Saturday night I'm cashiering and this little boy, probably, I dunno, 8-10 years old, comes through my line, with 2 of his siblings and (I'm assuming) step-mom (he was referring to her as Nicole). The little boy was talking about how with his new crayons he was going to draw a picture that showed how much he loved daddy and Nicole and Bailey and his other siblings, and I was like "awww that's sweet! How nice of you." "Yeah, but Bailey died a while ago. She had been with us since she was a baby and she was 11 years old." His stepmom said something about it was his adopted sister, and I'm sitting here like holy crap what am I supposed to say?! I just said "wow, I'm really sorry!" "oh, it's okay. Even though she's not with us any more I know she'll always be in my heart and smiling down at me from the sky above." It was SAD. And his stepmom said "He's REALLY sensitive."

So the next morning I'm relaying this story to another cashier, someone who goes to school with Ashley, and she said "Well I'd be sensitive if my sister just died too! Even if she was adopted!"

D'oh.

No school today because Sharon's grandbaby is being born! Woo for sleeping in.

the bigger update that the Alicia requested:

I like cosmetology school so far. The instructor is awesome and very nice, the assistant instructor kind of gets on my nerves, a lot of the people are pretty nice - they seemed snotty to us (us being the people who started this month) at first but I think it was just because we were all new. My hours for this month have pretty much sucked though, we've had a day off almost every week because of weather, one of the girls who started with us was gone after the first day for 2-3 days, so we waited on her, and then Salena was sick, and then Brittany was sick all last week. We've had bad luck. But regardless, I should be out on the floor cutting hair by the end of the second week in March. Kinda scary, huh?

I'm getting kind of frustrated with Target because they give me the hours, but between Friday and Sunday...so I don't really get a whole lot of time off in between school and work. I applied for a job for a barista position I found in the newspaper, which turned out to be for the Jive-In Java that's opening literally five minutes from my home. Starts at what I'm already making plus tips, and Sundays are off. I think I actually talked to the guy who'll be the manager of it when I went through the drive through last week, and he said I'd be hirable if I had less colors in my hair or they aren't as bright, and I just changed it last night to a dark purple in back and a reddish-wine-plum sorta color in front. HOPEFULLY that'll fly, 'cause I don't want to change my hair.

It was SO cute last night though, this girl came through with her mom - she's been through before, there was one time when her and her mom/brother came through when we had just closed, they were looking for a DVD as a reward for the girl(she had done really well on her reading for the day or something, I think) and I ended up calling someone to help them find it. The girl is probably between seven and nine and her little brother is three I'd guess? Their mom is really nice, they've all come through a time or two since then and I've said hi. Last night they came through in the line on my right, I was ringing up a customer and said hi to her, and she goes "I REMEMBER YOU!" and jumped out of the cart to give me a hug. I about died of cute overdose. Since it was so slow I talked to them for a while, her name is Mazi and her brother is Indiana. She's going to get her hair cut for Locks of Love and her mom said she'd try and come in once I got on the floor.

Things are going great with Matt(I do wish he had a day job instead of a night job though), Jake's habits still annoy me.

I'm really excited because Alex is getting married in November!! and Alicia and I are both the maids of honor. :) I'm also going to be a bridesmaid at Tammy's wedding in July, but I don't know what's going to happen with that because the dress is a little expensive for me right now.

There's a hair show at the end of the month and I'm excited! I'm going to save up some of my tax return and get a Chi (apparently they'll have ones with skulls on them there. WANT.) and some other stuff. I'm going to sign up to be a hair model, I dunno if they'll pick me though. I'm growing my hair out 'til then and if I don't end up doing that then I'm going to get it cut differently somehow. I need to change it, hah.


Enter the ICHC online Poker Cats Contest!

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).

let's see how much Michelle can type in the seven minutes until she heads to religion class....

it is MISERABLE outside. I had an appointment for a tour at a local cosmetology school at 12:30 and almost walked outside without a jacket. cold and rainy and windy and eww.

the cosmetology school is really nice. I like their facilities and the lady I talked to was really nice.

