Sunday, November 26, 2006

For Future Reference. . .

Under no circumstance should you ever, ever, ever put athlete's foot medicine in your eye. It is a bad idea. I know, I tried it this morning. Seriously. I woke up this morning with irritated eyes. Half asleep I scrambled around in my purse for my eyedrops. I pulled out what I thought was my eyedrops and put them in my irritated eye. The feeling of my eye being burned out of its socket told me that something was not right. Whilst screaming bloody murder and wishing for death to come, I grasped the tiny bottle and took a closer look at it. Athlete's foot medicine. Dear Lord, I am an idiot. I immediately shoved my entire head under the faucet. After about five minutes the burning sensation was gone entirely. My eye was super bloodshot for about 3 hours, but now it seems to be just back to the original level of irritation I was experiencing when I first woke up.

On a completely unrelated note, this weekend my brother and sister-in-law gave me and my little sis an old dining room table they weren't using anymore. However, my brother lives in Columbia. So when he pulled up at my house, got the table top out and realized he had forgotten a key part of the table (the legs), there was not a chance that he was just gonna turn around and go get them. So for the time being, if anyone is interested in Japanese dining. . . come on over!

Friday, November 24, 2006

The Real Problem

So I haven't posted or even commented for about a week and it has not been for want of trying. The real problem is that the computer I was working on was not functioning up to par. The immediate solution. . . try another computer and voila. . . I can post! Yay!
Anyways, happy belated Thanksgiving to you all. I had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I woke up early as always, because I am basically incapable of sleeping in. I fed and gave meds to my parents' animals as my parents went to spend Thanksgiving with friends. Then I went back to my place and spent the morning with my little sis, which was really good. We get so busy that we barely see each other much less have actual conversations. We ate breakfast together and did a little cleaning together. The two of us then went over to my older sister's house to watch the parade. Then all of us went to my brother's house in Columbia, SC. We had a great meal, played board games,played with the babies and watched tv. I fell asleep at 9:30, completely exhausted. I spent the night at my brother's. So here I am. . . awake hours before anyone else will stir, sipping my coffee and blogging. Hope your Thanksgiving was as peaceful and contenting (if that's a word) as mine.

Sunday, November 19, 2006

Theraputic Shopping

As it turns out, all the ucks I had this past week had an easy cure. . . shopping. Well, not just shopping. . . sale shopping. 10 new articles of clothing for under $50. That equals a feeling of satisfaction about all the great deals I got. That equals a feeling of excitement when I get up in the morning and think "which of my new clothes will I wear today?". That equals excellent bonding time with my friend Alice. Aaaahh, time and money well spent.
And. . . the new James Bond movie is really, really good. Go and see it. Also time and money well spent. Well. . . not my money. A friend bought my ticket. Thanks Pat!!

Saturday, November 18, 2006

Week of the Ucks, the Dumb Ucks

This week at some point, my bosses both at the daycare and at the tutoring agency have let me know in one way or another that there is something lacking in my work. And that just kills me. Sure I need to know if I am making mistakes, but I tend to always take critisism so personally.
On the bright side of things, I don't think my "mistakes" were that huge. At one job I think the only problem that my boss had was that she didn't think I was friendly enough. Mind you, not to the parents or children at the daycare, but to her. She had got it in her head that I was upset with her for some unknown reason. Bizarre. At the other job the mistakes pointed out were small deviations I have made from procedure and (hopefully) it's not that big of an issue. But I am worried about it. If it turns out that they are really unhappy with my work and I lose that job. . . I might just die. Sure, it is not my main source of income. Though it is good money for the hours put in, I only work at that job about 9hrs/week. But the point is that I love that job. I really enjoy that job. I can't really say the same about my other job. I don't hate my other job and I have certainly had worse jobs in the past, but I must confess that my heart is not in heating up pre-cooked corndog nuggets. So I do that job everyday just for the sake of working and making money, but my part-time job is my heart. I love working one-on-one with students. I love watching those students, most of whom are struggling academically, actually feel good about their work and their achievements. I love building relationships with the families of those students. I love, love, love that job. So I hope that I am just worrying all for naught. I hope I am over-reacting.

p.s. 10 points for anyone who can name the movie referenced in this post's title. Hint: musical.

Thursday, November 16, 2006

The Switch

I keep trting to switch to this new version of blogger and it won't let me. It's so annoying. Everytime I sign on to my blogger account they hassle me about switching, but when I try to do it. . . the computer just stops at the sign on page and refuses to go any further. What's up with that? Meantime, blogger won't let me comment on people's blogs that do have the new version. So, Mark and Kareem, I have had several comments for your blogs that have just gone unposted and I am so aggravated about it. Sigh.

