Whew!

Okay, now that all the non-fiction is posted, I get get down to explaining where I've been all this time.

Scratch that.  You can pretty much figure it out: school, work, Haven, etc.  How about I describe my plans for the summer and next school year instead?

Oh, I've pretty much given up on listing all the books I read for the 50-Book Challenge--keeping track of them as I go is extremely tedious, so when I get around to writing the list, I can never remember all of them.

Anyway, next week, we have a new shift bid at work.  Due to the nature of next Fall's school schedule (one class on Monday/Wednesday, plus two music lessons on either Monday or Tuesday, and two online courses), I'm hoping I finally have the seniority to get the shift with four ten-hour days and three days off--specifically Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday.  Failing that, I'll try either to get the overnight shift with any days off, since my classes are all after that shift ends, or the same shift I have now (0430-1300) with Tuesday/Wednesday or Monday/Tuesday off, which I will then ask to be split to Monday/Wednesday like last Fall, in order to accommodate my class schedule.

A week from this coming Tuesday, I will be accomplishing a goal I have had on my list for over two decades: I'm going to Holland!

I've wanted to go ever since I found out 1) What countries are, and 2) Grandma and Grandpa S. were born and raised there.  In fact, I decided years ago that the first time I was able to afford to take a vacation outside the country, I would go to the Netherlands.  Everywhere else could wait until after that.

I will be staying at a hostel in Rotterdam, and might go to at least say "Hi" to Grandma's friend in The Hague.  I will definitely be visiting The Hague, as well as Amsterdam, the Kinderdijk, and some other places around the country.  I plan to travel by train from city to city, and by bus or taxi within each city.  I might rent a bicycle for in-city transportation as well, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to afford it.

My plane leaves around 5 p.m. on the 29th, so I will be working that day before changing clothes and going to get my luggage from the car.  After that, I will check in and go back through the checkpoint.  I have a layover of about an hour and a half in Rekjavik going both directions, but I figure that will only be enough time to eat, if I need to.

The return flight lands back at Dulles around 7 p.m. on Thursday, June 7th, so if I still have the a.m. shift then, I will not be able to get home in time for a shower and enough recovery time from jet lag in order to function properly at work the next morning.  So, I am taking off Friday, June 8th as well, and returning to work on Saturday, June 9th, which is actually Mom's birthday.

No matter what schedule I have this bid, I should have July 4th off (or at least the day after, so I don't have to worry about going to bed on time), so I'll be able to be in the Haven's annual group picture this year.  That's good, because I had to miss last year's photo.

After my vacation, I'm going to be running an RPG at the Haven, probably on Tuesdays, based on Anne McCaffrey's Pern.  I'm currently tweaking the Cinematic Unisystem rules to accommodate that setting, and I hope the game goes well, because I'm extremely excited about it.  It's going to be set about 500 Turns after the events in The Skies of Pern (in other words, approximately 3,000 After Landing), and I'm not going to say anymore about it, because I don't want to give any spoilers to the people who may be interested in playing.

Next Fall, my classes are as follows:

EN203 with Ted Taft (the same instructor as for EN205 in Fall 2011 and EN204 in Spring 2012): American Literature from the beginning to the Civil War.  EN204 was from the Civil War to modern times.  Mondays/Wednesdays 1100-1215.

LF101 with an as-yet-unnamed instructor: Introductory French - I took French in Middle and High School, but when I signed up for it, the A.P. French class was cancelled, so I could not take it for college credit.  Therefore, I have to start back at the beginning for French at FCC.  Online Course.

MU103 with James Hontz: Fundamentals of Music - I've been trying to take this course for ages, since it's the prerequisite for the Music Theory and Music Composition courses, but never had the time to take it when it was offered before.  Online Course.

MU178A with John Pursell: First Year Brass (Trumpet) - I'm way out of practice with the trumpet, and I want to get my lip back, so I'll be taking weekly ½-hour-long lessons.  Schedule unknown until August, will either be Mondays or Tuesdays.

MU184 with James Hontz: First Year Guitar - Since I only know one real song on the guitar ("Merelan" from The Masterharper of Pern Soundtrack Songbook), and can't really play it at tempo, I figured I'd get actual lessons.  The class I had signed up for in senior year of high school started out with just theory, so I dropped that class in favor of Show Choir, and hadn't gotten around to getting personal lessons yet.  Now, I will have.  These lessons, unlike the trumpet lessons, will be hour-long sessions.  Tuesdays, 1430-1530.

After next semester, I will only need two more Literature courses before I can graduate and get my A.A. degree in English/Literature.  Those courses are the second half of British Literature, EN202, and the second half of World Literature, EN206.  If one or both of them is not offered in the Spring of 2013, my academic advisor, Dr. K, said that we could substitute any other 200-series Literature course, though I don't know what that could be, since I've already taken all of the other 200-series Literature courses I know of.

Anyway, after I get that degree, I plan to go back to FCC and change my major to Music.  I hope to later transfer to a four-year school and get my B.A, so that I can teach music.  That way, if I can't find a position teaching at a school, I'll at least be able to give lessons in my spare time.

I also started writing a story back in November. It's nowhere near finished yet, and it's already over 13,000 words (48 pages, Times New Roman, 12pt, typed and double-spaced or 14 pages, Times New Roman, 6pt, typed and double-spaced). There was no way I was going to do it for Na-No-Wri-Mo though, since I have trouble writing it in anything other than fits and spurts. It doesn't have a title yet, and I'm not going to write a description of it here. I want to finish it before I send it out to the world in general, though a couple people have already read earlier parts of the story.


My original plan was to finish it and send it to the Writers of the Future Sci-Fi and Fantasy Writers Contest (which used to be judged by Anne McCaffrey, who as most of you should know was the author of the Pern series--among others--and my favorite author of all time), but they have a word limit of 17,000 words. Given that I'm maybe half-way through the story at more than 13,000 words, I'll probably be way over the limit by the time the story is finished. If that is the case, and I can do it well enough, I'll abridge the story so that it's under the limit and submit the abridged version to the contest. Then, I'll send the long version to a publisher after the contest is over, no matter whether the story gets a prize or not.


If I cannot abridge the story and still keep the major plot intact, I'll just send it to a publisher.


Lots of plans, lots of stuff to fill my time.  I'm also watching my way through all of the Stargate serieses and movies.  I'm currently nearing the end of Stargate: SG-1 season 9 and Stargate: Atlantis season 2.


No new knitting projects lately, but can you blame me, busy as I've been without them?

Adventures in Knitting (and Other Stuff)

Well, I finally got my knitting project pictures from my camera onto my computer. They're not that great--the lighting was horrendous when I took most of them--but they'll do.

I started to get into knitting around the end of January. I just kept thinking that I wanted to knit something. Grandma S. had taught me how to knit at least twenty years ago, but I hadn't really gotten into it then. All of a sudden, I found myself wanting to knit though, so one day on the way to work (back when I was still on the p.m. shift) I stopped at the Michael's store in Leesburg, VA.

I didn't really know what I wanted to knit, and I'd forgotten how to cast on, so I got an "I taught myself knitting" kit--just so I could have an immediate reference should I need reminding. I also looked at yarns, and found a really nice red color. Remembering that Anna's and Tim's wedding colors were black and (apple) red, I thought to myself that I might just like to make a sweater for Anna in those colors--so I did.

It turned out pretty okay, for a first major project. I didn't really know anything about buying proper yarn weights at the time though, so the body of the sweater (the black) was thinner than the sleeves (done in red). I also hadn't tied in the ends properly in a couple of places, so when I washed and dried the sweater the first time in preparation for giving it to Anna, a few small holes showed up! Yikes!

So I called Grandma in a bit of a panic, and she said to bring it by her house when I could so she could let me know if it was fixable. Thank goodness it was, because I really didn't want to have to take it apart and make it all over again!

There are a few "yarn scars" where I had to do quick patch-ups, but they're mostly on the back. There was one on the front though, so I covered it up with a cute little frog patch that Grandma let me have, so it would be "prettier." Anna loved the frog.

When I first started making Anna's sweater, a lot of people at work remarked on it. One co-worker actually asked me to make a sweater for him too. I told him I would, and asked what color. He said blue--the same color as our uniform shirts, because he's a Carolinas fan. I couldn't quite get an exact match just by going to the craft store, so I bought a skein each of three of the closest shades, and had him choose. It ended up being Vanna's Choice Sapphire.

This sweater came out a lot better, since I was working all in one color (so I didn't have to worry about weight of yarn being different) and I knew better how to tie in the ends. Grandma also helped with a bit of confusion over the directions--I was having trouble figuring out how the pattern was telling me to sew on the sleeves. As you can see at the right, her advice helped. This particular picture came out really well, and it's probably the best picture of all the projects I've done so far.

After that, I decided to try making a pair of socks. I'd heard it was somewhat more of a challenge, since you have to use four needles at once. The first sock was kind of iffy--I'd gone the wrong direction when I started, so it has a bit of a "run" down the middle of the back where the rounds didn't quite come together. As a result of that, the first sock is baggier and looser than the second. By the second sock, I'd learned how to keep the tension on without pulling so hard that I couldn't move the needles.

Sometimes, I wear the socks when I'm just bumming around the house. But after a few hours, I start to feel the individual stitches digging into the bottoms of my feet. Unfortunately, the yarn I made them with is hand-wash and flat-air-dry only, so I can't put them in the machines to soften them up a bit. I wonder if there's a way to soften them up by hand?

The socks are black, so you're not really missing much with the uber-darkness of the picture.

Now that I'd finally knitted something for myself, I decided to go back to knitting surprises for other people, namely my bestest friend, H. (Hiya!)

What to make her, though? She lives in AZ, where it gets extremely hot, so a sweater probably wouldn't be all that useful. However, it does get at least a little chilly at times, and she has to take her dogs out to go potty too. So I figured a shawl would be just the ticket. I had bought a book of shawl patterns, and chose one with lots of lacing, so it would be warm, but still light-weight.

Without telling her why, I asked for confirmation of her favorite color, and she told me royal blue, so the picture to the right is lying to you if you're seeing black.

I also thought about putting a tiny knitted swatch onto one of those make-your-own button badge things (you know, the pins that people wear that have things like smiley faces and such on them?) so that she could have detachable buttons for holding the shawl on while she walked the dogs also. But even the lighter-weight yarn I used for the shawl was too thick for my tiny button maker. Ah well.

After that, I tried my hand at pattern making. What I wanted was a sleeveless dress with a V-neck, and a slight slit about 4 inches up one side like my favorite skirt has. Only, I couldn't find a pattern with exactly what I wanted. So I took my measurements, chose the yarn I wanted to make the dress with, made some gauge swatches, and calculated all the stitches I'd need, all the increases and decreases, and where they would go, in order to make that dress. I knitted it in the round (with needles connected at the center by flexible plastic, instead of two separate straight needles), which made the calculations a bit more complicated, since my measurements diagram could only show one side of me at a time.

Over all, I did pretty well with the calculations, except between my bust and armpits, where it came out baggier than it should have been. I just sewed little gussets to the inside of the dress under each arm to get rid of (or at least hide) the excess, since I wasn't about to take apart half of the dress's top just to fix it. I'll fix the pattern by looking at exactly how many stitches those gussets hold and making sure the necessary decreases happen before I make another dress like it--if I ever do, that is.

I bought a solid blue belt (to break up the pattern a bit at the middle of the dress) and some high-heeled backless brown sandals with blue, suede opened toes on to go with the dress. The sandals are my favorite shoes, but I don't get to wear them very often now that it's getting colder and I've got somewhere to be seven days per week (work and school). I did wear the shoes on the first day of the semester though, and that nearly killed my legs. I'm never wearing high heels to FCC again!

I plan to make a solid-colored bolero-style jacket to go with the dress (which will only be worn in the winter, once I've bought a slip--the sun tends to shine through all the little holes between stitches) in one of the darker middle shades of blue that is in the verigated yarn I used for the dress. I also plan to make solid-colored pockets slightly at an angle on the front of the dress about where pants pockets would be. I just don't have time for that project at the moment, what with my crazy-insane schedule.

I had also planned to teach a few people at the Haven how to knit, and actually had planned and scheduled the class. I had planned to have them make potholders during the lesson, and give them some yarn too. I would also let them pick their next project from one of the few books I had--or help them look up patterns on the internet for whatever they wanted to make, as well as give them advice on how to choose yarn and needle sizes.

However, the people who were interested in learning to knit could not make it to the Haven on the day I'd chosen for class, and I could not make it any other day either, so the class was cancelled. Maybe I'll try to have the class again during the break between fall and spring semester or something.

To the right is a picture of the example potholders I made to go with the class flyer on the bulletin board at the Haven. The first two were from patterns in the "I taught myself knitting" kit, and the third is an adaptation I made with cable-stitching. I think I need to adapt that pattern so it's a better square with the cabling, though--it turned out a bit long and thin compared to the other two.

The yarn I used for the example is also not good for potholders, since it's not very heat-resistant and would probably melt if you tried to put it on the table under a hot pot of food, but since these are only for show, it's all right.

That's about all the knitting news for now. On to this year's Renaissance Festival, and then I've really got to get some homework done.

Earlier this fall, I asked Anna and Tim if they would want to go to RennFest with me, if I could get off work one Sunday (the only day both Tim and Anna are off from work during any given week), and they said yes. So I got the 2nd of October off, and saved all the money I could from two paychecks for the RennFest.

On October 1st, the forecast called for cold and rain, however. Anna and Tim, fearing Dylan would get a cold--or otherwise become ill--in the weather, had to back out of our Faire plans at the last minute. I couldn't blame them--I don't want Dylan to get sick either.

So, I posted on Facebook that I was looking for Havenites (or other people) to go to the RennFest with the next day, but I guess no other Havenites were online between the time I posted and the time I got up to go, since only H and one other person (who also lives out-of-state) replied. I went to RennFest by myself, but I had a fun enough time.

The first thing I did was get my name on the list to have my hair braided, because I didn't want it blowing in my face all day. While I waited, I stopped in the nearby pewter shop and bought something to hold my cloak closed in the shape of wolves' heads. Everything else I bought at RennFest (except for some beeswax lip balm), I bought for other people (just the people I found at home when I got back, though):

Anna and Tim got matching wooden boxes, with red stain, which are just small/big enough to hold small things (like change or keys) on a nightstand. I also got Anna a necklace with a green stone in the middle of a round silver pendant with snakes on it.

Kimba got a nifty RennFest magnet. She was doing laundry at my house when I got back.

I got Dylan a RennFest sweatshirt (size 4T, I think, so he can grow into it) and a picture book about bees and honey from The Bee Folks.

I also bought 50 honey sticks in two different varieties to share.

I took a picture of what I looked like with the dress and the cloak (the "sorcerer's robe" Dad made me for Halloween 2000, left open except for the new cloak clasp). I also wore the belt I bought at the Faire a few years back (which I wear to work every day), as well as the belt pouch I bought from the Haven that Erika made a few years ago. The necklace is a medallion that I bought at RennFest also. It's got a sailing ship on one side and Pegasus on the other.

I was the only one home at the time I thought to take a picture, though (and I wanted to change out of the constricting dress), so I had to take the picture in the mirror. My left hand (remember, it's a mirror image) is cropped out of the picture, because that's the hand that was holding the camera, and it looked kind of incongruous.

I have yet to find footwear to go with the dress that I find acceptable. Not only that would match the dress well, but would be comfortable to walk in for hours.

Whoops! Where'd the time go?

Yikes! I had no idea I hadn't posted since New Year's! So much has happened since then, I don't know where to start.

I do have a list of books I've read this year going, but it's rather short--I took up knitting at the beginning of the year, and am now back to school, so I don't really have much time for reading, other than for school. I am reading a novel for one of my classes though, so that will be included on the list--once I get the list up. I'll also post all the essays I'll be writing for school as well.

To sum up the last nine months (and one day) of the year so far:

I still work at Dulles Airport, and I'm doing pretty well there. I switched to the a.m. shift (4:30 to 1:00) back in the spring, thinking that it would make it easier to go to my morning classes on my days off. Little did I know that my night-owl self wouldn't be able to even attempt to get to sleep early enough for a 1:30 a.m. wake-up.

A couple weeks ago, I was so physically and mentally exhausted, the sheer force of will it took to stay awake made me clench my teeth so hard that my entire jaw ached for days afterward. And then one morning, I woke up aching all over too, so I called out from work and went back to sleep until I heard Anna and Tim downstairs around 9:30.

I've managed to get better at going to sleep lately, so it's not nearly as bad now. But we're bidding for shifts again at work soon, so I'm probably going to go back to the p.m. shift. As much as I love how much less crazy the morning is compared to afternoons at the airport, I just can't seem to adjust my circadian rhythms to the a.m. schedule.

Anyway, I just realized that I hadn't explained the whole "back to school" thing on here yet, so here goes.

Back in the spring, I decided that I needed to go back to school. I had about 35 credits just sittin' there, doing nothing, and it was kind of lame. But if I was going to go back, I needed a plan for where to take my life.

So, I talked to one of the ladies at FCC (that's Frederick Community College, for those of you not native Frednecks), and said I might be interested in teaching. She told me that, in order to teach English, I'd need at least a Master's degree, and I don't really have any interest in a Master's.

I decided to finish my A.A. in English at FCC, and then go back as a Music major. Once I have enough credits, I'll then transfer to a 4-year college and get my B.A. in Music Education. I haven't decided where I'll go for that yet--don't even really know which colleges in the area I am able to attend offer such a curriculum--but I have time.

I talked to the lady who taught my Music History and Appreciation class a few years ago, and she told me to start practicing again really soon. Asked me what level I wanted to teach music in: elementary, middle, or high school. I said either middle or high, and she told me that I could teach either vocals or instrumental music (i.e. chorus or band), so I chose vocal, since I believe I sing better than I play any instrument. Perhaps I'll minor in trumpet.

She also suggested that, while I'm still finishing my English degree, I take the Fundamentals of Music course (and at least start on the series of Music Theory courses), as well as a piano class, and individual vocal instruction. She said that, if I find I don't like the pace of the piano class after the first semester, I could get individual instruction for that too, and told me how to go about planning for that in my class schedules.

I'm headed for my at-least-once-a-year visit to the Renaissance Festival tomorrow. Anna and Tim were going to come with me (and bring Dylan, of course), but had to bail due to forecasts of cold and rain tomorrow. They don't want to have Dylan in the wet and cold all day, and I don't really blame them. It's just not going to be as fun without someone to hang out with, so I posted on Facebook that I'm looking for Havenites (or other people) to go with me.

If no one else wants to come--it is last-minute, after all--then I'll just go by myself. Maybe I'll see other people I know there, or maybe I'll make a new friend or two--who knows?

What Happend to July?

Goodness, it looks like I forgot to post for more than a month!

And I was so hoping to have at least one post on this blog for each month this year. Oh, well. It's not really important.

The Haven 4th of July party was great, and for my birthday on the 23rd, I borrowed the sjoelbak from Grandma S. I took it to the Haven, and taught anyone who wanted to learn (and wasn't too busy preparing for Pennsic) how to play. It was much of the fun.

For those of us who didn't go to Pennsic, there was the "Anti-Pennsic Pool Party" on the 31st, which Carl threw at his parents' house. That was great--it had been a long time since I got to talk to some of the people who were there, since I mostly end up in the private gaming room on Thursdays for Brian's neolithic D&D game.

The three of us found out either late in July or early this month that our land lord is raising our rent. We can't afford to pay the higher rent, so Anna's been looking for a new place for the four of us (me, Anna, Tim and Dylan) to live.

So far, I've seen one place that we all liked--in Knoxville--and Anna and Tim went to see a place in Smithsburg that they say I would probably like. We haven't heard anything from the people who own the Knoxville house, but the owners of the Smithsburg house are definitely looking over the rental application, because there have been phone calls made to at least Anna's work, and one other person.

We're definitely going to be out of this duplex before September 1st though, so I started packing this past Sunday. The way I pack for moving is last-in-first-out. First, I pack the most non-essential items I own, and then I work my way from those to the stuff in my bedroom, which is usually the stuff I use most often and/or need daily.

Once everything has been moved to the new house, the first things I unpack are the those daily/most-often-used things, and then I go backwards(-ish) to the first things I packed originally. On Sunday, I started by packing my books. As much as I love to read, I know that my books are the absolute least essential things I own.

Once I had all of my books packed, I packed up all of the movies in the basement (Anna's, Tim's and mine), and then I packed my music stuff.

All I have left to pack now is the stuff in the laundry room, the paperwork and office supplies in/on my desk, my extra bedding from the linen closet, my stuff from the bathroom, and the absolute essentials--my bedroom. When I get around to doing that packing, everything but the bathroom and the bedroom will be done at once, and will probably take less than an hour. The last bits will be done the day before I plan to sleep at the new place--wherever that will be--and will be unpacked as soon as it gets there.

New Stories!

I've begun posting more stories here--this time originals. (Don't worry, those of you waiting for installments of my fanfiction; they'll get written eventually.) They're actually stories written in response to prompts from the Haven's writing group, the Inkwells. I've added these stories to their own section of the Original Fiction section here on my blog, and you can also just read the stories by visiting this link to the Inkwells Stories page. Enjoy, and please feel free to leave reviews in the comments section for each story page.

Updating While Snowed In

There's about two feet of snow on the ground outside, so I figured now would be a good time to update.

I've been working at my new job for exactly four weeks, and I find that I actually kind of like it better than any of the other jobs I've ever had. Over the years, I've figured out that I prefer jobs where I can be "behind the scenes," and don't have to deal with disgruntled customers.

At my new job, that's basically the idea. I'm in the stockroom, pulling parts for the various jobs everyone in the production area does, and management talks to any customers who actually come to the building.

The dress code is good too. I can wear jeans and sneakers, but I also have to wear a static jacket and heel straps to ground me so that electrostatic discharges don't damage the electronic components. So the clothes are comfortable, and the static jacket is actually warmer than it looks, so I can just wear a tee-shirt underneath it and be comfortable, temperature-wise.

My first paycheck was only half of what I'd usually be getting, since I came in at the middle of the pay period. I was really worried at the time, because that meant I'd still be about half-a-month behind on paying my bills. Luckily, around that time, all three of my W-2s from last year's jobs came in, and I was able to file my taxes in the last week of January. I got the state return back ($618) on Friday, January 30th, and my federal return ($655) came early this past week.

I got caught up on the bills that were overdue, and then held the rest for when I got my first full paycheck (plus 2½ hours of overtime, since they'd asked me to stay late last Friday to help finish a project) yesterday.

I wasn't able to completely pay off what's left of my car loan, but going off of the payoff amount posted online, I was able to get about half of what's left paid. I also helped with this month's rent (though I couldn't afford the whole rent, what with knowing I'd have to pay my whole portion in two weeks again), paid my portion of the utilities, and paid all the bills that are due before my next paycheck. I now have about $70 in the bank, and $15.16 in cash (for snacks while I'm at the Haven) until February 19th.

I'm only going to use what's in the bank to fill up my gas tank when I start to run out--I've got half-a-tank still--and then save the rest to go toward bills with my next paycheck. It'll also be used for emergencies, if there are any between now and then.

Tomorrow, Anna and Tim have been planning to have people over for a Superbowl party, but we're not sure if they're actually going to be able to get here, what with the snow and all. Whether they do come or not, it's all good to me. I'm not even going to watch the game (I don't like football), but the three of us are already starting to go a little stir crazy from being stuck inside, so it'll be nice to have some visitors.

I've joined another RPG at the Haven. It's a game called Nobilis. It's totally dice-less, and looks/sounds really interesting. I already created my character, who is completely different from any character I've ever played before.

I usually play characters who are a lot like me (female, relatively good, interested in a lot of the same things I am . . . makes it easier to stay in character that way), but since I know the GM-ing style of the person running the game (I'd been in his Vampire: The Masquerade game for a little while a couple years ago) I decided to try something different. For one thing, my Nobilis character is a guy. For another, he's not all goody-two-shoes at all, but rather devious. It'll be a challenge to play this character, and I'm looking forward to it.

The game itself will have about 30 or so players, but we're not all going to be playing at once. The way the GM is running it, there will be set gaming sessions, and there will also be random, "Okay, who's here from the Nobilis game? Anyone up for a one-off?" sessions. We players just have to participate in only one session every two months, at the least, to be allowed to stay in the game.

Not bad, considering that the weekly Serenity game is pretty much the most regular gaming I can handle. It cuts into my sleep time on Thursday nights, so Fridays are a bit rough, but it's worth it, since the game is so frickin' awesome.

What an Awful Time to Be Sick

Yup, I'm sick. Which sucks, because that means I can't even go to the temporary manual labor agency right now. It started Monday night, when I kept sneezing and had a really stuffy nose that wouldn't go away. I also had trouble practicing my trumpet without getting dizzy (though I made it the full 30 minutes), so I've decided to amend my first New Year's resolution to include the words "health permitting."

Tuesday morning, I got a phone call from the temp place (I hadn't even gone in to say that I was available) asking if I wanted to drive for the company I drove for the first day I worked for the temp place. My head was so fuzzy, what with the stuffy nose, clogged and ringing ears, and overall blah-ness that I doubted I would be alert enough to drive my own car, much less someone else's expensive company car. So, I had to turn the job down.

Before I went to sleep the night before last, I took some NyQuil, because I wasn't getting any better--in fact, it seemed worse than the day before. I briefly woke up around 1:30 or 2:30 (can't remember which), took another dose, and then went back to sleep until 4:00.

I could've slept longer, but I wanted to actually do something besides sleeping that day, so I went downstairs and got some beef stew before coming back up here to read. Then a little later, when Anna came back from Mom and Dad's house, we watched the first episode of Birds of Prey (I'd NetFlixed the entire series, and the first disc came in the mail a few days ago). By that time, Tim was home, so we watched Good Eats and Unwrapped before they went to bed.

I was still pretty awake at the time, so I watched the rest of the disc, plus the little Gotham Girls cartoon that was on the disc as well. Then I came upstairs, read a little bit more, and went to sleep.

I woke up a little after 1:00 this afternoon, called Bryan to let him know I wasn't going to be playing in the regular Thursday-night Serenity game at the Haven, then called a different temp agency to find out what I'd have to do to be considered for a position they'd contacted me about a week or two ago. I took their online assessments, then called the lady back, and I've got an interview on Monday now.

Now, I just have to find some work tomorrow and Saturday--probably at the manual labor temp agency--to get some money in order to pay the bills that are due before next Monday. I'll take some more NyQuil before I go to sleep tonight, and hopefully that will help me to feel well enough to work.

The Patheticness of Me, and New Year's Resolutions

Man, you know what sucks? During the second semester of my senior year of high school, I was in both Jazz and Concert Band. Those classes were back-to-back, five days a week, from right after lunch until the end of the school day. That's a total of about fifteen hours a week, playing my trumpet.

This afternoon, after taking a shower, I decided to practice a bit on my trumpet. I knew I wasn't going to get anywhere near three hours, since I hadn't done any serious playing for almost ten years now, but I thought I'd at least crack half an hour, y'know?

I couldn't even make it fifteen minutes before my lips gave out.

Of course, it probably doesn't help that I was trying to play songs from my Disney Star Trek and theme books, which have a lot of notes on the top half of the staff. If I'd gone through and practiced some of the stuff in the books I used in middle school concert band, I'd probably have made it to half an hour, if not forty-five minutes or so.

But that stuff is boring, and I wanted to at least get half of the Star Trek: Voyager theme song played before my lip gave out. Only problem is, I'd played too many other Star Trek theme songs before I went for Voyager, so I only got a few bars in.

I think I want to start practicing every day again. Until I get a job, I'll probably go for early to mid-afternoon, for half an hour (using the boring books only), and then when I get a job, I'll re-evaluate my schedule and see what time is good for practicing then.

I've got an interview on Monday morning at an electronics manufacturing company for a stockroom associate position. The application, and the two little tests they had me take at the time, went pretty well, so I'm hoping the interview goes well too.

But enough of the depressing stuff--it's a new year! I've never really made--and kept--New Year's Resolutions before, but I think I might want to start. Here are three:

1. Practice trumpet for at least thirty minutes every day.
2. Practice guitar and/or piano at least twice a week, for at least thirty minutes each time.
   
3. Call at least two of my really good old friends (the ones I don't see all that often) at least once a month, just to catch up. Text messages, Facebook messages, and e-mails don't count--must be telephone calls.

I went to the Haven New Year's Eve party on Thursday night. It was fun. I talked to a few people I hadn't seen in a while, since the only time I'm really at the Haven nowadays is when I'm playing in Bryan's Serenity RPG, and we're sitting in the tiny gaming room where we can't see anyone else at the time.

I also creamed Steve at Warhammer--his ogres versus my Bretonnians. He literally had only three models (not units, just models) left on the table by the time we called the game at the top of turn five. He'd managed to take out my general and one entire unit though, so I only won by a little over 400 points--still a decided victory though.

I decided not to stay there for the night, since at home I had flannel sheets, but I was walking around the Haven for a while with my favorite blanket wrapped around my shoulders. It's the blanket that I got from the airport in Phoenix, on my way home from visiting Heather and Stephen back in October 2008.

Updateroo

Around the time of my last post, I was looking into starting up my own business as an insurance agent. Also at that time, I got notification that my claim for unemployment insurance had been denied. Since I thought I was going to be doing the insurance thing, I let the UI slide.

But, the insurance thing fell through, and by the time that happened, it was too late to file an appeal to UI. So, I applied at a temporary manual labor place where I could work and get paid the same day.

The first job I had was only two hours long, and I was paid for four hours' work (since the minimum day at the temp company is four hours long, but the company I drove for needed a driver kind of ASAP). The second job, which I got the next day, was for a pharmaceutical company, and I was basically just sticking security stickers on boxes of medicine.

That job got me repeat tickets at the temp place for more than a week, and while I was there, they kept asking if I wanted to apply for a job there. The person who was in charge of all the people at the pharmaceutical company said that the position I'd be in would pay better than the minimum wage ($7.25/hour) I was getting from temp company--with no possibility of over-time pay--and I still had bills I needed to catch up on and would need to pay regularly come December, so I decided to go for it.

So now I work for the pharmaceutical company, and I'll get my first paycheck from them on Tuesday. I still have to pay my over-due cell phone bill (about $185), and apparently I have an outstanding tab at the Haven for $6.50, which I'll pay along with my December membership. I've also got the fee for the last couple of allergy shots I got before I no longer had health insurance to pay, and then I'll be all caught up.

I figured out a budget, based on whether or not I get overtime at the new job, and also based on how much overtime I get. The way I figure it (approximating 17% taken out for taxes), if I don't get any overtime at all, I won't be able to pay my portion of the rent, so I'll just take over the Dish, internet (Comcast), and power (Allegheny) bills entirely.

But the people at my new job won't let me not get overtime right now. I told them when I interviewed that I could work up to ten hours a day, thinking that they'd schedule me for eight hours a day and five days a week, and then if they needed me to stay a couple hours longer once or twice a week, I could do it, but then after I was hired, I learned that they expected me to actually work ten hours every day, for six days a week!

My first week, I was still at the temp company on Monday, but then Tuesday through Saturday I worked my tail off. By the time I left Saturday night (which was really very early Sunday morning) my back, feet and hips were killing me, and I was so stiff I could barely move. Darn concrete floors.

I'm still looking for a job which will pay better and have less hours, but it's going to be tricky going to interviews when I'm at my new job from either 12-10pm or 2pm-12am every day except Sunday, and if I'm not there (or at the Haven on Thursdays for Brian's game), it's either too late/early to go anywhere, or I'm sleeping off the previous day's work.

I'm looking into a mystery shopping opportunity, which I think I could do if I get up a couple hours early. Right now, I have a 7-day free trial of the mystery shopping job listing site, so I'll try it out for six days, hoping that it'll pay for itself (it's $49.95/month after the free trial). If it does, I'll do both for a while, then if the mystery shopping starts to pay off more than the job would, then I'll drop the job. If it doesn't pay for itself, then I'll drop the mystery shopping and keep looking for a better job than this one.

A couple of months ago, I submitted an application for a job at an airport and passed the assessment they had me take. They'd asked me to fax a couple of forms in for them to get more information, and I did, but apparently the number they had me fax it to before doesn't work right, so they didn't really get the forms. I got confirmation e-mails saying they'd received the forms, but they didn't really.

So I tried to re-send the forms to another fax number they gave me this weekend, but Dad's fax machine apparently can't send faxes to numbers which just forward the faxes on to different machines.

So yesterday, I scanned the forms and sent them through faxzero.com, and I hope they went through, because the cover pages that the organization gave me to put with the forms say that they have to be the first page in the transmission or else it may not work properly, but FaxZero adds a cover page onto the faxes you send through them if you want a free fax. I can't afford to send a fax that costs actual money.

On a different note, Jason and I went to the Haven on Black Friday. Jason played video games while I drew a picture of the character I play in Brian's Serenity game, Maekona Vaine. It turned out okay, I guess. I think I tend to do better when I don't have a picture to work from, but in my mind, Maekona's of Chinese-American descent, so I wanted to make sure her facial features reflected that and used a picture I'd found through Google Images as a reference point.

The shape of the drawing's face makes her look like an alien, the coloring isn't quite right for what I had in mind, and I had to scan it in two parts, so there's a really noticeable line right in the middle that I couldn't get rid of, but it's at least the basic idea of Maekona anyway:

All Monetarily Contributed Projects Currently on Hold

Thursday evening at the Haven was the first session of Brian's Serenity RPG game (played using the system from the Buffy and Angel RPGs, instead of the Cortex system, because Cortex system sucks). It's looking like it'll be a really fun game, and I can't wait until next week's session.

So, Tim got a new job. He now works for Chase in their collections department. That said, we've all decided not to try an buy a house, but instead to look for places to rent. We've been looking at ads the last two days, but Anna was only able to get in touch with the people who own two of the houses (she left messages with the rest). We've looked at two duplexes so far, and they both were nice, but the first one we looked at was nicer.

Because of the immediacy of the housing situation--Anna wants to be moved out of Mom & Dad's by the end of July--we've all got to save up as much as we can for the first month's rent and security deposit on any house we end up renting. Which means I won't be able to even start finishing that set of viking chairs until August or September at the earliest.

I also won't be able to get that correspondence course about piano tuning, or to make a Tri-D Chess board, like from Star Trek yet either. *Le sigh.*

I got the Star Trek DVD set last week from Amazon. It was actually the second set I'd gotten of it--the first set was missing season 1, disc 2, so I had to send it back. I'm on the fourth or fifth episode of season 2, and as soon as I finish this entry, I'm going to watch it.

Mom's birthday is coming up on Tuesday. I got her Highlander season 1 on DVD. I was looking for Kung Fu season 3, but they didn't have it at Record and Tape Traders, which is the only store I've been to since I got paid yesterday.

Next week, if I remember, I'll post a list of things I might like for my own birthday.

A Series Almost 40 Novels Long

Not a lot has happened since April 25th, except that I made a viking chair for Anna's birthday. Steve at the Haven taught me how. I'm going to make 7 more--one for each of the people in my family, including me (Dad, Mom, Me, Kimba, Tim, Kayla, Jason).

I finished the 36th of the 37 Discworld novels written by Terry Pratchett this afternoon. I didn't know that Making Money was also a Discworld novel, because it wasn't included in my audio files. I'm downloading that one now.

I was a bit disappointed by book number 36 (Strata), because it turned out to be sci-fi, when the entire rest of the series was mostly fantasy/satire. It had an okay plot, even though none of the characters I'd come to love were in it, but if I ever re-read (er . . . re-listen to) the series, I won't be going through Strata again.

So far this year, I have read 37 books--soon to be 38. Here's the list (in the order that I read them):

1. Confessions of a Part-time Sorceress: A Girl's Guide to the D&D Game by Shelly Mezzanoble
2. The Colour of Magic
3. The Light Fantastic
4. Equal Rites
5. Mort
6. Sourcery
7. Wyrd Sisters
8. Pyramids
9. Guards! Guards!
10. Eric
11. Moving Pictures
12. Reaper Man
13. Witches Abroad
14. Small Gods
15. Lords and Ladies
16. Men at Arms
17. Soul Music
18. Interesting Times
19. Maskerade
20. Feet of Clay
21. Hogfather
22. Jingo
23. The Last Continent
24. Carpe Jugulum
25. The Fifth Elephant
26. The Truth
27. Thief of Time
28. The Last Hero
29. The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents
30. Night Watch
31. The Wee Free Men
32. Monstrous Regiment
33. A Hat Full of Sky
34. Going Postal
35. Thud!
36. Wintersmith
37. Strata
38. Making Money (I'm including it because I will be reading it.)

It's looking like I'll actually make (and probably surpass) the 50-book goal this year--yay!

A night NOT spent at the Haven

Ryan's been back in town for the last week or so, and asked if I wanted to hang out and catch up. I took him up on that offer, of course. He met me after work, and we walked over to Five Guys to eat.

After that, we stopped off at the Haven for a few minutes, 'cause I'd told him about it and how cool it was--and we were nearby anyway.

He had a bit of an errand to run--picking up his other car from the shop, which wasn't the one he parked in the Church Street parking deck--so we drove there in my car, and I followed him to his house to drop it off. From there, we decided to see a movie.

We managed to get to the 6:45 showing of Knowing, the new Nicholas Cage movie, while the previews were still rolling. I liked it a lot; they packed a lot of stuff into two hours and fifteen minutes, and it felt longer than it actually was. Ryan said he liked it up until the end, because it "couldn't decide what genre it was supposed to be" (if I elaborated, it might spoil the ending), but I think it worked--the mix of genres kind of helped with the character development, actually.

The movie was over at 9:00, so we went back downtown and walked up and down Market Street for an hour before heading back to the parking garage so he could get his car. He gave me a ride back to my car, and then we went to our respective houses.

It'll be nice, having Ryan back in the same time zone again, since that means communication will be quicker.

When I got there, Mom and Jason were in bed, but everyone else was downstairs talking. Anna and Tim were talking to Dad about cutting costs on phone lines--Dad's going to look into VOIP (voice over internet protocol), which sounds like a good thing to have when everyone has their own personal cell phones. It also sounds a lot cheaper than a land-line, and is something the four of us kids would get when we have our own house. There could be issues with power outtages, but as long as everyone has cell phones, there isn't much of a problem there.

Turns out, Anna had forgotten to tell me and Tim that we'd been approved for the mortgage loan up to $130,000 with certain specifications, but we're not going to go for a house which will cost us more than $110,000, except in certain circumstances.

We're not going to pursue the house on Vienna Court either, even though it was really nice. The lack of a basement, or any other "growing out" space is a major minus. So, it's back to the house-hunting.

I bought a one-year subscription to Xbox Live Gold so that I could connect my NetFlix account to it. Then after the phone conversation was over (and shortly before Camille left--she'd been talking to Kayla in the dining room), activated the NetFlix on it. I didn't have anything in my instant queue yet, so I didn't watch anything though.

After that, I downloaded the trial version of Castle Crashers, and played as long as it would let me. I almost beat the first big boss before it stopped me, and I think my little character guy was up to level 5 or 6 by that time. Maybe I'll buy a couple thousand marketplace points tomorrow (gotta pay the bills and go grocery shopping first) and get the full version, or maybe not.

I came up here sometime around 12:45, but I wasn't sleepy, so I decided to do some NetFlix queueing. I put 19 things on my DVD queue, and 22 on my instant queue, starting with Medieval Lives, a series of eight episodes that I'd seen half of at the Haven, but didn't catch the rest of yet. Among the rest of my queues are Quantum Leap, Shark Week, Murder, She Wrote, and SeaQuest: DSV. I've got a few movies and such on there too, but the serieses take up most of the queue lists.

I think I might actually be sleepy now.

Not Much Going On

The past couple weeks have been pretty routine, with a couple exceptions.Gabe has the entire Discworld series by Terry Pratchett on audio, and let me copy them onto my iPod--or rather, let me copy the first three so far. I've been listening to them as I work, so I haven't caught all of the events in the books, but I've caught enough to be able to get the general gist of the plots. I'm in the middle of The Light Fantastic right now.

In order to catch everything, I went to the library on Saturday and borrowed The Color of Magic and The Light Fantastic in novel format. I just finished the first quarter of the first book last night. They didn't have Equal Rites at my local branch, and I didn't feel like going to Thurmont to get it either.

Also on Saturday, I picked up Jason's birthday present at the Haven. The original plan was for him to come with me, so that we could play Warhammer with his new Dragonmage of Caledor (that was the present). I'd bought the model a couple weeks ago, then did the gluing, the filling of the cracks with greenstuff, and the priming myself, but I needed someone else to paint it for me, since I'd never done any model painting before and didn't want it to be awful. Elliot painted it for me, and finished before Saturday. He did a good job, and Jason likes the dragon.

I got him the dragon, because he likes to play High Elves using the Haven's store army, and they don't have a dragon there for store use. So he'd have to proxy in a different model. Now, he doesn't have to.

I went house-hunting a week ago yesterday with Kayla, Anna and Tim. We didn't find any houses that we really liked--the ones we saw that weren't awful were only acceptable. For some reason, we'd only been looking in the Discovery development, so Anna told our realtor that it's okay to be looking in other places.

Yesterday, Anna, Kayla and I got all caught up on Dollhouse. There were seven episodes on the TiVo, and for some reason, it didn't record the March 20th episode, so we watched that one online, for a total of eight episodes in a single day. It was long, but the show is great.

Update

Well, it seems my luck in the Magic league has run out--I've been stuck at 3½ points for the last two weeks. Either I make a silly mistake in the last game of a match which makes me lose, or I just get a bad draw. It also doesn't help that I didn't play against a lot of people for most of the last couple weeks. But I'll do better this week--I hope.

I started working on a pair of scissors on the forge the Saturday after my last post. I was right about the hammer and gloves thing, plus the metal kept sliding out of the pliers I was using to hold it. But, with help from Gene and Andy (another Havenite), I got a good part of the way through the project. The unfinished scissors are even now sitting on my shelf in the Haven's back room.

I found last time that the weight of the hammer, plus the thickness of the handle, the vibrations from hitting the metal, and the extra bulk of the poorly-fit gloves made my hand cramp up extremely fast. I can't stop the vibrations, and may not be able to find a lighter hammer which will actually work, but I do have a plan to (hopefully) help with the other two problems. Before I do more work on the forge, I'm going to buy my own gloves (so that they'll fit), and a hammer. I will cut a portion of the handle off from around it, so that there's less to get my hand around when I'm swinging it.

I've missed my allergy shots the last couple times--last week, I simply forgot to take the exit onto 15-North before I passed it on my way home, and didn't feel like fighting through traffic to get back to the exit, much less to the allergist's office. Yesterday, I stayed home because of stomach issues, and had an appointment at my regular doctor's office at 4pm. I'll go next week though.

The mortgage loan approval process is slightly frustrating. We managed to get all of the information that the Wells Fargo people asked for together, and Anna faxed it to them. Only, it got faxed to a machine which was on the fritz, so they're missing pages. They figured out which pages it was, and Anna sent them along. Now, they're asking for paperwork that we're all pretty sure was already sent to them. I hope this process doesn't go on too much longer.

I can now officially say that I have seen every single episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender. The last "book" especially was totally awesome! The last (four-part) episode was mind boggling, and the perfect ending. I also bought the DVDs. I didn't know until I saw the listing on Amazon that Avatar had been nominated for an Emmy. It wasn't surprising though--the show rocks!

Exciting Prospects for Future Enjoyment and Employment

Turns out, I was right about my points in the Magic League--3½ as of Friday evening.

Saturday's forge safety class was cool. It's going to be difficult to handle the hammer with the gloves on (or even without), since it's a two-pound sledge I'll only be using one hand for, but I'll get used to it. And the work will not only be work, but it will be fun work, so I don't mind the heavy hammer.

I looked up some beginner forge projects online, and found a neat site called iForge. I printed out a few projects and put them in order of what I think their difficulty is. There were some that I knew I wouldn't be ready to do for a long while yet, but still want to do when I am ready, so I didn't print them out yet. Eventually, I want to be able to make at least simple locks, if not the more complex ones demonstrated at iForge as well.

Yesterday, I downloaded a program called DM Genie, which will help me to organize D&D 3.0 or 3.5 campaigns that I plan to write. I don't really like 4th edition D&D, so I won't be making any campaigns for it anytime soon, and didn't want to download any DM's tools for that edition.

The company also has a more limited version of the program called Player Genie, which is basically just a character generator/updater.

I've already started writing a campaign based on the one I played in a year ago at the Haven (my character was a human ranger named Laina). I just needed to get a few things from the Haven before I could go much further than the first encounter or two.

I'm taking my Haven bag home today (it's been sitting on my GM shelf at the Haven for months now), since I need some of the information in it to make my campaign.

This evening, I had to get my allergy shots and go grocery shopping, so I wasn't able to do any forge or campaign work just yet. I also had to get some charcoal at Home Depot before I could use the forge anyway, so I'd only have been able to work on the campaign (or play Magic, of course) if I went tonight.

Tomorrow's a different story though.

Interesting Quote and More

"Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind." - Albert
Einstein

I'm not going to discuss this quote here; I just thought it was a cool quote and decided to yoink it from Heather's LJ.

This morning, I was woken up by someone playing the piano--at 7:15 in the morning!--that's a very rude time to be playing the piano, especially since most of the rest of the household is still trying to sleep at that time (my dad just in the very next room from the piano, and Mom just down the hall on the same floor). There is also a keyboard in the house which is able to have headphones connected to it, so there is no excuse to be playing the actual piano so early. Not to mention, that was only 15 minutes until my alarm was going to go off, and being awakened by the piano did not translate into a good last 15 minutes of sleep--I'm a light sleeper nowadays.

The past week has been pretty normal. I joined the Magic: The Gathering league at the Haven, and I've been playing against everyone I could all week. So far, if I remember correctly, I won one "official" game, and three "unofficial" games.

The "official" games are against two other players chosen at random from the list. Winner gets two points, and a card is ante'd from each deck before the game starts. Whoever wins chooses to either keep both ante'd cards, or let the other person keep the card they ante'd.

The "unofficial" games also have ante'd cards, but winner only gets ½ of a point. I've either got 3 or 3½ points; I can't remember who all I won against for the half-point games, but I'm sure I won at least two, if not three.

I also purchased a Bretonnian Warhammer army from one of the guys at the Haven, and have played the game with them twice. The first time was a couple weeks ago, against Jason, who was playing high elves. We stopped that game at the end of the second turn, because we both really wanted to go home.

The second time was just last night, against a Havenite's dwarf army; it was an NPC game I was playing for the Warhammer Fantasy campaign going on at the Haven. I would've done better, if he hadn't gotten lucky with his guess-range canon in the very first turn and not only destroyed my trebuchet (causing the crew to flee off the board), but also causing my pegasus knights to flee off the board as well. Basically, the dwarves slaughtered the Bretonnians. It was fun though. And after that, I beat him in a Magic league game, though that was a close one.

Today is payday--yay!

Tomorrow, I'm going to take the forge safety class at the Haven, so that I can possibly upgrade my membership so that it's GM/crafting, instead of just GM and be allowed to use the forge whenever I want (if it's not already in use). That way, I can make metal stuff and sell it to get some extra money. Gene actually gave me the idea; when I asked what I would make to sell, he said something like, "All kinds of things," and then as an example mentioned door handles.

Wouldn't you know, I had an idea right then for a unique door handle design? I actually designed it with the door at the Haven in mind as a good place to put it. I'm not going to say what the design was here, but I may post a picture when/if I ever get one made.

I'm thinking that, if I do decide to do this side-business thing (Gene said he'd sell the stuff I make at the Haven, like he does for other crafting members), I'll not only make my own designs, but also take commissions for other designs. I'll have to ask Gene to help me decide on fair prices though, since I've never sold anything like that before.

Sandwich Run

Friday, nothing much happened that doesn't happen every week, except I decided to participate in the Magic: The Gathering League at the Haven.

Yesterday, I took Jason to the Haven and he watched the Living Forgotten Realms D&D game while I did some more Magic League stuff.

After we got back, I watched three episodes of Avatar: The Last Airbender, which I've NetFlix'd disc-by-disc. I was on the fourth disc. After the last of those three episodes, Tim was home, so Kayla, Anna, Tim and I all piled into Anna's car to make the 2½ hour trip to Johnstown, PA where Cashaw lives. Once there, we got into Cashaw's car, made the hour-long drive to Pittsburgh, picked up Cashaw's friend Dave, and then went to Primanti Brothers for sandwiches.

I had pastrami and cheese and a Coke with no ice. The sandwich was better than I remembered Primanti Brothers sandwiches being--but I think the fries on the two sandwiches I'd had before were stale. This time, everything was fresh, and warmed to perfection (except for the cole slaw, which would've been gross warm). I added hot sauce to my sandwich, and it was even better.

By the time we got back to Cashaw's, it was about 7:30 in the morning, so we crashed there for a couple hours. The three of us (Kayla's staying until Thursday to watch Cashaw's kids) woke up around 9:30 and headed home, since Tim had to be at work by noon.

We got home around 11:30, and I watched the fourth episode of Avatar on that disc before going to sleep until around 7:30 or 7:45 pm. I've been awake now for a little over two hours, and I'm going to have to go back to sleep around 12:30 or 1 at the latest, so that I'll be able to get enough sleep (without waking up way too early) for work tomorrow.

The Art of Culinary Forgetfulness

I packed a lunch yesterday with a sandwich, a soda and an apple, but did not eat the apple, so I put it in the mini-fridge at work overnight.

This morning, I packed a lunch to go with the apple, but forgot it on the kitchen counter, so I was left with only the apple. I decided to go to the Haven on my lunch break again, so I was able to get chips and a Yoohoo to go with the apple.

When I took the apple out of the mini-fridge, it was weird-looking--the skin of the apple had wrinkled up, and it was textured kind of like the tops of the folding tables at church. I thought nothing of it, except that that's probably what happens when an apple is refrigerated, allowed to come to room temperature, and then refrigerated again.

So, I got to the Haven, and bit into the apple--it was frozen! I'd put it on the shelf of the mini-fridge right next to the freezer portion, and I guess it was just too cold there. So, I had a couple bites of frozen apple, a bag of Lays potato chips, and a can of Yoohoo for lunch today.

Hopefully, I'll actually remember my lunch tomorrow--at least I won't have to pack it.

New Computer!

My new computer came yesterday, and when I got home from the Haven around 7:30-ish, Dad was working on Kayla's (he'd bought one each for me, Kayla and Jason). The computer is a Compaq Presario CQ60-211DX Notebook PC.

I brought it to work with me this morning so that I could put some stuff on it from my external hard drive (which I also brought to work) like my iTunes library and a shortcut to my journal file, and later while I'm at the Haven I'm going to get some programs online that I usually use--like Gmail Notifier and Firefox.

Dad also bought an XBox 360 and a Wii. The console we played Anna's Rock Band 2 on the other night was actually Dad's. Last night, we played Wii Sports, and Dad also bought Wii Fit.

What the huh?

Anna says I "have to" get a date for her wedding (something about screwing up seating arrangements at the head table or something).

Here are the problems with that pronouncement, in no particular order (except maybe my own head-logic):

• Most, if not all, of my current guy friends already have girlfriends. (If they don't, I don't know it; nor do I know how to find out if the ones whose girlfriends I don't already know or know about are single or not without seeming nosy. I refuse to ruin someone's relationship out of ignorance.)
• Even if they don't have girlfriends already, I haven't known any of them long enough to even consider dating them even just casually.
• I'm going to be meeting new people in my class this semester (which starts--belatedly--tomorrow, provided school doesn't get cancelled due to snow again), but the wedding is only two weeks away, and I won't have known anybody in that class nearly long enough to even consider them friends, much less as possible romantic partners.
• Asking someone to be a date to a wedding is a big deal, and in my opinion, should only be done between couples who have an established relationship. It's simply not a "casual date"-type event, and even if it were, I will never go on a blind date, no matter who is trying to set me up.
• Two weeks does not an established relationship make.
• Finally, and most importantly, all of these reasons add up to: I would not be comfortable so much as asking a guy to come to Anna's wedding as my date, and it's kind of presumptuous of Anna to try and dictate my love life all for the sake of filling a chair. Granted, it is her wedding, but even so, requiring that people bring dates, no matter their current relationship status, is going too far.

I shall now say no more on the matter. On to a different topic:

Last Monday, I had an appointment with the allergist (as opposed to just getting shots), and he gave me some Nasonex and an order for a limited sinus CT scan.

The Nasonex was to help with the stuffiness due to allergies. Even though I thought I had a cold as well, I think it might've just been extremely, severely severe allergic rhinitis, because I've actually been taking the Nasonex as directed every day for a week now, and early this morning, I found myself breathing through my nose as I drifted in and out of sleep!

Dr. M (the allergist) is out of the office this week, but I'll call him next week to get the results of the CT scan. He had me get it because I've had problems with my sense of smell for years now--in other words, I don't smell much of anything. The most common cause of a lack of smell (and by connection, a dulled sense of taste) is an inflamation of the sinuses in the forhead area pinching the olfactory nerve.

So, since I've had this problem for years, and he hasn't had much luck treating it so far, he told me to get the CT scan to make sure it really is a sinus infection, and not some other thing pinching the olfactory nerve.

Last Tuesday, my first class was cancelled due to snow. I was supposed to have Intro. to Business on Wednesday evenings, but that class got cut due to insufficient enrollment. I couldn't choose another section of the same class, since they all clashed with my work schedule, so my only choices were: a) don't go to school this semester, or b) choose a different 3-credit class that I can go to.

I looked in the course catalogue for all the subjects that seemed interesting and also had sections after 5:30 pm on weeknights (none of the courses I looked at had Saturday courses, I think, and I've never had school on Saturdays before so I'm not intending to start now), and came up with an English course and an Art course that looked promising.

The English course (or at least the section I was looking at) was full, but I was lucky enough to get the last seat in the Art class (Drawing I). It meets Tuesday nights from 6-10pm. Sadly, that means that I won't be able to play in the Paranoia game that Matt from the Haven was planning to start, but c'est la vie.

You win some, you lose some, I guess.

I think I have a new show. Yesterday, I hung out in Mom's room for hours, and she was watching The Closer. The 4-6 episodes I saw (they were having a marathon) were pretty good, and I like the characters and stories so far--even though Kyra Sedgewick always looks like she's going to cry for some reason. Maybe once I finish watching my MacGyver DVDs (and have some extra money) I'll get caught up on the series or something.

I have a plan to save money faster so I can get a new computer. I'm going to stop buying lunch at Beans & Bagels (except for on payday, to treat myself) and pack all my lunches from now on.

In order to do this, I have to make sure that there is always bread, lunch meat/cheese, other stuff to put in my lunches, and cereal and milk for breakfast in the house. So I bought myself a mini-fridge from Sears (it's going to be delivered sometime this week) and a bunch of storage drawers from Wal-Mart (also to be delivered this week) so that I can keep my own food and drinks in them.

I have a box I'm going to keep apples, oranges or other whole fruits (not grapes, cherries or strawberries--those are strictly fridge-bound) in, plus a set of plastic drawers for bread, bagels and lunch-size chip bags, and a crate-like-thing for cereal boxes. My new fridge has a place for soda cans to dispense vertically out the bottom, which I think is pretty darn cool. I would've gotten the 6 cu. ft. model, but that was way too expensive.

I don't have any money to put anything in it yet, so I'll just have to set it all up and wait to get paid again. I don't think I'd get a tax return before my next paycheck, even if I filed them today, so I won't hope for that to come first.