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May 19 - Sunday It's been awhile... I decided to reformat my hard drive so I've been out of commission for this week. I couldn't stand thinking about all the junk that was on there, thousands of little things I don't know about, ick! So I just deleted everything and it's all good now. I burned my music and pictures onto cds so nothing important was lost. Now it's more speeedee than ever! Whoopee! Well... off to church! May 13 - Monday Ahhh my mommie! Mom and Don came to visit yesterday. They leave on Tuesday. Joel was kind enough to pick them up from the train station yesterday morn at 11am. Then we went back to my apartment to kind of settle in. We took the bus to Shedd Aquarium and saw the dolphin and whale show, it was awesome! Then we went back to my place and I cooked my mom a mother's day meal while we watched King of the Hill in true Missouri fashion. Then we headed out to their motel and crashed. I still have to work today and tomorrow which sucks, but I wrote down instructions for them to check out the John Hancock building and Michigan Avenue. I'm sure they'll do fine. I'm gonna leave a bit early (I came in early) and meet back with them at 2:30. Not sure what we'll do then.... but hopefully at 7 we can meet up with Joel for dinner. So yeah... that's about all. Oh! The CTA bus I was on almost got into an accident. This truck cut him off and barely missed him and the driver had to slam on the breaks. 4 tons trying to come to a stop? Everyone flew forward and several people fell on the floor. Only two were hurt. I felt fine, but then that night I woke up and couldn't move my neck! I was freaked out, but I prayed and fell back asleep. It still hurts a little but atleast I can go about my day. I was so scared I was about to call the ambulance, but I knew God would heal it and all would be fine. :) hmmm what else? oh, so my fish. I've asked around concerning who the russian guy is with the big birthmark on his forehead. Everyone agrees that it's Boris Yeltsin (sp?). This is not the case. So after calling my fish Boris for a few days, I find that it is in fact MIKHAIL GORBECHEV who has the mark. Well now. Seeing as I can't have a fish named after the wrong guy, I must rename him. So the effect is the same, if not better. So what do you think I should call him now? Gorby? Chevy? Hey Mickey you're so fine you're so fine you blow my mind, hey Mickey! Or Mik? Or Bech? Or Hail? Gimme some feedback. Go sign the new guestbook and a spot for my fish's name will appear. To dissuade anyone taking this question fool heartedly, it will be multiple choice. Then if you have other ideas than the given choices, you can put them in the message box provided under the "what do you have to say?" section. :) Later May 9 - Thursday I got a sish! Yes, I bought myself a fishy. I looked at the goldfish but they looked super sickly. So I thought to myself.. hmm... don't buy anything in the tanks... so I bought a betta since they were in the little cups on the shelves. He's like a pearl color with blue eyes and he's quite fiesty. He's got this big black mark on his forehead so I named him Boris. See if you can guess the reasoning. Well I'm sick lately. I feel so yucky it's unbelievable. So pray for me to get better please! :) I changed the guestbook questions so check that out. I signed it too, but I guess I pressed enter twice so it posted twice. Imagine that. I'm a dweeb. Love ya'll. May 7 - Tuesday Hey NickelNOo! What are you doing up so late! You should be in bed! Coming to my page at one in the morning... you live reckless. I must be getting old. If I stay up past eleven my whole body is out of commission for a week. Sure nuff. Yeah so get some sleep my Nicholobe Light! :) Joel and I went to the beach and he flew his kite. I took some good pictures that should be posted up here soon for you all to see. What else? I went to a soup kitchen last night that was awesome. It was at a Roman Catholic church and we served over 150 homeless people. We took about ten of the highschool kids with us and they were all so impressive. They were eager to work, and did so with care. They were all so professional and compassionate. It was really inspiring to see such young kids putting forth such a caring effort. Really cool. I'm gonna go eat now! My stomach is calling... May 4 - Saturday When does the warmth come? So Chicago is still cold. And Windy. Can you believe this? Dave came up for a visit. We took in a bit of "A Mid Summer Night's Dream" at Moody and then went to eat at 3rd Coast which was good and we all had a good time. Fun. Yes. Can you tell I'm typing this in the morning? heh heh I'm eating Honey Nut Cheerios. Mmmmm the goodness. :) Must go now. Brain cannot compute. May 3 - Friday Why are my eyelids so heavy? I've been so unbelievably tired lately... my body is in agony. Good thing though, I got my food stamps yesterday and I went crazy at the grocery store, time to eat good again! And then today is pay day. So all I'm going to do is sleep and buy stuff. Sound good? Oh yeah baby. Dayvid Wehbah! (I can't get over how Andrew Clary shouted his name in this freaky accent every day in choir class...) Yeah, he's making yet another trip to Chicago and hopefully I can see him this time. Our wires are always crossed. Brilliant minds like ours seem to mess up little things like, times to meet, days to meet... are we meeting at all? Well... I have 10 minutes before work starts so I best get moving. April 30 - Tuesday Wookit! Well I went to the zoo yesterday... it was nice, took lots of pictures but none turned out b/c my stupid film never caught in the spindle... guess I'll have to go again :) I start my animals class this week, I'm kind of excited. My first class. All mine. :) I'm gonna type out a survey for the kids to fill out about animals, if they are scared of some kinds, if they have any pets, etc. Then we'll go over some fun facts like a goldfish's memory span, etc. I think I'll check online too every week for some current animal news to talk about at the beginning of each class. Soon we'll get some shelters to bring animals in, and hopefully do some volunteering at the shelters and our last class