too much work and feeling gray

It's seemed like a long couple of days; I haven't been getting enough sleep, which is entirely my fault, and wonderful, because I'm spending more time with a person I enjoy.

To continue to update: I worked at Starbucks a lot this last week. I'm not sure how much longer I can handle it. It's so dramatic and energetically oppressive there. I hope something new comes up and I: find a great work environment, make more money, and am comfortable.

Today I felt gray. The idea of gray came from my friend Chad, talking about things being black and gray and the sky and it's been snowing here for the last 36 hours (it feels like). The snow is not piling up or anything, and it was charming at first, but it's just so....cold and wet and I want to have to wear my sunglasses. I felt gray; that was the point of the last couple of sentences. I feel better now. I figured out that Starbucks is wearing on me, no matter how I try to stay out of the drama and craziness going on there, I suppose it's affecting me anyway. I'm also sad I didn't get to go to my dad's side Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday. I was maybe going to get off work early so I could go, but it didn't end up working out that way. I did end up going to Blue Koi and Tootsies with Gregg (my friend) and we had a great time. FYI: warm saki tastes like gasoline; I wouldn't suggest it.

I had the morning off today. I went to Phoenix Herb Company and picked up some more Market Spice (favorite tea!), and some other health teas, and went by Whole Foods, and I got some more of my protein powder and tofu, and we perused the shampoo aisle and smelled lots of them. We came back and made lunch together (steak and garlic bread and we had some wine) and we tried to watch Maltese Falcon but fell asleep and had an impromtu nap. I didn't feel well at all when I woke up so I didn't work this evening for PKD. I'm so glad I had a whole day off; I felt like I wasn't myself part of the day today. But I took a hot bath, finished my audiobook (The Time Traveler's Wife - seriously fantastic and tragic and wonderful), drank some hot tea, made myself soup, started making some more things for Christmas, as well as worked on some other things for Christmas, made spaghetti squash and steamed broccoli and watched 3 episode of The Office that I needed to catch up on. I'm one episode behind in Heroes, so maybe I'll watch that tomorrow night. We'll see.

I have a friend from Y.O.U. coming into town on December 16 and I'm trying to find him and his band a place to play that evening. I also am going to probably have them stay the night here, unless they have a place to stay already. There are 3 guys and a girl in the band, and I'm sure I can find a place for everyone.

So I should be off to sleep. I feel much better but still need some wink-eye.

happy turkyness

I repainted my toenails. The OPI color is "Met on the Internet". LOL. That cracks me up. My hands smell like potatoes from chopping 10 lbs, and I'm craving the tartness of cranberries; I'm wearing newish jeans, a gray tanktop, a black long sleeve shirt, my cowboy boots and I like my hair today. What else can I say? I slept at my parents house last night, and I actually slept well. I thought it would be weird to not sleep at my place, but it was alright. I suppose I'll be doing that Christmas Eve as well. I brought Maebe which worked really well too (and I didn't worry about her being alone because she was with me!)

Want to know some secrets? I think the muppets are excrusiatingly strange, but they usually make me laugh; Here are some more secrets: I despise the sound of football on tv, but don't mind it on the radio (maybe if I end up with someone who likes football, they'll listen to the radio, and watch the tv on mute?), I think parades are a little bizarre; I'm a sucker for: old movies, tattoos, vampires, geeks, spicy food and lots of other things. I also really love Christmas.

Here's what else I have to do today: make the escalloped corn, put together the green bean casserole, boil the potatoes, and put it all in the oven. I suppose I have to prep the Turkey too, but that doesn't seem that it'll be that difficult.

Justin and Debbie are coming over at 12:30, and hopefully we'll play wii, and cards, and other things until we eat at 3ish. I want to see Twilight ( have this conflict with seeing a movie before I read the book, but I can stop being so ocd about it). So maybe we'll go see a movie; it seems like it's going to be insanely busy - we'll see. I hope to see him at some point regardless of a movie.

So, Happy Thanksgiving to all that are reading. I will be cooking, playing, crafting, napping, watching movies, etc for the rest of the day and I hope the same for you. :)

Thanksgiving for things.

I had a great day!

I slept 11 hours last night, woke up, cleaned up my apartment, made some crafty things that I can't write about on here because they are presents for people that read this. So, as I really really want to post photos of the lovely things I'm making, I cannot, because surprises are the best things ever. I made green bean casserole, and went to work at the Foundation. We had a Thanksgiving Potluck tonight, so we made calls for about 45 minutes, then Vernice showed up, and we had our potluck! Then Mark let us go home early, it was quite nice. We went around the table and said things we were grateful for, and I mentioned that the people I work with are lovely, kind, funny and it's just a great work environment that I wanted to thank them for that. It's exactly the type of work environment for which I was searching, so I am truly happy I have that job.

Tonight my friend Chad is over and we're watching a movie, and drinking ice tea, and Amanda stopped by to drop her keys off (I'm watching her cat Zelda while she's out of town for the weekend).

Tomorrow I work at Starbucks, and then go to my parents to prepare for Thanksgiving.

sleep will be so good.

I got my macbook fixed! It only took an hour - which was awesome; I got a full new keyboard, trackpad and handrest! I went and sat at Starbucks on the Plaza while I waited. I worked all weekend, went to see Seussical (which was really cute!), worked some more, ate Thai on Saturday night and not sure what else; I just remember that my weekend was full and wonderful. I missed my friend Sherman's bday gathering because my car's acting up. I need to go get my heat shield tightened (that's what we figured out).

