Spiderman 3

For anyone out there who hasn't seen this movie yet, go see it!






















This movie is so so so so so so good. I cried on several occasions. It has everything. It is more than I expected. It really pushes the limits of what you thought you would see in the 3rd installment of a movie. And it does it right. It does Spiderman justice. I don't usually care for fight scenes, but there is a fight between Peter Parker (Spiderman) and Harry (Goblin Jr.) where they're in their street clothes and Peter has been taken over by the black stuff, and it is really really cool. I mean, badass. For me to say that you know it must be hot.



Speaking of hot. I had been thinking how they seemed to make Peter Parker extra dorky in this movie. Well, more dorky than usual. But once he turns to the black, he turns hot. I mean, not just hot, but Ba-dow! hot. A little emo, but again, hot.














This picture was more to show the emo than the hotness. You'll have to see the movie for yourself. It is rare to see a 3rd movie that you feel is better than 2nd. This one is definitely better than Spiderman 2, and I loved Spiderman 2.


The only complaint I have is that it gave me a horrible horrible terrible scary nightmare. In my dream, Jared was trying to save someone's life (like Spidey) but he was killed. I could see him and he was dying and they had to tear me away from him. This is when I woke up, hysterical and crying.

Other then that nonsense, I loved this movie!

A few random notes.

RUTLESS is back.

Which means it is highly likely that I may have an accident which causes me to die anytime in the next two to three months. We shall see. Hopefully I won't have to eat anymore lottery tickets. Or go all day without using my cell phone. Or cover my body with permanent marker.



Although, if I get to do another cool one like this again, I won't mind. Keep an eye out.



























My Cinco de Mayo/Birthday party didn't happen. My guest of honor, Brad, couldn't make it to Hickory due to a family emergency. And since pretty much everybody else was already busy, except Sam, I just canceled it. I'm okay with that though. I did go to El Paso with Katie and Daniel, and Stephen Foxy. Then I went home to do nothing. There's something to be said for sitting at home alone on a Saturday night reading Harry Potter with a slight margarita buzz on. And then Jared came home so my day was complete.

The best part of my weekend was during the day on Saturday when I cleaned my room from top to bottom and filled up six trash bags with clothes. Two went to the dumpster and four go to Goodwill. I feel so much better having unloaded some of the clothes I've been clinging to for years. It feels amazing to be able to say "It's time". Time to let go of stupid trashy coats I don't need anymore. Time to let go of t-shirts I've had since high school. Time to let go of that one t-shirt that may or may not have belonged to the ex. Zen. I now have a whole free closet for Jared's clothes.

Yay!

And one more thing.. five days til I get to bring home Beefcake!

Burfday

this week

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All of the awesomeness from the past couple of weeks is starting to wear me thin.
Tomorrow is more running around. During the day I am pricing items at grocery stores for the Cost of Living Index for Hickory. Then, Jared and I are going to Asheville for his sister's graduation/pinning ceremony. She is graduating from Western Carolina with a nursing degree. So smart.

Luckily on Saturday and Sunday I have very few plans. Except for this whole birthday party/ Cinco de Mayo party I'm supposed to be having Saturday night. You're all invited. It won't be anything huge though. Of course, before hand I plan on being at El Paso for some tastey Pollo Loco and a few margaritas.

And on Sunday? Satellite company #2 will be coming out to see if they can put up a satellite at my condo. Keep your fingers crossed for me. I have got to get away from the evil cable company.


Stephen Foxy would like to get Rutless started up again. Anyone interested?

happy birthday to me!

Today I turn a quarter century old. I have a feeling I'm going to be turning 25 for at least a few more years now. Am I too young to be lying about my age? I just don't want to turn late 20's. Ever. Blah. So far for my birthday I have recieved: an Anne Bonney action figure to add to my pirate collection, an electronice mousey thinggy, a $20.00 gift certificate to Olive Garden (a regift from my bro's wedding, but I don't care), a bottle of some really yummy lemony liquor, and Night at the Museum on DVD, which is a great movie.

I can't wait to see what Jared gets me!

I've just had such a great week.
-I got a new car
-Jared told me some great great news that I can't share yet
-I got DSL and have internet now!
-I haven't had to DO a whole lot
-Saturday I went to Kannapolis for a birthday party for my niece and I had a great time!
-Sunday I went to Carowinds with Carmen, my brother Alan, his new wife Wendy, and my nieces Elora and Emma. We had a blast even though the waterpark was closed.

