October 2008
Thursday, October 30, 2008
I exercised yesterday and today! *shock* It's true. ;) My mom's been having pain in her legs for a while (really bad muscle pull), and the other day she thought swimming would be a good thing to help them out. The first day, I didn't join her because I didn't want to be in my swimsuit, ya know? But then I was sitting there on the bench while she was swimming, reading a book, and I just really wanted to jump in the pool. So yesterday I put on the dreaded bathing suit and just got over it (helped that I wore shorts and a shirt over it, too, haha). It was really nice to be in the pool. It's been years since I've been in one. I looked at mom and was all, "I remember how to swim!" lmao
The only downer to yesterday's swimming was that my suit top was making my back hurt because of the cut and that it's a bit too tight for me right now. *sigh* So, mom suggested I go look for one when I was done with a meeting this morning. I was surprised that they still had a few swimsuits, and they were marked down! I really just needed a top, and I found one on the rack that was just a top, even though all the rest had both pieces. I tried it on and liked it and it fit well. So, I go up to the register and say, "all the other swimsuits over there are $15 and have both pieces, but this one was missing the bottoms... do I still have to pay $15 just for the top?" Happy day, I got it for $5! :D I was thinking they'd charge me seven or eight, but five is even more happy. Therefore, today's swimming was much more comfortable with a better fitting top.
Man, I am so pathetically sad though, or, at least the state of my physical shape. It doesn't take long for me to start to feel the burn, and last night one of my arms was really burning for a bit. Hopefully it won't be so bad tonight since I tried to use it less. It probably hurt more, too though because I did something to that wrist the other day, and it's still sad. Poor wrist. I'm sorry. lol
My meeting this morning was about the website I'm doing. I was going to help him through the sign-up process at DreamHost, but God, it seems, told me to double-check that DH supports FrontPage extensions. (I know, it's a horrible, terrible program, but the clients want to use it to make changes later, so...) Really good thing that God just zapped that little thought into my brain and had me check, because DH now has a notice on their Wiki page for the program that they currently support it, but won't ever update it again and reserve the right to terminate it at any time. Drat. Now I don't get a referral. (Psst... you can click the link above and sign up for hosting at get $50 and refer me if you like. lol) The good news is that a day or two ago, their current host finally e-mailed me back about PHP not working, so now the module is installed. I tested it and it appeared to work, however, I never received any of the e-mails it should have sent to me. *sigh* So now I've got another e-mail in to them and I'm hoping and praying they don't take as long to reply this time so I can get the new site uploaded and get paid.
Lastly for this post, Emily mentioned to me the other day that she's going to attempt NaNo this year, so now I'm tentatively deciding to attempt it with her. Last year's attempt only lasted a day and one page, though. lol I don't want to use any of my main stories that I've started because one, you're not supposed to for NaNo, you're supposed to use something you've just done pre-writing on, and two, I'm too attached to those stories and don't want to force myself to write them. *sigh* So what to write? I don't know. I'm playing with a couple possible story ideas that I just have notes on thus far, or there's the idea of just coming up with something totally new, but nothing's come to me yet. lol Maybe I'll go with a notes one, so at least I have some stuff to work off of. Gah, I don't know! I do know that I now have to go empty the dishwasher though. ;)
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
It's official; my parents signed the papers yesterday... we're getting a new house! Well, I should say it's sort-of official. Papers have been "signed," but there are two things. The first is that they signed with a contingency plan, so if for whatever reason our current house doesn't sell, we get our earnest money back and can walk away from the whole thing, no penalties. The second... well, they have you "sign" all the documents online and they don't use your real signature. They just have your name setup in it and you pick from like six fonts of the one you want to represent your signature. Now, that just doesn't sound like a smart idea on their part, as the only things "tying" it to you are your name and your e-mail address, which doesn't seem as concrete as your actual signature in pen on paper, but... whatever! lol But yeah, we did that yesterday, so in the evening I began the going through of stuff in my room and the packing of what I want to keep away.
In going through my things, I pulled down my eighth grade portfolio, which I hated making. They made us get 3" ring binders--you had to get one that big--and then we had to do sections for almost all of our classes, including P.E., of all things. Now, in seventh and eighth grade my feet hurt a LOT and I had a note from my podiatrist that I could not do P.E., but the school forced me to be enrolled in the class anyway. So, I had a note from my doctor that I had to take to the gym every day, wait for my teacher to come out of the guy's locker room to check off, and then I went to the library where I was generally allowed to do whatever I wanted for the period. Mostly I did homework from my other classes so I wouldn't have to do it at home. Anyway, going through the stuff reminded me how at the end of the year my P.E. teacher took me aside to speak with me. He said he couldn't really give me a good grade since I never did anything. @#!& DUH, I couldn't do anything! He made it sound like he'd fail me if he could, even though I had a note from a specialist explaining everything. *rolls eyes* I don't remember what I said, but I remember I said something. He ended up giving me an A or a B, which was fine by me. All he had to do was pass me. And I did do some things. They forced me to do the slow dancing (even though that was standing on my feet, which I wasn't supposed to do!), and I wrote a report or two on a sport. Woo. Stupid schools.