Here are the things I know: I am totally worn out. I need about 12 hours of sleep and I was thinking, while working tonight at the Foundation, maybe I could come in later than 9 at Starbucks. So I called them to see if we were over-scheduled. And guess what? I don't have to work in the morning. I guess I wrote my schedule down incorrectly. NO WAY. yes way; holy goodness, I'm so excited. I'm going to sleep, clean up my loft, send out an invitation for people to come over for wine and cheese before the next first fridays, pick out paint colors for my walls, make some christmas gifts, take another nap, make some green bean casserole for the Thanksgiving party at the Foundation.

Things have been going really well and I'm happy. I'm sorry I haven't updated in a couple days. I have been working split shifts and not taking my laptop with me. Hopefully I'll have some downtime this Thanksgiving. This is our menu for Thanksgiving:

Turkey
Mashed Potatoes & Gravy
Stuffing
Green Bean Casserole
Escalloped Corn
Sweet Potatoes
Watergate Salad
Hawaiian Rolls

I think that's it! I'm super excited about my lovely day off tomorrow, and the rest of the week will be full! I work 9 hours on Black Friday at Starbucks (which will be INSANE - but at least the day will go by quickly). Ciao for now.

marriage, etc.

I'm not sure if I'm normal in this arena or not; I probably am. This has only happened a couple times in my life that I can recall. Someone that I used to be close to got married. It's this odd-oh-shit-we're-growing-up feeling, mixed in with some nostalgia, a little twist of saddness that I am not yet married (but I'm not upset about this in normal moments). There's another element of happiness for that person because, although they don't have a role in your life anymore, it's comforting to think that they have their own world of which to be a part. We all truly are the center of our own world; and I don't mean that in a negative "egoist" sort of way, but it is ego, and ego is there, regardless of judgement.

I read A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle this last summer and it was amazing. My comment about the ego reminded me of this book. I will read it again after I'm done with The Time Traveler's Wife, which is a great novel. In Tolle's book, he talks about ego and how it is fed and how it grows; it's part of being human, and he doesn't use that fact to justify the absurd behavior of the ego, but writes about it so as to make the reader aware.

That's really all I wanted to write about, marriage, babies, ego, and longing, growing up, happiness, books, and the list continues. I'm off to take my computer to the apple doctor. :)

my big amazing loft.

I have the most wonderful loft in the entire world; I'm serious. I'll show you sometime, I'll upload photos. I've been pretty lazy about photos (not sure why, probably because I've been lazy about lots of things).

Today went well, I went to the Apple store after trying to make an appointment online, and made an appointment there, for tomorrow morning before work. I have to drop my macbook off, so I'm not sure how long I'll be without my computer, probably a day or two - just fyi.

I went by Wild Oats (Whole Foods) and bought some tofu, and bought more of my favorite tea from Phoenix Herb Company, then I stopped by the sbux at City Center and talked with my friends, and came home, made some more Christmas presents (I hope everyone likes them this year) and rested my eyes for about 10 minutes, and went to work.

I seriously do get to talk with some of the kindest people in the world, and some of the snappiest. The kind people just warm my heart. I love talking with people! I never realized how much I like listening and conversing; I hope that doesn't sound bad, but I really do like it.

So I should be off to bed, long day tomorrow with Apple store, both jobs, etc. In between jobs I will go to my parents and chill for an hour - that will be nice. Until tomorrow!

flowers and other pretty things.

Chad brought flowers last night - which I LOVE; they're beautiful. We also figured out that his parents and my mom went to high school together. Funny.

Today I woke up, stayed in bed for over an hour researching christmas gift ideas. Chad asked me what I wanted for christmas last night, I'm not sure. I emailed my brother a couple weeks ago a copy and paste from my Amazon wish list and this is what it said:

items that are expensive:
wii/wii fit/wii music
apple time capsule
kindle: amazon's wireless reading device
large shag rug for my living room (or a jute rug)
for my posters to be framed

rowenta iron and ironing board

dvd:
arrested development seasons 1-3
futurama seasons 1-4
the office seasons 1-4

books/magazines:
the homeopathy bible: the definitive guide to remedies
readymade magazine subscription
craft: transforming traditional crafts magazine subscription
the new yorker magazine subscription
mary engelbreits home companion magazine subscription
craft: transforming traditional crafts, vol. 1
craft, volume 2: transforming traditional crafts

I'm really into magazines lately. Also, I really want a Wii Fit, but I think I'm going to be saving up for that myself - it's a rather expensive thing, especially because I'd need a Wii first. hah. yutttttttt7u8 (and that was Maebe walking across the keyboard - she does that quite a bit).

I need to go get my macbook fixed, my handrest cracked and I just don't want to have to leave it at the Apple store for 2 weeks. I don't wanna! I love my computer and I rely on it and spend several hours on it daily: looking for jobs, looking for craft projects, designing stuff, coming up with more ways to spend my time like blog, use facebook, check my email repeatedly, etc. Not to mention I should be writing my thesis (lol). Here's the thing. I can write an "exhibition catalog" for my thesis, but what do I want to write about? I need to figure this out and finish this. I want to finish my thesis my February, graduate by May, and do Teach for America next year.

I may take my macbook by the apple store before work and see how long they think it would take to fix. I just read a blog entry that the guy said he had the same problem and they fixed it in an hour. YAY - maybe I'll be so lucky.

I cut some fabric for christmas gifts for a couple hours this morning, and now I'll shower, go to the Apple store, not be so addicted to the internet, buy some tofu, and work at 5! I work both jobs tomorrow (sbux and pkd) and then Friday I work sbux, and am going to Seussical with Chad (I bet it's going to be wonderfully cheerful).