we'll go to the zoo. I'm so excited. Did I say that already? Also I'm heading up a physical exam for the Head Start kiddies. We're gonna have different stations where we examine their balance, their coordination, if they can catch/throw a ball, etc. Then we have medals, real chicago marathon medals that we'll give them in the end. They'll think they did something really great. I'm excited about that too. Thank you Salina for signing the guestbook, I was pleased and surprised to see that you visited the site. Very cool. Keep in touch girlie! Better start typing... ole! April 28 - Sunday We on TV! You heard right, Joel and I did a big bash for National Volunteer Week yesterday in chicago with City Year. Lots of volunteers went out painting murals, participating in school beautification and helping seniors do house work they couldn't normally do. Joel and I got sent to a woman's house who needed her living room painted. It was a big room! But we all scraped and taped and wiped the walls down, then did the painting. It was a long job but it looked great in the end. So yeah, this camera crew came out and taped us painting. It's actually a really nice segment they did on the nightly news. Joel got a close-up while on the ladder painting the ceiling. I'm just sort of in the back ground but I'm still there! We're gonna try to get a clip up on here so you can check it out. Yay! I think that's about all... I'm going to the zoo tomorrow so that should be grand! Alright, I'm outta here... April 22 - Monday Vacation? Well I went down to Springfield with Joel and a good time was had by all. :) A bit more rainy than we might have wanted but it was nice to get away from the crazy life. This week is National Volunteer Week and we've got some pretty crazy events going on. We've got neighborhood clean-ups, our team is organizing a cook book with recipes from all the staff and members of the community, there's a walk-a-thon, there's a kite factory event going on with the little ones, we help them make their own kite then we go out and fly them in the park... and then there's a big service bash on Saturday, which I somehow suckered Joel into doing with me... we're teaming up with City Year, another AmeriCorps place here in Chicago. We're getting into little groups and going around to different senior citizen homes and helping them with things they need done in their houses. They all put in requests and the ones who need the most help get it. So I'm assuming it's some major labor. Joel should enjoy that. heh heh :) Yeah so this week is gonna be super packed. Plus I have a dinner to go to. Wow. Let's see how I get through. :) Oh yeah, and you person from Olivet, dood, who the heck are you? :) April 12 - Friday Ahhhh the sun is about! Yes that's right, it was 78 degrees here yesterday and boy was it a delight! We had a field day celebration yesterday as well with the headstart classes, it was a blast! Eatin' hotdogs outside with kids screaming with laughter running all around you, ahhh so nice. I even participated in a sack race and failed miserably. I got my futon on Wednesday. It's nice to have a bigger bed but there are some ramifications needed to be made. I think I'll buy one of those bed in a bag things to make it more comfy. The cover kind of rubs on my skin which I don't dig. Anyway... Well I'm gonna get back to work maybe... I'll be around this weekend so maybe I can call some of you... let me know! April 9 - Tuesday Oh praise Jesus! I finally got a bed. I bought a nice futon so I could have bed/couch in my small apartment. It's nice, it's being delivered tomorrow night. I can't wait. It will feel so weird to sleep off the floor but I'm excited. It was about 350 dollars all together, with delivery and such. I don't have any decorative pillows yet, those are expensive too, but all in due time. I also got two new pairs of shoes, and a printer and cd burner from my parents! Very cool! I also brought up all my watercolor painting supplies to enrich my painting phase that has been here for awhile. We finally moved into our new office and it's kind of strange... no windows... it feels cramped. I saw Delirious on Satuday with Nicholette and Joel. Sweet! Wonderful show! I recommend them to anyone! Great worship and lots of people! I have a meeting I need to jet to. Hope to hear from you all soon! April 5 - Friday Why is it STILL SNOWING?? It's spring for goodness sake! yeah well Joel and I are heading to St. Louis tonight. I can't wait to sleep in a real bed. And see Delirious which should just totally rock. Yesterday I went to the bank to grab 10 bucks from the atm. Well the atm only did multiples of 20. How stupid is that? So then I went to the teller and was like, "Can I just get ten dollars out?" and she told me that I had to write a check that should couldn't use my debit card. I told her I didn't have a check. She said she could sell me one for a dollar. I'm like, what? I have to pay you a dollar to get money out of my own bank account? And she just laughed uneasily and told me that if I apply for a credit card I get the check for free. I rolled my eyes and filled out the form. I know I'll get declined anyway so I just did it. Then she hands me this t-shirt compliments for applying for the card. I was like, oh man...It was just like in Springfield when I signed up for a bank account at Empire. They handed me this big camping chair and I lugged it outside, everyone knowing I was a happy new member of the club. *sigh* So I'm trying to figure out something to do to get rid of the t-shirt. I thought I could have some sort of contest on my site and give it away. Maybe I could do this all the time, find some silly prize and have you crazies compete for it. That would be fun... heh heh. Then I could pass the fun off to you. What's on the t-shirt is a surprise! And I don't think it's worth competing for but it would be a jolly ole time trying. :) I doubt you'd want to keep it, but you could have a compition of your own maybe.. I dunno. So I'll think more on it and keep you all updated. Peace out. :) April 1 - Monday Ahhh my girls are gone... Nic and Lacy have left the building, folks. I really loved seeing their faces and dancing to "Jump" by