Party of One

All Atwitter

2008-04-15T12:13:00.003-06:00

Have you heard of twitter? Probably since pretty much everyone is way more technosavvy than me. I signed up for twitter this past weekend and I must say I'm kind of in love with it. Posts are 140 characters or less and you can post from your cell phone, online, or via instant message. It's great. I live at www.twitter.com/katydidz. Come see me.

Also, my last post was my 200th post.

Also, today is my tattoos birthday. Happy birthday tattoo!

Friday Randomness

2008-04-11T15:40:00.004-06:00

Every time I see the acronym FAQ I read it as FAG. Which is kind of confusing because why would there be a whole page in a website dedicated to Frequently Assumed Gays? I do not know.

Also I got a 13 out of 25.

I didn't move

2008-04-09T16:45:00.002-06:00

I missed it here.

I know I'm not here a lot but it's where I come when I just can't handle it anymore. I can't handle it anymore.

School this year has been a total bitch. I only have 24 more days of this semester and then I am done for three blissful months. I can't wait. School has been hard before what with the expectation to actually study and do my homework and learn my shit but this year has been a whole new level of insane on my poor being. I have developed an eye twitch. It has been weeks, maybe even months, and every time I think about class or an upcoming test or realize that "Oh Crap there is an actual possibility that I am going to FAIL!!!" my right eye goes haywire. In fact it's going haywire right now because I am 9 minutes away from taking an accounting test that I am going to fail. FAIL!!! WITH AN F!!!!!!

Our accounting tests are online and we have two opportunities to take them. I studied for three days straight for the last test. I read the chapter I practiced the problems I felt prepared when I sat down to take the test. It took me the entire 90 minutes to complete it and I felt pretty good about it so I wasn't going to take my second chance. Then around 10:30 that night, I decided I might as well take it again, just in case I got more brilliant. So I took it again (it was actually a completely different test because the questions are all randomly selected from a test bank of 200 questions). Anyway, I quickly realized that I was in fact screwed on the second go round because it was much harder and guessed my way through it using a combination of the limited knowledge I had of the subject matter and pure gut instinct. No big deal right because I did so good the first time around. WRONG! Do you want to know the results of the first test, the one I actually made a solid effort at? I missed 16. I got a 9 out of 25. That's a 36%. On the second test, the one I guessed through, I only missed 14. I got an 11 our of 25 or 44%. After he curved the hell out of it I ended up with a 74% but what if he doesn't curve this one? Rumor has it people are doing well on it and if everyone does alright but me, there will be no curving, just failing. FAILING! WITH AN F!!!!!

"But Katy," you may be thinking, "What makes you so certain that you'll fail? Perhaps this test really is easier." Well perhaps it is kind reader. That doesn't change the fact that this is the third test I've taken in three days and that I was so bitter from my last accounting test that I didn't study for this one!!!!

I.
Am.
Screwed.

There goes my eye again.

I've moved

2008-01-21T17:00:00.001-07:00

Over here.

cafeone.blogspot.com

Maybe I'll have better luck over there.

Halloween

2007-10-27T12:49:00.001-06:00

The Howl kinda sucked. Which makes me sad because The Howl is the party I look forward too all year. Oh well.

This was us:

My costume kind of rocked the world. I was very proud of it. And people knew who i was supposed to be. So that was good.

The rest of the costumes were pretty much the same as every year. Sexy Dorothy. Sexy Strawberry Shortcake, Sexy Dumb and Dumber. Halloween has really become just an excuse for slutty girls to be sluttier. Luckily, thanks to 300, men have an excuse to walk around in leather underwear and capes and nothing else. For that I am eternally grateful, cuz rrrrrow.

Oh Tony...No...

2007-10-25T11:24:00.000-06:00

Dude. You're Anthony Stewart Head.

You were Giles. Rupert Giles! You were the bad ass british librarian that was a little too proper but could and would totally kick ass. Remember how every week you said "It's the end of the world" and kept a straight face and made everybody believe it? Remember?

You were on Doctor Who!

You're the Ballad Ghose in Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd.

You have worked with some of the most brilliant, off beat visionaries of our time!

And now this.