I'm dating a guy, Jeff, it was a week yesterday, and we met a week before that...I really like him a lot. And he's nice, funny, pays for things, gets along with my friends...not to mention good looking (or as my lovely mother says "cute in a scroungy kind of way"...I wouldn't have used those words but whatever :P ).

Speaking of my lovely mother, somehow she got the idea his name was Jess. made for a funny incident Saturday haha.

I'm glad my IDS class is over. Now I don't have to be at class 'til 2 any given day.

There's lots of stupid drama going on at Hot Topic, and I'm trying desperately to find a second job. I'm going to go apply later today or tomorrow at the Starbucks that's right down the road from me. I didn't mind barista-ing, so long as my manager isn't a crazy ass that schedules me when I can't work.

I did apply at TeleTech, the place Jeff works, but after a 30 minute computer test and a 15 minute interview, I thought to mention my college schedule and the guy goes "oh...no, we can't work around that for training. Apply again at winter break and you'll probably have a job."

damn.

the same guy also told me that I talk like I'm from New York because I talk so fast. hahaha.

My hair is black and red now...pictures of it (and hopefully Jeff too) sometime this week.

I'm kind of in an awkward situation with some of my friends because I told them I would probably be moving back in December to Joplin and move in with them. I saw the house this weekend, and it IS a nice house - but it'd be five people in what is technically a 3 bedroom house in December, and then Josh is supposed to move in in May. I don't think I could handle that. Not to mention Chad and Chris are already at each others' throat.

Aside from the whole Michelle-needs-her-space, I think it would be too much of a pain to move again within six months. And I'm starting to actually make some friends here, and I'm probably jumping the gun but I hope Jeff's still around then and that would make spontaneous hanging out a little impossible. And the cosmetology schools here are nicer. but now I don't know how to break it to them that I don't want to move in with them.

Ok, apparently that's how much I can type in seven minutes. Off to religion class!

GAHHHHHH.

classes today were rather rant inducing.

I had to get up WAY early for markup at HT - had to be there by eight, which put me at getting up at 6:45, which for crying out loud is earlier than I've been up in MONTHS. I couldn't sleep, so I didn't get to sleep 'til 2:30 or so, which is only about an hour or so later than I normally go to bed, but usually I'm waking up at like...ten or eleven, not six, haha.

I go to Psych class, and sat at the other side of the room because I wanted to sit by Carly, my friend from that class, but she got there late so I ended up talking to some random girl named Sarah, she was really nice. There were these people behind us who talked THE WHOLE FREAKIN' CLASS. I was tired and cranky and fighting to listen to the professor and not fall asleep anyways, and these idiots behind me are whispering about "so then I said and then she said and then he was like and I was like, aw hell no". I lean over to Sarah "...do the people behind you always talk this much?" "yeah. sometimes they're worse. it's pretty obnoxious." once class gets over, I'm like "holy crap. I wanted to turn around and say 'hey you know what guys, that's real cool and all, but I came to class for a reason and it was NOT to listen to you talk!' "...Sarah thought I should have hahaha.

Anyways. So I'm wanting to skip my fashion industry class and just go take a nap, but I don't. Even though I hate that class because almost all of the girls are bitches (also clones, seriously there are like...two haircuts throughout the entire class, and maybe four girls out of a hundred who don't have one of the two?), and it's completely stupid, the annoying teacher just ends up talking about 'how things are in the industry'. But I ignore my shoulder devil and go to class anyways.

Most of the class was a representative from the Buckle talking about how we should work there.

WTF MATE.

'cause I totally love the fact that I am PAYING to be advertised to. but that is not the end of my rant...at the beginning before he really got into it, he's like "I bet there's a lot of girls who work at retail here. Raise your hand if you work retail." Probably 10-15 girls in the class raise their hands, me included. He points at some random girl at the other side of the room, asks her who she works for, and kind of keeps pointing in general areas and has people shout out where they work. He gets to my side of the room, everyone shouts out where they work at, including me, he acknowledges the other girls but ignores me. Ok. I can deal, whatevs.