Kriss Kross. Staying up late and talking too much. I miss those days. It was so nice to see Missouri people in this bustling city. Joel and I are going to St. Louis this weekend to see Delirious! And low and behold, Nic's gonna be there too. How cool is that? Then April 18 I'll be heading to Springfield to see them again. As Nic put it, April is Mandy month. :) Whoa, I just saw a car commercial that was really good - It starts off as just a typical car commercial, "Motor Trend Mini Van of the Year!" blah blah blah, showing a happy family inside. Then all of a sudden another vehicle slams right into the side of the mini van. I was like, what?! Turns out, it's a commercial about buckling up. Very realistic, very good message. Makes you wanna go hmmmmm.... Anyway, I'm gonna go get some grub and then go to bed really stinkin' early. March 26 - Tuesday I GOT INTERNET!!! :) Yes, that's right folks, I now have high speed access. It's amazing. How could anyone ever go back? ;) The verdict is in, no money for those classes. Oh well. Maybe I was pushing at the wrong time. Maybe I should just wait until I can pay for it all with my AmeriCorps money. That would be the easiest... but yeah. So now I still need a second job. argh! I had a fabulous weekend with Joel again (despite a failed search for a desk chair...) Like always. I just felt I should throw that in. :) I sure like him a lot. wonderful wonderFUL WONDERFUL GUY! Yeah! Something wierd: Miss Cara calls me up last night exclaiming that she's in Chicago! How crazy is that? I knew she was telling the truth b/c I could hear the intercom on the el train she was riding - "Wabash is next. Doors open on the left at Wabash" hehe. So Joel and I are gonna try and have dinner with her tonight. I'll let you know how that goes. 2 MORE DAYS AND COUNTING FOR THE NIC AND LACY VISIT! WAHOOO! March 22 - Friday Well, well, well. I found out that the college I want to take classes at doesn't take federal loans. Just grants and scholarships. So... I don't know how I'm going to get the money. I still have until April 4th to register so... please pray for a miracle. 6 DAYS AND COUNTING FOR THE NIC AND LACY VISIT!! March 19 - Tuesday Argh. I had a run in with an AWFUL member of the medical field. The doctor I went to last night was the most shockingly terrible doctor in the world of doctors. I'm going to write a letter to the hospital board. Someone here told me I should sue. Ya think? ;) My mom fed-exed my student loan app. to me to arrive on saturday. Yeah, still not here. Those punks! I needed it before Monday. What is the world coming to? You can't count on anything, even if you pay for it! 9 DAYS AND COUNTING FOR THE NIC AND LACY VISIT!!! March 13 - Wednesday Another gorgeous day... I'm so happy about this Chicago weather! Yet I see all these happy people prancing in the sunlight with their doggies and I rekindle my fur addiction. I really miss my KatyKat... and Indy... and Jack... maybe I'll get a fishy. Nic, email me a pic of BigHead so I can spotlight him on my site. He's gotta get some recognition after being exploited on the video announcements. eh? Those web design classes start at Truman this Monday. Still haven't gotten my loan in but I'm waiting patiently. I wish they had an expedited loan.. for people who desperately want to take class. I mean, if you really really really want to go to school, shouldn't that be rewarded? Instead of stomped upon? Heck, I'm in AmeriCorps for goodness sake! Shouldn't that count for something? Some kind of good will towards men? Okay, maybe not. Headline News: NIC AND LACY ARE COMING TO CHICAGO!!! Yes, it's final folks, they are making their way to the windy city via plane. I simply cannot wait. :) Well I am off. Classes and Lunch await me. March 12 - Tuesday Such a beautiful day! .... and waisted by sitting indoors for hours. Yay. I don't have much time before class but I wanted to write a bit for today. We went to the park with the kiddies. Lovely! Anything else? Not really. I'm gonna make like a baby... ...and head out. March 8 - Friday! Ahhh Friday at last! I'm so happy. The day is almost over. 2 more hours and I'm freeeeee!!! :) I go to the chiropractor today. We'll see how that goes. I got paid today, so now I can get some much needed necessities and have fun doing so. Shopping is fun, word? I'm in a silly mood, I think b/c today is a beautiful 63 degrees. It's gorgeous. I think I'm really going to like Chicago in the spring. :) Peace, yo. March 6 - Wednesday Bored, to tell ya the truth. Yes, there we have it. I'm bored. Sitting here at work and completely BORED. I had the morning free for planning and research, then I had lunch, then I had my art class with second graders which is our last one for the quarter and went very well. Now I'm sitting here waiting for my next class. I really don't want to go to it. I just want to go home. Perhaps I will... who knows? But today has given me a chance to sit on my butt and add this little comentary to my website. Yay. As of this moment, NickelNOo and Odzar are in cahoots with a scheme to visit me the end of this month. It seems to be cooking up ferociously and they just might pull it off. Here's hoping! I just went to the JPUSA website, thinking I would go check out their worship services this sunday. Kinda crazy cuz I find that they are 3 blocks from my apartment... coincedence? I think not. :) At any rate, I'm gonna go check it out. See if I'm feelin' the Lord there... Still hanging on by a thread with the money situation... just another day and I get paid. Can't wait! I called JillyJOo last night. It was good to hear her voice. I'm so glad I have free long distance. Gonna try to stay up and call NickelNOo tonight but she's going to Branson with Brandon to take in LOTR at the IMAX. Can you say sweet? But I don't think I can stay up that late waiting... who knows. I'm gonna go to my class now. Or go home early... one or the other. What would PPG Blossom do? Besides beat the crap out of the students? Let us ponder... March 5 - Tuesday It's just Tuesday? That's right folks. It's only Tuesday. We've got the whole week staring at us. Nothing accomplished. It feels like the weekend was 28 days ago... I want to say