Just Say No! To Shoestrings.

I noticed last night that I don't have very many pairs of shoes with shoestrings. Well, I do, but only because I have so many pairs of shoes. I only have a couple of pairs that I sometimes wear that have strings.

Both the pairs of sneakers that I often wear are shoestring-less. This makes me happy.

Shoestrings are annoying. You have to bend over. You have to use finger muscles. You have to remember what order to use the strings in!

Therefore, I've decided to break free the world of strings!

From now on, I'm not buying any shoes that require me to tie strings together!

The only shoes with strings that I might occasionally wear are these:


and these:


But only occasionally, since they are made for flat-footed people and I have arches.

Thank you, JK Rowling.

In the past three years, I have become a reader. I am proud of this fact.

All through school and growing up, I was always a non-reader. I just was not interested in wasting time reading when I could be watching television and/or playing with my Barbies.

Sure, I participated in Bookit, but I never got very far with it. In high school, I was always adamently against the required readings for Advanced English. Sure, I still read (most of) them, but I usually resented these books and hated them simply for the fact that I was forced to read them.

But really, look at some of the crap I was forced to read:
-Siddhartha (worst book ever! I was also supposed to read this in college, but I used SparkNotes instead)
-A Seperate Peace (this one was alright, I suppose)
-The Old Man and the Sea (seriously?)
-1984 (was kind of interesting, but only in parts)
-The Jungle (who doesn't love learning all about Socialism in the early 1900's?)
-Things Fall Apart (oh good, I always wanted to know about wrestling in South Africa)
-The Scarlet Letter (a classic, but I chose to watch the movie instead)
-Ellen Foster (this one was good because it was like 4 pages long)
-Jude the Obscure (I really don't know what this was about, I didn't bother reading it and dropped the class before school started)

There are plenty more crappy books I was supposed to read in college too, but I've blocked them out.

Looking back on it, the reason I didn't want to read these was not only because I was being forced (and most are really awful), but I also didn't want to read them because at the time it seemed like so much work. I just was not interested in reading at all.

But then a few years ago I watched the first two Harry Potter movies with my brother. I had heard of Harry Potter, but I wasn't really fascinated with it until I saw the movies. My brother suggested if I liked the movies, I should read the books.

I lazied around a while. Finally I was visiting a friend in Durham and he had the first three Harry Potter books and told me I should borrow them. I did, and I was instantly hooked. I read the first three within a month and borrowed the next two from the library. The sixth book came out two weeks before I finished the fifth book, so I got to read that one too. It was really nice being able to read the first six books all back to back.

After finishing those, I found myself needing to read more. I stuck to what I wanted to read, pirate books. I read a whole lot of pirate books, and a few romance novels. Then I kind of slumped off of reading again.

As the time for the final Harry Potter book to be published drew near, I decided to reread all of the first six books. This is when I became truly hooked on reading.

After finishing the final Harry Potter book, I have been pretty much reading something or other ever since. At first it was Patricia Cornwell novels, because that's what Jared already had. Now, I find myself pretty much reading anything that's a novel. I like the suspense books mostly.

I like being a reader. It's cool. And it makes me feel smarter. This is why JK Rowling is so deserved of my thanks. Thank you.

finally!

I'll be able to sit on my couch AND waste time on the internet- ALL AT ONCE!

I finally bit the bullet and ordered a laptop. I decided instead of buying two black night stands for my bedroom, to go ahead and spend the rest of my stimulus check towards a laptop. Yippee! The best part is, I don't have to mess around with setting up the wireless intarnet in my house because Carmen did that long ago so she could harp off mine in her condo.

Here it is.

Of course, I chose the lovely spring green color, to match my phone and my ipod (just like Katie with pink!). Also, I added a DVD burner so I could be part of this century.

Yay for spending more money than I should. And when that's paid off, maybe I'll boost my text messaging so I can get Twitter updates on my phone again. We'll see.

How I celebrated Memorial Day.

I think I just completed the laziest weekend ever! Hooray me!
Friday night Jared and I went grocery shopping, then out to eat, then to the movies to see Indiana Jones. This movie is freaking awesome by the way.

Shia LeBeouf is hot!