Then in the middle of the presentation, he's all "And a great thing in working at management in the Buckle is that we have a very boutique-like atmosphere, and the way management is set up, it's really very much like owning your own boutique. The difference though, is that our prices are better than boutiques because since we're a large company, we can get things for 10-15% cheaper than small businesses, so people will shop with us more."

Yeah okay. Your stunning people skills blew me over before, now you're talking about how you take customers from small businesses because you have the advantage since you're a large company. That TOTALLY makes me feel better about this whole, being advertised to in class thing.

I don't know. It just got on my nerves. I guess something like the Buckle would appeal to a lot of the girls, but shit, can't we at least do something that has some form of creativity instead of a big chain that just spits out the latest trends? I'd much rather listen to an actual boutique owner instead of that.

Then after he finishes, we had a presentation from a FACS teacher after that, about teaching and blah. And again, I'm probably just tired and cranky, but at some point she starts talking about how FACS is about the family unit and how people would be better off if problems were fixed beforehand...? thinking back, I'm not sure at all how she got on this topic, I was drifting in and out, but she was talking about how family units are dysfunctional more in modern times and rawr rawr rawr. and like I said, reading too much into it I'm sure, but talk like that makes me uncomfortable because it's usually the same people who're saying that unless it's the average suburban family with 2.5 kids, a white picket fence, and a stay at home soccer mom then it's an unhealthy dysfunctional family. And if I ever decide to have kids, it'll probably be NOTHING like that, not to mention that's usually the line of thinking that leads to homophobia.

I dunno. I'm cranky and frustrated and I honestly thought the whole pushing...what's the word I'm looking for? less strong and with less baggage than propaganda, but essentially that, would be done with high school. I hate hate hate it. Especially my fashion classes - I know what I want to do, but the thought of putting up with this CRAP makes me wonder if it's really necessary. urgh.

but anyways. Last Thursday I dyed Carly's hair. It turned out amazing if I do say so myself.





black on the underlayer and neon red on top. haha, I need to start charging. :P

good girls write diaries, bad girls don't have time.

haha.

I dunno what to write though.

I really need a second job. I redyed my hair with mostly the same color scheme, but a different shade of green (because the other green did NOT want to stay in my hair).



it's astounding how well that picture turned out. go figure.

last Wednesday was AWFUL. I had some kind of 24 hour (or maybe 12 hour) stomach flu...around four o'clock, I randomly started feeling nauseous. I tried to suck it up and go to work at six anyways, but I kept dry heaving so after like fifteen minutes at work I ended up going home. Literally got home, ran in the door to the bathroom, and started hurling. I puked like...six times? between 6:30 and 10 or so. I was pretty freaked out and felt like crap. Ended up sleeping 'til three the next day. (because THAT, my friends, is how I solve problems)

I don't really like college.
blah.
and I've kind of been thinking, you know, everyone keeps asking me where I got my hair done at...I just did a girl's (Carly, I met her in my Intro to Religion class, really nice girl) hair tonight actually, it turned out AMAZING, if I do say so myself. I dunno. I think working with hair and getting paid for it would be pretty freakin' awesome.

dunno what I'm doing tomorrow or this weekend...I only work one four hour shift this week(re: Mishee needs a second job), and it's on Saturday, I'm probably heading back to Joplin to hang with my friends for Saturday night and going to say hi to my family on Sunday.

Uhhh yeah. See. That's really all I can think of.

so no wonder Alicia's parents don't like me. I crawl out of bed rather late, knowing that Alicia had come back, and stagger by the bathroom to say hi. I thought it was just Alicia, imagine my shock when I see Amy "Holy shit! there's two of 'em!........andddd your mom". all in my bathroom.

whoops. >_<

so we went to the zoo last week, and the sun faded my hair to CRAP. I redyed it and this is the result:







I now have literally at least one shade of every color of the rainbow on my head. :D

I got that blue (the one on the majority of my head) by mixing some dye up that was roughly half fishbowl, a quarter SPLAT dye, and a quarter Blue Haired Freak. It's doing great so far - a nice bright blue, not the dark turquoise I was going for, but it works! It's not fading yet either.

I spent Thursday night up in Joplin. It was fun. I never thought I'd be counting down the days for classes to start - but I have nothingggggg to do!

