It's A FantasmicalGurl's Life

2009-02-10T11:18:00.001-05:00

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

I can't take it anymore!!! I'm so over this place, these people...

Which face are you talking out of today?

2009-02-05T09:12:00.002-05:00

It pisses me off that I make such responsible choices with my money. Why would that piss me off? Because whenever I want to make a slightly irresponsible decision people act like I'm being totally stupid. I'm not rich by any means, but I'm not buried under TONS of debt either. I have my credit card ($3k), my car ($8k) and my loans ($8k). I pay my bills on time (with a few minor exceptions). Why is it that you can buy a Wii (not directed at you Amanda) and then bitch about how much debt you have because you have a house, new car, stupid husband, took a paycut. But if I mention that I'm going to get one because we finally got F's loan money in you act like it's a crime against humanity and "don't you have bills you could pay off with that?"

No. I do not have bills I can "pay off with that." It's not *my* money. He is buying it as a present. He has outstanding credit card debts, but $4k is not going to help. They won't settle for $4k (there's multiple) and if he gives them an inch, they'll take a mile. And then we'll be left with no money through the fall. How is that helpful? $300 on a Wii will not break the bank. We can still buy food. We can still pay for gas. We can still have some sort of "fun" outside of the apartment. And we'll have enough to move.

SO DON'T MAKE ME FEEL BAD FOR MAKING AN UNECESSARY PURCHASE YOU ALREADY MADE THAT YOU REALLY COULDN'T AFFORD WHEN FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER WE FINALLY CAN!!!

Seriously. I am tired of the two-faces here. She tells me she dislikes them and turns around and chit chats personal life crap to them. She tells me one thing "in confidence" and then moves right along and says it to everyone else. I regret sharing my personal life with her now as she is constantly telling me how bad Forrest is. No, actually, he's pretty good now, thanks. He was in a rut and things are better now. My complaints are tiny ones that are normal. Stop blowing it out of proportion because you hate your husband so much. Two peas in a freakin' pod out there. Ugh. I am tired of it.

I would like to take on more business, but I don't have the time to. If I had enough extra work I could quit already. But I don't. And it will be a long time before I do because I can't dedicate much more time to it while working. Argh! But I can say that it's looking pretty good right now because in Jan 2009 alone I made $1k in side work. YaY me!

So true

2009-01-07T13:55:00.001-05:00

It's a New Year... yay?

2009-01-06T11:46:00.002-05:00

Update on crazy spraying lady: Apparently she doesn't care or the management didn't talk to her. Still gassing the hallways. Ugh!

Update on USM: Forrest got accepted and starts soon. I'm extremely jealous because I wish I was already starting. I need to take the GMAT and get it over with so I can DO something.

Things that I'd like to learn soon:
-yoga
-marketing
-how to get more than a D on DDR

Things I want to do this year:
-MOVE!
-Take the GMAT
-Apply & go to school
-Get rich
-See Amanda when she visits!

All in all, 2008 wasn't *so* bad. I survived it & learned a few things on the way. I would say I'm looking forward to my tax return, but I used one of those calculators and it said I was only getting $69 back and I will probably have to pay the state again. I don't get it! I'm doing the correct exemptions, why do I have to pay?! Stupid taxes. Maybe I should fill out that renter's return thing again. I've got over $500 saved up toward moving (or paying the car insurance payment for the rest of the term... can't decide yet). Here's to getting rich in '09!

I Don't Know What To Tell You Honey

2008-12-07T23:11:00.002-05:00

Here's the story for you to show Scott (hiiiiiiiiiiii Scott).

For a while now I've been smelling really strong perfume/air freshener smells coming from the hallway. At first I thought that it was someone using really strong laundry soap or fabric softener since my apartment is right next to the laundry room.

Then we started hearing the spraying noise. Ok, so maybe it's the cleaning person. Then I notice one of those plug in air fresheners out there. I figure it was the cleaning person again. It does smell out there because the neighbors aren't exactly "well kept".

The other day we hear someone knocking on all the apartment doors with the neighbor next door (she's crazy by the way). We pretend to not be home cuz last time she knocked it was to tell us to lock the outside door so she wouldn't get raped & killed. And it wasn't a short conversation. And she talked down to us the whole time like we were kids and she was some grandma.

Ok, so tonight I hear the spraying. I open the door to get a face full of air freshener fog. I see her just sneaking back into her apartment. I say, "what are you doing?!?" She says, "I'm gassing the hallway *hehe* cuz it reeks out here". I say, "Well, that comes right under my door." She responds with "I don't know what to tell you honey. Tell your neighbors to clean their apartments".

