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.

oh that's the other thing I was going to post and forgot about -

the last few times I've gone down main I noticed a new salon and I thought it looked interesting, but it was closed every time I went by. I saw it was open today and I stopped in and talked to the owner/receptionist and the hairstylist there, and they were both VERY nice and told me they loved my hair - I believe her name was Melanie and she said she'd have an opening for part time receptionist around May, so I'm definitely going to apply for that. I also asked about jobs once I got out of school and her exact words were "Oh, no, your hair wouldn't be a problem! Tattoos, piercings, hair. The crazier the better!"

SWEET FREAKIN' ACTION!

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!

It was warm outside earlier. and now it's cold.

es no bueno.

Matt was supposed to get his van today...he was going to do financing from a local bank (the place he's getting it from is up by Branson West). They knew he was from out of town and said it was fine. So we drive the two hours up there and then spend literally 30 minutes looking for the bank because the guy from the car place gave us bad directions. We get in there, she tells us processing the stuff will take about 30 minutes so we should go get something to eat or something and she'll call Matt's phone when it's ready. About fifteen minutes later we get a phone call saying that she knows they said that they could work with him, but they can't because he's out of their jurisdiction. He DIDN'T get the van today, who knows when he will finally (I am so sick of those curvy roads, they make my head hurt), and we drove 2 hours there and back for nothing. GRR.

the only small plus side, on the way back we stopped at this little mom and pop pizza place and it was REALLY good. They were also super-nice to us, it improved all of our moods (Coni came with us too).

my throat hurts, I've got some kinda cough/virus and it's unpleasant. It's really annoying that it's started getting worse today (it's been on/off for the last two days or so, I thought I was almost done with it), because I don't have another day off until next Tuesday. Monday is going to be a lot of fun, school 9-3 and then work 3:30-7:45. Exciting stuff.

I'm in general just really tired and worn out all together, even though all I did was get my check and deposit it, go grocery shopping (and drop $20 on school supplies/uniform stuff *grumbles*), and then sit in a car for 4-5 hours. And be cranky, hah. I think I'm just going to go to bed soon.

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.