totally stole this from sarah

Since I'm sitting at home on my own, having watched two movies already, I thought I'd delve into the "New Year" spirit. And I stole it from Sarah.

What did you do in 2005 that you had never done before?
Wore makeup on my own accord, and applied it myself, unlike my Junior and Senior proms, where I had to have my mother apply the makeup for me, or I would have stabbed my eyeballs out with mascara wands.

Did you keep your New Years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I don't believe in making New Years' resolutions because I can never keep them

Did anyone close to you give birth?
Not that I'm aware of. If they did, they're very good at keeping secrets.

Did anyone close to you die?
My grandmother, on my Dad's side. I only saw her about once every other year, and during the last few visits to see her, she didn't really remember me, but it was really sad, nonetheless.

What countries did you visit?
Minnesota? Oh wait, that just borders another country. I was mostly a homebody this year. Except for trips to bordering states.

What would you like to have in 2006 that you lacked in 2005?
The will power to get out of bed at a decent time, even if I don't have to, so I can accomplish things during the day.

What date from 2005 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Wednesday, March 9th: I was broken up with via email that day, and that is the night I met Aaron.

What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Entering over 990 bills into the Where's George? website. Only kidding. I think it would have to be having a relationship lasting longer than three months that is really meaningful.

What was your biggest failure?
Learning to play guitar.

Did you suffer illness or injury?
Hmm. I got sick for a bit in the spring, then again in the winter, but nothing deadly. I don't think I managed to hurt myself too badly this year, however. Unlike the three summers in a row I ended up in the Emergency Room.

What was the best thing you bought?
Oooh, I would have to say either my new digital camera, or my guitar (that I never play, but it's oh so pretty).

Whose behavior merited celebration?
My sister, who after completing two years of college at our hometown's community college, is ready to go back to a "real" school, after a four year hiatus of University. It's hard to go back to school once you've had a break.

Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Hmm, that's pretty easy. Someone who's first name rhymes with the first part of testicle.

Where did most of your money go?
Food, gadgetry, and rent

What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Getting OUT of Kmart and finding a new job that I really love. And having someone to come home to every night. *warm fuzzies*

What song(s) will always remind you of 2005?
"Anything But Mine" by Kenny Chesney; it's the newest song I listened to this year probably, and before Wes and I broke up, that song always made me think of him.
"Since U Been Gone" by Kelly Clarkson; a song that fits for after Spring Break
"Hearts On Fire" by Hammerfall, 'cause seriously, you can't go to an epic Swedish 80s metal concert without one of the songs meaning something, right?

Compared to this time last year, are you:
Happier, working more, living in a bigger apartment, and one year closer to graduating.

What do you wish you'd done more of?
Practiced guitar, read, had friends to hang with.

What do you wish you'd done less of?
Getting hung up on a boy, eating brownies (damn you, Aaron), and napping.

How will you be spending New Year's Eve?
Right here, in my bedroom, at my computer, alone, watching reruns and tv marathons.

What was the best book you read?
Hitchhiker's Guide series, or Harry Potter 6

What did you want and get?
An iPod. But I didn't even have to ask for it, Aaron just wanted me to have one of my own.

What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I worked on my birthday. I was up at 6 in the morning, on my birthday. Ugh. I turned a whopping 23.

What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Being able to travel more places with Aaron. I love road trips with friends.

How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2005?
Non-existant. Although I did buy some really cute skirts.

Who did you miss?
Smelly Cat. Oh, and Jill. When the hell are you coming to visit me?!

Who was the best new person you met?
Duhhh. Aaron.

Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2005:
Don't date people from the Internet who live 2,000 miles away.

Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
Umm. I can't think of anything off the top of my head, sorry.

two posts in two days?!

So I just sorta kinda came to the realization that even though I have two weeks to get everything finished up over Christmas break, I still have to get ahold of teachers, over break, and get signatures from them. I knew this was going to be a pain in the ass, and that's probably why I waited so long to work on it. Which is why the realization kinda sorta came to me, not just HIT me like *BAM*...because I always knew it a little in the back of my head.

Also, I'm not passionate about anything. I don't think I really want to go into teaching. If I did, then I wouldn't be thinking things like that. I don't REALLY LOVE my job, but I like it. I'm not tolerating it, like I did Kmart, I like my job, but I don't love it. I don't want to go work out and get in shape. I don't have any projects that I really want to do, there's no clubs I'm a part of, I have no real close friends that I go do things with, I have no traditions. I have Aaron, who I love dearly with all my heart. I have my parents, who I see at least once a month now, which is fantastic. I have Aaron's parents, who have taken me under their wing and treat me as one of their own. And that's about it right now. All my close friends, the people who helped make me who I am, who I grew up with, have moved away, and so have I.

Wow, what a sob story. Sorry guys, didn't mean to be a downer on the holidays. I just get feeling poopy once in a while.

Oh, but with the new semester starting, I will have to buy a new "professional" wardrobe for school, so I will be getting myself some new classy clothes to wear to school here next week, and that should be fun and a good ego booster. G'night!

Christmas

Well, Christmas is over, but we've just now gotten the snow for it. Aaron and I were in Deadwood, picking up our paychecks, and I had to have my gaming license renewed. It started snowing, and in that HOUR we were going around town, my car was covered in at least two inches of thick, wet, heavy snow. It was pretty scary to drive home through the hills. Eeek!

We celebrated Christmas with Aaron's parents on Monday morning before he and I had to go to work, where I met Aaron's older brother, as well. His parents are the type of people who love to give gifts, and so we came home with quite a few great things. Aaron got a coffee maker and a blender from his parents, I got a quilt rack for all the blankets in the living room, which is very beautiful, a photo "ferris wheel" picture holder, which makes the little frames like the seats on a ferris wheel, and it rotates. We also got a very nice glass chess/checkers/tic tac toe/backgammon set from Aaron's brother, Eric, and a wine box made of bamboo that holds two bottles of wine, and Aaron got me something to put under my laptop that has fans in it, plugs into my USB port, and keeps my laptop from overheating, and I got him a wire cookbook holder for the kitchen. I have a couple other things on order for him, but they were just delivered the other day.

Then on Wednesday, Aaron and I went to Rapid City to hang out with his friend Brandi, and he needed to exchange a coat he'd recieved as a gift from his sister and her husband. We were going to go to Olive Garden, but there was a 10 minute wait to get on the waiting list, so we went to Chili's instead. Then later in the night we had a dinner party at our apartment, and Lars and his girlfriend Whitney came over, and we had chicken and risoto, which was great.

And those are my last few days. I think my mom and sister are coming up to Deadwood if the weather gets nicer on New Years, so that will be fun. I think they just use me living so close to Deadwood as an excuse to go gamble, 'cause they never did it before. Hehe. Not that it bothers me, 'cause I don't have the time to come visit them on the weekends like they can come visit me, so it's nice. And there's more to do in Deadwood than my hometown.

does somebody have a case of the Mondays?

Okay, so this is how my day went:

I called Aaron as I was getting off work, a little late, to let him know I was on my way home. I clock out, unlock my locker, move things in and out of it, and tell him how I was short almost $200 tonight, I had put something in the "In" column when it should have been "Out" and miscounted my checks, and even after fixing those problems, I was still pretty damn short. Then I look at the table. Hmmm. Pat down my pockets. Where the hell is my phone? "Phone, phone, phone, where are you?" I sing to Aaron, looking, looking for it.

"How can you have lost your phone when you're talking to me on it?"

a year in review

2005 started off in Tennessee, my last visit to see Wes. I had no idea at this time it would be the last time I would ever see him. I was working at Kmart, I thought I'd lost my job because of my trip to Tennessee, but it turns out I'd just read the schedule wrong. My refridgerator died and was replaced with a brand new one, free of charge, by my landlord.

I was taking classes at the university that I didn't really need to be taking, Philosophy, History, U.S. Government. I don't really remember much about school last semester.

I was living in a one bedroom apartment with no kitchen/cupboards/counters that was the size of the living room in my current apartment. I wasn't good friends with anyone on campus, save for Jill and Amy, two girls who helped keep my sanity through the semester.

Over Spring Break I was dumped. I dolled myself up, went to a bar, sat at a table by myself, and read a book. And that is where I met Aaron, completely oblivious to the fact that we would be together 9 and a half months later, and living together.

Jill moves in with me from the dorms during finals week. Right after school gets out in May, my mom, sister, and I fly to Mississippi to visit my grandma on the Gulf Coast (before Hurricane Katrina hit).

I finally come up with the courage to tell Aaron I love him in the summer, after weeks of tormenting myself with when and how to say it.

In the middle of August, my grandma on my Dad's side of the family died of congestive heart failure at the age of 89. It was a week before her 90th birthday. I had quit Kmart and was supposed to start working at Cadillac Jack's, but flew to New York with my family instead for the funeral. Aaron moved into the apartment while I was gone. After getting back, training, and getting the hang of things, Aaron, Lars, Henry, Brandon, and I drive to Minneapolis, Minnesota for the epic Hammerfall concert.

School started up again at the beginning of September, where I finally start a semester of classes that ALL pertain to my major, Elementary Education. I go through all my classes, floating along because they are pretty simple and/or stupid.