Awesome. But there were also downers..
-My grandmother has a brain tumor which caused her to have stroke like symptoms. It's not malignant though, and hopefully she'll have a full recovery.
-The satellite company apparently can't put a satellite in my condo for some wiring reasons :(. So now I'm stuck with the cable company for my t.v. But at least I have DSL for my internet! And now I have internet at home! yay!

Here's to me having a great day! And another great week! And a fun Cinco de Mayo/Birthday Party on Saturday night!

Dear Cable Company, Here's why you suck.

Dear Cable Company,

First of all, let me just say that I have been a loyal customer of yours since 2001 when I was a poor college student who allowed herself the one luxury of cable t.v. I have never had problems before with your cable t.v. services, and still don't have any complaints there.

Your customer service and technical support, along with your sensitivity to time, however, suck. I would like to point out that there were other avenues I could have chosen when moving into my house and building my home entertainment options. I could have easily picked satellite. But since I had always been a cable customer, I chose to stay a cable customer. Along with my cable t.v. service, I added on high speed internet. This was very important to me in keeping in touch with friends and keeping my eye on things in the internet world. Also, it is especially important since I can not access Myspace at work. They blocked it :(.

Things were going fine and I didn't really have any complaints. But then, on March 3rd, a Saturday night, my boyfriend pointed out to me that my internet was no longer working. Since I know you have a 24 hour technical support line, I gave you a call and figured it wasn't a big deal.

First of all I have to point out that a) the automated system for "problem solving" when all agents are busy assisting other customers, she is a stupid whore. And b) the music we are forced to listen to while waiting on hold (after screaming at said automated prostitute) is quite possibly the most awful mind-numbing music i have ever been forced to listen to.

After finally getting to speak to an actual (agent after having to hold for 20 minutes), I was told that something must be wrong with the line going into my modem and you would have to send a technician out to my house. It would be a week before one was available. Disappointed, but satisfied that I was going to be solving this problem, I hung up.

I suffered a week with no internet at home. This was a terrible, frightening experience as I felt I was missing out on the world. I could no longer check my myspace daily, and could no longer watch funny youtube videos (also blocked at work) and could no longer laugh at funny, yet NSFW images on my favorite celebrity gossip blogs.

Saturday finally came and I excitedly waited for the technician to arrive. Around 2 pm he finally made it, and I was so happy I could barely contain myself. But after an hour and a half of fiddling around with my wiring inside and out, he told me he couldn't fix it. I was going to have to call back to your hot line and schedule a contractor to come and wire a direct line to my modem from the pole outside. Reluctantly, I said goodbye to this technician and called you again. After being jostled through several different people and having to yell at the automated sl*t again, I was finally able to schedule a contractor. For April 2nd. This was March 10th. Almost a month's difference. I was very, very sad that I would have to wait that long but understood that it was the contractor, and not your company that made this appointment.

Alas, 3 1/2 weeks went by with me saddened by no internet, but knowing there was nothing to be done, I accepted it. April 2nd finally came. And went. Without a single phone call or visit from your contractor. Weakened by this blow, I waved it off and went to work the next day expecting to call back later in the day. But thankfully, during my lunch break, the contractor came. Note, he didn't call first as I had requested, but luckily I was there.

After about an hour, he informed me that the first technician had been wrong and that I *didn't* need to have a direct line put in. He apparently had been new and didn't know how to fix the problem. Finally, after a month with no internet, he saved me and it was back. My lovely wired friend with myspace and youtube and NSFW was back. I rejoiced quickly and went back to work, happy.

About 20 minutes later, Jared sent me a text message that the internet was out again.

Highly peeved, I called your technical support again. After bluntly telling the automated Jezebel to go to H-E-Double hockey sticks, I was connected with Sergio, who understood very little English, and who didn't grasp the fact that I was not going to deal with the normal procedure of checking all the wiring at the modem. He did not get that the contractor had left only 20 minutes ago and that something was wrong. I was too mad to listen to him, and didn't want to die of a heart attack, so I hung up and decided to call back later after cooling off.

