Busy busy busy

I have certainly had no problems falling asleep within minutes of laying my head down on my pillow. I haven't been out and about and so busy so much since before Matt left a month ago. Yesterday, for example, we got up, chilled out for a little while. Then I made eggs. Then we had two apartment showings (one that didn't show up) and had to look at a place on the 16th floor. In order to prepare for those showings we had to clean up the apartment and hide the cats. Then we went out grocery shopping. Then we came home for about an hour, cleaned up a little and went out to eat. Then we headed to a production of Grease (very entertaining.)

I got home and was asleep within 5 minutes. It's nice to have him home again :)

Anyway, all of this new stuff on top of keeping up with school has my head spinning a bit. But it's a good type of spinning, not 'oh no I just drank too much I'm going to puke now' spinning. :P

Hooray!

After a month, Matt is finally home. I am so glad. It amazes me that simply having him around makes everything ok. I was able to fall asleep at a normal time, got up at a normal time, have been able to thoroughly clean the apartment, and just feel happier.

He has to work on New Year's Eve, which bums me out a little, but it's really not that big of a deal. I am going to get us tickets to a production of Grease tonight. We were going to go on New Year's Eve, but I have learned how the Navy works and decided to wait to see if he has to work first.

I also got us tickets to the Pro Bowl in February. I am so excited! We live about a mile from the stadium. It should be a great time.

Child infestation

It's Christmas blah blah blah. Today I am going to discuss a problem that I see plaguing America - child infestation in businesses. Those of you with children might not understand my point of view (sorry Mom, you're out-numbered here.) How many times has your meal at a resturaunt been ruined by child infestation? Screaming, yelling, bratty children.

Now, if a business were required to post a sign on the door stating that it was a child infested area, I would know to go someplace else to eat. We could even set up a child infestation rating system, similar to the terror alerts. Green would mean all's clear, come on in and enjoy a quiet meal. Yellow would mean 'we saw a child enter the premisis, but is a quiet one, enter at your own risk.' Orange would mean 'one fussy child, you might get lucky and be on the other side of the resturaunt, not recommended however.' Red would be the mother of them all meaning 'total child infestation, you may as well not even enter.'

I doubt any businesses are going to risk losing customers, so my rating system is out. I would also settle for a special sound-proof child infested room. Imagine the poor waitress that has to take that room. Screaming kids, flying food, yelling parents, and crappy tips.

Everything is funny tonight

So I was driving Matt's sister to the airport (she moved back home to help with their mom) and I was listening to the radio. Of course, all that's on is Christmas music. All of the sudden I burst out laughing because the song was "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas." Yeah.

Then I stopped to get gas and cash. I went in to pay, and the Hawaiian man at the counter was singing along to a Christmas song. What was he singing? An Alan Jackson rendition of Frost the Snowman. This just struck me as really funny as well.

The simplicity of a child's life

Once upon a time there was a town of people. They were little people that lived a very simplistic lifestyle. They only wore one color on their shirts. They didn't wear pants because they didn't have legs. They drove around in little people cars. They would drive through the town's Main Street, which had a bank, a general store, a pet store, a police and fire station, but not much else.

These little people lived in a co-op type of environment. They only had one house that everyone shared. They had a farm with a barn and farm animals. They had a school house so their children could be educated and play at recess. Sometimes they would ride a train on orange railroad tracks with some of the Sesame Street characters. I remember one little people in particular. His name was Green Green and he was the baby of the group. My sister Tracy would always play with him and make his baby voice.

I am laughing so hard right now I have tears running down my face. I have a feeling that only my sisters and maybe my parents will get it. For those of you that didn't grow up with me, we had these Playschool Little People as toys. This thought just crossed my mind while I was trying to take a nap before. Ah to be a child again where your biggest worry is not wanting to take a nap and play with little people instead.

Weird dreams

I have been having some very strange dreams. I just woke up from a nap, and I'll share a little of this last one with you.

I was excited because I got to go to sea with Matt. Only instead of his sub, they were taking out a what they called a "war ship." It was a very old looking sailing ship. There were a couple of times where I was eating at this restaurant with random people. At the end of the dream, I saw a couple of people that I knew from high school, Charity Chandler and her brother Rob, Jeff Martin, and someone else sit walk past me and sit down to eat. Then I was shopping for supplies with a couple of Matt's supposed shipmates. We were buying cigarettes and Playboy's for the ship's captain, who turned out to be Derek Schipper, my old boss at tech support.