I had two funny things happen at work last night though - one, I was greeting people, and I asked a group of maybe 2-3 girls how they were doing, I guess they didn't look at me until they replied, because the girl was kind of like "oh, I'm fine, how are...OH MY GOD I LOVE YOUR HAIR!!". I don't think I've ever had anyone yell quite like that.

the other thing was sooooooo cute I just about died. I could hear this baby crying and the sound of that drives me insane, so I thought I'd wander over there to see what was making him cry...he was, I think his mom said, fifteen months old, and as soon as I stuck my head around the corner to see why he was crying, he IMMEDIATELY stopped crying and started smiling at me and giggling. so I stood there and talked to him for a bit, just 'cause he was sooooo adorable. he did the same thing about twenty minutes later when he was crying at the register. his mom was like "I'm just gonna leave him by you next time I come in here!". haha.

and someone said I look like Rainbow Brite, I keep getting that and it makes me happy every time!!

there's a skating party from like, 8:00 to 9:30 I think for HT employees...I'm dorky excited. it's almost like having friends. hahaha.

but yeah, I think I'm done here. I'm going to go eat lunch and then attempt to make our apartment smell nice and be at least semi-clean.

So I wake up (after a marathon of Harry Potter - more on that later) and I'm like "Hmm. Pancakes sound good. I'm making PANCAKES!" and I even asked Alicia (who is still in bed, the layabout) if she wanted any. La la la, make pancake mix, grease the pan, and the first two fall apart HORRIBLY. (I don't know why)

Screw this. I'm making POPTARTS!

But yeah. Friday was really up and down. I went in for a second interview at Hot Topic and later found out I got the job, wooooooo-hooooo! And after the interview I was hanging out around the mall some with Steven, this guy I met at orientation. I hope he doesn't get any ideas...he's nice enough, but I always have issues with being able to tell if people are just being friendly or if they're interested, and I'm not interested. In some really, really weird way (dunno if it's because they both look kind of alike - long dark hair, tall skinny guys, or something about his mannerisms) he reminds me of Spencer (that'd be my ex-boyfriend, for those of us just tuning in. my whiny, bipolar ex-boyfriend that I can be friends with but why god did I date him). And...yeah. weiiiiiiird. I also got in a fender-bender, which sucked so hard. It was later that night...I'd stopped at a stop-light, and looked over my left shoulder to see who was in that lane, and I don't know if my foot slipped off the brakes or what, but I rolled forward about 3 ft and tapped the van in front of me. We both pull off in a parking lot, and the ladies (who were really very nice considering), were like "Oh, we're so sorry, we wouldn't call this in, but this is the school van so we have to file an accident report."

CRAP.

Their van had like...seriously...one small scratch on it. Blah. We (being me, Jess, and Kelton) ended up walking around downtown for an hour or two, and it was awesome. It's nice living someplace with a real downtown now. I was kind of trying to get the other two to shut up, they sounded like tourists or something - "WOW! LOOK AT ALL THESE PEOPLE!" over and over again. I think it's funny, seeing as how Jessica was the one that was supposedly moving to San Diego a while ago...riiiiight...

Saturday kind of sucked too, except for eating lunch with Heath at Olive Garden. I was later than I intended to be to the show that night, and I didn't end up staying long enough for it to be worth the five dollars, plus a few people showed up that I really don't like. So I was like 'screw this, I'm just going home'. I did get to see my siblingly and familial types though. It's weird, I miss our dogs more than I thought I would. I picked up the seventh HP book at Target, since Amazon.com are all lying scumbags. Delivered on the day of release, my ass. I better get my money back.

Yesterday was much, much better. I woke up and went to my first day of work, which was more training than anything else and didn't involve actually getting to help customers at all. Oh well. I think it'll be a fun enough job, my next day is Wednesday, then Saturday - which sucks, because I'm scheduled 4-8 and I was supposed to help Mr. T out with the book signing. I'll be in Joplin Saturday anyways, because Coni and I are having a hair dying party (oh yeah, Steven too, he's doing neon green streaks, Coni's redoing hot pink, and I'm doing Fishbowl by SFX - so it'll be a lighter brighter turquoise blue instead of the darker blue I have now), so I'm going to pick her up Friday afternoon and then she'll spend the night, and then I'll take her home the next morning, and probably get to be at the signing for about an hour.