Next day I called you back. I was connected with a very nice lady operator who listened carefully to my plight and very nicely connected me with her supervisor, claiming that she would be the best person to help me out. This supervisor was not as nice as the operator, but being that she was a woman, and I am sexist, I was good with speaking to her kindly. She refunded some of my money and after having me hold on the line a few times, finally told me she would get a contractor out here as soon as possible. This was the first week of April. The next available time slot for the contractor was April 23rd. Again, I was upset by the wait but I understand that it's a different company than yours and you have no control over that. So, reluctantly, I agreed to wait. Again.

April 23rd has come and gone. It is now April 26th and I have heard nothing from you or your contractors. I did, on Saturday, receive an all too pleasant apologetic card from your public relations department which was a nice gesture but I was fooled into thinking it was an early birthday card and was highly disappointed.

Yesterday I signed up with the satellite company and the local phone company to get DSL. Monday I will be cancelling my service with you. You are the worst company I have ever had to deal with, mainly because all I wanted was my darn internet and you were not able to fix it, not with your broken promises or your stupid cards. I can't wait to tell your dirty automated vixen to go screw herself.

Sincerely,
Allison, new Direct TV customer

Blue Pearl?

Will be mine by 6:00 today:






















More Pictures Here
I need a name for this one! The Black Pearl was a great car but it's time for a change.

Meet the newest member of my family

Well, soon to be a member of my family anyways. In a few weeks, I'm taking home this little guy from Katie's house. It will give Meatwad a brother, a friend, and hopefully someone to cuddle with while I'm away. I only hope he doesn't beat up on the cute little guy. Maybe having another kitty around will calm my Meatwad down and make him less apt to claw and bite me all the time. Maybe. It's worth a shot. Plus, who could resist this cuteness:

you know you're in kannapolis, nc when...

You are driving down a fairly busy road. Suddenly, traffic slows to a crawl. Upon looking ahead, you see a man a horse.

You get closer to the horse and realize the man is wearing only shorts and a cowboy hat.

You get even closer and realize the man is super hottie. Upon doing a double take, the hottie naked cowboy waves hello and smiles.


I had a great time at the wedding, pictures below. No stories to tell other than I wore myself slap out. The best part was of course dancing with Jared. Unchained Melody really is a great song, I tell you.

Yet, I never collected unemployment...

I think it's time I told you the story of my job history, and how I'm terrible bad luck for restaurants. I don't know why I'm such bad luck. I work hard, I do my job right. It's just fate I guess.

Job #1: Cox's Seafood in Kannapolis, NC. I was 15 and I was a busboy. I was getting paid $5.00/hour under the table, so I was rolling in dough. I had seriously never had that much money at once in my life. It was awesome. I only worked on Friday and Saturday nights, which kind of sucked because I had to give up my Friday nights at the skating rink (which is really hard for a 15 year old boy crazy girl to do). Then, about 5 months after I started there, I got the call, "We're going to have to close down the restaurant". So, that's job #1 that closed down. I didn't get another job until I was 16 because you have to hire 15 year olds illegally or you can only work them a couple hours a day.

Job #2: Papa's Pizza to Go in China Grove, NC. This job was awesome. They had just opened the store right before my 16th birthday and I began working there 2 weeks later. I loved it. Free food, easy job, cool people, and a real paycheck. I started as a cashier and worked my way up to head pizza cook after a year. Of course, after a year, the sales dwindled. We went through five managers (one was an embezzler). After I had been there about a year and a month, I got the call, "We're going to have to close down the store, and we're selling the store to another pizza restaurant from Concord". This sucked, as I was afraid of my job status. The new store, Pi-zon's Pizzeria, offered me a job at the new store. I was apprehensive at first because this store was run by yankee NASCAR fans. If there's anything worse than NASCAR fans, it's yankee NASCAR fans.

Job #3: Pi-zon's China Grove. I decided to go ahead and work for the yankees. I started out at their Concord store while they were renovating the China Grove store, then moved back to the China Grove after a while. The China Grove store was doomed to fail though, from the beginning. Why? Prices. Those New Yorkers didn't realize that redneck China Grove does NOT want to pay $15.00 for one large pizza. After six months, I got the call, "We're going to close the store down, but you can still work for us in Concord". I knew it was best.