Now the semester is over, it's the second week of winter break, Christmas Eve, even, and here I am, alone because I worked the morning shift today and Aaron works the night shift. Same for tomorrow. But, on a good note, my family is coming up to Deadwood tomorrow, where we shall dine on prime rib and lobster tails when I get off work.

And that is my year in review. A little drama, heartbreak, love, sadness, frustration, and lonliness. Not necessarily in that order.

home for the holidays (a little early)

Yesterday morning, Aaron and I drug our butts out of bed in the morning so we can go to Gillette and do an early Christmas with my parents, since we will both be working on the weekend of Christmas. We went to his old apartment to drop off a CD for Brandon, went to his parents' house to get some cookies that Aaron and his mother spent until past 11pm the night before working on, and then went to the bank to cash a check for Aaron, before filling up the car and finally making it out to Wyoming, about 45 minutes later than planned.

Arrived in Gillette much earlier than anyone in the family was home, so we stopped to get something to eat (the Asian Buffet, 2pm, after the lunch rush. I'm suprised neither of us died of food poisoning from the food that had been sitting out since the rush left an hour earlier). Then we stopped at a coffee kiosk that my mom likes and picked up a gift card for her, along with a stop to Kmart for some Christmas cards for the family. Then we were on our way home.

Ashley and the kitties were the only people home when we got there, then Dad showed up, then Mom. We had snacks, some drinks, dinner (lasagna, YUM), desert, and some more drinks. Ashley was very eager to open presents, even though she'd been complaining all night that she only had one present under the tree, and she already knew what it was...silly.

I got Wario Ware Touched for Nintendo DS from Ashley, Dance Dance Revolution Extreme game and dance pad from Dad, and Aaron got a knife sharpener from my parents. I think everyone enjoyed their gifts, and we had a good time.

Aaron and I got up in the morning, deflated the air mattress that is bigger than the bed at the apartment (I'm so "borrowing" it one of these trips home...), cleaned up our mess, went to the shop to say goodbye to Dad, but he was in meetings all morning, went to the bank to say goodbye to Mom, and ate some breakfast before heading back to Spearfish.

It was busy, didn't feel like a day off at all, but it was a good time and I'm glad we went. When we got home, there was a package waiting for me, a present for Aaron; caffinated soap! Smells pepperminty! And he got me Land of the Dead, the next zombie movie from George A. Romero. We each have other gifts to give eachother, but they just haven't shown up yet. *Sigh* We're spreading Christmas out a little, I guess.

ahh, that holiday spirit is upon us.

Customer: Why is it that even if accompanied by a parent, children can't be on the casino floor after 8pm?
Me: Well, those are the house rules, sorry.
Customer: What if we're staying at the hotel here?
Me: We have an arcarde, a pool, and a gym. There are a lot of things that children can do here.
Customer: Most other casinos aren't like this.
Second Customer: Actually, ma'am, most other casinos ARE like this.
Customer: NO, only *names off three casinos, including mine* are like that.
Me: I'm sorry ma'am, those are just the rules.
Customer: Well, I can tell you right now we are never staying here again.

Me Thinking: Who cares.

---------
New Customer (who just tried all three of the ATMs, unsuccessfully): Is it okay if I write a check?
Me (knowing he's tried the ATMs): Sure. I could process your credit card here, but it would be a 7% charge.
New Customer: Well, what is it at the other ATMs?
Me: 2.5%
NC: Why the hell is it so much here?!
Me: Because the company we use charges a percent, and then we charge a percent for doing it.
NC: Well that's stupid. *finishes writing check*
Me: Okay, I'll just need your driver's license and player's club card.
NC: What the hell is that?
Me: It's a card for our casino. You have to have one in order to write a check here.
NC: How do I get one?
Me: If you go over to the player's club desk, they can make you one. It's free and only takes a couple of minutes.
NC: You know, I'm liking this casino less and less.

Urg.

So Aaron and I are going to Gillette on Wednesday to celebrate Christmas early with my family, since I have to work on Christmas Eve and Day. I think it will be fun. And then I think afterwards, we will spend some Christmas time with his parents.

And I'm pooped. Sorry it's been so long since I've updated.

Donnnnnnnnnnne!

I don't know what to do with myself now that I am done with school for the semester. Sure, I could do the dishes (all of them...every single last one is dirty), or clean the bedroom, vacuum the living room, redecorate the apartment...but do I really want to do that? No, not right now. I want to revel in my freedom.

That and it's butt-freezing cold out in the living room/kitchen area...

Now all I have to worry about for four weeks is work. That will be nice...I think I will treat myself to a full body massage some time this break...yeah...Mmmmm.

little old man

While waiting for Aaron to get out of the Game Stop store by the food court at the mall, I noticed a little old man looking at me with some interest. I wasn't quite sure why he was looking at me so much, but I just smiled and looked away.

Little Old Man: Oklahoma State University?
Me: *looks at hoodie with orange "OSU" on front* No, Oregon State University
Aaron joins us at this time
LOM: Oh, I didn't know they were OSU, too. So whereabouts is OSU?
Me: In Corvallis, about an hour south of Portland.
LOM: Oh, I see. When do you have to go back to school?
Me: School starts up again on January 17th.
LOM: I see. Is this you friend? *looks at Aaron*
Me: Yeah, he's my boyfriend.
LOM: So are you from around here, too?
Aaron: Yeah, I live in Spearfish
LOM: Do you go to school in Oregon, too?
Aaron: No, I'm going to Black Hills State
LOM: I see, I see. Well, have a great Christmas break, and relax. Well, you probably won't be relaxing too much, will ya? *wink wink*
Me & Aaron: Hahaha, no, probably not...

And the little old man walked off. I didn't have the heart to tell him I wasn't actually attending school in Oregon, but that I'd just bought the hoodie at the University bookstore when I visited Lacey last time...If I'd done that, I wouldn't have had that conversation with him! It was kinda cute and funny.

lalalalalala

Tomorrow is my first final. It should be cake. I haven't even looked at the study guide for my final on Thursday, but our professor said we could have the front side of a sheet of paper (handwritten) with notes for the test, so that was nice of her. And she actually just gave us 10 questions, three of which we will answer for the final. Should be pretty easy.

My wrist started hurting again, from six years ago when it collapsed under my weight, so I've been having to wear my wrist brace at work. It's very clumsy, hard to hold on to things, and I've only been asked about a bazillion times "What happened to your arm?" "Oh, looks like you've got carpel tunnel syndrome." "Looks like someone took a fall." "Been out skiing?" But today should be better, at least all my co-workers know the story, and I'll only have to tell it to customers.

Mom said I should just tell people it was from lifting all the money (which isn't far from the truth, those racks of chips for poker are heavy and are I think what re-activated the soreness), but "skydiving injury" sounds cooler. And is more the truth :)

Aaron and I are going to have to rent and go to a LOT of movies over Christmas break to make up for everything we missed since school started this semester. And deep-clean the apartment; it really got neglected, as well. I can't wait for school to be out!!!

And I think that's about all the news I have, except I'm still not sure what to get Aaron for Christmas aside from gloves...he has video games, he doesn't really need anything for the kitchen, except a veggie peeler 'cause he doesn't like the one I have, and his parents are going to get us a coffee maker, which was one of my ideas. *shrug* A little help?

it's almost time

On our last day of class in Human Relations, we had three presentations, the final ones, to sit through. class attendence was higher than last week becaue the weather was better, but the presentations were mediocre.

The first presentation was so hard to sit through, and as all presentations, it was an hour long. The topic was "cliques and stereotypes." The first part of the presentation was half an hour of a video created by the presentors, reiterating the same dull facts over and over again, without any real explination. Then we had to sit through another half an hour of them saying the same things over and over again (again!). Basically, they could have just shown us "Mean Girls" and we would have understood exactly what they were getting at.

The second group did their presentation on...something. Umm. I don't remember now, it was that unmemorable. Oh! Now I know. They did their presentation on racism. With a 10-15 minute Power Point presentation and talking, and then the rest of their presentation was fumbling around in the dark with the remote for the DVD player, showing us clips of "American History X" and explaining why these bits were racist, or this is how racism affects your family, or stuff like that. I almost fell asleep.

The third presentation was fun, with games that showed what it was like to be mentally impared by being drunk or high, so that was pretty good. I think we were all just ready to get out of there by the end.

ONE MORE DAY OF CLASSES!

almost done...

Oh my goodness, I can't believe I have neglected my blog for THREE DAYS! I'm sorry blogging world!

Okay, not really, but it has been a while, so here's a quick update of life: It's been butt-freezing cold here the last week or so, along with high winds, blowing snow, and school cancellations. Awesome. Sure makes the drive to and from work fun! So far, no skidding, no deer, so good.

A customer at work who had been 86ed from the casino for sexual harassment of the staff has been allowed back into the casino. Great. I don't know if he'll be back, 'cause that's a little embarassing, but still...

Aaron and I have neglected the dishes since the day before Thanksgiving. So for two weeks the dishes had been piling up, and up, and up. Eight bowls, eight lunch plates, seven dinner plates (I broke one a while bac, whoops), a set of silverware, serving spoons, measuring cups/spoons, pots, pans, skillets, the whole works. Oh. My. Goodness. Took about four or five sinkloads to get it all done.

ONE WEEK 'TIL SCHOOL IS OUT.

Two more regular classes, then two finals. Aaaaaaand DONE.

