rena_librarian | Entries tagged with laurien

If you've been tagged or you are reading this, you have the honor of copying all these goofy questions, writing your own response, and tagging other victims. You have to tag me, too. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you - but not in a creepy stalker kind of way.

1. What time did you get up this morning? 10:50. I know because it was before the alarm went off. (Had to be at work at noon. =) )
2. How do you like your steak? Medium-well. Maybe medium if the place looks clean. =)
3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? Coraline 3D!
4. What is your favorite TV show? Lost.
5. If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be? I can think of at least three feasible answers to this question, and that's not even narrowing it down to specific cities.
6. What did you have for breakfast? Malt-O-Meal knockoff Frosted Shredded Wheat.
7. What is your favorite cuisine? Italian, I think.
8. What foods do you dislike? ...this list could fill a book, honestly.
9. Favorite Place to Eat? When money is no object, El Chico's. When money is kind of an object, Chili's (Cody and I ate there the night we got engaged).
10. Favorite dressing? I don't really do salad. Or anything mayonnaise-y.
11.What kind of vehicle do you drive? 1990 Chrysler LeBaron convertible. =) That car is almost 20, people.
12. What are your favorite clothes? I have a couple of outfits I love, but I think my favorites are the ones that lend themselves to being worn with an awesome pair of shoes. I get more excited about coordinating an outfit (picking jewelry/makeup/shoes/etc to match) than I do about the clothes themselves, if that makes sense.
13. Where would you visit if you had the chance? Japan.
14. Cup 1/2 empty or 1/2 full? Half full, generally. Unless I wasn't planning on sharing and half is now mysteriously missing...
15. Where would you want to retire? IDK. I have a feeling that Cody is going to insist on being close to our families, if they're all still more or less in one place.
16. Favorite time of day? Twilight, though it has nothing to do with the books.
17. Where were you born? Mountain Home. BRMC to be precise.
18. What is your favorite sport to watch? I *might* tune in for skating during the Winter Olympics. Maybe. That's about it.
19. Who do you think will not tag you back? IDK and IDC. =)
20. Person you expect to tag you back first? See above.
21. Who are you most curious about their responses to this? Eh.
22. Bird watcher? Sometimes, with my client. They have a hummingbird feeder right outside the kitchen window.
23. Are you a morning person or a night person? Oh, definitely a night owl.
24. Do you have any pets? I have a fish. Speaking of which, I need to feed him.
25. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share? Not really. The most exciting thing going on right now is that (if all the trades go through on bookmooch) I'm less than 10 books away from having the whole set of Animorphs books. Wedding planning is surprisingly meh at the moment. (Need to get the DRESS going!!)
26. What did you want to be when you were little? So many answers. The most awesome one was President.
27. What is your best childhood memory? Mom built me an awesome tent when I was five or so. I think we left it up until we moved from that house, that's how awesome it was.
28. Are you a cat or dog person? Cat! Dogs terrify me.
29. Are you married? Legally, but we haven't had the wedding yet. =)
30. Always wear your seat belt? Yeah. The only exception to this would be driving from my apartment to the dumpster/mailbox area at the front of the apartment complex.
31. Been in a car accident? One time when it was raining super hard, I knocked off my side mirror by smacking against a woman stopped in the turning lane. We never were sure if she wasn't over far enough or if I swerved into her lane.
32. Any pet peeves? Stupidity. Poor grammar in particular.
33. Favorite Pizza Toppings? Pepperoni.
34. Favorite Flower? Jonquils (my birthflower), if I have to pick. Anything clean and simple. But flowers are something I appreciate more in pictures than in person.
35. Favorite ice cream? I go through phases, but I do love me some chocolate chip cookie dough. =)
36. Favorite fast food restaurant? Hm. Probably Wendy's, honestly. Sonic if we have the money to get non-soda drinks.
37. How many times did you fail your driver's test? Twice, actually. Took it in Yellville instead of Mountain Home the third time. =)
38. From whom did you get your last email? Offbeat Bride Tribe.
39. Which store would you choose to max out your credit card? It's already maxed out! Thanks, unemployment! =P
40. Do anything spontaneous lately? Huh. Not really. Not anything huge anyway.
41. Like your job? If I had more hours--!!
42. Broccoli? If I have to. It's better when cooked with carrots.
43. What was your favorite vacation? Nova Scotia!
44. Last person you went out to dinner with? Cody, of course. Lol.
45. What are you listening to right now? www.memory by Alan Jackson.
46. What is your favorite color? Purple!!
47. How many tattoos do you have? None. YET. It's kind of like when I wanted to get a second piercing in my ears...I felt kind of deviant for wanting it until I realized just how many people have them.
48. How many are you tagging for this quiz? None. =D
49. What time did you finish this quiz? It's 8:08.
50. Coffee Drinker? Yeah, sometimes I like a little coffee in my sugar and cream. =) 10x better with ice!

Current Mood: headachey
Current Location: home
Current Music: Livin' On Love--Alan Jackson

Because someday, someone will care. XD Woot for happy endings at least.

Monday before last, as Cody and I were driving on our way to have a celebratory dinner after doing our legalities (lol), my car started jerking. I pulled into a parking lot just to get off the street--luckily it was O'Reilly Auto Parts. As my car shuddered and died, I realized my (digital) dashboard had died, no indicators of anything. Parked, tried to start up again, click click click. No dice. We went inside and got a guy to come check the car, he said it was probably the alternator or the battery (as I suspected), he tested the battery and said it had like no charge, but it could still be either--the alternator dying would kill the battery. He gave us a jump and we drove the block or so to Wayne's Auto Repair, where my cousin works. (Take your cars there, folks. Srsly.) It was closing time there, but we left the keys and got a ride back to the house (thanks April!! =D), where we took Cody's car to go have dinner.

( And then I found $5! (not really--it's an injoke) )

So if you have car trouble in or around Mountain Home, take your car to Wayne's Auto Repair (it's between AutoZone and the Exxon station where 5, 201, and 62 merge). They will do you right. (I feel like I should be handing out business cards for them. If he's going to comp us a tow I want to drum up some business for him!)

~*~

On a side note, the whole moving-in thing is working really well. Our car insurance together is considerably cheaper than either of us was paying alone. And groceries are easier. We're actually having money left over. I'd forgotten what that felt like.

Current Mood: relieved
Current Location: home
Current Music: Paradise of Love--DJ Sammy

I know I haven't said a lot about the jobhunt; if I listed every place I applied to it'd take up a LOT of my time, lol. I will, of course, be posting when I finally do find suitable employment.

That being said, I have two interviews tomorrow--one of which is a SECOND interview, at the local paper. At the first interview he told me that they narrowed it down to about ten applicants from a stack about three inches thick, and asked (jokingly) "How'd you make it into that top ten?" I said I was just that awesome. ^_^ I'm really crossing my fingers for that one. Failing that, I want the Sheriff's Department job. The other interview tomorrow I don't much care either way; Wal*Mart Portrait Studio. Lots of kids running around, ew. Lol.

And my car is acting up. >_< Keeps randomly dying. Grr. Taking it BACK to the mechanic tomorrow to tell them it didn't work.

Need. Sleep.

Current Mood: headachey
Current Location: home
Current Music: I Can Still Feel You--Collin Raye

Which has got to be, like, one step lower than copying-and-pasting MSN, lol. Typos preserved.

Nico (4:06 AM 6/18/08): Chickens represent the last dying vestigages of existential and aerodynamic irony.
Sarah (4:06 AM 6/18/08): The sad thing is I 100% understood that.
Nico (4:08 AM 6/18/08): The surprising thing is all words were in t9 dict. Night

So today was...weird. Got up and went to Lions and drama ensued and ARGH I'm tired of typing about it. However, the guy that I've been talking to has been very sweet, letting me rant. :) (And I found out that a guy I know who's happily married, with a daughter, and another on the way any day now, met his wife online. ^_^)

So after that I came home. My address labels were here (finally!) after having been misprinted the first time. I was online for a while, chatting with one of the parties involved and said Internet Guy (okay, okay--it's Cody), and sorting books until about six, then talked with Cody while he was on his way home, and hung up around seven, at which point (having been laying on my bed anyway) I fell asleep. Nico texted me a couple of times and I woke up long enough to reply and then fell back asleep, until he texted me after he got home. He woke me at 1:30 and asked me to sign into MSN, and while I was there I realized I was hungry and proposed that we go get food.

Got into my car and it wouldn't start. -_-* No idea why. And we're not talking it just wouldn't turn over, but if I turn the key partway, the clock doesn't come on or anything. I'm thinking the battery is probably dead. *sigh*

So we took Nico's car, which is having issues, too. It worked fine to get us to McD's, then to the Taco Bell lot where we ATE the McD's, and then when we went to leave it wouldn't start. GAH. So we had to push it over to where TB employees are allowed to park when on shift, then we each had to walk home. We kept texting each other to make sure neither of us got murdered, lol.