thanks to all who signed the g-book! I am quite impressed. I changed the format for it, to more suite my taste. Not drastic changes, but more fun to fill out in my opinion. It's still frigid here, frozen apendiges hang off of my body. Nothing really to report on... got an appointment with a chiropractor to check out my neck and back. I hope they can help me out. send some email, peeps. Over. March 4 - Monday SNOW! Lots of snow. So much snow. I can't open my eyes without seeing snow. AHHHH!!!!! Nicholette tells me I must keep up with my daily mutterings. I will ablige. I have absolutely NO money until this friday so I'm wondering how I'm going to manage this.. I pretty much have what I need but still... it's nice to have emergency cash... oh well. Yeah so, I filled out the fafsa last month and yeah, I still don't qualify for any money. So I went to apply for a loan with my bank and they rejected me, not really sure why yet, I had my mom co-sign... I'll have to call them tonight, but still... I don't understand how someone with absolutely no money can be put in the same category as those with money? Something wrong with society man. So yeah, I'm in a crappy mood, having a bad day... I feel ultimately empty today for some reason. That doesn't feel so great. Why would having this loan make me feel so much better? Oh yeah, b/c surviving in today's world you have to have money, right? WHY AM I TAKING VOLUNTEER JOBS ALL THE TIME? A question to throw out into the void... February 26 - Tuesday **please hold for billing acceptance.... Last night Nic and I had yet another phone marathon. It was fantastic. Word has it that Mel, Lacy and Nic are planning a little trip... hmmm wonder where? It's hard not to get the hopes up. I need a refreshing of they're smiling faces though. :) My dad came down last weekend, which was a fun time. We ate at Friday's and saw John Q. I recommend this movie. I was at the edge of my seat, which doesn't happen that often. Not a favorite, but definitly good entertainment. Not much to report on. Not like anyone reads this anyway. ;) We're doing a big Black History bash for work. My 3-5 yr olds are doing two songs, "Love Grows" and "We Are Alike". So cute. Then my 2nd graders are doing a skit about the underground railroad. They'll sing "Swing Low Sweet Chariot" too. My art class did collages on black influences of the recent times. Pretty cool stuff. I'm thinking of getting some of the kids from the teen program to do some class envolving animals... some kind of animal therapy, though we won't call it that. I'm going to try to get a local shelter or training facility to work with us. We'll see how that works out. I gotta go make up some tickets for a carnival for the kiddies. Peace Out. February 20 - Wednesday *sigh* Still no cable. I think I'm going to have to wait until next month. :( I'm so sad. But a bit of good news! I was looking through the help wanted adds and found an add for part time work at the Steppenwolf Theatre helping with fundraising. You know how great it would be working there? I'm going to call soon and get some more info. Here's hoping! Nothing else really to report on.. though I'm looking at multimedia schools... I sent in my fafsa.. pray for big bucks! love you all. later. February 15 - Friday Yeah. I didn't get cable. I'm so mad. I called the stupid company to set up an appointment, and I tell the guy that there's no cable in the wall box, that the person he sends over should be able to pull the cable through my wall. I guess the guy on the phone didn't believe me, you know, dumb girls, they don't know what they're talking about. He sends some retard new guy over, I'm waiting from 8 until 10 for him to show and he finally gets there at 10:05. He's there for two seconds just to tell me that he can't pull the cable through. I got so pissed off. He had a huge roll of cable with him, I wanted to knock him out and install the stupid thing myself. Now I have to make another appointment for a "contractor" to come out just to run a cable through, then another appointment for a guy to bring the cable modem out and give me the software. Argh. See what I go through for my internet fix? I must be really addicted... ;) Other than that I had a fantastic night with Joel. I was stressed out and angry at the day, but eventually I forgot about all that. We ate at this Middle Eastern restaraunt we like, then went back home and fell asleep. It was so hard for me to get up this morning... BUT! I have Monday off! Yay!! Well, I'm off. February 13 - Wednesday Ash Wednesday I'm giving up soda again, like always, which is super super hard for me. But I feel like I should give up something else... hmmm.. think... I'm getting cable internet tomorrow morning! yay! I'm so excited. Now I can make this page actually look good, and talk to all you guys on im. :) Yeah... that's my life. Ahhh prayer requests: I need extra funds to buy a bed, so I need to get another job, so pray that I find a great place to work with minimal hours for the most money. :) We're doing a culture's class tonight with 4th graders. The country is Russia; we've got peroshkies and potato pancakes to munch on, and I've got some Russian music and I brought in my nesting dolls from Russia, then we're going to let them watch Anastasia for a bit at the end of the class. I'm excited. I love that movie. Leah said there's a special where she can buy it for $4! So she's going to go back and see if that offer still stands and if so buy it for me. Niiiice. Okay. Me go now. February 10 - Sunday "I'm gonna be frank.." "But... I wanna be frank!" Ahh... the silly thinks we can think. Hmmm I really don't know what to write. Today I am a blank staring blob, unmobile minus the oxygen converting to CO2 in my lungs... This weekend I went to the car show which was pretty cool. It was super crowded so that sucked, but the cars were sooo amazing. Then when we tried to leave, we couldn't find an exit, it was torture, walking around and around, "Didn't we already pass the Volvos? Argh!" :) I finally got a phone which is super nice to have! So feel free to gimme a call. I miss you guys so much. Sometimes I get all misty eyed just thinkin' about the Springfield