WHAT THE FUCK!?!

I emailed the building manager because this is just insane. I can stand the occasional waft of stench from the hallway. I can't stand being overwhelmed by air freshener under my door.

Maybe I should set a trip wire outside her door. Or stick a lighter out there while she's spraying next time. *Note to self: buy apartment insurance first*

Uh oh

2008-11-18T19:14:00.001-05:00

Thank You Google

2008-11-18T09:19:00.003-05:00

Can I just say how much I love Google? Thank you Google for telling me how to get rid of the annoying maintenance required light on my dashboard. It seems the oil change guys don't even know how! Can I also say thank you to Toyota for making such a user friendly car?

This morning, despite being in a crappy mood due to being exhausted (even after going to bed early) and nauseous (no, I'm not pregnant!), yes, despite all that, I still got quite the giggle out of watching someone get caught in a speed trap that I successfully passed through. Granted, I go this way every day for work and know that the cop is gonna be sitting there (and I speed!). But there's nothing blocking him on either side. If you're not looking ahead that far AND you're speeding, then you're dumb!

Speaking of dumb things. My class last night was about "blogging". God, why did I pay for this shit? I blame the course description. Despite the fact that most members of the class are below the senile age, they did not even know what a blog was or how to blog or how one even works. I was doing an invisible face palm all night. The only good things that have come out of taking this class are that I have a new inspiration for learning and that I've come up with some "ideas" for promoting my current employers main business. Ideas that will most likely get shot down, but whatever.

Learning. Hmm. Yes, I want to do some of that. My biggest problem is still trying to figure out which program I want to do. I know I want to focus on ecommerce. Finding an MBA program that has that as a focus is difficult. The one I did find has sketchy reviews online. They are accredited, though. I read an article about how many upstanding online MBA programs don't require GMAT/GRE scores. That an online degree is not any less reputable than an in person degree (unless you get it at a crappy place). The GMAT costs $250! The GRE costs almost as much. More graduate programs are straying from the scores for older students (students not coming directly from undergrad) because they take in their professional career and resume and evaluate them as a whole. I'm in a good position because I've worked in the online/ecommerce/etc field for almost 4 years now (which is about how long I've been out of school!) and my undergrad gpa is quite high (3.5, woot!). I'm a good candidate for any program. I just need to find MY program.

I'm tired of the Republicans in the office dissing Obama. Us Democrats don't sit around bashing Bush or McCain all day. "It's an Obama nation now... *Abomination*"

Yes, the economy is bad. But it's mostly due to people wanting more than they can afford or should have. You don't need 3 houses. Especially if you're not getting them to sell at a reasonable price to other people (reasonable meaning the buyer can afford it, it's around the value of the house, and you still make some profit). *sigh* Maybe I'm a bit more jaded than they are here because I grew up very poor. I watched my parents file bankruptcy several times. And my mom still can't get it together. Sometimes it's embarrassing to admit how poor we are/still are. It really outcasts you in some conversations because it's rude to say how stupid they are for buying the latest iPhone. But other times it really makes you appreciate your place in life. I have a car. I got that car by finding a way for it to be financed by Toyota due to my achievements. I didn't ask some relative to share their credit and co-sign. I figured out the payments myself. I've never missed one or been late on one. When I needed more money I found another source of income. I didn't complain about "cutting back" on things. But I don't have much to cut back on. If I can't afford it, I generally don't try to buy it.

Ok, ok, enough ranting. I should get something done today.

Kitty Ninjas, Stupid Classes and Textbook Illnesses

2008-11-12T08:50:00.003-05:00

My class is incredibly stupid. I feel robbed. Seriously... the first class (2 hours) was the SAME EXACT presentation he gave 6 months ago in an hour and charged $50 for (work paid for that). I didn't learn anything new. I just got reassured that this dude likes to make himself look so intarwebz savvy. But he's not, really, he's just that annoying kid that's obsessed with facebook or something. "Look what I did! I modded my facebook to do this useless thing to let people know crap they couldn't care less about!" and "Look at how many people are following me!" "I'm a success because I don't explain things to dumb ppl like you... I just convince them to pay me to do it... except I don't do it... my employees do".

It's like there's a new level of social networking people. That you have to "prove" your "coolness" to in order for them to want to give up some of their precious time and friend's space to.

I am not down with that shit!