And that's about it for now...almost time for "Lost."

insert witty title here

Well yesterday was a pretty good day, despite being up at the butt-crack of dawn. I worked 'til 3:30, and made $50 in tips, which is excellent for a Saturday morning in the winter. My dad's shop was having their Christmas party in downtown Deadwood, so I hung around work until they got into town (which took a while, because their bus never showed up or "broke down", and they all had to drive themselves instead).

Quite a few of the employees all pitched in $50 each for a big grand total, got $5 tokens, and found a $5 machine, plinked in their coins, and played only the coins, kept the winnings. I think they each lost about $10. They did the same with a dollar machine, and probably lost about the same amount of money, again.

I found a $5 blackjack table at the Silverado and won $25 there, and then found another $5 table at the Midnight Star, and won another $40 there, for a grand total of $65 won. Go me.

Now, for a nap before I have to get productive! Bye!

confusing work stuff, more school crap...great.

Alright, I said I'd post more about work and all that jazz, so here it comes:

Because my school schedule is going to change next semester (as all school schedules do, unless you are in K-12), my work schedule is going to have to change, as well. Only makes sense, right? Right. Well, I talked to my manager about it almost a month ago, which is MONTHS in advance from the actual start of next semester (January 17th, to be exact), so that we could get some stuff figured out and make up a schedule and try to keep me with the same amount of hours as I am currently getting. Well, he worked something up, we edited it a little bit, and then came up with something we bought thought would work out well for me.

Now, the only problem is to present it to the other four people who work in the cage with me. As I am the only person working in the cage who is going to school, this shouldn't really be a problem, right? Wrong.

Everyone was okay with it, except Machelle. She was very lucky from day one to start working at 7:30am to 3:30pm every Monday through Friday. Nobody in gaming gets those kind of hours, and yet somehow, she did. But with this new schedule for next semester, she's going to have to give up her weekends for Thursday and Friday (I'm really not sure how that works out, since I will only be working Swing shifts, and she only works Day shifts, so I'm not actually taking over any of her shifts...). Anyway, I guess our manager told her it was only going to go into April, but school actually ends May 12th, almost two weeks later, so she's upset about that right off the bat.

Anyway, it's dumb, so I'm going to try to talk to our manager about changing the schedule back to normal as soon as school is out for me (but it'll only be for 4 months during the summer, 'cause when I do my student teaching, it's going to be the same block of hours that i'll be working again).

I don't know. I just hope it works out.

And now for school: I'm getting rationales done for my classes for this semester, but I'm still going to have to work on rationales for classes in the previous semesters. That's going to be the hard part, 'cause they were from so long ago, I hardly remember the assignment.

My computer teacher piled on a ton of crap right before finals week (the week after next), so I've been trying to get that done. We have 2 assignments due on Monday, something on Friday, a final project that's going to take forever because it's incorporating almost everything we've learned all semester, AND a final test. Fortunately, she's allowing us to turn in the final project AFTER the final test, and after all our other classes final projects are due, as well, so that was nice of her.

Urg. It's been cold as all get-out here lately. I think the high was 9* today. *Shiver*

school is almost over. thank goodness.

Okay. I don't know if I've explained the Interdisciplinary Unit or not we're doing for our Middle Level Methods class, so here's a quick overview: Four people to a group. Each person has a subject (Math, Science, Social Studies, Language Arts). Each group is to come up with a theme or unit that all these subjects can cover. We do Astronomy. We meet only in class. The group discusses and decides to email eachother outside of class with our ideas by a certain date (November 22nd, the day before Thanksgiving, to be exact). I email mine a few days early to every member of our group. I don't hear anything from anyone in our group. A couple days ago, I get an email from a member, saying she is snowed in on the other side of the state. Then I get an email from another member today, 5 hours before class, saying, "I haven't heard from So and So yet, now what?"

Well, shit, I don't know. So and So was the member who was the most gung-ho about the entire thing, and yet whenever she came to class, she never had any ideas for her own subject area, just everyone else's. It is now an hour and a half before class starts. We're going to try to meet an hour before class and get shit figured out. Well, I know two of the four of us are going to meet before class, I don't know if the other two are even going to get the email and show up.

This is stupid because this is a group project. If one person doesn't pull their weight, the rest of us are screwed. So that's great. I freakin' hate group projects unless it's a partner thing and there are only two of you. Less people to depend on, basically.

Also, my Computer teacher keeps giving us assignments. One due tomorrow, one due Monday, we have a final project she's going to talk about tomorrow, plus we have our final. There is only a week and a half of school left until finals! Our final project is due AFTER we take our final test! She didn't do a very good job of putting everything together, since now we have all this extra stuff due at the very end, and she let us out of class early so many times, gave us tons of "Work Days" and crap like that, and now we have all this crap due at the very end. Grr.

One more thing. 8am yesterday morning: *Bam Bam Bam!* *Ding Dong, Ding Dong* *Bam Bam Bam!* *Ding Dong, Ding Dong* WTF! It's something important, otherwise they wouldn't have kept knocking on the door and ringing the doorbell. Aaron and I are both sound asleep when this happens, wake up, fumble around for our glasses, race to the door, open it to find the landlord. "You guys haven't smelled anything weird in your apartment, have you?" he asks. "No," we reply, "I think it's the heater out in the hallway." "Oh, okay," he says, and leaves.

The heater in the hallway, for some background information, has been running on a fairly high level to keep the entryway warm, as it's been below freezing every day for the last 4-5 days. And out in the hallway it smells like a combination of gasoline and oil. All the time. The smell, however, is strongest by our door, and the door of the boiler room, not by the heater. So I guess he was just making sure we weren't going to die due to gas inhalation. Which was nice of him to care, but it still smells like that in the hallway. We're not sure where it's coming from, and apparently, neither is he, because he shut off the heater, and it still smells like that. I bet it's coming from the boiler room, which shares a wall with our kitchen and the computer room. Hope nothing blows up. If it does, I have renter's insurance, however.

Such stress! I'll blog more later, about work and hours getting switched around and people not happy about it, but this post is plenty long without all of that.

find your spot dot com

According to Find Your Spot, I should live in these cities:

1. Eugene, Oregon
2. Corvallis, Oregon
3. Little Rock, Arkansas
4. Las Cruces, New Mexico
5. Norfolk, Virginia
6. Olympia, Washington
7. Portland, Oregon
8. Salem, Oregon
9. Las Vegas, Nevada
10. Tacoma, Washington
11. St. George, Utah
12. Hampton, Virginia
13. Alexandria, Louisiana
14. Bellingham, Washington
15. Phoenix, Arizona
16. Shreveport-Bossier City, Louisiana
17. Kent, Washington
18. Rocky Mount-Stony Creek, North Carolina
19. Monroe, Louisiana
20. Seattle, Washington
21. Greenville, North Carolina
22. Hickory, North Carolina
23. Augusta, Georgia
24. Chesapeake-Virginia Beach, Virginia

Lost of Oregons, Louisianas, and North Carolinas. I think I'll stay away from the last two, I've been thinking about Oregon lately. They're ranked pretty high up for beginning teacher's salaries and average teacher's salaries. #14 for both categories. As opposed to South Dakota, ranked #51 in average teacher's salaries at $32,000/year.

turkey day

Well, our turkey day was lacking a turkey, but that's okay, I had some the day before at Henry's, and my family isn't that fond of turkey, anyway.

To start, Aaron and I woke up at the butt crack of dawn (okay, 9am), packed up some stuff, took his parents some potatoes for their Thanksgiving, filled up the car, and headed to Wyoming around 10am. About the last 20 miles or so, Aaron started getting antsy after he realized he'd brought his PSP with no game in it, and the sunlight wasn't doing much for his playing DS, either. Antsy passengers don't mix well with drivers, but after a little bit of hollering at him, he calmed down. We arrived at my parents' place about 20 after 11 that morning. I'd warned Aaron to bring something with long sleeves, as it is usually about 60* in the house most times. Well, since the oven had been on most of the morning, and it was about 60* outside, it was around 80* in the house with the windows open. At the end of November! Insanity.

We had a great lunch/dinner with pork roast, mashed potatoes, corn on the cob, gravy, salad, and croisant rolls. Mmmm. Followed by a chocolate cheesecake made by Ashley, and a layered cheesecake/pumpkin pie made by Aaron and myself. Everything was very delicious.

While Mom watched the Broncos kick the Cowboys' butts, Aaron and I napped on the couch, waiting for 6:30 to arrive, as we were going to see Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, taking my sister with us. The movie was a lot of fun, but they left stuff out from the books (as usual), but it was still good.

After sleeping on an air mattress that is bigger than my own bed, we again awoke at the butt crack of dawn (this time it was 7:30!), to get ready to go to Rapid City for some "day after Thanksgiving" shopping. WAHOO. Mom, Dad, Ashley and I ate at the Mongolian Grill, which is fun to watch, and yummy to eat. We missed the "Wake up at the pre-butt crack of dawn" sales and it wasn't as crowded as I thought it would be. Ashley and I managed to find something for Mom, Dad, and eachother, but we still want to get them a little something else for Christmas.
I bought myself a new, small Playstation 2 and Guitar Hero (rawk!), which I have been playing ever since I got home, and my fingers are numb.