Another thing that was in that giant binder was a small report on my heritage. I wrote in my report that I had no idea what culture(s) my biological father was a descendant of, nor any way to find out, and that my grandma knew very little about her parents being that one of them was kind of a jerk and the other was put into an orphanage when she was little. So, all I had to really write about was the Canadian in me, which boiled down to the family's founding father who came over from France, and then hundreds of surnames that his spawn married into or that married in to our family. Not a lot. I found a sticky note with my grade and a message stuck to the top paper of that report: "Lack detailed information about labels, artifacts and history--few pages for a long assignment, C-." The "artifacts" were my Irish coat of arms, some photocopies of passports and that long list of surnames. It's not like my family passed down precious heirlooms to me... gosh dang, both the Irish and Canadian sides were Catholic which means our family is HUGE (my grandpa is one of 14). And then, of course, there's the side of my family that I know next to nothing about, so obviously no "artifacts" from them. *rolls eyes* Nice teacher. Very caring to my situation.
Now that the negatives are out of the way, there were some positives. Some poems I'd forgotten about, a "sea voyage" project from U.S. History class, and the papers/certificate saying that I won my debate (even though I talked to fast 'cause they made me do it in front of the whole eighth grade plus the televised it through the school, I still kicked butt). The other thing was my reflection for Language Arts (in which I wrote I didn't like reflections, haha), which talks about how I discovered I liked to write. That was the year that changed me, in that respect, and I'm so glad it did. I really liked my L.A. teacher and she gave me a lot of praise for my writing, which helped a lot. That's a very happy memory, though quite honestly one of few. My mom has to remind me of things from middle school because I've blocked out most of it.
After I went through that huge thing (which took a few hours), I found some old toys (that I'm totally keeping), which lifted my spirits some. ;) Then I went through some other things in my room, mainly sorting. I would have done more today, but I never got a chance.
This morning I went with mom back to where the new house is going to be and we got to put a "sold" sign on our lot. I had mom do the honors. Then we went back through the model to visualize some stuff. We're trying to figure out if we should get a fireplace or not. It would mostly be for looks since there'll be heat throughout the house, but the problem is there are only two options of where to put it and one changes a wall that we like how it is and the other wouldn't work well with our entertainment system and having the surround sound setup. *sigh* What to do? We had lunch and then talked to a loan adviser for a bit, which I didn't understand much of. lol
The rest of the day's been a little busy, too, so I decided to have chill time rather than continue the room stuff. I will have to get gung ho on it soon though. But not right now. ;)
Sunday, October 26, 2008
I'm terribly spoiled. Well, as far as movie going is concerned anyway. ;) I went and watched HSM 3 again today, and I'll go back more times in the next few weeks, I'm sure. (I really like the movie. lol) Obviously, it's easier for me to see more movies since I get in free most of the time, being an employee of a theater. However, I also pay to see a lot of movies we don't get at my work, probably more than most people. Movies bring me a lot of pleasure and I enjoy watching them as much as possible, especially on the big screen. Seriously, all movies are better on the big screen. My little 19" TV does not do justice to movies like The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, Speed Racer, PotC, Star Wars, etc. But it's what I've got and it's certainly better than nothing. ;)
Just after I got to the theatre today, one of the guys went up to start the movie, came back down a moment later and said, "Holly, can you come help me with the projector?" *sigh* I don't know how they manage when I'm not there. ;) Haha. Anyway, the display on the projector panel was alternating the proper message for before pushing "Run" with some other message I've never seen before. I tried to clear it, that did nothing, turned cue learn off and back on again, and still nothing. So, we decided just to start it and see what happened. While he pushed run, I went to the other side by the platters and immediately yelled, "Push stop! Stop, stop!" The platter that the film was on wasn't spinning and so the film was starting to wind tight around the center mechanism. Turns out whomever it was that threaded the projector had not turned the platter the film comes off of to "Payout," which is quite essential. I set it to Payout, and told him he could resume it, which he did. Then he goes, "nothing's showing up" and pushes stop again before I could say anything. I then had to explain to him that often times when you stop the movie and resume it, you need to push the "Open Change-Over" button, otherwise a panel is closed over the lamp and nothing will get projected onto the screen. Guess he hasn't run into that before. Well, now he knows for future reference. Everything went fine after that at least.
Oh yes, and this morning at church went just fine. I got there about 20 minutes early and the person who'd asked me to get there way early didn't even mention anything about me getting there "late," which was pleasantly surprising. It was kind of funny though because I didn't have to do any of these new extra things they'd told me I would, so I just sat there. lol Everything went quite smoothly during the services as well. Had to modify a couple slides to change "thy" and "thous" to "you" and "yours" for their preference, and one animation in the PPT didn't work, but that was nothing I could have fixed because I know very little about Power Point seeing as I've only had to use it once or twice for small projects back in middle and high school.