AAAAAND I'm still awake. It's daylight out now. I'm afraid if I go to sleep now I'll miss all appointments/meetings, so I'm just killing the time until my mechanic cousin is likely to be at work, to ask what he thinks it is. (Probably the battery. IDK who'll be able to jump it. I'll call Kristy first and go from there, I guess.) I have an interview with the local paper at 1:30 (for a job, lol, I should probably specify XD) and a Lions committee meeting at 3, so I have to get this all taken care of early. Sigh.

Best moment of the night: Nico and I were sitting on the sidewalk at Taco Bell, eating our McD's. He asked when Cody's birthday was and I told him, then he hacked up a bit of phlegm and spit it out and said "Hmm, cancer." I thought he was referring to the fact that he's a smoker and HE'S TOTALLY GOING TO DIE HINT HINT IF YOU'RE READING THIS NICO, but then he was all "OMG, no, I mean his zodiac!" Lol.

And in other news I've become re-addicted to the Sims. Then again I've found a custom item that raises all a Sim's stats except environment to full, including Mood and Aspiration. Hee. This is good, because my kid got taken away by social services due to his bad grades. I screwed up and he transitioned to Child at the wrong time of day, so he'd go to school and come home having reached Energy Desperation and he'd pass out. By the time he'd had enough rest, he didn't have time to get his homework done before the bus came. In retrospect I probably could have solved this by having him skip a day of school, but anyway I had to exit without saving. It was pretty heartbreaking watching his mom cry. :( Yay for Cosmic Rewind, lol. He's now a very well-adjusted Teen, with a better haircut than the one the game spontaneously generated for him. XD

And I still like House+Cameron, but if the Sims of them I downloaded are any indication, they would have really ugly babies. Lol. Probably because his face is so narrow and hers is so round. It's possible to combine the two manually without being completely uggo, but the game genetics fail at mixing them properly, lol.

Current Mood: awake
Current Location: home
Current Music: Lovefool--The Cardigans

Holy rain of DOOOOOM. It's darkish outside, like sunset, at quarter to one.

Oh well, at least my car is clean now.

My love of House, MD continues to grow--and I'm not sure whether I mean the show or the character, either. Hee. Right now I'm listening to the theme music (song, really, but they don't play the vocals on TV, which is kind of a shame but kind of fitting). On repeat. It's enchanting. Not like, romantic enchanting, but sucks-you-in enchanting.

Yeah, I have nothing else of interest to say...

Current Mood: blah
Current Location: work
Current Music: Teardrop (House, MD theme)--Massive Attack and Portishead

It's official now, 5%. Which kind of sucks because our boss was pushing for another dollar an hour, flat (and for those of you who are persistently nosy and good at math, would have been 12.5%), but I'll still take it. Especially since he said it would probably end up being 4%.

It's almost twice as much as the typical raise at Taco Bell.

Got paid for 44 hours last week, but since 8 was sick time I didn't actually get overtime. Sucky. But anyway, FYI, they're now taking out close to $150 with tax and insurance stuff. Geez. But still, it's more money, looking forward to next check where I'll have ACTUAL overtime, and maybe I'll be able to breathe a little after I pay my rent.

I realized the other day that the $60 I'm not spending on my electric this month needs to go to get new tires--so said Hannah, one of my acting classmates who now works in Wal*Mart's automotive department, when I got my oil changed. Yay for El Dorado Tire, home of the gently used tire for $30. But hey, at least I'm only spending the regular amount of money instead of twice as much. ^_^

Must hold out money for car insurance from THIS check.

We're having a companywide yard sale tomorrow, all day. Kristy and I are sharing a table, which is good, because she HAS tables. XD Yay for a little more spending money! And getting rid of useless crap! Lol.

Went to Kristy's last night and played Rockband. I've been playing bass on hard, and last night I actually played (and did pretty okay on) Orange Crush on expert!! Not ready to move along to expert as a regular thing, though, hard is still pretty challenging. Later on we traded instruments and it forced me to level up to medium on drums. I still suck, lol, but I think 80-90% of the time Kristy and I play, she's on drums, so I haven't had as much practice. That's the nice thing about bass; no one EVER tries to tear it away from you. Plus when I've mastered it (which, suddenly, there's light at the end of that tunnel, lol), I can just slide over to guitar, lol, and it'll be an all-new experience.

I think we're probably going to play again tomorrow after the yard sale. Yay!

Current Mood: bouncy
Current Location: work
Current Music: True To Your Heart--98°

Nico and I have dinner plans tonight; he's in a much better mood, lol. He just called me and the landlord (who is repairing his apartment after it flooded, what with the shingles being gone and all--his nextdoor neighbor had a chunk of ceiling fall down) has asked to photograph his apartment for their promotional stuff. The landlord confirmed what I've suspected pretty much since he moved in--he has the nicest apartment there. Awesome! As I told him, that feels like something right out of a Sex and the City episode, lol. He told them they could do it if they replaced all his carpet and they agreed. Good deal all around.

Money's good, for once--I got paid last night (apparently direct deposit takes place around 8 PM on Thursday night, not at midnight) I've got all my bills covered and then money after that, and my tax return should be direct deposited any day. Not sure if I'm going to pay my credit card down to a zero balance or hang on to the cash for a bit. I was thinking car insurance payment, but I think that's not due again until the beginning of April. March or April, and I'm 92% sure it's April. So I'll have more money by then anyway. This feels nice; I've been kind of stressing about money more or less since Thanksgiving.

And hey, I'm getting a raise in April. I need to go ask Tim how much, lol.

So February is a 3-check month for me (FTW? That shouldn't be possible, so that's really cool. Yay leap year!), but not really, because of course everything that's due at the beginning of the month (rent, lol) comes out of that check on the 29th. But the awesome thing is that since it IS technically a third paycheck, they won't take deductions out of that check. Well, taxes yeah, and quite possibly my 401(k), but not any of my insurance. $42.72 extra in MY pocket, yay!

I've been using the "weather" tag like crazy lately. January and February are WEIRD.

Lunchtime!

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Location: work
Current Music: Get Happy--B*Witched (shuffle's been like magic lately)

Even though Terry stuck us each with about 50 extra calls to do over today and yesterday, and I'm leaving an hour early, my followups are NOT going to last me the day. I have about an hour and a half to go and six calls to make... *whistles* I don't really want to start Utah this close to the end of the day. Or the week. Or right before a holiday.

As soon as I leave here I have to run by the Post Office to get my Marvelous Mail sent (I hope they're open, or failing that, I hope the DIY machine is running!), then to Wal*Mart to get gas, then off to my parents', where I'm leaving my car.

Hooray. Another two hours in the car with Dad doing nothing but brag about how his car is better than mine. Geez, Dad, Zorro's ONLY sixteen years younger than Laurien. Imagine that.

So, like, it's nice to get compliments on clothes from random people (mostly women @ work, like I did on Monday--someone told me I had cute shoes, which was nice, because it was the first time I'd worn my new red pumps), but when Nico tells me I look good the ego boost counts for double, lol. One of the last days he was at my house (if not THE last day, come to think of it) I got home from work and he took one look at me (he hadn't seen me when I left that morning) and said, "Holy that makes you look thin!" ^_^ He also complimented my "Asian persuasion" shirt (it's really a scrub top styled to look like a wrap top, but it does look kind of Chinese, I love it), and then a few days later I was at his house wearing my lace-neck purple shirt and jeans (and thinking I didn't look all that hot) and he was all, "So, OMG, lately you really seem to have developed a STYLE. And it's working, most days..."

Hey, coming from him, that's high praise. And nevermind the fact that he said I was fired from life for wearing the purple shawl Katchan crocheted for me. (It was kind of funny, at first he just said "You're fired!" a few times, and just as I was about to say "You can't fire me--I QUIT!" he goes, "You're fired from LIFE!" And I told him what I'd been about to say and then, "But I guess I can't say THAT now..." O_o)

But yeah. That made me happy. And I'm wearing that same red sweater tonight, and my Asian persuasion top tomorrow. We shall see if my family notices. This is the grandmother who is cool enough to own video game consoles (nevermind that the newest one is a Super Nintendo, IIRC), but has relatively little tact. (Not that she ever out and out called me fat, but the last time she saw me she said I had lost weight and my hair was cute--"Now if only we could get you to wear makeup!" -_-*) In fact my mother was asking me about my hair (and my three-inch roots O_o ...Nico and I have determined that my hair grows twice as fast as most peoples') and was all, "Are you going to have money to dye it before Thanksgiving?" and I asked, "Is that your way of telling me that Grandma will complain about it if I show up with three-inch roots?"

But anyway. I look fabulous, AND I have my own place, and a better job. The only POSSIBLE thing she can complain about is my lack of a boyfriend, and, well, I'm complaining about that myself.

Damn. I just got my paystub, and between the taxes, insurance, and 401(k), they're taking out well over $100. Two days out of every pay period I work for money I'll never see. (Well, the 401(k), I guess. But DAMN.)

Honestly, I chose the insurance and 401(k), and I don't mind them so much. (That's about $60 total.) It's the f'ing taxes. >_< All I can say is I hope my refund is HUGE this year. Considering that I'm now eligible to file as head of household, and I'm paying Nico to do the long form and ~~cheat~~ find deductions for me (I'll do the short form myself and we shall mail whichever gets me more money), it should be.

