The yard sale went pretty good. Sold a bunch of stuff and whatever didn't sell we donated - I did NOT want it back in the house. (Side note: Haha, it's 4:20). There's still a lot in the house that can be purged. I just ran out of time getting to it. But now that I don't have a looming must-do-this-by date, well I don't mind taking my time. Although I'll be cursing myself for sure as to why I didn't do it when I was so gung-ho to purge crap from the house.
Oh and most of the stuff in the garage needs to be trashed because we apparently have a water leakage problem down there. There seems to be a crack in the garage wall where a downpour spout comes and doesn't drain into the yard, it drains into the wall. Which it turns out it's impossible to drain into a wall and it just creates a crack and leaks into the house. Who knew? So now that Matt has weekends off he can no longer slack off on stuff to do around the house, as I will be home with him and can nag him to do it. Because if a wife isn't there to nag, then why is she there?
That was a lot of sarcasm for one paragraph.
My birthday was this past weekend. It was nice. Matt took me out to eat on Saturday night. We went to Wolfgang Puck's in Cool Springs. They had a hockey game on Versus, so that was nice to sit there and watch it. I really want cable now so I can watch more hockey. But I digress. On Sunday we went to my Dad's house and he took us out to eat at Macaroni Grill. It was good. I got some nice gifts including a new game for the Wii. Carnival Games is really fun. If you get the chance to play it, you should. Good times. I also got XM radio for a year.
I love it. It's really great. I had also gotten Predators playoff tickets, but of course it was before my birthday. Matt and I bought each other a ticket to game 2 here at home. Then my Dad got us tickets to game 3 here at home for our birthdays. So I got a little hockey-ness thrown in there as well.
With the money I received for my birthday I bought myself a new digital camera. It's a Nikon Coolpix. I really love it. Major upgrade from my 3.2 megapixel Cybershot. It's got 8 megapixels! 8! It was on sale at Best Buy for $150 and it came with a case & a 1gig memory card. Score! I also went ahead and bought a home kit of my XM radio with birthday money as well. That way I can listen to it in the house as well and catch more hockey games on it.
Some of the sales people at work took me out for lunch as well on Monday. That was really nice of them to do it and I really appreciated it. It's nice to work somewhere where they treat you nicely.
I'm now ready for my vacation next week. I'm not actually going anywhere, just hanging out at the house. But I'm really looking forward to it. I just really need a break from work. Especially from one certain aspect of my job. It'll be nice not to have to worry about that for a week. Also after this week, I'm going to need a break! I've been busy every night this week! Well Tuesday I didn't actually go out, but I had to set up the meeting between Matt and the poster on Craigslist for a new phone. Matt accidentally dropped and broke his during the yard sale on Saturday. We found someone on Craigslist selling the same phone I have (The original LG V) for $50! Yesterday we ran around town until 9p! Tonight I'm going to help a friend here at work unpack some of her stuff after her move this weekend, since I wasn't able to help this weekend. First I have to stop by the vet though, cause Lucy has some weird white spot on her paw pad. Hopefully it's nothing bad. I'm hoping it's a fungus or something easy to fix. Just cause I hate to think of her hurting. She's my little girl!
Alright, I gotta go finish some stuff. Here's a picture of Zoe running around town with us this week that I really like.
Well I have actually done some purging of stuff for the yard sale! I've gotten all of the office purged of stuff to sell & of course any trash that happened to be in there. I got about 5 boxes worth of stuff! So that's good. But it took like 2 nights to go thru it. So tonight I would start on the bedroom. Except I'm soooooo tired. Like I could just go home and CRASH. But I know if I do that, then I won't get as much stuff in the yard sale as I'd like to and any money I can make from this would rock. That's what's keeping me going with getting home and doing it. It sucks right now though, cause Matt is sick, so I'm also making dinner first THEN working on getting stuff in boxes. So that's a good hour taken out of my night just getting dinner together.
My mom emailed me today to go eat lunch either tomorrow or Friday for my birthday. I went ahead and planned for tomorrow. Part of me just doesn't want to because of my self-imposed distance from her until she gets 3 months sober. Just cause I don't want this to be seen as some door opening. The only thing that will open the door completely is going to a meeting with her to see her get her 3 month chip. The door is still open...in case of emergency or something. But I don't want to give some false impression. BUT I'm also curious as to what it will be like. I'm nervous. I know I shouldn't be, but I am. I don't want her to try and lay any kind of guilt trip on me. I talked to Matt about it via text and I let him know that I had already planned on taking some cash so I could just throw some money down and walk out if things get to ridiculous with her. Cause I want her to understand that our relationship will not be the same. I can't be unguarded around her anymore. That level of trust is gone, once and for all. It survived the first round of drinking, but hasn't survived the second round. But I still want to have a relationship with her. Cause she's my mom! But things will have to be different so that I don't get walked on anymore.
