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.