the ex-boyfriend box

Does anyone else do this? I have several "boxes" that contain mememtos from boys of the past. Yes, I know Rachel did the same thing on "Friends". What can I say, great minds think alike?

I have one metal box that has all sorts of mememtos from all the boys from middle school up until I dated Smokey. It is chock full of notes, candy wrappers, various cheap jewelry, pictures, trash, and even a lighter from a boy at a Green Day concert. A lot of the things in this box are completely lost to me now. I can hardly remember why I have so many sugar baby wrappers. I don't even like sugar babies.

I have two small heart shaped tins. One is for Brad (one of my best friends), because I had "like, such a crush" on him in 10th and 11th grade. Okay, I was desperately in high-school-love with him. But lucky for me, we stayed just friends. This works out best because now we are such great friends. I wouldn't have changed a thing. The other tin is for Smokey. It contains a few notes, candy wrappers, and a couple of drawings. Not much else to say about that one..

I have a box somewhere that has several letters from Joe F. He would write me the strangest letters.. One time he wrote this "story" poem about me and how "evil" I was. This was in between times of us dating. Sure, I probably deserved it, I did break his heart no less than 3 times. I need to find that to post here..

For some reason, I have no box for Sean. I'm not really sure why. Maybe it's because he moved in with me almost immediately after we started dating and I already knew it wasn't going to work out, so I didn't waste my time. Or maybe there was too much to keep in a box. Or maybe I was just being lazy.

Then there's the Adam box. Adam was my first love, my first serious boyfriend, and my first heartbreak. His box is a star. His contains all sorts of fun things. For example: a red towel once used as a hanky for me; a chevy hood ornament from the night he was at my house when a truck crashed into our yard; a pair of pearl earrings he gave me; a barbell from the eyebrow piercing I had while we dated; a dried up rose that he gave me; movie ticket stubs; little i love you notes; and much more.

I keep all of these boxes in a trunk full of junk I can't throw away. I know it's all junk and that I'm a huge packrat for keeping it all, but I just don't want to let these things go yet. I have a feeling if I ever get married, it will be a lot easier to throw some of this stuff away. But for now, I'll just keep all of these fun memories locked in my trunk so that the next time I get bored (like I did yesterday), I can go through them again for all the good thoughts.

And in case you're wondering, the top drawer of my dresser is where I keep all of my Jared stuff.

welcome to...

Longest Relationship Ever Land. Population: 2.

Made it! 9 months (as of tomorrow).

Now that I've broken this record, we'll see if I can make it to "First birthday ever with a boyfriend" (at age 25!!). Only 2 months and 21 days to break that one.

Wednesday will be my first Valentines Day with a boyfriend. Well, sort of. There was the one year when I was dating the firefighter. He had already decided he was going to break up with me, but wanted to wait until he saw me (he lived 2 hours away). I had baked him lemon squares and fudge and mailed them to his house.

What did he do for me? He called me at 11:50 p.m. That was it.

Needless to say, I've not been a big fan of Valentine's Day. Hopefully this year will be better. I already know it will be, just because I've actually got someone who I care about immensely and who cares about me the same.

For all those out there who don't have someone this year, hang tight. Go out with friends and get drunk. That's what I would be doing if I were single.

mis ojos!

My eyes suck. (Is mis ojos Spanish for my eyes??)
I went to the eye doctor today. A few weeks ago I developed a bump on my eyelid in the same eye where I have a severe case of dry eye. I freaked and went to the eye doctor. He told me it was a stye that had healed itself, and that the bump would eventually go away. I was okay with this. He also ordered me some new contacts that are supposedly going to help with the dry eye.

A couple of weeks ago, another bump came up on the same eye. A bigger bump. A scary bump. So when they called me to come get the new contacts, I also made an appointment to see him again about the new bump.

SO. Today he tells me that it's really nothing to worry about and it's just coincidental that it's the same eye. His advice for me? Use baby shampoo daily on my eyelid. Apparently, I'm not getting all of the mascara and stuff off with my eye makeup remover pads.

Well that sucks. I was hoping to get a clear answer as to why this is happening. Oh well.

So on my way out of the eye doctor's, I put in my new trial contacts. Then I remembered that he didn't actually give me a new prescription. Last time he gave me trial lenses, they didn't quite work, and things were blurry, but I never told him and never ordered any contacts. So this time he used the same prescription. While so far (it's only been 30 minutes) they seem to feel alright, I can barely see.

Stupid eyes. Stupid astigmatism. Stupid corneas. Stupid dry eye. Stupid styes. Stupid eyes. Grrrr.

an oldie but a goodie?

As I was browsing my hotmail inbox, I found an email from 2001 that had the link to quiz I made. It's kind of funny to me, so I thought I'd share it with you. See how you do and tell me your results! Remember, this quiz is 6 years old so some things may have changed!

Ally's Know Me Quiz


Also, there was another email with the link to a quiz I made about Adam shortly after he broke my heart. It was pretty harsh and some time ago I forgave him and erased the quiz. Too bad, I bet it would be funny now, even to him :)

super yay!

I was kind of disappointed by last night's Superbowl commercials. Most of them were pretty lame compared to years past. But if you want to see them all, click here. The ads are broken up by quarter. The Bud Light ads are pretty funny. And I love that this website has a "boss button" just in case.

Go Colts!

Oh, and I almost forgot. The Garmin Maposaurus ad from the 2nd quarter is my favorite. Garmin!

what i want to be when i grow up.

I don't know about you, but I definitely didn't end up in the career I had chosen as a child. I mean, what 9 year old says, "hey, I want to be a GIS Technician when I grow up"?

At that age, what I really wanted to be was a nurse.
When I was in middle school, I decided to be an actress.
At 17, I was convinced I would be a high school band director.

ha.

On being a nurse:
a) I get queesy watching gory movies.
b) I get queesy when ANYTHING touches my wrists, and the thought of touching other peoples wrists makes me antsy too.
c) Too much school. And studying. And old people.

On being an actress:
a) I'm just not that interested in plastic surgery.
b) I hate hot weather and to really be a (movie) actress, you have to live in LA.
c) I'm not enough of a bitch to make it in that world.
Truthfully, I'd still be interested in being an actress if I had just gotten that part I tried out for in high school. But I lost out to Carmen, who is a much better actress than me. And I give up easy :)

On being a band director:
a) I didn't pass the Hayes School of Music's (at Appalachian) entrance audition, but I didn't want to go to any other schools.
b) I would have had to go to 30 different classes a semester, and only get 15 credit hours.
c) Music majors at ASU are really 'clicky'
d) High School students (who I would have been teaching) suck.
e) Teaching sucks (to me).
f) There is a LOT more to music than all of the music I had growing up originally put on my plate.

So when I got to college, having failed to make it into the ASU's music program, I decided it wasn't my thing (but I did join the marching band for 2 years and it kicked ass). So I went with my second most loved subject in school, history.

History is a great major except for 2 major downsides:
1) you pretty much have to use it for teaching. There just isn't much you can do with a history major.
2) you have to write a LOT of big papers for history classes at App. I'm talking 20 page papers for each class. Anyone who knows me knows I hate writing papers. There really isn't any other way to pass these classes though. Although, on a side note, I did take a Pirate History class and got perfect scores on all of the tests but since I didn't feel like writing a 10 page paper about some Chinese pirate I've never heard of, I got a C in the class, which I was ok with.

For a major in history at Appalachian, you have to take geography classes to go along with them. After taking my 2 required geography classes, I fell in love with geography. History education was put on the back burner and then completely pushed off the stove.

That is how I ended up in geography. And since the best way to make money with a geography degree is to be a GIS Techinician, here I am.

Am I happy? Sure. I would be happier if there was more females in my profession. It is definitely a man's world. And sometimes I get superbored. But I always think to myself, that if I wanted to, I could go to night classes and learn to be a photographer. That is what I want to be now when I grow up.

once upon a dream...

ok so normally i don't have much to say about david beckham. i mean, he's gorgeous no doubt about it. but i wouldn't normally bring him up in conversation (he's not johnny depp). don't get me wrong, i like him, but i just don't think about him either bad or good.

but disney recently published some pictures, including this one and another of scarlett johanssen that are just beautiful and especially this picture of david beckham. sleeping beauty has always been my absolute favorite disney movie, and they have beckham dressed as prince charming. how lovely :)


and:

if i had $240 million.