Now I'm home, Aaron's at work, and I'm tired as crap. I think I will read until I fall asleep, wake up when he gets home from work, and maybe find something to eat before I really go to bed.

I hope everyone else's Thanksgiving was as safe and uneventful as mine!

Chirstmas list

Well, I thought this year I was going to have a hard time picking out something that I wanted for Christmas. That was until tonight.

Tonight was Henry's "Fiery Feast" that he held the night before Thanksgiving, knowing most everyone would be spending time with their families tomorrow. We watched "Conan the Barbarian" and MST3Kd it the whole time. It was great. For food stuffs, we had turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, some of the best dip ever (it had sour cream, cream cheese, sausage, and I still liked it), and Aaron made a cobbler (cooked fruit, gross). And then there was the PS2 and Guitar Hero. I am addicted.

So now I know what I want for Christmas: a Playstation 2 and Guitar Hero (and Dance Dance Revolution, if you're feeling generous).

So there you have it. My Christmas wish list.

cell phones, creepy old dudes, and my backyard.

Are you one of those people, who as soon as you are out of class, off the airplane, or done with work, your cell phone instantly becomes glued to your head?

No offense to any of you who are, but wow. As soon as I walk out of the classroom and into the hallway, I run into about 10,405,395,493 people who have their phones glued to their face, yakking away at nothing. The plane lands, and 40 people are calling their loved ones to let them know the plane has landed and they will be off of it in a few minutes.

It's just about the most annoying thing ever. I don't know why it bothers me so much, but I guess I try not to do that, because I think it looks silly.

On a different note, there is a customer at work who always says things like, "Oh, there's that beautiful girl who works here!" "Hi darling, how are you today?" "Oh, you have the most beautiful smile." Blah blah blah. At first it was creepy. Then it was okay, 'cause I figured he's just being nice. Then on Saturday he comes in, redeems his coupons, and he was kinda bundled up, so I asked if it was still cold outside (it was cold and slushy when I'd come into work a few hours earlier), and he said it wasn't too bad, and I mentioned how I was scared I was going to slip and fall on the slush this morning when I came into work.

He said, "If I was there and you fell, I'd be there to pick you up and carry you the rest of the way." I kinda smile and turn my back to do something in the cage, and he's still there talking, or something, and I said, "Oh, you'd probably hurt your back lugging me around," to which he replies, "Oh, honey, it'd be the best back strain of my life."

Creepy again. So yeah, I'm starting to not like seeing him come up to the window anymore. I'm glad I'm behind bars for the majority of my day at work.

Oh, another note, my dad has positioned a web cam to snap pictures of our back yard every 30 seconds. So. In case you might want to see what our back yard looks like, see if Smelly Cat or Nermal are sitting on the deck rails, or perhaps spot a deer grazing, check it out: Dad's Web Cam (Scroll Down).

portfolio, schmortfolio

I talked to one of the professors in charge of reviewing all the portfolios that are turned in today about my portfolio. He says there really is no due date to get into the College of Education, which is where I am at right now, but if I want to get into classes next semester, the sooner the better. I've been checking on Web Advisor, the system online we use to register for classes, to see how fast they are filling up. There are 44 seats available: 2 sections of 22 each. The first section is about half full and the second section has 5 seats left. Aaron is pretty sure there aren't 44 people enrolled in the College of Ed. at any given moment, so I should be fine. Here's hoping he's right!

I am going to get my hairs cut and dyed today, as I have been wanting to do so for the longest time, and now I finally have the time to do it because my second class of the day was cancelled. Rockin'.

In other news, my Teacher Power Point Presentation has been handed in, I'll just need a grade on it, then I can stick it in my portfolio and have one more thing accomplished. I'm just having troubles writing the rationales for these things. I guess I just need to get into a good writing rhythm.

We're supposed to get a metric butt-ton of snow tonight, so driving to work tomorrow morning will be exciting (read: horrifyingly scary). But I should get going as I have homework, laundry, and some other crap to accomplish today. Cheerio!

quick update

Well, the Power Point presentation is finished. I just have to burn it to a CD and it'll be done. I wish there was a way I could put it on the Interweb and show everyone how silly it is.

My Indian Education teacher has cancelled three classes this month, and two or three classes next month! So with only three weeks of school left, that leaves us with only 4 or 5 classes. AWESOME. Not that I don't like the class, because I do, but it'll give me some time to work on other stuff that's more important.

Tomorrow is my dad's birthday, and because my blogging has been rather infrequent, I am going to wish him a happy early birthday tonight! Happy birthday, Dad!

No fun or interesting stories tonight, just had some classes, did some homework, grocery shopping, work, all that good stuff. So I guess that's it for tonight, sorry it wasn't more interesting. Maybe I'll have something good to talk about after Thanksgiving with the family! Probably not, we're not that dramatic or anything, but Aaron's coming home with me, so that'll be nice!

Power Point, how I loathe thee

So we've got this Power Point presentation to create for my computer class. First of all, Power Point presentations are ugly because they all look the same. They all have the same cheesy animations, sound effects, and themes/backgrounds. No one likes making them, and no one likes sitting through them. Especially poorly-made presentations.

Well, this might not be considered poorly-made when I'm done with it, but it's going to be excruciating to sit through. Each slide must have the following:

• Text
• Graphics (one must be imported from the Web)
• Sound (one must be imported from the Web)
• Animation
  

There also needs to be a link to the Web, a link within the slideshow to another slide on the presentation, and an appropriate background/theme.

It's going to be terrible, busy, and just look crappy. I can make it up in about 2 hours if I just sit down to do it...but man, it's going to suck.

In other news, I forgot what I was going to say, and now I'm going to get back to adding bells and whistles to my presentation because it is due on Friday.

Well, Gillette was fun. I had lunch with Mom and Ashley at Bootleggers, this Italian, 20s style restaraunt. Very good. Mom and I went shopping for some new clothes for me, and I almost cried when I found out I needed to move up a size in shirts because I'm getting pudgy. I'd like to start going to the gym right now, but with school work being so demanding right now, I don't really have the time, so I'm going to have to wait until at least Christmas break to start working out. But I definitely feel the urge to do so now, more than ever.

Did some laundry, ate out with Mom and Dad for dinner, and went back to Spearfish, basically. It was just a nice day to spend with the family. And it really was a nice day, probably in the 60s to start out with. Dad was working on the back deck, and I talked to him about school and my portfolio for the College of Education. He said what I figured he would, "Just get it done, that's what you have to do." And I'm going to try, that's for sure. I'm just worried that I won't get it done in time to register for the block of classes, because there are only so many spaces available, and classes have already been opened for registration. We'll see. *Sigh*

Oh, I forgot to talk about my presentation on Wednesday. It went really well. I was scared I was going to be nervous or shakey or whatever, like I was the first time I got up in front of that class, but I felt a lot more prepared Wednesday night for the presentation that I did the first time. We filled out our 50 minutes easily, and it went quite well. I'm glad my partner wanted to do the presentation as soon as possible because now we have nothing left to do in that class except show up and watch other peoples' presentations. Awesome.

nothing much to say here today

I just thought I'd give a short, random post for the day. I have the presentation to give in about an hour and a half for my Human Relations class. I hate getting up in front of the class...

Lost is new (finally!), so I'm very excited about that, except someone's going to die! Hope it's someone I don't like.

Found a couple of silver half dollars last night at work to add to my collection of neat old money. I'm going home on Friday since we don't have classes and am going to give it to Mom to put in the safe deposit box at work so I don't lose the money or damage it. Aaron also gave me some Indonesian money because he knows I like money. It's 1,000 Rupiah, worth roughly $.09 USD.

And that's really about it for now. I'm over my cold, which lasted less than a week (record for me!), and didn't get very bad at all, really. Now I just have to deal with the rest of the semester. Woo hoo.

another dull day

Our presentation is only three days away and Kristina and I are going to meet one last time at the library tonight to finalize everything. I have a PowerPoint slideshow set up, which just need to be edited to add her stuff. I have note cards to talk off of, and notecards for the scenarios we are going to do. Hopefully this will help and we can get everything figured out tonight.

Work has been slow. Even when it picks up, nobody tips well.

It amazes me the number of people who do not know how to write out a traveler's check (just like a regular check is written out, signature, pay to the order of, and a date...don't just hand me a blank traveler's check and say you'd like to cash it in, please).

I think my cold is going away; I've been feeling better and I'm not so phlegmy (charming, I know). Except Aaron is getting sick now. Hopefully his goes away quick like mine did. A few people at work got a lot sicker than I did and missed work.

There's nothing to eat in the house, I'm out of conditioner, we don't have any dish soap, and I'm hungry. I hate how busy weekends are and that we can't ever see each other during them except for a few minutes at a time.

Aaron's parents have been looking out for good deals on snow tires for me and my car. Aaron even went looking with them today. I think that's very sweet of them to look after me like that.

Well, I think that's it for now. I need to tidy up the bedroom and move some stuff around in the computer room.

time for an update.

Well, over the last couple of days I have been getting a cold. I don't feel so terrible, like I usually do when I have a cold (yet), so that's definately a good sign, considering EVERYONE at work has been getting sick, taking time off, AND I deal with tons of money every day at work. It's mostly just a snuffly feeling with my ears needing to pop every time I blow my nose.