Well, looky there--I'm off in 8 minutes. Toodles! (I'd say TA! but Nico's copyrighted it...)

Current Location: work
Current Music: Boulevard of Broken Dreams--Green Day, from Kristy's cube

So my passenger window won't roll down all of a sudden. I was thinking it's just a fuse, which would be an under-$10-fix, but I called my mechanic cousin and told him that it won't roll down from the driver's side or the passenger side.

"Sounds like a window motor to me."

"Okay...how much is a window motor?"

"$100-$200..."

*headddesk*

And he can't even do them, his boss has forbidden them to work on window motors at their shop. I guess they're a finicky fix...? So he told me a good place to take it (a guy he goes to church with X3), but...damn. And right before top-down season, too. If I had a hardtop I probably wouldn't CARE.

ALWAYS. Just when I think that I'm doing okay. (And it keeps occurring to me that my checks are going to be a bit smaller starting next month, because I'll have insurance again. Speaking of which, I need to figure out how much I need. *sigh*)

Blame iharthdarth for the subject line...I reread them all last night. I miss that quirky little fandom-I-really-don't-even-follow bitty webcomic. Wookiee indeed. XD

Current Mood: frustrated
Current Location: work
Current Music: none at the moment

You guys have until Sunday night (ish) to guess the last three before I post the answers to this.

1. Go to IMDB.com and look up 15 of your favorite movies.
2. Post 3-5 official IMDB "Plot Keywords" for each.
3. Hey guys, guess the movies! (NO CHEATING!)

ETA: Guesses! Only three left unguessed!

1. Alternative reality, pregnancy test, London England.
6. Fall, library, God.
8. Outcast, drugs, paranoia.

You and Your Mom Are Completely Different

At times, it seems like you and your mom aren't even related.
You often wonder how two people from the same family can be so different.
As the saying goes... you can pick your friends, but not your relatives.

Are You Like Your Mom?

THANK. GOD.

You Should Drive a Red Car

You're the type of driver who isn't afraid to be the fastest on the road.
You have a lot of energy built up, and you tend to get your adrenaline fix from driving.
Moving at hyper speed, you tend to be annoyed with slow drivers and slow people.
Life's too short to be slowed down by someone else!

What Color Car Should You Drive?

Hee. Nobody tell Laurien!

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: home
Current Music: computer hum

Written last night:

Shelly called and woke me up this morning, during my snooze-alarm period of the day. I really don't remember anything we talked about, just that Josh ended up meeting her for lunch so she had to get off the phone.

I ended up falling back asleep until about three, when Jacqui called me and asked what was going on today, if I'd managed to get a hold of Duncan or if I was free or what. I told her that if she wanted to come over to give me thirty or so minutes to straighten my hair (which I'd slept on wet) and that I didn't have plans. Got up and out of bed. I put my contacts in--BOTH OF THEM ON THE FIRST TRY OMFG, I did it on a whim but I guess it paid to put them in in the opposite order--and then called her back and told her if she didn't mind watching me straighten my hair she could go ahead and come over. She did so, bearing gifts--an "I Heart Dorks" bumper sticker that I'm debating about removing "Chicks with Attitude" to put on Laurien, and a book about LotR and Tolkien that I actually didn't have: "Tolkien: A Look Behind LotR" by Lin Carter, published by Ballantine in the 60's. ^_^ YAY. (The back cover calls it a "survey of Tolkieniana." XD Also, apparently, old-school fans call it LOTR, to rhyme with boater. Hee. I've always pronounced the letters, except when referring to "LotR-ry stuff" with Nico, lol.)

We discussed the varying benefits of different types of straighteners (not that she bothers with hers all that often) and other random stuff, lol. We also discussed whether or not I should call Duncan and see if he was free, since I had made no attempt to call him since Monday. She told me to do it. I did. Got his voicemail, left a message, then the two of us decided to go to the library so that I could post my chapter (which I didn't). As I was running around upstairs getting shoes and double-checking my makeup, I looked at my phone and found a missed call--Duncan. So I called him back and finally got a hold of him. ^_^ "I tried to call you--" "Yeah, I tried to call you back right after you called me--" I asked if he was free tonight, and he said no, he had plans with Robert (his best friend) that he'd made, like, a week ago, and wouldn't be available. And then I asked, "Well, are you free now?"

"Well, I'm running errands, but I will be free soon--what did you have in mind?"

"I don't know, dinner?"

"Okay, let me call you back in about 45 minutes."

So Jacqui and I went to the library, where I realized that I'd left the disk with my chapter on it at home. >_< Checked up on my email and such, though. Printed a picture of Esme, which is now hanging on my fridge. ^_^ (The "OMG she's smiling!" pic, Kat. Lol.)

It was more like an hour before he called me, and even then he was calling to let me know it would be a little while longer. Nico called and when he found out Jacqui was there told her to call him when I ditched her, lol. (Jacqui, unlike Nico, totally understands the reasons and admits that if she had a guy she wanted to see would probably ditch me just as easily--and I, in turn, would totally understand if she did.) Jacqui left and Duncan showed up about 7:30. We talked for a few minutes and then headed for El Charro's for dinner and conversation. We took Laurien, and I have to admit I like the fact that Duncan isn't all "I'mI'll drive," because I like to drive, too. ^_^ He asked which car we should take, and I said I didn't care, and he said, "Well, you just got yours back, so we'll take yours." (I also mentioned that I'd washed her the night before and he said he noticed, lol. I'm not sure if that means he's uber-observant or if poor Laurien was just that filthy--I hadn't washed her since before I moved out, lol. I figured after a week in the shop I owed her that much.)

We decided to pay separately since we both seemed to be able to afford our own meal but not both (the waiter didn't bother to make two separate tallys, so we ended up halving it, but whatever--Duncan got the tip). and Duncan said, "I can't afford it right now, with no job, but once I can afford it I will be more than happy to take you out. And hopefully that'll be in the not-too-distant future."

*melt*

We talked a lot about really dorktastic stuff--zombies and grammar (always) and even D&D (um, yeah, he's played)--and I thought to myself that if anyone was listening that they would think that we're even bigger geeks than we really are, lol. (But I'm totally okay with that.)

Turns out he never got the text I sent him Friday night--or at any rate, his phone never alerted him. It was on his phone but he'd had no idea it was there. So that makes me feel better, because that's one occasion where it's not that he failed to get back in touch with me. I still think our phones hate each other, because when I do actually get through to him and speak directly to him (not his voicemail), he never fails to get back with me. (He may call late, but he never completely FAILS, lol.)

After dinner, though, we pretty much had to come back to my place so he could go meet up with Robert--I think he was half-an-hour late as it was. (He actually likes me enough to hang with me and postpone his best friend. WOW.)

Someone was parked in my spot again but it was early enough that I could go get the landlady and have the owner come move it. ^_^ YES.

So then I got another hug (that almost makes it not suck when he leaves) and we chatted for a few more minutes, and I asked, "Well, when are you going to be free again?" He said all day tomorrow, once he got up, and I told him I had to work, and I said, "And it'll probably be too late when I get off work, because I know you were trying to sleep more normal hours--" and he cut me off and said that he'd pretty much decided to forget about that, at least until he got a job and HAD to be up certain hours, and so it wouldn't be too late. So I'm supposed to call him when I get home tomorrow night after work and we're doing what we were going to do last Thursday--watch The Holiday and drink margaritas. Mmm. (Not that I've had a wide experience of margaritas, but as far as I'm concerned Duncan makes a damn good one.)

So then I called Nico, no answer, called Jacqui's cell and they were walking down to the lake. I drove out to Nico's and walked down, met them coming back up the hill. I guess there was some couple in a truck down by the point Nico and I usually walk to, and the truck was making squeaking noises, so Nico and Jacqui decided not to stay down there. XD

So then we hung out at Nico's for a while. I tried coconut rum. I didn't hate it, but I don't really care for coconut, so it's not my favorite. Probably would be better in soda than by itself. watched Robin Williams Live on Broadway. I missed the last ten or fifteen minutes because I suddenly realized that I didn't know where my phone was. It wasn't in the house or my car, so I started to freak out. (Not so much because of the phone itself as the contacts I would have lost.) I ended up borrowing Nico's roommate's cell phone, retracing the entire walk I took while constantly calling my phone (hanging up before it hit voicemail), and finally finding it in Nico's backyard. >_< (I should have retraced my steps backwards, but then if I'd been psychic enough to know that I wouldn't have had to search in the first place, lol.) I'd had both my phone and my MP3 player in my relatively shallow pocket, and at one point I stepped into a hole and tripped, and all I can figure is that my phone fell out then. But I found it, undamaged, so all is well. (Is it sad that the thing I worried about more than anything was the fact that I don't actually know Duncan's number and probably wouldn't have been able to get in touch with him tomorrow had I not found it? Must memorize it!)

I think I'm too addicted to my phone. Had I not found it, I might have broken down into an anxiety attack. I feel naked if I leave it at home by mistake. And that's sad, because I have voicemail and all. Do I plan on breaking myself of my phone? Heck no! ^_^ (And Shelly, THAT'S why I didn't answer, lol, my phone was lying in the grass at the time.)

