the kate

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 22:01:11 GMT

either something is wrong with my friends page, OR no one has really updated since friday...

car, work, stuff.

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 18:23:51 GMT

So I haven't updated since the car search and such. But I bought a car!

My dad's friend Gary works at Boardwalk VW. Dad and I stopped over there one day just to look, and I found a 2006 4-door manual transmission Golf. It drove really well and it was in good condition. And we got an alright price on it. Sooo I filled out all of the loan paperwork and all that, but it was taking a long time. Gary, Dad, and I just sat around and waited for a good couple hours at least. Guess the finance dept. was really backed up or something. So Gary suggested we head out and he'll call us if he hears anything. We leave, I go to Target and my phone rings. Astoundingly, I've been approved for a car loan! Yay!

I work the next day, but I'm off again on Thursday, so I plan on heading back to the dealership with income verification and all that good stuff. Thursday I start to panic. I'm driving around before heading to Boardwalk having an anxiety attack about buying this car. So I get some caffeine to stop my headache and head over to my dad's. I tell him that I don't think I should buy this car. It's 4 years old, and it's in good condition, but for what I'd be paying for it, I feel I could get something better. I had looked at the Boardwalk website and found a 2007 4-door Rabbit (Rabbits are what they rebranded the Golfs about 1/2 way through 2006) for $1,000 more. And this one is an automatic, and it's silver, and it's got a 6-disc CD changer and all sorts of neat stuff.

Of course, when we get to the dealership and talk to Gary, we find out that the rabbit had been sent off to auction on Tuesday-- the first day we were there. Well, crap. Gary heads down to the pre-owned part of the dealership to look around. Meanwhile, I use his computer to check the online listings, and I find a 2007 2-door white automatic Rabbit. He comes back, and we have both found the same car. We wander around the entire dealership lot trying to find this car. It had only JUST come in, so no one was really sure where it was... was it in the detail center? was it being washed? We eventually found it. It was so cute! And it was only about $1,200 more than the one I had almost bought.

So that's the one I bought. Seriously almost threw up when I was signing all the finance paperwork. And then I wrote the check for the downpayment and I really wanted to puke.

But I love my little car. Here it is!

He still has no name, but he is definitely a glam rocker. For sure. The problem is that most glam rockers had really normal names... David, Marc, Brian...So I was thinking Ziggy (as in Stardust), but would be worried that people would associate it with the stupid little cartoon. Mom suggested Iggy (as in Pop). Thinking about Roxy (as in Music)- but even though it's a band name, it sounds like a girl name, and none of my cars have had girl names (except Betty-- but he was a transvestite car). Bah, I don't know.

In other news- I'm going to be taking over my own Starbucks store on 6-22. I'm taking over for a manager that's going on maternity leave, so I'll only be at that store until she comes back (if she comes back), but it'll be great. It's a slower store, so I've got to definitely get the numbers in check and get the Customer Voice survey numbers up. And, awesomely, the 10-year remodel started last night and will be finished about a week after I get there. So, not only is it a great visual transition between managers, I also am not going to have to worry about doing all the deep cleaning I was plannong on. The store is 10 years old, so I know it's got some ground in gunk in there, but if it's getting a total remodel, I won't have to worry about it as much, you know. I've heard that it can be kind of a tough store to get into... a lot of the partners there are more tenured partners that tend to be set in their ways and hesitant to change. We'll see, though. I don't plan on making any changes at all the first couple weeks I'm there. The first few weeks, I just want people to get used to me and not hate me and I want to learn their customer patterns and all that good stuff.

Aaaand I really need to get off my lazy butt and go to the store today.

searching for a car, plus other updates

Wed, 13 May 2009 04:04:22 GMT

So, my car is no longer reliable. It had no heater, which was fine, til winter hit pretty hardcore and I had to wear about 20 layers of clothes to get to work (30 minutes away) without turning into a popsicle. So I borrowed my dad's van because it's got a heater.

The coldest part of winter is gone, so I go get my car back. Car hasn't been driven in awhile, so it's a little rough getting started. Of course, the A/C needs to be recharged, so even though it's February, it's ridiculously hot outside and the car just blows hot air at me (I've got freon to recharge it, though). Whatever, it still works. Drive the car to work for a week or so. Go to Marble Slab one evening, get my ice cream, get back in the car and... it won't start. Crap. John's just got out of work, so I call him for help. Jumping the battery does nothing. Awesome. Leave car there overnight, have it towed in the morning to my dad's friend's shop. It gets 'fixed'. Pick the car up from the shop and drive it for a grand total of maybe 2 times before it fails to start again. Don't want to get it towed again, so wait for dad's friend to drive down here to look at it. Almost two months later, he finally shows up and claims it's just a dead battery. The battery is only about a year old. Right.

So all this time I've been driving my dad's van around. I am so sick of driving this huge monstrosity. I mean, don't get me wrong. It's nice to have transportation and I'm grateful for that. However, it gobbles up gas, it's a huge minivan, and I swear to god that the front passenger-side wheel is going to just fall off one of these days.

So I've been looking for a car. I've found a couple of new cars that I like, but at this particular point, I think I've decided to get a used one. Don't get me wrong, it would be very very nice to buy my own first brand new, drive off the dealer lot, including a warranty, that no one has had a chance to fuck up Car. However, I'm poor. I was looking for a second job, and even had an interview. Decided that I'm going to take my mom's offer. Her current assistant only works 10-15 hours a week, tops, but she's useless. I can work from my house, or from her office whenever I want (3 in the morning, even) in my pajamas, as I'll just be doing her billing/filing/etc. and not actually interacting with anyone except my mom. I feel bad taking her up on her offer to do this work for her, however, it's true that she's already paying someone to do this job, but this person is ineffectual, and my mom is basically wasting money. She's told me 1000 times that she would rather pay me to do it properly the first time than pay her current assistant to do nothing, and then have to go fix it all on her own in the end anyway.

So, with that extra money going to be coming in (and potentially a raise at my regular job with extra responsibilies I'm going to be taking on this summer. Not sure yet. Not really a good time to ask about it), I'm looking seriously. I test-drove a couple of cars at a little used-car dealership by my house. I've decided that I'm not going to buy from them as things are over-priced and all of their vehicles seem to have really high mileage, which is concerning. BUT I did learn that I really really like the VW Golf. I test-drove a 2002, but I'd really love to get a 2004. 2005 and above, the Golf turns into the Rabbit/the GTI which go up a LOT in price, even for being 4 years old. I found a great one online at a dealership where I've got a connection to get a good price, but I found it too late! By the time I got around to asking about it, it had actually been gone for awhile, but the website hadn't been updated. Found one on craigslist, decent mileage, seems to be in good condition, BUT it's a little overpriced (could probably negotiate the price down, though) and it's from a private seller, so there's absolutely no guarantee or anything. Since I know someone at a VW dealership, I could always get them to check it over before buying it from the seller, but still. Ah well.