My partner and I for the presentation that has to be done in my Human Relations class got together tonight to work on our project. We're doing grieving for children, what happens and how to deal with a child in the classroom who has gone through some kind of loss. It's a sad subject, but definitely something that needs to be approached. We got a lot of stuff worked out tonight, and are going to get together again on Sunday to work on it some more.

She is also in my other group for another class where we have to come up with objectives and lesson plans for an interdisciplinary unit, or a unit/topic that uses Language Arts, Science, Social Studies, and Math. We're doing Astronomy and Space, and I got the Science end, so I think it's going to be really fun and interesting to work on. That's also a project we have to present in front of the class. I found out last night that I have almost an "A" in that class, as well! She reprimanded me a little for making my paper 15 pages long, instead of 5-7 pages long...I explained to her that I didn't want to miss anything when I was writing it, and that I couldn't do that in 5-7 pages, so I just had to have a big paper. She said she just focused on the elements of it I missed, instead of docking me for making it too long, so I got a 90% on it.

My computer class is still a topic of annoyance for me. She sets deadlines for assignments, but doesn't dock points if it's turned in late. What's the point? That assignments are very simple and quite dull, really, and are only hard to accomplish because I find myself rolling my eyes or giving exasperated sighs every time she assigns us something that I've known how to do for years.

Other school work seems to be coming along well. I don't think I'm going to have time to complete the optional 15-page paper on the grieving presentation, but that's alright.

One of my dad's employees is going to Iraq for the Guard, and they wanted to get him a going away gift, and were thinking of an MP3 player. Dad had done some research and found that an iPod was probably the best choice, due to ease of use, which is great for a first time MP3 player owner. Unfortunately, they needed something that was going to withstand the desert, and the only iPod that is pretty sturdy is the iPod mini, like mine, which is made of steel, and Apple doesn't make those anymore since the invention of the nano. Now all the iPods are made of plastic and their cases and screens are easily scratched. I have dropped my mini on the cement, and only the smallest sliver of steel chipped off it, and it still works great.

I was able to find one at the Radio Shack in town thanks to Aaron who was just there the other day. You can't find them in stores any more because they are no long being produced, and to find them online means waiting for shipping and delivery and whatnot, so the easiest solution was for me to buy one here in Spearfish, and either take it home or have Dad come and pick it up. We're still deciding what to do, but I might go home on Friday because it's Veteran's day.

Anywho, that's my long-winded update for now. I'll try to post more often with smaller quantities of words, but sometimes I don't get the chance to for a while. That, and my life has been kinda boring lately.

strange lights and strange bills.

So last night, or at 1am on Monday, November 1st, I am on my way home from work, driving along the Interstate. As I'm rounding the curve on the road that allows you to see most of the town, I see a bright flash of white light. Odd, I think, but maybe not, because it's windy outside, and it might be from a thunder and lightning storm coming in. Then, 10 seconds later, there's another, brighter flash of white light. As I'm getting off the Interstate and at the top of the off-ramp, I see an even brighter, RED flash of light come from the same spot. It was like something blew up. There was no sound, no smoke, no fire. Just bright red light. It lit up the whole sky like lightning would, except it came from the ground.

The only thing Aaron and I could figure was that maybe it was a helicoptor landing by the hospital, as their lights are quite bright. That bright, I'm not sure...

Tonight at work as I was going through the straps of bills, making sure they all had the right amount of money in them, and also making sure that I found any Where's George? bills that might be lurking around, I came upon something very unusual: a red seal $5 bill from 1963. It's in fair condition, with only a few small tears in it. The linked picture is not the actual bill I have, but it's a reference as to what mine looks like. It's probably only worth between $20 and $40, but still, that's pretty darn cool. I've been searching for things like this ever since I started working at the casino. I'm going to try to scan a picture of it at the school so I can post it here, instead of just taking a picture of it. Ooooh, that thing just made my day! I had to show it to everyone at work and tell them about it.

Here's another link to information about red seal/United States Notes.

Deadweird

Tonight is the last night of Deadweird, where everyone in Deadwood dresses up in costumes and are judged. By who, I'm not sure, but on Saturday night, there were a lot of costumes out already. Monty Python's knights from the Holy Grail, garden trolls, witches, angels, devils, monsters. It was really cool. I didn't see anything last night because I only worked 'til 3pm and was home afterwards. Hopefully, with tonight being Halloween, and me working, we'll have a lot of people dressed up. The casino is already decorated and spooky.

Even at Applebee's everyone was in the spirit, but they said they had to dress up for Halloween, and they each had numbers on their backs, and we got to vote for the one we liked the best. I wish we could dress up at work because that would be a lot of fun. They got to do it at the other casinos...*sigh*

thought this was funny

I found this on the Where's George? forums, and got a chuckle out of it:

Posted by Rochester Mike on August 22, 2002 at 8:13 AM:

So, last night, I go to eat at McDoughballs (you know where I mean) and I order two cheeseburgers, no onions, and a coke. I hand the kid at the register a series 1999 $5, "Georged" with the round FRB stamp on the front and the web address on the back.

The kid looks at the bill, then calls the manager over. The manager looks at the bill, dissapears in back, then returns to the counter carrying a thick black binder. He flips a few pages, then looks at me and says "Sorry, we can't accept this bill."

"Why not?" I say.

"Well," says the manager, "do you see this picture? Your bill is different than the one in this picture, and we can not accept it."

"Okay." I said. Fortunately for me, I had a pocket full of quarters, and proceded to count out $3.50 in quarters.

The kid piped up "I don't think we can take that many quarters." I'll save everyone the math, $3.50 is 14 quarters.

Getting preturbed, and with the manager still nearby, I said to the kid "The quarters, or the bill. Decide now."

The manager said to the kid that they could accept the quarters "this time".

But now the real fun begins!

My order arrives, and in typical fast food fashion, the burgurs are compacted to a height of about 1/2 inch, and lopsided. I indicate for the manager to come over to the counter.

He walked over and asked "What's the problem?"

"Sorry," I said, "I can not accept these burgers."

"Why not?" he asked.

"Well," I said, "Do you see the picture of the cheeseburger behind you? These burgers in front of me bear no resemblance to the one in the picture, and I will not accept them."

The manager knew then that he was in a no win situation, but he did his best to appease me. "How about if I make you two fresh cheeseburgers that look better than these two?" he asked.

"That would be fine", I said, chuckling to myself, knowing what was going to happen next.

So the manager went back and supervised the creation of my two new burgers, and brought them out to me a few minutes later.

"I hope these are more to your liking, sir", said the manager. I could tell that he was seething underneath.

"Well," I said, "They do look better, but there is a problem."

"WHAT'S THE PROBLEM NOW?" he explodes.

Calmly, I looked at him, smiled, and said "When I placed my order, I said No Onions."

He remade the entire order for me again.

i guess we don't have to worry about me becoming addicted...

Yesterday when I got off work, Mom and my sister, Ashley came to Deadwood to visit me. We went downtown and gambled at three different casinos, with me losing $10 at the first table, $14 at the next, and $20 at the last table for a combined loss of $44. Better than my other nights out, I suppose, but that's why I only go out gambling one every month or so. At the last table, I just wanted to leave, so I was trying to get rid of the last $6 I had, but every time I put down my chips, I'd win. So I'd put down more, until I was finally up to $15, which would have left me only $5 short on that table. Nope...lost it all. I suck at this game, but it's the only one I like to play.

Everyone at the casinos thought my sister and I were twins. One of my co-workers even though I was playing on a machine at work (when I'm not supposed to be, house rules), and almost went up to Ashley and told her she shouldn't be playing. I told him to do it anyway because it would make her mad, haha. Am I a good big sister, or what?

We went back to work to have dinner because I'd recieved some free meals as a birthday present from my manager, so I "treated" us all to steaks, which were very yummy. Aaron supervised them and made sure they were done correctly, since he was working that night.

We had a really good time, despite losing my money, but oh well. That's what gambling is, really. Although Mom did win $600 on a machine at our last stop, so that was really good. It's nice for someone to go away a winner, at least.

And thank goodness for Daylight Savings Time because I was gettin' tired of driving to work in the dark on weekends. Those deer out there scare me.

the NEX generation

So, after almost my entire lifetime, Nintendo is coming out with the NEX system. It is a new, sleek original Nintendo Entertainment System. It plays all of the cartridge games you've been saving up since you were five years old, and it also plays the Japanese-made cartridges as well (which I guess I wasn't aware that the originals didn't play the Japanese cartridges).

It's only $50!

In other news, next semester is going to suck. It's my methods block of classes, from 8am to 3pm, Monday through Friday, professional attire, and uh...yeah. I don't know how that's going to work with my work schedule, but as our teacher said, "This is a career commitment. Your current job needs to know that." Guess I'll have to talk to Marvin tomorrow at work if he's there, or leave him a note, or something.

Anyway, I'm going to try to figure this database thingy out for my computer class. I just thought the new Nintendo thing was pretty cool.

PUMPKINS!!!

Here they are!








The first pumpkin is mine, and the second is Aaron's.

moose!

I've been looking around at more foreign coins and what not lately (okay, tonight), and I found the cutest coin ever! According to the site I found it on, this coin was designed by an 11 year old in British Columbia, for Canada Day. I want one!