Which, speaking of the signing, YOU SHOULD ALL GO. I mean, how amazing would it be to meet me in the flesh. Oh yeah, and there's this book thing that you can buy also.

haha.

Anyways, after work, I came home around one and started reading Deathly Hallows. Read until about five when Heath showed up with a futon and a desk (now my sewing machine table!) that he oh-so-nicely gave me. We got it all carried up, and then we went to the mall (he wanted to buy an iPhone), I ended up getting two pairs of clearance shoes with my discount, and then we drove around some...ate at Nonna's, which is sooooo gooooood, as I've mentioned before. Went back to the apartment and he helped me get the futon and sewing machine table all set up, I made quite a bit of progress on the bits of my room that had, until then, remained stubbornly in boxes. Turns out, even with the hangers I ganked from home, and then ten pack I bought, I still need more. And I should probably get a little shelf-organizer thing for my sewing machine desk. And a stool for it. But most of that is probably going to have to wait a while. Except for the hangers, because I need my clothes hung up.

Heath left around 10:30, after some you-tubing (I LOVE OUR WIFI, even if it crapped out a few times) and some help with the hanging of posters and etc. as well. I read HP straight until about 2:30 when I finished it and then I went to bed (and had really, really weird dreams). I was...I dunno. it's weird that it's all over. I've been reading Harry Potter since I was like, 11-12. But I'm satisfied with the ending.

and then a few hours ago I woke up and here we are! good story I know.

And Alicia's still in bed. I should get a little squirt-water bottle for occasions like this.

Oh wait, she just rose and shone. Never mind. But I might get a squirt-bottle anyways. Just in case.

ohh yeah, I have a blog don't I? haha.

Uhmm...events to blog about. I got in a car wreck last Wednesday, it sucked hardcore and my neck is still a little stiff because of it. We need a new car now. Maybe my mom and I should never ride together in a car again....

I *just* finished ripping all of my CDs on to my computer...you know...the ones I bought like 3 months ago. heh, and now I have some 3 or so comps from Hastings that I haven't ripped yet. AND at some point I need to start putting all of this on to my laptop. Maybe then I can burn a mix cd without putting fifty in our cd-drive, since something about the drivers are all messed up.

This guy came in yesterday Journey's that was HILARIOUS. He walked in the store and immediately starts singing at the top of his lungs. Very, very loudly. And his friend was obviously embarrassed by this - "yeah, he's a singer". Singing guy (by the name of Mathew) was telling Amy how his 'indie-alternative' band has signed to a record label. He was also flirting with me hardcore. It was pretty funny, I laughed.

I went by Shake's today to get my check and ask when I worked this week - there's like three managers there, and one of them had told me that I worked 5-10 yesterday. But I wasn't on the schedule for this week at all. So, Mary tells me that I can call Amy tomorrow and get that sorted out, and asked when I was moving again - I told her that the last week I should be on the schedule would probably be the last week in June or the first week in July. After this I leave, go run some other errands, and then go to the mall to talk to Amy about something, and I get a phone call. It's Mary, and she's like "well, if you don't have a problem with it, we're just not going to put you back on the schedule since you're leaving so soon and it's hardly worth the trouble."

haha, I got let go! Oh well. Now I have real incentive to start working on my etsy shop. At the very least, I have one plain jacket that just needs stencilled on, one jacket that needs dyed and then stencilled on, and some destashing of yarn to do. That should all be relatively painless to list. And then dig through all of my thrifted clothes I have laying around and start working on those too. And at some point, I need to bag up a ton of stuff and send it off to goodwill. AND properly clean my room, since it'll probably be a pain to move everything if it's all messy. blah. So, my to-do list for this week:

-list destash yarn, whether on etsy or the destash blog, whatever
-list jacket
-finish x-ray spex shirt, for me
-finish rainbow messenger bag that is taking FOR FREAKING EVER, special order
-get extra crap to goodwill.

