stuff.

The last few days have been busy and full of work. I found out on Wednesday that I worked the next six days in a row, with one day for a break, then another two days before I get another day off. Growl.

Went to Cadilac Jack's a couple of times the last few days, and won a total of $40 at blackjack and some video slot game at the bar, so that was fun. Made up for the money I lost in Mississippi, for sure.

I'm worn out, for sure, and I still have four days of work left to go. Hope I can do it, but hopefully this next paycheck is going to be big. Hopefully. But with being gone for a week, I doubt it will be; it'll be just enough to get by, as usual.

Um, I'm not really exciting, but that's because I'm pooped and stuff. My dentist appointment went well, no cavities, yay! And I don't have periodontal disease, or whatever it's called...something to do with gingevitis. I'm pretty sure I'm spelling all of these dental words wrong, but I just don't really care right now.

blonde!

While talking to a friend of mine from high school who is attending beauty college in Rapid City, I have decided to dye my hair blonde. Not fully blonde, but blonde highlights. I haven't been blonde blonde in years and am a little nervous to go full-out the first time, so we'll start with highlights and work my way up.

I'm in Gillette for the evening, as I have a dentist appointment at 8am tomorrow, and didn't feel like trying to make it to Gillette from Spearfish that early in the morning.

Last night I went to Deadwood around the time that Aaron got off work so we could hang out and gamble a little, and he had a complimentary beverage card to use up by that night. So he played video poker for a while and had some drinks, while I played blackjack for a while. Aaron sat and watched me for the most part, and then wandered off to talk to a friend, and while he was gone, I got 6 blackjacks! Three in a row, and a couple more around those ones, plus another one after he'd come back to the table. I left with $37 more than I came in with, so it was a good night.

After which, I bought an entertainment set for the television in the living room because right now it's sitting on a small end table and is very low to the ground, with the Nintendo and games all over the floor, and Jill's DVD player has been scratching the top of her TV, so now it can rest on a shelf below the TV and not do any damage.

Well, that's all for me, I work the next 4 nights in a row 'til 10, so that kinda sucks, 'cause Wednesday is our night out, but I'll be able to go, just a little later than usual.

G'night!

flote? flot?

This is going to be a long one. And that is the reason I have changed my blog template; so that it is easier to read. I might go back to the old one, but it kind of annoys me, because generally, I don't like windows and scrolling within a window to read a post or see the sidebar.

Day One:
Monday was spent on airplanes. Rapid City to Minneapolis to Memphis to Gulfport. I believe it was the plane from Minneapolis to Memphis that was ran into by a truck, and then fixed with duct tape. Nothing serious, the pilot made sure to note, as the damage only affected the fuel efficiency of our flight, not the actual flight itself. Duct tape. Does that withstand winds of several hundred miles per hour? Apparently so. I had a picture, but like a dummy, I deleted it because I wasn't sure how to use my camera.

Day Two:
Tuesday comes around, and we're off to the Gulf Coast! We stay at the Best Western across from the Beau Rivage, one of the snazzier-slash-ritzier hotels in the area. My first gambling game was War. If your card is higher than the dealer's, you win. It's honestly that simple. I won about forty dollars, whereas my sister lost sixty. If we'd switched places, the tables would have been turned, as we were the only two players at the table. Then off to Blackjack, where I think I broke even.

Day Three:
Wednesday, our last full day on the coast. We went to more casinos, ate out more, went to the mall, where I splurged on Bath & Body Works lotions, bought some undergarments and a belt, and some iPod covers for Aaron's iPod, and immediately put the pink one on as soon as we got back to the hotel. This was also the night of the season finale of Lost on ABC, so Aunt Sharon made sure that we were back at the hotel by the apropriate time so we could see it, and then we went to Coyote's in the Grand Casino to see my Great Aunt Vicki's son in law, Lloyd, do karoke and dance. My grandmother, my great aunt, and Lloyd danced a lot on the dance floor - line dancing to songs like "Push It" by Salt N Peppa and "Stroke It" - it was a lot of fun.