Job#4: Pi-zon's Concord. This job was great. I worked with all kinds of cool people who loved me (even yankee NASCAR fans). I learned from a real New Yorker all about making real New York style pizza. I was great at it too. I could toss a pizza, and spin a pizza. I knew everything there was to know about brick oven pizza. The best part came the day after graduating high school when I met Adam, my first love. But that's another story. Then, I went away to college. I still worked there when I came home for Christmas and the next couple of summers. But alas, the next time I came home, they were closed. No more yankee NASCAR fans.

Job #5 was on campus at App, in the Park Place Cafe in Trivette Hall. As long as the school wills it, this place will stay open. This job was ok, but I only got paid once a month so I was very very very poor.

Job #6: Big Pauly's Pizza in Boone, NC. I have had a lot of great jobs, but this one was by far the best. I was 19. I needed a job desperately and so I decided to apply there. As soon as I talked to the asst. manager over the phone, I went down there. Who should I see when I walk in the door but my ex, Adam (the one from Pi-zon's). So we worked together for a while until he quit due to our manager who hated him. After 2 months, I was given the job of assistant manager, and I was getting paid $7.50 (after 2 raises) under the table. AND since the other asst. manager was also 19, when I was off work and wanted beer all I had to do was go there and buy a 6 pack from him (at a discounted rate!!!). I LOVED it. But of course, since the yankee italiano mafia a**hole who ran the place did such a shotty job with "taxes" and "paychecks" and "health inspections", we closed down shortly before that Christmas. And once again, I was out of a job. But Big Pauly (the a**hole) also owned a deli and bagelry in Boone, and I was given a job there, making pizza (even though it was a deli).

Job #7: Ma's Deli & Bagelry. This wasn't a great job. In the deli, Big Pauly's wife was in charge. And she just may be the biggest biotch I have ever known. She hated me because I wasn't a preppy little sorostitute like all the other girls that worked there. But I still had power, having been the Asst. Manager at Pauly's. But here at this deli, I had to be paid by a real paycheck, with taxes and everything. Only problem is, Pauly never paid us on time. Not once in the 5 months at the deli did we get our paycheck on time. It was always at least a week late. Once in February I deposited one of these very late paychecks into my checking account. What do you know, it bounced. Unfortunately, I didn't realize this until it was too late and I had already spent the money. So I told Big Pauly it bounced. He told me it didn't. He claimed my bank must have messed up. I call my bank, get a copy of the bounced check and have hard proof that he bounced this check. He still denies it. I took a legal course of action and wrote him a certified letter demanding the money in 15 days or else I was going to sue. In the meantime I quit Ma's Deli and even worked my 2 weeks notice. Note, this is the only job I've ever quit that wasn't due to moving. On the very last day of the 15 days I had given him, I recieved another check. I immediately cashed it and savored my victory by holding onto the $367.81 for 1 year in an envelope until I really, really needed it. Two weeks after I quit, the deli closed down, go figure.

I went for a few months without a job. I went home for the summer (Pi-Zon's was still open at this time so I "worked" there). Once I got back to Boone, it took me 2 months to find a job before I finally found the Boone Bowling Center, or the BBC for short.

Job #8: Boone Bowling Center. I was the snack bar girl and I was very good at it. I learned how to bowl, and even joined a league. I worked for 2 very cool people, Mario and Diana, who were from Curacao, and island country next to Aruba. I worked here for 2 years until I graduated college and moved away. This is one place that hasn't closed. There is only one bowling alley in Boone, and I'm sure that is why they are still open. I loved this job and would go back in heartbeat if I didn't need more money than that.

Since then, I've had a state internship and now I have my real job at a real office that will never close. But at night I work at the brush. I give the brush 6 months before it closes down.

I swear I don't know why every place I work at closes down. I've never been a slacker when it comes to physical labor. I usually love my jobs, even if they suck. I'm just bad luck I guess.

I really hope the brush can turn around and come back to life, but I doubt it will happen. Especially if they move Jared to the Lenoir store like I think they might do.

i love google.

And I LOVE my Google homepage. It's so pretty!

You can click on it to see it big.

This weekend is my brother's wedding and Jared is finally confirmed to be coming with me! Yay! Now I get to show off my man in front of all of my brother's butthole friends who were mean to me growing up. Now I get to laugh in their face and say "Look, I'm a successful woman who has a college degree, a real job, my own home, and the finest piece of manmeat this side of the Mississippi."