By then everyone else was sleepy, and I was not, so I left. Nico called me right after I got home and told me I was missing out on a game of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. I would SO suck at that game. The only movie I've ever seen Kevin Bacon in is Hollow Man, which, besides not being as good as I'd remembered when I watched it a second time, is filled with a lot of no-name actors that I haven't seen in anything BUT that movie. And I'm really not familiar with his works in general. (I tend to confuse him with Kevin Costner.) Now, Six Degrees of LotR I can play all day long, probably dance circles around most people (except Shelly for sure and probably Duncan, lol), but that's an entirely different issue. ^_^

I did a sinkload of dishes, some of which have been in the sink since the LAST time Duncan was over, lol. Bad habit, Sarah, no cookie. (It's not like they were gross or smelled funny or had anything growing on them--I tend to rinse them before leaving them there. It's just that there's no point in me leaving them so long.) And I have since been on the computer, sorting through the last few days' finds and writing this and such. And now it is bedtime. (Some people, particularly those with farm animals that need milking, are getting up around this time, lol.)

Mom is supposed to take me to lunch, then I have to work, and then I see Duncan. *nance*

OH YEAH. Dad's car has been in the shop for a while, and they finally told him it would be about $1200 to fix, so he told me that he and Mom had decided to get a new car. No shock, really, but when he said "new car" I figured he meant newer. Not actually new. But Mom was telling me yesterday that he called his car guy (a man who makes a business of buying cars that have only slight damage to them, fixing them, and selling them) and his car guy had this great deal--a car that had 700 miles on it, a car that must have gotten dented in the dealership lot and then sold to the auction where he picked it up, a car that had only body damage but couldn't be sold as new. It's a 2006 Ford Focus, the sporty kind, black, with a spoiler on the back and everything.

AND MY PARENTS ARE BUYING IT. THEY TOOK OUT A LOAN AND EVERYTHING AND ARE PAYING $10,000 FOR A MORE-OR-LESS BRAND-NEW CAR.

They're getting it tomorrow. They really were waiting for me to move out to do all the cool stuff. My dad bought a telescope, for pity's sake! After all the times I lamented about wanting one, what does he buy a month after I move out? *sigh* I guess it's natural, they thought they were almost done and then when they were both 40, along came me. They could be more subtle about it, though--my mom is already storing her extra clothes in my old closet!

Oh well. I still heart Laurien, and Mom told me all the reasons why it's logical that they should have a new car. (It's probably the last car Dad will ever need to buy in his life, because it'll last him--her words, not mine. Plus they can "trust it" when they take long trips.) She's right, but I'm still shocked that they actually TOOK OUT A LOAN. OMG. WTF? And, like, where does my dad get off selling the Camaro that I learned to drive in (and would have gladly bought from him once I was old enough) because he thought it was "too sporty" for someone his age and then buying THIS car???

So yeah. I'm conflicted about it. I'm not sure if I'm annoyed or not. I shouldn't be, and if I am I'm not uber-annoyed, but at the same time I'm starting to appreciate the fact that maybe I'm not the only one who gained independence when I moved out. And I'm going to bed now.

Current Mood: rushed
Current Location: school
Current Music: library noise

Written at...

( 12:57 PM Wednesday )

( 2:29 AM )

( 3:55 PM Friday )

( 12:45 AM Wednesday night/Thursday morning, however technical you prefer to get )

( 4:15 AM Monday night/Tuesday morning )

Current Mood: busy
Current Location: school
Current Music: The Point of No Return--Duran Duran

Written last night...

Go call your parents and tell them how much you love them. I just talked to Nico and one of the girls from work got picked up an hour-and-a-half late, by her cousin, because while she was at work her parents were killed in a car wreck. Hit head-on by a drunk driver.

And none of us are really sure what's going to happen to her or who she's going to live with now or anything, because none of us really talk to her. I mean, we do, but we don't have deep conversations with her. She's only 16, but that's all I really know. I don't even know if she has any siblings. And now I feel guilty about not talking to her.

But really. Go hug your respective moms and dads.

~*~

Sooo...Thanksgiving.

Pretty typical, except we were in a completely new house--that of my brother in Tulsa. (I swear, taethowen, one of these days I am going to come see them and stay longer and we'll meet up!)

The coolest part: my niece Pauletta. (Or Pauly, or Polly...she had two different things in her room and they each had one of those spellings on it. I think she prefers Pauly and I'm running with that because I prefer it, lol.) OMG. I know she's, like, going to be fifteen in February, but MY GOD she's suddenly a TEENAGER and all COOL. Seriously. (I think I may have ranted about this when we saw them before the reunion, and if I did, whatever I said applies--times ten.) I wish we lived closer, we had a lot of fun together and I think we have a lot in common.

Like, we have the EXACT SAME poster of Orlando Bloom from PotC2 hanging on our walls. Granted, hers is next to Johnny Depp from the same movie, and a few pictures from magazines, while mine has a poster of Orli as himself and a Superchic[k] poster next to it, but still. Way to rock.

My sister Alicia commented on how her hair was looking darker and then caught herself--"Or are you putting something on it these days?" and Pauly was all, "Yeah, I colored it." I held up my hand for high five and said, "Ha, you cheat too. Go you!" ^_^ (We both have lighter red hair and dye it deep, auburn red.)

We watched She's the Man, which is really really really funny (and based on Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, which I now feel the need to read and see how they compare). Most of the funniness is because Amanda Bynes is actually not that good at pretending to be a guy (or is good at not being good...yeah, you get the idea), despite the fact that Pauly pointed out that she probably didn't really need to wrap up her boobs. XD

The first night we were there we waited up for my OTHER brother to show up, and we were in the computer room, messing around on the internet, and encountered a weird popup ad which posed as a salesperson--named Greg--trying to IM with you. Said things like "This is a limited time offer and if you click on this link within the next few minutes you'll get even more savings!" (I think it was for a paid movie and music download service, IIRC.) We were bored and they have sufficient virus protection, so Pauly started talking to "Greg." Or rather, insulting him. "no i dont want your stupid offer u shithead" and the like. At first I was kind of surprised but once I realized that it was a bot that responded to keywords on your end, it actually got to be kind of funny. (If you're not sure what I'm talking about, chat with the Snapeybot.) "Say this! Let me type one!" And the oddest thing was that the bot kept insisting that it was real. If you asked if he was real he'd go "I'm a real person :-)" But then he wouldn't respond to stuff that a real person would try to use as a sales pitch--like, when it claimed to be from LA I typed "Really? I have a friend in San Diego" (yes, you, GamgeeFest) and if I was a salesperson I totally would have jumped on that. But Greg? Nope. Silence. Maybe you had to be there, but it was really freaking funny to us at two AM.

I wore one of my reversible shirts the day we left, and when my grandpa found out it was a men's shirt he said something about how the Bible says a woman is not supposed to wear "that which pertains to a man." GAH. Maybe if I had a little more of that which pertains to a woman, men's shirts wouldn't fit me so well and it wouldn't be an issue. And, I'm sorry, but I've discovered that because they AREN'T tailored to contain boobs, men's shirts--the button-down variety, anyway--fit me really well and look pretty damn good on me. So I have no intention of giving them up. (Wore one of my dad's old shirts today, as a matter of fact.) And if you ask me, a shirt's a shirt. Shirts "pertain to women" as much as anything else. They may be tailored differently and have the buttons on the opposite sides, but they're all still SHIRTS, for pity's sake. It's not like I was wearing, say, an athletic cup. Or boy underwear (I know one girl who does! O_o).

Me and Laurien are both fine, but I hit a deer on the way home Wednesday night. I saw him way in advance and by the time I got to him I wasn't even going 20 miles an hour (I wouldn't have hit him at all if he had jumped left instead of right!!), so it was more like I tripped him and he fell onto the hood. He freaked out and kicked until he slid off of the hood and then ran away in the blink of an eye, leaving no trace other than a bit of white fluff in the air. I think he's fine, I double-checked my car when I got home and there was no blood or dents or anything, so he couldn't have hit anything too hard.

It snowed and iced a bit Thursday night, and left enough on the roads (well, our road if not the highway) that I wasn't about to drive to work Friday. So I called in, and Ken tried to get me to come in, but I told him no, there was ice on our road, I couldn't drive on it, and I didn't have anyone who could drive on it that was willing to come pick me up at two in the morning. So he said fine. Then fifteen minutes later I get a voicemail (at my house, my phone sometimes gets such bad reception that it doesn't ring but will notify me of the voicemail) and it's Nico saying that I was lying about there being ice and that I was expected at work. So I called back and insisted that there was ice (my aunt, who lives on the same 40 acres as my family, had nearly gotten in a wreck earlier in the day because of it), and Nico finally says fine, but I have to deal with the consequences. I ask what they might be and Ken says I'd be suspended for a week if I didn't show up (AFTER he had already okayed me not coming in!!). So I ask to talk to Ken but the phone gets handed to Candise and I have to repeat the whole damn thing to her, and she finally is like, "Whatever," and HANGS UP ON ME. Pity, too, because we were getting along so well. So I go and tell Dad and ask him (again) if he'll come pick me up (the answer was more or less "not no but hell no," except he doesn't swear), and he points out things like the last time I tried to drive on this stuff it cost $54 to get Laurien out of the ditch, and that there's a whole section of road where they've cleared out the trees, so it's not a matter of going a little ways into the ditch and getting stopped by a sapling, but down a 50-foot hill, and Mom (who had followed me down the stairs) pointed out that even if had been just slush (it wasn't) when I left at four, it would have been ice when I came home at two or three in the morning and it was seven degrees outside. (And while I'm typing this calmly, at the time there was a lot of me yelling and being mad and crying, because it was beyond frustrating to be in that position.)