But yeah. The one I found online that I wanted but already lost was a cute little 2 door (hatchback, so technically 3-door, I guess) silver one. The private seller one is a 2 door indigo blue. And automatic. Which is nice. Not required, but nice for my poor broken knee. Hah!

If anyone out there in LJ land knows of anyone selling a 2003-2004 VW Golf, Let me know! I'm looking! For real! I think I might go check out the one I found on Craigslist after work on Thursday. It's only got 61,000 miles (which sounds like a lot for a 2004, but it's a Volkswagen, and they'll get 300,000 miles before dying if properly cared for- ALSO most of the used ones I've found have almost twice the mileage this one does), and is a cute color, and looks like good condition. I'm really trying to not get my hopes up like I did on the last one, but we'll see!

Sorry for the long post. Felt it was time for an update :)

In other news, I have become obsessed with Doctor Who (well, specifically, with David Tennant's portrayal of Doctor Who. I'm particular about my flavor of the Doctor), and have already told John that if David Tennant shows up in the TARDIS, I'm going with him. John countered with if Martha is with the Doctor, he's going too. Haha. Good times.

Don't remember the last time I've updated, so I'll do a little recap of what's been going on. I obviously survived the great Starbucks assistant-manager-Layoff of a couple months ago. Still going strong. My manager and I are getting together and doing my mid-year review in a week or so. Hopefully all will go well. Things have been a LOT better at work since holiday ended and I've gotten more in my groove at that store. This summer, I'm going to be leaving my store and taking over a store up the road. Not permanently, mind you. The current manager of that store is going on maternity leave. She's due in July, so my manager figures that she'll be leaving sometime in late June or so. So while this manager is out babying and such, I'm going to take over her store. That's what I mentioned up there about taking on extra responsibilities. I'm going to be completely running her store while she's gone. It's really exciting and really terrifying at the same time. One thing I do know for sure is that I have to blow this out of the park. I've got to get their numbers better than they currently are, I've got to keep markouts good, keep partners happy, and make the store freaking sparkle. This is basically a test to see if I can handle my own store. And I know I can. I just have to prove it. I'm not sure if I'm going to get a raise or anything while this is going on. I e-mailed Charley Vaughn who took over for Kristi when she went on maternity leave right after I originally started at Sbux. He said that he got an additional weekly stipend when he ran our store, but he's not sure if they still do that. I hope they do! So we'll see! Either way, I'm going to rock this store.

I know that a couple of people at my current store said they'd love to pick up shifts at my new store, so at least there will be a couple of friendly faces around every once in a while.

Let's see. What else.
Oh, unfortunately, I started drinking soda again. It was totally unintentional and I plan to try to stop drinking it again. I was EXHAUSTED when I had to open the store last week (or week before??), so I stopped by the Whataburger right down the street and got a large Dr Pepper. Which I completely inhaled in probably 10 minutes. After that, I've been just CRAVING it. I've mostly controlled it, but I had a lot of good ol Pepper tonight at dinner. I regret it now because I'm very full and feel swishy full of liquid. Ah well.

Star Trek!!! Jacque and I went to go see it last night. She'd already seen it twice but was stoked to see it again, so we went on Monday night after work. AWESOME. I am in no way a Trekkie (I liked the Next Generation while growing up, but grew out of that and was never a fan of the original series), but this movie was seriously cool. The effects are great, the action is great, the acting is great (you even kind of forget that Eric Bana is the bad guy. I do not like Eric Bana), it's fun, there are lots of neat references to the original series, but it's a total and complete reboot of the franchise, so you don't NEED to get any of those references to like the movie. Carey and I went to go see it today at the IMAX. Our seats weren't amazing, and to be honest, it wasn't exponentially cooler in IMAX than it was in the regular theatre. I mean, yeah okay, bigger screen, louder sound. But if I went and saw it in DLP in a larger (but still 'regular') theatre, I would pay less ($12 for IMAX now! wtf?), would probably get a better seat, and would miss nothing. Not gonna lie- probably going to go see it again. It's a lot of fun. Oh, and I think Spock is pretty hot. I googled the actor, and have determined that he's really only good looking as Spock. Odd, but there ya go.

Okay, this post has gotten quite long, but at least it's an update. I am still alive! I exist! Here's a post to prove it! :)

bored

Thu, 26 Mar 2009 01:18:58 GMT

50 things not usually asked or something like that. waaa waaa

1. What color is your toothbrush? Purple

2. Name one person who made you smile today: The training facilitator at my class was funny

3. What were you doing at 8 am this morning: waiting for my bagel at Einstein's.

4. What were you doing 45 minutes ago? Calling Domino's to tell them that my pizza was wrong AGAIN

5. What is your favorite candy bar? uhhh.. not a huge candy bar eater. I like to eat a couple of the little mini-sized Three Musketeers, but I can't eat any more than a couple.

6. Have you ever been to a strip club? Nope

7. What is the last thing you said aloud? "I was listening" regarding the commercial I wasn't listening to :)

8. What is your favorite ice cream flavor? I love ice cream. I love coffee ice cream. I love to go to Marble Slab and do mostly coffee, with a thin layer of the swiss chocolate on top. Rainbow Sherbet from Baskin-Robbins is also amaaaazing

9. What was the last thing you had to drink? water

10. Do you like your wallet? Mostly. Lately, I've been wanting to go to a different wallet, but the one I've got suits me well. I've had since 2001. It's got blue flames on it :)

11. What was the last thing you ate? Pizza. The 2nd time, they got it right.

12. Have you bought any new clothing items this week? Nope. I want to, though. I really hate the pants I wore to my class today.

13. The last sporting event you watched? uhhh. The Super Bowl

14. What is your favorite flavor of popcorn? I like Caramel corn. mmm.

15. Who is the last person you sent a text message too? Carey, complaining about my pizza

16. Ever go camping? Not since high school.. With Tara, Jen, and Stacy. It was a lot of fun!

17. Do you take vitamins daily? I mean to... but I rarely do.

18. Do you go to church every Sunday? HAHAHAHAH You funny.

19. Do you have a tan? hah no. I'm so white, I'm see-through.

20. Do you prefer Chinese food over pizza? I crave Chinese food harder than I'll crave pizza, but whenever I get the Chinese I'm always more disappointed with it.