Also at church, I spoke with the two guys I'm currently re-designing a site for. Happy news that they're going to switch hosts so I'll get a referral and won't have to mess with their current Windows server, which refuses to run PHP for me, even though the host says they support it and I "activated" it for the account. I sent them an e-mail a week ago for support and got one reply about two days after saying they were escalating it, and have heard nothing else since then. *shakes head* So, apparently the one guy, who's mostly in charge, doesn't feel loyalty to their current host at all and is completely willing to switch companies. Yay for referrals that pay for my hosting! lol Oh, and then he told me that he thought I was putting in more hours than my original estimate and that they'd pay me whatever I asked for. So my question for all of you is, what do you think is reasonable for both them and myself? Here are the details: quick photo shoot for header graphic, re-design that's essentially the same look only not in frames and much cleaner looking, about 15 pages HTML/CSS DIV layout (content provided for all but one), and two custom PHP forms. My parents are saying my suggestions are low and I should go for at least $6-700. What do you guys think?
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Thursday I went out to work with mom again. She probably didn't need me for the driving, but I had a return to make and we were going to the home showroom afterward anyhow. On the way there in the morning, Andrew called me back, which shocked me! lol I had called and left him a message before we left as a reminder about letting me know if he wanted to see High School Musical 3: Senior Year on Friday as his birthday present from me. He said that probably wasn't going to work out because he was busy getting ready for a trip so I mentioned I'd be out his way in a bit, if he had any time. He took a while calling me back with the where and when info so that I ended up missing my chance to see City of Ember again. He's lucky he called when he did because a few more minutes later I would have been at the theater getting my ticket. And then, of all the places to get together and chat for a bit, he had me meet him at Best Buy. So, we pretty much just wandered the movie section of the store, after he had no luck finding the type of software he was looking for, and pointing out different movies and talking about them. Well, it was good to see him, however briefly. ;)
It worked out that I didn't go to the movie because mom finished what she was doing earlier than she thought. I picked her up, we got ice cream, and then it was off to the home showroom. It was our second trip there, and this time we really spent time picking out things we want for the new house (which we're probably going to get, though nothing's been inked on the deal yet). I showed mom the dark burgundy carpet I liked for the whole house and she decided it was nice, too. I also spotted a nice darker varnish color for the doors and molding in the house that went great with the carpet, and mom liked that one, too! When dad got there I showed him both and he relented. I was like, "is this carpet okay with you daddy?" "Sure, whatever." lol He's resigned himself to whatever mom and I decide, on most things anyway. The garage is totally his domain, and he'll be in charge of all electrical type decisions pretty much as well. We were there for a good few hours, and still didn't go through all the choices. It's nuts. However, mom got a much better idea of the cost, and that was the main goal for this particular trip.
Yesterday morning I woke myself up early and hauled down to the theatre to build HSM 3. Only one reel was backwards this time (which I suppose is positive, though it would have been more positive if they were all done correctly), and even after a few snags, I managed to get it built in very good time. Still started it a little later than originally planned, but the credits were finished rolling when the first people showed up for the show, so that was good. I did a run-through because A) I wanted to see it, and B) all the weekend shows were going to be huge so it would be better to find a fix problems earlier rather than later. Praise God, no problems! :D Everything went just fine and I quite enjoyed the movie. During the first bit I was the only one there so I went dancing down the aisles a bit. ;) But then my boss came back so I just stayed in my seat for the rest of the movie. I was laughing a lot and she commented on it later. I told her most of the laughing was due to some overly-cheesy parts, but that's really to be expected in that kind of movie anyway. I totally enjoyed it more than I thought I would though, since I really don't like the second one. This one was MUCH better and I liked the integration with the theatre-style sets for their play and a good number of the songs. My favorite number was "The Boys Are Back," which is both a very catchy song and an awesome visual number with the set in the junk yard.
I was so hyped up after the movie, that when I got home I immediately went to the computer to find out times for City of Ember and call Target to make sure they had plenty of copies of the HSM 3 soundtrack, which they did. I grabbed the soundtrack and made it into the movie just as the studio logos were playing. I think I'll probably end up getting City of Ember on DVD when it comes out. It's a great sci-fi piece as well as an adventure with the kids that are the main characters.
After the movie, I met up with Emily for some dinner, then we went and grabbed ice cream before deciding to come back to my house to watch a movie. Sadly, there never seem to be too many options for things to do, but at least we both like movies. We ended up watching Aladdin and the King of Thieves, since it'd been a while since Emily had seen that one and she didn't remember it very well. Then we popped in the Boys' Around the World DVD and watched about half before it got to late and Emily needed to go.
Today I finished up cleaning the window sills in the rest of the house. It is not a fun job, but at least now I'm totally done with it! Yay! I was starting to get a little frustrated because the corners and nooks seem quite impossible to clean completely. I told mom and she said the job I had done was darn good enough and I didn't have to worry about it being perfect, so that made the rest of the windows after that a little less stressful. Then I did a couple other little small bits of cleaning, took a shower, started laundry, and set to work making meatless hamburger noodle bake.