So I weighed the worst case scenarios--If I called in, I lost my hours for that night and got suspended for a week--which I could have spent doing things like getting some extra shifts at the Steak House, getting my oil changed, getting my hair cut, going Christmas shopping, making cookies, that sort of thing. (Another reason to hate day shift: It is really hard to do some of that stuff because I'm working all the hours that other places are open and therefore can't GET to them.) On the other hand, if I tried to drive on the ice, my car skids and I end up at the bottom of the ravine dead. Or even okay but with a totaled car. (It makes me sick to my stomach to think of Laurien ending up that way, and I really do think that I love her the way some people love their kids. Except I think most people don't leave their kids out in cold windy parking lots.) Either way, I wasn't about to run the risk.

So I called Ken back and said, "I'm not coming. Last time I tried to drive in weather like this it cost $54 to get my car out of the ditch and I was lucky that there were trees to break my fall." And he said he'd mark it down, then asked if I was crying. I said maybe, because I wasn't, but I had been crying less than ten minutes previously and apparently you could still hear it in my voice. He said not to cry, I think he said there was nothing to cry about (which made me want to scream but I restrained myself), and I asked if I was suspended. He said no. So I think he was just testing to see if I was telling the truth, his theory being that if I was just being lazy I would have gotten scared of being suspended and come on in.

So I don't know what's gotten into Nico that he felt like he had to try and get me in trouble. The roads were clear the next day so I only missed one night of work, plus I called in nearly three hours ahead of time (and it wasn't like I called during a rush, either) so if they were really short they could have called in someone who lives in town (or at least right on the highway instead of three miles from it)--and they couldn't have been too short, because he told me that he got to go home early. (Last night he only talked to me if he had to, as of tonight he's still irritated at me but not so much that he didn't call me to tell me about the car wreck. I think it's going to end up like our fights usually do--we're both so stubborn that neither one of us will admit to being wrong, so eventually we both just drop it and move on.) ETA: As of today I think we're okay, but then I only saw him on my way out.

Anyway. Today there was a mandatory meeting at the Steak House (which sucked that I had to come in on a Sunday, and I'm not even entirely sure that we're getting paid for it--we didn't clock in, but they did pass around a sheet so they would know who was there). Brian, an older guy who's been working there for a little while--cooking and prep, mostly--is actually going to be the new manager. (Not the shift manager, I think Paula's still going to be my direct supervisor.) And I think he's really nice, so yay! ^_^ He's also going to wait tables and basically do every job in the restaurant so he can see what needs to be changed. (The one suggestion made today was that we get mashed potatoes, because we're constantly getting asked for them. And seriously, what kind of non-chain restaurant south of Kansas City doesn't have mashed potatoes? Even KFC has mashed potatoes.) And we're having a contest for Christmas bonuses--the three people who sell the most appetizers between now and the 21st are going to get $300, $100, and $50 respectively. I doubt I'll be in the running, working only three days a week and the lunch shift no less, but I'm going to try. You never know, right?

OH. There's a special going on at our Wal-Mart's optometrist's office, eye exam AND contacts for $99. So yesterday, I had to go get another nosepad for my glasses (the last one lasted THREE DAYS OMG!) and while I was right there I made an appointment. I could have contacts as soon as WEDNESDAY, and I cannot WAIT. No longer will putting on eye makeup be a total waste! *happydance*

So yeah. I have to be up in a little less than four hours. Damn day shift. Will post this tomorrow after work, if all goes according to plan (which it hasn't, the last few weeks).

Current Location: school
Current Music: library noise

Written Thursday night, around three AM... I came to post it Friday, but the library closed at 3:30! OMG!

So, let's see...Friday. After I got off at the Steak House I went over to Parties Plus (thanks for the tip, Laiken!) and looked through their costumes. The only thing they had that I really really liked (well, that I would be comfortable wearing anyway...I soooo do not have the body to pull off a midriff-bearing costume!) was a flapper. I tried on four different ones, and the one that fit was purple. Yay! Had to dash to Taco Bell after that, and when I got off I went to Wal*Mart and got some stuff for it. (A necklace, fishnets, long gloves, a shawl since the dress was sleeveless--not only was I not entirely comfortable with having my arms be completely bare, but it was COLD!)

I had a lot of stuff--shoes, some jewelry, I borrowed a little purse from my mom.

Saturday I worked, whatever. Sunday I stayed home and slept in, like usual. Monday I had to work 8-3, which should have really really sucked, but I actually had a relatively good day. Wasn't on headset--just expedited for Rachel, and made some orders early on before we got too busy--and the weather was nice. When I came back from break, I only had about half an hour to go, and I got to be on line. I'd made some remarks earlier in the day about how "Well, I would know that if I was EVER on line" so when I came back Candise was all, "Take the headset," and I asked if I had to, and then she was like, "Well--Hey Steve! Can I just keep the headset and she can be on line unless we get backed up?" So yay! I even got to steam a little.

(What they don't realize, I think, is that I really do almost know what I'm doing. I may get confused about, say, which bean scoop to use, but I really do know my ingredients on pretty much everything. I don't know the two Border Bowls and I get confused about the uncommon burritos, but I can't think of anything else off the top of my head that I couldn't rattle off the ingredients. But enough about work.)

I actually remembered my check, then went over to the Steak House to get my other check, forgetting that I couldn't get it until four. Go me. (Usually I get off at five anyway so this isn't an issue, lol.)

So I went to go fill gas (OMG, it was $2.11 that day!), and while I'm standing there someone pulls in behind me. My initial thought was "Oh, crap, it always takes me a minute to get everything together and pull away, and they're going to be annoyed at me..." so I looked up and kind of smiled apologetically at the car, looked down, then looked up again. It was Jacqui! Yay! She had been coming down the street and spotted me. Since she was on her way over to a pawn shop a few blocks down, we went over there to continue our conversation. (And I ended up spending, like, $35 on CD's and movies...but then, I got 6 DVD's and 3 CD's so I thought it was actually a pretty good deal. I may be going back there!) I'd never been in a pawn shop before and it was actually much cleaner and better-lit than I had thought it would be, lol. I told her about our plans (or lack thereof, really, no one really had a clue what we were all doing XD) and invited her, so that was cool.

Then I was off Tuesday, of course. I slept in (ahhh, sleep, thy name is love) and got to watch TV and veg in the morning. I didn't even leave the house until two-thirty.

I called Chris but he didn't want to be out in the weather, and I don't blame him. But it was okay--Jacqui decided that SHE wanted to go trick-or-treating, so I met up with her at school around 3:30, after picking up my dress. I got changed in the ASU bathroom (other women kept coming in and asking what we were, lol), then we popped into the library long enough for me to burn Jacqui a copy of Elephunk by the Black-Eyed Peas (I'm out of CD's now...Nico, you were supposed to buy a box and trade for the DVD's I bought by mistake, remember?) and clean out my junk mail. Jacqui had been telling me about her treat bag, and I realized that I didn't have one, so we went to Wal-Mart to get one.

Ha. I didn't wear my glasses with the costume (I did my eyes, put them on, and was like, "Well, that totally kills the effect," and opted to just be blind all night), so every time we would drive, I would say stuff like, "Now, I am between the lines, right? Is that a stop sign? Let me know if any small children dart out in front of me!" XD I really can see well enough to drive, just...I can't read signs, lol. But I know all the local speed limits so I don't think it's an issue.

Some random dude at Wal-Mart stopped us and asked what we were supposed to be. I could see that in Jacqui's case, but I thought I was relatively obvious. *rolleyes* (She started out trying to be a flame, but something got lost in the interpretation and she really looked more like a clown...she wore anything she could find with flames on it, and it all totally clashed, lol, and she started out trying to paint flames on her face but ended up with smudges of flame colors. She was all, "I can't really draw," and I told her she should have come into town and let me paint her face for her. But too late, obviously.)

Anyway, we went back to Halloween stuff and I had my choice of a little black cauldron or a pumpkin, neither of which I really liked (and Jacqui said wouldn't be big enough anyway...which, in retrospect, turned out to be true), so we went over to gift bags and I found one that was all colors of metallic stripes. Tres cool, and much bigger.

Then we decided that it wasn't quite dark enough to start trick-or-treating, and we were kind of hungry, so we went to Sonic and got some stuff to snack on, and by the time we finished it was dark, so we went back to the same gas station where she'd spotted me the day before, left my car, and decided to go up one side of Cardinal Street and come down the other. (There are a lot of apartment complexes on one side and a nice subdivision on the other.) That doesn't sound like much, but we were out there for about three-and-a-half hours!

