Stess's Journal

Blah.

I stayed up until 4am the other night talking to katysdiary on the phone. Now my sleep schedule is off again. I had almost gotten it under control. Sigh. I don't like taking Unisom because it makes me feel heavy and lethargic the next morning. But I have to get up tomorrow, because my mom is going in to have...something done. I forget what it is exactly. She's been having problems for a while, but they're the kind you really don't want to hear about, so I'll spare the details :) Anyway, for this test they have to put her under anesthesia I guess, so I have to go with her. I get to spend about three or four hours chilling in the medical center. Whee. My dad won't let me bring his laptop either, which sucks. So it's back to good-ol' pen and paper for me. I just printed like twenty Sudoku puzzles from the internet, so that should keep me occupied for a while. I can get some writing done too, though I wish I could have the laptop so I could type instead. It's faster. Oh well.

In other news, still broke, still jobless. This is getting very old. Avenue hasn't called me back. I think I'll have to look elsewhere. There's a really nice shopping area nearer home, maybe I'll check over there and see if anyone is hiring. So far the only other place I've noticed is Old Navy, and I really really don't want to work somewhere were teens/kids shop. I like working with older customers. They're nicer.

Also I just noticed that my room looks like it belongs to that little girl from Signs. There are half-finished water bottles all over the place. I hate drinking water if it isn't cold, though, so if it sits for too long I won't drink it. Note to self: put them back in the fridge.

By the way, l8nitewriter any confirmation on the idea of a reunion game night while I'm in town? (I will be there. I will!)

I'll give you a fair warning: it is late, and I have had caffeine tonight. I am talkative.

So after much toil and editing, I have made myself a rockin' awesome LJ layout. Everyone should check it out. I figured out how to add a banner image (thanks to help from l8nitewriter) and then with a few more changes made something that I can be happy with for at least a few weeks! (lol - that's for you, Aaron!) When I have an income, perhaps I will upgrade to a paid account so I can get my excessive icons and do more fun stuff to the layout. Now that I've become an icon-making madwoman, I suppose I should.

Anyway, church tonight was amazing. First of all, they opened with James Taylor's "How Sweet it is to be Loved by You". I was like, James Taylor? In church? Rock. On. The pianist/singer from the worship band is amazing. Then the pastor giving the lesson this week said that he didn't want us to learn anything tonight, he wanted us to feel. We're doing a series on Ephesians and tonight was all about the end of chapter 3, about God's love and how awesome it is. It was really great. They gave us snacks too! Before the service there were people walking around with trays of cookies and trail mix, and they had water and soft drinks. It was so fun.

Yesterday I finally shelved my pride and took an application in to Avenue. (For those of you who aren't familiar with women's clothing stores, Avenue is like Lane Bryant, only less hoochie - which I can say because I worked there for three years) I should hear back from the manager soon. It's longer hours, but hey, it's a job. I need one of those, not just because I'm broke but because I am bored to sobs around here. I need something constructive to do besides make LJ icons and watch movies and play Zelda. Hopefully the people from JB Graphics will call me back soon and then I'll have a real job, doing what I really want to do.

In that same vein, sort of, my dad decided this afternoon that I could have been a math major. See, my family has fallen prey to the fad known as Sudoku. If you don't know what it is, go here and check it out. It's a matter of filling in the numbers so that 1-9 only appear in each row/column/box once. It's addicting. My dad is good at it, and my mom tries, but I've mastered it. It's what I do now when I'm bored. I generally end up doing maybe, twenty odd puzzles a day. This is why my dad thinks I should have been a math major. I like math. I'm pretty good at it too. At one point, I thought I wanted to teach it. Then I realized I was psychotic and had a death wish. Sudoku isn't really math, it's logic. But it's still addicting. (strangely, after deciding I was insane for wanting to teach high school, i became an art major. now I've decided to eventually go back and get a masters so I can teach graphic design in high school or college. Go figure.)

Ok I've rambled enough.