I've really started to turn away from red meat, but hamburger noodle bake has been my favorite food for a really long time. So, I had the brilliant idea to use these veggie "meatballs" my mom's had before and just chop 'em up into grounds. However, the store was out of those when mom was there the other day. I went to a different store and actually found meatless grounds to use, which I was excited about. The dish was much easier to make and less time consuming this time around since I didn't have to cook the meat and drain the grease from it. But sadly, the meatless grounds aren't real fabulous. *hangs head* Maybe I'll like it better tomorrow. lol And if I decide to try and do it again, I'll wait until I can get those veggie "meatballs" since mom's tried those and said they're good.
My parents went to a halloween party tonight that my dad's boss was throwing, so I watched a movie again, this time Princess of Thieves. When that was over I saw that a Food Network Challenge was on, so I flipped to that channel and watched a spooky cake challenge. I was going to get up after that and doing something else, but before I did the next show started and it was a spooky gingerbread challenge, so I watched that, too. One of the ladies made a ghost ship out of gingerbread and it looked AMAZING! I definitely thought she should win; and she did.
Now I have to go to bed. Tomorrow's my Sunday to volunteer, and it is now going to be my last Sunday doing so, at least at this specific position. I had already sent an e-mail to the people in charge about a week ago saying I was going to be "stepping down" at the end of the year, unless someone could be found to replace me sooner. Then I got an e-mail from one of them saying I need to be at church an HOUR early. Ha ha no. It's hard enough for me to get there for the first service as it is, and they've never asked me to get there that early. I replied back and said that I couldn't. Since I didn't turn on my computer at all yesterday, I got the reply today saying that if I couldn't find a way to make it there an hour early, they'd have to ask me to be there no later than a half an hour early. Too bad, so sad, it's not going to happen. I realize I'm totally getting more agitated over this than I should, but for some reason it's just under my skin right now. Maybe because it feels more like a demand than a request from them. I'm a VOLUNTEER. They're also adding more requirements to my job just expecting that I'll do it, not even asking what I think or if it's okay. So now tomorrow will be my last Sunday doing the computer stuff and the best they're going to get from me is that I'll be there about 20 minutes early. If the person in charge wants to get upset with me about it, they're free to do so. I've been doing this at least one Sunday a month for like five years and I've never not shown up when I was supposed to be there. The pastor's wife has even told me on numerous occasions that she thinks I do a great job at it. Oh dear... I've just had a thought that would be a more heinous retribution than the person in charge getting mad at me. But they shouldn't do that... Lord God, please don't let them do that. They would call it recognition of my service, I would call it embarrassment. On that not-so-happy thought, I bid you all goodnight.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
It's been a week since I last blogged... crazy. I've been getting caught up with things and just not thinking about writing here. *sigh* Or, if I did think about it, it was right as I was deciding to go to sleep. Anyway...
The rest of the visit with my Aunt being up here was nice. Didn't do a whole lot, but had some good time together. My mom and her went on a few adventures, so that was good. Oh, and we saw Beverly Hills Chihuahua Thursday night. Well, most of it. Some stuff was going on, so we got there a little late and then I ended up coming out of the movie a fair few times, and my mom missed like half... but from what I did see it was kind of cute with some humorous bits. I'm far more looking forward to HSM 3 and Bolt, as far as Disney movies go, however.
I honestly don't remember much about the past few days. Nothing of consequence happened, apparently. Most of it's been helping my mom out with things since she hasn't been feeling well. I did a few stupid things today though. Well, the first I did yesterday, but didn't realize until today.
Yesterday when my mom and I were coming back from our errands we decided to stop and get gas since the tank was pretty much empty. So, I get out and the stupid thing isn't reading our card, and I keep trying and it's just being generally obnoxious. I was going to go in to pay, but mom said to just forget it since I was getting flustered. Now, the part that I remembered today when we finally did go back to get gas was that yesterday I'd taken off the gas cap and set it on the trunk, as I usually do, before I swiped the card... and I never put it back on or even closed the little gas door! *head/wall* I realized that when I went to pop the gas door because there was no tension in the lever and no noise. I asked inside if anyone had turned one in, and after looking around there, we found someone else's, but not ours. So, I told mom I'd buy her a new one and we went over to the auto store. At least it was only nine bucks, but I still felt pretty stupid.
Then, since I was agitated with myself, my driving wasn't fab, but thankfully I didn't cause any damage or hurt anyone. *shakes head at self* And to top it off, when we got to the theatre and I went to break down the movie I first saw that whomever had been there prior had left a whole bunch of stuff on and hadn't done any of the finishing stuff for the movie, meaning they hadn't finished winding the film back onto the platter, nor had they turned off and disengaged the platters. *narrowed eyes* So, I did that. As I'm doing that, I noticed that AGAIN someone had pulled the center ring out of the wrong movie (the one I needed to break down) and they'd just tossed it to the side!!!!! There ensued cussing and an almost-breakdown. It's a pain in the butt to get that thing back in to the center of the film, and it has to be in there to do anything otherwise the second the platter started spinning at all, the entire film would go flying off onto the floor which would probably cause me to have an aneurysm. It's frustrating because they keep doing this lately and I've told a bunch of them not to, almost yelling at some of them to emphasize my point.