The first woman that answered the door was like, "How old are you two?" but gave us candy anyway. Jacqui was like, "That's not a good sign," but she was the only person who said anything.

Nico called me and met up with us, but decided to go find out what everyone else was doing rather than join us (dude! It's FREE CANDY! *shakes head*). They all went to Pizza Hut, but Jacqui and I stayed out because A) we'd already eaten, and B) we'd just gotten started.

A lot of people liked my costume. Yay! Though one older man (pervert!) thought I was supposed to be a burlesque dancer! >_< Ah, well, he was giving away peanut butter cups, IIRC, so whatever.

Some ten-year-old went out of his way to give me (and NOT Jacqui) a candy bracelet--like, after giving us the regular amount of candy he was all, "Here, you should take this, too!" ^_^

Me: I told you my costume was prettier.
Jacqui: But I'm scaring people, and that's the point of the holiday!
Me: Yeah, but I got a candy bracelet and you didn't. He must think I'm hot.
Jacqui: Dude, he's TEN!
Me: Over no one, that's an improvement!

XD Fun stuff. There was one woman giving out GLOW STICKS. OMG. Like, she gave us each one and then candy, and I was wondering why she made sure that we each got a plastic-wrapped pixie stick with the candy, then Jacqui started playing with hers as we walked away and she was all, "Dude! It's a GLOW STICK!" So of course I scrambled for mine and we both put them on. And it was like the woman purposely color-coordinated us, because mine was purple and Jacqui's was yellow-orange. Oh, the bliss. ^_^

Saw my friend Liam from camp. He was going up to the door, and I was like, "Hey, Liam!" and he was like, "Aren't you a little old for this?"

"Aren't YOU?"

"Dude, this is my HOUSE."

XD So now I know where Liam lives. (OMG, nice place!) And his mom was giving out good stuff, too. So that was funny.

(ETA: Actually, I saw him a few days later and he said it was the house of a friend of his. But whatever.)

So when me and Jacqui got back to my car we called Nico, no answer, so we drove up to Pizza Hut and no one was there, so we decided to run up to Taco Bell and then if no one was there we'd try calling again. Everyone WAS at Taco Bell, of course. Nico was sitting on the trunk of Briannah's car and when we pulled in he told us that everyone was headed for the haunted house out at ASU, so we just went on over there. Jacqui's car, Benji, was still there anyway. (Benji's name was Buck until Jacqui hit a deer. Now we joke that she's probably going to run over a dog. XD)

They had to stop for gas, but when they finally got there it was me, Jacqui, Nico, Rachel, Briannah, Lucas, and Jasie. (Who I still don't like, but we didn't really speak to each other so it was all cool. ^_^ Apparently now that she doesn't have to work with me she doesn't hate me...? Whatever.)

Other than Nico, no one really had a costume on. Rachel and Bri were kinda goth-y, but not really (Briannah was half in pink...?), Lucas admitted to not being in a costume at all, and I didn't even want to ask Jasie, who had her hair spray-painted purple and was in a green sweatsuit with Halloween socks. Silly people. I think I had the best costume, hands-down. Which made me happy, being the first-timer and all. (Though I have to give props to Nico for having more cleavage than me. Gah.)

They had a hayride to drive from the parking lot out to the haunted house, which was waaaaay out on the grounds, and Jacqui and Nico ended up being the last two to get on and face backwards. "Bringing up the queer!" Nico said. Lol.

The haunted house, while being relatively unimaginative (my opinion, and coming from someone who'd never actually gone through one before), made me scream. It didn't creep me out but it startled me often. Like, nothing I SAW scared me, but when you're walking in the dark and someone reaches out and grabs your ankle and you're not expecting it--yeah, I yelped. Best part: there was a long tunnel where we had to go in single file, bent over (well, except maybe for Jacqui, who's short, lol), and in the interest of not getting separated we kept a hand on the back of the person in front of us. Happened to be behind Lucas, mwahahaha. While he's proven to be fickle and I wouldn't date him, he's still hot. ^_^** Worst part: Bonked my head on roof of said tunnel three times. >_<

We were then going to go over to the carnival that's randomly set up in the abandoned parking lot across from Taco Bell for two weeks, but we got there only to find that they shut down at nine! I guess that may be all good and well for most of the two weeks, but on HALLOWEEN? How stupid ARE they?

We went back to Taco Bell, and Justin showed up, then put his costume on in the bathroom. He was Jason from those movies. You know, with the hockey mask. (Friday the 13th? I think.) This is when I whipped out my camera, and when it went crazy. I thought it was the battery, but now that I think about it I think it was half the battery and half the cold. (Because it worked fine the next day!) My flash went nutso and my display wasn't working...gaaah. I got about half a roll of good snapshots, which I will share very soon. There's only one of me, and no good ones of Jacqui, but whatever.

After a little while, when we all kind of realized that there's absolutely nothing to do in Mountain Home on a Tuesday night, everyone kind of broke off. Nico went home, Jacqui and I went to Wal-Mart for a new camera battery. We ran into everyone else as we were going to check out, but we weren't sure where they were going. We waited for them at Taco Bell for a while, but I decided I wanted to get home before Mom went to sleep so she could get a few more pics of me, and they pulled in just as I was leaving. Go figure.

Got home okay, despite still not having my glasses on, lol. My camera went crazy again and ate a roll of film, but luckily there were NO pictures on it. Still, was irritated because I had no other pics of me and my costume ROCKED. The only film in the house was a roll of black-and-white, and I decided that I'd rather have B&W pics than NO pics. And, I mean, I was a FLAPPER, so it kind of fit. It's not like I was a super-futuristic alien or something, lol. Mom took those, so hopefully they come out okay.

(The other thing that sucks about that is they don't have the processor for those at Walgreens or Wal-Mart, so it's not eligible for one-hour photo. The pics of me will take two weeks, even though I already have the color ones! Gah!)

Anyway. On Wednesday, after the Steak House, I took the pics to Walgreens, then took my car over to my cousin's shop, and my mom picked me up. I wanted to come online, but nooooo. No such luck. We came straight home. That was the WEIRDEST sensation, having to sit at home and WAIT two hours for Lost! That never happens!

And then today was Thursday. Work was pretty okay, didn't have to be there until 11, and from 11:30 to 2 I was on line! Yay! Stuffing, not steaming, granted, but it was SO nice. ^_^ I had to take headset when Amy left at 2, but that wasn't so bad. It wasn't ALL day, which is what sucks. If there comes a day when I'm mostly on line and have to take headset to cover a break I probably won't mind so much.

Wigz told me she had the other problem, she was so sick of being on line, so I told her next time I'm on headset and she's on line, we'll just trade. ^_^ Hopefully.

Mom came to pick me up after work, in Dad's car, because now the van is on the blink. Oh joy. But just as we were getting ready to pull away, my cousin called me to tell me that A) my car was for sure ready and B) they didn't have to do as much to it as they'd thought, so it was going to cost less. I told him I certainly didn't have a problem with that! So the repairs that were going to cost around $250 only ended up costing $135! Whoohoo! *dorky dance of joy*

Got online, but was so far behind I couldn't post. Skipped DLBE, which will be first priority tomorrow (yes, even over LJ, other than posting this). Went to Walgreens and picked up the color pics, then went and got gas at Wal-Mart. (Yeah, I know I was dissing their gas and saying it made my car go nuts, but now I'm wondering if it wasn't the oil leak that my car was in the shop for. So I bought gas there this time and we shall see if my car goes nuts anytime soon. ETA: Not yet!) And, with the three-cent discount...I paid $2 even for gas! I'm not kidding! OMG. That ROCKED to no end. (And that means that *knocks on wood* there's a possibility of paying a price with a ONE at the beginning in the near future!)

And then I came home, and here I am writing this to you now...and it's 5:20. Granted, I slept from about 12:30 to three, but I think I'm going to go get a drink and then go to sleep. I have to be up at 9:30. Oh joy.

Aaaand now--the aforementioned pictures! (Ten, FYI.)

( BOO! )

So yeah. I had fun. And to reiterate: More pics of me in my costume in about a week-and-a-half.

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Location: school (home at the time)
Current Music: Donna Lewis album: "Now In a Minute"

( Quizzes! )

So...nothing new, really...talked to Chris this morning on my way to work (yay!) and he said to call when I got off work, but I got his voicemail. Gah. I'll call again before I leave town.

Talked to my cousin before that and it looks like Laurien's going to cost around $250. *headdesk* But hopefully she'll be quiet and be a good girl for a while if I fix her this time! (Though I AM wondering if it wouldn't be cheaper to just add a quart of oil every week indefinitely...)

Finally thought of a last-ditch plan for a Halloween costume if I can't come up with anything better (I have all the clothes/stuff for it around my house...which is kind of why I don't want to use it). But it's not really...glamourous, which is what I really wanted to be--though I've not been able to make up my mind if I should be goth glamourous, or movie-star glamourous, or rock-star glamourous, or medieval-glamourous...you get the idea. I had the idea of mushing all that together into one costume and calling myself a souvenir-taking time-traveler, but decided not to, lol. (That probably had something to do with the fact that I think my mother would find it amusing.) Still wishing someone would give me a great idea!! (HINT HINT!) This is the first time since I've cut my hair that I almost wish I hadn't--if it was still long it wouldn't be difficult to dress as a random Hobbit lass. (But then that's silly, isn't it, wanting to sacrifice looking pretty good all the time now for one night of looking slightly ridiculous, lol.)