I realllllllllllly hope the next 3 classes teach me SOMETHING new. But I am not sure they will. Why didn't I see this coming? That him naming his 1 hour lecture almost the same thing as this 4 week course was just more of the same bullshit... It's totally not teaching anyone "how to drive traffic to your website". It's just telling you that facebook and linkedin and crap exist and some people can use them to get popular and those popular people sometimes get people to visit their websites and make money. If we get to anonymously review him I'm gonna give him the lowest marks and make a straight forward comment about how useless the class is.

I had previously asked him if his course went more in depth about this stuff and he said yes. But so far the class is full of morons who somehow own their own businesses or work for businesses that put them in charge of web marketing when they don't even know what html is.

I guess I'm going to have to fork over my own cash and take a GOOD course on this stuff and get certified and MOVE ON!

I tried to ask the adviser for the MBA program if I needed to take the GMAT *before* I got accepted and she replied with a copy & paste jargon email. Good news is that they are only looking for a 580 score. But I don't think I'll have enough time to get the GMAT taken and the recommendations in before Dec 1st. I might just go with what the Univ of Phoenix guy said and "why don't you just get certified in that area if that's what you are looking for".

Man, making career changing decisions is hard work.

I really don't know what's wrong with my kidney area. It's like the same feeling now as it was when I first went in for the antibiotics. And then the same feeling when it came back. And now it's been some time since my last dose of antibiotic and voila! it's here. It alternates between feeling like I was kicked, to feeling like my muscles are ripping, to feeling like a horrible cramp moving into my crotch area. It does seem to me to be like the kidney stone descriptions I've read. But I also read that people with kidney stones say it is the worst pain ever... like worse than natural child birth. Now, I wouldn't know obviously and I have a high tolerance for pain (since I've had some sort of pain for a long time). The doctors seem to think I should be in MORE pain if it was anything serious. I just don't understand. I AM NOT TEXTBOOK! Haven't they figured that out yet?

Just a word of advice... don't google your symptoms too much when you are sick. You'll find things you really shouldn't think about. I really hope this test next week shows something. Or doesn't show something and the pain goes away.

I guess I should find some "work" to do. Work that pertains to my job and not the side jobs. I am really taking my time with the stupid pet website lady. She annoys the heck out of me.

Honey Video #2

2008-11-11T20:54:00.001-05:00

Honey Video #1

2008-11-11T20:46:00.001-05:00

Ouchy Boo-Boo

2008-11-10T16:38:00.000-05:00

Hrm. Remember when I said I didn't really care that much anymore about my kidney -thing- or whatever? Now I am scheduled for an IVP test. Look it up. It'll scare you. :*( I'm having pains today. Almost feels like a pulled muscle. It could be from my 40 min gym adventure Sunday. Or it could be my kidney ailment. Either way it f'n hurts.

My class is tonight. I'm nervous even though I shouldn't be. I really hope I don't look like a retard trying to find the classroom. I asked the teacher and he so kindly didn't reply.

WTF?! This twitter thing that everyone is raving about (including the teacher -- he's borderline obsessed) is like a freakin high school popularity thing like facebook or myspace or whatnot. No one ever replies to my shit. I even ask legitimate though-provoking questions to my "followers" (99% of whom I don't even know and am only following them because they followed me for some reason). Nothing. Meanwhile the people on my list post pointless shit and get tons of convos going. I can't win. I will never be popular on or off the internet.

15 minutes. Woo.

Me wants...

2008-11-06T16:45:00.000-05:00

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=10335752

Is it really almost Halloween?

2008-10-27T09:33:00.000-04:00

Wowzers. Time really passes quickly these days. Well, except when I'm at work, of course.

No results yet from the doctor's office. Probably they came in, but he's not concerned and I canceled my appointment the other day. Oh well. I don't really care that much anymore. I mean, I do care because it's my health, but you know, whatever. I have an appointment on the 7th.

How do people sell all that crap on Ebay? I can't figure it out. Our venture has been a disappointment, but like, my mom sold random JUNK from auctions and made some nice cash. (Not that she actually got to see any of it -- but that's un-ebay-related). Our stuff is brand new and great. No takers. Grr.

My USM course (ha, if you can call it that... more like 4 classes for $200) starts on Nov 10th. Every monday 6-8 til like the beginning of December. Supposedly it will give me the insight into how to get traffic to our websites. However, I think it would be more useful to learn how to get people to BUY. Not much I can do now, as I paid for the class already and it's almost time for it.

I'm so very tempted to just apply to USM for the Spring and tell them I'll work part-time. Of course they'll cut my pay most likely. I need something new I think. Although I'm not sure. I don't know!!!

One day I'll sort it all out and I'll let you know. ;)

PS - I carved a spectacular pumpkin last night. But we left them at our friend's house because they have a much better porch than we do. No pictures, sorry.