The first part of breaking down the movie was a pain, but once it started going better, I felt a bit less upset and did fine driving afterward. Sometimes all the put-downs people have said to me seem true.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Reason # [make up random number here] why boys don't like me: I know how to use a screwdriver (among other tools).
The weekend previous to last, we picked up a dining table set my parents had purchased at the fair on the way to my Aunt's house. Monday night we finally started putting it together as my other Aunt had arrived and mom and I were throwing a ladies luncheon on Tuesday morning. Well, my dad still can't do a lot from his back surgery and my mom's recovering from various things, so I was sort of in charge of putting everything together. Mom took the easy part and did the table, so all she had to do was screw on four legs to it and she was finished. Dad was supposed to help me with the chairs, but I'm just too darn self sufficient and did it all mostly on my own. There were no instructions, so the first chair took the longest. lol Also, they didn't pre-drill holes for a lot of the screws, so the first chair I botched a bit as I didn't apply enough pressure while screwing in the screw which caused the hole to strip out. That's where dad's help came in as he performed glue surgery on the one hole. lol After that I had it down though and did the five remaining chairs entirely on my own. Dad had to even tell me not to tighten some of the bolts so much because apparently I was doing too good of a job at that. :D So yay me and my handiness (at least enough to put together chairs, bookshelves, desks, etc.)! Take that boys! lol
Tuesday's luncheon was very nice, and Emily even came so I wasn't the only young person there. ;) I know most of the ladies my mom invited though, and they're all really nice so I had a good time chatting with them as well. And for the life of me, I can't remember if we did anything else after that yesterday. lol Of course, visiting time with my Aunt, so that's always good. :)
Today I went and had lunch with Karen at Pizza Hut. It started out quite nicely, and Karen and I had good fun talking and just hanging out together, but the service got bad pretty fast. The waiter had to come back and ask me to repeat my order since he didn't write anything down (which always baffles me when waiter's do that because I'd forget even one order the moment someone distracted me--it's just not important enough to retain in my head for more than a few moments, which is why paper is good). So yes, that wasn't too bad, nor was it that bad when he brought me my pizza which didn't have the olives I'd asked for on it. I said so and even just said I'd be fine if they thew some on and stuck it back in the oven for a tick. However, the guy offered to let me have the mistake one for free (which had part of my toppings on it and at least nothing I didn't like) and said he'd have them make me the right one right away as well.
I eat a couple pieces of the mistake one while I'm waiting and Karen's eating some of her pizza, and we're chatting, and then a lot of time is passing and our drinks are running out and I don't have my proper pizza yet. Karen and I are just too nice because neither one of us wanted to have to make a stink about it, but the waiter never came back to check on us or anything. There were very few customers and it was obvious they weren't busy. Another customer even had to get up and ask for a drink and the waiter didn't bother to check and see if any of the other patrons were also in need of more beverage. *rolls eyes* We gave him a long time and then Karen was good and mustered up the gumption to go ask for our refills (Karen, you ROCK!). I was still too chicken. lol Then she also mentioned I was still waiting for my pizza. The guy went into the back to check and then came out and told her that no one had cut it so it'd been discarded. WT...? You don't just toss a pizza because it wasn't sliced. If there's a pizza and you don't know what it goes to, you ask someone. Basically, the dude was lying through his teeth making up an excuse. He told Karen it'd get made right then and that he was going to give me a store credit of $10 for my next meal. Karen's like, "you said you were going to give her the one free."
I finally broke down and ate the rest of my personal pan mistake pizza because Karen was done with her's and I was hungry. It was lukewarm at that point, too. At least we'd gotten our refills. *rolls eyes* So, after at least ten minutes, if not more, we get the bill and my store credit. We took up the tab to have them split it and then I was like, "can I just use the $10 today?" A girl took care of that for us so I NEVER got my proper pizza, but at least my food ended up being totally free and Karen got an additional discount on her's. lol Oh dear. No tip for them. So yeah, Karen and I were laughing a bit before we paid about how bad the service was and how I was going to blog about it. ;) Other than the terrible service, we had a great time. We just know not to eat there for our next lunch. Haha.
I ran some errands after lunch on my way home, including returning a wax stamp die I'd ordered. I was severely disappointed in the quality of the engraving and have nicer stamps that were less than half the price and actually came with a handle, unlike this one. The scary thing is that prior to this die, I ordered a semi-custom seal from the same engravers (through a different site) and paid $46 for it after shipping. Eeps. I haven't gotten that one yet, but I'm very much hoping the engraving quality is MUCH nicer. The pictures of their seal stamps on the site looked much nicer... I don't get it.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Them Boys are teasing me mercilessly! They just added more tour dates, one in Idaho, but it's still really far away. C'mon Boys, please add a date in Portland (or even in Seattle again) between your B.C. and Idaho shows, I'm begging!