OMG y'all. Apparently, when I break my Writer's Block these days, I turn around and laugh in it's face and then saunter away proudly. Seven pages. SEVEN PAGES in one day. That's a lot of pages.

Anyway, other than writing all I did today was cook. Seriously, I baked three batches of cookies and then made dinner. First batch was sugar cookies, I found colorful sprinkles and I made happy-fun-springtime cookies. That is their full name. Happy-fun-springtime cookies. They looked like easter eggs. :) Then I made oatmeal raisin cookies for mom and dad, because my mom just found out that, in addition to like nine other health problems that she's having, she is pre-diabetic and can't eat lots of sugar anymore. Not like I should be either, I'm probably on the verge of being diabetic myself, but so far that hasn't stopped me.

Then I made dinner tonight, because my mom wasn't feeling all that great and none of us were super hungry, so I made quesadillas and they were excellent, if I do say so myself.

So all in all, a good day. Now its time to go back to playing bridge with the parents. We are sad, sad people y'all.

bored bored bored bored

So I'm determined to go to Searcy for Spring Sing this year, but with still not having a job and no income, getting the money to go is proving difficult. I'm babysitting when I can, and thinking very seriously about just breaking down and getting a retail job now, which I should have done like two months ago anyway. *Sigh* If anyone wants to donate to the "Send Stessie to Spring Sing" fund, I'd be very happy. :) Just kidding. I can make it, I know I can. I just need about $200 for gas and food to get there. All I need is to watch my girls about four more times and I'll be there. Especially considering this last time the parents stayed out until 3am again. (Not that I blame them. When you have three girls under the age of 5, it's probably nice to get out and have a life once in a while)

In other news it's supposed to snow tonight or tomorrow. Fnarr. It had just gotten nice around here! They're predicting up to six inches. Oh well.

In honor of Saint Patrick's day, this entire entry shall be written with an Irish accent, while I listen to Enya.

So me Mam and brother and I went today to the BMV to get our Indiana driver's licenses, you know. We had been once already but didn't have everything we needed. But me Dad threatened to take away all our keys if we didn't do it by next week, so we hitched up our britches and marched on over. We all sat down to take the test, and wouldn't you know I got me test last and finished first? But actually me brother finished first, and then figured out that he was supposed to fill in the answers on the answer page at the back, not circle them all the way through the bloody test, so he had to go back. Me Mam was scaird as a banshee that she wouldn't pass it, but we all passed, aye, though closely. We had to come back to get our licenses though because the system went down. So we went out to eat (imagine, Italian food on St. Paddy's day! Osh aye) and when we came back, it was back up! Hurrah!

Now I'm sittin meself down and gettin busy. I've got to teach meself math again, so I can teach me brother so he can pass his test. This book is terrible! The answers are harder to find than leprechaun gold! Osh, aye, but I'll get through it. Me Mam and Dad are goin out tonight with their mates to celebrate the holiday. I'm just gonna stay home and watch me television.

Hope you enjoyed me St. Paddy's day stories. Aye, and have a marvelous day! :)

Meme for the Occasion: 

( What Color Green Are You? )

omg y'all, my room is SO HOT right now I'm dying. I don't get it. I haven't had my heater on for days, and I've been opening the window every now and then, but it is still seriously a SAUNA up here. It might have something to do with the fact that my computer is always on and I have no ceiling lamp, so instead I have four regular lamps and all that stuff, but good grief.

Of course what is funny about all this weather is while it is nice and pleasant here, somewhere in the 50-60's I think for most of the week, l8nitewriter had snow in California the other day. I'm in Indiana, for goodness sake! It's SUPPOSED to be cold here.

In other news, I was excited to learn that they have *finally* lowered the prices on the original Sims expansion packs, since Sims2 is getting ready to release the third expansion. I now own ALL the expansions for the original Sims. Maybe someday I'll get Sims2, but in the mean time, I like my regular sims the way they are. Only now I must reinstall the whole thing to use these exp. packs. Le sigh. Oh well. Purging the Harry Potter neighboorhood...to be rebuilt...only BETTER!!!! MUAHAHA!!