times... Nic, remember driving around after XA honking the horn in the Love Machine #2 to Moby songs? *sigh* February 5 - Tuesday Sprint! What the heck are you doing?! Yeah, so for the 80th time, Joel and I tried to activate my cell phone and Sprint still hasn't finished updating their stupid system. When will I have communication?! WHEN?! On a lighter note, come on, seriously, person from Olivet - sign the guestbook, do something for goodness sake. You can't just read the meaningless blather for nuthin. Did you just stumble onto the site? Do you know Joel? What's the deal? You gotta fess up. Ahhh on to work! Oh yeah, if ya wanna see some pretty good comics, check out Joel's site here. February 4 - Monday Ahhh another cold day... As some of you might not know, I traveled home this weekend to drop off my car and bring back a few things. (hehe, a few... Joel's car was barely scraping the pavement...) Anyway, the weather back home was beautiful. I couldn't have asked for a better weekend in February. Then I come back up here and ahhhhh freezing my cheeks! I had to take the el this morning b/c well.. no car. I knew I should have stopped to grab my scarf. I can feel the blood slowly starting to defrost in my face. I still have no feeling in my nose, but that will come eventually... I hope. It took me an hour and fifteen minutes to walk to the el from my apartment, then ride it into downtown, then transfer to another train, then ride that back up north again and then walk the 5 blocks to work. *sigh* I'm gonna have to figure out the bus schedules and try to car pool. :) Enough boring blather! The Super Bowl I watched maybe a full five minutes of the game? I had a ton of paper work to do for work today. Just like me, put it off. But I didn't miss much in the first half anyway. It was disheartening to hear the Patriots were up by 14. That just wasn't supposed to happen. So by half time my family, Joel and I were loading up the car and we were heading back to Chicago. Didn't get to see U2 (was it good?) or any of the commercials. By mid third quarter we were on our way home, listening to the game on am radio. As soon as we get to St. Louis, the Rams had picked up those two touch downs and had tied the game. Now it was getting interesting. Despite my lazy body wanting to sleeeeeeep the whole time, I pressed on, excited to hear the Rams winning play. Yeah. Nothing. I'm about to fall asleep to the monotonous drone of the sports announcers when one of them yells, "The Patriots have won the Super Bowl!" ....... Oh. And off to sleep I went. But I must say the Patriots played one heck of a game. Their defense was amazing. :) And to end my daily chattering of nothing, I want to say hello to the person at Olivet College in IL. How do you like my silly camping picture? Drop a line, say hello. :) Off to work now. Later. January 31- Thursday Snow... My first big snow since coming to Chicago. I swear, my car had a foot of snow on the top. There's snow blowers splashing pedestrians with dirty slop on their way to work... snow plows trapping you in your parking spot on the sides of the streets... it's amazing. A whole new experience. Here, you can actually get to work on a snowy day and not risk your life 50 times on the way. There's no ditches to fly off into either. And they actually PLOW the streets! As apposed to Springfield where they plow maybe three roads and the rest of us have to shovel our streets. Blah! I got a phone finally, not activated yet, but as soon as I do that I'll get you guys the number. I'm going home this weekend to watch the super bowl in the right city ;) Celebrating the Rams in Chicago just ain't cool. And I'm going to pick up my tv and vcr so I feel more at home in my new place. I think I'm gonna get a fish next week too. Oh yeah, and I have to find a second job! Oops... gotta get some resumes printed up... I gotta get to my ESL class! It's the first day... hope it goes alright. I've never taught that before! Here goes nothing! January 25- Friday Wow... you wouldn't believe what I'm doing right now... ;) Today I was lucky enough to engage in a work day providing a fun filled course called, "In Service". Yes, folks. That means 4 hours of computer training. We were free to pick two out of five workshops. Topics to choose from include Excel, Outlook, Creating brochures and flyers in Word, and dun dun DUN! The internet. Of course I picked The Internet simply so I could surf during the class time. So that's where I am right now. On a nice sleek Dell system (that is just as boring as any PC) with a child protection program so I can't go to the sites I would like. Fortunately I can get into Angelfire to update my site. Wahoo. I went to Excel before and that was quite interesting b/c I had been trying to figure out a budget for myself and I was able to make one up. Yay. I went to the Chicago Boat and RV show last night with Joel. I was enthralled. Big, fast and shiny... ooooo... There was a yacht there worth over a million bucks, it was beautiful. It had a washer and dryer in it! It was unbelievable. Now I'm waiting patiently for the Car show. *drool* I'm hoping to go get a cell phone tonight... if not tonight, then this weekend. I'm excited. Finally, communication at my finger tips. Sweeeeeeet. I miss all of you. I hope I get to see you guys soon. I love you all. :) Yeah, enough sap. January 19 - Saturday I'm moving in today!! Well now... I updated this site apparently the other day but I was at Joel's house so I didn't ftp, just went through the site... yeah, didn't work. That'll teach me. :) But I'm not going to be able to ftp for awhile until I get my CABLE internet going in my new apartment. CABLE!!!!! Yay! So yeah... it'll prally be awhile until I update again... with that said... I'll have pics of my new place up soon, with the arrival of internet service... Oh and Andy, the message board link is really supposed to go to a real life message board! Imagine that... but I've been too lazy to make those links go anywhere, and I've been trying to decide if I should just scrap the stupid thing anyway... so yeah, most of those links just point to my home page which yeah, is where my weblog is. :) Just to clarify. Alrighty, I'm gonna jet