PPS - I went to the wedding this weekend & learned I really need to learn how to dance. *sigh* I can has wedding nao?

UPDATE: Alive but not kicking

2008-10-15T13:32:00.000-04:00

Just a brief update for now. Kidney infection or whatever it is that's plaguing me is still around. I'm on my third course of antibiotics. The same kind I had before. Which makes no sense because everything I read says they switch it if it doesn't work. Plus, I could be making whatever it is resistant to this type. But whatever. The doctor says he feels this is the best course of action for my situation. I'm awaiting lab results to see if there's any bacteria. Waste of time. I'm concerned about the blood in the urine even if they aren't. The only time it started presenting itself was when I went to the doctor in Bangor complaining of back pain and nausea (sorta like now, huh?) and they kept finding it and passed me off to a urologist who said "oh that's normal ... for some people". But if you look it up online they say "It's not normal... EVER". I am having to be aggressive with them and I think it's making them think I'm a hypochondriac. *frustration*

And work. *sigh* I should have seen through the lies. Taking a course is now apparently on the back burner. They are complaining about me missing time again. They are back in their routine of not talking to me or filling me in on things. Like... how our UPS account was disabled... But yeah, I can't wait to get out of here because I'm not getting anywhere. But I don't have anywhere to go yet.

Hello October

2008-10-02T19:22:00.000-04:00

So it's been about 2 weeks since I said I went to a meeting with a USM advisor. That went as well as could be expected -- meeting with someone who's sole priority is to convince you to go to their institution.

Basically I've found that an MBA would be useful in my future career, whatever that may be. But I missed the cut off dates for financial aid for the spring, so I'll have to wait for the fall. I also need take the GRE or GMAT. The MBA program prefers the GMAT, which is more expensive and more difficult than the GRE. However, she did say they would accept the GRE. I also need to find 3 people to write me recommendations and I have to work on an essay and scrounge up the application fee. So I guess it's a good thing that I have until the fall because I surely don't have enough time at the moment to get this all done by December 1st.

My boss came back from his week long business trip out west finally. I gave him 3 packets of information on 3 different Search Engine Marketing Certificate programs that I looked into. One was offered through the University College of Bath/Brunswick, one was offered through an organization that they really look to for their field of work -- The Direct Marketing Association -- and was really expensive, and the last one was from a widely known and highly accredited SEM company called SEMPO. I told him "I'm willing to take any one of these three things," and left it up to him to decide what he wanted to do.

I thought for sure that it would go the same way that everything in the past has gone. That he'd "look into it" and then never bring it up again. And if that happened, I told myself I would just do it on my own and move on to another job. But to my surprise today he actually wanted to talk to me about it. He said that as an employer he'd rather see a certificate in a specialization rather than an academic achievement (Bachelor's/MBA) because it meant that the person had real world/technical knowledge in the field rather than theory like you'd get in the academics. Then he went on to say that he preferred the most expensive one! I was really shocked because they were complaining about not having any money and now they want me to take a $5k course! And not only that, but they want me to start out with the basic SEMPO course first! So if this actually goes through, I will have 2 courses under my belt. Awesome. And I really hope they don't make ME pay for them.

On the health front... I am doing much better mentally without all this anxiety. Not sure if I want to stick with this solution long term, though. As far as my kidneys go, well, I'm on my last dose of antibiotics and today I felt like crap. I started out the morning the way I have for quite some time: Drag myself out of bed, shower, dress, gag and barf during brushing my teeth, feed the cat, leave for work.... It's not a nice routine. I'm really hoping I get better after tomorrow. I don't want to be stuck with this for a long time as even the short period of time that I have it causes severe tissue scarring that can lead to major issues later on. Blah. Cross your fingers for my speedy recovery or else I might be typing my next entry from a hospital bed!

My freelance work has been going well lately. I have consistent work from one company and off and on work for another (much more annoying) company. This past weekend I worked on a "project" for the 2nd company and earned $135. Tomorrow I will turn in 2 weeks worth of work for the first company and get over $200. For the past few months I've earned at least $500 extra per month. Awesome. That's what paid for this laptop and some other things. I'm hoping the next big purchase will be snow tires for my poor snow-unfriendly car.

Speaking of the car, on the 11th I'm finally getting the window looked at. My car is still under warranty "definitely" according to the lady at the dealership when she asked how many miles I had and I said just over 22k. :)

Ok, time to do something productive, find a snack, and turn on the tv.