Last night I got called to babysit (they called around 2pm to see if I could be there at 7pm. what else am i going to do?) This time the girls were actually awake, so it was a lot more fun, plus I made more money (Woo!) Of course, on any given night I am usually up until about 2am. But when I *have* to stay up that long, I get seriously tired. (But they have satellite TV, so I can watch just about anything. Like Invader Zim. Ahhh memories. *doom song*) So when I got home, I thought I would crash, but I couldn't sleep! I was up til 4. Rrr.

At least today was Saturday, though, because it didn't matter that I slept in. I got up, meandered downstairs and learned that my parents had rented Rent *hee*, but had already watched it. So I put it in and watched it, while my parents drifted in and out of the living room, and we all sang along (though my mom was slightly off-key) and loved it. Great music! Though, naturally, I don't agree with everything the movie promotes, I really enjoyed the overall message and the power of the music. And Adam Pascal sounds like Bon Jovi.

Having mostly wasted the day, I got ready for church. I'm a Saturday-night church-goer now. (I know, heathen, right?) But I like the luxury of sleeping in on Sunday, plus the young adult group meets after the Sat. night service. Tonight we didn't actually meet, we all went together to this production called "Blue Like Jazz". It's based off a book by the same name by Donald Miller. They took the book and dramatized selections, as well as adding some jazz interludes. It was really cool. There were a couple really neat stories, and I thoroughly enjoyed the music. One part I really liked was when he talked about his first date - he took a girl to see a production of Romeo & Juliet, but he didn't understand how someone could love someone so much at first sight as to give up their identity. Then he went on to say how many people want the relationship between the church and God to be like that - love at first sight between two different beings. But he said he thinks it's more like Kat in Taming of the Shrew. God pursues us, and we must finally accept his love and forgiveness for all the times we scorned him. Cool, huh?

I also pulled a neat quote from one of the songs: "There's more to love than loving, more to pain than pain, and if diamonds take a thousand years, we must learn to understand the same strain."

I love watching the Olympics, winter or summer. I especially enjoy winter though, because I like skating and the downhill sports. And so far, Torino has been all about the stories - people coming back from injuries or having some great story of their road to the Olympics. The pairs skating competition had some great moments, so did men's skating. Speed skating was interesting, and the half-pipe snowboarding competition was definitely worth watching - men and women.

So tonight's big story was the first ever snowboard cross - basically a downhilll race on snowboards which has been around in the world cup and x-game scene but not olympics until this year. Last night the American Seth Wescott had an awesome run for gold, and tonight USA looked to world champion Lindsey Jacob Ellis to get gold. And she almost did, until she fell on the last jump and took silver. Why did she fall? Because instead of just taking the jump, she did a trick, because she was way ahead of anyone else and got caught in the moment, but landed it badly and fell, giving the second place skier time to get around her. Now the press and the world is critizing her because she got overconfident and cocky - but I don't think it was that at all. Hell, if I was at my first ever olympics and I was 150ft. in front of the nearest person and thought I could do the trick, I would! It wasn't even like a spin or anything, it was just a grab. If she had landed it, everyone would have thought it was totally amazing, but because she didn't, it gets turned into the "what were you thinking" moment of the olympics.

Sigh. What would the world be like if there wasn't someone to point fingers at?

So my morning started out sucky. I had an eye appointment, so I could *finally* get new contacts (i've been living on my last pair for...well way too long). Anyway, I thought I knew where this place was but first I had to get to where I thought it was, which took me forever, then it turned out NOT to be there, and so after driving around for half an hour, I pulled into a gas station, got their phone book, but it wasn't in there. By now, I'm freaking out because I'm half an hour late to my appointment, I don't know where I'm going, my brother is asleep, my dad is working, and my mom was at bible study, so she couldn't answer her phone. But just then she calls me and I told her what happened. She told me to call directory assistance, who magically had the number, even though the phonebook didn't. Anyway, I had to reschedule for NEXT Monday. Argh. I hope my contacts can last that long, because my glasses are definitely not strong enough anymore and they give me a headache if I try to wear them for too long because I have to squint to focus.