Maybe if I have a list that'll make it easier to get it all done. baby steps...

POTC 3 was AWESOME! Even if me and Lydia were the only ones that dressed up because Jesse, James, and Jerome wussed out on us. Jerks. haha, but we had a lot of fun and then we went to go eat CiCi's.

I went to work...work was uneventful...rawr rawr rawr...and then after work I was headed out to go hang out with Jesse and company again. The original plan was that we were going to all meet at Jesse's house and just hang out, videogames and stuff, and everyone spend the night. Jesse's mom said though that if I spent the night, everyone had to stay up all night (which I don't really understand, personally, but hey whatever), so the modified plan was for me to stay until one or so and then just head home. Well, I call them, and they're at a graveyard somewhere, want me to meet them there. So I head that way (it was out in the middle of NOWHERE - Peachtree something off Schifferdecker road), and I get there, and they had got Jerome's truck stuck. I guess there was a road in the cemetery and it lead to a break in the fence, which looked like it went back to the main road - nope! just a ditch. They try various things to get Jerome's truck out, and all the meanwhile we're having cars driving past - most of them slow down like they're going to help and then just speed back up. A cop shows up, or more accurately someone from the CJ Fire Department, and of course, right after that we have 3 people stop and ask if we need help. hah. So the dude proceeds to tell us how they were trespassing on private property, and they're going to get charged with property damage, and he has to call in state and county officials, blah blah blah. The county guy shows up, and all they(county + CJFD dude) do is just sit there and basically tell us that they can't do anything until state gets there. The state guy gets there, looks at the whole thing, listens to Jesse's story, starts laughing, says "Ok, let's get this out of here, I don't want to be here all night." Zach shows up in his truck, gets stuck trying to get Jerome unstuck, and then they finally call a tow dude, and then Jerome's dad (ouch, his parents are a wee bit crazy), and they both show up around the same time. Takes the tow dude like 10 minutes to get Jerome's truck out, and then they're all waiting on Zach's dad, and at this point I decide to just head home (at very close to midnight) because Jerome's parents hate me anyways.

arrgh. Longer story of the "I hate people" comment yesterday:

I said I'd hang out with Jessica and some of her friends, because it'd probably be the last time I'd see Jake for a long long time, if ever. So we're at her house and people start showing up, and I swear to god, every single person said something rude to me. First it was that I looked like a watermelon (pink and green shoes, green and pink shirt, and jeans), then it was that when I'm not wearing too much color, I'm wearing all black ("No I don't, I never wear all black, I don't even own a pair of black shoes" "yes you do!") and I look like a goth emo kid. Then it was vegetarian jokes, then it was jokes about my birthday party, and just on and on and on. Like, I can handle a few jokes, but when it's six people laughing at my expense at once, and nobody's making snide jokes about anyone else...yeah. The icing on the cake was when I went to leave and I gave Joe a hug, Jake goes "What? You're leaving?" "Uh, yeah, I just SAID that." "Well, sorry, I don't pay attention to anything the veggie says unless Jessica gets my attention first!" uh huh...

and the same person is complaining about how her boyfriend is messed up because he doesn't want to spend every day with her. They've been dating two months!! ok, I'd be annoyed if I went over to my boyfriend's house and he played World of Warcraft for five hours straight, but for crying out loud, he's working a crappy factory job for like, eight hours a day, so if he doesn't want to party or whatever, then you know? She's suffocating him.

I feel kind of bad because I had made up my mind that I was going to be all angry next time she called, but it's really hard to be angry at someone who's crying over their boyfriend. Bah!

sooo...last week (as in, the week that ended a week ago) was a very very bad week, for various reasons, including Heath totally blowing me off when we were supposed to hang out. for no apparent reason, that was over a week ago and I still haven't heard from him. Reeeally pissed me off. Of course, the fact that I was pissed off probably had something to do with the fact that the day before (we were supposed to go out on Friday), this chick from work wouldn't stop texting me during school, trying to get me to cover for her. I was like, "I have plans, did you ask everyone else?" "Yes and nobody can do it, I'm out of town and I won't be back in town until after I'm supposed to be at work."