Getting it all out there

2008-09-17T10:31:00.000-04:00

Tonight I have a meeting with an advisor at USM. Hopefully I can weigh out the options of a bachelor's vs an MBA. Work wants me to do something *quickly* which really doesn't seem that doable at the moment. I suppose I could just find a single course that gives me some insight for now, but I have yet to find the course.

I'm faced with the dilemma of not knowing what path I want to go on. I know I want to get more education and get something marketable. I'm not sure I want to quit my job to do it because I can't guarantee I'll get enough loans to cover my living expenses. But on the other hand I'm not sure I'll want to stay here after I get my education either. If I can learn something that makes what I'm doing successful and they reward me for it, then yes, I will stay. But I can't guarantee that. I can't do it instantly. The communication here at work is not going so well. I feel like I should remind them what they said I would be doing when they hired me. But apparently telling your boss why they hired you pisses them off, as was noted yesterday. I just feel like they don't even remember anything about my resume. Nowhere on there does it say I took any marketing courses. I never claimed to know anything about marketing. All I said was that my previous job had me creating adwords in a rather crude fashion. That I'd worked on e-commerce websites updating products. And that's what I started here doing. I added and updated products to their already created site. Then I suggested moving to another shopping cart. And I've been adding and updating those sites. Nowhere in the list did it say I was to learn how to market the site. And now all of a sudden that seems to be my entire existance and *omg why aren't we getting a bazillion sales?*

I don't have the resources currently to do it. I told them this. That I needed someone who'd done it before to show me. That once they showed me I could possibly do it on my own. That reading online articles about how to do it is not proving helpful to me because I need a concrete example of "here is YOUR site. do this to YOUR site. look what happen to YOUR site when you do this." I can't very well do much with "so and so did this to their site and this happened. you do it to your site exactly like that". It's not an exact science and it seems they don't want to believe that. Yes, them looking into consultants behind my back did piss me off. I would like to be a part of things that have an effect on my job. But apparently, despite the fact we do nothing else like a large corporation, we are conforming to the "need to know" information process. I am the bottom rung. Which normally would be fine, except they share things with me that you shouldn't generally share with the bottom rung. So how am I supposed to know my place?

I hate having to admit that I can't do something that I am supposed to do or want to do. I hate having to admit that I need help. But I've done it here. Several times. And I get the "oh, you're smart you can do it" thing that I've been getting my whole life. It really irks me.

My health is failing because the stress of this job is getting to me. I know that I shouldn't let it get to me, but it does. I can't help the way I am emotionally.

Last night Forrest asked me again to help him find a job. To help him go over the massive amount of information that they gave him at the CareerCenter. Seriously, I've been trying really hard to find him a new job. I feel bad that none of his interviews has led him anywhere. He thinks his credit report his holding him back from jobs because at the interviews they said they were going to do background checks. So we started a discussion about exactly what he wants to do. And it was very hard for him and he was getting upset. He does not know what he wants to do. He is worried about going back to school because he thinks that he maxed out his loan limits the first time. And he doesn't know exactly what he wants to do. He's upset that his first choice of Anthropology is not doing anything for him. These are all valid things to be upset about and I told him this. He says that he has trouble concentrating and that he feels like he is in a fog. We really didn't get anywhere in the conversation because I can't tell him what he wants to do in life.

He told me he wanted to travel and that is why he was looking at the Peace Corp just before he graduated college. He said he decided against it because of me. Because I didn't want to travel. At first it seemed like he was blaming me for it. But then I stepped back and realized that maybe he really does want to be with me a lot. Another thing that pointed to this was when I looked up a job that was nights and weekends and he said "but that's only time I get to see you. What would be the point?" He says he is not attached to any one place and wouldn't mind living somewhere else. Another state, another country, whatever. I guess that's the difference between us. I can't fathom uprooting myself without a concrete plan and knowing that it will be ok there and that I could still have contact with my family occasionally. But as I was going to bed I asked him, "so you'd rather see me than have a job that was nights and weekends?" and he said, "yes." So I guess the only good thing that came about from the conversation was that it was reaffirmed that he likes me.

It's hard to be in this situation with someone so much like yourself. Both being virgos and having the personalities of wanting to do things on our own and being in charge really clashes when it comes down to both of us finally admitting we need help with certain things. That we don't know all the answers.

Frustrating to have something in your grasp and not being able to reach it. We're doing what *they* say we need to do to accomplish something, but it's not working... at least not yet and that really frustrates us.

I'm a worrier. That's my problem. And it's not something you can change easily about yourself. I'm anxious about nearly every situation; some worse than others.

Hopefully I get some better answers after meeting with the advisor. Do they have life advisors out there? Because that would be awesome.

