the damage

And there you have it, folks. Aaron was kind enough to run out and get some estimates for me today, fax the police report to my insurance company in Gillette, talked to my parents about what was going on, AND got ahold of the other guys' insurance company to get the claim filed. Dad thinks I will need to get a new door...that sucks. I can't unlock the door from the outside...I have to go to the passenger side, unlock it, set my crap in the car, crawl across the seats, unlock the driver's door, get back out, and go around. Sucks. I keep forgetting I have to do that, too.

Oh well. Soon enough, it will be fixed. It just happened at like, the worst time possible: right before midterms. I'm busy as hell and don't have time to go do anything, which is why Aaron did all that for me today, otherwise, it wouldn't get done this week, I'm sure.

So there ya have it...my poor dimpled car, scarred by some guy in a Subaru from Montana who thought just because he had all-wheel drive he could just do whatever the hell he wanted.

car go smashy smashy boom

Early this morning it started snowing, mostly in Deadwood, but by the time I got off work, it was snowing all over the area, including home in Spearfish. As I was getting off work, Aaron was coming on to his shift, and he told me to drive careful because the roads weren't great, but if I just drove slow I would be okay. A little aprehensive, I set off. The highway to Deadwood is very pretty in the summer, but treacherous in the winter when it comes to road conditions.

Fortunately, I made it all the way to Spearfish just fine with no incidents. I stopped in to Wal*Mart to pick up a few things that I was going to get yesterday after work, but I had forgotten my checkbook in my purse, and I had cleaned out my debit/credit cards from my wallet when I bought something online earlier, so I only had the $4 sitting in my wallet, which was no where near enough money to buy what I was getting. So I decided to come back today to get the stuff, even with the roads the way they were, it was the only time in the near future I would be able to do that, and I really needed conditioner!

Aaron told me to call him when I made it to Spearfish, so as I was getting my car started, I called him from my parking space to let him know I had made it home okay, and that I was just getting ready to leave Wal*Mart. I pulled out of my parking spot and headed towards the exit of the lot. There was a car stopped at the Stop sign in the middle lane to turn left, which was also where I was going, so I slowed down quite a bit and quite early so I didn't have to worry about sliding into him if I braked too hard.

Just then, a Subaru Outback wagon comes around the corner, taps his brakes, and starts sliding towards me. Shit. I can't go forward because of the car in front of me, and I'm not fully stopped yet, so I try to maneuver out of the way by getting in the right-turn lane, as there are no cars there at the time. I just couldn't move fast enough, and I knew he was going to hit me, so I closed my eyes and tensed up, waiting for him to hit me. We both got out of our vehicles, as did a witness, and decided to go back to the parking lot and check out the damage. I called my dad to see what I should do, and he told me all the information I needed to get and that I should call the police for a police report. The man who witnessed this called the police for us, as I did not know their number, and the Subaru was from Montana, so they didn't know it, either.

As we waited for the police to show up, I assessed the damage to my car: the driver's door was smashed in just below the door handle, and a tiny bit of the passenger door was also dented in. The door opens fine, but looks horrible. I'll take real pictures of it tomorrow with my camera, as I only had my camera phone to take pictures of it with me today, and those didn't turn out very well.

So, I have to call insurance companies tomorrow to see how to go about doing this, and get body estimates for the car to see what they will do. I hope I just get a new door, because it looks like it would not come out perfect if they just fixed the surface or Bondo'd it.

So that was the perfect ending to Spring Break.

Okay. Not perfect, but I'll have something to talk about in class tomorrow!

Beware the elusive Tree Buffalo...

Aaron and I spent the day and a half out of Spearfish, away from our friends, away from our family, just the two of us, for our one year anniversary. We went to Hot Springs and Custer, SD, and stayed at a little bed and breakfast called the Flat Iron in Hot Springs. After checking in, we drove to Custer so we could see some wildlife and Mount Rushmore. We went to the Custer State Park, the home of the buffalo, burrow, elk, antelope, deer, and the elusive tree buffalo. Here are some of the regular prairie buffalo:




Aaron had warned me about the tree buffalo, who like to hide in the trees and jump on their prey, crushing them to death, and then eating them. Aaron said they only eat little blue cars, so we'd better be careful. Especially when we were sneaking up on the prairie buffalo in it. We were fortunate enough not to see the vicious tree buffalo, but we did see some mangy antelope, a buffalo with a Moe haircut (Three Stooges), and a deer with a shaved neck and radio collar. This is how we think that scenario went down:

Game Warden 1: We need to put a radio collar on this deer, so we gotta shave his neck.
GW2: How are we gonna do that?
GW1: Well, we'll tranquilize him first, then take him to the dog groomer and have them do it.
GW2: Think we can get them to style its hair, too?
GW1: Sweet. Good idea.
Dog Groomer: Mornin', gentlemen!
GW1&2: Hi! We've got a, uh, large breed dog that needs its neck shaved.
DG: Um, that doesn't look like a dog to me...that's a deer.
GW1: No, seriously, it's okay. We just need its neck shaved. We have to put a radio transmitter collar on it.
GW2: Yeah, and put a bow in its fur, too!
GW1: I thought you were joking about that earlier...
GW2: What? Oh, totally, yeah, it was a joke.
GW2: Can we give a buffalo a haircut, too? When we put the radio collar on one, let's style his hair.
GW1: How did you get a job here?

Poor deer. I didn't get a picture of him, but he was pretty sad looking. You know when you take a dog to the vet and shave everything but its paws, tail, and head? Yeah...it kinda looked like that.

We left the park and Aaron was going to take me to the Needles, which I'd never seen before, but unfortunately, the road was closed because it wasn't late enough in the year yet, and there was still snow on the ground. So we went to this really beautiful area with those same kind of rocks, just not as many of them, near a lake.



After that, we drove towards Mt. Rushmore, but we didn't actually stop because it was snowing, and we didn't want to have to pay for it or hike up there in the cold...if they were even open. It was a beautiful drive, with everything covered in snow. I didn't get any pictures of it because we never stopped the car, we were just trying to get home before it got too dark.

We got back to town, had some dinner at a sports bar, then got back to the B&B. It wasn't even 9pm yet, but there wasn't really much else to do, so we flipped on the TV because we had DishNetwork satellite. 5000 channels and nothing to watch! Actually, that wasn't the case. It was more like, 5000 channels, and you can only watch three! The system was messed up or hadn't been activated yet, so all we got was Pay Per View, and we weren't going to do that, or the DishNetwork information channel, CCTV (Communist China Television), the SIRIUS radio network information channel, and the Shop At Home channel. Well screw this. There's a shelf of about 10 chick flicks next to the VCR. After much deliberation, we find "Something To Talk About" starring Julia Roberts and Dennis Quaid, the story about an unfaithful husband and what happens to the wife as she goes out on her own. *Puke* No sound. Fiddle with the VCR connection. After about a minute, sporadic sounds come pumping through the speakers like a bad rap song beat. Rewind, fiddle with some wires, try it again. Nothing. Sporadic beats. Okay, let's try a new movie. We ended up watching "How To Lose a Guy in 10 Days." Ha. Good thing we didn't go to the B&B for their movie selection.

Before we left this morning, I took some pictures of our room.

Bedroom

As you walk in, bedroom to your right, bathroom to the left, then living room/kitchen area straight ahead.

Living room/kitchen area

Kitchen

Sink

Shower. Those tiles in the shower were on the floor throughout the whole room, it was really pretty.

Next are my favorite pictures, they turned out really well. Before we left for good, Aaron pointed us towards some hot spring falls and springs, located a few miles from eachother on Highway 71. I didn't think the picture of the falls (which didn't look that impressive from our viewpoint, but if we'd hiked down a little, you would have been able to really see them), was going to turn out that well, but it's my favorite one of them all. The first picture is of the falls, and the rest were taken at the springs at a little picnic area.

Falls


Stream



Hot springs

363 days...

On Thursday, it will have been a year since Aaron and I met and got together. I just count the day that we met as our anniversary because it's easy to remember, and I don't remember the exact day that Aaron exclaimed, "Hey, guess what? You're my girlfriend!"

So to celebrate, Aaron booked us a Bed & Breakfast room in Hot Springs, SD for tomorrow night. We're going to go over there tomorrow morning, look around, go to Custer State Park and look at the buffalos (pictures to come! I love buffalos!), and see what's going on in the town. I've never been to that part of the state, so it'll be exciting for me.

He'd been playing phone tag with the lady who runs the place for the better part of two days, and finally was able to get ahold of her tonight and get the room booked. I'm really excited!


This morning I went to my eye doctor appointment because last week, Friday through Monday, I had been getting at least two headaches every day. For no apparent reason. I didn't feel like I was under any larger amount of stress than I always am this semester, I've been working in smoke, flashing lights, and loud music for six months, and it never bothered me, and I always wear my glasses except when I'm sleeping or in the shower (durr), so I figured my prescription had changed. Unfortunately, it hasn't changed. Well, it has oh so slightly in my right eye, but not enough to cause headaches, said the doc, so I didn't get a new lens for that eye. Hopefully that was a one time deal with the headaches, because I am not headache-prone, and when I get them frequently, it kinda scares me.