Obviously, the first thing I would do would be pay off my mortgage, student loans, car, and credit cards.

-I'd give $10 million to the Queen Anne's Revenge Project.

-I'd give $20 million to Carmen, because she said she'd do the same thing if the situation was reversed.

-I'd probably give my other friends money too.. we'll see :)

-I'd take all of my friends on a Caribbean cruise.

-I'd buy a Saturn Sky.

-I'd learn to scuba dive.

-I'd learn to skydive.

-I'd buy a great camera, and learn how to take great pictures.

-I'd hire a 24 hour personal trainer and chef.

-I'd set my nieces up with college funds.

-I'd finally get DVR.

-I'd buy a house in Malibu, Boone, Vermont, and somewhere foreign.

-I'd visit every single continent, starting with Africa (starting with Egypt).

-I'd buy some antique stuff!

-I'd hire a fashion expert.

-I'd buy a pug.

-I'd probably quit my job.. definitely quit the brush.

-I'd buy Jared a new car :)

-I could keep going here forever and ever..

what would you buy?

mikey again.

ok here's one of mikey from 2000, on his birthday at pi-zon's:


okay.. well, I thought he was hot. but then again i was 18. hmm..

anywho.. here are some pictures from the schmoozefest that was the annual meeting and the tap room adventures afterwards:




to see them all go here or here.

snubbed!

first things first, the greatest movie of the year, Children of Men, was snubbed by the Oscars. it should win best picture, but now it can't. something is wrong with the world, so now i won't even be watching the oscars. :P

ok on to my story. when i was a senior in high school, i worked at an independently owned pizza restaurant in Concord, NC called Pi-zons. it was owned by a couple from New York, and they certainly were the epitomy of New York attitude. AND they were hardcore NASCAR fans.

here is the owner, ronnie tornatore, and his two horrible daughters with their car:













blech. i'm not a big fan of nascar. or racing in general, which is ironic since i grew up in kannapolis, home of dale earnhardt.

anywho. i had a fun time at this job because i learned to cook all sorts of italian things and i learned how to make NY style brick oven pizza. it was awesome. i could toss dough, and i could spin it on my hand in the air. i was cool.

halfway through my senior year, a guy named mikey started working there. mikey was from albany new york, but was not connected with mr. tornatore. he had come to charlotte to work on his music career, but ended up at pi-zons to make extra money. he was 4 years older than me and i LOVED him. i mean, he was 6'2", slightly skinny, sideburns, dressed cool, AND he had a cool accent. talk about dreamy mcdreamersons.

i lusted after him for 6 months but was too shy to ask him out. i was EXTREMELY sweet to him too, which, any guys who's ever dated me will tell you, i am Overly sweet to boys i like. i did everything i could to make him happy, and i wasn't even dating him.

after a few months, however, adam came to work at pi-zons and 3 weeks later, we were dating.. so.. my crush for mikey was halted. then, about a month before i moved away to college, mikey moved back to new york to go back to school. i was disheartened to say the least, even though i no longer wanted him, i still thought he was super cool. as a going away present for him, i made this really awesome scrapbook with pictures of all of us and it was cool. i hope he still has it...

so then i went away to college. and discovered the magic of the internet. i was a late internet bloomer (i was CONVINCED the internet was a fad). when mikey had moved away, he failed to leave any contact info for us, and i was so sad about this. upon discovering the internet, i searched for a long long time for him. do you know how many people in albany, ny have the same name as him? like 20. i gave up after a while. but every few months or so, i'd look again. this was in 2000. eventually, i gave up altogether.

but last week, i was bored at work (which i am so often!) and i remembered something that triggered a mikey memory. then i got on myspace, the haven for anyone trying to find anyone, and i searched for him.

and there he was. mikey, in all his gorgeous glory. still hot. still making music. he's still in albany, and he's in a band! i sent him a message, and i got a reply! so now, thanks to myspace, i've reconnected with one of my absolute favorite people from the past! i hope we can remain friends for a while this time, thanks to the magic of the internet.

here he is:

and here is his myspace.

i have a bunch of pictures of him from concord, and i'll find a good one to put up for ya tomorrow.

i love myspace.

etc. etc. etc.

so i've been "elected" vice president of my homeowner's association. whoopee. i still have no power. i bet i would still get 3 visits from the police and a noise ordinance violation ticket if i threw another ragin' party. at least i didn't get elected secretary, like carmen, who now has to write a bunch of letters and like, keep track of stuff. actually, i guess it's kind of cool.

have i mentioned my brother is getting married in April? i went home on saturday to try on my bridesmaid dress and it's pretty styling. AND it's only $50.00. sweet. i may even wear it again someday.

tonight is the big whoopacog annual meeting party thinggy. all of coworkers and i are to be there and we're supposed to spend the evening schmoozing with all of the local big-wigs. i'm dragging jared along and we plan to spend most of the evening frequenting the open bar :)

lately anytime carmen and i go out anywhere together we get hit on. bad. but it's not by pretty boys (usually). it's by creepy old men. what the hell? do we look like easy targets or something? i am not interested in hearing about your divorces, your kids, or your salesman jobs. blech. even if i was single i would turn you down. i'm still young enough to be picky about age. and 4o and 50 year old men? no thank you.

i have a new favorite song. it's called "Cupid's Chokehold" by Gym Class Heroes. i friggin love it and can't stop listening to it. go to myspace and listen to it if you can. i swear it's addictive.

speaking of myspace, i have a great story (at least i think it's great) to tell you tomorrow.

crazy in california

got this text message (picture) from my ex boyfriend Sean, a.k.a. crazy in california, a.k.a. The Fry Master of All that is Meat:




i'll go ahead and say it, that is NOT a flattering picture of him..
especially when you consider the last time i saw him, he looked like this.

he's called me twice this week, but i have yet to call him back because i don't feel like listening to him talk at me for an hour about how i should break up with jared, quit my job, and move to sunny California. ha! as Cher would say, As If!!

greatest movie ever.

i mean it.
children of men.

good things..

a few good things going on...
-i'm getting new contacts soon to combat the serious dry eye problems i've been having forever.

-i've started bartender training at the brush and next week i will officially be bartender.

-jared has been given a manager job at the brush here in hickory. this is great news since for a very long time there was concern he would be moving to boone.

-sunday katie and i are going to boone for no reason at all! yay! hopefully i'll get to take a bunch of pictures on campus just because i can.

-today i got to see this promotion picture from the 3rd Pirates of the Caribbean movie:


-and most importantly, it's 12 days into the year and i've completely kept up with my new year's resolutions. one more month and i break my longest relationship ever record.

waterfall

So yesterday my mother and my oldest brother, Scott, decided to come visit me and attempt to replace the faucet handles in my shower. The hot water handle, and the diverter (the one that switches from bath to shower) have both broken off since I've moved into my condo. As it turns out, my home warranty people won't replace these because they believe this was caused by "excessive force". The truth is, Mr. Finger (the previous owner) put the cheapest handles he could possibly find (which didn't actually fit) in my shower and therefore both handles came off quite easily.

So my mother and brother, along with my two nieces, Elora (who's FIVE now!!) and Madelyn (who's definitely hit her terrible two's). First things first, my brother tries to turn off the water in my house. We couldn't find a place to do this, so we called the condo complex's maintenance man. He tells us that to shut off the water in my condo, he'd have to shut off the water to the whole building. And? he won't do this because it's the weekend and everyone is home. Also, my building is the only building like this in the whole complex! grr...

So we decide that instead of replacing them all right now, that we'll just replace the hot water handle, since the hot water can be turned off at the hot water heater. We made a long and stressful trip to Home Depot and to lunch (stressful because of Little Miss Terrible Two's) and came back 2 hours later.

My brother quite easily takes off the old handles (what was left of them) and then decides he's going to go ahead and try to replace the cold water handle too, even though the water was not shut off. Apparently, if he could have done this without popping a certain um.. thing.. then um.. it would be okay.