So all that and I was fairly annoyed with myself, tried to cheer myself up by going to Barnes and Noble. Strangely, it worked, even though I didn't buy anything. Mostly because what I wanted to buy was way too expensive because the book hasn't come out in paperback yet.

But I did get to talk to my Katy on the phone for a bit while she was getting lunch (yay!) and the guy came today to see about getting the scrollwork on our piano fixed (the movers broke it) (and that's a yay because I loves my piano and it's upstairs on the landing to my room because I'm the only one who still plays it every now and then)

Oh and I'm excited because tonight is the episode of CSI that I'm totally stoked to see - yay for Lady Heather! (ps - any Lost addicts out there on my flist? Because i'm totally p.o.ed at Sawyer and Charlie right now! can you believe?)

I just watched The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy with my dad. So funny, and my dad thought it was hilarious. Now he's singing "So long and thanks for all the fish" downstairs. *shakes her head*

Life is progressively getting better. No job yet, but working on it. Mom made a friend today, a neighbor around the corner who is into sewing just like she is, and invited her to join an embroidery club. We've narrowed it down to two places we really enjoy going to church, so the next step for me is to visit the young adults class and see where I can connect best.

can't sleep. blah.

After like, two weeks of staying up til 2 or 3 AM and waking up sometime around midday, I've decided that this has got to stop. I'm going to try taking a sleep aid for a few days just so I'll go back to getting tired around 11pm instead of four hours later.

In other news, it snowed today. Snow is pretty. Especially at night.

Well, so far, it's been a good Christmas. I got some clothes (which we bought over thanksgiving) as well as the new red purse we bought during thanksgiving. :) So not a lot of suprises. But I did get a gift certificate to Best Buy, two new Gamecube games: The Return of the King (so hard!) and Chronicles of Narnia (which I haven't played yet because I still haven't seen the movie!) and a few new movies. Lemony Snicket, How to Lose a guy in 10 Days, and Theres Something About Mary. Apparently, my mother had *no* idea what the latter was about. Yeah, exchanged that one. And I actually exchanged How to Lose a Guy, because I've seen it so many times already that I'm a little tired of it. I don't really enjoy watching it anymore. Oh and my brother bought me Ocean's 12, which I already had, so I returned it too. So I got instead: Sahara, Earthsea, and Stepford Wives. I actually haven't seen Earthsea yet (it was a tv-movie special with the guy who plays Bobby on X-Men and Kristin Kruek, Lana from Smallville), but I was told by several people I would really enjoy it, so I thought, lets take a chance, why not? Although the last time I did that with a TV fantasy special it turned out badly. (*coughcough*10thKingdom*cough*)

Anyway, tomorrow we leave for Fayetteville for the Holifield family Christmas. Our numbers will be somewhat lessened, because my cousins Julie and Chris and their two little ones are spending New Years with Chris's sister (Sad day - I love them, but I understand). And my other cousin Beth (who is my age) has decided not to come. At all. Apparently she doesn't really enjoy family christmas, which I can't understand AT ALL, but I guess she just never really clicked with anyone in our family. I absolutely love family christmas, and wild monkeys couldn't keep me away.

But I'm going to use the Best Buy money my parents gave me plus the christmas money that my grandmother always gives us to buy a nice digital camera (finally!). So that's exciting!

Indianapolis is fun, really. I like it. I don't like not knowing anyone yet, but once I get a job after the holidays are over, and once I get plugged in to a church, it'll get better. We went to a really awesome church for Christmas Eve. Y'all, this place was so cool. It's a big church, and they have their own bookstore. Their programs for the last four week series and the Xmas Eve service were professionally designed (this is a good sign for me) and the auditorium was nice sized (they have four services because their membership is so large). The preacher was actually moving - like, he actually challenged me. And the singing - the lead guitar player was incredible. We sang all my favorites, including O Come, O Come Emmanuel with this totally awesome haunting thing going on in the band...chills, y'all. Chills. We're going to try out a few more, but as far as my mom is concerned, Northview is the place, and I'm sort of inclined to agree, but I haven't been anywhere else yet, so I dunno.