And then, last night when I was doing shift change with Tammy, I had found three bicentenial quarters and a Singaporean (sp?) 20 cent piece, and was saving them to buy them with my tip money when I got off work. So when I find money that I'm going to buy after I get off work, I put it in a certain place, and let Tammy know about it so it doesn't get put in her cash drawer and end up going out to someone as change. So last night, I tell her about my coins, and she says, "I don't want to sound like a bitch or anything, but when you're buying that money like that, is there any way you can do it before I get here? Like buy it on your break or something?" I was kind of taken aback by this, since I don't really do it to a weird extent, like, "I'm going to buy these 35 one dollar bills, this handful of coins, and those paperclips." No, it's usually just a few things...So I asked her, "Is it really that annoying?" She said sometimes it is...and she didn't mind if I did it once in a while, like if I found something after I took my last break...but otherwise, she didn't want me doing it.

Oh, and a few months before, she wanted me to make sure that any clipped money went into the vault with the other clipped and strapped money, and not in the cash drawer. Because if it was in the cash drawer, she'd have to un-clip it and count it, whereas if it was in the vault with the clipped and strapped money, she wouldn't have to count out each bill singley, just count the clip. Didn't make a lot of sense to me, but I did it, anyway, and now this. Dunno. Kinda weird. And it kind of made me mad that she asked me not to do that. It's not like I rush her to buy my change or anything. I get my tips counted out, cash in my coins into dollars, and buy my money finds at the same time...

Who knows. It was just kinda weird.

But that's what's been going on the last couple of days. I'm going to try to get some laundry done tonight since I'll be busy tomorrow night, and probably a little bit of homework, as well. Homework on spring break...blasphemous.

PRAXIS II

Well, the PRAXIS II test went pretty well this morning, I think. It's hard to say, though. I'm always one of the first people to finish tests, it doesn't matter what kind they are; multiple choice, fill in the blanks, matching, short answer, essay...I never finish later than 4th. It's not like it's a race to me, to see how fast I can get it done...but I just don't dwell on things. I've been told, and learned, that you should trust your first instinct when it comes to taking tests, because what your brain is telling you is probably right.

But it's not like you could just leave after you finished the test. You had to wait until the entire testing time was over, which was 2 hours for this test. I finished in hour, 5 minutes. That's right, I got to sit around for 55 minutes until the test was over. Oh my God, that sucked. I even brought my iPod so I could listen to some music, but I wasn't sure if I'd get in trouble for it, and I didn't want to ask, so I just sat there.

Stared at my shoes.
Started at the clock.
Counted how many girls wore ponytails (9 out of 18).
Counted how many people in the room I had classes with (2 out of 20).
Counted the lefties (3, including me).
Counted the pregnant ladies (1).
Held my legs in the air until they were numb.
Did the alphabet with my toes while my feet were in the air.
Glared at the open window that was blowing cold air on me.
Wonder why WE couldn't have anything to drink during the test time, but the administers of the test could have water...
Sang songs in my head.

I tried to sleep on the desk, but my arms and legs kept going numb. It was excrutiation, but I survived to tell the tale. And I just have to wait four weeks for the test results. You only get two chancees to take this test, and if you mess it up both times, you don't get to student teach; you're just done. Done, gone, finished. Can't continue. The semester before you graduate, and that test decides whether you really knew your subject content that you started learning in Kindergarten.

Wish me luck!

spring break! (okay, not that exciting)

Today begins SPRING BREAK. Most students would be halfway to Aruba (if that even exists) right now, but not me. I have crap to do. School crap. But that's fine, after buying a new computer, I really shouldn't do much else. Besides, it's Aaron and my 1st year anniversary on Thursday, so we're going to find something to do for that.

The schedule at work has changed yet again, because one of the cashiers was working two shifts from 7:30am to 3:30pm, then a 5pm to 12am shift, then two 12am to 8am shifts...she couldn't get down a regular sleeping schedule. She's not going to school or anything, but it really screwed up her sleep. She tried it for two months, didn't like it, and wants it to change. Which is fine by me, I don't want more people to get mad at me and quit...So I keep my evening shift on Fridays, my evening shift on Mondays, but I'll go back to working morning shifts on Saturdays and Sundays. Hopefully that will give me more time on the weekends to work on homework and projects, instead of waking up at 11am, piddling around for an hour, going to get food, and then going to work, working 'til 12:30am, getting home at 1am, and not getting anything accomplished the whole day.