Saturday I did a little painting (trim) in my kitchen, in between episodes of Flip That House. I still have a ways to go, in the cabinet department.

Sunday I cleaned house a little, in between watching movies on TBS and such.

Monday I took down the painter's tape in the kitchen, in between episodes of CSI Miami. Then I went to non-Trivia (hey, whatdoyaknow, McGuire's is closed!).

There you go, I'm lazy and I'm okay with it.

Today I was miserable in the humid heat, and then the downpour.

Scrumdidilyumptious

You know who makes the best mashed potatoes? Carmen.

Yesterday I left work early because I felt just plain awful. I got home and hung out on the couch til five (boy was that nice). Then, Carmen called and said we were grilling out!

So we grilled out BBQ chicken, corn and mashed potatoes. Okay, we didn't really grill the mashed potatoes, but you get the drift. Man they were yummy.

Then we watched Cloverfield, which is even better the second time around. Good stuff.

And last night I forgot to set my alarm so I was groggily startled out of bed when I suddenly opened my eyes and the clock said 8:00. Oops.

Tonight will be fun, Jared and I are going to see Indiana Jones and go grocery shopping. Yay!

This weekend? I'm going to finish painting my kitchen walls, darn it!

Hump Day.

It's gotten to the point where Wednesdays are my favorite day of the week. Why? Because it means I don't have to GPS anymore until next Monday.

Mondays I don't even GPS that much anymore, but I'm with THE REPEATER all day so it's just as stressful and gut-wrenchingly annoying (and not just because he repeats).

Tuesdays I'm putting in hard work outside all day doing the GPS thing and I am always flat-out exhausted and nasty when I get home. And? Now that it's summer it's worse. I have to deal with heat, sweat and the added loveliness of ticks.

I've always thought that every animal has a purpose in this world, but ticks? None. I found 2 on me last week. I'm sure there were a couple on me at some point this week too.

Let's not forget poison ivy, too. *Shudder*

Also, Tom (my GPS partner on Tuesdays, who is awesome) saw a five foot snake yesterday. Gah!

So then on Tuesday nights I always come home, shower, and sit my ass on the couch in my pajamas. Then I feel lazy. But Wednesdays are great.

Wednesdays mean I can sit at my desk for the next three days and not worry about being outside. I can blog, and read your blogs. I can email Katie. I can do all the wonderful time-wasting internet activities that I can squeeze into the day.

And I also do a tiny bit of work in there too.


Anywho. I'm just bitchin cause I can :)

Happy Wednesday, ya'll!

Lesson Learned

Lessons I learned over the weekend:

1. You are not fireproof.
2. You are not waterproof.
3. Murphy's Law mandates that if you leave on a journey with plenty of time to get there, you WILL get stuck in a traffic jam within 10 minutes of leaving your house.
4. Your Mexican friend really is that creepy, it's not just what your other friends think.
5. If you wake up and don't remember laying down the night before, you might have puke on your shirt.
6. You AREN'T that good at Taboo when you can't see the cards in front of your face.
7. You should NEVER go to Bob Evans the morning after drinking 3 beers and like, 7 rum & sprites.
8. The inside of Brad's toilet is not a friendly place.
9. You are NOT 21 anymore.
10. Brad rules.

A Poem About Eric Tucker

by Allison, circa 1995ish

Blood hot water in a boiling pan.
It could burn the flesh of his long, slender hand.
He walked outside in the cold winter air.
Wondering if his love is something he should share.
The girl loves him, he's not sure why.
Will she love him until she dies?
His hair is swimming as he walks down the street,
Hearing his heart as it loudly beats.
Her heart only bares compassion for him.
His romantic ways fill it up to the rim.
Does he like her? I think so.
But only he can ever know.

*finger snapping* *finger snapping* *finger snapping*


p.s. If you've ever wondered where the '520' in my screen name comes from, here's the story. For like 3 solid years in middle and high school I was in L.O.V.E. with Eric Tucker (who did not share this feeling, I guess- I never told him of my undying teenage love). Instead of talking about him outright to my friends, I used code.

5 for 'E' because it's the fifth letter of the alphabet,
and 20 for 'T' because it's the twentieth letter.