USM

2008-09-13T22:42:00.001-04:00

I have a meeting with an Advisor in the Business department of USM on Wednesday the 17th. They looked into my past degree and it seems I could get my 2nd bachelors in Marketing with just 67 credits. Neato. I also have the option of getting my MBA and focusing on marketing. That would take less credits and they generally have nighttime classes.

So perhaps I get my MBA and then take a bunch of supplemental classes focusing on e-marketing at University of Phoenix.

Exciting...

Food for today

2008-09-13T13:21:00.000-04:00

Breakfast (noonish)
-scrambled eggs (approx 2 eggs, 1/2 cup cheese, 1/4 cup or less milk)
-2 pieces of white toast, 1/2 tbsp butter
-1 small glass of juice

Lunch?Snack? (5ish)
-8 mcnuggets with half a container of s&s sauce
-yogurt parfait with granola
-20 oz root beer

Dinner (9ish)
-small bowl of shrimp, scallops, fake crab, pasta, lots of veggies and some sauce
-2 scoops of edy's double churn cookie dough ice cream

Weekends are always weird in terms of eating. Blah.

2008-09-06T00:54:00.000-04:00

And so begins the edumacation process. Moving up and hopefully out soon!

Quote

2008-09-02T11:40:00.001-04:00

I read this great quote in an article today:

"Effort, not intelligence or ability, is the key to success in school and life."

Just thought I'd share....

Paris Hilton & the Pope are having a baby!

2008-08-26T10:46:00.000-04:00

Oh, spam... you amuse me sometimes. But not the times when I have to weed through 50 or more spam messages that should be caught by the filter and are not.

I was informed to "shut down" my computer "every night" in an effort to be "more green". Funny how they never noticed that I do that already. Or that I turn my light off when I got to lunch for an hour... or that I don't use the AC ... or that *I* was the one that made the effort to get a box to collect the water bottles that they were just throwing in the garbage.

And the water bottles are now exclusively for "clients" and we must use plastic cups (how is that any better? you can't recycle them, but I guess they are cheaper to buy) or bring in our own bottle to use the water cooler.

We must also clean our own desks & offices (and dust! ha, no thanks) because they've cut back the cleaning person to once a month instead of 2.

I find it really hilarious that they had no qualms about wasting paper (which we must now reuse --huh, funny I mentioned doing this when I started and they said no-- and conserve on) before they got all these "bills". Too bad they didn't notice that I haven't been printing out FTP requests for a couple months now to save on over 100 sheets of paper a week. Meanwhile they print out 50 page "scripts" all the time and print out emails (what's the point??!?).

Oh, but I couldn't tell them this in an email because too many emails are "unproductive".

Funny what people will do to save a buck or two and call it "being green".

Too bad they don't cut back on cable tv in the boss's office.

I'm surprised they didn't say we were gonna get pay cuts. You know what would really help save electricity & resources? Let me go home at 3pm every day since I really have nothing to do past that time. My time could be better spent cleaning my apartment or doing freelance web work.

*sigh* I will never understand small businesses & how they think they should be instantly raking in profits on something just because everyone else is. NEWSFLASH: those people have been doing it for quite some time and an average new business takes 2-3 years before it makes ANY profit.

Did someone say tuna?

2008-08-25T19:16:00.000-04:00

<-- Look! It's a cat with 4 ears! How cute!

So, we're back from our Canada adventure. I'm sad that I have to be at work again. It reminds me of how much I dislike it there lately.

No one at work asked me how my vacation was or where I went or anything. Instead they complained that I undercharged on shipping on a stupid ebay listing. Boo fucking hoo. The order was $30. I charged $3 shipping. It cost maybe $6 because they are incompetent in packing/shipping efficiently. We made like $20something. "It's nice to sell things, but pointless if we're not making anything on them." WTF.

It's hilarious my coworker was being retarded before I left complaining how much work she was going to have to do because I was gone. And how confusing everything was and on and on. I tried to simplify it for her but she still didn't get it. And then... we didn't get any orders (other than that 1 ebay thing) until Friday evening. Then when I am there today I get 4 orders. I guess they were waiting for someone competent to be there. HA!

Yeah, so back to Canada. It was great after we finally got there. We were lost for like an hour in eastnowhereland, Canada because Google Maps was either out of date or trying to screw us over. After getting there and getting thru construction and stopping at the wrong hotel, I was relieved to park the car for the weekend. Driving in Montreal would have been a nightmare! We were within walking distance to almost everything. And even the feet-killing-park trip wasn't really that far. We were just not prepared for that much climbing/walking/sunshine/lack of liquids.

