Status Update

So I officially suck at blogging, because I haven't posted anything since my now-fully healed bruise, Bertha the Magnificent, was born. That's crazy. Let me catch you all up.

I've discovered a new show, Rookie Blue, that's pretty cool. Watched all five episodes in one night. I am one week from finishing my last class from CSN, and then I'll have a diploma. Yippee. Technically, I should leaving for class right now, but I didn't finish my outline and bibliography for my third speech, so I'm staying home to finish researching, and then I'll deliver my speech tomorrow for 90% of the grade. I slept in this morning when I set the alarm for 3 and woke up at 5 instead, so I didn't have time to finish researching.

I have a currently healing burn spot on my left thumb. My thumb has a dark brown spot between the two knuckles and some of the skin is starting to bubble and split. It's two parts cool, one part icky. I earned it from steaming eight dress shirts at Jennaleigh last week. My other thumb and my middle finger on my left hand are also shedding dead skin from previous burned spots. I don't think I'm getting any better at steaming.

I work three days a week at Jennaleigh and an imaginary amount of hours at Carls Jr. They hired me, but I have yet to be called in, so basically I just work at Jennaleigh. It's really difficult work because I have to keep memorizing the millions of jackets we carry and the different sizing of pants and shirts. Josh is an L 6-7 dress shirt. Just in case you were wondering. I'd love to work more hours because it's stressful not to be working, but basically I'm just grateful I have any job at all. I like to be busy, even if my boss is insane and really mean and treats everyone like they're idiots. Working is worth it. Plus I get paid every week, which is kinda cool.

I got a speeding ticket on my way home from class last Wednesday. That sucked. $190 will go to the court next week when I have to go downtown to pay it. The cop cut me a break and knocked the ticket down a hundred bucks by claiming I only drove 10 miles over instead of 20. Thanks, guy. I'm thinking I might just hire a lawyer to take care of the ticket. They can get tickets reduced or waived most times. I looked up a couple of firms and I have to call to find out what they charge, but if it ends up being cheaper than the ticket, then Ima go for it.

My mom has agreed that she will dedicate most of tomorrow to helping me create a lace-up for the back of my wedding dress because I really want one and the dress didn't come with it. That should be really boring and home ec-ish, but it'll be cool when it's done. I wish I sewed better, but it's like cooking: if I'm too good, then I'll feel like I'm destined to stay at home and cook and sew and that grates on me. So I remain mediocre at both skills and strive to gain excellence in academic pursuits instead. My sisters think I'm retarded, but I can't help it, and what do they know, really? Every last one of them loves staying home and cooking for their husbands. Ugh.

I've been really lax about working on my novels, but I think I'm gonna pick that up again once school is over. I should probably file for graduation sometime soon. I think I'll go look that up now. Hmm. I hope they don't force you to walk, because there's no way I'm paying for a cap and gown for a community college. My dad says they require you to participate in graduation ceremonies because otherwise no one would go to those things. I don't see how that's a bad thing. If they tell me I have to, I'll fight it. I hate you, CSN. You tricked me into taking one more class, and I'd punch you in the face if you had one.

Anyhoo, that's life. Things are good, if a little boring. I wish something cool would happen like Josh would come down this weekend and I could give him the present I've been dying to show him for weeks. That'd be sweet. But I can only dream...

Big Bertha the Bruise

So I lost my makeup bag. It sucked, cause I had to use my mom's makeup on Sundays for church., and while I'm super grateful, (thanks, Mom!), it was still difficult for me because my mom uses a very monotone palate of brown. I can't do brown. I do every other color, but not brown. And I am a firm believer that lipstick should be colorful, not...brown.

Anyhoo, Stephanie found my bag hidden underneath the downstairs bathroom sink. Awesome. She was so happy to give it to me that she chucked it across the room to me. Since she didn't give me anything resembling a heads up, I noticed a flying blue bag out of the corner of my eye and caught it before it hit the floor...well, my knee caught it. It hurt.

I don't think Stephanie took into consideration how heavy makeup is. Especially hooker makeup, which is the only kind I know. I now have a giant bruise on my knee. I shall call her Bertha for her great size. She shall be known throughout the land as the finest bruise there ever was. And she will do great things.

Lisa the Awesome is Awesome!

Story's going well. Major points in the plot are coming together. Still a lot of danger to insert to make the storyline more thrilling, but it's going well. I'm super excited to be writing again! Huzzah!

Families and Feminists

Josh and Rachel looked through their "next blog" list to find out what other blogs were similar to theirs. That's cool, I thought. I'll try it. So I next blogged my way through half a dozen extremely boring family blog posts. Ugh. Family blogs. One of them was a crazy Christian woman who couldn't go three sentences without talking about Jesus. That's fine and all that she's proud of her faith, but it'd be really cool if all her sentences were related to one another and not randomly thrown together. I was getting pretty dejected over these lousy family blogs when I came across a feminist doula. Awe. Some. Now we're getting somewhere. This lady was super cool and had the same standpoint on breast-feeding as half my family. Plus she just got her masters in public health. I liked her.