Day Four:
Thursday is back at Grandma's. Nothing much happened that day, except we tried to visit my aunt in the next town over, who wasn't home, and then stopped by my grandpa's grave to see it because Ashley requested to while we were there.

We got back home and set up the air mattress for the evening. The patch that I'd placed on it Monday night had peeled halfway off and wasn't holding air anymore, but we didn't realize this right away. Around 3am, Ashley and I were finally laying on the floor, it had sunk so much. I aired it up, and about three hours later, we were back on the floor. It was miserable.

Day Five:
Visited my aunt and saw her newly in the process of being remodeled house, played with her dogs, and got to hold a baby. He was my grandma's sister's grandson. Not sure how that works out for me, but he was cute and fairly un-fussy. We ate out for lunch and dinner that day. I don't think we actually had a homecooked meal the whole time we were there, come to think of it.

Day Six:
More airplanes! Grandma and Aunt Sharon dropped us off at the airport and saw us off while we went through the security line. For Mom and Ashley, Gulfport to Memphis to Minneapolis to Rapid City; exactly the opposite as the trip to Mississippi. For me; Gulfport to Memphis to Milwaukee to Minneapolis to Rapid City. On airplanes, you can use the bottom seat to float on in the unlikely event of a water crash (if you were to survive, that is), and I noticed that they spelled it "flotation." Now, do we flote? Or do we flot? No, so why is it spelled like this? Is it derived from "flow" instead of "float"? Such a mystery. I didn't get off the plane in Rapid City until 9:30pm, where I promptly called Kmart to see what time, if at all, I worked the next day. Zach told me from 1:30pm to 9pm, Electronics.

Day Seven:
Turns out Zach told me LAST Sunday's schedule, and I was 45 minutes late to work, and I worked in the Garden Shop. Damnit.

vacation at last!

Tomorrow begins my six days of rest and relaxation. Mississippi, here I come! This is going to be so nice, and so well-deserved. I still haven't packed yet, and I couldn't get ahold of the stupid airport to see if my purse would make it onto a plane or not. I'm going to try calling tomorrow morning, bright and early.

Nothing but work, work, work for me the last 4 days, so I've been pretty busy. Hopefully my paycheck tomorrow is going to be a good one, and if it's not, my next one should be because of this week; I had 37 hours, which is about $60 more than what I usually make. I could always use an extra $60, y'know?

While making scrambled eggs this morning, two yolks popped out of one shell...it was kinda weird, and got me to wondering if chickens could have twins? I mean, they'd be small and malnourished, probably, but it could happen..maybe. Just kind of a weird thing that happened this morning.

Hopefully when I get back from Mississippi, I'll have lots of new pictures to post on my Photo Blog, since I haven't put anything up in a long time. Some coastal sunsets, shorelines, and maybe some family stuff, too. I'm really excited. And I love flying. I can finally finish up my last Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books, as I'm almost done with the 4th one and can finish up the 5th one there, too. Aaron has offered to lend me his iPod for my trip so I can have lots of music to listen to, and even an audio book, too, which he listened to twice on the way to and from Minneapolis a couple of weeks ago. I'm still wondering whether or not to take him up on his offer, and I might, since I have iTunes, and can just put all of my songs on there, too, and have his and my music to listen to. I'll have to talk to him tonight and see.

Anyway, if you don't hear from me for a week, it's 'cause I'm out having too much fun and not sitting at a computer anywhere! Bye!

Garden Shop

So I've been working in the Garden Shop for the last two days, and I can see why it is the spot that everyone wants to be in. Especially on days like today, 70-80*, light breeze, and some clouds. You start off your morning by watering all the plants in the greenhouse and surrounding areas, which takes about 2 hours or so, maybe more if you have a lot of customers bothering you, you have to go back to the cash register every once in a while and help them.