Then we boarded the ship, and all of the sudden my sister Jessie and I were putting together a model ship and I told her to put on the sail. Then I was back on Matt's "war ship." I kept asking him if it was really ok with his captain that my brother Matt and I come along. I went down to the lower deck and there were sections made of all glass so you could see through the bottom. I was sitting there with a random sailor and he kept talking about the beauty of life. I could hear the dolphins chattering away.

Then I was on a rocky beach watching a little girl and an older man. I saw the dolphins playing in the water. The little girl was yelling at the man for throwing rocks at the dolphins and she attacked him and tried to get him to push her down. When he finally did, she screamed and the ship's crew came running. Then I was back on the ship and went to sleep in a filing cabinet.

Yeah, so this is very typical of the really weird dreams that I have been having. I just thought I'd share. :P

Sweet, sweet technology

I know I have probably posted about this before, but it is worth mentioning again. I love technology. The only thing that I can't seem to do from the Internet, which is preventing me from becoming a complete recluse, is grocery shopping. But they have it in certain areas, and it will soon be widespread hahahaha.

I can shop for just about everything else that I need online. I have ordered cheese from Wisconsin and had it delivered here in a refridgerated package in excellent condition. Matt and I don't like the crappy California cheese they have out here. I no longer have to send bills out late because I forgot yet again to get stamps. I use special software from the post office, buy postage, and print it onto special labels provided by them. I do all of my banking online, including making my student loan payments, credit card payments, and cell phone payments. I can make changes to my cell phone plan on the fly, and can also view how many minutes I have left for the month. I won't even consider a bank if it doesn't offer online banking. I can buy movie tickets online and pick them up right at the movie window, which means I rarely have to stand in line. I did ALL of my Christmas shopping online this year. Don't forget the fact that I am attending college online, either.

If you haven't jumped on the Internet bandwagon or are still one of those people that believe that it's just a phase, think again. More and more companies are wising up and offering free shipping if you order online. This has made my life much easier and enjoyable!!

I need help from the smokers

Earlier this week I had a very bad day. It was the day that I drove around the island. Anyway, I bought a pack of cigarettes and smoked them. I don't like to keep secrets from Matt, so I told him about it. I apologized for it. I told him that I know that I screwed up and that I am really trying hard to quit.

This isn't good enough for him. His advice for me is 'just don't do it.' This was the first pack that I had since mid-October, by the way. For all of you smokers that read my site, please post here on how difficult it is to quit. He just doesn't understand.

Whoooooa duuuuuude (deep thought)

There has always been a lot of hype about global warming and how we're killing our atmosphere blah blah blah. Scientists and environmental activists are telling us ways that we can stop it. Don't use styrofoam. Look at how much styrofoam has gone away since then - fast food places stopped using it and went to recycled cardboard. The synthetics of existing styrofoam have been altered to become more "environmentally friendly", eliminating the CFC's that supposedly kill our ozone layer every time you snap a piece of styrofoam. Businesses are being fined millions for not taking measures to stop pollution.

Now, perhaps, could all of this fuss be over something that is bound to happen no matter what? Are we (the human race) just attempting to use our technology and intellect to delay nature? Don't ask me where that thought came from because I don't know. I was just minding my own business playing EQ2 when it popped up. :P

Movie review - Spongebob Squarepants

I consider myself to be somewhat of a Spongebob Squarepants fan, so while I was out getting something to eat at the mall today, I decided to watch the new Spongebob movie. I own the first season on DVD and have watched every episode at least twice. Spongebob is a very funny cartoon, and in my opinion, is actually not really one for children. There is much more appeal to adults.

In this movie, for example, Spongebob and his best pal Patrick go to their favorite eating establishment to help Spongebob work through the fact that he was passed up for a promotion. They were sitting at the (ice cream) bar, ordering round after round of sundaes. They are then shown on stage singing obnoxiously, then woken up the next morning having passed out on the floor.

Spongebob goes into work and cusses out his manager, looking like total hell. This was obviously more of a thing for the adults in the audience, as I doubt kids are going to get the fact that they were drunk.

Anyway, the movie was entertaining, and I was the only one in the theater laughing at it.

Profound discoveries

Approximately once a week, I experience what I have come to call a "profound discovery." This is something that has been in front of me all along, but my brain has simply never made an association before. The best way to describe this is with an example. Here's the one that just happened about one minute ago.