I don't know. I found a lot of purple glittery things in the costume section at Wal*Mart, including a wig, and am thinking of just getting a bunch of them, finding a fake mike, and calling myself an 80's rock star. Hmm. Opinions? Suggestions? ANYTHING?

Current Mood: frustrated
Current Location: school
Current Music: library noise

Gah, I keep having near-misses with Chris... like, we'll call, and if we don't get each other's voicemail and actually do talk, then one or both of us is too busy to get together. Grr. He DID quit the Steak House, and starting in a few weeks he's going to start tending bar at El Chico's, so that's cool. ^_^ (Probably pays better!)

He's going out of town for the weekend; I'm supposed to call him Sunday and we're supposed to figure out a night next week to make definite plans, as opposed to the "well, call me and we'll see what's going on" kind of thing we usually do.

Steak House kind of sucked today--I only had three tables and only made $7 in tips. (Well, I guess it was eight with the change, but that's still pitiful.) I did get out an hour early, but it still sucked. And I cut my thumb whilst cutting lemons to top it off. Bled like crazy until I got a bandaid on it, and I imagine that it only quit bleeding because I covered the gauze of the bandaid with triple antibiotic (or something like it, whatever was in the first aid kit). I'm curious to see if it's still bleeding, but I'm afraid if I take the bandaid off, it'll start gushing again, and while I do carry bandaids in my purse (yes, I'm that klutzy), I don't feel like running to the bathroom clutching my hand twice in one day.

I wasn't online yesterday because the internet was down--I got to the library and there was a notice on the door, so it was totally down, not just intermittent like it gets sometimes. But instead of going home like a sensible girl, I spent two hours scanning in all the pictures I had on me and playing Spider Solitaire. XD On the bright side, I will probably be posting to OC_Art100 today! Yay for adding to the table! And...I don't know, I'm thinking I just might post some pics that are actually spoilers for unposted bits of the story. ^_^ Will crosspost here, of course.

Took Laurien to my mechanic cousin, and she IS leaking oil, as I suspected. Diagnonsis--anywhere between $100 and $500. Hopefully much, much closer to the former! >_< He's supposed to call me--actually, he was supposed to call an hour ago and hasn't. Whatever. I'll call him tomorrow if he doesn't. He did say it's safe for me to keep driving, provided that I keep putting oil in if it gets low. *sigh* Always whenever I'm finally getting ahead, this happens. Gah.

Oh well. Off to DLBE!

Current Mood: aggravated
Current Location: school
Current Music: St. Louie--Nelly

Where to start? Work sucks, but the cooler weather (jacket in the morning! Yay!) is helping me cope. I was in back drive on Tuesday and came |--| that close to having a good day.

I made Candise (the last person left at Taco Bell that I really hate to be around) laugh. It started raining and I said, "Well, so much for driving topless." She gave me the most incredulous look--then remembered I drive a convertible. XD Maybe there's something to Nico's "Kill 'em with kindness" theory because ever since then she's been almost tolerable. ^_^

Ahhh...the fair's in town, that's all everyone at work wants to talk about. Including me, lol. Because, you see, I said to myself: "Why don't I ask Chris to go with me? Because, you see, that's not a date, that's not too forward or anything..." So he was there today and all, and it took me most of the day to work up the guts and find an opportune moment.

At one point I was sitting at the bar wiping off the menus (they get sticky and get the papery stuff from the peanuts on them and all) and I looked around and realized I hadn't seen Chris in several minutes. I waited a few more, and he never walked by or anything, and then someone said he was gone, and I started kicking myself mentally. I was so disappointed--mostly in myself for not speaking up sooner.

But then--oh joy!--he came back. Whoever said he was "gone" meant "gone on break." Major flood of relief, of course.

So then I asked him what time he got off (five) and went about finishing up my side work (today it was restrooms, which, barring a major mess happening, I usually leave until after I quit taking tables), and after I clocked out I went to the bar (where Chris was sitting) and was waiting for him to finish his conversation (so as not to interrupt), and one of the other waitresses said she was going to the fair tomorrow and asked if she'd see him...

...and he said maybe, but probably not.

So when I got the opportunity I asked why, and he said he couldn't afford it, and I was all, "That sucks..." and then something happened, someone yelled for him (he was still on the clock at this point, of course). So he went off and I waited a moment, got myself a drink, and then went over to where he was sweeping, and I said, "I was going to say that sucks because I was going to ask you to go with me."

And he asked, "Well, how much is it?"

I said I didn't really know, we talked over the price, and he's like, "Well, I could give you my number, and you could call me at five."

OMG! So I grabbed a napkin and the pen out of my apron and he gave me his number (which is already programmed into my phone, thanks) and asked if it was his cell phone (yes) and told him I'd call at five.

It took a bit of doing to find the prices of everything (you'd think they'd have it posted at the gate, or a website, but no, you have to call), but I did, and called him at five. He said it was still too much and he really couldn't do it, and just as I'm trying to find the courage to throw a "maybe some other time, then?" into the conversation, he says: "But you know, I was thinking, if this didn't work, maybe we could get together next weekend and go see a movie and have dinner or something."

*ELATION*

So I readily agreed, but then was like, "Well, wait, I usually work all day on weekends, so maybe a sometime during the week? A Wednesday maybe?" And he said that would work too.

So...I have a tentative date, details to be worked out when I work with him on Friday.

OMG! (Now all I have to do is not screw it up this time!)

(Is it just me, or do I use way more creative punctuation and parentheses when I'm excited?)

Laiken: In other (less important, no offense ^_-) Steak House news, I was going to tell you that on Friday when I worked I used a ticket book that had Jodi's name on it. And then I actually met her for the first time today, and I think she's a really evil bitch...JUST KIDDING! She told me to tell you that, though. XD (Well, she was kind of curt this morning, but she was in a hurry and she was super nice later, so that was okay.) Later in the day, when we weren't busy, I asked, "Don't you have a sister named Andi?" And she was all, "Um, yeah, how did you know?" So of course I told her I was friends with you ("Andi's friend Laiken") and she knew who you were and all, called you a cousin then explained that you're not really but may as well be, lol. And she told me something that surprised the heck out of me, and I don't want to post it, but I'm emailing you because I was so surprised I can't figure out if she was BS-ing me or not. (Or at least I'm emailing you if your email address is available on your LJ profile, lol.)

And that all being said, when I log off in about an hour, I'm headed to the fair. Because goshdarnit, I missed it last year because I was working, and I've been jonesing for an adrenaline rush. I'm trying to talk Nico into going to Celebration City with me sometime (there's an interesting thought, Nico meeting Shelly, lol), but the finances for either of us to be able to do that are probably a couple of months in the future. (Unless, Shelly, your family has season passes they'd be willing to loan...? Or something?) So I'm going. We shall see if I run into anyone--Craig from Taco Bell is going every night from what I understand, lol.

Which reminds me of a work wit:
Dennis: Me and Craig are going to the fair. We're going to ride rides. Maybe his leg will fly off!
(Which, if you know Craig, is funny...because he has a prosthetic leg. And Dennis can get away with saying it because they're best friends.)

So, I'm going to stop and enjoy cloud nine for a while--later, people!

Current Mood: thrilled
Current Location: school
Current Music: Put It Together--World Without Sundays

Before I get too far along, I'd like to point out that there's something funky with the computer I am working on, and it has these odd one-pixel-wide aqua-colored vertical lines appearing over white spaces, and so it looks like my computer screen is made up of a sideways piece of notebook paper. XD I keep expecting to see a pink horizontal line and some holes if I scroll down far enough.

Also, I just thought to myself the other day that Orlando wasn't going to stay with Kate Bosworth forever, and that eventually I would be getting this story in my email...I just wasn't expecting it to be so soon! Meep! Maybe I am a little psychic. So long as I only have premonitions of good stuff like this, I don't mind so much!

And now for the long-awaited glamor shots! All pics are click-to-enlarge. ^_^

the GREEN series:

(note the Elven Brooch, the hat, and the fact that I am winking in the second one, not dealing with my eye swelling shut, lol)

the PURPLE series:

(that last one is me hiding behind a copy of The Stepford Wives that has a cover which is an extreme closeup of a face. In the next-to-last one, Nico was all, "Pretend like you've just been made President of the United States!" Maybe that's why I look like Condoleeza Rice--I don't like that one particularly, but it gets good reactions so I included it. Whatever. Nico took a lot of this series without warning, saying stuff to make me laugh and then snapping. He said it was the most versatile outfit.)

the SWEATER series:

(the first one is my favorite pic of all these and will soon be my default image on myspace. The last one is Nico in my sweater, and I'm not quite sure that I'll ever forgive him for looking better in it than I do!)

the CHERRY pic:

(If you don't get it, I'm not explaining it.)

the SK8R series:

(get a load of that fauxhawk! I think I like the last one best. And I so borrowed the shades, and they gave me a headache like tinted lenses always do, but they look cool.)

the URBAN series:

(we had to run into town for fresh camera batteries, and ended up doing shots in town, and got this series and the following one.)

the LAURIEN series:

(That last one is just to show that despite his obvious photo-taking genius, even Nico makes mistakes. I've titled that one "Ten Points for Nico!" XD Yay me for thinking to give her a bath.)

the GREY BOOTS series:

(the pose from that last one was actually taken from a random poster on Nico's wall and was really hard to hold, but it came out so well!)