21. Do you drink your soda with a straw? I don't drink sodas. But I pretty much prefer straws in everything.

22. What did your last text message say? "Don't have one. Wanna go home already!" from Carey.

23. What are you doing tomorrow? Going down to the zone office for another training class.

24. What sounds are you listening to now? Paula Abdul being weird and incoherent.

25. Look to your left, what do you see? the window

26. What color is your watch? I haven't worn a watch regularly since jr high, at least.

27. What do you think of when you hear Australia? dust (I know, it's strange)

28. What is your birthstone? December has 2... Turquoise and Blue Topaz

29 Do you go in at a fast food place or just hit the drive thru? Depends. If the line is super duper long, I go inside. I usually feel lazy and go through the drive-thru, though. I DO check my order for correctness before I leave, though.

30. What is your favorite number? 6

31. Who's the last person you talked to on the phone? My mom called earlier

32. Any plans today? I want to clean up the kitchen a little bit, then shower, read a bit, then sleep because I've got to wake up at 7 again tomorrow :(

33. How many states have you lived in? 1

34. Biggest annoyance right now? I need a car. Bad.

35. Last song listened to? I'm watching American Idol, so I just heard "Ain't Too Proud to Beg" being butchered by some oil rig worker from Jasper.

36. Can you say the alphabet backwards? Not at all.

37. Do you have a maid service clean your house? Hah. Yeah. Maid service = me and John.

38. Favorite pair of shoes you like to wear all the time? flip flops. I hate shoes. I suffer through shoes for work. But I hate them.

39. Are you jealous of anyone? Yes, people with cars that function properly.

40. Is anyone jealous of you? Doubtful

41. Do you love anyone? Nope. Hate everyone.

42. Do any of your friends have children? Many of them. Weirdos :)

43. What do you usually do during the day? Clean. Deal with customers.

44. Do you hate anyone that you know right now? There are some people I dislike, but I don't know that I truly hate them

45. Do you use the word 'hello' daily? I prefer ‘hi’ or ‘hey’

46. What color is your car? well, I've got my teal wagon, still. But the shit don't work no mo'.

47. Do you like cats? More than I like most people.

48. Are you thinking about someone right now? Yep

49. Have you ever been to Six Flags? Yep. John and I got season passes last year and we went ONCE. Fail.

50. How did you get your worst scar? I fall down a lot. I don't even know what my worst scar is.

greeeen bags and greeeen spinach

Wed, 04 Mar 2009 02:50:10 GMT

So the biggest thing that I love about bringing my own canvas bags to the grocery store instead of getting the plastic grocery store ones? The handles are longer, so I can carry them on my shoulders, meaning I can more easily carry all of the groceries up the stairs in one load!

Yeah, being good the environment is also a plus, but the ease of transport is my #1 reason.

Oh, and I really hate the plastic-y kind of bags the grocery stores sell for $1-2, but the canvas bags that Central Market sells are $10. BUT I found canvas bags at World Market for $2.99! I bought 2 (which has been sufficient so far), but I might go back and get some more in case there's a big trip to the grocery.

Oh, and I cooked some AWESOME spinach/mushroom/cheese quesadillas for dinner! Well, I had one of the veggie quesadillas and one with refried beans and cheese. The beans and cheese `dilla was kind of backup because I didn't cook the mushrooms before I stuck them in there, and I was a little unsure of how it would go- but it was really tasty!

Thu, 08 Jan 2009 18:49:54 GMT

Ouch. Just made my first Student Loan Payment. That's gonna suck a lot, especially since I don't have a ton of extra money just laying around to pay it, ya know.

It's only $165 a month (minimum), so that's not too awful. Just have to stop impulse-buying a couple things every month and I'll never even notice it.

It would be so much easier if I could win the lottery or if I had an unknown wealthy benefactor shower me with money.

Stitches!

Fri, 26 Dec 2008 07:27:58 GMT

Well, I can now no longer say that I've never had stitches!

I worked today, which wasn't as bad as I thought. Just kind of like a regular day at work, only we closed early. Hah.

So get this, last year, that store did $1200 on Christmas. Therefore, we were alloted labor for only $1200 in business. We did $3300 this year. Iiiiiiit kind of sucked. We eventually just stopped trying to do dishes and clean things, knowing that we would just have to do it all at the end of the night. I managed to get all of the prep done early, though. Everyone was staring at me like, "why is she bothering to do that now?" well, they were quite happy that I got all the prep done when we ran out of frappuccino and I had back-up already made! hah!

So then after we closed, we knew it was going to suck. Thankfully, there were 4 of us, so we divvied things up appropriately, and were going to town. I had the entire front of house done... all the counters, the coffee urns, had all the expired stuff out, had all of the espresso bars done. It was all very shiny. Then, as I'm going to put the shot glasses back on top of the espresso bar tray, they slipped, and I went to go catch them. Unfortunately, when I went to catch them, one of them shattered and lodged one of the big shards into my hand. FUN FUN!

It's a small cut (maybe only an inch long), but it's quite deep, and it's in a really shitty location. It's right between my thumb and index finger (in the webbing-area) on my left hand. Soooo I start bleeding profusely, rinse it, and slap some paper towels on it for pressure, and keep working. After about 15 minutes, it's still bleeding a LOT LOT LOT. So I give up and try to dress it properly. Which doesn't really work. So I keep working a little more, until my manager realizes that I do indeed probably need stitches. I fill out an incident report form and leave to go get stitches.

On the way to the hospital, I stop by Becky's and say bye to John. He, Becky, and her kids are driving up to New York in a day (non-stop) to see Rolfe and maybe some snow, and then they're turning around and coming back to be back in Dallas by Jan 1, so Becky can work that night. They're a little crazy, I think. They should be past Hope, Arkansas by now.

So, I say bye to John, and head to Presby Plano. I cannot say enough great things about this hospital. John always goes there when he feels the need to go to the ER, but I haven't been to an ER in over 5 years (and only twice in my whole life). The wait was really short, even though my wound was clearly not life-threatening. They then gave me my own little room with a tv in it. It was great! The nurse and doctor were both great, and it really didn't take very long at all. From walking in the door to pulling out of the parking lot, it was 2 hours. It would've been an even shorter wait, but I wanted them to do the topical numbing agent THEN lidocaine (because I'm a big whimp) and the topical stuff took about 30 minutes to start to work.

Soooooo I got 3 stitches. It hurts. And I can't work tomorrow. Well, I'll put it this way- IF i have to work tomorrow, it's going to be a shitty shift because all I can do is ring people up. I'm not to do ANY dishes at all, I'm not to get my left hand wet or damp or dirty at all, and I can't lift anything with it.