Aaron and I will be carving our pumpkins tonight, as soon as we get the kitchen table cleaned off and digest our dinners (mmm, steak), and I will post pictures. We're going to set them outside the window in the living room, underneath our upstairs neighbor's deck, so hopefully no one will mess with them.

Work's been going well, school's alright, and things are all in all pretty okay.

huh?

Dream:

I'm waiting in a line to go somewhere. The line forks, like traffic does with an exit ramp on the Interstate, but I'm in the wrong fork. A girl in the right fork says "Well, maybe someone will scoot over," so I shove myself over behind her. Then she turns into Ashlee Simpson with blonde hair and lots of bangs, and starts telling me the groups she's in and on what days they meet. Then she turns into Sonja at work who's taking keys from someone and signing them back in (something I really do at work, actually), but she doesn't know how to do it well, so I take over for her, and am signing in about five keys for every person on the other side of the cage.

wtf?

Awake. Tonight we slaughter the pumpkins. It is a "team night" for my Human Relations class, so we don't meet tonight, and that is awesome. I can't find my partner's email address, though, so I don't know how I'm going to get ahold of her, aside from talking to her in another class we have together tomorrow night.

Bowling only lasts for another three class periods, so next Friday is my last day of bowling, and then I'm back to sleeping in on Tuesdays and Thursdays! Yessssss.

Anywho, I have a test to take in half an hour. Gotta get ready.

One more reason...

One more reason to hate my computer class. On Wednesday the 19th, I went on the field trip to the reservation. It was supposed to be on th 5th, but that was cancelled due to snow. I'd told my computer teacher I was going to be gone on the 5th because of the field trip, but I didn't tell her it was cancelled and I'd be going on the 19th and missing class that day. That was my fault, I admit. Then, Friday, I'm up early, working on the assignment that was due Wednesday, not realizing how long the stupid spreadsheet was going to take. I didn't get it done in time, so I finish it up, not going to class, 'cause it was too late by then.

So I showed up to class early this morning to ask her if I'd missed any assignments those two days. She said, "Do you realize what you just asked? *high pitched voice* 'Did we do anything important in class?' *normal voice* Of course we did something important in class, we do something important in class every day."

Jeez.

So she says she doesn't have time to talk to me before class, and to come to her after class.

Teacher: Okay, now what about the spreadsheet assignment?
Me: Done, right here. *points to print outs*
Teacher: Oooookay. Chapter four crossword puzzle?
Me: Done, handed in. *points to pile of crossword puzzles*
Teacher: Hmmm. Okay. What about the charting assignment?
Me: Didn't get that one.

So she tells me what it is, and that she'd gone over chapter four, which was "pretty technical" so I might want to look over it, and know the difference between kilobytes, megabytes, and gigabytes.

So basically, I missed ONE thing, and she doesn't realize this when she's first talking to me, and is a bitch to me and mocking me with the high-pitched voice. What kind of teacher is that? Then she realizes that I actually have my stuff done and together, except that one assignment. Then she was nicer.

Oh, and I got a 27/30 on my teacher website I had to make for the class, which computes to a 90%, so that was pretty cool. I think I'll do well on the midterm on Wednesday, it shouldn't be too hard.

And I realized my book reviews for Indian Education aren't due 'til the 23rd of November, not the 3rd, as I previously thought, so that alleviates some stress right there. Whew.

And for those of you who comment, I had to put up the stupid word verification thing, 'cause I started getting spammers. Took 'em a while to find me, but oh well.

pumpkins!

As promised, a picture of the pumpkins, pre-slaughtering.
Aaron's is the orange one, mine's the white one.

Where's George, school, and pumpkins

Ha, I've been playing around with Where's George, I got my new stamp, and all that jazz. I've been getting more hits lately on my bills because of the tips I've been making, marking, and entering, so that's a lot of fun. I just got an email today from a Georger who's bill I hit earlier in the week, and she has the same birthday as me, and emailed me to let me know. My profile view tells people that I'm "getting the hang of things" and also that I'm "just really nice." I didn't put those on my profile, they're based on my posts and bills with hits, I guess. I've been a pretty big nerd about it lately, looking up more money links, and I even found out that one of my floor supervisors at work bought 20 (!!) one dollar silver certificates from a customer! And he got a Walking Liberty half dollar from about 1943 or so right before I showed up to work.. Arg. I hope that happens to me some day soon. What I'd give for a silver certificate.

I got that paper done that I was super-stressing about earlier, and I think I did really well on it, because a lot of the girls in the class seemed quite upset when they saw what the criterion were (mostly because we only had three sentences of instruction on how to write the paper, and everyone tried to cram it into the 5-7 pages that was expected, whereas I couldn't delete THAT much information from mine, and it ended up being 15 pages long), so my stress level has gone down quite a bit, and I know Aaron is thankful for that! I think my bowling class is kind of helping me with that, too, because it's something I can go out and do, and it's just a good relaxer, and it's fun, and my scores are improving, so that makes it a lot more fun. I'm still wayyyyy below most of the boys' scores, but so are most of us girls in the class. I'm usually the high scorer in my group, so that makes me feel better haha.

We got our pumpkins for Halloween, and we're going to try to carve them up sometime after the weekend so they stay pretty fresh for Halloween, even though neither of us are going to be home that night. I'll post pictures of them before and after.

That's about all the news I have for now.

life on the rez

Today was our field trip to the Pine Ridge reservation to observe K-8 schools in that area. One was a private, Catholic school, one was a public school, and the other was a contract school. There was one more school we were supposed to go to, but their was recently a death in the community, so there was no school for the day, as they were holding a wake in the building for the community.

Getting up at the butt crack of dawn is not my favorite thing to do. Especially when coupled with only two hours of sleep after working for 9.5 hours in the casino and making crappy tips because the Canadians don't know how to tip. But their money sure is silly! Actually, I like their money more than ours, color-scheme-wise, and think we should adopt that idea. Or steal it, I guess. We've already made our new 20s green and our new 50s red, just like theirs.

Anyway, back to my original story: the reservation. Driving through the reservation was probably one of the most depressing things I've seen. Now, I live out in the country, 10 miles from town, and I've seen a few weird things. Cars piled up in backyards, dogs running amok, you know. Well, each house we drove by had between five and 10 cars in their yard. Some were wrecked, some were burned beyond recognition, some were older than dirt, and I'm sure one or two of them worked. There was stuff all over the yards, there were animals everywhere, and the houses looked dilapidated and in disrepair. There was graffiti all over the buildings and cars.

It honest to God made me sad. I know that we, currently, are not the direct cause of their living conditions. We, in 2005, did not force the Indians off their land and create the Allottment Act, where men were awarded 160 acres of land, and women 80 acres of land, and anything that wasn't claimed by an Indian was sold to the white man. The Indians lost 90 million acres of land. And the land they did get was crappy land. Part of what we drove through looked like the Badlands. It was sandy, dry soil, with prairie grass and not a lot of trees.

And the reason they have to live the way they do right now is because of what happend back in the 1900s and earlier. We thought we were doing them a favor, making them less reliant on the government for their food and provisions by making them self-sufficient and forcing them to be farmers and ranchers, which is not what they were. By taking their children away from them and putting them in boarding schools, where they couldn't learn to function in a White society, but when they got back home, couldn't learn to function in their native society. It's sad.

I guess in elementary school, you really just get the fairy tale version of everything, don't you? I mean, I knew the Indians got the fuzzy end of the lollypop, but still...being from Wyoming, I didn't grow up with any of that, really. So yeah, a depressing day, all in all. The first and third school we saw were in bad condition, and the private school was really nice, but that's because they have benefactors and the students have a tuition to pay.

Not to mention the ride in the van sucked 'cause the roads were bumpy and it was hard to sleep on them...

urrrrrrrg

Ever had one of those days where everything just seems to fall apart for no apparent reason? Yeah, today was that day. School, work, being tired, more bank problems, and my birthday kinda sucked. Just had a meltdown.

Going to try to get some stuff done at work tonight. See if I can bring my laptop with me and work on homework during breaks, or just read, or maybe it'll be slow tonight. I don't know.

Middle Level Methods midterm due Thursday
Inquiry-based learning paper due Thursday
Three book reports on books about or by Indians due...November 3rd?
Dr. Carl Grant paper due Monday, October 24, I think.
Spreadsheets on Excel due Wednesday
Team project due Wednesday, November 9th, haven't even gotten together with my partner to work on that.

I don't know, I probably have more stuff due, I just can't remember it. This is getting stressful. I know I procrastinate in the worst possible way, but I work better under pressure. Just maybe not this much pressure.

more zombie dreams

Y'know how if you wake up from a bad dream, you usually sit up for a while, not wanting to go back to sleep, because you're scared you'll dream the same thing again...but really, you just have a different dream when you go to sleep? Well, not this time.

We're in a small, 2 story house out in the country, and I think it's just my mother and me, but not my real mom, just a dream mom. People start showing up outside our house, blank look in their eyes, ramming into the house. I somehow realize what they are (I am an expert because I have seen two zombie movies, "Dawn of the Dead" and "Shaun of the Dead") and start to quietly go through the house and shut the windows and the doors. They seem very non-aggressive for zombies, but nonetheless, we board up the house.