He forgot one thing. He's no plumber. And bad luck with home improvements run rampant in my family. So I'm downstairs trying to rally my nieces into not killing my cat when I hear a loud WHOOSH and then what sounded like a train going by in my upstairs bathroom. I run upstairs to find my brother and mother both soaked standing in my (tiny) bathroom with the shower door shut with water shooting straight at the back wall of the shower with the force of a large waterfall. The doors weren't holding much back and water was going all over the place. I used almost every one of my twenty or so towels trying to soak up water in my bathroom floor. We immediately made a call to the maintenance man and told him he HAD to come shut the water off. My niece Elora called to us upstairs and said something about slime coming down the wall in my living room. So my mother went downstairs to use the rest of my towels to soak up the water that was coming down the wall.

After ten or so minutes the water was finally shut off. My brother quickly finished putting on the faucet handles and told the maint. man to cut the water back on. Water again begins to come out uncontrollably, but this time from the actual bath faucet. And it can't be turned off. So the maint. man had to shut the water off.. again. We discover we are missing a tiny black gasket from inside the cold water faucet handle. We felt defeated because most likely it had fallen down the drain during the waterfall escapade.

While this is going on I was in my bedroom closet where I had to remove my giant shoe rack and all of my shoes so that I could get to the panel that accesses the area behind the bath, just to make sure it didn't flood back there. With luck, I found the gasket behind the wall, where it had ricocheted and landed.

With a sigh of relief the faucet handles were finally installed correctly and the water was turned back on for good. After my brother's clothes had dried my family left and life returned to normal.

That is until a little while later when I decided to try to take a shower. That's when I discovered my hot water was not working. With ANOTHER visit from the maint. man, we gave up and decided that it just needed to sit for like, an hour, until the hot water heater could be filled up (at least we hoped that was all that was wrong).

So I went to dinner and around 9:00 returned to find my hot water finally working. Thank God. All this so that I could finally take a shower without the use of pliers. I think next time, I'll just call a plumber. Sheesh.

Top Fiver!

As it is the beginning of a new year, I'd like to briefly reflect on the last year. 2006 was a really positive year for me. A lot of wonderful things happened for me, things that I wouldn't want to forget any time soon.

On that note, here is a list of my top five happenings of 2006. Just know it was a tough decision and some of my other wonderful happenings were only left off because I am too lazy to come up with 10. :)

So here goes:

Number 5: It's a tie between: a)My tubing adventure. This doesn't seem like something that would be in my top five since it was just one afternoon among many glorious and wonderful drunken afternoons in my past year, but it is. Something about floating down the river, a six-pack of Bud Light tied to your raft by a string, without a care in the world for three hours at a time, it's just so relaxing and so... peaceful. The fact that I was there with a lot of my close friends really made it all that much better. Pictures


and b) my New Years Eve Squared party which was just a few days ago at my condo. This is especially awesome because ALL of my closest friends were there. All of the people I love were kind enough to come to my house for a little throw down. Only one or two people that I care about weren't there and that is mainly due to distance. A good time was had by all due to alcohol, karaoke, and of course, my hot tub. :) Pictures


Number 4: The Appalachian National Football Championship. As I've said before, it rocked. I can still feel that rush of pride, exhiliration, and all over sunshine-goodness that came when we scored that last touchdown and we knew that were once again national champions. The fact that I was there first hand to witness it all made it that much more special. I will never forget the amazing smells, sights and sounds of that day in Chatanooga. Pictures


Number 3: My trip to Savannah. A girls weekend in Savannah with nothing to do but drink, sight-see, drink, dance, ghost-hunt and drink. Could there possibly be any better to way to spend a long weekend in October? I think not. Katie, Andrea, Erica and I had an absolute blast and I wouldn't change a thing about the weekend (except to maybe somehow get rid of that hangover I had on the way back). Pictures


Number 2: Buying a Condo. Becoming a first-time homeowner is pretty damn big deal. I don't really need to add much to this. Except that with my Condo comes 2 other wonderful things: getting Meatwad! and having Carmen move next door! I really do have it made there. Something about owning your own place makes you really feel whole inside. Pictures


Nubmer 1: Meeting Jared. Obviously. Meeting someone who makes me feel so special and loved couldn't possibly be topped by anything, not even a new condo. I met him on Valentine's Day when he first worked at the Brush. On April 10th we went out for drinks and had a good time. And then on May 22 we had our "first date". My trip to Pigeon Forge & Gatlinburg is included in this one. I won't bore you with all the details. Just know he's my sunshine. I only hope I can keep up with my New Year's resolutions. Pictures


And there you have it. I've had a great 2006 and I can only hope I have an amazing 2007 to go along with it. Although, I accidentally did laundry on New Year's Day so who knows how this year will be...

*On a side note, I take a LOT of pictures. I didn't even realize when I was making this list that were pictures (granted, some were from Katie) of all the major events IN SETS on my flickr page.

my turn to post my resolutions for all the world to see..

be forewarned, this blog is stupidly emotional and probably boring to most everyone but me. i'm just writing it because i need to.

ok i guess i'll go ahead and jump on the bandwagon and make a new years resolution or two.
first off, i'm going to keep the same one i had last year, which i kept (mostly....) which was to be happy and be myself. this one is the toughest thing i've ever dealt with. being myself is something totally accomplishable once you settle on the fact that nothing can change you except you. it's never really dawned on me before that if i be myself, people will still like me. and the ones that don't? i guess they weren't really my friends. luckily for me, that hasn't been a problem yet.

being happy, that's a hard resolution to follow. many great and wonderful things have happened to me this year. i became a homeowner in march and i now have a great condo. i adopted a kitty, meatwad, in may and therefore will always have that companionship. and also, i've met and fallen in love with an amazing man, jared, who has been the source for much, much happiness this year. it had been a really really really long time since i've actually been happy happy with a man. five years in fact. i was beginning to think that no other man was really going to be up to par with how happy i was before. thankfully, i've found jared. and he fills all the holes that were left behind in my heart.

but as with all good things, a person tends to do themselves in and sabotage what makes them happy. i'm dumb enough to be a very jealous girl.. which is ironic because i've broken up with a boy before for his jealousy. now i understand what it's like. now i feel awful.. i actually make myself mad for being so jealous. i know how idiotic it is to be jealous. but then i question everything.. like why hasn't he called yet? he doesn't sound like he wants to see me... he isn't as happy to hear my voice as i am to hear his.. why did he not tell me where he got that shirt before... but then i realize that i'm being stupid and the reason he didn't tell me is because he knows how jealous i am and he doesn't want to piss me off. it's a vicious nasty nasty circle which leads me to my new resolution for the year:

to stop obsessing over things that aren't really what i imagine them to be..
to stop being so jealous when i have no reason to be..
to remember the motto i came up with in high school, "green is only as blue as you make it".

if i can pull that one off, it will be a miracle. but miracles never cease...

also, i'd like to try to stop cussing so much. and to maybe be healthier. yea.

christmas wrap up (hehehe i'm so punny!)

well i'd say santa was good to me this year:


here's my list of some of the gifts i recieved:

-a drill (woohoo!) i asked for

-a toolkit i asked for

-a bottle of parrot bay (which i finished off that same night)

-4 dvds (sandlot, friends series finale, benny & joon, and goonies)

-a sweater, scarf, and earrings (among other nice things) from jared's family

-a really pretty necklace and earrings from my future sister-in-law

-pirate stuff (for my bathroom and because, hello? it's me!)

-wheel of fortune handheld game (to keep me entertained!)

-a digital photography kit from stephen

-some moolah from daddy

-the harry potter bookset from jared

-and an amazing digital picture frame from my sweety! i love that boy.

the best part of christmas was getting to spend all day saturday with my family, and all day monday with my jared and his family.



i still have a few gifts left to give/recieve, but the majority of christmas is over, and for once, i'm sad about it.

so i gave myself a nice little christmas present last night. actually, it's a gift from me to me and to all of you.

i gave my two weeks notice at the brush last night.

um.. really?

Sounds like I need to check out another amazing Appalachian team. Apparently, our basketball team is kickin' butt too!