When I was in my little ER room, all I could think was a line from Adventures in Babysitting (it was on tv the other day), "One stitch! All Better."

hah. I topped that. I got three stitches! I like that lidocaine numbs so well, but that shit HURTS going in. OW. The topical stuff didn't do that great of a job in numbing before the shots. But the nurse was amazing-- she gave me a tetnus shot. I didn't even feel it AT ALL!! I kept waiting to feel the needle stick, and I didn't. I was waiting and waiting and the next thing I knew, she was putting a band-aid on my arm.

So, all in all, not the best Christmas I've ever had. But at least I can say that now I've had stitches before!

(by the way, showering when I got home was fun. my hand can't even think about getting wet, remember? yay for ziploc baggies, but it's hard to wash and dry oneself with one hand)

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 17:54:22 GMT

My birthday is a week from today. This year has really flown by- it's crazy.

Anyway, my birthday is near, which means that Christmas isn't too far off either. Unfortunately, this means that people will soon start shopping for presents for both of these occasions. The problem with this-- apparently I am incredibly difficult to shop for. Last year, I made a point of not buying anything that I wanted for 3 months leading up to December. Every time I saw something I wanted, I wrote it down instead of buying it.

Well, this year I started packing to move in September. I realized that I already have WAY too much stuff and didn't buy anything or write anything down. Now it's a week before my birthday and I've already started getting calls, "What do you want for your birthday this year?" I dunno. I really have no idea. Aaand this sucks.

Well, what I really want is a new car OR to have all of my student loan debt paid off. Neither of those is going to happen. :)

Ugh. I've been trying to hunt around Amazon and I've gotten no ideas, mainly because I bought a bunch of textbooks off of there, so all of my "recommendations" from Amazon are based on "Orientalism" and "Letters from Mistress Henley, published by her friend" (and many more) that I bought off of there for school a few years ago. So, that's useless.

So far, I've only managed to come up with a few things:

Gilmore Girls, season 7
Criminal Minds, seasons 1-3

And that's it. Hah. And I don't even really NEED these, either, it'd just be nice to have them.

my face hurts

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 05:29:54 GMT

and I need to go to bed.

The end.

ughhhhhhhhhhhh. I need another vacation

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 23:01:49 GMT

Today was incredibly frustrating. It was my first day running a shift at my new store. Well, I opened. So I have to direct the busiest shift all day long. And it's a Monday morning. Arg.

I'm not very happy with the manager that made the schedule (this particular manager left- we have a new manager now)-- what on earth made her think that that would be a good time to learn the flow of that store? I've never run a shift in a store that busy, when I don't know anyone else working. I've also never run a shift in a drive thru store.

Anyway. I told everyone that I worked with that I've never worked a shift like that and needed help from everyone. Needless to say, it didn't go exactly as planned. It was frustrating and busy and people weren't telling me what they needed/wanted. So yeah.

Already gotten into explaining it about 9 times, so I don't really have the energy to do it all over again, but the general gist is that it sucked.

And of course I had to wake up at 3am to open. Then when I got home, I made some really tasty lentil soup. I kind of went overboard on the lentils, but I'll know for next time. Oh well. It was still really good and I think it'll reheat well, too.

That's all I can really think of. I called Barnes and Noble earlier to speak to one of the managers that interviewed me about 2 weeks ago, but she was on a conference call, and I forgot to call back until just now. Whoops. So I'll call her tomorrow instead.

So now it's time to relax and watch some tv.

HAIRCUT!

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 03:46:39 GMT

BEFORE!

AHHH!

Mon, 03 Nov 2008 17:30:16 GMT

I know, I'm updating again already. It's insane.

I'm updating to say that I'm cutting my hair again!

For those of you not familiar with the saga, I got my first haircut in 4 years in June 2007. I had over 18" of hair cut off (well, it was actually more, but that was the measurable part)- I went from having waist-length hair to shoulder length. It was nuts.

Well, that was last year. It's grown out quite a bit since then because my hair grows really fast. I've been kind of playing with the idea of going even shorter since this summer. I didn't want to do it before now for a couple of reasons... If I'd gotten my hair cut before graduation, and it turned out really badly, every graduation photo would be of me with shitty hair. Then I was going on vacation, and I didn't want any vacation photos of me with shitty hair. Then I was moving and just too busy.

The time has come. I went by Victoria's salon on Saturday (caught her about 10 minutes before she locked the doors) and made an appointment for Monday (today) at 1pm. AHHH! Scary. I'm really nervous but I think it'll be good.

If nothing else, I know that my hair grows really really quickly and by this time next year it'll definitely be long enough to put into a pony tail again.

Wish me luck and nerves! I'll post pictures when I get home from work tonight.

HAUNTED HOUSE!!!

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 05:52:07 GMT

Hey everyone.

I'm trying to get a group together to go to a Haunted House this week!!

I've heard great things about the Parker House in Lewisville, Tx off 35 and Main St.

It's $18 each (and I think you can pay an extra $5 to bypass the hour-long wait), and parking's free.

I'm thinking WEDNESDAY OR THURSDAY night! The actual night chosen will be based on who can go on which day.

Respond here or text message me with, "YES i wanna go on ____" and your day preference.

We'd probably head up there around 7.30/7.45pm either day (I get out of work at 7.15 both days). Might miss some of the lines if we go that early.

If you don't want to go to Parker House, then send me your suggestion! Verdun Manor is always a favorite, but it's $30 to get into all the haunts and parking is $5. Lame. Already been to Reindeer Manor, and Cutting Edge might be too far. Screams is always fun in Waxahachie, and I hear it's gotten better/scarier the past couple years (plus, there's booze if you're one of those types who likes to drink and then pee your pants in the haunt).

LET ME KNOW!!! I LOVE OCTOBER!!! I LOVE HAUNTED HOUSES!!! FOOLS!!!

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 03:27:34 GMT

It took me about 30 tries to post this, and it eventually got posted AFTER I got home from work and not before. Grr. Did not go back and edit anything though. Don't care anymore.

It's been awhile since I've updated (like, uh... 3 months) so I'll try to consolidate.

We did move to the Addison/Carrollton area. Technically, we're in Carrollton, but we're a minute from Addison and 4 minutes from Farmer's Branch. (Carrollton itself can be misleading because it stretches kind of far) It's a great apartment. I'll post pictures once it looks a little less scary in here. We've only been here for about a week. We've made great progress in that week, but there's still quite a bit to do. It's a great 2 bedroom/2 bath with a nice open kitchen and large living room/dining room area. The master bathroom is really cool because there is a garden soaking tub, and a seperate walk-in shower. So that's neat. Nice and big bathroom, too.