Friday mom and I went and saw Fireproof. It was amazing; definitely one of the best movies I've ever seen. I highly recommend it to everyone. It's a limited release so it's not playing in as many theaters, but a drive out to see it would be so worth it. It was very realistically portrayed and powerful. I just let the tears stream on down toward the end. Had the sad and happy cries going on. I reiterate again: it's well worth seeing, even if you have to go farther than normal to get to a theater showing it.
Atlantis part two aired on Friday as well, and I totally didn't see part of it coming. I was glad the two characters they were trying to make us think died at the end of the first part were both fine (yay!), and Daniel and Rodney were fine, too. The surprise was in who the unknown new alien race turned out to be. I was not expecting what it was, and I'm quite curious as to how it's going to affect further shows. Should be good. :)
Saturday my parents and I went out to lunch with an older couple from our church. They're super nice and are apparently always telling my parents how wonderful they think I am. lol They went with us to the model of the home we're thinking of getting (did I write we might move before?), as they wanted to see it, and mom and I spent some time talking with people from the company. Originally, my parents were thinking we were going to be signing the contracts this weekend, but we all realized we need more time to get our current house ready to be sold and we've been rushing and stressing, which is no good. So, now we shall be taking our time.
In the evening I talked to Andrew on the phone for a while, which was nice since it's the first time we've had a chance to chat since the concert (he's always very busy). He had to go and tell me why I should vote for McCain. *rolls eyes* At least he asked first if he could talk about it and was much better than previous people I've spoken with. Apparently a lot of people assume that since I am a Christian I must be a Republican, but I'm so definitely not. I'm not really a Democrat either, but I agree with more of their stances on different topics. Andrew was totally surprised when I told him that. lol Anyway, I probably let him go on for too long telling me why he thought McCain/Palin was the way to go, but I think it turned out to be a good thing that I let him talk to me about it. No, I'm not going Republican, but I also don't want to vote for Obama/Biden either. Always most of us seem to operate on the assumption that we have to vote for one of the two major parties, that any other vote is essentially throwing away our voice. But when I was telling my parents about the conversation later, it suddenly occurred to me that voting for someone is endorsing them, and I don't want to endorse either major candidate. Therefore, I will be writing someone in on my ballot. I've an idea of who it will be, but I probably won't make the concrete decision until I actually get my ballot and go to fill it out. But I must say that I feel much freer and lighter with this decision and to anyone who is thinking how I was that you'll just vote for who you consider to be the lesser of two evils, feel free to write in someone else you think you'd like to lead our country. :)
Last night I also watched my new Sleeping Beauty DVD and feel less horrible about myself for buying it since I already have the previous DVD release. Why? Because the picture is indeed improved from the last one. The colors are much more vivid (possibly a little too much so in certain scenes, but not bad), and it's easily noticeable. The audio doesn't seem much improved, but I like the picture quality. It's rather funny to me that I enjoy Sleeping Beauty so much now when not too many years ago I didn't really like it at all. And it's also funny that when I was little I watched The Little Mermaid all the time, and when it came out on DVD a few years back I rented it and watched it for the first time in a LONG time and couldn't figure out why I ever liked it. Strange. lol
Today I did a few chores, chilled some, and then got ready and went shopping. On Friday I was thrilled to find two pairs of pants that fit and were only $10 each, but still had no luck on the shoes front. Today I got shoes! :D They're not solid tennis like I probably should have, but all of those are two expensive or don't feel comfortable. So, I got All-Star knockoffs that feel quite comfortable and look cute. Happy! :D I also went to Michaels two separate times 'cause I had two 50% off one regular priced item coupons. Actually, I've got five more, too, but the two I used today were only good for today and tomorrow whereas the remaining five are good for the week. So, I'll probably try to go to Michaels again before the week is out to get some more stuff at half price. ;) Oh, and Staples had a really good price on a 8GB SDHC card, so I bought one of those. My Pilot MP3 player has a slot for one of those so now I'll have 16GB worth of space on it. :D
After my errands, I met up with Emily and we went to see City of Ember. I've not read the book, but I very much enjoyed the movie. There were some pretty suspenseful parts and it was just a very interesting and well done story. I think I'll probably take myself to see it again at some point.
*sigh* Now I must get some work done. It shouldn't take too long at least and music shall help pass the time. Hopefully in one of my next posts I'll be able to write that the Boys added another tour date in WA or OR that I know I'll be able to get to and that I got good seats for the show. ;) lol Here's hoping!