The food we ate was not good at all. Except for the free breakfasts at the restaurant next to the hotel. That was the best hotel breakfast ever. We'd definitely stay there again even though the room was tiny and the people around us came in at like 2-3am and slammed the doors and banged into the walls.

We walked to the Old Port and went to the light show at the Notre Dame basilica thing. That was cool and great timing. I had a drink near the water and that was good. Other than that, it was a lot of walking and map reading and we wished we had more time there.

Another reason not to eat at Burger King....

2008-08-13T15:29:00.001-04:00

Things like this probably happen out back all the time. *shudder*

http://view.break.com/553140 - Watch more free videos

Want

2008-08-05T23:20:00.001-04:00

MONKEY MINTS

KAM KAM CAT SHOULDER BAG

RAINBOW MONKEY BANDAGES

HEAR-O THE RABBIT COIN PURSE

Nearly Halfway There

2008-08-05T16:08:00.000-04:00

In a few months I will have made exactly HALF of my car payments. This is the biggest investment I've made in life, I think. The car cost a mere $14k & change. My student loans were just barely over $10k.

I will be so happy when I finally don't have to pay those two things anymore. Then I might be able to enjoy my paychecks like most other people around me. I am happy, however, to have a fully functional car. Speaking of that, I *need* to get an oil change. I've waited quite a while past the three month mark; I'm nearly at the next mile marker. My bumper-to-bumper warranty expires soon. I didn't get it for the whole six years because I couldn't afford the payments at the time. I probably still can't as I'm just squeaking by at the moment. I wish I had someone reliable to ask questions about the warranty. I can't really ask the salesman, as he'll just say it's important to have and yes, I should get it extended. I really need to learn more car skills.

Less than two weeks stands between me and a week of not having to come into work everyday! Woohoo! I simply cannot wait. It's going to be a mess while I'm gone, though, and that causes me anxiety. I am still having a hard time thinking of one day at a time. *sigh*

I've finished up another data set for the Pet Store Lady. She's supposed to send me another set soon. And the Halloween Costume Site is pleased with my progress on their site and will be adding more products soon. No word on if they want me to do the file or not. It really is quite tedious fixing product titles manually. I don't understand why companies who supply products don't correctly label items or at least spell things correctly. Who makes that first file? Someone in a hurry I suppose. Speaking of being in a hurry, the next Pet Store files are to be *expedited* so I asked her for a flat fee again. She agreed. :-) This is a pretty good business so far -- what with having only two clients and generating over $1000 already.

It's just too bad I couldn't be saving that money. Spend, spend, spend is all I ever seem to do.

In addition to my week's worth of vacation, I have the day before my birthday off. Our friend Josh is coming to visit for the weekend, and that should be splendid. I don't anticipate getting anything exciting on my birthday. I never really have. Sometimes, however, I really wish that my boyfriend would be more romantic and surprise me with something. He has the means to get to stores and has some cash. He also has the means to book a room or something and just tell me to drive there. One can only hope. You can't really tell someone to be romantic & after 6 years you'd think I'd be used to it by now.

A little less than an hour left.... then I can go home & maybe go to the gym... or take a nap. Then more site work and dinner and ta da bed time again! At least Big Brother 10 is on again. Not that it is as interesting as years past. Just people lying and hooking up and screaming and whatnot.

I watched a nice movie last night: Stardust. Amanda, you may like it.

2008-07-27T12:45:00.001-04:00

Yesterday I:

-rode the bus
-walked around downtown
-drank a red bean slush with BUBBLES!
-went to target
-worked on data files
-bored myself to sleep

Today the plans are:
-laundry

Exciting, yes?

2008-07-21T20:12:00.000-04:00

I Knew It!

2008-07-21T08:52:00.000-04:00

Today starts the week where everyone is back in the office. Like I predicted, my stress level is UP and all I'm doing is working in my office and having to listen to the conversation. Makes me dread when I'll have to join in. Ugh. My poor tummy.

We covered Honey with flea powder this weekend and I don't see anymore fleas on her like I did before. She's scratching less. Hopefully that worked.

What's Happening

2008-07-14T09:48:00.000-04:00

Ok, so I said I would update about the 4th of July weekend. We didn't do much because on the 3rd Forrest got fired from his job. We sat around being bored because anything we thought to do cost too much or wasn't working (we wanted to take the bus to the ferry and go to Peaks Island).

Friday night I talked to my friend Andy (from UMaine) and he said the fireworks could be seen from his apartment on Forest Ave, so we headed over there. We ended up getting double fireworks as the Sea Dogs were setting theirs off at the same time on the other side of the building. They weren't "amazing", but I don't think any fireworks in Maine really are.