I've never been a big basketball fan, but this seems like something Katiebonk and I should check out!

aaack!!

Since when is Christmas less than a week away?!

Last week I was thinking my shopping was almost done and now somehow I've added 4 more people to my list. Who knew gaining a sister-in-law (in April my brother Alan is marrying his gf Wendy) means that I need to get her a little something? And Andrea (my old roomie) told me yesterday that she has a little something for me. And since I'll be staying with my sweetie's parents Christmas Eve I would like to get a little something for them, or at least his mother and sister.

Aye Aye Aye!

Oh, and what's all the crud about it being 70 degrees today? It IS DECEMBER! Hello!! Weather Gods! You're slacking on the job! Give me some snow! When I moved to Hickory from Kannapolis, I was told I'd see some snow in the winter. And? nothing. Two winters so far with no snow. Oh how I miss the Boone winters...


PS I've decided to forgo the telling of the worst day ever that I talked about at the end of my post about Chattanooga. I'll just say this: If that mean old witch ever comes back into the brush while I'm working I'll tell her where she can shove that shot of 7 and 7. :P (why would you want to make a stranger cry?)

this just in...

i've finally posted my pictures from the championship!!
just click on Richie and me!

almost TOO much excitement for one weekend.

So as you probably already know, Appalachian won their 2nd consecutive national championship game Friday night, beating UMASS 28-17. I think that might have been the most fun day I've had, ever.



highlights:



-took a LOT of pictures.



-got to eat at the yum-diddily-umptious Mellow Mushroom in Chatanooga (that makes 6 different MMs)



-had my picture taken with my sign by at least 20 random people I don't know, and a few I did know, including Blue Ridge Blog's Marie, who I finally got to meet! She even blogged about meeting me (under 2nd picture). I'm still amazed I picked her out of the GINORMOUS crowd after never having actually seen her face.



-I got to meet and get an autograph from Richie Williams! I have a picture, which I will be posting later. What a nice guy.



-I got a cool face tattoo (fake of course) of Yosef, given by Ray the Weather Guy's wife. When I told her I had had him as a lab instructor at ASU she laughed and told me she was sorry. I wish it had been him telling me he was sorry. That class made me cry on more than one occasion. (C++ is a pain in the A++)



-I ran into so many people I know! Including my boss and his family, and a lot of people from the Hickory area! I was there with Katie, Daniel, Stephen (who I bugged into riding with me!) Alisa, Matt, Chad, Jeff, and Tracy.



-Our seats were pretty bad but it was okay because back row = nobody behind you getting mad because you stand on your seat the whole game.



-I yelled so much I lost my voice by halftime. I'm still hoarse today (3 days later).



-Skydivers brought in the game ball!



-There were fireworks (I LOVE FIREWORKS!!!) before and after the game.



-I have a crazy weird video of different points before, during, and after the game.



-The ASU Marching Mountaineers Rock.



-Armanti Edwards and Kevin Richardson and the rest of the football team rock.



-Yosef Rocks (especially when I went to give him a hug and he picked me up and twirled me around!)



-My friends rock.



Let's just sum up by saying I had a really great time! Pictures to come soon!





Also soon to come: This great day was followed by the next day, which was one of the Worst Days Ever. Look for the sordid details soon to come. :(

you'll see this friday night on ESPN...

my sign:

going for 2! for real!

Thank Yosef for the Appalachian Mountaineers. After a long and disappointing season from my other 'Neers (the Tampa Bay Buccaneers), I am so glad for my alma mater's fantabulous football program. Watching the game on Saturday, (on HDTV!) I couldn't help but get a little nostalgiac for the days when I was a Marching Mountianeer (2000 and 2001). I wish I could find a picture for proof...

None of that matters now though, because Friday I, along with 20,000 or so other Mountaineer fans, will be in Chatanooga to cheer on Armanti Edwards, Kevin Richardson, and the rest of the most amazing football team in the country. 27 straight wins at home, and now we're going for 2 straight NCAA championships!

I'm bringing with me a UNCC graduate who will be a transplant on Friday. I've already told him he better wear some black and gold Friday, or he's being left behind!

Remember this from last year?

Expect something equally amazing this Friday night.

It really is great to be a Mountaineer.

"joe waple is hot"

i'm going to tell you about the one and only trend i ever started.

i'm still not sure why i did it. maybe it was the thrill of anonymous graffiti. maybe it was because i thought he'd know it was me and then we'd be together and live out the rest of our days in harmonious bliss that all started with those four words.
or maybe i was under the influence of some illegal substance. who knows.

but 3 years ago, i wrote "joe waple is hot" on the wall of the rankin science elevator.

really.

at age 21.

the next day everyone on 4th floor rankin was discussing it, making jokes, and asking around "who did it?"

i heard that one of the funnier geography professors even went up to him to feel his forehead, then said, "you feeling okay? i heard you were hot."

within two days everyone and their mother decided to write about who they felt was hot in the elevator. i even read one that said "mike mayfield is hot" (mike mayfield is one of the friendlier (and in his 40s) geography professors.

'ye olde ozone flyer' (as it is called) had never seen so much action.

of course the next week one of the senior staff members brought in a can of paint and decided to end everyone's fun. each time he rode the elevator he brought the can of paint with him to make sure he was covering up every single piece of graffiti.

it was fun while it lasted.

did joe know it was me? i don't know. he jokingly said "it had to be you" to me one day, so maybe.

wherever joe is now (i heard wilmington, nc) i hope every once in a while he thinks back to that elevator and says to himself, "i was hot."

chatanoooooga

so, here's my latest dilemma:

next friday i am going to go to chatanooga for the ncaa division 1-AA championship game to watch appalachian go for 2 (that is, IF we beat youngstown st this saturday). my dilemma is that i reaaaaaaaaaaaaally don't want to drive 4 hours by myself. so, who wants to take off friday afternoon and go with me (IF we win on saturday)????

we'll come back friday night or we could find a hotel somewheres and come back saturday morning!

i don't care what it takes, i'm GOING to chatanooga (IF we win on saturday). if i have to go by myself i will.. but sheesh that's a long way by myself..

shooooo

well i finally found something for jared, something that i can wrap. it's really not that big of a deal, but i think it's cool. if you want to know what it is, ask me and i'll email you. :)

oh and i'm kind of afraid because yesterday brad called and asked for jared's number, and then they talked and now jared knows what brad's getting me for christmas.. which probably means brad knows what jared is getting me.. i have no clue for either of them. i do know that now i need to get something ELSE for brad since he spent more than the $20.00 i told him he was allowed to spend on mine (which is all i spent on his). hmm. oh well.

and i'm also excited because it's secret santa time at the brush. and for once, i have no idea who my secret santa is!

i'm in a much better mood this christmas than last year. thank goodness.

21 days til christmas.... :O!!!!

jared got my xmas present yesterday. i have no idea what it is but i'm excited to say the least.. and now i'm really freaking because i still would like to get him something i can wrap to go along with his duke ticket. nothing huge, but something i can wrap damn it! aaaaaaaaaa and i still have to put up my christmas tree but i'm waiting for the fish to move next door.

we are doing secret santa at the brush and OF COURSE i drew the boss' name out of the basket. wee. responsibility! and speaking of responsibility i will soon begin training in the bar! yep! i will be the official thursday night bartender. that is, of course, if my background check comes out clean :)

my christmas plans are starting to shape up-ish. saturday the 23rd i will go to my ma's for christmas there. then i work christmas eve (where i will make tons of mad cash). and then on xmas day i'm going to canton to hang with jared and his family.

then waaaaaaaaay down the line on the 30th i'm going to my daddy's up in the mountains for that christmas. oh, and then of course later that night is my new years eve squared party. yall better show up!



oh yea and goooooooooo appalachian! hell yea 2 more games to go to be 2 time champions!!