Or at least that's what I'll feel like. This is so exciting!!

Tomorrow night I get to go to my first Crawdad's baseball game of the season! Yippee! This will be a good week.

Bat Shot Crazy.

This morning as I was walking into city hall in Lenoir, NC, I happened to look down at the sidewalk. There on the sidewalk was a familiar looking shape. Down on the ground at my feet was a dead bat. At least I thought it was dead. It's not everyday (especially during the daylight) that you see a bat just laying on the sidewalk. I bent down for a closer look. He opened his mouth at me!

An alive bat, just hanging out on the sidewalk? I then deduced that he must have flown into the side of the building, and was stunned. That or he blew into the building. Lenoir was quite windy this April morning.

I bent down and took a picture with my camera phone, as it was all I had with me. I thought I had a better angle but here it is:



Okay that's a terrible picture but it is what it is.

I told someone at city hall about the bat and they told the street sweeper, who was going to move it somewhere out of the sidewalk. He bent down, put his hands around the bat when all of a sudden it HISSED at him and tried to fly up to his neck! Can you imagine how high the guy probably jumped!? HA! Then the little bat flew away. Apparently he was just stunned and has found his way again. Poor little guy. :) I'm glad he was okay (the bat, not the sweeper).

In other news, whoever hasn't seen the Alanis Morissette version of the Black Eyed Peas "My Humps" song, please dear God click here and watch how awesome.

Getting Ready..

My brother Alan is getting married on April 14th. It is his third wedding, and most likely his last. He and Wendy have known each other since middle school (early 1990's) but have only been dating for 10 or so months. They seem to fit together really well though. They are more open with each other than I can even imagine being with Jared. But I guess knowing each other for more than 10 years will do that to you.

I am in the wedding, a bridesmaid. This would be my fourth bridesmaid venture. My others include my oldest brother's (divorced), my mother's (will probably be divorced within a year) and Carmen's (divorced) weddings. Maybe I'm bad luck, but I hope not.

Jared is going to be my date, hopefully. The brush is getting a new General Manager this week and his schedule for this month has not been made yet. Saturdays are the busiest days of the week and generally they would like to have 2 managers present just in case. If Jared goes to my brother's wedding with me, there won't be an extra manager. I'm just hoping our new manager is cool and that she will understand that if I have to go to my brother's wedding without my date, I will most likely cry. Damn it. Nothing is sadder than dancing alone at a wedding.

Urgh.

On the bright side, Wendy's friend Holly is going to do my hair for the wedding. Every other wedding I was in, I had to do my own hair. I've only had someone else fix my hair once before, for my senior prom. It's going to look awesome. Yesterday I drove down to Kannapolis so she could try out a little somethin' to do to my "perfectly virgin hair". Apparently since I never dye my hair and it's really long and thick, it's easy to mess around with. Yippee!

Here is a preview that I took with my cameraphone. You can't really tell, but there is an awesome boufant like bump on the back of my head containing half of my hair!

Happy Birthday Meatwad!

This week Meatwad turns a year old! My little bitty baby kitten that I brought home last May has turned into a big fat house kitty!

The day I got my bundle of joy:


Now:


He's gained about 20 pounds in a year. But, you'll be happy to know I've placed my tubby little kitty on diet.

More Pics:












:)


Oh Yea! I almost forgot! Tomorrow also marks the 2 year birthday of my blog!!

Mosaiq!!

So I found this really cool website that takes your personal pictures and turns them into mosaics. It's really neat and free. It takes a few days (yes, days) to work, but it's totally worth it.

Check out what I got back:

Make your own Here.

i need..

I need a vacation something bad.

I'm trying to convince Jared to go to the beach with me, and we were talking about Wilmington. This would be pretty awesome. The only problem is, he can not take annual leave until July, when he's been the manager for at least six months. I'm totally willing to go to the beach with him in July, but I'm going to also need another short vacation before then. I'm thinking about going somewhere for a one night motel vacation. But I just need to decide where. I'd rather it not be anywhere that is further than a 3 hour drive. I hate driving long distances.

I really really really want to go to the beach. Now. But that's just too far to go for one night. *sigh*

Maybe I just need to go to the pool. Anyone know of a public pool in Hickory? One that's not too public though..