Later, I come around the corner into the front entry way to see my dream mom sitting partially on the front porch, partially in the house, to get some sun. But there are zombies in the front yard, not really doing anything. I think it's because everything is so quiet. Then my dream mom gets up and walks back into the house, but doesn't shut the door behind her. A lone zombie walks in, and we both realize it, as my dream mom slinks away with a guilty look in her face, and as I run upstairs and lock myself in the bathroom.

*WAKE*

I'm in the same two story house, except now my dream mom is gone, replaced with dream older brother and dream much younger sister. We are upstairs where the bedrooms are, and my little sister is sick. I think she has the Measles, but only because that's what she told me in the dream. She has her door blocked off somehow so that the zombies couldn't make it inside if they got in the house and made their way upstairs, even though the door is still open a crack for me to get in and out and check on her. I eventually put her in the master bedroom for my brother to look after, and lay in her bed, wondering if now I'll get the Measles. It's the most uncomfortable bed on the planet, so I get up and go into the bedroom with the other two. We're looking out the windows, which are for some reason all over the rooms, on every wall, and notice that the tops of the zombies' heads are just visible out the windows. Odd for a two story house. Then my dream brother looks and sees that one of them is entering through the back door because it didn't get shut/locked for some reason, and makes a crude joke about "he must like coming in the back door, hehehehe."

*WAKE*

And yeah...weird.

Thank you everyone for the birthday wishes! I spent my birthday up at 5:30am, working for eight hours, but my supervisor bought me lunch, so that was nice of him. Aaron got off work early for me so we could go to dinner, even though it was just Applebee's. And today is the beginning of my worst three days of the week:

Today -
11am - 12pm: class.
1pm - 2pm: class.
2:30pm: leave for work.
3pm - 12:30am: work.

Tuesday -
9:30am-10:45am: class.
3pm - 12:30am: work.

Wednesday -
11am - 12pm: class.
1pm - 2pm: class.
4pm - 7pm: class.

So. Lots of stuff going on that either don't last for a long time and have short breaks inbetween, or work that lasts a rediculously long nine and a half hours and having to get up earlyish the next day for more classes.

But at 8pm when "Lost" starts, my week gets a little better.

23

Well, here it is, my 23rd birthday, and here I am, at 6:36am, getting ready for work. I didn't ask for my birthday off because I didn't want to burden anyone else at work, as the days I work are the only days I can work, so I wouldn't have been able to make it up for the person who covered for me at some point in time. Fortunately, I work in the morning so I'll get off by the afternoon. Unfortunately, Aaron will be starting his shift at work just as I am ending mine. I am also not a millionaire, as the Powerball jackpot has reached a record high of $340million, indicating that nobody had the winning numbers drawn last night.

As I was going through my webcomics this morning, I found that Fish from Pooch Cafe' shares a birthday with me. That link will only work today, October 16th, however, otherwise you'll have to back track to Sunday to read it.

Nothing exciting happens on 23, except now my parent's insurance won't cover me and I have to wait for my own student insurance to take effect. Hopefully nothing bad happens to me until then.

Well, that's all I have for today. I'll probably be doing homework or napping when I get off work. Maybe I'll go to Dairy Queen and buy me an ice cream cake or something.

Hot Dogs

Today at lunch, Aaron asks me if I remember the hot dog incident last night. Thoroughly confused, I say no, and ask what he's talking about. Last night while he was tossing and turning, trying to get to sleep, and while I was asleep, I sat up, turned around and said, "I have to get rid of the hot dogs." Laying down again, Aaron says, "I think you're delusional," to which I respond, "You're probably right."

I don't remember any of this. Or having any dreams about hot dogs.

oh deer, how i loathe you.

...But you taste so yummy. Driving on the Interstate at night is just about the scariest thing ever. Remember my whole "invisioning deer around every curve and behind every bush" thing? Yeah. Except now, there really are deer, and they're really big and scary. And there were lots and lots and lots of deer smears on the road on the way to and from Gillette. More fresh ones on the way back because it was dark an dthey were freshly hit. Gross. I think some of them were coyotes or something like that, 'cause they were awful small.

Anyway, enough grossness.

Bowling lasted until 10:30am. Then I rushed around town trying to find Powerball tickets for my parents. The first place I stop has a broken machine and can't get tickets to print up. The second place has a broken keyboard to the computer dealing with the cash register. They had to add up everything by hand. Ha. And there was a line. I get the tickets and go. 85 MPH the whole way. And I'm still a couple minutes late for my appointment. Had some x-rays taken, cleaning, and I'm done.

Smelly Cat seemed happy to see me. So happy that when I thought he was going to nuzzle up to me and be nice, he bit me on the lip and told me he wanted food. It was a love bite, so it didn't hurt, but it suprised the heck out of me.

I brought the Nintendo DS home to show the family my new game. Mom and Ashley thought it was cute and played with Sampson for a bit, and talked to him like you would talk to a puppy. Ashley tried to teach him some tricks, but he's programmed to my voice. Dad thought it was silly, and that Aaron likes gadgets haha, which is true.

For my birthday dinner, we went to Bootleggers in the Clarion Plaza, which is a 1920s based Italian restaurant, I had the Seafood Stuffed Chicken Breast on angelhair noodles with alfredo sauce. It was super yum.

Then there was the drive home, filled with deer and roadkill. Sweet.

they say absence makes the heart grow fungus.

Wow, it's been forever since I posted. Sorry loyal readers, all four of you. Ever since bowling stared, I don't have a single day to sleep in, and therefore (especially on Tuesdays and Wednesdays), I am very tired. Plus all that homework crap they keep piling on us doesn't help my case much, either.

Mom and Dad stopped by the apartment on Saturday, I think it was. Either that or Sunday. I forget. Anway, they dropped off my birthday present a little early, and we talked for a while, and it was good to see them again. I'm going home tomorrow for a dentist appointment and will see them anyway. Speaking of which, I need to pick out something to eat for my birthday dinner.

Aaron and I are going to do something for my birthday next Thursday, as we're both very busy up until that point and both work on Sunday, so we'll figure something out. For my birthday, he got me the game Nintendogs, for the Nintendo DS thingy, which he also bought, but we're sharing it because he got a game for himself, also. It's a really cute little game, with lots of puppies that you can train and whatnot. I have a Siberian Husky named Sampson. Picking out his name was the hardest part.

School's starting to get hectic, assignments are beginning to be due, assignments that are worth a lot of points and all that crap, so I'm starting to go into my "stress out about stupid stuff" mode. Watch as the crazy antics unfold!

Oh, I uploaded some new photos to the Flickr page. If you click on the little "badge" on my sidebar with the pictures on it, you can see the new ones. I'm sure they're stuff I've already put up before, but my dad was asking about some cloud pictures.

stuff.

One day of bowling and I can hardly get out of bed or walk across the apartment if I've been sitting still too long. This is about the saddest thing ever. BOWLING! Took a whole day to figure out why I was sore, too because I couldn't think of anything I'd done out of the ordinary, until Aaron mentioned bowling. DUH.

No classes today, none on Monday, this is going to rock. Except for the cleaning and laundry and homework. Oh well!

More Minneapolis pictures

Well, after finding Brandon's website again with the epic journey told in amazing detail. You can read the hilarity for yourself, but if not, here are some pictures that Brandon took of us and the trip. There's actually some pictures of me in here, so I figured I should post some.

snow, deer, the lottery

Last night we recieved our first snow of the season. I was at work when it started, but really it started out as heavy rain, then sleet, then snow. By the time I got off work at midnight, there was about four to five inches of thick, wet, slushy snow covering everything. It really wasn't that cold outside, but having to unearth the snow scraper from my trunk was quite the task. The drive through the hills wasn't as terrible as I thought it was going to be, although there were only ruts in the snow to follow, and it's a very windy, hilly set of hills to drive through, so that was thoroughly frightening.

When I got home, Aaron had dinner ready for us, and as we sat down for dinner, the power went out. Then it came back on. And then it went out again, for good this time. We found all of our candles (three of them) and my camping lantern that I "borrowed" from Mom and finished our dinner. We roamed about the house, not bumping into anything because only our part of the powergrid was out, and the rest of the city was lit up, reflecting the light off the snow and the clouds, making it pretty bright outside. All we had to do was open the shades.

The trees in the town are completely devistated. They still had the majority of their leaves, and the snow was wet and heavy and stuck to everything it touched. Driving around town today, we could see many large branches, as thick as my leg, had snapped under the weight of the snow. I can't imagine what it's going to look like in a few days when (hopefully) all of the snow clears up.

When I got home from work, before the power went out, I had a message on my computer from Ashley, my sister. I guess she'd hit a deer on her way home from work last night. By the time I got the message, it was 1:30am, and she didn't answer her cell phone when I called her, so I called her today and got the story. It was snowing badly and the deer was in the road. She didn't see it until it was too late, and didn't have time to hit the brakes or swerve (thank goodness), so she hit the deer, but didn't go into the ditch or wreck. Fortunately, the deer was crossing the road, and she just hit its tail-end, knocking it off its feet. Mom said she didn't see a deer in the ditch this morning, so I think it's okay.

Also because of the snow, it was so slow at work last night that I had time to calculate the most frequently drawn Powerball numbers in the last year. Yeah, I even made a chart to show how many times each number was drawn. How sad, eh?