(i didn't take this)

:(

i'm in an awful mood.
i hate it when i get drunk and say stupid stuff. and then that spirals into way-too-real conversations that leave you feeling like you've been hit by an eighteen-wheeler truck. and then all you feel is numb. i feel numb today.
but as is my tradition, i'll be ok by tomorrow because i'll push the numb feeling back down.

and i don't want to talk about it.. so then why'd i bring it up? because it's my blog and i'm supposed to be able to do that here.

sorry.

hallelujah

carmen closes on her condo today! she will officially be my next door neighbor now!! yay! she's just glad she doesn't have to live with meatwad anymore. i love that cat. but he is definitely mean.

anywho wish carmen congrats.

i made an awesome rum cake last night that you'll all be jealous about.

well..

well i survived thanksgiving.. barely. it was a long 6 days (well 5 and a half days) without jared. it was the longest we've been apart ever. but somehow we made it. the text messaging (somewhere around 400 texts were thrown around) was my only means to keep sane. but i still had a good time in virginia with my momma. it was good to do that whole mother/daughter quality time thing. but now i'm uber-tired. and i have to work both jobs today and tomorrow. but at least at i get to see jared tonight!
i took tons of pictures and i'll eventually put them up on the flickr. i need a nap and drink first though...

the coolest thing i saw while on vaca? Robert E. Lee's Angels, which are explained here.

the coolest thing i bought? a new painting for over my couch, of the statue of david. i bought it for $18.75 and it's original price tag was for $250.00. sweet deal.

what i'm excited about now?
christmas music! the music is pretty much the only thing i LOVE about christmas (other than nostalgia). the brush has switched it's music to strictly holiday music. and i found a radio station that only plays christmas music! yay! and, AND i'm almost DONE with my christmas shopping. all i have left are my step siblings, and jared :)

how come nobody had any suggestions for me for a gift for him? grr!! i'm getting him a duke basketball ticket, but i'd like to get him something else to go along with it!! hello people!! anybody?

um.. in other news, i sure do ramble a lot...

so..

ethan hawke was my first celebrity crush. after seeing alive i was in L.O.V.E. with that boy. but after a few years i grew out of it which is okay. because seriously, how does one go from this prettiness:





















and this hottness:





















to this?:




















thank goodness i've moved on to johnny, who hasn't failed me yet in the hott department.

like this and like that and like this and up

i bought a video camera and i am muy excited!
i've never had one before. expect me to be posting lots of stuff on youtube.
examples of stuff of you may see:
-me, talking to myself.
-jared, telling me to stop recording him.
-football (mainly a.s.u.)
-drunk people
-drunk people
-drunk people
-jared
-my cat
-and maybe just maybe i'll be cool and make a "movie" (no, not that kind of movie, you perv!)

anywho i can't wait to record SOMETHING and put it up so you can watch it. i just have to wait until i find something interesting enough to record.


i wish i had had it monday night at the bucs game. not that there was anything that interesting.. but you know, it would have been more fun than just plain old pictures.

on that note, here is a picture of my buccaneers coming back in for the second half and about to severely disappoint me. :(


they're still my team, but damn, they suck. next year. next year.
(yes, this is very similar to my myspace blog, but get over it)

p.s. i need to come up with an idea of something to tell jared to get me for xmas. any suggestions? (not a ring!)

pictures of Pigeon Forge

i've finally uploaded all the pics from my trip!
click on jared!

pigeon forge!

well can i just say i had a really really really fantabulous weekend with jared?
some highlights:

-jared is sweet :)

-king sized bed!

-top floor room and you had to use the key card to go to that floor off the elevator

-i beat jared by 1 stroke playing minigolf (he got mad and tore up the scorecard, but i still have it)

-he beat me on the go-karts (:P)

-won a bunch of tickets in the arcade! i love skeeball. really.

-jared is sweet.

-fell asleep at 11:30 on friday and 12:00 on saturday. just because we could. (that's early!!)

-the aquarium in gatlinburg FRIGGIN RULES! i have never ever been that close to sharks. most people that know me know how afraid i am of sharks. honestly, they're most of the reason i don't get into water. (except my hot tub)
i really reallly really liked the aquarium and took a bunch of pictures which i will be posting on flickr tomorrow night.. maybe. if i ever get the time.

-i got MOST of my christmas shopping done. which is a huge relief because i hate that part of the holidays. christmas depresses me sometimes just because of all the pressure. of course, i still have yet to get jared a present yet.

-it rained pretty much all day saturday, but it was ok, except when the power went out in 1/2 the town! including stoplights (which made the already horrendous traffic even more so) and also our hotel (which delayed my after-rain-hair showering and caused us to eat dinner at 4:30!)

-we went to ripley's believe it or not, which wasn't all i thought it would be. at least not for the 30 bucks i spent to get us in.

-jared is sweet.

-then we went to this really cool bar called hogs & honeys in gatlinburg. it's great because people dance on the bar! not just the people that work there either. i didn't dance anywhere except on the floor next to jared, even though i got a little drunk! it took me 2 hours to convince him to dance with me,

-some whore in the long ass line in the bathroom at the bar told me she felt bad because she should let me pee first because of my "condition". apparently my fave shirt makes me look pregnant. then she told me i should burn it since that's the impression it gives off. whore.

-then i got all emotional because i was drunk.

-jared is sweet and came up with a new nickname for me: ally berry. hahaha

-sunday we shopped a little more then left. on the way home we stopped in canton to see his family.

-his mom gave me a hug goodbye :)

-we had lunch/early dinner at the sagebrush in canton. ha.

then, after a looooong weekend we were finally home and i did some laundry and went to bed.

i really love that boy. it says something that we survived a weekend all alone together and never wanted to kill each other

well it's about darn time.

only took me 2.5 days. this game is REALLY hard.

sooo.

for the past couple of months, the I.T. guy at my office and others have been going bandwidth crazy and being super internet nazis going so far as to block any sites they deem "innapropriate". this i understand. but when they go so far as to accuse me of looking at po*n on my work computer, i get upset. who in their right mind would be dumb enough to look at po*n on their work computer? it really really pissed me off. i'm sure some website i looked at must have had a link to some bad website or something. and who knows? i could have clicked on something accidentally without realizing what it was. and i'm sure if i did, i closed it immediately when i realized what it was. but obviously that's not the point. grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!

so anywho, now i'm really paranoid that THE MAN is tracking every single thing i look at on the web. which is why i've been so inactive on here and other websites the past few days. yes, i have internet at home. but i'm so rarely home that when i do go home, all i want to do is veg, not sit at the computer. my coworker daniel says i should just lay low for a couple months and that then all of this crap will blow over, and that it's not just me. still, i'm pissed off. when i get bored? i want to look at internet. now i'm stuck playing spider solitare and minesweeper (which is friggin impossible to beat!!).

rant over.


so yea.
and my hottub works!! yay!! i've been in it a couple of times already. it rules. except i think we put too much chlorine in it.. hopefully after a little bit that will subside.. we'll see.

2 more days til me and jared go to pigeon forge!! i'm sooooooooooooooooo excited.

guess what?

guess who has a working hot tub now?
:) :) :)

well, there ya go.

i don't eat seafood. not at all.

people think i'm weird.

now i can say i'm just preparing for the future.

google (couldn't think of anything else as a title)

have you ever noticed how sometimes movies really stick with you? tuesday night carmen and i watched wicker park. i still can't decide whether i hated it or loved it. it is an amazingly grabbing movie. i couldn't get up from it. and ever since then i've still been feeling very emotional, mostly about jared. i think i just live my life in a fairy tale or something. of course then last night i was in a seriously sad funk. for no reason. i was just sad and had absolutely no reason to be so. i don't usually get that way. so then i went over to jared's. and then we went to see employee of the month, and it made me feel all better. what an underrated movie. i loved it. i laughed a lot harder at that then i did at talladega nights. but maybe that's just my brand of humor. plus, dane cook is seriously fine.

i had an awesome halloween weekend. check out my pics from the not-that-cold appstate game, and from b's 3rd annual costume party. i had a great time, except for the 3 hour AWFUL drive from boone to durham. grah. i never want to drive again.



anywho. 8 more days til jared and i leave for pigeon forge. :)

for once, something on me is TOO thin, and that's bad.

so i went to charlotte on tuesday to dr. christenbury's (christenbury eye center) to get a free screening to see if i qualify for lasik. well after they did like 30 tests and dilated me and i sat around forever, dr. christenbury (OMG! celebrity!) finally came in for about 3 minutes to tell me that my corneas are too thin and my astigmatism is too bad to get lasik. BOO. heredity is a bitch.

he said there is a new procedure that will be approved by the FDA in the next few months that would be good for me. it's kind of like a contact lens implant in my eye. it's a lot like this. so i'm going back in 6 months. another 6 months of contacts :(.

anywho. i'm really excited because Nov. 10-12 jared and i are going to Pigeon Forge! i've never been there before. and i wanted us to go somewhere for a weekend getaway and this is where we've decided to go. just the two of us all weekend with no work! yay! we're going to have so much fun. i'm so so so so so excited. :)

book meme

I've been tagged by Katie, but i really don't read that much. seems like lately i'm just too darn busy for reading (except celebrity gossip blogs).