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Today was supposed to be a chore day for me, or that's what I thought when I went to bed last night. Turned out to be my second day as a chauffeur, however. ;) Yesterday I did my mom's volunteer drive for her since she ended up needing to back out of it. So, I drove this nice elderly lady out to her doctor's appointment. My mom does this regularly as a community service thing, and I've gone along with her a few times, but this was my first time on my own. The lady was very nice though, and we chatted some both on the way there and the way back. She had a bit of a speech impediment, but I was able to understand most of the things she said. Her appointment was really fast, too, so I only ended up being able to read a few pages of the book I brought. lol
Anyway, I skipped out on doing chores yesterday and my mom made a list of things for me to do today. However, she woke me up about and hour and a half before I was planning to ask if I'd be her chauffeur today and drive her to work. She hadn't slept well and didn't feel the she'd be up for the driving. So, of course I said sure. She threw in free lunch and a movie and I got to run some errands, so it was all good. :) We had a free movie ticket set to expire tomorrow, so mom pressured me to use it and the only thing out that I sort of wanted to see at this theatre (and could use the pass for) was the movie Igor, which most people probably haven't heard of. The only reason I knew about it was because we had a trailer at the theatre and I had no clue what it was and wanted to find out if I could put it on the movie I was building, so I looked it up online. It's an animated movie that's supposed to be for kids and also supposed to be somewhat of a comedy, though I didn't consider it to have either of those qualities. lol I mean, it had some classic good morals for kids, but otherwise just seemed a little too morbid, really. And there were a few bits that made me chuckle, but not much. Actually, the funniest thing wasn't really even funny except that it has to do greatly with an inside joke that Sam and I share. At least no one had to shell out any money for me to see it. ;)
By the time we were heading back home I was tired and I just looked at my mom and said, I'm not doing any chores tonight, just so you know. lol She wasn't going to make me or anything, which was nice. Now I've managed to get out of it for a few days in a row, and today I didn't even try--I would have done the chores, I swear! lol I'm sure I'll have my chance to get them all done over the next few days though. But for now, it's almost time for The Daily Show, and they say laughter is the best medicine.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
You know, I think I'm just going to write in Stewart/Colbert for the presidency when I get my ballot. I swear they'd do a better job and their speeches would be a heck of a lot more entertaining. My mom and dad watched part of the debate this evening and I caught a few snippets towards the end. Wasn't it nice of McCain to insult his potential voters in his final statements? Didn't catch it? Well, he said, and I'm paraphrasing slightly since I can't remember it exactly, something about dealing with countries that most American's wouldn't even know where to find on a map. Yeah, that's a burn. I'm not particularly inclined to vote for either of them, though I'll most always choose democrat over republican. But, we must also consider that our general election is a joke and none of our votes count since the popular election two terms ago chose Gore and the electoral college overruled it (wow, they were stupid). We should get rid of the electoral college and the two-party system.
I was bad and bought both the new Disney's Sleeping Beauty DVD and soundtrack that came out today, even though I've already got older versions of both. *hangs head* I tried not to, but then I caved and bought the DVD and before I checked out I saw they were re-releasing the soundtrack remastered and jumped on it, too. Just when I was starting to get caught up with finances I go and spend a whole bunch of money on those and some other things as well. Will I ever learn?
Monday, October 6, 2008
Dear Holly,
Thank you for submitting "[my story's title]" to [online magazine's name], but we've decided not to accept it for publication.
We appreciate your interest in our magazine.
I'm thus far handling it better than I would have thought I might. I'm trying to stay positive. At least I don't have to wait and wonder anymore--having an answer is good. Also, when I submitted the story, I was thinking that it might not fit right into their magazine. They publish both science fiction and fantasy shorts, and mine is fantasy, but it's also very fairy tale which is quite possibly outside the realm of what they're looking for. And, it's possible that the story's just not polished enough. I don't know, but I'm trying really hard not to start throwing a thousand negatives at myself. Not sure if I'm strong enough for that yet, though.
In other news, my knee feels almost completely better now. Many praises to God! I can bend it without pain and walk on it okay, and it's just amazing because it was hurting a lot Friday night and Saturday. And more praise to God that I didn't seriously damage my knee (and thanks to those of you that prayed for me, it helped), because I very well could have.
Saturday morning I was woken early so we could get a good start on going down to my Aunt's house. We had a number of stops to make along the way, too, and even though we left early, we still didn't get to her place until dinner time. We had to stop on the way to pick up a new dining table that my parents bought, and it turned out the place was right next to the Shipwreck Beads store. Sweet! My mom and I have heard the commercials for them, but never been since it's a ways away from us. Anyway, it's basically a huge warehouse full of beads. When I walked in I totally thought of Sam 'cause she does a lot of bead work, and I bet she'd love that place. I only bought a few things, but totally spent more than I should have. lol I held myself back from going too crazy though, so that was good. :)
The visit with my Aunt was very good, but also really short. After dinner on Saturday we watched a video my mom and I just bought on DVD called You Can Heal Your Life based on the book of the same title by Louise Hay. That's where all my talk of trying to think more positively comes from, that movie and some shows I've watched. There's just no point in tearing myself to pieces. Change is easier said than done, of course, but I'm working on it.
Yesterday we went to a church with my Aunt, which was nice, though there was a little too much singing for me. I don't know what it is, but I've been majorly not liking the singing at church lately. I usually don't sing along anymore and find myself wishing that part would be done with. Maybe it's that we keep singing a lot of the same songs over and over again and the repetition is bothering me. Don't know. Then again, I've also been in a weird place about some stuff lately, so it could just stem from that. Gah.