and get moved in to my new place. Love ya'll! January 14 - Monday Wow, I got an apartment. This past weekend has been super hectic. I'm tired, I'm weak and I'm sick. My car died on me so I just spent the whole weekend at Joel's house. It was fun, we went apartment shopping, out with his friends, had lunch with Leah, went to church, napped a bunch... just a typical weekend really. Have you guys heard about all three of the Lord of the Rings movies have been made all ready? Not just the first? Joel's brother downloaded them off some ftp server... I'm still kind of skeptical, I'll believe it when I see it, but if it's real, that's kind of confusing for me. I think I would feel bad if I saw them right away and didn't wait until they came out... but then again... free good movie... hmmmm... I'll let you guys know what I find out though. I saw Ocean's 11. Very good movie. Not like it's super spectacular or anything, just great entertainment, a fun movie to see in the theater. Seeing all those actors working together was most of the fun. And the story line was great, you didn't expect most of the film. I like those. Anyway, go see that if it's still out. Well, I'm at work so I should prally get to my meetings. Later. January 8 - Tuesday Wow... haven't been around for a while... Since I don't have my own internet account, I can't be on as much as I like to, which means not a lot of time to update. But nevertheless (that's for you Dave) I'm back and have a bit of time before bed to post alittle something. December was a good month, a month of work, little kiddies running around stealing my heart, and Christmas vacation, all relaxing and wonderful. Now I'm back in the work groove, starting to feel the flow. I got my food stamps! Sweet! So I've stocked up on name brand food stuffs and my fridge is bulging! I love it. I've never had so much fun buying food. I guess it's b/c it's with the state's money! Ha! Oh that was bad... :) I am so ready to move out, get an apartment of my own, where I'm free to be myself and not someone's link to saving a bit of money. Have my own bathtub... my own CABLE internet... maybe even have a bed to rest my weary head... be able to get home from work in ten minutes (not 85 minutes!!!) be close to the people I work with so maybe I can go out and have some fun once in a while... have my tv and actually be able to watch the simpsons and ed and friends any freakin' time I want!!! I can sit in front of my computer all night in just my robe and eat pizza and drink can after can of dp and then leave the dishes in the sink for tomorrow.... climb into bed and say goodnight to my baby kitty, Katy-Kat. Ahhh the life. I'll be saving over 200 dollars on commuting expenses, plus I'll get to carpool with Leah! Life will be grand in just a few weeks. Say goodbye to Suburban Life and hello to The City By The Lake! I'm bushed. I'm going to go to bed now even though it's only 8:30. :) Hey, what else have I got to do in AURORA? Goodnight peeps. December 2 - Sunday Well now... How busy life gets this time of year.. Friday I went to Candle Light Carols with Joel at Moody. It was fantastic. The lighting, the music... ahhhhh. Superb. Not very often am I on the "audience" side of a concert such as that. It felt weird.. but it was great non the less. Saturday I ventured forth to purchase a sweater to wear to Joel's company Christmas party. I decide to peruse TJ-Max. As I'm pulling into a parking spot out front, this woman honks at me, apparently angry at me for taking her spot. I didn't realize I had done it. I look in my rear view mirror and she's sitting there. "Oh great... she's gonna wait for me isn't she?" So I piddle around in the car hoping she'll leave eventually. I sit there, balancing my check book, polishing my sun glasses... finally I get out of the car. She's still there. "Oh brother..." "You know you are VERY rude for taking my spot!" she spits at me in a thick english accent. The silliness of the situation, her waiting for me, and her accent sparked a giggle inside of me. This offended her even more. She keeps ranting. "I was clearly waiting for that spot, I had my indicator on!" Indicator?! How silly is that? I laughed some more. "Oh come on! Look, there's a spot right here!" I say, pointing to an open space infront of my car. "It's no big deal!" "Yes it IS a big deal!" She yells. "Do you realize how incredibly rude you are?!" At this point I just shook my head, smiled and proceeded to head toward the store. As I'm browsing the fine sweater collection, I'm thinking about the whole situation. "God? Am I terribly rude? Am I a bad person? I didn't do it on purpose! Should I have reacted to the situation differently? I'm such a brat!" But as soon as I'm starting to mentally punish myself, I get an answer that made my day. "You didn't do it on purpose, you're not a bad person. Instead, you're a wonderful person. Look inside you, at what you have in your heart. ME. You have asked for wisdom, for better judgement, and a more mature outlook on life. Petty things do not taunt you. This woman doesn't have me, she is tempted to make much out of nothing. Be proud that you can laugh off such things." Ahh.. a lesson in learning not to be so friggin' hard on myself! November 30 - Friday Internet at work... niiiiice :) So yeah, I'm taking the train again. Sooo nice. You wouldn't believe how many people commute each day just like me. The expressways are packed, the trains are packed.. all waiting to arrive at "Chicago Union Station!!!" It's crazy. It's also really strange to be on the subway for 15 minutes, then you climb the stairs back out into the "real world" and it's a totally different climate than it was before. Today I went down underground leaving moderately windy weather, about 55 degrees... I come back up and it's super windy, rainy, and feels as though the temperature has dropped 20 degrees. Something to get used to I guess. November 28 - Wednesday I must have been a little side-tracked... Well folks, this morning I played with kids ages 3-5. I basked in the goodness of fat crayons, paper sack puppets and little spindly legs I can suspend in the air. We took the kids for a walk to McDonald's where each of them asked for