1) One book that changed your life:
2) One book that you read more than once: Alive by Piers Paul Read
3) One book you’d want on a deserted island: To Kill a Mockingbird I guess.
4) One book that made you laugh: when i was a kid, all of the sweet valley twins books
5) One book that made you cry: Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
6) One book you wish you’d written: i don't know.. um.. Big Fish?
7) One book you wish had never been written: Siddhartha, Old Man in the Sea, the Jungle, all of which i had to read in high school and hated. (i had to read Siddhartha in college too:P)
8) One book you’re currently reading: Miracle in the Andes
9) One book you’ve been meaning to read: The Da Vinci Code
10) Tag five people: i don't have anyone to tag, but anyone who reads this is welcome to comment.

woos!

well i had another pretty-darn-good weekend!

i got to watch the appalachian game saturday at jared's. it was real nail-biter with a double overtime win over georgia southern!

and then yesterday brad was here and we went to buffalo wild wings to watch the tampa bay game. wow. i had almost given up hope of my team winning some this year. and who would have thought we'd beat philadelphia? sheesh!
it was one of those moments where things move in slow motion and then all of a sudden you're yelling and screaming and hugging and high-fiving! yay for the third longest field goal in NFL history!


















and then last night i won $15 playing poker.
lunch today with jared!

50 more things (Because why the hell not)

well since it's been precisely a year since i created my list of 50 things about me (because 100 is a bit much), i've decided to go ahead and be cool and finish my list. just cause.

51. i have terrible eyesight. when i was in 3rd grade i would get sick and throw up once a week from headaches. now i have awful contacts and serious dry-eye. trying to get lasik.
52. i have autographs from almost all of my favorite musicians/bands including mc chris, the avett brothers, daniel johns (silverchair), brandon flowers (killers), and many many others including vanilla ice, green day, and bloodhound gang.
53. the one autograph i am missing is Beck's. i almost got it when i chased his tourbus through downtown charlotte.
54. in high school i made an entire 2 inch thick notebook dedicated to Beck. i went through hundreds of magazines looking for pictures of Beck, and i would cut them out and put them in there, along with drawings of him and poems and lyrics by him. i still have it :)
55. the furthest away from home i've ever been is Ireland (well technically cali, but i liked ireland better). i went in 9th grade with my high school marching band.
56. i've discovered first hand that there are very few redheads in Ireland.
57. i hate portajohns with a passion and once vowed to never use one again. i broke that vow at bele chere after one too many beers.
58. halloween is my favorite holiday.
59. i have a vow with my best friend Brad that if neither of us are married by age 30 that we will marry each other.
60. i'd really like to be married by the time i'm 30.
61. i have a lovely little cat named Meatwad. he's beautiful but incredibly mean.
62. i love gummi worms. any time i have to drive for more than an hour at a time, i always stop to buy gummi worms for the ride.
63. i'm slightly chubby :)
64. i don't have a lot of street smarts, and what i do have i learned from watching t.v. i swear t.v. raised me.
65. i think brad pitt is overrated. :o
66. my nickname at my high school job was "Troll" because i once dyed my hair purple.
67. my second car was a bonneville that was spray-painted all over with flames and drawings and friend's names. i called it "Melvin". It would have been a great candidate for Pimp My Ride.
68. i believe naming your car is good luck. but then again, i'm on car number 7 and i'm only 24. i've had the silver surfer, melvin, scout/boo radley, beteguise, white lightning, leroy, and the black pearl.
69. i always have to have a green room. in my college apartment, my bedroom was easter egg green. i painted my room at andrea's blah green. my dining area in my condo is mint chocolate chip ice cream green.
70. i'm a very happy-go-lucky type of girl, but i get frustrated very easy and get a lump in my throat any time i think something is wrong and it's my fault.
71. i'm also a very jealous person. any time a girl even looks at my man i want to scratch her eyeballs out.
72. i'm very good at hiding my emotions.
73. i've never been in a fist fight where i fought back.
74. i went to summer camp for 4 summers when i was a kid and loved every minute of it. except for that one time this girl hit me twice and i didn't fight back.
75. i'm a pacifist, always have been.
76. i believe in karma, always have.
77. i've never been religious.
78. i've never voted for george bush.
79. i hate talking about politics.
80. i would never bungi jump, but i'd love to try sky-diving.
81. i'm afraid of deep water. especially if it's dark.
82. i'm afraid of spiders and sharks. but not snakes.
83. i sing in the shower, but only when i'm alone in the house.
84. in case you didn't know it already from how much i talk about it, i hate summer.
85. i have 2 other blogs that you don't know about :)
86. for a brief period of time in college, i was big into the "meet me" section of hotornot.com. i met several boys that way, but only one was face-to-face. we ended up hitting it off, and he introduced me to Six Feet Under, one of the greatest t.v. shows ever made.
87. i'm going to strive to eat at as many Mellow Mushrooms as possible. so far i have 5 down: boone, blowing rock, wilmington, asheville, and columbia. 40 more to go!
88. i've kissed the blarney stone.
89. i was in marching band for 6 years and i loved it. i played the clarinet, and for a while the trumpet too.
90. i have quite possibly the WORST singing voice you will ever hear. ask anyone who's ever heard me. ask my middle school chorus teacher who had the pleasure (or displeasure) of hearing me try out for chorus in 7th grade. i didn't make it.
91. i'm very into NFL. i currently have 2 fantasy football teams, who aren't doing too good...
92. i have an overactive immune system. i very rarely get sick and when i do, it's only for a very short period of time. i heal quickly too.
93. i got mono once in 10th grade and only missed 2 days of school. i got it from being on the girl's soccer team.
94. i do NOT like country music, and i don't think i ever will.
95. my favorite band plays blue-grassy type rock (the avett brothers).
96. i collect homies, decks of cards, snowglobes, anything to do with star wars, johnny depp, or maps.
97. i won this year's office NC-AA pool by picking Florida. i picked them just because i was born there. and i won $153.00! and spent it on sheets and a vacuum cleaner.
98. i own my own condo, at the ripe old age of 24.
99. i have never successfully kept a new year's resolution. but i'm thinking this year might be the year. my resolution was to be happy and be myself.
100. i am in love.*


*all items on this list are subject to change. get over it.

don't worry. it's just a bad dream...

this week me and jared have both had some crazy dreams.

monday morning jared told me he had a dream about me.

"what was it?" i say.

"i don't want to tell you"

"you have to now"

"i had a dream that you were demanding a ring from me by christmas. and then you told me that we needed to be married by the end of next year"

..hmm.. how does one respond to that? i simply said, "i've already got a ring. i bought it from target for ten dollars so you're off the hook."

so then last night i had a dream about him. and, strangely enough, my ex beau adam. i dreamt that they were both competing for my affection. and then, i was pregnant with jared's baby. then everything went awry. i haven't told him about that one yet, but i will.

some people might say that these dreams are wishful thinking or something. i say the pregnancy dreams comes from the fact that my halloween costume this year involves me dressing up as a pregnant lady. and i bought the maternity shirt when i was with jared, and then last night tried it on over the pregnant belly i purchased from party city. he said it was cute. that's where that comes from. as much as i would like to someday have a baby, perhaps with jared, perhaps not, i'm not really ready now. i couldn't afford it. and i'm having too much fun being selfish. do you know how NOT selfish you have to be to have a baby? sheesh.

as far as his dream goes, well, that was his dream, not mine, so i don't know where he got it from.

update!

i have finally uploaded my pictures from savannah on flickr! just remember these are only a fraction of the 300 and some odd pictures i took there. but these are all i'm posting on flickr! enjoy! click on the picture below to go to the set!


in other news, today is my ex beau adam's 26th birthday! so happy bday to him! i'm going to call him tonight to wish him a happy birthday and ask him why my hot tub STILL doesn't work. and then i'm going to tell him that me and katie ate at the mellow mushroom in columbia on friday and i didn't even call him! he'll probably be pissed considering he LOVES mellow mushroom, and since i was in the same town as him and didn't even call. oh well.

jared is sick! poor baby has a coldish. i hope you feel better soon sweets!

and carmen is *this* close to buying the condo next door to mine with the cool bay window!! yay!! i'm so excited!

next year will the best year yet!