So, 520 became my favorite/lucky number. It got stuck and now it's here for good.

Teehee!

Holy Carp!!! (yes, I know it says carp)

Joan got me thinking about sharks today. So I visited one of my favorite blogs to visit when I'm bored, Swimatyourownrisk.com.

And came across this video of the stupidest man on Earth.

Insted of embeding it, I'm linking to it because videos never work on my site for some reason.

Enjoy.

4th grade poetry..

I like to think of this as my most shining achievement in penmanship.

"Bovine Premonitions" by Allison circa early-to-mid 1990's:

Oh How
Oh How
Oh How
Did I wake up as a cow?

Am I white with black spots?
Or black with white polkadots?

Oh, I was just dreaming.


*finger snapping**finger snapping**finger snapping*


More to come tomorrow.

OOps...

I kind of sort of maybe accidentally broke an expensive piece of equipment which one of my towns was borrowing from my regular office..

Oops.

I found a replacement part on line for $120.00 which is way less than I thought it would be.. but still. If my town boss will EVER come in today maybe we can talk about it.. And hope he has some extra money in the budget :D

Coming up this week...

You know what I love about being an adult?

Having things to put in my calender. It seemed like when I was young all I could put in the calender were birthdays. It makes me feel so warm and fuzzy inside when I can look at a certain month in my calender and there are 6 or 7 important things in there.. such as birthdays, meeting, football games, parties, weddings, holidays, paydays, and graduations.

Also? Address books full of friend's addresses. Yay!

Speaking of graduations, Brad is graduating from Durham Tech on Friday! Yay! Of course, the one day I'm going to Durham for this is the same day my old roomie/good friend Andrea is coming to town (Hickory) and I won't be able to see her. *Sigh*

And? I need a nap.

Twittered Out Today

Today is my dear friend Sam's birthday, so everybody please wish him a happy birthday!



I'd link to his blog but he hasn't got one, because he's cooler than that ;).


For my blog I'm going to finally get around to copying Mightygirl and do a list of things I must do before I die. She listed 100 things, and that's great for her.. but I'm only going to list 10. Maybe I have low expectations, but then again, most of the things on my list are fairly large things..

Ten things I want to do before I die, as copied from MightyGirl:

1. Have a son. Both of my brothers have daughters, so there are no boys to play with yet. I shall remedy this.
2. Visit Egypt.
3. Meet my all time favorite musician, Beck.
4. Have a career I really like, not that I'm settling on.
5. Go back to Hollywood and spend multiple days doing as many touristy things as I can.
6. Travel the Pan-American Highway from Alaska to Chile.
7. Learn to fight.
8. Be in shape.
9. Go see a Tampa Bay Buccaneers game in Raymond James Stadium in Florida. Preferably from the pirate ship.
10. Visit the following 6 states, which are all I have left to see: Nebraska, North Dakota, Washington, Hawaii, Alaska and Louisiana. Louisiana will hopefully be knocked out in August.

I know most of these are travel related. Truth is I love to travel. I want to see everything this pretty planet has to offer me.

Sigh

So, Jason Castro is gone.. No more prettiness to watch live every week on American Idol. Ah well, he's better off. He gave the best exit performance I've ever seen, though. Instead of crying and giving an emotionally awful song, he just danced around, smiling, not giving a crap and being all cute and goofy as hell singing his Bob Marley song without a care in the world! He was relieved. This is how it is meant to be, I guess. Ah well, I'll buy his CD if he ever comes out with one!

Last night, Jared and I went to a baseball game with his two BFF's Jeff and Justin (the 3 J-migos). It was pretty weather and kind of fun but man.. I don't know what I was thinking getting three boys together who have known each other since elementary school and have played baseball together all their lives. I saw a whole lot of the back of Jared's head while he was talking to the boys and reminiscing of games past. It's cool though, the game was actually quite interesting to watch and at one point all of the boys did the speed pitch thing and my awesome man kicked ass and beat the high speed pitch of the day. He rules like that.

Today? Today I had a job interview.. but I really can't say much about this other than that I'm just exploring things.

Tonight? I'm not doing a DAMN thing and that's how I want it.

LolCastros

At least I have THIS to make me laugh.

