soooo let's start off with December fifteenth, when I had to get out of my apartment and since the weather was supposed to be all OH NOES and shizzle, we did it in a HUGE rush. As in, most of my stuff is still in garbage bags in my grandma's storage place, haha. Which I still need to get, but anyways.

I was going back and forth between staying with Matt and sleeping at my parents, and finding a job, and it just kind of sucked. We found a house we wanted (we being me/Chris/Coni/Josh) that was great, we were supposed to sign the papers on Friday, and the chick called us on Monday and said that she rented it out to somebody else. great. and then it didn't look like anything was going anywhere with moving in with my friends (love 'em to death, but they're not very good with money OR planning sometimes, to say the least), so I was kind of waffling about what to do, very confused, I really didn't want to move back in with my family - even though I know I would have been welcome to, I wouldn't have had a room or a whole lotta privacy and it would have sucked.

So after a lot of talking I just ended up moving in with Matt (and Jake), since I had been staying here like a week and a half or two weeks at that point and there hadn't been any issues.

There are a few things that REALLY bug me (Jake is a ridiculous slob sometimes, the apartment is prone to cockroaches) but I wouldn't change it for the world.

New Year's was uneventful and since then it's kinda been a lot of the same. I work at Target now, which is not so bad - the people are pretty nice and the work is easy. I've only had a few annoying customers, and eh, you get that at any job. I'm hoping that I pass the 90 day review or whatever and get to stay on because I *need* this job and they let me have my multicolored hair and it might be dorky but that makes me sooooo happy!

although, I really did want to laugh at "hey, so do ya have any balloons with ya? HA HA" "ummm no" "say how do you work this fancy card reader thingamajig?"

I MIGHT LOOK LIKE A CLOWN BUT YOU'RE A FREAKIN' IDIOT, ASSHOLE!

haha.

I start cosmetology school next week and I am SUPER excited. I know there's at least one girl there who I don't like at all, (the girl who liked to be an ass to me for no reason and also brought her STD test results to class bragging about how she was clean, mmm, classy!) but it seems like they're more open to "alternative" type styles - saw a girl with blue streaks, girl with pink chunks, apparently there's a girl with a head full of neon pink hair yay - so I won't stick out like a sore thumb. MSU Fashion Department, anyone?

Applying for food stamps is a pain in the ass. The actual process isn't so bad, but I need employment/income verification since I've only been at Target for a month and some, not two months yet. The caseworker tells me I can just have my manager write/sign/date a statement saying "Michelle works approximately 20 hrs/week at $7.00" etc. etc. I tell my manager (or, one of 'em anyways) this and he says it all has to come from home office, and gives me a number. Which goes to an annoying automated machine of course. Which redirects me to another number (apparently they outsource their verification jazz to some other company) and THAT number redirects me to a website, which won't recognize my PIN, so I have to call ANOTHER number. I finally get a real freakin' person on the phone and I'm like "well, I would really prefer to just do this myself online, but it won't recognize my PIN. So if you could reset it for me..." "Oh, no, we can't access any of your information. You have to call the food stamp office, give them our website or number, your employer code, and your SSN, and then THEY can use that information to verify it."

ARGHHHH.

It makes me want to go back and try a different manager or something. Also, it makes me wonder if the company gets some kind of tax hike or something for however many employees are on food stamps, 'cause this is effin ridiculous. And now I sound like my slightly paranoid/cynical father, BUT STILL.

we didn't have internet until today, and I've spent all day playing on it (before, it was either going to McD's for wifi, parking in a hotel parking lot, or sitting in one certain spot and not moving the laptop literally an inch or it would lose the crappy in and out wifi, mooched from our neighbors) so now my wrist hurts. I think I like parentheses too much, and I'm done writing now!

oh yeah, my hair is neon orange in the back now, with a few random chunks of pinky-red in between, and then purple in the front with a chunk of lime-green in the bangs. it works much better than it sounds like it would and I LOVE IT. I should have pictures in a few weeks when I have the cash for another digital camera (me and Matt are talking about splitting the cost of one).

yeah so it turns out that the internet won't get turned on until the thirty first. so after that you can start expecting semi-regular updates!

*insert image of zombie fist bursting through graveyard soil, which I could not find no google images. alas.*

yes, I am still alive, and at some point within the next week or so regular updates will resume. (gasp, shock, horror)

Michelle = does not has internet at the moment so is only getting to use it when she's parked at someplace with wifi or is stealing the neighbor's wifi hahaha. hence the longer than usual stop in posting. swear, uber-long post coming up within the next week, like I said.