Pfft.

So much for updating this more often. It seems like when I have free time, I just want to sleep or veg out. I'm tired more often than I think I should be and I'm ready for a break from work at Christmas. Nothing sounds better than three days of sleeping until I'm done (rather than until the alarm forces me out of bed), no plans and spontaneous, very low key, mellow activities like board games with the fam and maybe a movie or two.

It's My Dad's Birthday

As I can't be 2 hours away with him, I'll wish him happy birthday from here and go to Thanksgiving next week with gift in hand. Sadly, my sweetie won't be there. But my sister will and that makes me happy.

I think I'm coming down with something. I started getting a sore throat last night and nothing had changed when I woke up this morning. Meh.

Short week.

No, it isn't National Short Person Week, it's just a 4 day work week for me. We play bingo at work and I won the last round, which meant I got to spin the roulette wheel to determine my prize options. I spun green (the best one!) so I got to pick either 1/2 day off paid or a 1 hour massage. I opted for the 1/2 day off (duh) and, now that I don't have any mutual days off with my sweetie, I'll be enjoying this Friday doing whatever with him. Woo!

...And so the holidays begin...

Now that Halloween has come and gone (fun costumes, tasty drinks, early out), the winter holidays are right around the corner and I am NOT ready for all of that hullaballoo. The plan at this point is Thanksgiving with my folks (just me) and Christmas Eve with my folks (both of us). Plans for Christmas Day aren't really set (part of it will be spent getting home from Eugene) but I'm sure that will solidify soon enough. We talked briefly about getting a small tree since our place isn't really big enough for a regular tree... and this would be my first tree since I've lived away from my family. We're also talking about going to Disney World in January for 5 days... if we're good about money until then, it should work out just fine.

Photos from Halloween coming soon...

i'm having halloween costume issues.

It's only 10 days away and I don't know what to wear. I'm not opposed to making something myself but my time is limited and I'm at a loss for good ideas. If anyone is still out there...help!

It's me, South Park style. Woo!

captain's log: star date: 050505.13.04...we've been notified of the arrival of an alien life form...

So, my sister is coming up for a visit tomorrow. We haven't seen each other since September of last year in Dublin so she hasn't seem my new place or met Matt. Her boyfriend, Grant, will be coming out to meet my parents next month and hopefully they'll come up here to visit as well, as I haven't met him either. She'll only be here tomorrow and Saturday so we'll have to pack as much in as possible. I'm making it my mission to convince her that text messaging is a necessity and she needs to get with the program. I don't know how it would work, as far as range goes, with her being on the ship most of the time but if that's not a problem, she needs to get it.

In other news, I got my first paycheck and holy crap! It's not even a full 80 hours and it's significantly more than what I was bringing home before. Niiiiice. If I keep up what I've been doing these last couple weeks, I'll be asking for a raise around June during my 90 day review. I've been given a project that entails revamping the interior design of our model apartment and the lobby of the building and I'm so excited about it! I get to pick and install new furniture, new artwork, new knick-knacks, new paint....fun, fun, fun! I took pictures of the model as it currently is and I'll take more when the project is complete so I can have this for my resume. Who knows...maybe I'll become the resident interior designer.

Since we here in the USA have stolen Cinco De Mayo and turned it into just another excuse for a party, I'm torn as to whether or not I want to fight the crowds and go out tonight. I should get some sleep and pick up the apartment a little before my sister gets here... I can always drink margaritas with her tomorrow anyway.

Money Issues.

I have ridiculous money management problems. I don't make tons of money to begin with, but the issues are really my lack of control when it comes to keeping the purse strings drawn tight and spending money on other people and things I don't really need. I horribly abuse the overdraft cushion on my checking account and end up eating the $25 fee for each transaction all the time. I am VERY bad. M bought The Idiot's Guide to Money Management at Goodwill the other day and I've decided that since I'm willing to give hundreds of dollars to my bank for no good reason, I must be an idiot and I need to read that book. I also really need to hear from the new job soon...if I put myself on a budget and make more money, I'll actually be able to save some and still get to spend the way I do now without having to worry about anyone seeing an overdraft notice in the mail and feeling guilty about it.