Well, now that this entry has gone on forever, I'll give a quick update on the Stessie-wants-her-own-internet situation. Tuesday, I will be connected. YES! Until then, have a happy New Years!

Well, I'm home.

I like the house, a lot. It's really nice, and very well built. My room is huge, but the ceilings aren't as high as my old one. But all in all, it's nice. Long drive though. Nice area.

Haven't gotten my computer hooked up to the 'net yet. We're fighting with the system. It doesn't like me, i guess. If i had known that we'd be on the exact same steup here that I was in searcy, i would have saved my modem thingy, but i didn't. now I think we might have to get another, or find a way to run a cord between the gateway in the basement, to my room on the 2nd floor. Yeah, that ain't happening.

Anyway, I managed to con my mom into doing my xmas shopping for me, except for hers, which I did on the way here, so yay for not actually having to do last minute shopping on Christmas Eve! Tomorrow will be spent unpacking/decorating my room. And hanging out with my brother, who seems to have decided that my surround sound, gamecube, dvdplayer, and desk are all his to use freely. The surround sound and dvd player have been relocated to my room, and the desk has to stay down here because it's too big, but the gamecube WILL be recaptured. Eventually. :)

Anyway, very tired, so I am going to go sleep now.

So...I stayed up til 3:30 working on my self-promo, finally went to sleep because I couldn't read anymore for my internship, and missed both of my alarms, woke up when Ash called me at 9am and had definitely missed my biology final. Sigh. It's ok, I think I'll still end with a D. And I talked to my graphic design professor today and I'm going to pass his class, but he was really concerned that I was sort of falling off the bandwagon this semester, which is totally true. Hopefully going home and having my mom to keep me accountable again will help keep me in focus. Must needs get my life in order. Ok, time to go to work, because the sooner I get off work, the sooner I am totally having a PARTY at my house tonight. PS if you read this, you're so invited, at 7:30, but...just to warn you there will be...um...non-harding appropriate beverages...yeah...hey I'm graduating leave me alone. OH and how excited am I about the new 6-icon for free accounts? Very. When I have the chance, look for fun new iconage to appear soon.

Ok, so summaries fail me today. So may I present...

( Today, recap style. )
And that was today! So it was a pretty awesome day. Yeah. Five years since we've placed in Spring Sing. What a way to go, lemme tell you. Walmart will always hold a place in my heart.

*stomp stomp clap clap* WOOO!

I had the *wierdest* dream last night. Ok, so nothing still tops being gunned down by N*Sync (ask me sometime and I tell you that one, if you haven't heard it already). But last night was probably one of the weirdest since.

I don't remember all of it. I remember the beginning started out like a lot of my normal dreams. I was somewhere with a big group of people, we were all dressed up, then somethign happened and we had to escape quickly, so I was trying to teach them how to fly, since I can almost always fly in my dreams (i know it sounds cheesy, but think happy thoughts!). Then I got stuck in a video game again...that hasn't happened in a while. But then, here comes the good part.

So my family is at someone's house for dinner. I think it might have been like Thanksgiving or something. And they live by this huge pond right, like it comes within 20 yards of their back porch. And my dad and the guy and I were outside talking because they had termite problems (like...they were everywhere. eww) We go inside and the guy is like, omg look, and there was this huge crocodile (I guess it was a croc, since thats what they called it). The guy ran to shut the door, but he wasn't fast enough. That was one quick croc. So I start screaming and it comes at me like its going to bite my arm off or something. But I was standing next to the already set table. The croc completely bypasses the three people standing there, blocking him from the rest of the house, pulls himself up to the table, grabs the bowl of mashed potatoes then starts to leave. He stops at the door so the guy can get one spoonful, then proceeds to head back to the lake, with our mashed potatoes.

Even in the dream, I died laughing.

Mashed potatoes?

I'm still laughing now.