Then you sweep a little bit. Then you find the manager for almost every question that customers ask you because it's only your second day there and you don't know where anything is or if you have that in stock or carry it at all. I think Jim was getting kind of annoyed with me. Oh well. Then you try to find somebody to cover your breaks, which isn't too hard, 'cause they want to be out there, but was kind of hard today because someone didn't show up to work and there was a lack of people on the floor to cover you.

Then, you just leave! No closing things down, just meander off and hope no one stops you before you make it out the door with a question about begonia bulbs.

Today went by so fast, it was incredible. By the time I'd gotten around to taking my first break, I should have had it two hours ago, and it should have been my lunch time. That's how fast time goes. Any other place, and you're just watching the clock, praying that time will somehow speed up and you can get to your break, only to sit and wait another two hours for your next one.

But, it's back to the service desk for me tomorrow, for seven and a half hours of pure, non-stop joy. Or not so much.

the terror of children

Wow. Wow. I am never, ever, ever having children. Ever. At least not until they're five years old. Tori was dropped off around 8 o'clock last night, a little shy at first, but shortly after Mommy left, she was showing us her dolls and stuffed monkey, and asking to watch movies. We started off with Finding Nemo, then five minutes later switched over to Shrek, then popped in Monsters Inc. while Jill and BJ went to find Shrek 2, which was at BJ's place. Then we watched Shrek 2.

Then there was the crayons. Jill brought out her coloring book for Tori to color in, and I brought out my box o' crayons. Tori proceeded to dump all but three boxes of crayons, only because I wouldn't let her dump the three big boxes of crayons out on the floor. Only one crayon was broken the entire evening, I am still quite impressed. After she was done coloring, Jill and I proceeded to sort and box up the rest of the crayons, which was quite the task, as there are at least 10 different kinds of crayons that I have, and some of them were doubled up, so we had to sort them out into seperate boxes.

Afterwards, we played some hide and seek, running around the house, dancing to the songs on Shrek 2, and played knock knock on Jill's door for about half an hour. Then it was bedtime. So we brought Shrek 2 into my bedroom and watched 2 more times. Well, one and a half more times. She whined and said she wanted her sippy cup, and that she needed more milk, and that she had to pee, and asked "What's that?" every five seconds during a movie we'd already watched twice. I slept in my bed the regular way, and she slept in my bed at the foot of the bed, going across the bed, instead of up and down, so I could barely move my legs the whole night. Not that I got that much sleep, anyway. One thirty in the morning was when the television turned itself off, and I told her (for the nth time) that she needed to go to bed and the movie was over.

Now comes morning. Very early. I thought I could get out of bed without her noticing, but she did and followed me out to the living room, where I turned the television onto the Disney Channel and we watched all kinds of scary cartoons that I've never seen before. Jill woke up, we had breakfast, and Tori had 3 spoonfuls of cereal and decided she didn't want the rest of it.

Arg. I have no patience for children. She was very demanding, loud, whiney, and just generally very exhausting. I didn't get a lot of sleep tonight, I'll probably end up taking a nap here in a few hours, after I wash all my sheets and comforters and get rid of the kid germs that are all over them. I think we should just Lysol the entire apartment. Dirty, slobbery, germy kids. Ick.

babysitting

One of the gals I work for has asked me to look after her little girl tonight so she can go out for once (since the daycare obviously isn't open that late). So I called up Jill and asked if that'd be okay, and Jill was all kinds of excited about the prospect of a child in the house, so she said yes right away. This should be interesting. I haven't been around children this young in a long, long, long time. I'll let you all know how it goes tomorrow haha.

This should really be interesting...I hope she's good. I don't know what to do when kids cry and stuff. Eeep. Wish me luck!

he's back!