Groggy McGroggerson Here...

The weekend was really busy and I didn't get half enough sleep. My 2nd interview got postponed to Wednesday because the regional manager of the property won't be in town until then and I'm hoping I'll be caught up on sleep by then. I was ready to walk in and say, "When do I start?" today, but I think I can muster up the confident thing again on Wednesday.

Saturday was long....really long. We left for IKEA around 9am-ish and didn't get home until 9pm-ish. Oi. But, we have the right bedframe now and it's made a huge difference in how comfortable the mattress is. It was fine before, but now it's dreamy. We also got curtains, rods and finials for the bedroom, a matching apron and oven mitt, some plants and ceramic containers to transplant them into, lightbulbs, tea lights, and plastic storage containers for under the bed. I love IKEA. They really need to put one here in Portland...or maybe it's better for everyone's wallet that they haven't yet....

We picked up most of the stuff from M's folks' place yesterday, the rest of which he's getting today before they get home, and by the time we go to bed tonight, we'll pretty much have the living room finished (for the time being until we can get the couch we want) and ready for company with enough seating for at least five people. In fact, all of the rooms are about 90% done...we have a few boxes to deal with in the second bedroom and the living room and I have stuff to organize in the closet across from the bathroom, but aside from that, we're fairly well settled.
If all goes well with this job I'm up for, I'll see if we can plan a small house warming/hooray for a new job get-together.

I Feel Special.

It's nice to know that what I write is interesting enough that people are talking about it.

NOT Part Of The Plan.

When I agreed to pay all of my half of this month's rent at the old place, I did not anticipate being asked to have my things out by the 15th. I did not anticipate paying the whole 1/2 month's rent for someone else to live there for the rest of the month. I did not anticipate having to move my stuff out and clean the room when I was finished moving after working all day on Tuesday. I did not anticipate being told I'd get my 1/2 of the $400 deposit back in smaller monthly payments. I definitely did not anticipate being this pissed off about moving.

So Much To Do, So Little Motivation...

Moving day is exactly one week away. We can pick up keys this week but can't start moving in until the 15th and I have to work Monday and Tuesday so the major moving of my stuff won't happen until we have the U-Haul on Wednesday... and I haven't done squat about packing or selling anything. I know Lara wants the purple futon couch and the entertainment unit so if Dex and Taryn actually want some of my bookshelves, I'll only have my bed to deal with selling. The new landlord has decided NOT to resurface the bathtub, which kills me, but offered to credit us $100 towards rent if we have it done on our own, which I'm seriously considering. We'll have to see what CLR can do for the rust stain and the bottom before I'll even step foot in it. If that doesn't help, it's getting resurfaced, dammit.

I'm already tired just thinking about next week. Hopefully, we'll get out to the beach on one of my days off so I won't feel like I took off time from work to do nothing but work.

It's Happy Birthday To Me Week.

I'm at lunch, which consists of Dannon fat free vanilla yogurt over vanilla almond granola, sweet baby carrots, popcorn and water. I'm trying to decide where to go tomorrow night for my birthday dinner. I'm thinking either Todai, Yuki, Koji (all of which are sushi) or Taco Bell. I know, I know...Taco Bell? Yeah, well...It's my damn birthday and I'll have Taco Bell for all three meals if I want! So shut it.

I have to work tomorrow and I know the office is buying big sub sandwiches, cake and ice cream for lunch so that will be nice. After tonight's festivites, I expect tomorrow to be pretty quiet. Dinner with the boy and maybe a movie is all that's on the agenda and I kinda like it that way.

Oh, How We Shopped...

$1200 of super fantastic furniture from the glorious shopping mecca that is IKEA got crammed into a rented Toyota Matrix on Saturday evening. The furniture cramming was followed by a stop in Tacoma for grub at Hooters. They didn't have the black Hooters tank top in stock, so I didn't get anything there other than a yummy grilled cheese sandwich and curly fries. I heard the hot wings were delicious.