Come and get me, beach!

On Sunday I went to Target and I bought something that I have never before in my life bought, a swimsuit.

I've had swimsuits before. When I was a kid my mother bought me swimsuits and forced me to wear them. After hitting the 14 age mark though, it was always shorts and a t-shirt. If I was feeling crazy, I would wear the black polka dotty one that my mother gave me which was one of her cast-offs from her skinny phase. The top part was a little loose, meaning my boobs had to grow into it. Even with this swimsuit, which I still have and have still been using since then, I have always topped it with a t-shirt.

Why? I could lie and say it was to protect myself from sunburn. But let's be honest, I'm a girl and I'm self-conscious. All girls are, especially in bathing suits.

But this year, I am approaching summer with a positive attitude (at least I'm trying to). Rather than shy away from beach trips and anything involving Jared seeing me in the embarrassing mess of the black polka dotty suit with a t-shirt, I decided to try and find a flattering swimsuit. After all, last year I lost a little weight and I'm feeling better about myself than I have in years.

Summer, here I come.. Beach, here I come. Sunburn, here I come.

Swimsuit Top.

Swimsuit Bottom.

What do ya think?

Summer already? *sigh*

So yesterday was absolutely gorgeous outside. I was totally loving being outside. I was enjoying the sunshine, the flowers, the tress, the breeze, the happy music on the radio, and I was even having fun with my GPSing. I was enjoying it until 3:00. Then, it started to get a little hot and I was reminded of what's lurking just around the corner that threatens to make me a miserable girl over the next few months: Summer.

-Summer comes creeping out at you right around May.
-Summer catches you between your car and your front door (even though it's only 20 feet) and makes you start your day with a bucket of sweat.
-Summer catches you doing your Tuesday job (which requires you to be outside all day) and then gives you the worst skin-peeling sunburn.
-Summer hinders any and all road trips because you know you're going to want to run your air conditioner but you also know gas costs at least $2.50 a gallon.
-Summer makes your electric bill go up.
-Summer beckons you to get in or near a pool or ocean, which means some unlucky sap is going to have to see you in your swimming suit.
-Summer causes you to spend more time wearing shorts. And if you're like me, you just can't find a flattering pair of shorts no matter the cut, the length, or the style.

Have you figured out yet that I'm not excited about summer? Thankfully I awoke this morning to find it back to good old 50 degrees. Yummy.

Jared and I went to Boone last night in hopes of escaping the most awful time of the year. It was so nice. Two beers a piece and some warm, yummy, Mellow pizza, and we were feeling just right. Balanced.

whatta man

Have you ever noticed there are some songs which you just can't help but dance too? I mean, no matter how many times you hear it, and no matter how long it's been since you've heard it, you just have to shake your head and move your hips (which is fun sitting down at your desk).

Today I was fooling around on Itunes and found "Whatta Man" by En Vogue and Salt n Peppa. Geez. What an awesome song. It gives me goosepimples. Every girl in America between the ages of 22 and 32 (and above, I'm sure) knows a good portion of the words to this song and sings along when she hears it.

Next up, I'm going to download "Shoop". And then some Boys II Men. :)

Zombie Lurch 06

Zombie Lurch 06
Originally uploaded by wiredjazz.

ugh. I feel like a total zombie today. And actually, a lot lately. I took Tuesday off because of cramps so I got to sleep late, but it still didn't help. I need a vacation. Too bad Jared works 90 hours a week. I'd like to drag him away for a few days. All I want is to sit on the beach for a couple of days with no responsibilities. Could April 6th (my ONE day off for Easter) come a little sooner? Please?

Two things..

One: Holy Crap! Could May 25th get here a little sooner please? I mean seriously look at this hottness!!

Two: There are only so many things that can make the post office actually cool. Here is the biggest reason why I'm hoping that the Hickory Post Office keeps up with the coolness.

A few thing to brighten? your day.

Constantine Maroulis with a mullet:





















Elliott Yamin's new look:

Ricky Ullman, a.k.a. Phil of the Future, a.k.a. hottest young hottie, now no longer illegal:

uuuh, this is why I want a pug:

Okay that's enough. Enjoy!