(May not be entirely appropriate for work)

I'm really honestly not terribly opposed to the movie. Tony looks pretty much like he's rockin what he's got to work with. It may be cool. Anthony Stewart Head in this movie is not what has me concernec. It's the fact that Anthony Stewart Head and Sarah Brightman are sharing a set with Paris Hilton. Seriously things are a little swirly when it comes to my sense of good and evil right now.

I need to go lie down.

The Dos Post

2007-10-09T20:58:00.000-06:00

I have stories!! But first i'm just getting the disclaimer out of the way. Here's the thing, i do better with bloggerella here when I actually have something to say. Apparently that's a fairly rare occurence, so if I haven't posted in a long time figure my life is fine but boring and I'll tell you stuff when I have something worth telling you. This is one of those times. Two of those times actually. Lucky you.

Chapter 1: I'm Afraid

Remember "Tom"? No? Yes? If not, read this post. After that little event, things seemed to be progressing. "Tom" and I actually had conversations. They were small, superficial conversations, but they were still conversations. Then one of the ladies I work with mentioned to his boss that I was 24 and that he should date me because of my awesomeness. Then boss man says "Oh no. Katy scares him. She's too take charge." Enter rageful mid-twenty year old woman. I scare him?? I'm too take charge??? Are you kidding me? So I was sad for awhile mostly because of the ragey ragey rage that I was feeling and the fact that my very least favorite thing to hear is what I consider "Who Katy? No. She's too incredibly awesome." Does that make sense? No. I guess it could have been worse. It could have been: "Oh no. Katy scares him. And small children and dogs. That girl is ugly." So apparently I am the evil queen from snow white. Hot, but terrifying. Whatever! Whatever pansy man!! If you want to be scared of a super hot, independent, fun girl that's your own damn fault. Good day pansy man. I SAID GOOD DAY!!!

Chapter 2: Oh, I Got It. You Just Don't Know What To Do With It.

Last Saturday, the 29th, I went shopping in St. George (it's about 45 minutes away from Cedar). My friend and I needed some wandering and some retail therapy so we went to the mall. During our wanderings we came across a kiosk for colorevolutions. Make-up. We enjoy make-up in mi casa. Obviously we needed more information about the many many pretty and sparkly colors. Enter Giovanni. Giovanni is a 6'3" italian that is just plain pretty. At first I just thought he was doing salesman flirting but it felt like more than that. After I paid for my make up ($130 dollars...dude) Giovanni shook my hand, leaned in, and kissed me on the cheek. Then I got out of ear shot and squealed like a little girl. I figured I would probably never see Giovanni again and moved on with my life. I was wrong.

Last night my mom and I went back to the mall to find dress shoes for her. Then we decided to walk around in the mall some more to see if there was anything that was screaming for my money. We walked past the same kiosk and a different salesman tried to wave us down. I told him I already used his products but my mom got roped in by the suave man with the pretty make up. So I was standing there listening to my mom and mr. salesman when Giovanni came up behind me. This story could get very very long. While my mom was getting her makeover, Giovanni and I talked for about 45 minutes. We laughed, we smiled, we flirted, we talked and talked and talked and then he shook my hand and said he'd see me next time he was in Cedar City and I said "You'll have a hard time finding me, Cedar's not that small." Then he said "I guess I better get your phone number then." *SQUEAL!!!!* He even complimented me on my confidence and I said that some people think it's a bad thing and he said "I think it's incredible." *SQUEAL!!!* So I gave him my number. I don't know if he'll actually call me or not but that's not really the point. I really REALLY hope he'll call though.

Want some crazy?

2007-09-06T21:41:00.000-06:00

I thought you would.

Sidebar, I just spelled thought with a "P". I don't even know.

My backpack is freaking heavy! Today I was wandering around eBags.com looking for a kinder gentler backpack and one of the reviews said "I love this backpack! I often carry between 10 and 15 pounds on my hikes and this pack makes it easy!" Between 10 and 15? You're crying at me about carrying between 10 and 15 pounds in your lovely, squishy, lumbar-tastic "pack"?! You sissy. My backpack weighs 23.7 pounds, IF I leave two books home, and I carry it three times a week up and down 4 sets of stairs. Fifteen pounds, I laugh at you and your sissy 15 pounds. HA!