So my blog may be similar to a bunch of boring old families with lots of pictures of the kids, but at least me and my pal the doula are similar, too. Stay strong, sista!

Lowered Expectations Make For Great Viewing

So my sister Emily and I have a time-honored tradition of going to the midnight premiere of the latest stupid twilight movie and quietly mocking it amidst the general screams and cheers of girlish fans. We enjoyed the past two experiences greatly, with much shared laughter. But this time, upon taking our seats, we were unable to laugh more than a few times. We barely snickered at the plot. Taylor Lautner was bare-chested fewer than ten times. Edward stopped looking painfully at Bella and started to actually say things. Even Bella was less annoying. We were so prepared for sheer idiocy (reminiscent of the terrible New Moon ordeal), that we were able to be blown away by the final movie.

Eclipse wasn't half bad. Of course, by movie standards I'd give it a C+, but by twilight standards, it gets an A. When you walk away from the laughable teenage sexual angst of New Moon, anything resembling substance suddenly seems like the greatest film ever made. Eclipse was just such an experience. Yes, it was overly long and the Bella/Edward scenes could have been cut in half, but the exciting action and the thrilling music score made for an enjoyable experience. Emily and I even agreed that we might rent this movie from a redbox at some point in the distant future. It was that not-sucky.

Employed Again!

So today I started training for my two new jobs. The first one is for Carl's Jr. I get to be the cashier because my new boss says she wants my winning smile out in front of the customers. Yippee. Then I drove 45 min downtown (behind the Bellagio, just past the Palms) and started training on shirt variations and sizing at this bridal and tuxedo renting place that caters to the casinos. I learned how to steam shirts, raise and lower hems, lengthen pants hems, package gowns, and measure men for tuxedos. Did you know that the pants are meant to start at a man's waist and not his hips? That's news to me. And also that you're supposed to leave a finger's-space in the collar after you measure it. Guy's shirt measurements are crazy weird. And women are worse.

But anyway, I'm pretty excited that I have work. Hooray! And next Monday I start school again. So long story short, when I applied for graduation at the community college two years ago, I was already at BYU, and the registrar's office totally sucked and never returned my calls. After a few semesters, I tried to contact them again, but I was confused because they kept claiming I had a class missing. Because CSN really, really sucks, I could not get ahold with an actual person to find out why I couldn't graduate or what class I was missing. So a couple of weeks ago, I walked into CSN's Cheyenne campus and spoke with a counselor (coming in first thing in the morning and still having to wait an hour). She told me I was missing a communications class and that I couldn't file for graduation without it. So I signed up for the class this summer.

I guess that wasn't really a long story short, but I am pretty excited that I'll have some sort of degree from somewhere. I've been telling everyone that I have an associate's in poli sci, but until the end of July, that's not necessarily true. So I've really got to buckle down, because even though summer classes are crazy short (my course is only 4 weeks long), they're super intensive. I've got class four days a week. And two new jobs. Finally, I'm productive again! Hooray!

Plus I got a new pair of work shoes today. So I'm pretty happy.

Summer Update

Did I tell you guys my family has a **GARDEN**??!! It's so pretty! We planted herbs and peppers and sunflowers and a whole buttload of other vegetables and flowers and stuff in this varied mixture of useless and useful plants. It is the coolest thing in the world to see the sunflowers growing taller than the corn stalks. The only downside is that we don't have sprinklers installed yet so we have to water them by hand twice a day and there are THREE TIERS of crap growing out there! That part really does suck. The back of my neck is sunburned. :(

In other news, I'm learning the cello. I'm on day 5 of practicing. I know I'm holding the bow wrong because my right hand keeps cramping up, but I can't remember the brief lessons I paid for, like, four years ago, so I can't remember all the things I "learned" back then. Oh well. Rachel1 is learning the violin so together we squeak through a few hymns every night. It's been hilarious to watch our family wince at our screeching. My parents have always been especially positive about music education, so they're 100% supportive of our sudden, random interest in string instruments. After years of trumpets, mellophones, French horns, flutes, oboes, bassoons, saxophones, clarinets, trombones, and pianos, they have to act really supportive over Rachel's and my new hobby. Even if it kills them, which it probably will--inexperienced cello players can burst ear drums. It's unholy the sounds that a bad cellist can create.

I'm also losing my summer tan early this year because it's too hot to read outside. Blah. Oh well, pale people are attractive too...in Japan. Seriously, though. My friend Lisa is half Japanese and extremely pale, and when she flew to Japan, people on the street stopped her frequently to touch her face and arms because she was so white. It's apparently very attractive there. Did you know those Japanese masks they make contain bleached bird poop? That's kind of cool. My old gate teacher told me that. Don't remember much about the Jason project or the Mars project anymore, but I remember the Japanese bird poop masks. It's crazy the things you remember, right? Or don't remember, as the case may be. As the case always friggin' is.

Anyhoo, that's what's going on in my life right now. What's new with everyone else?