Poor Johnny

Keeping my finger crossed, Johnny Depp's daughter Lily-Rose is in the hospital and is in "serious condition". Yikes.

you know what sucks?

*Waiting a year to find out results of a job classification/salary study at your office, only to find out that you just started making the MINIMUM pay for your job, and that's not going to change any time soon.

*Figuring out that your boyfriend makes more than you and he didn't have to go to all the trouble of hunting down a job and working there for 2.5 years before making this amount.

*Figuring out that you make the second to least pay amount at your office of 50+ people.


But you know what? It's all good for now. I'm not starving. Yet.

American Idol Season 6

So sorry for the lack of posts lately. I was out of my office most of last week, and honestly I just haven't had much to write about, and haven't had the desire to type much. I still don't, but Carmen keeps yelling at me (check comments of last post) to post a blog, so here it goes. Things in life are staying pretty still. I'm still working, still seeing Jared, and everyone is good. So what am I going to write about? One of my passions, American Idol.

I never watched season 1 or 2 of Idol and I only watched the last four episodes of season 3. That's when I got hooked, and I've pretty much watched every episode since then, with the exception of the finale for season 4. I just couldn't stand to see Blow Bice on my tv screen any more. I was pulling for Constantine. But Carrie Underwood is a nice substitute. Last season I was pulling for Ace, then Elliott, then Catherine McPhee. I still don't get what everyone sees in Taylor (I'm "cool" because I'm old looking) Hicks.

This season, it's Blake Lewis for me. He's pretty. And so far, he's the best (as far as the guys). He can beatbox too, which is friggin sexy. I know I always pick guys to pull for, but I'm a girl, and guys are who I'm attracted too. I know that Melinda Doolittle and Lakisha Jones and Sabrina Sloan are awesome and should be in the top 5, but I'm hoping Blake will be there too. Honestly the best singer in the whole competition is Melinda, and I have no doubt she'll be in the top 3, or 2, but we all know the best singer doesn't always win.

Anywho, there's my input on the American Idol this season. I promise not to write too much about it, as I have in the past, but I will definitely post a few comments here and there when I get pissed off/happy at the show.

In closing:


and:


yummy.

Still not a Parrot Head...

You know what's great?

Working on Friday at my normal job, then NOT going to the brush. Working a second job can really suck come Fridays when everyone around me is going home to chillax on Fridays after work, and I have to go straight to bartending the night away.

This past Friday, however, I got to chillax too. Jared had the day off so since he makes my schedule, he gave me the day off too. Don't worry, I worked on Saturday to make up for it.

When I got home Friday afternoon Jared and I sat around for a little bit waiting for Carmen to be ready, then we all headed to Asheville to go to Cheeseburger in Paradise.

There, I had one of the yummiest frozen drinks ever, The Cheeseburger in Paradise. It is,

"CHEESEburgEr In ParadISE CoCktaIl
Recipient of the 2006 Cheers Award – Best Signature Drink
An Island-size drink for two that will change your attitude.
Frozen layers of Parrot Bay Rum Piña Colada, Myers's Rum Runner,
Margaritaville Margarita and Strawberry Daiquiri, each
prepared with fresh fruit and juice and surrounded by
an ocean of Hiram Walker Blue Curacao. Single
servings available."

Seen here with Carmen:

mmmmmm hmmm...

Then we headed to the Bier Garden, and the Wild Wing Cafe to have fun and drink and be merry. And also, to chillax. Too bad it was a loooooooong ride home later that night. Why is Asheville so far away from Hickory?

bummer.

This will really get your goat:

allison69

allison69
Originally uploaded by allygirl520.

Ok so, about a week ago I found a box of old pictures and decided I wanted to post them to my blog. I was being lazy and was waiting to scan them in. Then, Dooce did it. I didn't want to look like I was copying her, so I decided to not post them. But then, I decided I didn't care, so here you go. Funny old pictures of Allison.

For some reason when I was in middle school I thought I was a hippy. On the other hand, I am the person who single handedly brought bell-bottoms back in style in the mid 90's. That was me. I was the first. Me.

I also had a theory that I should have been born in the 50's instead of the 80's so that way I could have been a 'flower child". What a dreamer. Check out my awesome posters and stuff. The Garfield one was my fave.

firstpicture

firstpicture
Originally uploaded by allygirl520.

me, 4/30/1982.
5 lbs, 3 ounces.
i was a premie, 7 weeks early.

first picture ever, me and my daddy

tinyme

tinyme
Originally uploaded by allygirl520.