I've realized in the past few years that I really need to do that with a lot of people more often. I allow too many people to walk over me and it just doesn't need to happen anymore. So. I'm trying to be a grown up and not let that happen. You think it'd be empowering and great, but it's really hard!
Anyway, another reason I'm nervous is that I don't want to give myself a false hope that things are on track to her getting sober. Because I seriously don't think they are. Granted, I don't know cause I haven't talked to her much. It's been a few sentence emails here and there about random shit. But I don't want to have that hope. Cause I'll just get disappointed. It's better to be pleasantly surprised than hopeful now and feel stupid later.
We'll see how it goes. For now I shall go home and purge some more. I'm just glad with the fact that I've actually done that and not slacked off there. Woo!
Yeah, I was all gung-ho about getting stuff into boxes for the yard sale. Did I do any of it? Not even for a second! So now this week I'm REALLY going to have to get down and get stuff into boxes. Especially since Matt starts his new job next week and we really have got to get the office in order so we can put Zoe and her new crate in there. Of course, I can't really rely on Matt to help me out with any of it, even if he were feeling well. So because of that I'm not spending any of the money I make on it for him. I'd still like to take the class at Watkins, but if for some reason it's already full by the time I get the money together, it's still not going towards anything we would share. I'll put it in my savings account or something. Childish, yes. But I'm okay with that. /end bitterness> lol
So everyone at work (except for one person) forgot about Administrative Professionals Day. I know I'm appreciated, cause they show me throughout the year. They totally forgot though. But on Friday they called us all in the conference room and gave the 4 of us that are considered Administrative Professionals some cash! So that was pretty sweet.
On Saturday my Dad and I went to the flea market. It was definitely nice weather to go, it had thunderstormed very early in the morning, so it was still cloudy and cool when we got there and only got sunny about the time we were ready to leave. I got a couple of stuff, my favorite being these elephant candle holders. I'll have to take a picture once I get them cleaned some more. They were very badly tarnished so I bought some brass cleaner and cleaned them Saturday night, but they're going to need another run-thru of the cleaner.
We also went to The Aquatic Critter on Nolensville Road and I got some fish! I wanted to get an angelfish and some others, but they suggested these two tiger-something fish to start with to cycle the tank for 3-6 weeks. Then we'll take them back and get a credit on them and we can get the other fish that don't handle brand new tanks too well. I was very impressed with the people who work there. & their website is also very helpful! I read what they had to start a new tank and it's going well so far! I feel kinda bad about having the fish and then taking them back in 3-6 weeks to get fish I want. Cause I'm just using them. But they don't know that. The guy that helped us out though said these fish are good starter fish, because they're not very social and will get picked on by bigger fish when we get the bigger fish. I don't want to just use them, but I don't want them getting picked on. I guess that's their job. It's all cool.
Rock on! So Watkins has this community education program. I love it btw, I did the Black and White Photo Lab one summer. It was great and a nice chance to continue developing my own film and pictures. I do miss that sometimes. Anyway, this summer they have two computer imaging classes Intro to Adobe Illustrator/In-design CS2 & Photoshop I. I prefer to take the Adobe Illustrator/In-design class. I think that will be more of what I can use here at work and to help me advance into designing stuff around here, not just for work, but also for clients.
But, considering it's going to be $215 for either class, I'm going to have to raise some money first. Cause yeah, Matt's going to be making more at his new job, but he doesn't start it until the 5th of May. So the extra money flow won't be felt right away. Luckily though, Matt's family is having a yard sale and have offered to let us sell stuff at it. & luckily I want to get rid of A LOT of stuff at the house. We've got about 6 years worth of crap (cause we carried a lot over from college) that we never use anymore and we just need to get rid of. I'm hoping to make about $100 at the yard sale, which I think is doable. One year I had one and made enough to pay for Matt's tuxedo rental when he was in his friends wedding.