a hamburger, "one hamburger peas.." and paid for it. They thought they were hot stuff. It was adorable. Then I worked in an art class for 4th graders. We made food chain collages. Ooooo... ahhhhhh.... yeah, what a mess to clean up afterwards. Jill, are you sure you want to do this forever? ;) After that I had my after school class, this time with 5 and 6 year olds where I got to play barbies and dominos the whole time. I kept placing misc. objects on my head and saying, "Is this a hat?" and the kids would scream, "NOOoooo!!!" and giggle at me. I tell ya, I work too hard. :) Then it took me forever to drive home again today. I never knew how much I valued the train system until now. Traffic is horrific here. I have the "Love Machine #2" up here now. I'm going to have the "new" car towed this weekend. Hey, I get 50 bucks out of it. :) Well, I'm going to vamoose. Getting up early is hard on the body once you're so used to sleeping in until noon... go figure. November 18 - Sunday ahhh internet at last... dood... I love internet. I feel whole again. I'm starting to get the hang of Chicago... but my car went bizerk so I've gotta get my old "Love Machine #2" up and runnin' again and zip that thing back up here. I've gotta have some way to get me to the train station. :) Nothing really exciting has happened since I've moved.. I mean, besides the fact that I live 45 minutes away from my stud of a boyfriend (heh heh). My roommate's dog, Sasha, a mini weiner doggie, had a spinal injury last year and it seems to have flared up again, we can't touch her or move her without her squealing from pain and biting at us. So we took her to the vet today. Not fun. I hate to see that little cutie in this much discomfort. It's sad. One weird thing I did... I went to see a Chicago Bulls game with Joel and his buds. I had never seen a pro basketball game before. It was a lot of fun, even though neither teams had good defense so they just took turns making baskets... hey abby, remember when you liked Shaq? hahahahahaha I'm super tired. I'm gonna hit the pillow now. love ya'll. October 30 - Tuesday "because your love is better than my life" Today was just another day, I slept in late, took an insanely long bath, got ready, drove into meet my mom and don for dinner. We ate at El Nopal, their favorite mex. place. Then we went to see a movie. This is where the day gets odd. We saw K-PAX. This movie messed with my head. Don't get me wrong, it is an exceptional movie, Kevin Spacey again is fabulous. It's about this man who believes he's from another planet, K-PAX. Needless to say, his talk of this has drawn attention and he's admitted into an institute. Basically he has knowledge about the solar system that surpasses anything any normal person would know on earth. So throughout the movie you really are starting to believe he's this alien. Then near the end, you start to question that. Anyway, it's all about seeing more of the world, not taking anything for granted, to stop making the mistakes you make over and over and ignore. To wake up and notice life around you, realize you're only here for a little while, and to love every minute of it. Sure, lots of movies have this moral teaching to it. But this one was different. I hardly ever react to a movie after it's over, (except that distasteful time after I watched Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas when I perceived everything as though I, myself, was on acid... trying to drive home was a task...) anyway, on my way home I noticed a ton of things I had never noticed before, and I couldn't stop myself from noticing them. it was like a rush of information, like my eyes had been opened more, my periphial vision seemed ten times better than before. I almost couldn't concentrate on the road, I was trying to comprehend everything else around me. It was scary for a while... even now, i'm safely in front of Speeedee, I can't stop noticing things.. and i feel differently. I just feel really strange. I now know how much I ignore in one day. How much information is there but I'm too lazy to grasp it all and pay attention. Not that that's a bad thing, but I just never thought about it before. Odd. So yeah, on my way up the steps toward the door tonight, the moon is so full and bright, lighting up the whole farm so beautifuly, and I'm struck with how Halloween is tomorrow.. and my gut is frightened that something will happen. Some more hatred will break loose and I will again feel sick at what is happening around us. I'm not looking forward to it. Not at all. October 26 - Friday loss for words... Well, it seems I got accepted to Project YES! in Chicago. I have to be moved up there by next weekend. Hmm... we'll see how completely hectic my life gets in these few days. ;) My brain is a bit week so I'm going to stop there and go take a nap. yeah. sounds good! Later, yo. October 23 - Wednesday Ahhhh I just saw a GRRRReat movie! The Last Castle Superb movie. At first I thought the writing of the dialog was pretty iffy... but it got better as the movie went on. Either that or I took to the plot so well that I just let it slide. ;) Anyway, it stars Robert Redford and that's the only name I know. Strange, eh? I haven't seen any of the others before except the guy that plays General Wheeler... he was in Gone in Sixty Seconds... nevermind. About the movie! Robert Redford is a General who gets sent to a soldier's prison for disobeying orders from the President. He gets there and finds that the Colonial in charge is a nut job and is running the facility (to put it bluntly) really crappy-like. His punishments are too harsh and they don't comply with the code. He's also given the go-ahead to kill inmates. Wrong wrong wrong!!! Did I mention WRONG?! So Redford decides to gather the ex-soldier/inmates and overtake the prison and force the dude to resign. It was spectacular! "Two enthusiastic thumbs up!" If you like things being blown up and American flags, go see this movie. If you're the type that sits back and lets people walk all over you, and you think that's the way it should be, don't see this movie. You'll be thoroughly irritated by the honor this movie depicts. :) My favorite part of the movie, is the technique