Still have to go clean the other place. Ugh. Gave my papasan chair to Carey's brother, as I had no need for it. One of my dad's car guys is probably going to take my entertainment center because I don't need that one either. It's still at the old place, and if I can't get my dad's guy to take it, then I'm going to call CCA and have them come pick it up.

In other news, I've had quite a few job interviews lately. One of them was with Starbucks and I have been offered (and accepted) an ASM job! Yay! The biggest downside? It's in Grapevine. The store outside the mall with a drive-through. I just moved to southeast Carrollton. From my old apartment it'd be a 10 minute drive. From the new one, it's 25 minutes with no traffic. So that kind of sucks... especially with the money they're (NOT) paying me. Ah well.
The other interviews were with Barnes and Noble for a Merchandising Manager position that's open. Actually, there are 3-4 openings for that position throughout the district. The money would be just about the same as what I'll be making at Sbux, but odds are good that it would be considerably closer. I interviewed at the Frisco store a week ago and it only took me about 10 minutes to get there because we're right off the tollway. Other stores in their district are equally close (the Prestonwood store is actually about 3 miles from where I live and that would be my preference, obviously). So, if I hear from them before I start over at Grapevine Sbux, I'm not sure what I'm going to do. I like Starbucks and I'm good at what I do there, but a change might be good. A change might make me stop going, "uhhhhh I don't want to go to work today" when I get up. Haha. Maybe I just need another vacation.

My car is in the shop because antifreeze is steaming out of the A/C panels. Awesome. Driving my dad's van. Yay for crappy gas mileage. I should have mine back in a couple days, though. Hopefully it'll all be fixed and happy again.

The kitties were not happy with the move, by the way. Baby Kitty hid under the first thing she could find (one of the chairs that was in John's living room and is now under the dining room table) and didn't come out for a long time. Skunky spent the evening walking around in circles, smelling things. haha. They're both better, now. But Baby Kitty still runs and hides more than usual.

Okay, I've gotta be at work in about 90 minutes, so I need to go find my clothes and stuff.

Anyone have any Halloween plans??? I'm working a mid-shift that day, so I'll be in costume (going as Penelope Garcia from Criminal Minds because it allows me to dress all crazy, be snarky, and put pink in my hair again) while at work, but don't have anything else going on. If anyone has any fun things going on, let me know! :)

YAY

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 17:45:45 GMT

So here's the deal. I'm moving in October when my lease is up. John got a job (today's his first day, actually. They took him out to lunch at Genghis Grill. yum) at a company in Addison, so we're looking to move to that area. Now that I'm done with school, I've got no reason to stay in Lewisville (even though I do like it here).

We looked at what felt like a dozen apartments on Saturday and found 3 or 4 top contenders. 3 of them are all around the Frankford/Tollway area, and one is the oddball: it's below 635 off Hillcrest.

Obviously when I move down there, I'm not going to commute to Lewisville to work at my current Sbux. Months and months ago I told Candy that I was going to want to transfer to a store in the north Dallas area where I'll go through RMT to become an Assistant Manager. Unfortunately, there is a hiring freeze right now where I couldn't go through RMT (I think there is an exception- if a store is in desperate need of an ASM, a partner already working there can become one... that's the impression I've gotten from talking to people, anyway), BUT I still made lists of stores to call. Candy told me that she told HER manager (Denise) about my plans and that Denise was totally cool with it.

The downside is... we don't know which apartment we're going to be living in yet. It would suck to wind up in one of the Tollway apartments and get a job down on Walnut Hill. Anyway, I was still calling around, on Candy's advice, to check for what other managers are going to need when I'll be moving. Called about 4 stores today and got a couple good leads, one manager was out, and one manager had a bit of an attitude* (and she didn't have a need for a S/S or ASM anyway). Then I got one GREAT lead. I called to the store at Frankford and Preston (which would be decently located for any apartment we go with, really) and the manager, Jen, was great. She is apparently a management trainer, so she was totally on board with training me. She also said that she would have need for a supervisor/ASM around the time I'm transferring. YAY!! She knows Denise and she thinks she's met Candy. She wants to sit down and have coffee with me and talk (get to know me, see if I'd be a good fit)- she even offered to come up to my store (so she could see me in my current store, see how I do things, see how I am with customers and all that good stuff) and talk. Both of us are swamped this week (Maria walked out on her shift on Saturday- I picked up about 1 1/2 of her shifts this week, so I'm working 6 days), so she's going to give me a call this weekend or early next week to see what my schedule is for the next week and see when we can get together.

YAY! AWESOME! HAPPY! The 4th or 5th store I called has worked out great. I was super worried that I was going to have to wind up looking in downtown/uptown, or on the far far north side of things. So yay. It's relatively centrally located... it would take me about 5 minutes to get there from 1 potential apartment, about 10 minutes from two others, and about 15 from the southern one. So that's not bad.

There was one store I was going to call back (manager was at a district meeting), but after talking to Jen, I don't think I will. I'll see how this pans out and if it doesn't or something, THEN I'll start calling around again.

*the store manager with an attitude? I figured that her store didn't have the budget for an ASM (it's a small little store right next to Medical City), but thought I should call anyway because she might know of someone in her district that would need me. She offered up no other stores or anything, but went on and on about the proper way to go about a transfer (which... um... I know already) because they eliminated the HR position that governs transfers, it all has to be done internally (which... I also know), and that if I don't go about it the right way, then I can be terminated if it's found out that I'm bypassing the proper channels. What SHE recommends that I do is talk to my manager, fill out the transfer form, which can be found online, then take it to my distrcit manager, and IF she approves it, I should start calling around. To which I responded, "Oh, my manager and district manager are fully aware of my plans and I'm calling around to stores on their suggestion." and she goes, "Oh. Well, good luck!" and basically ended the call. It was weird.

letter to my apartment complex

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 08:03:55 GMT

(it's not as if I haven't told the people that I could get in contact with all of this already, I just felt like posting my thoughts on it... in the form of a letter)

Apartment Complex-

This is not okay. I do not like coming home after being at work for 11 hours to find my patio door unlocked and wide the fuck open. This is a problem. Thankfully, my panic attack ended when I found my two kitties, safe and sound, under the bed. Even though one is curious and silly and the other is a former outdoor kitty and an accomplished climber, they did not scamper off. It was absolutely terrifying when I walked into my apartment, found the back door open, and my kitties were not waiting by the front door for me when I got home. Of course, my second thought goes immediately to, "okay, what's missing."... but nothing's missing. Not even the spare car keys, checkbook, DVDs, TVs, or the laptop I'm currently typing on.