So whilst checking out eBags I found this little number. It's cute and brown (I've become a big fan of brown) and would follow me around like a sweet little lost puppy. It's also a rollie backpack which I guess is some sort of faux pas. OK, yes I know how geeky the people that actually have them look, or how geeky the people that actually have them are. I am just vain in enough that this is a big consideration but there are times that I can actually FEEL my spine squishing. That is not a comfortable sensation.

My boss says that maybe if I walk with enough person while carting around my rollie backpack people will think I'm a professor. That's helpful huh? I'm under the delusion

So I need a new backpack that can fit this lil bitch, a calculus book, a management book, a marketing book, and a laptop as well as the mountains of other school supplies I carry, and still feel like I'm carrying clouds on my shoulders.... Do you think clouds are heavy?

Anyway! School is good, if good means it's kicking my ass. My apartment is gorgeous and comfy and my roomies mostly keep to themselves. My Rachel is back so I'm not alone 99.9% of the time anymore. Work is good. My hair is pretty. I'm in upper division courses now which means I'm 1 of around 10 girls in all my classes of 50 or more students so that's fun. I'll try and work up a run down of my classes and all the little quirks soon.

Have a good weekend.

Thanks! Wait...What?

2007-08-15T17:03:00.000-06:00

I work in a department where women are vastly outnumbered by men. Well of course they're outnumbered by men. It's not like I work with 100 chihuahuas. Anyway! We women are few and far between. Most of us are in some sort of clerical position or we're in charge of cleaning, planting flowers, or pulling weeds. I have no problem whatsoever with the dynamic in my department. This isn't some sexist tirade. I like working with dozens of men, there's far less drama and I often feel like I'm surrounded by my favorite uncles. Uncles that know absolutely nothing about me.

One would think that given the male to female ratio, someone as awesome as I happen to be would have lost her single status by now. Not the case (not complaining). While it is true that men outnumber the women, it is also true that the MARRIEDS outnumber we Singles by I think it's safe to say, an even greater margin. So it's safe to assume (ass.u.me, I know) that whoever it is you're talking to, especially if they're a contract employee, is married.

Apparently this is not the case.

The players:
Kate: A super awesome Single devoted to educating young Singles that MARRIED doesn't mean better. Kate has been eyeing Tom.
Max: Tom's boss. An employee in Kate's department
Charlie: The new girl at work. (Not shown)
Tom: The cutey in question. (Not shown)

Scene: Kate is busily working away (stop laughing, I work sometimes) at her job, minding the office while everyone else is gone to lunch. Max enters stage left.

Max: Where is everybody?
Kate: Gone to lunch.
Max: Oh. Tom wanted me to ask around about Charlie.
Kate: (The blood rushing to her face) Which one's Tom? (To audience) Dammit!
Max: My apprentice, just got made a journeyman, nice kid, goatee.
Kate: Oh right! (To audience) Damn Damn Double Damn!! Ask about me!!! (To Max) What about Charlie?
Max: Is she a Single? How old is she?
Kate: I really don't know her that well. As far as I know she's single. I think she's 19 or 20.
Max: Oh. Tom's like 28 so she's probably too young for him.
Kate: Well hell Max! I'm 24!
Max: Yeah but you're a MARRIED (beat) aren't you?
Kate: (To audience) WHAT?!?!?! (To Max) No. I'm not.
Max: I thought you were married! You're just so confident and self assured!!
Kate: Well thank you. (To audience) Wait...What??
Max: (Blah blah blahs......)

People assume I'm married because I like myself? What the...? Apparently I need a sign. Maybe a scrolling marquee across my boobs, since that's where people look anyway, "Just because I like myself doesn't mean I'm married". I can't win!

It's like the big red purse story.

Whatever.

It doesn't matter.

I'm still annoyed though.

Why don't you caaaaaaaall meeeeeee??