Aaron's back! YAY! Man, those couple of days that BOTH Aaron and Jill were gone were kinda rough. But Jill's been back for a couple of days, and Aaron got back around Midnight, came over at 12:30am to show me pictures of the wedding, and stayed over 'cause we were both super tired and I don't think he really wanted to walk back home after just showing me pictures. Unfortunately, he might have to work on Wednesday, which is our "signature" day off, and this makes me sad. I'm going to be leaving in a week to go to Mississippi with my mom and sister, and I'm really excited for it, but I'll be gone a while.

My weather thingy says it's supposed to be 70* outside, but I don't believe it from looking out the window...it's cloudy. Meh, whatever, I'll be working inside all day, with huge, plexiglass windows taunting me of the beautiful day it is, along with customers wearing shorts, tanktops, and flipflops.

I get to work in the Garden Shop a couple of times this week...I'm interested to see how that's going to turn out, 'cause the boys are all like, "It's the easiest job out there, that's why everyone wants to do it!" But then again, I've heard them say, "It's actually like, a job. You have to do some heavy lifting, and it's hot and sweaty." Well, it's not like I've never worked outside and been hot and sweaty before, so I think I can handle it.

Anyhow, I need to get ready for the day. So long.

headless chickens

Well, tonight was just super fantabulous. I got to the Jalan Crossland concert about fifteen minutes before it started, after hurrying right off from work at 6:30pm. I arrived, walked to the doors of the Journey Museum, only to see a sign on the door: "Jalan Crossland Concert Sold Out." NO!!

I went inside anyway, just to see if there was anything I could do. I talked to the lady taking tickets, told her that I'd just driven in from Spearfish, which is a good 45 minute drive, and that I'd been planning this for over a month. She felt bad for me and had me wait behind the table with her, to see if anyone didn't show up at the end. I also explained that I'd had to switch shifts with someone at work just so I could make it in tonight. Then walks in another girl, who'd driven an hour and 15 minutes to make it to this concert, and she got to stand beside me behind the table, as well. The woman talked to some people at the Journey, then talked to Jalan, and he said not to turn down beautiful women, so we were found seats! Woo hoo!

The concert was just incredible. For some reason, he had live chickens in cages on the stage...to set the ambience (spelling?) of the evening. He of course played the Chicken Trucker song that I love so much, and wow, it was just great. I just marvel at him every time I get to see him play...he makes it look so easy, and yet...it's damn near the hardest thing I've tried learning so far. I think he's recording a new album soon/now, so I'd really like to get my hands on that...

Anyway, I should be off to bed. I missed Will Ferell tonight 'cause just as I was getting parked, Aaron called, and I hadn't talked to him yet today, just played phone tag with him, so it was nice to get to talk to him, since I probably won't even see him when he gets back tomorrow. He says we have to go to Minneapolis in July, however, so I might have to make plans for that at work...since that's the only place I really have a responsibility to anymore.

Okay, this is getting long and I'm rambling sorry. G'night all!

Did you know that Zach Braff, who plays JD on Scrubs, is also the voice of the Cottonelle puppy? He's like, my favorite puppy ever.

Today I work the dreaded morning shift. I did it to myself, because I wanted to see Jalan Crossland play in Rapid City tonight, so I guess I can't complain too much. But I think I was originally only supposed to work a six hour day, and now I have eight. Couldn't hurt the ol' paycheck, could it?

Jill's finally back, so it's nice to have a roomie again, and Aaron called to tell me he missed me whilst running amok through Minneapolis yesterday. Jill brought home so many groceries, too, but all non-perishables. I can't imagine what she would have brought home if she didn't have to worry about something going bad. That's more groceries than I buy in a month! So I guess it's my turn to go grocery shopping next time.

Anyway, I'd better get ready for work. I'm going to be gone pretty much all day, so I won't be at Trivia tonight, and I probably will catch the tail end of SNL, with Will Ferell hosting. Poop. Maybe I can get Jill to record it for me if I leave her a note. Wonder if it's set up and ready to record from the TV?