Even though people do scale walls and balconies (in broad daylight, even), that door can only be unlocked from the inside. The door was not forced, nor were ANY locks broken. My front door lock works fine. There is "no sign of forced entry" or any sign of anyone being in here except for me. The only people who have keys to this apartment? Me, my boyfriend, and you- the office/maintenance people. I don't go around handing out keys to people. Also, it is highly unlikely that someone found a key to my apartment (or was able to enter without a key AND without doing any damage to the lock or door), opened the patio door, and left without taking anything.

Of course, I got home 30 minutes after your office closed. I immediately called both the regular "leave a message" line and the "emergency" line. Apparently, the tone in my voice was urgent enough to cause the service manager to call me back less than 5 minutes after I left the message. I don't know if what he said made me feel better or worse- he said that if I didn't have a work order in (and I didn't, by the way), then his guy(s) would have no reason to be in my apartment. So, the service manager claims that it wasn't his maintenance people... was it the office people? Neither explanation makes sense, but it makes even less sense for someone to (extremely stealthily, by the way) break into my apartment, take nothing, and leave the PATIO door open (I'm on the 2nd floor, by the way).

I am grateful that the service manager was so nice. He first made sure that my doors were in good working (and locking!) order, because he wants me to feel "secure in [my] own home". I assured him that the doors function and lock properly. I also assured him that nothing was missing and it makes no sense. He did say that the manager or assistant manager would be calling me. (I left a really nasty message... or two... stating that someone from management had better call me back as soon as humanly possible because, "I have a complaint and a concern that canNOT wait until 'normal business hours' to be explained or resolved.". I was really forceful and kind of mean in the messages, but c'mon. Wouldn't you have been?)

I've calmed down considerably, I've changed out of my coffee-stinking work clothes, and I'm in bed with the kitties and the laptop and we're all watching the tv. The adrenaline is wearing off, and my burning hunger has returned. However, this is still not okay. This needs to be resolved as soon as possible- I am positive that someone from the office/maintenance staff was in my apartment and failed to lock/close the door. Had the door been left unlocked but CLOSED, it is entirely plausible that wind from the mini-rain storm we just had blew it open. That is still an issue, but not one that makes me want to move out tomorrow. Had the door been left unlocked and actually left ajar? That is a huge problem and I want out as soon as possible.

Very annoyed and needs a resolution/answer.
-The scary lady in #1623

P.S.- Calling maintenance back in the morning when I wake up to have my locks re-keyed. Even though I'm almost positive that it was apartment employee(s) in my apartment, I'm going to err on the side of caution and get a new front door lock.

Today was quite a trying day.

Sat, 12 Jul 2008 03:22:15 GMT

Today sucked, actually.

First off, had a weird dream involving Patrick Swayze so the day started off kind of strange. Then I spent a long time just loafing around the house, extremely bored.

I wanted to see Get Smart, so I found a showtime at 7pm at the Studio Movie Grill by me (which also worked out, because I was hungry). Manage to make it to the theatre: it's only across the highway, but it's Friday during the end of rush hour. Get a parking spot and make my way inside. Wait in line for about 10 minutes, get up to the counter to buy my ticket and the girl goes, "Oh. That just sold out." Ugh. Go BACK out to my car and head to the movie theatre at the mall because they have a showtime at 7:35 (by this time it's a little after 7). At some point, I must've run over something or hit a pothole or something because when I'm at the 35 service road and Round Grove intersection, I know something's not right... I've had lots of flat tires before because I used to have a problem with hitting curbs when I was younger.

So I start yelling, put on my hazard lights, and proceed very slowly through the intersection trying to find some place to pull over. There was enough room on the side of the road just on the other side of the light. Turns out I was mostly on the pavement, but the passenger-side wheels were on the grass (which happened to be the side with the flat tire-- right passenger tire).

The pisser is that if this had happened on the north side of the intersection, it would've been directly in front of a Discount Tire. And while they would've been closed, I could've left my car there in their parking lot and walked home (or to the movies).

Ah well. So here I am on the side of the road with a flat tire. Had the tire and that side of the car not been on a grassy incline, I could've changed the tire myself and gone to the movies or gone home. But it was on a grassy incline and I didn't want the car to fall on me or something.

So I grab the spare tire and jack and stuff out of the trunk and call my dad. He calls his roadside assistance out there (pretending that he had been with me in the car so that it would be free for me) and about 30 minutes later, the guy gets there.

Before he got there, however, I put the spare tire and jack in the passenger seat because I was going to go to Borders to get some water because it was HOOOOTTTT outside. Of course, it is at the time when I'm walking back around my car that I realize my leg is covered in fire ants. Great. Not only did my tire go flat, I pulled the car into a giant pile of fire ants. AWESOME.

I get the little bastards off of me (not before they bit me, though) and go to Borders. Thankfully, they were all really nice and gave me a big cup of ice water for free (even though they're supposed to only give me one of the tiny ones) and told me to sit inside in the A/C (but a big shrub blocked the car, so I had to go back outside) and were surprised how upbeat I was. My response was, "Well what else am I gonna do? Getting angry about it won't fix it. Hah."

Of course, on the way home, I realize that even the spare tire is low on air, but will be okay to get me home and to Discount Tire in the morning.

Needless to say, I blew off the movie and came home. A nice bubble bath and some kitty-cuddlin' later, it's all good. Still deciding what I want to do for dinner, though. Oh, and I rented Batman Begins. I've seen it all, just not all in one sitting and most of it was on edited television, and that's not cool. But I do very much want to see the new one, so watching this one might be a good idea.

I am so ready to move out of this damn apartment.

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 16:14:56 GMT

I like the apartment itself. It's nice. It's large. I have room for my endless amounts of crap. I have a covered parking space.

The apartment management, however, is a god damned joke.

The Manager will send out 4-10 flyers at a single time, most of which treat the residents like children and the remainder come across as incredibly mean.

The (new) Maintenance people are committed to the "it works for now" method of 'fixing' things. About 2 years ago, the previous (nice, friendly, and effective) maintenance man told John and I that if the A/C unit starts leaking again, then it will most likely need to be replaced. It's leaked a number of times per year since I've moved in. Of course, they fired the nice repair man and now have Jose in his place. Jose is nice enough, I suppose, but is from the "blame the resident" and the "fix it enough" school of maintenance training.

No, Mr. Maintenance Man, it is NOT normal for an air conditioning unit to leak a gallon of water per week. No, Mr. Maintenance Man, it is not an effective fix to add freon to the leaking unit. It still leaks. Daily. When it stops leaking, it stops working.

Like now.