B oo!

man. man o man. i had a BLAST in Savannah. Katie and I rode down to Savannah on friday morning to meet andrea and erica for 3 days of drunken debauchery. man, it rocked.
i drank a lot of booze, took a LOT of pictures, danced with a lot of boys, and saw a lot of really cool stuff. i don't even know where to begin. i think the highlight of the weekend was when we were on the second floor of the moon river pub, on a haunted pub crawl, when all of sudden a man ran down from the unoccupied 3rd floor scaring the CRAP out of erica and me. but that's just one of a million great stories from the weekend. i can't fathom trying to write them all here. let's just say i had a great time. i've never been on a girl's weekend before. i hope i get to do it again soon! all this funness has made me REALLy want to go somewhere for a weekend with jared. since i'm not going to the cayman's i think i'm gonna try to go november 12-14 with him. where? not sure. charleston is looking expensive for that weekend. probably myrtle beach. yea.

i'll tell you i SURE did miss him this weekend. i talked to him a LOT on the phone, even once while i was throwing up! he said it was cute, so i guess that's love.

anywho keep checking the flickr. i'll eventually get around to posting some (not all!) of the pics!

sad :(

my mom called me yesterday to tell me that my kitty lucifer (who lives at ma's house) was hit by a car and killed tuesday. that sucks. but he was an old man and lived a loong happy life. i got him when i was 14 and he has been a lazy, mouse killing machine for 10 years. i'll miss that pretty kitty.

here's an oldie for ya

since i haven't had a whole lot to blog about lately, i'm gonna take the advice of maggie from her book, which i ordered the other day and show you an old journal entry. not just an OLD journal entry, but my very first journal entry, from 10th grade. i still have my old journal, and still write in it from time to time.

so here goes:

" Saturday, March 21, 1998
I dumped my boyfriend yesterday. But I desperately WANT HIM BACK. He was so perfect. I just got jealous because of Melissa Murph. I HATE her. I don't like to use that word, but I do. I wrote him this letter, put it in his mailbox, realized he wouldn't check his mail til Monday afternoon, then went & reclaimed the letter. I'm going to go to his house tomorrow to just give it to him. God I'm tired"

i only wish i still had this letter, i'm sure it's really awful.. imagine me at 15, with my jnco pants and my bloodhound gang t-shirts and i was in love with this boy, Smokey:



ah, tenth grade. :)

this video made me cry today/i'm such a girl

now make a wish and blow out the candle!

hehehe he LOVED that hat too.

soooooooooo

Happy Birthday Cheesecake!

Today is Jared's birthday! He's finally 24 like me! Tonight we celebrate, with more Carnegie Deli Cheesecake! woohoo!!

i love october.

i freakin love the weather in october.
as you may or may not have noticed, i HATE hot. i hate sticky summers. i hate being sweaty and i hate what happens to my hair in the summer. so naturally, i LOVE october, when it is perfect weather.

i only wish i could be out in it more often. this is the only month of the year that i actually enjoy GPS'n.

i also love october because of pumpkin beer. something about having pumpkin spice in my beer makes me feel all warm inside.

and let's not forget halloween, my most favorite holiday ever. what could possibly be more fun than dressing up and pretending to be somebody else, and that being okay?

did i mention the weather?

i hope i get to make it up to boone again soon.. i am going to the oct. 28th game at ASU, but i'm afraid it maybe a little cold by then. not like i mind!

if it was october all year long, i'd be happy.

:)

bleh..

i think i'm getting sick.
i'm in a funky mood..

want to go back to sleep. not like i haven't gotten enough this week.

Rudy? Great movie.

Pumpkin Ale? Rules.

Tampa Bay? Not doing so good. Hopefully the new QB will change that.

Jared? Still Awesome. His birthday is next Wednesday and I got him the coolest thing ever. Wanna know what it is? click here


hahaha.

smorgasbord.. (how do you spell that?)

I'm coming off of another great weekend.. i really do have the life..

friday night after the brush, jared and i and a bunch of brushers partied old-school style at the hickory tavern to celebrate my friend sam's 30th birthday. if you feel like looking a bunch of drunken pictures, click here. they're really not anything special though. there is one of me kissing a girl, but i chose not to put that one on the internet, as it is too incriminating.


anywho.. then saturday was a busy busy busy busy night at the brush (for once!) i pretty much fell asleep immediately after getting home from work. but it was worth it.. and it was a damn good sleep.

sunday was the best though. after work (at 4 pm) i went to pick up jared and we headed down to my mom's house where he met: mom, will (my step-dad), my brother alan, my brother scott, my niece elora, my niece madelyn, my ex-sister in law heather, and my brother's friend ian. yea i'm sure it was a little overwhelming, but jared handled it very well. my family can be kind of loud, but they were well behaved last night. i'm just happy my brother wasn't drunk already when we got there. then the boys were kind enough to include jared in the football throwing time! that was pretty hot. and then we played some pool on my step-dad's pool table. and i beat jared.. twice. the only reason i lost one game was because i scratched on the 8 ball. i think he was letting me win! what a sweety!

overall i think my family really liked him. which is good. because i do.


tonight i'm scheduled to work, but they called and told me i didn't have to if i didn't want to.. so instead: TARGET!! WOOHOO!!




p.s. yea, the bucs lost to the friggin panthers. but with this awfulness come hope as chris simms is out for a while. new qb time!

so i called my mom today....

so i called my mom today....and she's all, "how come you took jared up to the mountains to meet your dad? when do i get to meet him? i never get to meet your boyfriends. do you love your dad more than you love me?" ok maybe i'm paraphrashing a little.. but still. my mom exaggerates a lot. it scares me to think that one day, i'll be just like her. because you know, you always turn out like your mother, whether you realize it or not. maybe i'll be more like my dad though. at this stage in my life, i'm definitely leaning towards my dad's personality. he's a glass-is-half-full type of guy, and i'm pretty much optimistic all the time. my mother? not so much. in fact, there were a couple years right after my parents got divorced when i wasn't sure my mom wasn't going to kill herself. luckily, paxil or zoloft one cured her of that and made home livable again.

i look a lot like her.. sort of. in the face i do. when she was my age, she was anorexic-looking skinny. heh. but then in her 30's she weighed around 300 pounds. it's strange. now she's just normal though. i hope to god i never let myself get like that. i think if i were to ever even hit 200 pounds i may have to resort to an eating disorder. and i'm not kidding.



i look nothing like my dad.. but i know he's my dad. i mean, we're both incredible geeks. we would both KILL to go on a vacation to egypt. my ideal day would be to spend most of my time walking around a museum of wicked-cool mummy artifacts. we both have degrees in geography. in fact, i didn't even know he had a geography degree and when i told him i was going to switch to geography, he thought it was sweet that i was copying my daddy. hehehe.




so maybe i'll be more like my dad when i get older. i wouldn't mind. not that there's anything wrong with being like my mother. but i mean, come on. what girl wants to be just like her mother when she gets old?









on a side note: jared, my mom wants us to come down for dinner sunday night. :) what do ya say?

to blaaaaaaaaaave....

if you don't know what the title means, that sounds like a personal problem.

well blow me down!

arrrrrrr it be international talk like a pirate day me hearties!

time for some rum!
shiver me timbers!
I'd love to drop anchor in your lagoon.
I've crushed seventeen men's skulls between me thighs!
yarrrrr!