The yard sale is on the 3rd of May though, so I'm pretty much going to go home tonight and box up as much crap from our office as I can. I gotta clean it out anyway, cause we're going to put Zoe in her new crate in there when Matt starts his job. I don't want anything within chewing distance to her. I also need to start watching more movies for my 300 total for melflix.com cause I don't want to be holding off too much or I'll never get the 300 done. I think I can work for about 2 hours tonight when I get home and then watch a movie after that...right? Oh crap, I also have to wash my hair tonight (it does take a while - well not the washing part - but I do have to straighten it out with this new haircut). Hmm. Eff it! I can do it!
While I am disappointed that the Preds didn't make it past Round 1, at least I don't have to worry about making time to catch the game until it starts up again. Although I am trying to follow the rest of the Stanley Cup playoffs. I'm just very much a newbie to hockey, so I really only know my team. I don't know enough about the rest of the teams to follow. But I'm going to try. Cause now I like hockey too much and want to hear/see it year round. In fact, I'm asking for XM radio for my birthday so I can listen to the NHL channel. In less than a year, I turned into a hockey girl. Who knew?
Yeah yeah, haven't updated in forever. Whatev! Although it is cool to read when I was offered my job. Almost my one year mark. I like it. I'm glad I have this job and no longer feel like I'm a terrible employee. In fact, they've made me feel so good about the work I'm doing there that I'm getting offered graphic gigs and am planning on auditing some classes. So yay job and me.
So my dad came by this morning and picked me up early. We headed to the flea market. I found a few stuff, nothing big. I did get a cool old Mickey Mouse club kaleidoscope for my mom, from the MMC of her era. She can add that to her kaleidoscope collection. I actually really do hope I inherit that. I'm laying claim on that, Jeremy's not getting it.
Anyway, then Dad took me shopping for new work clothes. At my old job I could wear jeans and such. Just as long as I looked presentable. But I need to look more professional at my new job, so he got me some clothes and shoes. My mom had taken me out on Tuesday night and bought me new clothes too. So I have an assload of new work clothes. Which is great, cause I really only had about 3 professional looking outfits. I should be good to go now.
Then we went to Best Buy and he bought me 2 DS games for my birthday (Cake Mania & Sims 2 Pets). Matt's gonna get me Cookin' Mama for DS. I told him about the Wii and he decided he wanted to get that for both me and Matt for our birthdays (mine is May 4 & his is May 16th). So I had Matt call around town and the Wal-Mart on Charlotte had 3 Wiis in. Only place in town too. So we drove over there and Dad got us a Wii along with 2 games. It already came with Wii Sports and I picked out Rayman and Wario Smooth Moves. He also got an extra remote so Matt and I can play together.
We're so excited. Matt's playing Rayman right now. My dad and I set it up when we got home and we played bowling and boxed. It was fun!
I got a call yesterday and they offered me the job. :D Last night me, Matt and my mom went to PF Chang's to celebrate. Then we went down to Borders and my mom bought me a book. It's really good so far, I only just started reading it last night. But I really do like it. I had read excerpts from it in Reader's Digest and had seen some news program do a spot about this story. Plus lookit the cover!! WHAT A CUTE PUPPY FACE!!
I went today to the station and met various people there. I get my own office! Fancy.
The guy that I have to fill out paperwork with was out sick today. So I'll have to go back probably tomorrow to sign official paperwork and all that. I'm nervous, but only because it's a new job. New jobs are exciting but bring on the nerves. I know for a fact I can do the job and do it well, so I'm not worried about being able to handle it. Plus it's a big office with a real corporation backing them, so there's actually set rules on how to act with employees, unlike my last job. That definitely makes me feel good. That and the fact that it doesn't seem like there's someone like my old boss there.
It'll be a change for the doggies, me having a job. They've gotten used to me being home all the time with them. They'll get used to me being back at work so it won't be a big deal. But for a little while they'll probably wonder why they can't roam around the house.
So I caught the funk from Matt. :p My throat's been all sore and scratchy today. I got sick on Thursday and got over the stuffiness and now it's in the throat. :( Suck.
Matt and I went to one of my friend's birthday dinner last night. (That sentence doesn't sound right, but I'm gonna leave it. The general gist is there). It was fun and I even enjoyed my Mexican food. Kinda. The flour part of the enchilada was kinda gross, but the spinach and cheese was good. We couldn't go out with them afterwards though, cause Matt had to go to work this morning. So we left after dinner and came on home. We did stop by Hollywood Video first and rented Harvest Moon: Another Wonderful Life. It's really fun, I was up all night playing it. Then I woke up this morning and played it some more.