There is no working air conditioning in my apartment. I called them last night, and got no response. I called them this morning and no one answered. I called again and again and again until someone answered. They finally sent Mr. Jose out. He gets here and claims that everything works fine, except MY thermostat. He claims that the leaking A/C is normal, and the unit is fine, but my thermostat is the problem.

So I promptly remove my $45 digital, programmable thermostat and replace the shitty 15 year old thermostat that came standard with the apartment. I tell him, as he's leaving, that this will make NO difference and it's the unit. He claims he'll come back out to check the unit.

30 minutes later, I call the office to let them know that my A/C is still not functioning (because I'm not an idiot and I re-installed the thermostat correctly). The correct response is NOT "Oh, well we'll call him and see if he can make it back out there today." No, the correct response involves, "Oh, I'm sorry. We'll get him back out there as soon as possible" because it's god damned 90 degrees in here.

So he finally comes back and the first thing he does is basically re-install the thermostat that I had correctly installed the first time. I told him, "It still doesn't work. You need to check the unit."

He's in there now and all I hear is a cascade of water coming down from the unit into my rust-stained bathtub (yes, the A/C leaks so much it actually stains it with rust. I can get the stains off, it's just a hassle. I've also TOLD them of the rust-staining when I call to complain about the damn unit leaking AGAIN). Hmm, shocker. It's not supposed to leak like that, is it Mr. Maintenance Man? NO IT'S NOT. FIX IT RIGHT THIS TIME, DON'T FIX IT FAST. Fuck.

I kind of want to go in there and just sit on the counter and watch. But then I'd be too tempted to make snide remarks about how, "oh, looks like it wasn't the thermostat afterall?" and that's just not productive.

I also called the office back after I received their WRONG answer about fixing the A/C and verified that it was a 30-day written notice and not 60. I made sure they knew it was the same person who had no air conditioner.

If this guy can't get the A/C fixed relatively soon, then I'm taking my kitties and going some place cool. I can lay in my dark bedroom with 3 fans pointed at me, but I can't shave the fur off my kitties to cool them off.

UGH!

clean sweep

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 21:01:48 GMT

Well, I've cleaned out my closets.

Not as much as I need to, mind you, but I've still made a dent. I've got 4 bags of clothes to take to Goodwill or CCA or something, 1 bag of clothes to go to the dumpster, and I haven't even started on my shoes. I know have several pairs that I need to get rid of, but I hate parting with my ugly shoes.

There are still a lot of clothes in my closet that I SHOULD've gotten rid of (ones that I wear once a month, or only on X or only with a particular shirt that I can't find), but I've still made good progress. I did get rid of a lot of clothes that I had some sentimental attachment to, but NEVER wear. Funny shirts that I wore in high school ("Thank you for that stunning report, Captain Obvious", etc) but haven't worn SINCE high school. Pants that Kate Dempsey gave me in return for something... I don't remember. But they were hippie pants made on The Farm... but they looked really awful on me- I thought they were cool looking, but they just didn't fit well. Jeans that are too long and too big, but held on to "just in case" I needed an emergency pair of jeans. Those're gone too.

So yeah. Like I said, I still have a lot to do. I've got more sleep pants than I can fit into my little 3-drawer cart, but I basically collect those...

I think I'll go through, when packing to move, and go through all of the clothes again. If I haven't worn an item of clothing at least once in the 3 months between now and when I move-- then it's getting thrown away (with a few exceptions: clearly I'm not going to wear my jackets, sweaters, or turtlenecks in the middle of summer, and there are a couple pieces of clothing that don't really get worn with any regularity- they're just there for sentimental value).

Skunky and the Baby Kitty were not happy with me when I was going through all of my clothes and throwing a lot of them away. Baby kitty was upset because she likes to nap on certain piles of clothes in my closet, and Skunk was just confused why I was throwing things around the room.

Now I know I need to go through and sell/get rid of some of my books that I'll never read again, but I don't think I can do that! Hah. I might sell some of my UNT-related books to students directly (forget selling them to the book store. they rip you off), but not all of them- some of them are good for reference. But yeah, Physics 1050, Physics 1060, Human Communication? I don't need these. I will never look at these again. I think I'll go through this next week and post them on the UNT communities on MySpace, Facebook, and LiveJournal. If that fails, then I'll make little flyers and post them on campus. Yay. Anyone reading this need some UNT textbooks? I've got em!

money money money/kind of big update

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 21:15:08 GMT

Why do I always need to spend a bunch of money all at once? I need order my graduation announcements and I need new pants (all but one pair of my blue jeans are too hole-y to wear) aaaand I'm going on vacation in late September and moving at the end of October.

I need to win the lottery. Or inherit a fortune from an unknown but wealthy relative.

Ah well.

I can spend a lot less money on pants, seeing as they're on sale... but if they're on sale for 50% off, I might as well get TWO pairs, seeing as it's not like I'll never need to buy new pants again.

As whoever reads this can tell, I'm trying to update this more. I pay for a paid account, I might as well use it, right?

OH! And another expense- I'm going to Austin on July 14-15. Laurie Notaro (who is one of my favorite authors, by the way) is going to be doing a book reading/signing at Book People in Austin on the 14th. She's not coming to Dallas, so Austin it is! I do know some people down there that I can stay with so I don't have to fork out cash for a hotel if I don't want to. But it might be kind of nice to stay in a hotel (crank the A/C down, watch some cable, sleep in a nice clean bed, as opposed to someone's couch). John is probably going with me, but it's not 100% definite because of his job situation being kind of up in the air.

But that'll be fun. And it'll be exciting to eat at Katz's. The bookstore is just down the block from Katz's, so we can park on West, walk to the book store, walk to and eat at Katz's, then walk back to our car. Yay. It'll be fun. And Austin and Eric are both down there, so I might meet up with one or both of them, too.

It would also be fun to go down to the Guadalupe at some point and tube the river, but with all the other crap I've got going on, that probably won't happen this year.

So, I'll be graduating from UNT in August (I'll be done with my class on July 3rd), and then I'm gonna try to do the Assistant Manager route at Starbucks, but I've almost decided that if they low-ball me on what they want to pay me to the point that it doesn't make sense for me to stay, then I'm going to stay a shift supervisor while I send out applications/resumes. I know that they ARE going to pay me less than I deserve (because that's what they do), but there's a minimum that I'll settle for. Ah well.

Anyone have any suggestions as to where I can look for a job? I'll have a B.A., 2+ years of supervisor experience, and I've got excellent customer service skills. Hah. Oh well- I'll keep my eye out.

Oh, and there's a pretty good chance that I'll be moving out to Bedford instead of back to North Dallas- which I'm fine with. Found a pretty nift apartment; registered it with Move For Free and hopefully will get to go look at it this week or next week.