2007-08-09T10:02:00.000-06:00

I bumped into an old friend last night while at Hell-Mart and we started talking. She's "almost engaged" again and absolutely obsessed with this guy. I don't think she's ever stopped to think what her life might be like if she wasn't wrapped up in a man. Anyway we were talking about movies and she mentioned she had missed a few movies she wanted to see this summer because she couldn't find anyone to go with her.

Seriously?

I told her that I went to movies by myself all the time. Her reaction, of course, was pity. "Katy! Why don't you caaaaaaall meeeee? I'll hang out with you!" Because obviously my problem is that no one will hang out with me and has nothing to do with the idea that may I enjoy hanging out with myself.

Silly.

Times they are a changing.

2007-08-06T11:27:00.001-06:00

I think it's pretty obvious that I've sort of struggled with ye olde blog. I would say it's just recently but let's face it, it's never been particularly coherent. So in a last ditch effort to help it help me, we're trying yet another something new and fun. I give you:

Party of one.

That's right. It's a whole new world. One where I am not only content to go to a movie by myself but i'm kinda thrilled. One where breakfast in a nice little cafe with me, my crispy bacon, and a good book is something I look forward to. Single is the new black.

Now, the space will not be completely devoted to my life as an awesome singleton but I'm hoping that that will be the focus and that I don't just completely drop off the face of the planet.

Here's to new beginnings.

Help me out here!

2007-06-14T09:25:00.000-06:00

I don't call, I don't write. The only time I ever talk to you guys is when I need a favor. I've turned into some of my least favorite people!

Here's the thing. I got suckered into helping with this fundraiser for the March of Dimes. Ok, not suckered. It's a good cause and I'm actually pretty excited about it. The problem is, I don't really know many people, especially many people with money so I'm asking EVERYBODY I know for a donation. Seriously people, if all you can donate is 5 dollars that's great. If you donate 5 dollars I only need 199 more people to donate 5 dollars and I will reach my goal of 1000 dollars. What were you going to do with that 5 dollars anyway? Let's look at some possibilities shall we?

You could ALMOST go see a movie. What are you going to see? There's nothing that good out anyway. Plus you would have to buy popcorn and a drink, maybe some licorice. So really, I'm SAVING you money. How nice am I?
You could go to lunch at some gross fast food place. Come on people, you have food at home. Defrost something. Fire up that oven! Make friends with your microwave!! The possibilities are endless! Besides, do you want to ingest all that greasy grody calorie ridden food or do you want to SAVE a BABY!!!!!
You could put a gallon and a half of gas in your car. Polluting the air. Causing some other organization to form which will just hit you up for money later.
Buy 5 cokes, or 2 coffees at Starbucks. Think of the caffeine you would be ingesting! You would never sleep again! Think what leaving those 5 cokes/2 coffees at the store would do for you personally! Sleep is important and loved by all, I'm just trying to help YOU get more of what YOU want.
You could buy some silly little knick knack that you don't need. Cluttering up your life EVEN MORE! Step away from the all-a-dollar people!
Imagine if you donated 10 dollars!! Your life would change exponentially!!!!

Now lets look at some productive things your 5 dollars would do.

Raise awareness about alcohol, tobacco, and drug use resulting in poor birth outcomes.
Help immunize babies against polio.
Prevent birth defects, premature birth, and infant mortality.
SAVE BABIES!!!

You want to donate now don't you? I know!! So give me money. You can either send me cash or a check. If that's what you want to do e-mail me and I'll send you my new address. Or you can do it the superspiffy way! Go go jailandbail.marchofdimes.com/katydidz and click on make a donation. Easy as pie. I don't understand that phrase. Pie is not easy. Pie is tricky. I digress.

Go!

Donate!

SAVE THE BABIES!!!

Hi

2007-04-20T13:18:00.000-06:00

I got a tattoo.

I equal parts love it and hate it.

I'm pretty sure it feels the same towards me.

It's a crown. On my back. Just under my neck.

Pictures will arrive eventually.

Ok. Super blog Friday April 20, 2007!! GO!

School:

I am 100% lacking in motivation for this crap. Seriously, it is PAINFUL for me to get out of bed, get my ass ready for school, and go to class. However, I am OFFICIALLY done with all of my generals. I am thisclose to actually having a degree (associates). I just have to go to my apointment thingy and fill out the paperwork. Squeal! Also, if I stay on track I will be all graduated by Christmas 2008. Sooner if I go to summer school. Exciting yes? I know!