Yesterday was also my Mommy's birthday! :D I gave her the first season of Happy Days on DVD, which she liked. My Aunt gave her this really pretty little candle holder that has butterflies on it, which my mom also really liked. After church we went to a butterfly garden, though it was raining so there were no butterflies to be seen. I did catch sight of one hummingbird for a moment, but that was it. There were quite a few flowers still blooming though, and the rain didn't start coming down until we were finished walking through the different gardens, so big yay there! Mom said she had a nice birthday. :)
On the drive home we stopped by Wal*Mart, and while I still had no luck finding a new pair of shoes, I did find a pretty trench coat for only $25. :) I almost bought a coral colored one from JC Penny a few years back, but it was a bit more expensive and I wasn't really sure how much I'd wear it. So this one I'm going to try and make good use of. :)
Friday, October 3, 2008
Man, I biffed it good today. I guess the curb was extra slick or I stepped on some wet leaves or something because one moment I was standing, the next I felt momentarily suspended at a 45-degree angle with nothing I could about it, then I was on the asphalt. Ow. At first nothing hurt real bad--my hand stung and my knee hurt some--but now my knee is making itself heard. My hand and my butt and everything are totally fine now, but my knee's going to take a while. It took the brunt of the blow and even though I instinctively rolled as soon as I hit to attempt to save my knee, it got a really good whack. After I fell, I had errands to run and ate food with my mom, and everything just stung pretty good. When I got home and looked at my knee I just noticed some skin was scraped and it was red. No biggie. Then, when I went to show my mom, I looked closer and realized my knee looks a lot larger than normal. Oops.
So my knee is majorly inflamed. I put ice on it for a while and that sort of made it hurt worse once I finally got up again. *sigh* But I'm able to hobble about a bit better now. But you know, despite my folly, I had a pretty good day.
I woke up early and went to meet with a career counselor. (It was free, so I figured, why not?) After I'd made the appointment last week I thought a few times maybe I shouldn't go because I could get some other job on my own, I just might not like it, etc. However, I'm really glad I went. The lady was really nice and quite helpful, though she said she felt like she didn't help me because we didn't nail down an exact job for me. Good news is I'm not desperate for one and wasn't really expecting an exact answer. It was just really nice to talk to someone about what I'd been thinking and what my options are, and to boot I got a nice little confidence boost from her. :)
The really exciting piece of information I got from her is that I should be eligible for health insurance through the state because of my low income which means paying around $25 a month for basic coverage where I could actually go to the doctor if I needed to as opposed to the $80 a month I'm currently shelling out for catastrophic coverage (aka only covers if I need to go to the hospital). Nice. That came about when I was telling her that I couldn't stand for a full shift and a lot of jobs require that. I explained why and she said that if there was a job I was interested in and qualified for where it could be done at least mostly sitting down, the employer would have to accommodate me and couldn't discriminate against me for it. Then I said I'd probably have to have a doctor's note for that and I don't have insurance to visit one... and yay, new happy info! Still have to look into it further to double-check, but it sounds quite promising and I even had a wistful thought later that I might be able to get a new pair of orthotics out of the deal! :D
She also said there are some training programs that, if I was interested in them, I would qualify for free tuition for. Will have to look into that. And, when I turn 24 in about six months I can apply for financial aid without them taking into account what my parents make and she said she thought I could get a lot. So, there's a possibility I could go back to school, if I so decided on something. Bottom line, the chat with her helped me on my way to feeling less stressed over the whole thing. Still working on it, of course, but hopefully I will start to put less pressure on myself. I believe that's a large part of what's stifling my writing right now: I'm constricting myself with pressure. I just need to Chillax. lol
Now I must go be a good child and ice my knee some more. Then, since I got up early and got very little sleep last night, I might actually go to sleep at a more normal time! Maybe... lol Oh, and please pray that I didn't do anything serious and long-lasting to my knee. Thanks. :)
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
At times I'm going a little crazy waiting for the response to the short story I submitted. Their site says that they always respond within 70 days and their average is 30. It's been 51 so far, and I've been checking that e-mail address almost every day since sending my submission. So, it could be that they've got a lot of submissions to go through right now, or it might be that they're reading my story through a few times and considering it. We'll see, and I'll try not to be too antsy in my waiting. I suppose it's a good patience exercise since I just have to wait. I can't contact them again unless it hits the 70 day mark. I'm really starting to hope here.
It's official, I'm going to California in March. :) My cousin Mike's getting married then, so I booked my flight today. And, surprise, surprise, Emily is going with me. We've been talking for a while how she should go to Disneyland with me, and now it's going to happen in March. She can't get out of it now, the tickets are booked and it costs both arms and both legs to change or cancel anything through the airlines. lol I've passed the word on to some of my cousins and I sent a message to Keith to see if he wants to try again to meet up and talk about the olden days (aka preschool), so we'll see what he says. I'm excited for the trip, it should be a lot of fun, and now I'm guaranteed to have someone to go to Disneyland with me each day I'm there. Wee! I'll see if I can rope some of my cousins into going with Emily and me a few of the days. ;)