Uhuh. We only work two freakin' days a week, you dipshit, how hard is it to ACTUALLY WORK ON THOSE DAYS? It's not like we don't know our schedule three weeks ahead of time!

So I call Heath and we rescheduled for Saturday instead of Friday. And she comes in Saturday while I'm at work, and doesn't even say thank-you to me ("Oh, hi Taunie!" "Hi." *she walks to the other end of the room and stands by Amy, completely ignoring me*). Then she quit, and said something to Amy that really pissed her off, which I didn't find out until yesterday. Apparently she was trying to tell Amy that Jake(another coworker) and I were lying about how she tried to get us to cover for her? or something? and Amy told her that she knew that wasn't true, so Taunie tried to pull "Oh, well I do SO MUCH around here". "Yeah, you are a good worker, and that means you get good hours, but it doesn't mean that you get to do whatever you want." And then she quit. Good freakin' riddance, she always talked down to me anyways.

Speaking of which, today I started at Shake's (yay for a second job...blech) and while it was FREAKING CRAZY BUSY, it wasn't too hard. There was this one girl who treated me like I have less braincells than a brick or something, and it was REALLY starting to piss me off, but by the time I was about to blow up on her, I only had 30 minutes or so left. Then the manager asked me to go to Wal-Mart to get some more bananas (seven bunches, I got some funny looks haha) and said when I got back from that I could go ahead and clock out. I had taken my Shake's shirt off in the car because I was wearing two tank tops under it and it is just too hot outside for that. I get back, put up the bananas, and I start making the concrete I paid for earlier, for my mom, and the aforementioned chick walks over to me and goes "Uh, you need to put your apron and hat back on. You're going to get in TROUBLE." "Actually, she said after I brought the bananas in, I could clock out, I'm just making this concrete for my mom that I paid for earlier." Which shut her up really fast. Ugh. I hope I don't have to work with her too often.

only two months, only two months, only two months...

siiiigh

and in their handbook, it says natural colored makeup only. although I dunno how strictly they enforce it, since I was wearing bright shimmery orange eyeshadow today and nobody said anything, but still, that could suck hardcore...I don't even know how many natural colors of makeup I OWN, hahaha.

speaking of 'only'...

ONLY THREE AND A HALF DAYS OF SCHOOL sweet action!

eesh, I tried to start this post Thursday morning and I've been working on it off and on since then. Too busy!

(warning - long, long rambly photo-heavy post ahead)

So I read the other day about a contest thing, where you donate yarn to Interim House - they're teaching the women there to knit and crochet as sort of a stress relieving...thing...boy I'm eloquent - and not only do you get the warm fuzzies, but you get put in the running for a Jordiana Page bag full of knitting/crochet stuff. Here's the yarn I sent:



(excepting the Lion Brand Boucle, because my mom saw it and asked for a hat made from it, and I can't deny the woman that raised me, right?)

How many containers did it take? Not one, not two, but...



(or...two boxes and an envelope, I couldn't fit the tunisian crochet hook into either of the boxes and I'd already written about it in my note, so I was not about to be thwarted!)

Of course, I get there, and the lady tells me I can mail it all in a flat rate box for some eight bucks. Which is like, five bucks cheaper than it would've been seperately. so I did that instead.

I also went on a cleaning the kitchen spree night before last. I doubt my mom thinks it's clean of crafts, but now all of my yarn is shoved into 5 containers of varying sizes, except for 7-8 black and blue skeins of merino wool, for a knit sweater and crocheted hat and scarf, all stripy. Not that I'd wear them all at once or anything, I just really really like stripes. And blue and black. hah.

Tomorrow's going to freakin' kill me...have to be up at the school at six for a meet, (that's when I normally wake UP!) getting home around sixish, and then heading straight to work to close afterwards. Ouch. \

Oh yeah...I finished my fantabulous purse :D Check it out:

View of the holders under the flap, where I can stick knitting needles or tunisian crochet hooks (as demonstrated):



Stencilling along the flap:



yes, those are skulls with cross-crochet hooks and knitting needles. instead of bones. I know I'm a dork but I don't care. the stencil bled a bit, which really disappointed me - I think I waited too long after ironing the freezer paper on it, and I don't think it stuck so well to the canvas in the first place.