I voted yesterday, twice!

After 2 grueling days of GPSn, last night I was exhausted but I made time to vote twice. First, I voted in the NC Primary election with Jared. It was his first time voting, and he's 25! Gah!

After this and dinner we came home and watched American Idol. My contestant kind of bombed. The sick part is that he didn't do THAT bad. I thought David Cook's first performance was just as bad JC's first song. Don't get me wrong, I like David Cook, but last night he was off. For some reason, the judges HATE Jason and treated him like garbage last night even though he wasn't any worse than their golden boy, David. Unfortunately he forgot a line in his otherwise awesome song of "Hey Mr. Tambourine Man". Of course, the judges were again relentles..

I find this funny considering two weeks ago on Andrew Lloyd Webber night, both David A and Carly Crapson sang the wrong lines in their songs, yet were praised by the judges.

This pisses me off royally. I am honest to God not watching this show anymore after this season. Really.

I voted anyways for Jason last night, even though I doubt it will do any good because unfortunately most people listen to the judges comments rather than thinking for themselves. :(

Weekend Goodies

Well I have to say I had a pretty awesome weekend. Friday night started out with me selling Jared's futon for almost my asking price! Then I had a good salad and went to hang out with Jared at the Brush (Lenoir).

On Saturday, Carmen, Jon, our friend Matt, and I went for a day trip to Boone. We had lunch at Murphy's, went to some shops downtown, we had coffee at the Beanstalk, walked around campus, and even went to Howard's Knob for some funtime.

It was a beautiful day even though there were a few sprinkles here and there.

Then Saturday night, Carmen and I went to a little country bar to do karaoke. Normally, Carmen hosts karaoke on Saturday nights at McGuire's, but it was dead in there so we decided to go have fun elsewhere. We sang some non-country songs and we were pretty much the only ones not singing country, but it was still really cool. I really got that crowd into "I will Survive" and "Day-O".

Sunday was gorgeous too. Jared and I went up to my Dad's for his birthday where we pretty much just sat around talking and took a little walk. On our way back, Jared and I decided to take a little detour and go to Boone for some Mellow Mushroom. WOO!

What a fabulous weekend, 2 Boone trips! Next weekend I'm working on painting my kitchen! Then, Mother's Day, where I'll be helping my Mother paint her bathroom.

45 Down? Yes!

So on Wednesday I bought two airline tickets to go to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. We are going to watch Appalachian play against the Louisiania Tigers. This is going to be scarey. I know I said it before about Michigan, but I still mean it. I honestly just hope we score a TD and don't come home with a broken quarterback again.

Either way this trip will rule for 2 reasons:
1: It will be the Mountaineers playing! Seeing as how they are the best football team ever, I will be excited to see the first game of the season in person.

2: I've never been to Louisiana. I've been 44 states in this lovely country of mine, but Louisiana is not on the list, yet. Now, next year they need to play in Kansas, North Dakota, Washington, Hawaii, and Alaska, so I can cross them all off of my list!


Louisisna's House:

So, I had a pretty awesome birthday.

*EDITED!!! I ADDED PICS!!*****



After work, I headed to El Paso with Jared, Carmen, Jon, Matt, Katie, and Daniel. It was yummy except the darn patio was closed for some stupid reason. At least I got some good presents! Carmen and Jon got me the Sweeney Todd Soundtrack so I can annoy Jared some more with some Musical goodness. Katie and Daniel got me Kill Bill volume 1 and 2, which I have been wanting for a very long time, and also The Pirate Hunter, which has to be a good book, since it's about pirates.

Then we went home and after about 5 minutes the power went out to the whole building. Apparently squirrels like to commit suicide by getting into transformers. I lit a bunch of candles and Jared and I played some Rummy. A little later Brad came out from Durham after I guilted him into not coming to see me. He brought me a whole big bag of scratch off lottery tickets, which were a lot of fun. Then, we sat around for another hour looking through photo albums with a flashlight.

About 10:15 (right AFTER American Idol was over), the power finally came back on and all was back to normal.

Tonight? Hamburger Helper and Kill Bill. I hope.

You know it's a good bday when you have to wear 2 different sombreros and you get whipped cream between your boobs: