My She-Ra dvd set has shipped! Only hours separate me and my favorite childhood heroine!
YIIIIPPPPPIIIIIIEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm being made into an honest woman. Yes, kids, I'm getting married.
Here's how it went down:

We had made plans to go up to this mountain lodge in NC called Tapoco Lodge. He's been there a couple of times and really likes to get up there to get away from everything. So we'd made plans to go up there for Memorial Weekend. I didn't even think to suspect that he was going to do it b/c he had made this whole speech about being able to go on a trip without me expecting that a proposal was going to happen and then being disappointed when it didn't. Anyway, we left Friday morning and got there around 4:30. We checked in and took our stuff to our cabin and got settled. Dinner started around 5 and he
suggested that we walk around to see some of the grounds and then we could make our way to dinner. So we walked around and then we came to these nature trails, and he wanted to go on one of them, and I said that I didn't want to b/c I only had flip-flops on. But he said that we wouldn't go very far and I finally said ok. So we walk a little ways up and we come to this little bridge that was marked as an overlook of the lodge. He said that this was a good spot and I looked around and said yeah, it's pretty, and I turned to head back down the hill. He grabbed my hand, and when I turned back around he was down on one knee. And of course, I thought he was just being silly b/c I said, what are you doing? That's not funny. Get up and let's go get dinner. Then he pulled the ring out, and then I said, oh my god you're serious. And then he proposed!
And no, I didn't cry, I was too busy staring at the bling bling.
There was also a party waiting for me on Sunday when we got back home.

So now the REAL fun begins!

i finally saw walk the line. and i'm in total obsession mode over it. the day after i got back, i went and bought the movie and the soundtrack, and then downloaded the original versions of the songs that weren't included on the soundtrack. i have totally fallen in love with joaquin phoenix as johnny cash. he and reese witherspoon had such a great chemistry together, i had to constantly remind myself that it was just a movie, and that they are just actors playing characters. i can somewhat imagine how hard it must be for actors' significant others to watch their spouse have such a strong romantic chemistry with someone other than themselves. anywho, yes so johnny cash joaquin phoenix is just yummy!

in other news, my trip was FANTASTIC! it was just what the doctor ordered. i got to touch a tree that orlando bloom touched! i ate tons of food and still managed to lose about 5 pounds. and luckily, the schools were on spring break this week, so it's been relatively quiet, and i get friday off as well. going out there was very smooth, the plane rides were wonderful. caught up on a bunch of movies that i had wanted to see. coming back was a little more stressful. almost missed my connection from l.a. to home, b/c my previous flight was an hour and a half late. other than that, tons of pictures were taken, if you want to see, just let me know and i'll send you the link.

friends don't let friend write papers while drinking guiness (sp?)

well, work is totally kicking my butt. accountants aren't the only ones with a busy season. i find myself desperately wishing that i could work overtime. but that is not the case. they don't want to pay me overtime, but they expect me to get the same amount of work done. so that means skipping lunch and skipping it quite often. at this point, i don't even care about the extra money. i just want to get all that shit off my desk. in the not so busy part of the year, i struggle to keep busy all day long. but now, i'm shoving in 4 days worth of non busy season days into one. and usually my mother isn't one to make comments about my appearance for fear that i will develop some type of complex and blame her for whatever explosive mid-life crisis that may result. but she's been starting to mention that i look exhausted every morning. yeap, that would be a big fat hell yeah i'm exhausted. i'd be less exhausted if i could work 12 hour days and take my time instead of having to work at break neck speeds for 9 hours straight.

at least 24 has been totally awesome this season. well, it's totally awesome every season, but there's just something different about this season that makes it seem that much better than previous seasons.

ring progress has been made. "the one" has been chosen, and i am now forbidden from looking at anymore.

and holy cripes, what's with all the dying lately? the first big 3: al lewis, coretta scott king, and chris penn. the next 3: don knotts, dennis weaver, and darrin mcgavin. and now kirby puckett, dana reeves, and the third is yet to be determined. it's kinda creepy how these things really do seem to work in three's.

sorry for the lack of updates. i really don't have any other excuse other than just sheer laziness. does anyone still read me?
i've been sent back to my undergraduate days. i'm sacrificing my friday night in order to finish my paper so that i can play all weekend and most of next week due to it being my birthday on monday. funny, i seem to be celebrating on just about every other day than the actual day. and this is really the first birthday where i'm not into just getting sloppy drunk and wanting to have a big party. just take me out and buy me dinner, that's really the best present anyone could give me. but i digress. so yes, as much as i'd like to believe that i am that academically inclined as to write a paper for personal enhancement, not so much in my case. i just started back to school, and it's definitely keeping me busy. i'm actually forced not to procrastinate b/c it's not as easy to schedule a whole day to devote to one assignment. a lot of group work is required. which surprised me. it's almost a pain in the ass. half of us live in CST and the other the half in EST. makes it real hard to coordinate getting together. lots of e-mails.
so work is super busy. 3000 letters went out to applicants to let them know that their file was incomplete and if they want an appt. for the job fair, they need to get it done. well guess who they get to call to find out what they're missing. yup, me. and my direct line is posted in bold numbers for everyone and their mother to call. and have they been calling. i have 30 second conversations, and i've got 4 voicemails. by the time i clear those out, i've got 4 more. neverending. luckily the job fair is around the corner. there's going to be an opportunity for me to apply for a position within the department that i want to move into. that's the big sucky thing about government jobs, you can't just be moved into a different position, it has to be posted, you have to apply, be chosen for an interview and then go through that whole process again. they should let people who already there make transitional changes and then post whatever vacancy is left. this position would not be a promotion, just a shift to a different department. same pay scale. no sense. but whatever. we'll see what happens.
well i'm tired. and if you really want to know, you can ask.

Guess who beat the crowds and went to a midnight viewing of harry potter and the goblet of fire! ME! I will say that it is the best one so far. The new director did a fantabulous job. Go see it!

Haha, oh my god. I just went through and read some of my old journals from high school. The ones that I actually wrote by hand. I was the BIGGEST dork, ever! I was actually cringing in pain at the crap that I thought was so traumatic at that point in my life. But it was fun times to actually realize that I have matured....somewhat..
If you've saved any type of written journals from way back when, go back and read them, it's a guaranteed night of entertainment....it's free too!

so first things first.


filled up for 2.93..premium. that alone just about made my week! but enough about gas.

the bf and i had our anniversary this week. 5 whole years. it's hard to believe that we've been together this long and been through everything and still manage to like each other just a little bit. he pointed out that our relationship has lasted longer than a lot of marriages do. that's a scary thought. we're going to celebrate this weekend since he was out of town on the actual day. anywho, it should be a fun filled day. he had actually sent me flowers the previous week b/c i had been feeling a little down, so i told him that was even better than getting flowers on an anniversary. but he's taking me shopping and feeding me. doesn't get much better than that.
sunday will be a really fun day b/c we're going "church shopping". but more on that later.

job is going well. it's a little slow, but other areas are totally slammed so i am not lacking for work whatsoever. my grad school application deadline is tomorrow, and i sent off my personal statement and other essential documents last saturday, and those arrived on the following monday. so hopefully next semester i'll have a little more to occupy my time. if i haven't mentioned it before, i'm applying to the university of illinoi-urbana in their global human resourse development masters' program. obviously it is an online program as i am not moving to illionis. from research i've seen, it's a really great program. it's nationally ranked, like 6th nationally ranked. although it really bugs me when i feel like i have to defend the fact that it's an online program. which is starting to happen more often than not. they assume that b/c it's an online program, it's not as respectable as actually sitting in a classroom. which i don't get at all. with this program, i still participate with my cohort, and i still have to do all the required coursework as if i was there in illinois. so what if i'm not sitting on my duff in a classroom falling asleep? this way, i make my own hours, i do the work wheni make the time to do the work. i'm not dictated by a classroom schedule. and the last time i checked, a masters is a masters anywhere i go. with this program, i'll end up with an Ed.M. and no one would even know that i had earned it through an online program. and when those people are still doubting my program, and i'll be out on the town celebrating my big ass raise that i'll be getting. so that's my rant about that.

now back to the "church shopping". my bf and i have been unofficially engaged for quite some time now. it's really just a matter of formality (ie ring) to make things really official. anywho, we've just been chit-chatting about possible dates and such. we're really big on planning for the future. anyway, seeing as how we've been dating for 5 years, we decided that we really wanted to keep it on that day as to avoid confusion and forgetfulness. luckily, oct 13 happens to fall on a saturday in 2007. so while conversing one night, and i forget how we got on the subject, i said something having a church available to us on that day before we decide that we are going to do it that day. and he replies with, "you're right, we should go ahead and book a church." well i just laughed b/c i thought he was totally not being serious. and he replied with that he was being totally serious, b/c from what he's heard from all his coworkers that have been planning weddings, churches, especially pretty catholic cathedrals fill up really really fast. so as it turns out, we're going church-shopping on sunday and will work as fast as we can to get our date.
this also brings me to another rant. i guess people in general have just been bothering me with their negativity lately. so more people than i'd like, and most i'd like to think of as friends, have responded with "don't you need a ring first" when i told them of my weekend plans. wtf? now if i had been dating this guy for less than a year and the subject of marriage was totally off the mark, then i'd more than expect that line of questioning as an appropriate response. but when we've been dating for 5 years, and we're committed to the fact that we are getting married, then why not prepare as much as we can to ensure that we get what we want? and if that means getting the church before i have my ring. then so be it. plenty of other people have gotten married without rings. so i'm going to plan as much as i can without my ring. naysayers be damned.

sometimes you just want to want to look at someone and ask them "what's wrong with you?" sometimes humansjust annoy the hell outta me.

any atlanta driver who had more than half a tank in their car and still filled up anyway:

i salute you with the stupid fucking moron sheep award!

thanks to you, not only did it take me an hour to get anywhere close to my house (my commute should take me 10 minutes)b/c every intersection with a gas station was turned into a great big clusterfuck b/c of fucktards like you, but you just succeeded in making the problem worse than it had to be! oh no! let's believe everything we read on the internet! in that case, i'd like to send you an email about a bridge that is for sale, and that you must forward to 50 of your closest friends in 13 minutes or else you'll miss out on the crapplebee's giftcard that will magically appear in the mail. you are everything that is wrong with the human race and the biggest piece of shit EVER!

well finally, today i actually looked at my own journal and saw that the last time i updated was in april. even the bf has updated his more this summer than me, and that's just sad when he's updated more than me. but i still have him beat! he can still fit 2 years' worth of entries onto one page with room to spare!
let's see if i can recap what's been going on without boring everyone to death! well summer was pretty uneventful, i ended up having to "play house" with the bf b/c he was suddenly scheduled to travel for work when he wasn't expecting to, and with his brother across the world in geneva and his other roommate gone back to his home in tx, he had no one to watch his dog. so i stepped up and agreed to live in his house, watch his dog, and make sure that no one robbed his house. it was a nice glimpse into the future, and we both came out still wanting to stay in each other's company, so it wasn't ALL that bad.
things at work are moving along swimmingly. we're currently transitioning into different positions, so that's taking some adjustment time. thank god that school has started and the 40 phone calls i had been getting have dwindled down to about 15 per day. i had my first evaluation and apparently it was excellent b/c they let me keep coming back. and i also had a chance to express my desire to eventually move into a more recruitment role. my supervisor is great like that, she keeps stressing that it's her job as my supervisor to prepare for whatever leadership role that i may take on in my career, whether it be there or elsewhere. which is really cool.
time seems to be moving so fast and so slow at the same time. makes no sense right? but it just seems that the days are flying by really quickly just b/c things at work have been slammed, but while the days seem to fly by, it feels like the months are just crawling by. it's barely the middle of august and it feels like that it's been august for about 4 months now. i guess i'm just ready for fall weather and such. fall and winter usually go by pretty fast for me, just b/c of the holidays and the generous amount of time that i get off with my work. anywho, i want it to be next summer. sounds very contradictory, but next summer has a very special purpose, and i can't wait!
and next march, my cousin will be getting married...in NEW ZEALAND...and i get to go for free! my parents were going to take my brother and me to hong kong for the holidays for the annual unofficial family reunion, but then my cousin announced her engagement and that the locale and date would be what they are, and we decided as a family that we'd much rather go to new zealand for a family wedding than to hong kong where probably half of the family will back out and that we've been to several times already. so since the parents were going to pay for hong kong, that all transferred over to new zealand. and if you've never been to new zealand, it's probably one of the most beautiful countries on the face of this earth. i went a long time ago, so i really didn't get to appreciate it, but now i get to go AND celebrate a wedding at the same time! woo hoo! so no more using vacation days for me!
let's see what else...oh yes reel big fish came into town july and of course the show was totally amazing. i think it's the best concert that i've ever been to. it wasn't that crowded b/c most of atlanta had decided to bitch out and go to the free weezer concert in the rain. unfortunately katieeb1 decided to break the cardinal rule of sisterhood and passed on the concert to hang out with her man. but fortunately, all was not lost b/c my good friend amanda, whom i've turned onto them went with me, and a wonderful time was had.
my brother's birthday is this weekend. it's going to be an all out drinking grudge match. he keeps egging me on, and far be it from me to let him believe that i am not the drinker that i once was. i am totally out of practice. my last blaze of glory is what i lovingly refer to as the night of 3 red bull and vodkas and 7 (that i remember) amaretto sours. i still don't know everything that happened that night. haha. probably b/c i wouldn't want to know anyways.
well that's all for now. tired of typing and thinking of what to write.

i figured it was time for an update. i didn't realize that so much time had passed since my last post. time sure is flying by. i can't believe that it's been almost 3 months since i last wrote. anyway, i don't have anything earth-shattering to update, just figured i'd let everyone know that i'm alive.
the new car is still amazing. i love driving it, even with the soaring gas prices!
the job is going well, i've been going back and forth between when exactly i want to go back to school. a lady that i worked with told me about the school that she got her masters' at, and they have distance/online learning programs, and it's still a pretty reputable school, as in it's not Phoenix University Online. It is a fully accreditated program, and hell, if i can do online learning instead of having to sit in a classroom after work for 4 hours, then i'm all for it. but still ga state is still calling my name. i'll probably apply to both programs, and whoever accepts me is probably where i'll go, unless by the grace from above i get into both programs, it'll come down to numbers.
this winter i will get to travel abroad again! my parents have graciously offered to fund the air fare to hong kong for the annual family reunion. my brother and i will split the cost of a hotel room, which will come to about 300 for my share. not so bad for another stamp in my passport! we'll be leaving the 25th, arriving the 26th, and leaving on the 1st. i'm a little sad that i won't be able to spend new year's eve with the bf, but what are ya going to do? he was invited to come along, but i think he has to work. i'll probably have to take a couple of days after i get home to recover from the jet lag and such. but i am excited!
things in the relationship dept are going very well. the bf has actually been assigned to an in-town client, so on the good side, he doesn't have to travel every week. on the bad side, his manager is a serious workaholic, so he'll be working very late for the next few weeks. we've been having the serious talks that couples have when they've been together for a very long time. and we've even gone to do some shopping. which at the time was very fun and exciting, but now it's seriously made me go into crazy psycho mode, and i don't like it too much. i totally don't want him to feel pressured, and such, but it's so much fun to talk about and plan for the future. ok well enough of that girly stuff.
well i spose that's enough for now. laters!

MY toy:

MINI!

HIS toy:

Mustang!

well happy birthday and happy valentine's day to myself! just when i thought that i would have to cut off my left arm to get tickets, life handed me some sugar! way back when atlanta ballet announced its productions for the '04-'05 season, i totally lost my butter when i saw that they were going to do swan lake, snow white, and cinderella. now i started pondering becoming a season ticket holder cause i knew that i'd want to see all of these, but i never went through with it, cause i never really had definite partner to go with, as my guy will be travelling heavily through the months that these productions are being put on, and i didn't want to call up my friends and be like, well i have a ticket, but i may not need you to go, that's not fair or very nice, so i didn't get the season tickets. however, i was determined, no matter what, to get to swan lake. swan lake is any professional ballerina's mount everest. mainly b/c the prima ballerina has to play dual roles in the production which ends up with piece de resistance (sorry for the lack of accents) of 32 fouette turns....en pointe. it's simply amazing and fantastic and just wonderful. so anyway, me being the snob that i am, refuse to see any ballet at the fox without sitting in the loge section. the best section in the house. also, the most expensive. so basically, two tickets for a saturday evening performace was probably going to cost me about 150 bucks when it's all said and done. BUT, yesterday i got an email from the atlanta ballet offering a special discount of 50%!!!! off certain days, and a saturday evening show was included, so i went ahead and ordered them. 2 tickets for the price of 1!! i am so freakin excited, you have no idea. next to sleeping beauty, swan lake is my favorite of the classics. and what's even better is that i don't have to beg and plead with the bf to get him to go. i guess he figures that with all the football i put up with, going to one performance wouldn't kill him. but he's always been pretty open to cultural things like that, so i guess i'm pretty lucky there :)

well onto birthday present number 2! my new car. i've pretty much got all the finances worked out. the credit union through my work has offered me an amazing percentage rate on a loan. when i go to the dealer, i'm going to see if they can match it, just to make things easier if i can finance through them. so anyway, i plan to test drive this weekend, and then if i like it as much as i think i'm going to love it, then i will be ready to order the following weekend, and then come april or so, i shall be scootin around town in a brand new mini!! i'm so excited,this will single handedly be the biggest and most important purchase that i've made. EVER.
so yes, a very exciting couple of months coming up!

not too much planned for this weekend. i plan to take tomorrow night off. well it's not by choice really. mainly laziness and the fact that unless i plan for friday on monday, it's hard to get together with people. we all live such crazy scheduled lives, i hate that we can't just call each other up on a whim and go out and have some fun. ah well, then saturday i'll get up and hike out to the mini dealer, test drive, and then head up to greenville to see my man. spend the night there, have breakfast and then head back, and then the nastiness that is known as the work week starts again.

on a more serious note, today marks the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the death camp Auschwitz. the events of the holocaust has always been a period in history that has fascinated and frightened me every time i think about it. when i was in middle and high school, i researched, onto the verge of unhealthy obsession, on this topic. i even made my family visit the holocaust museum in washington, d.c when we took a family vacation up there. i really can't say what it is about that specific event in world history that has just got this hold on me, maybe i was there in a previous life or something. let me just say this, history can and will repeat itself, if we do not learn from the mistakes of the past. geez, that sounded really cheesy and overly dramatic, but this subject tends to do that to me, and it's usually things like this, that turn me to into a blubbering fool. i have a hard time really conveying what my message is. i mean how do you say, gee, i'm really sorry that it happened, and i don't want it to happen ever again, without trivializing it or becoming so dramatic that my sincerity is doubted? ok, stepping off my soap box.

alrighty, i spose that's enough. have a good weekend everyone! hopefully this crazy weather will stabilize soon! at this point, i really don't care what it does, as long as it's consistent

well i spose it's that time again.
first and foremost, a very late happy new year to everyone out there that i know and love. i hope that 2005 is wonderful to everyone.
now with that said, i can move on to much more important things.

i had thought about doing a year-in-review, much like the one that radioacc had done, but that was way too much effort than i was willing to put out. if you're really interested in what transpired over the last year of my life, you can go through my calendar.

christmas was good. my brother came home. per annual tradition, my mother, brother,and i attended the atlanta ballet's nutcracker at the fox theater. opened presents and got lots of goodies. fulfilled another annual tradition of christmas breakfast at waho. spent the rest of the day watching the lord of the rings: the return of the king, the extended version. had christmas dinner in fondue fashion. it was good. a TON of food. spent the day after recovering, and saw phantom of the opera which was incredible. i'm trying to drag katieeb1 to see it, so i'll be able to see it again. then on the following monday, promptly boarded a delta plane that took me into tampa international to see amber!! spent a great 3 days with her, tooling around in her awesome mini. she and my brother have now inspired me to get my own. more on this later.

came back in time for new years, but i was a party pooper and only wanted to go out for dinner and stay with the bf's roommates for midnight. i was still out of sorts from travelling and the thought of going to 3 parties and then back up to norcross for midnight was just a little daunting for me. i did NOT get trashed like i did last year. i did that at the PWC christmas party. which if i haven't mentioned already, a ton of fun.
then it was time to go back to work :( , it was tough, but who could complain after getting almost 2 weeks off for the holiday?

ok, so my goal this year. ok one of my goals this year, is a particularly selfish one. ok well, all my goals are particularly self-involved, but most them serve to make me a better person. well not this one. this one serves to make me look damn good behind the wheel. haha, how corny. anyway, i've decided, after amber had shown me the error of my ways, to purchas a mini cooper s. SUPER CHARGE WOO HOO! anyway, they're super cute and super cheap. i can get the s model, in automatic, with the packages i want, with the navigation system for about 25. not too shabby. all the small suv's that i'd been looking START at base price around that. this past saturday, i dragged my bf out to the mini dealer just to get a look at some that they had on the lot, and i introduced myself to the lady that handled my brother's car, and i will be emailing her shortly to get the ball rolling. but first i have to take care of a few things with my current car..like fix the damage that the bastards over at kauffman tire caused to my hood. IF YOU'VE EVER CARED ABOUT ME A SINGLE OUNCE IN YOUR LIFE, NEVER TAKE YOUR CAR TO KAUFFMAN TIRES AGAIN! OR IF YOU DO, MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A PICTURE OF YOUR CAR IN THE CONDITION THAT IT WENT IT, AND THEN DON'T LEAVE UNTIL YOU'VE INSPECTED IT TO MAKE SURE THAT YOU'RE GETTING IT BACK IN THE SAME CONDITION. yeah i'm just a little bitter. anyway, so red mini, here i come!

work is going well, it got really slow at the end of the year, but it's picking up now, and i'm starting to get back to the pace that it was when i first started. it's a lot of paper chasing and answering stupid phone calls, but every once in a while, you see someone get hired that you helped in that process, and it's a nice feeling.

love dept is going well, although, his job will be keeping him busier than before, he'll be having to work a lot of saturdays, and he won't be getting back from out of town until friday nights, so that's going to be interesting. hopefully, after his busy season, we'll be able to go on the cruise we've been planning for a while now. and hopefully, our friends will be able to come too!

oh and the premier(s) of 24 are finally on, and this season looks to be a lot more interesting than last season. if anyone watches it, does chloe bother anyone else as much as she bothers me? she's always so unpleasant and miss know-it-all. and i have a sinking feeling that the debbie character is a sort of replacement for the whiny-let me fuck up every which way i can kim character.

ok well i guess that's enough for now. up next...MY BIRTHDAY!!!

well the year is coming to a close, and i don't think that i will ever forget that past month as long as i live. it was certainly not the way i or anybody else would have chosen to start the holiday season and end the year. when something like that happens, no matter how many degrees you are separated from the person, you are still affected. the whole thing just consumes your mind and emotions until you find someway to bring closure to it. for me, that closure was me going to my first funeral ever in my entire life. it was a very eerie feeling, and in some ways it had a very "the big chill" feel to it, except we didn't get to romanticize terrible tragedy that had occured, and the people that i spent most of my high school years with were not dancing around a kitching to "ain't to proud to beg". but it did in some twisted sense serve as a mini reunion for a bunch of us. it was an experience that i hope to hell that i will never have to go through for a long long time. for as much closure as it did bring, the thought of death is still looming about me, and the weight of the whole thing still has not gone away. i still believe very much that at the next outting that the "gang" is at, she will be there. i keep expecting to hear about the latest weekly drama she managed to entangle herself in. but if anything this whole thing has definitely made me realize just how petty people in general can be. when you think you've got it bad, think about someone who truly believes that they are utterly alone everyday and there is no coming back from whatever ghosts haunt them, and that the only way to make it stop, is to make their life stop. if anything good can come from death, it's the fact that it will make you think. think about who you are and if the things that you think are important are really important. i've really thought a lot and written a lot, although not for the public to see, and it's just drained me. and the funny thing is, i am quite removed from the situation, yet i am amazed at the depth that this whole thing has affected me. i would not wish this kind of extreme emotional roller coaster on anyone.

ok well enough about that, onto cheerier things.

since the holiday season has begun, so has the round of christmas parties, my bf's company's parties in particular. we've already been to one, and that didn't roll over so well. the night started out fine, and then i got extremely tired b/c i didn't get to rest b/t work and the party, and i only had one martini, which will increase my sleepiness/grumpiness ten fold. it didn't help that the person that i was trying to talk to at the dinner table had the personality of a wet mop. but this upcoming party, should be a lot more fun. i get to dress up really nice, formal gown nice, and stay in a nice hotel, grand hyatt in buckhead nice hotel. unlimited free food and unlimited free booze. can't beat that at all.

only a couple of more weeks until winter vacation starts, and finally the biggest perk of working for the gwinnett county school system will pay off: vacation starts dec 22 and ends jan 3. i've got all my presents planned, except for one. the one person that should be the easiest to shop for is turning into my christmas shopping mount everest. i've outdone myself each year that we've been together, that i've just outdown myself, and i have nowhere to go without selling my kidneys. it doesn't help that i refuse to step inside a mall to do any of my shopping. i'm determined to do it all online. the one friend that i have that enjoys shopping during any season of the year is out in the middle of nowhere so i'm left with nothing. so internet it is. then after christmas, a much needed trip to tampa to see amber! yay!

things are going decent in the love department. it's hard when he's gone 5 days out of the week, and i have to play tug of war with football season for his attention. but football season is soon over, and he promised that this saturday was my whole day to do whatever i wanted to do! i like those days! :)

Tonight, I met my cooking idol. Rachael Ray of 30 Minute Meal Fame.

I got a personalized copy of her newest book, and a nice pic. See for yourself:

I guess it's that time again.

Let's see, work is going very well. I like what I do. It's very independent, but within in a team, so there's always someone to help me if I need it. The holidays are extremely generous! My winter holiday starts on Dec. 22 and I don't go back until Jan. 3! It's incredible. 12 vacation days, 3 personal days, and sick time of course. The pay is quite nice, I'm making more than at my last job, and I'll be getting a raise in July, so that's also good. And unlike my other job, I'm busy ALL day long, it's a good feeling.

And since I have so much winter holiday time, I've just booked a trip down to Tampa to see my friend Amber. Good times, good times! Europe will have to wait for awhile. I've got friends to see.

I'm itching to get a new car now. But it will have to wait, as I have to fix the car that I have now and see what's going to happen with the school situation.

I'm about ready for all this election hoopla to be over. I don't mind voting, and I do believe that it is one of the most important rights that any citizen can and should exercise every opportunity they get. But this election has just been a circus. I know who I'm voting for, but really this is like choosing between the lesser of two evils. As of now, I just see the election as something to get me out of work for a couple of hours. And that to me is sad. Anywho, I will encourage people to truly research their candidate before they go to the polls, so that when asked who they voted for, they can give an intelligent answer. Although it always amuses me that when asked why people hate Bush so much, they'll usually give some answer pertaining to the war, taxes, or gay marriage, or the no child left behind act, and I'm like Hello! Kerry voted in favor for all those things, probably before he voted against them! I try not to get into a political argument with people, but geez, do your hw. Now I may not like Bush, but at least I know where he stands on the issues. With Kerry, you never know. Ok, off my political soap box.

On a much much lighter note, I just got the new Leisure Suit Larry game. It's definitely interesting! A lot different from the other Larry games, but so far it's been pretty decent.

Ok well that's enough for now. I had a lot to say, especially after all the shit that went down with my last post, but I figure it's better just to let it go. The whole thing was totally moronic and unnecessary. If you really want to know then just scroll down and see for yourself.

Until next time!

1. I am no longer unemployed. I will no longer be filling my days with naps and endless hours chatting on the internet and posting to totally useless message boards. Damn. I found a job with Gwinnett County Public Schools, in the Human Resources Department. Apparently the job entitles handling the classified applications that come through and I remember the boss lady saying something about fingerprints, but anywho, the point is, I am now gainfully employed. Upon hearing this bit of news, I promptly headed to the mall and probably kept several shops in business for at least a couple of more weeks. I went a little overboard, and will be make several returns. Apparently, 450 people sent in their resumes for the position and out of those 450, 16 were chosen for a first interview, and then the top candidates from that bunch was brought back in for a second interview, so needless to say, someone was smiling down upon me on those interviews because I came out of them feeling like I had just rambled my way through the meeting not making one bit of sense. But all's well that end's well. I start Monday. I feel like I'm going back to school after a summer vacation. I'm just glad to be doing something useful with my time. And I feel accomplished because I got this job all on my own, without my dad's help. So that's always a nice boost for the ego.

2. As most of you know, I like reading people's away messages. I may not have talked to the person for months and months, but I will still take the time to read an away message. Some people can get really creative with them, and it will make me laugh, others will make me glad that I no longer associate with certain people. And it has recently come to my attention how stupid people are when they air their dirty laundry through their away messages. And don't get me wrong, in my younger and carefree days, I used to do it as well. But I've realized just how passive-aggressive that it can be, and how it doesn't accomplish anything except to piss the other person off even more. It's like they expect the person to read the away message and be so hurt by it. "OH NO! Not the away message! I'm done for now!" Are you kidding me? To me, people who do this just want attention, they want someone to message them and say, what's wrong. And quite honestly, that's just plain stupid. My all time favorites have been the ones that try to convey how after a certain situation, people now know who their real friends are and all the others can go to hell. I really don't know why this subject matter has me all riled up, but it just does.

oh my holy jesus!
take a gander at this!

incredible!

and the guy ate it in 2..yes 2 days!

in other news, i'm off to knoxville to cheer on the vols for their homecoming on saturday night! should be a fun time, another couple friend of ours is coming up too.