The Casa:

I just don't want to be there EVER. It's dirty and disgusting. There is confetti all over the floor. The fridge is periodically peeing all over the floor. There are FOUR bags of garbage on the floor waiting for someone to take them out. No, I haven't taken them out because I ALWAYS take the garbage out and I'm not the mommy. Yes. I will break down and take them out today. Gr. There is also a pile of one of my roommates (guess which one) crap stacked higher than my 5'10" head with a note on it that says it will be gone in a few hours. It has been there since at least Sunday. That's a LOT of few hours. Whatever.

The ROOMIES!!!

I miss Annie. She is always with the boyfriend. I come home, the boyfriend comes home, Annie goes away and I don't see her unless I'm awake when she comes in at like 1 o'clock in the morning. Rachel still rocks my socks. She's so much fun. I wish everybody had their own Rachel friend. It would solve so many problems. The other three aren't around much.

Lovin':

I seem to be liking somebody. I don't know exactly. It's a long story.

Katy!: I'm good. A little funny feeling. I've had a weird tummy for like a week. I don't have much appetite but when I do want to eat, I eat EVERYTHING. After eating everything I instantly regret it. Yesterday I went to McDonalds :P and ate a ten piece chicken mcnugget meal, a large fry, a chocolate shake, and a double cheeseburger. Then I layed in bed and moaned for a couple hours. Aside from the weird tummy thing and the INSANE schooling I'm good.

Because my blogging is boring and sucky lately, here's something to make up for it.

Hellooooooooo

2007-04-04T16:39:00.000-06:00

I really suck at this. But I don't care because the blog is for no one but me so there.

No, just kidding, I love you guys, come on back. Let's spoon.

Apparently I am feeling silly.

Ok super blog Wednesday April 4, 2007! GO!!

School: UGH! Seriously! Spring semester sucks dead donkey balls. It's beautiful and blue skied and sunniful and I am inside listening some teacher or another edify me. For the love of Indie Rock Pete can we PLEASE have class outside just once? SUU happens to be one of those campus's that is pretty prime for outside classes. We have little amphitheatres and green grassy hills and really people!! Sunshine! No! Put down the marker, step away from the white board and walk out the door. Pretty please? With sprinkles on top? Please?

Also in school related news. Holy shit it's almost over. May 4th is the last day of finals. That's one month people. ONE MONTH!! Holy crap. I'm moderately freakin the hell out. I think I'll be ok. I'm getting Bs pretty much straight across the board I think. I may have an A is astronomy but I dunno. Lemme tell ya, this has not been a cushy semester, no sir/ma'am. I'm going to be glad when it's over and I get some time off. Unfortunately I know it's just going to get harder. Which reminds me. I should be registering for classes. Ugh.

Psi Magna Su House: Damn y'all talk about the shit hitting the fan. All we did was ask you to do your dishes that had been sitting in the sink for TWO WEEKS because we were starting to see small towns being built in the goo, ok? It's not like we made out with your boyfriend or ran over your puppy. You are perfectly welcome to be in the kitchen to cook and to eat just clean up after yourself, because I'm not your mommy, and I'm not your maid. And stop giving everybody the silent treatment. It's childish and annoying. Also, the laundry situation, c'mon, don't make me whip out the big guns K?

THE ROOMIES!!: I'm loving the apartment life. My roommate are all really great for the most part. I think moving out was the absolute best thing I could have done. True, money is a little scarce, but I'm a college student, not Daddy Warbucks. Annie has a cute new boyfriend that is hilarious and ALWAYS AT OUR HOUSE. Not always. But he's OFTEN AT OUR HOUSE! Which is fine. I just miss having her all to myself. Rachel ROCKS! She is the cutest, sweetest girl, and she's so pretty! I just love her. It's usually me and her on the weekends and we bond. She's one of my top ten favorite people on the planet. Caitlin just ran a marathon! Holy cow, that woman is amazing. I can't run across the street. Tina and Tierney are busy busy so I never see them...which is ok. Rachel and Annika are in SG right now being extras for High School Musical 2! I know. Exciting. I couldn't go because of school (gr.) so I'm missing all the hilarity.