Anyhow, the latest is that I am not going to NYC, much to my dismay. I couldn't get the full time off work that I would need to be able to do NYC. However, I did get part of the time off and I can still go to Iowa for my friends' wedding and do New Year's eve in Chicago. So all is not lost. So I am still pretty pumped. Road trip with Sara. Meeting up with at least 7 of my other good friends from Cairo (possibly more). New Year's Eve in Chicago. Plus, Sara is gonna spend Christmas with me and my family!! Yay!!

Sunday, November 12, 2006

4:44am

I suppose I should be making a wish, but I never believe in that stuff anyways.
Now I guess I can't blame this one on my sis or anyone else. I just woke up at 4:00am unable to sleep any longer. Don't know what's up with that, but I am not liking it. So here I am on the internet (the insomniac's best friend. . . well, that and Walmart).
I am planning a road trip that I am very, very excited about. Hopefully, the day after Christmas I will fly with Sara to New Jersey. There we will meet Esther and Edward. We will go into NYC for a day to do some shopping and catch a musical. Then the four of us will drive to Iowa to go to our friends wedding (Craig and Erin, aka Ken and Barbie). The wedding is Dec. 30 (I think). Then the four of us plus at least two other friends we will meet there (Markus and Julianna) will all go to Chicago for New Year's Eve. So with all that in mind, I thought this to be fitting. . .
You Are New York

Cosmopolitan and sophisticated, you enjoy the newest in food, art, and culture.
You also appreciate a good amount of grit - and very little shocks you.
You're competitive, driven, and very likely to succeed.

Famous people from New York: Sarah Michelle Gellar, Tupac Shakur, Woody Allen


I can't wait for my road trip!!!!

Saturday, November 11, 2006

A good day

Today was good. Real good. Nothing really amazing happened. I just got to spend time with my good friend Alice and work on my house and have a violin lesson (this is my second lesson and I'm sucking big time, but I figure everyone does when they first start). Then after all of that I went out for pizza and beer with Alice and Bee Jay (her husband and my best guy friend since I was 11). It was awesome. Plus I got nine hours of sleep last night (which almost never happens), so I felt significantly less cranky.

Friday, November 10, 2006

4:21am

It's 4:21am and I can't sleep. I woke up around 12:30am a little upset because my sister had brought someone in our house and they were being loud and they woke me up. So then I laid there for the next hour trying to sleep and sort of drifting in and out of consciousness. Eventually, I was awoke again by the sound of the tv downstairs. My sister's company had left, pressumably. So instead of going to bed, she put on a dvd. Girl Interupted. So it wasn't even a nice quiet peaceful happy sort of movie that one would want to fall asleep to. No, this movie is full of people screaming and being generally psychotic. So I gave up on just falling asleep and picked up my crossword puzzles. They usually can wear me out enough mentally that I just fall asleep. But not tonight. After solving an entire crossword puzzle, I tiptoed downstairs to find my sis sound asleep on the sofa. I turned off the dvd, but still knew that I would not be able to sleep even now that it was peaceful. Once I am awake, I am awake and that's all there is to it. So after 2 and a half hours of being awake, sleep was just not gonna happen. So I worked on my room for about an hour. Then I got in the car and went over to my parent's house to have some internet time. So here I am.
It's 4:31am and I can't sleep and it would be pointless to even try at this point. I would just be falling asleep only to wake up again.

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

A New Link

I just added a new link to a brand new blog. Heather and Kelvin are a Canadian couple that I worked with in Cairo. They were not only two people who I worked with, they were/are good friends of mine. Heather always reminded me of my older sister, Julie, and therefore instantly won a high place in my heart. They would invite me over to watch movies and Heather and I would end up staying up all night watching chick flicks and eating junk food. It was great. I like to think that I partially inspired them to start this blog. They, along with all my other colleagues, would see me in the computer lab daily checking on my blog for comments and writing away about the Cairo experience.
Well anyhow, they are still in Cairo. They are still working at the same school. They will have lots of interesting stories and anecdotes to share.

Monday, November 06, 2006

Did I Mention. . .

Did I ever mention that I live in the ghetto? A few weeks ago, somebody came into our backyard and stole our heating and air unit. I'm not talking about a window unit either. The unit for the whole of the downstairs. That is just rediculous. Just thought that was amusing and it might amuse you at least half as much as it amuses me.
FYI: our land lord replaced it and we have heat. Hooray!!

Friends

My pastor did a sermon at church on friendships/community. It made me think and question and that is a good thing.
Do I open up with my friends? Do I hold them at arms length? Do I write people off if they don't perform to my standards? Am I trying to do a performance for my friends? Good questions to ask. Bad that I don't think I am getting all the correct answers to those questions all the time. Bad that I honestly don't think I will change much. It all seems too far rooted in me. I put up walls to protect myself from I'm not quite sure what. I constantly feel the need to be seen as strong and independent. I struggle to admit my weaknesses and failures with even my closest friends. I am generally not transparent with my friends. Not a good sign.