The house in the first two of the urban series is in Mountain Home. We thought about taking pictures in the cemetary across the street from it, but the only suitable monument we found (a white marble angel) had a cocoon hanging from its nose and something was trying to get out of it, and I wouldn't let Nico kill it or help it out. (Fellow Lost fans will get why I had qualms about messing with a cocoon, right?) So he pointed out the awesome house across the street, and I was oohing and ahhing, and we realized that the owner was mowing the lawn, so we went and asked if we could take pictures on his courtyard. Not only did he say yes, but he came over and turned on the fountains in the yard and was very accomodating. By sheer luck I was still wearing the red shirt and it all worked out incredibly well.

ETA: I forgot to mention that the original house was designed by a student of Frank Lloyd Wright's, which is just plain COOL.

Current Mood: flirty
Current Location: school
Current Music: Want You More!--Duran Duran

Yay for theme music! (Scroll up for the joke...)

So, let's see...what-all have I done since I was last online? When was that? Thursday. Right.

So...Friday...

Steak House: Crappy tip day, but while I was rolling silverware--wait, back up and let me explain. All the waiters/waitresses are expected to roll silverware, which consists of taking a clean knife and fork, placing them on a paper napkin, and rolling them up. (Yeah, they don't come from a factory like that, lol, not real metal silverware.) I think a lot of people avoid doing this because it's boring, but I love doing it because A) you can do as much or as little as you need to kill time, especially if you're waiting on food for customers, B) you get to sit down while you do it--Taco Bell needs some tasks like that!, and C) they won't yell at you for sitting down because you're actually working. Anyway, I was rolling some fairly early in the morning (usually people wait until the end of the shift, and sometimes there aren't clean dishes yet because the dishwashers come to work an hour later than the wait people) and Chris walked by and started massaging my shoulders.

It felt GOOD. OMG. Like, we're not talking a little pat. We're talking digging his knuckles in, it almost hurts but not really, if he'd kept up it would've popped my back, all-out MASSAGE. I was all, "That feels good...mmm...keep that up." He couldn't, of course, we were both working, but...DAMN. That felt GOOD. I told Nico about it and he said, "Well, that means he either really does like you, or he's gay." XD I actually think he's a pathological flirt, because I've seen him doing it to some of the older women, lol--Paula, the manager, and Keri, another waitress who's just past thirty but seems more like she's in her early twenties. (I'm doing really well with names, I think, I've only forgotten one or two, but I only know one or two last names! Gah!)

Laurien had a bit of a fever on Friday night and Saturday morning, but it turned out to be just a hole in a $16 hose causing an antifreeze leak. I filled up the antifreeze tank and that was enough to get me home so Dad could put the new hose in.

After Taco Bell Friday night, Nico and I went and picked up the pictures with Wigz, and looked at them on the Kodak Picture-Maker machine there in the Walgreens. Some of them are hot, some of them are duds, lol, but you'll be seeing all the good-to-amazing ones tomorrow, when I shall be at school where I can post them.

My out-of-town family was at my house when I got there, but sleeping. I saw them for a few minutes on my way out in the morning. Chris didn't work Saturday, but I got better tips (I hope there's not some kind of connection! OMG!), and then didn't have to work at Taco Bell. I did stop by, though, to check my schedule. Ken was standing in the kitchen door when I walked in, and he was all, "Hey! I checked your test!"

This took a second to compute, but then I asked, "How'd I do?" And he said I'd missed two, and brought me the test to show me, but then was like, "Wait, no, that one's right..." And then the other was the proper temperature of the heating cabinet, which I KNEW was 165 but I wrote down as 195. Go me. I told him that and asked if I was getting the raise, and he told me that he'd already put it in.

*nance* So as of today I'm making $7.25 an hour! MASS SQUEENESS!

When I got home I got to play with the kids and stuff, typical for a visit from them, nothing exciting.

Sunday I slept hard, got up, went and visited with everyone, and then after they were all gone, I sorted/cropped the pics, watched movies, ate junk food. (Mom made Fruity Pebble treats, which are exactly like Rice Krispie treats except with Fruity Pebbles instead of Rice Krispies--YUM!) Tried to PRINT some of said pics and discovered that while my printer is sufficient for documents and simple images (like my ANTICROMBIE shirt), it sucks on actual photos. GAH. Will be spending $2.20 to print them at school for Mom. (I'll be posting more than that but there are some I don't want her to see.)

And that brings us to today--I worked 10-5, and have to be back at 10 PM and close. Last...Friday? Whenever. Nico knew he would be short of closers (someone quit, I think) and begged me to stay all day today, which I wouldn't do, so then he begged me to come back, which I said I would do, thinking I could kill three of the five-hour gap by using the computers at school, only to remember entirely too late (yesterday) that the library was closed. When I bitched about this to Nico he offered to let me come to his place and use his computer and take a nap on his couch, and that's what I'm doing now. (Using the computer, not taking a nap yet, lol, obviously.) And my mother claims he takes advantage of me because I drive him home all the time. XD

After I got off at Taco Bell I went to the Steak House for my check, only to find out that since it's a holiday, the checks won't go out until tomorrow. (I guess that Taco Bell's checks go out anyway because they're computerized, but the Steak House uses a flesh-and-blood accountant who takes holidays off, lol.) Chris informed me of this, and also said that he liked my do-rag, which detracts from Nico's gay theory because I was in my purple uniform and had a lime-green-striped do-rag on to cover up my Taco Bell hat-hair (which is always horrendous, lol). ^_^ So yay! Also I told him I was there for my schedule and he looked it up for me, put his hand on my back while he read it to me *coughthat'ssignificantrightcough*, and then Elisha (pronounced Alicia, another waitress) walked up and started talking about how they were going to drink there at the bar in the restaurant that night, and Chris turns to me and was like, "Hey, are you doing anything later--wait, you're only twenty, aren't you?" And I told him yeah, I have seven months to go, and he said, "Well, that's too bad, if you were just twenty-one you could sit here at the bar with us and drink tonight." I told him it was okay since I had to go back to Taco Bell anyway ("Aw, that sucks,"), and then it got busy and I didn't have the chance to tell him (but I will make a point of saying it when we work together Wednesday so as not to miss out should the opportunity arise again) that, did I not have to work tonight, I would have gladly sat up there and had a soda while everyone else drank, just to be sociable.

I find that drunken people are actually really entertaining, *halo* and who knows? In that kind of environment, with everyone loosening up, I just might have been able to ask him out. Probably. Every time I have a conversation with him I can feel the words "You're so funny/sweet/cute, would you like to go catch a movie with me sometime?" bubbling up on the tip of my tongue.

But then, there's still Steven from Taco Bell...and yet, in that case, he doesn't seem interested in being more than friends, and only work friends at that, not the kind of friends that hang out off the clock. I don't know. Whenever anyone teases him about any girl that works there (and my name has come up, thanks, Briannah), he's all like, "Um, no..." and all. But that could be more because of the teasing than the actual person in question, you know?

But whatever. Chris is more my age (Steven's ONLY eighteen! The poor kid's only now getting his driver's license!), and I think he's definitely expressed more interest. I think, at any rate, that I would rather pursue that avenue first.

And with that thought *yawn* I'm going to go take a quick nap. I think I'll get up around nine and go on back into town and get a chocolate milkshake before work--liquid happiness. Mmm.

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: Nico's
Current Music: Labor Day (It's A Holiday)--Black-Eyed Peas

Went shopping with tip money yesterday while Laurien got her oil changed.

New hat. New (smaller and cooler) bag. New lipglosses and a new nailpolish. Pillow (purple, with a cherry made out of sequins on it), on clearance.

New blanket, also on clearance, to cover ugly chair in my room. Much better-looking than when it was covered half by an old quilt that my grandma made me and half by a purple Mexican blanket. Now also have bedding for if I ever have a sleepover. (Not likely.)

Tip money is technically already gone. XD

Have to go to Taco Bell. Yay. Not.

Current Mood: pleased
Current Location: school
Current Music: library noise

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rena_librarian

The Librarian's Nook

February 2012

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Until the Stars Are All Alight

...call me 'cause I'm still awake

Entries tagged with laurien

ganked from Facebook, not tagging

long car story, for posterity

jobhunt

a text conversation--Nico-isms

snooze

raise!

life is good

Happy Thanksgiving, bitches ^_^

cries

movie meme

Yesterday, condensed

The length of the taglist alone should explain why I'm lj-cutting

still catching up...

Halloween

Halloween

whee

OMG SQUEE!

The pics(pam)

mostly about Chris, too, lol, but there's work and family in there somewhere

forgot--