yippee!

well i'd say i had a pretty darn awesome weekend.

friday, josh, carmen, and i had a blast at mcguire's celebrating her bday!
i was in disguise, as seen below:


i even got hit on hard core by one of carmen's theater friends. too bad for him, at midnight i left to go see my squeeze... still in costume. i looked like a different person because carmen did my makeup and i had black hair.

jared even said "it's like i'm making out with a completely different person". i'm not sure whether that was a good thing or a bad thing. :p

saturday was another ho hummer which basically just involved me and the jayrod going to the mall, and then to work. oh, after work we went to hooters.. it was my idea though. he loves that place and i figured i may as well embrace it. it wasn't bad though. it's basically just a restaurant. that's it. nothing to be concerned about. and it was good for us to go together i think.

sunday we went up to my dad's for a 'meet the parents' day. jared didn't say much, since he's so shy when he's around new people. but i don't think that mattered. my dad pretty much gets along with anybody i bring around, and i'm pretty sure he liked jared, since he knows how much i like him. but most of the day was just me and my dad talking, as always. then we came back to hickory for a lazy night of football and family guy.

boo buccaneers.
yay mountaineers.
and so on.




oh, and, HI JARED! welcome to my blog.

oh yea... and...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CARMEN!!

I know I told you happy birthday when you woke me up at 7:15(!!!!!)a.m. this morning, but again, HAPPY BIRTHDAY)

Tonight at McGuire's Pub:


Come Join Us!!

i'm definitely swept away

wow.

i.
love.
the avett brothers.
and bob.

that show was AWESOME.
can i just say, i had soooooooooooooooooooooo much fun last night!? they really put on an entertaining show! they played a lot of songs, most of which i knew, about 2 or 3 that i didn't. they played a loooong set of foot-stompin, body shaking, heart pounding music. i LOVED it. i'm pretty sure stephen the fox had fun too. when they were done with the main set, they came back on, one by one, and each played a solo song. then, they came out at once and played their most rockin song of all, talk on indolescence. if you don't know that song, go to their myspace profile and listen to it. now imagine it played live, with the bassline poppin, and 300 screaming college students jumping up and down to it. yea. it's that good.

then they finished, and then came back for ANOTHER encore. crazy! and awesome. of course, i forgot my camera in my car, so i have no pictures. stephen took a couple with his camera phone, and even took a video. as soon as he gets to work, i'll make him put it on the internet for ya so you can understand the madness.

after everything was done, i got to talk to bob (the bassist) and scott (the hot, even with the scraggly beard, banjo player). they signed my CD cover. awesome. i would have waited around for seth because i wanted to give him my brother's phone number (they used to be friends), but by that point it was 12:15 and i had an idea it would be a while before seth came out. we didn't get back to hickory til 1:20!! aarrh!! sooooo tired.
and i'm pretty sure stephen has some permanent hearing damage. but like i told stephen, if you're going to lose hearing, at least lose it doing something cool. like seeing the avett brothers.

Gettin my Avett On

"Well you send my life a whirling
darling when you're twirling
on the floor

Who cares about tomorrow
What more is tomorrow
than another day

When you swept me away
Yeah you swept me away"

Today is a great day! I found out yesterday that The Avett Brothers, my favoritest band, are going to be playing in Boone at Legends tonight! And since I'm not working, I can go! I haven't seen them play in so long. I honestly believe I haven't seen them perform since maybe 2002, if not earlier. When I did see them, I had barely heard of them and did not know any of their songs. Tonight, I will know 90% of their songs! I will be able to sing along! I will be so close! I am going to have a grande olde time! I'm making Stephen the Fox go with me, since he's the only person I know who could actually appreciate them, other than my brother. I may try to convince Katie to go. She doesn't know their music, but since it's in Boone, you never know.

i'm better now.

i'm feeling a lot better now. the plan is to enjoy the time together we have, and then see what happens down the line. maybe he'll hate boone.. doubtful, but it could happen.

in other news, i went to see the boy at the brush last night, and check out the stylishness that they're making us wear over our uniforms until oct. 1:















i think i'd rather just quit than wear that thing.

friday is carmen's birthday! yay! we'll be skelebrating all night at mcguire's pub. come join us! and sunday is the day i'm taking jared up to see my dad.. woohooo!

:(

looks like i'm finally going to break my new years resolution (be happy).

jared has accepted the management job in boone and will be moving in february, if not sooner.

i've never felt more awful about feeling awful in my life. i should be happy for him for getting a better job where he will be making great money and living in boone. but instead i can't stop crying.

ho hum...

i haven't had a lot to blog about lately, as i've been doing pretty much the same thing week after week! but i'm perfectly happy with that. this weekend was another weekend like most, spent at the brush and then o charlie's for drinks and such. yesterday i did go to BOB's to watch my team, tampa bay, suck it up big time and lose to the baltimore ravens 27 to 0. owch. put me in a foul mood when i had to be at the brush at 4 pm. and the brush last night?


we didn't get a single table after 7:30 pm. that means tonight will be hella busy. at least tonight i'll have jared with me.

saturday night was the first time i got to work with Telisha. Telisha is a girl who just started at the brush. jared was her trainer. everyone has been telling me that she is obsessed with jared and that she has a crush on him. i believed this, as she added him on myspace and has already put comments on his page and stuff. i am mature, so i pretend to not care and tell jared i'm not listening to the hype and it doesn't bother me if she likes him, hell i'm not the jealous type.

but that's just not true. i am the jealous type. i get hella jealous. all i could think when i heard about this girl was 'step off bitch/that's my man'. but i kept those thoughts to myself.

and good thing.

because saturday night we all three worked together and i realized that she does like jared, but not as much as everyone had me to believe. she's actually a nice, young (18), girl who probably just thinks jared is cute and wants to be his friend. but she knows he's mine. jared was actually especially lovey that night, being sure to be super sweet to me in front of her all night long. that made me feel like a million bucks. i love that boy.

and last night i worked with her without jared and i think we could actually be friends.. although i do have to say she talks way too much. but at least she does her work.

just goes to show that the drama at the brush never ends and thank god i'm smart enough to not listen to the hype and to form my own opinions of people.

also, jared's still not sure he's taking the boone position. i hope to god he doesn't because i would miss him so much.. but i can't tell him not to take it. but honestly i also think that the job would kill him. he already works way too hard there and way too many hours.

i have a bad feeling about this.

sadness.

there is a management position opening at the brush in boone. jared is 90% sure he is going to take it. which means in december and january he will be commuting to boone. and in february, he will be moving to boone.

which means i won't be able to see him every day. or even talk to him every day. i'm so afraid of what's going to happen...

go apps! fight apps! kick ass!

well i had a long and exciting(?) weekend. saturday was exciting since katie and i went to the appalachian (pronounced app-a-lach(like apple)-ian) versus nc state game. sure, we lost, but we're still fans. i have to say, i've rarely felt so school spirit-y. even when i was in the marching band for app, i always cheered, but i never really felt like they needed me to cheer for them. this game, they definitely needed as many of us there to cheer for them as possible. the stupid red wolf-calls made me want to throw up. and not because of the 12 mini bottles of malibu i drank. i lost my voice from screaming so much. thank god for the plastic bullhorn thinggies that they were passing out at the alumni tent. they did a great job of amplifying all of our "goooooooooo appalachian"s.



it really felt cool to be a part of this small crowd. i felt sooooo lucky to be there. thank god for katie! woo!

the rest of the weekend was cool too! we got to stay with andrea's parents, who are so very nice.

i worked sunday and last night at the brush and actually made some money. i got to see jared a lot (of course). and he was sweet enough to tell me he missed me since saturday was the first time in forever that i didn't see him in a full 24 hours. after the state game, katie and i and a few others were at the bar and some random state guy started talking to me. he was nice, so i was nice back. but when we were about to leave, he kept pawing at me and trying to get my phone number. i was like, if i didn't have jared, i would have given him the chance. but i didn't! it just proves how i've still got it, but i don't need it :) here's a picture of the dork:


anywho! tonight i'm off. i'm going to CLEAN my home. it needs it soooooo bad!!!

yay for cleaning!