I was doing some research for school, and I came upon the word "percent." I don't know why I never realized this before, but the word is made up of the words "per" and "cent." Per meaning "of each" and cent meaning "one hundred." Therefor, the word "percent" means "of each one hundred." Which is exactly what it means.

As I said, these happen on average of once per week, and are usually very random. I just thought I'd share :P

If you're ever in a rut, come to Hawaii

I had a bit of the blues this morning, so I decided to go for a drive to clear my head. I would do this on occasion back in Wisconsin. I picked a road, and decided to follow it until it ended. I was certainly able to clear my head and more.

I ended up driving all the way around the island. It took me about 2.5 hours. I never stopped to get out of the car, other than to get gas. Once I got out of the city, it didn't take long before I was able to concentrate on nothing but the beauty that surrounded me. It is December, but I drove with the windows down and I was very warm with the sun beating on me. I saw just about everything, including pineapple fields and coffee tree fields. I saw very large waves on all coasts of the island. I drove within feet of the strikingly blue Pacific Ocean. I saw gorgeous bays that I hadn't seen before. I heard exotic birds singing (over the punk music I had playing.) I saw mountains suddenly springing out of the ocean. I saw surfers surfing.

As fast as I found myself by the ocean, I was driving on a highway at least 200 feet off the ground, through a tunnel in the mountains about a mile long. The mountains were blanketed with rich green life. I wish I would have had a camera with me, but I will certainly be driving this route again with someone else driving so I can get some awesome shots.

There was a stretch of about 40 minutes where I didn't see a McDonald's, Taco Bell or Wendy's. All I saw were homemade signs for homemade food in roadside stands. I didn't have any cash so I didn't stop to enjoy it. There were no apartment buildings, only small beachfront homes or mountain cabins.

Before long, though, I saw a McDonald's. Then another. Then I was back home. I had achieved my goal, though, and cleared my head and was in a better mood. If you ever need to get away, let me know and I'll gladly take you on my route. :)

Becoming a cat

I have had a lot of time to observe cat behavior recently, and I have concluded that I am becoming a cat. I sleep when I feel like it, often just naps and not really ever "going to bed." I seem to be primarily nocturnal. I talk to my cats. If I start to understand what they're saying back, start to worry :P

Otherwise not a whole lot is going on. I've moved into productive mode the last two days. Yesterday I took hold of our finances, sat down with Microsoft Money and made a budget, entered all of our accounts into it, and have a savings plan in place. Today was cleaning day. I cleaned the fans (wow were they gross) and gave the floors a three-step cleaning. We have an apartment showing this afternoon, so that gave me a little incentive to get moving. I've been staying on top of my schoolwork fairly well. I have a couple of larger assignments due tomorrow that I haven't started yet. I just hate reading lol.

Adventures in online school

I have completed my first week of online college. It has been far more work than I originally thought. It's a lot of reading, the assignments are all online, and the classroom interaction is done through newsgroups (specific email groups for different classes.)

I was looking up all of the other classes that I am going to be taking, and I'm really getting excited. Lots and lots of fun stuff like physics, world religions, and much much more. One of my assignments this week was to pick the topic for my persuasive essay. The class is persuasive writing. I decided to go with picking Intel processors over AMD processors. A lot of the class has picked much more serious topics like surviving abuse, but I really don't see what is persuasive about that.

I really miss Matt. He won't be coming home until December 27th. I'm having somewhat of a rough time without him, but I think a lot of that is because we've really only seen each other for two weeks out of the last two months. That's the Navy for you. I've started looking into jobs, and I've found a couple of potentials, but I really don't feel like it yet. It's nice to have that option lol.

I read a book!

When I find something that I like, it is my nature to do it to the extreme. That's what I did with a book that I recently bought from Border's. Matt loves to read, so we go to book stores every now and again. I look at things, but nothing generally catches my eye, and I spend most of my time in the textbook section. This time, a book cover happened to catch my eye. It was a kid standing with a box on his head. The name of the book was Running With Scissors by Augusten Burroughs.

I read it in two sittings. It was a very good true story about the author's childhood. His mom went insane, and he ended up living with her psychiatrist. In their house they had no rules. It did get a little graphic at times, but if you take it in context you'll see that it was indeed necessary. It was a very good and entertaining read, and I recommend it to anyone, well, adults anyway.