And I've decided NOT to cut my hair off- at least for a little while. I'm going to wait until it starts to cool down outside. I know that sounds backwards- long hair in the summer, short hair in the fall/winter, but I can put my hair in a ponytail/bun right now, and once I cut it off, I won't be able to.

AAAAAND I'm going to clean out my closet before I move (hopefully even sooner than that, because I've got just too much shit), so if there's something in my wardrobe that you want, let me know. I guarantee nothing- I am going to keep about 1/2 of my clothes.

We're going to stay in town for the 4th of July this year, which is gonna be weird because we pretty much always go to the lakehouse. But it'll be okay- Dad's going to barbeque at the house, then we'll all go watch fireworks. If anyone wants to come eat some awesome BBQ, come on over! I'm also going to be making a sweet 4th of July cake for the occasion. I have ideas. And it's combustible. bwhaha.

Okay, that's enough of a long entry for today. The kitties are being their usual kitty selves. I need to take the trash out.

meeeeeeeemories

Sun, 22 Jun 2008 02:11:23 GMT

It's really funny going back to the start of your journal and reading your entries.

I was 17 when I started this journal. Crazy stuff. Some of the posts are just cringe-worthy. Seriously cringe-worthy. haha.

I can never shake my head when I read John's niece's MySpace bulletins anymore, because apparently I typed similarly when I was around her age. Haha.

Aaaanyway. I never update this. Sorry.

One class away from graduating (yay!) and I'm doing half of Arsalan's tests for his summer class. Yay for almost free money.

woohoo!

Fri, 16 May 2008 06:16:42 GMT

John booked our tickets for our trip! So excited.

We're going back up to his dad's. This time we're going in late September instead of August. Should be a little bit cooler (AND there won't be 5 people shoved into a Hyundai for 1,000 miles of sight-seeing... not that it wasn't fun or anything, but space was kind of hard to come by), so I'm excited. Yaaaaaay.

Gonna get my passport in case we decide to go to Canada again.

Also, hopefully we'll get to meet up with Tara, too. No idea what her schedule or money situation will be like, so we might end up meeting her 1/2 way between the two of us (Oh, and Tara- John's dad says that Scranton LOOKS like it's 1/2 way, but there are better options. Let me/John know where in LI you'll be and his dad can give a better idea of where 1/2 way really is)

Yay! So now I get to save money. Booo. Hah. At least that free money (stimulus crap) is already in my account, so that's basically my vacation. I DO need to buy some new clothes (and have needed to for awhile, but since I basically just go to work and sleep... I don't need to care if there's a giant hole in my jeans) so that'll be both fun and unfun at the same time. The biggest bummer is that I'll need to wait a little while to buy some clothes-- because the clothes that I can buy in Texas in May are not the same kind of clothes I'll want to wear in upstate New York in late September. Hah.

Never did chop my hair off. I still want to, but I'll really miss not being able to put it up in a pony tail or clip if I feel like it. Ah well. There's always time to chop hair off if I decide to do it later!

defensive driving is a joke

Fri, 02 May 2008 08:41:15 GMT

Don't get me wrong, it's a nice option when you get a bullshit ticket (because it was a bullshit ticket, and I've talked to other cops that said they'd never actually give a ticket for that traffic violation) because it saves money, but it's a fucking joke.

First of all, it's a mandated 6 hour course by Texas law. Over a third of it is directly related to not driving while drunk/high. Another third is telling you not to speed. The other third is ALL of the other stuff that goes into daily driving.

It asks questions like (Actual question from the test, mind you):

The video indicates that the safest place for a child is:
A) The back seat
B) The front seat
C) The hood

Fucking. Joke.

Anyway. It's done. I got a ticket back in January for not coming to a complete stop at a red light before turning right (which is bullshit because I did, but that jerk was clearly making a quota because he pulled someone over for the exact same thing less than 2 minutes after he finished writing my ticket), and the ticket was fucking $225 to pay outright or $275 to do Deferred Adjudication (BUT if you do Deferred Adjudication and are under 25, you have to take a defensive driving course anyway!!), but it was only $110 to do Defensive Driving (plus, of course the cost of the class and a driving record from Austin). So Yeah. Saved money. It was nice.

But I'm an idiot and forgot to send in the request for the Driving Record from Austin- it can take up to 2 months to get it in the mail so I needed to send it out right away. It's all filled out! Sitting in my glove box! I'm an idiot! hah. So even though Defensive Driving is done, I'm worried that if I order the Driving Record online, it won't get here in time. The website says that it can take 5-7 Buisness Days to get it in the mail, and I have to have all of this turned into the Denton Municipal Court on 5/14.

So yeah, there IS a chance that it could get here on time, even if it goes out on Monday- but I'd be worried that it would be delayed and then I'd have to pay $115 to the court and blah blah blah.

So I'm going to be doing the exact same thing I did the LAST time I got a ticket, I'm going to drive down to Austin and get my driving record. (of course, that time my ticket was in Round Rock, so I had to go down there anyway... but still) It takes all of 10 minutes to do it in person. I'm gonna try to make a day of it, I guess. See if anyone wants to go along... go out to eat... hang out with some people (Eric just moved down there, so if nothing else I could have lunch with him or something) or just drive around.

The suckiest thing is that the record is $10. But with gas money factored in, it's gonna wind up costing like $60. Laaaaaame. Oh well, that's my own fault- I can blame no one but myself.

Anyone want to go with me to Austin on May 12? hah.

what do YOU think??

Sat, 26 Apr 2008 09:22:45 GMT

First Nicole chopped her hair off, and then Maria hacked hers off. I want to cut mine, dangit! What would you think if I cut my hair this short? (Even of course... It's just held behind my head in this picture). I'm afraid of 2 things: (1) mushroom head. This it not flattering on anyone. (2) I'll hate it and be forced to wear a hat all summer, which sucks because I hate hats.

View Poll: choppy choppy

Writer's Block: Dream Job

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 23:47:08 GMT

What's keeping you from your dream job?

View 501 Answers

Money. My dream job would be to own my own business. Restaurant, bakery, coffee shop. Anything. When I was 4 I turned my grandparents' kitchen into a restaurant. I made menus, made the food, and charged them for the food they bought. hah. But I'm realistic and understand that most businesses just don't make money. They don't have the security of knowing where your next paycheck is coming from. They don't offer health and life insurance benefits. They're ridiculously expensive to start, and can break your personal bank if they fall through.

Not to say that I won't at least try at some point, but considering the stack of student loans I'll be looking at here in a few months, now is most definitely not the time.