Sunday, after a few moments of panic and indecision, I chopped my hair and now have a very different 'do. The folks at work yesterday morning asked if I'd gone to the Oscars last night because they think I look glamourous. I'm still adjusting but even if I never get used to it, it's just hair and it'll grow back quickly. It suits the dress I'm wearing for my birthday festivities on Wednesday night so that's something. If you don't already know, come to the Boiler Room Wednesday night around 9ish in a fancy vintage outfit and help me celebrate the official leap into my 30's (good lord, I'll be 31...oi). My actual birthday is Thursday but I'm starting the party a day early. Be prepared for karaoke rock blocks galore...

Don't Change A Thing...For Me

We're going to Seattle tomorrow to check out and possibly buy furniture at IKEA. In trying to figure out the best way to get up there and have room in whatever vehicle we take to bring stuff back, Matt found out that one can rent cars from dealerships. He's been wanting a Toyota Matrix and thought it would be fun to drive one to Seattle. So he looked online and found out that the Toyota dealer in Beaverton does in fact rent them and it wouldn't be that expensive. I'd never heard of dealerships renting vehicles so I was curious about how it worked and asked Matt for the details. He said me asking him how it worked made him feel like I thought he was an idiot and didn't know what he was talking about. I don't get it...Am I missing something? Asking questions has always in my mind been indicative of not knowing what was going on and wanting to be educated...so why would I ask an idiot? It boggles my mind the things that come out of that guy's mouth sometimes.

Later, at the grocery store, we got into it about the jam I chose and how much high fructose corn syrup it has in it and why I should get a different jam. He actually said that I might as well take up smoking as it was about as bad for me as the corn syrup in my jam. Oh. My. God. I'd be happy to give up some of the junk I eat but we were talking about jam. JAM! I checked my e-mail today and found he'd sent me links to 4 different webpages with information about how bad high fructose corn syrup is and a note about how he has a hard time staying away from sweets and has diabetes in his family so he wants to avoid them as much as possible and how much easier it would be for him if I was doing the same thing. I can see that but, since I'm always the one who wants salad and fruit and veggies and drinks a ton of water, I feel like I'm already behaving myself for the most part. Considering my previous eating habits and how much weight I lost by changing how I eat a few years ago, I actually think I'm doing pretty good if I only indulge in jam or have a soda with my lunch once a week or whatever.

I'm not the sort of girl who smiles and says "Yes, dear." to everything so I asked him last night to let this one go...he'd mentioned awhile back something about picking your battles and I wholeheartedly agree. I don't have the energy to argue about this one.

We're Shackin' Up.

The deposit has been paid and the date has been set. Beware the Ides of March, yo. We move into our new place on NW 23rd and Everett March 15th. Got to clean out and sell off or trash a bunch of crap before then. The trip idea has been postponed until further notice but I still have my birthday celebrating and new apartment decorating to look forward to in the coming months. Can't wait to get things moved and settled...

Pook, Pook, Pook.

Fun weekend... stayed home Friday night, made dinner and watched tv. Went shopping with my boy Saturday and then met up w/ T & D for dinner at Navarro and pool and singing at the bar after. Yesterday I woke up to the smell of french toast and bacon - M had gone to the store and gotten movies, bought me a vanilla latte (my favorite) and pepper bacon, come home to cook and served breakfast in bed! Happy Valentine's Day to me! We went shopping again after the movies, grabbed dinner while we were out, then came back to drink raspberry champagne and watch Bitter Moon (weird movie). I loved the whole weekend.

Today, we went to look at an apartment during my lunch break. Super cool place over in NW w/ hardwood floors and lots of light. We took an application so now we have to figure out how to make this work in the next few weeks. How exciting!

Feels Like A Made-For-TV Movie...

Ok, check it:

1.) M got his unemployment (finally!) and has been treating me to everything for the last four days. So sweet!