The power was still out this morning, but in a very strange way. Non of the lights in the ceiling would turn on. Light switches had no effect on them. But we found out that anything plugged into the wall, the the exception of the outlets in the bedroom, worked just fine. After a couple of hours it was all sorted out, however.

more of them

Spiders, that is. This one was in the computer room, on the floor, nestled up to the phone book I have sitting in front of the mirror with my curling iron resting on it (too lazy to stand up the whole time it takes to curl my hair), so I Pledged it almost to death, but when it wouldn't die, I caught him in Kleenex and flushed him down the toilet. I seem to find them all over the place, whereas Aaron never sees them 'til I point one out. The weird thing is, they're almost never the same kind of spider. Almost all of them have been a different color or size. At least I know they're not makin' babies or anything in here. OMG I would die, reincarnate myself, and then move out. And now I've started dreaming about them! Dropping down from the ceiling and landing in people's hair! Gross. Maybe I should see if spider symbolize anything in dreams...

I didn't win the lottery last night, as you can see, since the jackpot went up another 3 million dollars. I guess that just means I'll be able to win more next time, eh?

the best things in life are free, but you can give them to the birds and the bees, i want money...

Well, the bank finally came through and now I have my paycheck from over three weeks ago. Life is fantastic. And now it's only one week 'til the next paycheck. What am I going to do with all this money? Besides pay rent and bills and stuff? We'll find something suitable for it.

So this morning after I get out of the shower and am heading towards the closet to get some Q-tips to clean out my ears, I look over to the frame of the closet and see a freakin' spider! It was two inches from my face because I hadn't realized it was there when I was reaching in it. I made some kind of noise that will hopefully never be replicated. It was a combination of choking, gurgling, and supressed scream (Aaron was still sleeping). So, being the MacGyver girl I am and not having any bug spray or a man about to help me, I do the next best thing: hairspray and Febreze it to death.

On the way home from work this afternoon, I was almost rear-ended by the red car behind me as I'd stopped behind a car making a left-hand turn on the 4 lane road. Well, I guess the guy behind me wasn't paying too much attention to his immediate surroundings (he was pretty close to me), and all of the sudden I hear squealing brakes behind me. I look in my rearview mirror and see how close he was to me, then give him the ol' "good work, buddy," look in the rearview mirror, and speed along my merry way (because I have a lead foot and I wanted to get as far away from him as possible). He also lagged behind me quite a bit, so that was nice, too.

The fall colors are starting to spread around here, as a trip through Spearfish Canyon proved the other day when I was feeling particularly cranky. I only took one picture, though, because I was too made at the driver in front of me going only 20mph.


Bowling starts on Tuesday. This should be interesting/half exciting.

Also, tonight they draw lottery tickets. Wish me luck! 167 million dollars!

crabby

So I've been kind of a grouch the last couple of days. Aaron can vouch for that. Yesterday, I wasn't entirely sure what was wrong with me, but today it was more dealing with my bank. You see, after I cancelled the check, they told me the money would be back in my account in two to three days. Well, it's day three, and there's still nothing in my account. Which officially makes this three weeks since my paycheck was issued to me. It also didn't help the other day that I looked at my bank account online and saw that instead of having a $.45 balance like I had before, I had a -$10.05 balance. They had told me they weren't going to charge me a stop payment fee, but here I am, looking at my checking account, and I've been charged 10 and a half bucks. I call the bank, ready to rip someone a new one. Turns out it was just the charge for the box of checks I ordered, and that I wasn't going to be charged a cancellation fee. Whew. That's the one good thing I've heard from this bank the whole time.

Then today I called the bank because there is still no money in my account. The girl who answers the phone gives me the phone number of someone else who can help out more, so I call the 800 number she gives me. The number was for the Copy Shop. I don't even know where that is. I call back, a new girl answers and gives me the right phone number. I call that, looking for Amber, but get Jill instead, and then get transfered to Theresa. And someone else, but I don't remember their name. She says she's going to do some research, and she'll call me back in 15 minutes. Which means she should have called me back before Aaron and I left for Rapid City, but I didn't hear back from the bank, even after we spent 2 hours in Rapid, so I had to call them back.

Now I'm talking to Maggie, who's manager is busy right now, and who says the woman who usually deals with this stuff is gone right now. She says there's a chance that it could come in later in the day, and she'd give me a call if that happened, or call me if she found anything out. I leave her my number and lay down for a nap. I wake up, two hours later, no call. It's 6pm, so they're all gone for the day.

Then on the way to Rapid, Aaron asked me why I'd been so crabby lately, and I didn't really have an answer. He started to pry, asking if it was school, money, or work related. He knew obviously how I felt about my money ordeal right now, so I just reiterated a few things about that, like how I can't just start screaming and yelling at the person on the phone, because they're trying to help me and it's not their fault. I don't really know who's fault it is, but I seem to have created just the right circumstances (money gets turned into a paper check, sent to my home address which has a forward on it that's expired, and sent back to Rapid City's bank), where I'm just not going to get my money for a very long time.

I explained to him about my classes, how they all seem like classes I should have taken back when I was a sophomore or a junior and they now seem so basic and boring. The computer class is the worst, as you all have heard about in previous posts, but I have three other classes, two of which are taught by the same teacher and have similar guidelines: no text books, read random things and do reports on them and turn those in, no finals, no note taking, group activities, 15 page papers for an A in the class. I know what you're saying - "No final? No notes? No tests? What are you complaining about??? That's awesome!" Yeah, it kinda is. But I don't remember things unless I write them down, unless I have things to study off of. It all just kind of falls out of my head at the end of the semester when I don't need or use it anymore. Just like Sign Language; I took that two years ago, and now that I don't use it anymore, I pretty much only remember the alphabet. Then there's my class that's for people who are going to teach in middle schools, not elementary. We're required to take it because there's a chance we might teach in a rural school and have to teach middle school. Or junior high. Supposedly there's a difference in the way middle schools and junior highs are set up, but I'm not entirely clear on what that is besides the grade level difference. Also, all we do is take notes off of Power Point presentations in that class and make lesson plans.

I'm just having a rough time of it all, and really hate going to classes and dealing with my bank and not being able to do anything about it. And everything I'm doing in school or work is so weirdly spaced apart that I only have between half an hour to two hours between classes/work that I can't really accomplish anything, so I spend my days off running around like a chicken with my head cut off, trying to get laundry, groceries, cleaning, dishes, and homework done all in a span of two days, because I'm too tired to do it any other time.

Sorry for such a whiney post, but I don't really have anyone to talk to right now because Aaron's at work and I really should be doing homework (aka learning how to add a new Web page to a site on FrontPage). See ya.

Lotto

On Sunday when I got off work, on my way past the gas station, I saw that the Powerball jackpot was up to 148 million dollars. Why not? So I go in and buy one of each kind of lottery ticket (Powerball, Hot Lotto, Wild Card, and Dakota Cash), in hopes to win a cool 148 million dollars. Or $78,000 or really anything over $50 would be great. So we'll see how that goes tonight.

Also, new "Lost" is on tonight. So excited. I actually haven't made it through my DVDs of the first season 'cause I don't want to get too behind on sleep or school work, 'cause I know that's what would happen.

This is going to be an awesome season, I'm so excited.

In other news, I've been avidly tracking my tip dollars from work with Where's George? and have found quite a few Where's George? bills in the cashier's cage that I've entered into the system. Hopefully they travel long and far and someone enters them in. I guess it would help if I would spend them, first. I feel silly paying for $20 worth of stuff all in singles. All with purple www.WheresGeorge.com stamps on the front and back, too...I know, I know...NERD. But it's entertaining, and you learn lots of new things, like about serial numbers and series and stuff like that of bills. I'll post some currency facts here soon.

OMFG

Alrighty. Remember the whole paycheck ordeal with the online SmartPay system? Well, I've since gotten paid on the 22nd, and still haven't recieved my paycheck back from the 8th. I took my paycheck from the 22nd and PERSONALLY took it down to my bank in Gillette and deposited it, so I at least have THAT money. But, I still don't have my money from the 8th. Why? I'll tell you why.

The first time you use SmartPay, they turn your electronic money into paper money and send it to Virginia (from South Dakota) for shits and giggles. Then that takes seven to 10 business days, which in real days, turns into 2 weeks, by which time I had recieved my next paycheck. Well, for whatever reasoning of mine, I sent the money to me at my home address in Gillette. Big mistake, because two years ago when I lived in the dorms, I had all my mail forwarded from Gillette to Spearfish. Great idea at the time. Apparently that forwarding service has been canceled, so the check ALMOST made it to Gillette, but not quite, because it got sent back to South Dakota. Not sure WHERE in South Dakota, but somewhere.

So, I can either change the address and try to send it to the bank's address, which will take five to seven business days (ie: another week), or I can cancel it and have the money put back in my Spearfish account, which will only take one or two days, which is what I did, as it was the fastest way to get my money back.

It took them two weeks to tell me all this information! Nobody told me that the first time I would do the SmartPay system it would be turned into a paper check and take 2 weeks to show up at my house. No one let me know that my mail had been returned because of an expired forwarding account, which shouldn't matter anyway, because my parents are still recieving a piece or two of mail for me at my permanent address!

I'm so freakin' mad. When people ask me, "Well, why don't you just close your account in Gillette and do all your banking here in Spearfish?" I know exactly why I'm not doing that. STUPID!