used for the Colonial's character. From the first moment you set eyes on him, you KNOW he's a crack pot. Every single mannerism is carefully executed so that the audience hates him as much as possible. Ahhhh superb acting! Superb I tell you!!! Okay enough about the movie. Before, Dad and I went out to eat at Frontier Grill. Expensive but super good. And then before that, I hung around the house, having to retreat to the basement for a good hour for a tornado warning. It was pretty crazy. Wind flingin' trees around, hail, the works. Went straight thru us, thru St. Louis and into Illinois. I should have known something was up when Katy-Kat disappeared about a half hour before the warning... she knew what was up. She took cover and didn't even see to it that I was safe. Little brat. ;) Well I'm beat. Enough typing. Night! Nic's Study Session: Yes folks, Nicholette has gone on her "date" with her ex-PED teacher, who will remain nameless. The hyped almost 21 yr old exclaims such marvels as, "He's SO CUTE!", and, "He's SO CUTE!", and even the occasional, "THAT SMILE! AGH!!!". Hearing about the lunch first hand right after it had happened was quite an honor for me. Here's the scoop: He's 25 He's a grad student gaining his masters in Public Health He grew up in Washington (the state) He's Mr. Triathlon He wants to move to Colorado after college He has a bad and inefficient swimming stroke He smiles a lot He took her to the Rasta Grill (mmmm) He bought them a smoothie to SHARE Ahhh the love. But alas.. the truth must be told... the dood isn't (as Bump would say) "Groovin' Wid Jesus". So Nic's gotta turn the big man down. She said it's not that hard for her to move on since he's not a Christian. She loves Jesus much more than she could ever love him. I quote her on her thought process on the subject, "Wow, Eric's really hot... I mean REALLY HOT... but he's not a Christian... okay! Next boy!" haha, good for you Nic. This is MandyMOo, reporting to you from Iceland. October 16 - Tuesday Ahh.. the cold is upon us... Well last night I went with my dad and cousins to a football game. It was a freshman game , so it really wasn't all that exciting. Is that mean? Oh well. It rained the entire game. So I'm sitting there bundled up in my AWESOME Columbia water proof winter coat. That thing rocks. I remembered why I didn't like high school in those few moments I was there. I was surrounded by so many young kids, all pronouncing their eager cruelty to others. It was a sad sight. The teams were the Rolla Bull Dogs (my cousin, Alex's team) and the Washington Blue Jays. Rolla was up by two (8-6) in the final quarter, when this tiny Blue Jay went streaking down the field for a touch down. It was quite the feat. I almost cheered for them, but as I was there to support the Bull Dogs, I thought twice. After the game we went to Cowan's (the best pie EVER). I got a hamburger, fries and a ceasar salad. Mmmmm. I also warmed myself with their superb hot chocolate. It was a fine time. But then on my way home, my head started to ache so darn bad, then it spread to my whole body, and I felt nautious. (how many times can one get sick in a year?) Dad said I'm getting the flu. So I'm going to try and tough it out. God will put sheild around me. :) Today I'm just taking it easy. I did a new layout for AMEN if ya wanna check it out here. The links on that page don't work yet. :) Hey, I can't do it all in one day. ;) Links on this page aren't up yet either... hmmm... maybe my webpage wand is broken... October 14 - Sunday "Sunday Sunday Sunday!" A lazy day. Slept in till 12:30. Mmmmmm. :) The heater in my fish tank went out so I had to go buy a new one. Now they are happy happy. Well, I'm off to work on my pages. ONE MORE DAY AND COUNTING UNTIL NIC'S "STUDY SESSION"!! October 13 - Saturday Ahhh... retirement parties... Dad and I set up the small sound system and with the 6 disc changer, we didn't have to get up and mind the cds at all, which was super nice. All my relatives were there from my dad's side, aunts, uncles, cousins... 8 weeks old to 84 years old... it was quite the bash. And who says that God doesn't provide for us? Dood, my aunt felt bad that she didn't go to my HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION so she gave me 40 bucks! "His eye is on the sparrow.." I ran and jumped and slid and rolled on the ground with kids of all ages. It was super fun, though I think I got shot and killed over a hundred times. Then we headed home and I got to talk to Joel for a few hours on the phone. I think I bored him to death... oops. TWO MORE DAYS AND COUNTING FOR NIC'S "STUDY SESSION"!!! October 12 - Friday Well, none of the links work yet. I'm too bored to do those tonight soo... Talking to Nickel NOo on a friday night is superb. Spending an evening with your best friend, quoting Wayne's World front to back even though your 200 miles away... *sigh* Today was my day off, so I slept in until 11. I had spent the night at my mom's so I drug myself out of bed and headed off to my dad's house. I stopped in to get some gas on the way, and got stuck behind some older couple who couldn't believe the "line" was taking so long... which is funny in a teeny town like Beaufort.. there was only like two people in the entire station... anyway.. then on my way out I thought the dood at the pump next to mine was Josh and I felt like some bum, in my pajama's with a silly hat to cover my head. Turned out it wasn't him which was a relief. I didn't feel like talking to anyone I knew. I zoomed on over to my dad's house where I proceeded to watch a good three hours of television to rid myself of some brain activity. Then I decided to make use of my time infront of the tv and popped in the aerobics video Nic got me. It was nice, but I think I awoke muscles that didn't ever want to be disturbed again... I think I'll pay for this in the morning. After that I tried to work some more on my pages but alas, peeps on AIM are more fun. Hope you're feeling better Mel. So yeah, another day of procrastination and laziness. But hey, that's my life. Now the Cardinals are down by two.. man. They were doing so well... Wow, eyes are beginning to feel awfully heavy... must... sleeeeeep.... |
