going to seriously crack down on these refunders and kick 'em in the nuts. "In the nuuuuuuuuts!"

And my drink of choice right now has been an Iced Americano with white chocolate powder, hardly any ice--just enough to make it cold, and about 3/4 of an inch or so of cream. Oh, and Toddy shots. Heaven.

Our work Christmas Party is going down in a little over a week. I wrapped all the gifts last night and it's looking like it's going to be a splendid time! I can't wait to see what happens!


Home:

So Andrew and I both got our big Christmas presents early. I have been trying to use the elliptical every day but knowing how HARD it works my body out even on the easiest level makes it hard to keep getting back on it! I love love LOVE using it and I am so so so super thankful that I have it, I just need to MAKE myself get on it every day. It is such a wonderful thing to have and I am so lucky to have one!

Andrew's plasma cutter has provided for some extreme motivation to work on his car projects more and more. He cut up an old tool box that he blew up on the 4th of July and is making a decorative mantle piece with trees, a snowman, and a sleigh. It is looking really good! I love that he is so crafty. He also started up again with his glass etching and he etched a picture of Murphy onto a glass cup for me. What a craftster!

My computer has been experiencing some extremely annoying things, like my virus protection claiming it's out-of-date, pop up windows for virus protection that I did NOT click on, slow loading speeds, the keyboard not reading up correctly to the monitor [typing this blog has been a real trial this time...], and many many many instances of frozen programs. I don't get it! Looks like it's time to reboot the system YET AGAIN! Good LORD! If I have to keep doing this, the motherboard is going to be fried and I won't have a system LEFT to reboot! Ahhh! Someone who knows a LOT about computers and this kind of thing should seriously come help me out. I'll hemp them a cool necklace in return. Or make them pizza bites.

I have been trying to read more and more and with the huge book selection at my folks' place, I will grab a random book and start reading it. The one I was first trying to read was the one I started on my flight back home from California, the book with Jennifer Crusie and some other guy writing together. I still couldn't get into it and I just KNOW it's because it's not just her writing. Ahhh! So then I picked up a book at my folks' place called Carrie Pilby and it has been a slow read so far. It's about a girl who is completely anti-social and her therapist has been trying to get her to change her ways, so it's a book I can relate to, without the therapist part. There was a part in it where he has her make a list of things that she loves and after she does, he tells her to pick at least one thing a week and make it happen. Last night, I made my own little list but didn't include family, friends, Andrew, or animals, because those would be on there without a doubt and I make these things happen almost every day! So far I have the following things:

-Floating in water
-Taking backroads and listening to soft music
-Spaghetti
-Pink clouds
-Blankets
-Reading a book I can't put down
-Giving someone something they really wanted
-The moment that I'm done cleaning
-A freshly rebooted computer system

My list is so odd compared to hers:

-Cherry soda
-Street sounds
-My bed
-The green-blue hue of an indoor pool
-Starfish
-The Victorians
-Rainbow sprinkles
-Rain during the day (makes it easier to sleep)

The therapist also says something about always having five things that you are looking forward to. I've heard something like this before, but more like "having one thing in the next week that you are looking forward to." Either way, I am looking forward to:

-Christmas and giving everyone their presents
-The work Christmas party and all of it's food and fun
-Seeing a movie with Jeena!
-Working on Christmas Eve and Christmas
-Going to the casino for my birthday this year

But most importantly, I am looking forward to eating something because I am STARVED and am in need of sustenance. Plus, I can't stand this keyboard any longer, I want to put all my files onto discs and reboot my system, and I want to finish the book I'm reading and start another one.

...and I want an Iced White Chocolate Americano, STAT!

Some Disturbing Images

I'm sick of MySpace. No, it's not drama. No, it's not spam or anything. It's the advertising. I understand that the media has a huge hold over what people these days consider "fat" or "overweight," but literally, EVERY SINGLE PAGE I LOADED had an advertisement of some weight loss program of sorts:
































So basically, I'm annoyed. And disgusted. But the most disturbing image of all came in my Junk E-Mail folder today:


...wow.