2.) I may or may not have a job here at some point in the next 4-6 months because the company has put the property on the market. They'll give me a staying bonus and severance package if I stay until it sells and they can't place me elsewhere within the company and the buyer doesn't offer me a job. I'm interested to see how this all pans out.

3.) M is seriously looking into the Army as a career option. Life as we know it would end if he signs up. I am not thrilled.

4.) We're still staying at Hotel Jensen and it's really nice. There's been talk of moving in together and more, but I can't take it too seriously because of all the Army talk. I don't know if I'm ready for all of this.

5.) I'll be at the bar tomorrow night and since I haven't seen some of you in awhile, I'd love it if you came out.

6.) My birthday is just a few weeks away and I'm hoping to take a little 3-4 day trip somewhere fun next month. Vegas or Disneyland are possibilities...still trying to work out the timing, how much I can afford, etc.

7.) My brain is going a mile a minute and it's freaking me out.

You Know What's Good?

~Trader Joe's Strawberry Smoothies.

~Celebrity Poker Showdown on Bravo.

~Free doughnuts.

~Hearing someone say they're falling in love with you.

~6pm on Fridays.

~The Killers.

~Oriental flavor ramen noodles.

~Knowing that no matter how little money you have right now, there's more coming soon.

~Tax refunds.

~Pretending you're on vacation at a hotel when you stay with your boyfriend at his parent's house while they're out of town.

me, yo. 

Sicky McSickerson Here...

The sore throat, the lingering headache, the all over achy feeling... guh. I said I was willing to brave potentially getting sick to be with my ailing boy and now I have the yuck too. Did that stop me from going to work? Nope. Will it stop me from going to T's birthday party tomorrow night? Nope. Will I feel like a hottie in the dress I'm gonna wear? Nope. D'oh.

Where's The Magic Money Tree When You Need It?

I wonder if sending out a mass e-mail, like one of those "forward this on to all of your friends" type of dealie, requesting that anyone who feels so inclined should donate their loose change to me via my Pay Pal account would actually work... that would be sweet if it did.

Spent a big chunk of Sunday cleaning: scrubbed out the microwave, did all the dishes and put them away, vacuumed the living room, kitchen and bathroom rugs and couches, did a bunch of laundry and made my bed. I was jacked up on caffeine and it took my mind off of being broke. If only I got an allowance for doing my chores like in the old days, I'd be rich right now.

Went to the BR on Saturday night and took a bunch of pictures of people giving me the finger. Even got one of T flipping me the double bird and she never does that. When you scroll through them on the camera's viewer, it's pretty funny.

New Photos

new camera, new pics.

I Must Have Been A Saint In A Past Life.

After spending Friday night straight through to Monday night with my boyfriend, I feel so incredibly lucky to have him.

Three Days

Three days of no plans. Three days of whatever I want. Three days of no alarm clock. Three days of peanut butter and honey sandwiches and Lucky Charms and colby jack cheese and bottles of wine. Three days of nothing and everything. The clock can't strike 6pm soon enough.

The Two Year Curse

This week is poking along slowly... can't figure out if it's just me being eager for a three day weekend (took Monday off for the hell of it) or what but it's starting to get to me. Could just be the two year curse: looking back at all the different jobs I've had since college, I noticed that I haven't stayed at a job longer than about two years before either moving on to a different position or moving to a different city or something. I temped for three years after trying the nanny thing many moons ago and after that I landed a job at a hospital in the medical records department where I spent a little over a year. I was asked to work on a special project for the patient financial services department, which lasted about a year and when the project ended, so did my employment at the hospital. A little over a week later, I started a job at a private practice neurosurgery office and about a year later, I was fired w/o cause (later it was determined by a judge that it was for "personal differences" between myself and the practice administrator and not for anything I did wrong, therefore I was still eligible for unemployment). Within two weeks of that fun incident, I was packed up and on my way here to Portland where I spent from Sept. 11, 2002 to Feb. 25, 2003 temping again. I've now been at my current job, which was a temp-to-hire position, for almost two years.