Not one, but TWO pockets on the inside:



And on the other side, a big pocket, with more slots for pens/crochet hooks/knitting needles (as demonstrated, again :P):



Couldn't possibly be any more places to shove my stuff, right? Wrong!



Pocket in the back, great for magazines or papers.

Here it is full of all my crap:



And here it is in actual use:



So proud!! It's working great so far. like I said, I can fit eeeeverything in there.

bleh, I need to list some more stuff on etsy. Most of this week, I've just been feeling kind of...I don't know. uninspired. I just want all of this to be over with. I'm sick of the stupid ritual of school taking up my time, of being tired all the time no matter what, and of being nice to people when I don't want to. I figure, most of these people I'm not going to see after I go to college, so why leave on bad terms? And I find myself wondering if it's a bad thing, that there are some 'friends' where my attitude is "have to be nice to them, don't want to leave on bad terms, in a few months I can just let things fade". One in particular just isn't who she used to be. And I think she's just going to end up throwing her life away and it depresses me. Actually, she's mostly the one that I just don't want to end things on bad terms for the sake of comfort. I don't know, it's all confusing. At least I'm a little less twitchy about making all-new friends after talking to Casey, who has many words of wisdom (sometimes :P).

The new girl at work is awesome. I was a little worried since a lot of times girls my age (or...girls in general) annoy me, but she's sooo nice and a total spaz, just like me. We got these new vans in that are pink and black striped with neon green accents. they are amazing.

It's supposed to get cold again. That is not, not, not, NOT cool.

whoooooooooooooooooooooooo our internet is back! well, electricity, and with it the internet. I'm just hoping it doesn't go off again tomorrow.

boring boring BORING week. no school all week, obviously. but it's not a whole lot of fun when you're stuck in one room of a house. and the light was so bad that I couldn't crochet unless it was light outside too.

I think I have a good chance at getting the job at JoAnn's (and if I don't, Michael's might be hiring at the end of the month). I hope so, because I'm working one day a week at Journey's, which is obviously not cutting it, higher minimum wage or no.

(crafty rant that nobody's going to care about starts here)

I really do NOT get this whole bias with knitting and crochet. I mean, I can't even purl yet(which is a whole 'nother rant, because I tried that at least three times this week and all I ended up with was a garter stitch swatch, definitely NOT stockinette - even using three sets of instructions and a freakin' video, am I just dense or what?), and I already own more knitting books than crochet books just because there's so many MORE of them (4 vs. 3, but still). Why? BECAUSE THERE'S SO MANY MORE OF THEM! And with cuter patterns too. This makes no sense to me. Knitters get more magazines, more books, more cute patterns, and more funky type patterns too. I mean, there are punk-y knitting patterns for clothes and accessories and stuff. Things I'd wear. The vast majority of crocheted patterns I've seen are either afghans or things that, don't get me wrong, have merit and good design, but I wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole. It all looks just like the stuff at Aero or American Eagle or whatnot, and if you know me, you know that's NOT what I wear. I mean, sure, knitting is better at making fabric that stretches and...uh...unstretches? expands and contracts would be a better choice of words, maybe. anyways, does whatever, easily. But I don't think it necessarily has better drape or is all that much thinner than crochet, and I like the look of crocheted stuff more. More texture.

I guess it's kind of a moot point anyways with the patterns, because I don't usually do well with patterns (they give me headaches), but I've seen very little to even get inspiration from. Except for knitted stuff, and that's silly, because even though neither of them is better than the other, they're different things and trying to make one look like the other is just retarded and a waste of time. Highlight the good things, don't try and make it look like anything else. Yuck.

I had most of this conversation with Dave earlier and we decided that it all comes down to the fact that the word 'knit' rhymes with way more things and is much easier to pun with. 'Crochet', however is not. haha. all he came up with was 'the croshiznit', which made me laugh. and I will find a use for it eventually.

And now, back to the hooded shrug and tunisian faux corset... (see, I guess I'm not doing so badly)