And that's that.

Compy 3000!

It's here! And more beautiful than I could have thought it to be. That's right, my computer has arrived. After watching Aaron painstakingly put together the case with the motherboard, processor, fans, and wires, I realized this was probably a job best left to him, while I did the girl standby and held the light for him so he could see in the small crevices of the case.



The living room is covered in boxes and packing peanuts, but mostly because I couldn't get them all in the box and was tired of messing with them.

Now all I need to do is customize it to my liking and fill it up with junk! With over 100G of harddrive space, this could take a while.

school rant...again

Okay, so I get home from class this morning to find a message on my phone from the secretary at the Office of Field Experiences in the College of Education. She says that she didn't recieve my check for the liability insurance, or proof of insurance at all, and that I also need to have an updated status sheet.

Well, I wrote the check yesterday, I still have the copy of the check in my checkbook. And two months ago, in order to get into the College of Ed. I needed to have an updated status sheet, and they said it was fine. Well, now it's not fine, and they've lost my check.

To top it off; the Office of Field Experiences is right next door, literally, to the classroom we were in today, the classroom we are always in. The Office knows when we are having class. Obviously, I would be in there. Why not peek your head in the door and say, "Hey, Andrea, I need to talk to you when you get done," instead of calling me and then not answering your phone when I called you back? Seems too simply, obviously.

Grr.

Oh, the physical and peeing in a cup yesterday went well, and the nurse even gave me some stuff for the itchy spots on my elbows. Yay!

the dreaded blue screen of death

Is it good when your laptop starts making clunking noises? And is it good that whenever it clunks, the music quits playing? And then you get the blue screen of death...that's probably not good.

Yeah, I think the harddrive is going out on my computer. Aaron's working on building me a new one right now, price checking and stuff, so maybe by the beginning of March I'll have a new computer! It'll be a desktop, 'cause I'm tired of laptops...they get confused and bogged down too easily.

Yay, new things are so much fun...even if they are expensive.

employee appreciation party

Ahh, what is more fun than seeing your co-workers lose their dignity and self-respect more than going to the annual employee apprecation party, and watching them get trashed? Well, I could probably think of about nine gajillion things that are more fun than that, but with the chance to learn how to play Texas Hold 'Em poker (free!), win $100, and other prizes, why not go?

We arrived a little after 4:30pm, picked up our envelope and signed in. The envelope had 2 complimentary drink tickets and a free $10 coupon to redeem at the cashier's cage. First stop, the bar for a Jell-O shooter (that was weird, I'd never had one before), then to make sure my name was on the list for the Poker Tournament. It wasn't, so I got put on near the bottom, as an alternate. Crap. I was really looking forward to playing!

I did sit down at a live game that was going on, which consisted of three of the four owners of the casino...that was a little weird. But they're all really nice guys. I did get into the tournament in the end because a lot of people didn't show up, and I ended up sitting at the same table as my favorite owner of the casino, 'cause he's really friendly and was giving me help haha. I won the first hand of the game, but after that, I either folded or lost my hands. Boo. I made it to the second round with $1400 (fake money, since you didn't have to buy in), and it was gone pretty quickly. I eventually went all in with my last $200, thinking I had something...only to forget I needed a Queen. Poop.

At my casino, I'm not allowed to play the slot machines, as I might memorize the numbers of the machines that jackpot and rip off the casino (some guy did that a couple of years ago, and now everyone is being punished, because that is not a Gaming law, that's the House rules). I'm also not allowed to play Black Jack because it's a game that is against the House, and they don't want people to think that employees and dealers are in on it together, cheating. All I can play is poker there, and I was already out, so Aaron and I went up to the neighboring casino to play some games over there.

I lost about half my money at the Black Jack tables, but won it back at the Star Wars slot machine (fun game, btw). Then after the headache-endusing smoke (and that might have had a little to do with the three drinks I had before we got there), I decided it was time to leave, or my head might explode.

Oh, and I won a complimentary meal. w00t.

All in all, an okay night. But I still wanted to kick ass at the poker game. It was my first time, though. I haven't played any kind of poker since junior high when I had no social life (or driver's license) when my family would play poker every New Year's. But that was way before Texas Hold 'Em came out.

Okay, so that was a long, probably boring post...sorry.