3 years old, with the tallest guy in south dakota. many years later there was a picture of him in the National Geographic Magazine and they talk about the tall cowboy in Deadwood, South Dakota

withtheprez

withtheprez
Originally uploaded by allygirl520.

me and the family on the streets of New York City (circa 1990ish) with President George H.W. Bush and Michel Gorbachev.

or, at least with the wax representations of them.
this is one of my favorite pictures ever from childhood.

attention greensboro.

So, all of you people with connections and Greensboro, and those who live in Greensboro, I've got a question for you.

Do you or anyone you know have any connections with the Greensboro traffic court people? Or do you know any not-costing an arm-and-a-leg traffic lawyers?

Let's just hypothetically say I got a speeding ticket yesterday. And hypothetically I have a mandatory court appearance in Greensboro on March 28th. Any suggestions? Anyone?


Nothing starts out a long, boring drive home from Durham like a God-awful speeding ticket.

At least my weekend before that was good. I made $127.00 bar tending at the brush on Friday night. Saturday night I got into a pellet gun fight at a pirate party in Raleigh. It was awesome to be able to pelt Foliage with little plastic balls. Those things hurt when fired point blank. I would love to show you pictures, but I forgot to recharge the batteries in my camera.

counting sheep.

This has been the LONGEST.week.ever. Maybe it's because of my weird lack of sleep this week. I am one of those people you hate who can sleep pretty much anywhere, anytime of day. I love to sleep, it makes me feel good. For some reason, Tuesday morning I was really tired. I also had cramps so I only worked a half-day and went home to relax the rest of the day. I took a 1 hour nap from 3:30 to 4:30.

When I awoke from my nap, I felt a whole lot better. Refreshed. You would think that everything would be dandy. Tuesday night, however, I could not fall asleep. Why? When I don't get a good night's sleep, it ruins my week. It's like not getting into my college of choice, or finding out I have a giant tumor growing out of my toenail or something.

I assume it has to do with the nap I took. But honestly, an hour long nap should not have kept me from sleeping. I suppose it could have had to do with the next day being Valentine's Day and I knew I would be slammed that night while bar tending after having worked all day at my other job in Lenoir.

Somehow or another I made it through Wednesday, even without having slept well. I was so tired, I took a bath and drank a beer to relax after working. I was slap worn out and could barely move by the time I laid down.

You would think I would have slept like a baby. But no, that is not the case. I had another restless night.

On the brink of madness, and not looking forward to another two-job day, I struggled to peel out of bed yesterday morning. I told Jared I was going to call in sick last night (even though I knew I wasn't really going to). He is my boss now, so I figured maybe if I expressed how truly awfully tired I felt, he'd take pity on me. And he did. Around 5:15 p.m. yesterday, as I was laying with my cat, relaxing for the 5 minutes I had to relax between jobs, he called and rescued me, telling me I didn't need to come in.

He loves me.

And last night I slept like a baby. But I'm still tired and I'm working both jobs today. Tomorrow I'm off though, and I refuse to get out of bed before noon.

happy valentine's day yall!

To commemorate the day, how about a little love story, from an old boyfriend? Well, maybe I should call it more of a hate story. I had just broken his heart again, so he wrote this lovely 2 paragraph story about me. When we got back together, he showed it to me. Joe F wasn't exactly the smartest guy on the planet, but he sure was fun. Well, funny. Well, fun to make fun of.




In case you don't feel like reading it, or it's hard to read because it's small, here is the link to the big size, but here are a few exerpts that I particularly love:

"I sat here waiting for her to grace me with her, really should not say radiant, presence. Woe is me, a sad thing to be a slave to, pronounced to, and somehow addicted to."

"on the other hand, it [me] is only a somber ruse, for someone's amusement, probably Satan"

"if you remove the be... and the ve... from the word believe and what do you have? Lie. On the other hand if you remove the s and the ex from "sex" what do you have? Nothing."

And my favorite:
"She moves in these mysterious ways, usually completely just as God made her initially, the sight would intrigue even the most ancient pharoah into a state of arousal from beyond an antique grave."

Wow. Deep.

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.