I remember my mom having several different jobs throughout my childhood and all the moves we made for my dad's job with the U.S. Marshal service over the years and it struck me that maybe I'm destined for the same fate: doing random jobs here and there just to get a paycheck. That doesn't really bother me, actually. Work is work. I'm not going to be passionate about or expect 24/7 fun doing something called work. If it was fun all the time, it'd be called fun. "Honey, I'm off to have fun now. See you tonight for dinner." Doesn't really sound right. And really, I can't complain too much because all of my jobs have been tolerable. I realized that none of the actual work I've had to do has been any real source of stress. Boring, sometimes, but not really stressful. On the other hand, some of the people I've worked with or had to deal with as customers have been a serious pain in my ass and made me wish I was anywhere other than at work.

The point of all this is that I'm feeling a little stagnant. I thought moving around and travelling so much as a kid made me get antsy after living in Eugene for too long but now I'm thinking it was more that I didn't feel at home there anymore and needed to find MY place. So far, Portland has definitely been that. Maybe I've jumped from job to job because I haven't felt like any of them were what I'm SUPPOSED to be doing. Is this job IT for me? Doubtful. Is Portland my permanent home? Who knows. All that I do know is I'm itching for an adventure and I need to figure out how to make that happen.

Shocking. Not.

You scored as Geek. Geek 56% Drama nerd 50% Punk/Rebel 31% Prep/Jock/Cheerleader 25% Goth 19% Loner 19% Stoner 13% Ghetto gangsta 0% What's Your High School Stereotype? created with QuizFarm.com

I Believe In A Thing Called Love...

(For the protection of our readers, this post has been removed due to overwhelmingly squishy content.)

There Are Worse Things Than Being Temporarily Broke If You Have Company.

Under normal cash flow circumstances, I get out a few times a week either to restaurants, the bar, the movies or some other form of entertainment that eats away at the money in my pocket like pirhannas to a cow. Currently, I'm broke. In fact, I'm broker than broke: I actually owe myself money when I get paid next Wednesday. Oi. All that really means is that I have to find ways to entertain myself that don't cost anything. Like Yahtzee. I loves me some Yahtzee. And I'll be watching movies I've already seen a bazillion times. I'm sure there are games to be made out of quoting these films. Oh, and everyone knows the cheapest food on the planet is ramen, so it's soup and noodles for me for the next week. My boy is broke for awhile too, so at least I won't be alone in my quest for free entertainment. Now that the holidays are over, I think it'll be nice to stay in for a little awhile and relax anyway. This no money thing could turn out to be a blessing in disguise...

Ready To Go home And Cry.

I feel like crap. I'm hyper-emotional, crampy, headachy and mentally exhausted. I want to go home, put on pajamas, make some soup and crawl into bed. Guh.

A Year Of Firsts And It's Only The 4th.

The weekend was great: Thursday night, I went over to M's after work with Chinese food in tow, after which we headed down to the bar to sing for awhile and hang out with T. New Year's Eve day we watched Amelie (which I hadn't seen and loved), then headed out to spend the evening at T & D's drinking champagne, eating pizza and other random junk food, playing video games and Yahtzee and then watching the ball drop on tv. We all got up to make a tasty breakfast on the 1st, then M & I just sorta lazed around and played more video games and Yahtzee once we got back into town. Sunday we decided on a whim to go down to Eugene and spend the night at my parents' place. Burrito Boy was on the agenda for dinner and after seeing Kinsey at the Bijou, we went over to the Downtown Lounge and played pool for a bit before the kung fu karaoke started. After my mom made dutch babies and bacon for breakfast yesterday, we wanted to wander around the UO campus (we're both graduates) and go say hi to M's old boss. He introduced me as his girlfriend for the first time...so cute! On the way home, we stopped at the outlets in Woodburn and then he surprised me by taking me to see Garden State (which I'd been whining about wanting to see for weeks) at the Kennedy School. We were back to my place by 10ish and I slept like a baby. Amazing.

I wish I were independently wealthy so I could do stuff like that all the time. As it stands, I'm grounded until next Wednesday. Guh.