I've gotta call about the same job tomorrow that I've been chasing after for a month now. Oy, I wish they'd just give me SOME kind of answer. Yes or no. I'll even take a no at this point. (Although I don't really want to). Oh and last night I found out that a mutual friend was helping the birthday girl get a job at her place. :/ I mean, yeah, she's helped me get in touch with the right people when I tried to get a job there, it just didn't work out. But still, doesn't mean another chance wouldn't work out. That kind of hurt, cause unemployed! Three months over here! Not even living paycheck to paycheck anymore. We're just floating. I don't know why it bothered me, it shouldn't. I shouldn't be surprised, that seems to happen to me a lot. I should be used to it now.
It's a good thing my medicine has been upped. 3 months of this and then other great life situations make for one hell of a lame time right now.
I want to be an expert who appears on CBS Sunday Morning. I love the way their pieces are written and edited on that show. Thus I want to be one of their experts who appear in a segment.
So two *more* of my teeth have been hurting and because they're hurting the same way, I have a feeling that means I'll have to get 2 more root canals. Which sucks, because it would be on the roof of my mouth and the shots to numb that up hurt like a motherfucker. I mean, just thinking about it hurts my mouth. Shots in the cheek or on the bottom part of my mouth don't hurt as much as the roof. I actually screamed when I got my last root canal when they put the shot in. Matt heard me scream in the waiting room. Eep.
Dad is back from Japan. I made him a welcome home sign when I went to pick him up at the airport. He really seemed to like it. He got lots of cool Hello Kitty stuff for me. :D Very fun.
I tried to help wrangle some dogs that were loose in the neighborhood today. They had collars and tags on, so I wanted to get them so we could see where they belonged and call their owners. But the dogs kept running away from me. I followed them for a while down the street, but they really didn't want to be caught, so I eventually gave up. I just hate dogs getting loose in our neighborhood because we live on such a busy street and cars drive too fast around here. :( But they finally got off our street and went into some of the back streets and that's where I left them. If I hadn't had to cross the street I would have used Zoe to lure them to me, since she's such a friendly dog.
It just makes me sad to see dogs walking around, obviously not at home. I know how sad I was when Lucy ran away the first night we got her. I definitely don't think she'd run away now, but if she did, oh crap. I would be even worse than I was that first night.
Speaking of Lucy she's now pushing up against me. I better go get to pettin her cause she won't stop!
My dad is in Japan right now. He's been there for 2 weeks and he has 2 more weeks to go. That's BAD ASS! His job sent him over there. He has a flickr account here. I told him to sign up for one so I could look at pictures in case he wasn't online for me to catch him.
These are just SOME of my favorites so far:
The first one is a Japanese Wedding that was taking place at a temple he went to. It's cherry blossom season over there right now. So he's getting lots of great shots of Cherry Blossom trees in bloom. The third one is at another temple. People pray in front of the statues and place items on them. & the last one are some Koi fish at one of the temples he went to. He said they act like his do at home (he's got a pond in his yard), they expected him to feed them. lol, I love my dad.
I know when Matt sees these pictures he's gonna be so jealous. I'd love to take Matt there someday. Japan to him is what France is to me. It's his dream destination. I'd love to take him.
I'm excited for when Dad gets home, cause he's gonna have lots of great stories to tell. That and he's bringing me back Hello Kitty souvenirs. :D OH YEAH!
Damn, I didn't realize it was almost 2am. We went out to Risa and Chris's for her birthday. I totally forgot everything I was supposed to bring. I was supposed to take Alias season 2 out there and a blender. We just stopped at Target and bought a $20 one, cause we didn't want to drive all the way back to the north side of town. Funny thing is the blender we bought blended better than the one at home would have. They're coming out here on Monday for some gaming so she can get Alias then. & we get our new blender back.
Matt played chess with me on their chess set we bought Chris for Christmas. I really liked that chess set, it's very nice. Matt said Well we should get the Star Wars one then. I was like, NO! No more Star Wars! I want a nice set like this one. I just have to put my foot down on the Star Wars thing. Dammit.
There's a job that I've interviewed twice for that I have a good shot of getting. I would be perfect in this job and it's in radio. I definitely want it and would WAIL at it. I find out sometime at the beginning of the week. Word.
I'm goin to bed after I comment on some more of my dad's pictures.