Saturday we were going to go to the beach, but then plans changed and we met Brett & Vicki at Smiling Hill Farms (near my job actually) for some really yummy ice cream. Saturday night we went to the drive-in movies in Westbrook (not far up the road from our apartment). We saw Wall-E, which was very cute and entertaining and then Get Smart, which was boring and predictable and I actually fell asleep halfway through. Haha. It was cool watching a movie in the car. I'd never done it before (which Forrest was amazed by). A lot of people's cars kept having to be jumped because the batteries died. Our car was fine for the nearly 4 hours of having it on.

Fast forward through a retarded, stressful work week and we're at this past weekend. We went to Alfred to visit Ian & Jill. We pitched a tent next to the lake behind his parents' house. We went swimming, had a campfire, played a game, and Forrest tried desparately to catch some fish. In fact, he spent nearly all day yesterday trying to catch them. He caught 2 tiny, tiny yellow perch and I caught one tiny sunfish whose eyes nearly popped out of its head when we squeezed it to get the hook out. Needless to really say, I got a nice sunburn on my face, neck and a bit of my arms. I did put sunscreen on, just not enough I guess. My new bathing suit ripped the first time I put it on. I'll have to see if it can be repaired, but it's doubtful. I got a nice workout climbing the hill to the house. I couldn't make it without panting like crazy at the top, but I made it without having to stop.

We got home at 10:30 last night and Honey was so excited to see us. She was mewing like crazy. She still has fleas, which is unfortunate. We gave her a bath, powdered the rugs, put those drops on her and covered her in powder and they are still there. UGH! I hate fleas. We might have to bomb the apartment or something. She's chewing her back all up. It's gross.

2008-06-30T23:22:00.000-04:00

Richard Gere?

2008-06-27T10:55:00.001-04:00

NetFlix is magical. How did they know I liked Richard Gere without me renting any of his movies from them? Perhaps they were spying on me when I watched Unfaithful on Lifetime a couple times. They recommeded I watch his other movie Stardust, which I have since added to my queue. Sounds MAGICAL!

When I checked out Stardust on IMDB, however, I saw this AMAZING ad for a movie coming out in August starring BRENDAN FRAISER & JET LI --> The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. Hahaha! I bet it will be better than National Treasure 2!

Tonight we're going to visit Matt and play the Maury Drinking Game. I wish I hadn't deleted yesterday's episode of 2 year old babies who weighed 100lbs already. One fat kid came out on stage and Maury was like "hey, how are you doing?" and she was like "YOU ARE NOT THE FATHER!" Maury almost fell out of his chair with laughter. It was great.

A Little Better

2008-06-25T12:26:00.000-04:00

So, I just checked CWC after I posted and voila... my "barf submission" was posted! Yay!

Posting

2008-06-24T21:40:00.000-04:00

So I've decided to start posting in this blog. I've created a few blogs for work and one for my cat, so why not one for me?

I probably won't go too far into details about things, but that's ok. My job fluctuates between being really slow and really full of things to do. Right now it's the latter. Almost too much and I messed up something today and I felt like a moron all day and it's still not fixed yet. :( I know what I'm doing, but sometimes I do things without thinking enough about it and something gets messed up.

We've been having bad thunderstorms lately. Not as bad as some places, but still pretty bad if you're caught in the intense downpours. Poor Honey didn't like the storm too much on Sunday and was mewing. I can only imagine what she thought today when she was home alone during it.

Speaking of home, I've lived here for just over a year. Time really goes by fast! I like that this place has a gym area and pool on the premises, but I really don't like the set up of the apartment buildings. Especially the paper thin walls and the fact that there are only 2 washers and 2 dryers (each costing $1.50) that don't work properly all the time. And there are a lot of people who overload them and then leave their clothes in there for days at a time making the washers smell badly. My apartment is right next to the laundry room and I still have a hard time getting a spot in line to use the machines sometimes. I kept saying when we were thinking about moving that I wanted a place with its own washers and dryers and I still do. I would love to live in a little house. I hate having the neighbors only separated by a wall. And don't get me started on the doors and the locks here.

I suppose this is long enough of a post for now. Time to watch the rest of Hell's Kitchen.

Introduction

2008-04-19T12:24:00.000-04:00

I do my thing and you do yours. I am not in this world to live up to your expectations, and you are not in this world to live up to mine. You are you and I am I, and if by chance we find each other, then it is beautiful. If not, it can't be helped.

- Frederick Perls