Lovin': Ain't getting none. What's new right? Absolutely nothin that's what. I do have quite a few guy friends though, mostly boyfriends of my friends. But sooner or later his super hotness and I will meet and then with the smoochies! Aaaaw. Spring sucks though. Seriously every where you look there's a new couple bursting forth from singleness. I have yet to burst. Oh well.

Katy!: I rock. I'm happy. I'm fairly balanced. I'm feeling fabulous. I'm going home.

And for your viewing enjoyment: Gerry..... rrrrrrow....
Also I turned 24 somewhere in there. Happy Birthday to me!

Been a busy girl

2007-02-22T14:28:00.000-07:00

Th-Thump. So I did this cake for my bosses husbands birthday. He's a nurse in the cardiac ward at a nearby hospital. This thing was pretty freaking big, and grody. Lemme just tell ya, walking this thing through the halls at the hospital was a little awkward. Anyway, it was lots of fun and the shock value is pretty awesome.
Winnie the Pooh...Winnie the Pooh... Chubby little cubby all....sorry. Lemme just tell ya, that Pooh Bear was a BITCH to cover in fondant. What you see here is the second attempt. The first attempt looked like ghost of Pooh. After we got him all covered and prettiful I hand painted him, sculpted his lil honey pot, and put him on top of his hunny pots. He was a serious rush job. I was actually still decorating at the house right up until the party started.

One of my coworkers had a birthday earlier this week and grew up in Hawaii so we did a Hawaiian shirt (no it's not pajamas) and a pair of flip flops. This was a REALLY rushed job and my head was elsewhere the whole time because I was thinking about getting ready to go up to my grandma's viewing. Still turned out good though.

And that's all the pictures of recent cakes I have. Lots is going on and I'd love to sit here and tell you all about it. On second thought. No. I wouldn't. I would like to go have a nap.

Speed blogging

2007-02-07T11:40:00.000-07:00

A little over a month in ten minutes. I can do it!!!

Moved out. Awesomeness ensued. Drama is ensuing currently but there's six girls, we're bound to want to flick each other in the eye occasionally.

Classes are good. Accounting, economics, astronomy, and business communications OH MY!! Accounting is just accounting. I like it...enough.

Economics is just frustrating, I mean really, markets work, isn't that all we need to know?

Astronomy is freaking awesome. I enjoy it. The labs are lots of fun. I know whick direction I'm pointing now because of what constellations are in the sky. I can also tell you the names of a whole bunch of stars, where to look to see the Andromeda Galaxy, the constellations that make up the winter hexagon, and lots of other stuff. Usually when I start talking about astronomy whoever I'm with just tunes out, so If you tuned out y'all can come back now.

Business communications is freakin ridiculous. Lots of "this is a comma" crap. Yes, I know how to structure a sentance (no comments from the peanut gallery please).

The house is good. I'm poor. Like REALLY poor. But I'm not starving so that's good. I need to get another little job for some extra cash or something.

In the apartment I'm the trampy one. I've kissed more people than all of them combined. Also...other stuff.... Of course I've got most of them beat in age by about 6 years so it's to be expected. The age difference is interesting to say the least, I guess that's what you get for being a non-traditional type student. The girls seem to like me ok. Apparently, I'm no Calie, but that was hardly the goal when I moved in so I don't really care.

Becky's already told you about Granny so I won't rehash. It's sad.

Made a kick ass cake for my boss's husband's birthday. He's a nurse in a cardio ward so I made him a cake shaped like a heart which I will upload later.

And DONE! Time for my astronomy test!

It's official

2007-01-02T10:42:00.000-07:00

I'm moving out.

I have my apartment. I've paid rent for the semester. I'll get my keys today. I bought my new bedding yesterday. Someday I may even finish packing.

I'm moving into college housing with a girl I know from math class and four other girls. That's SIX girls under one roof. Holy cow. That's a lot of hormones. I met one of them last night, and I already know my roommate and they're both nice girls so I'm sure it will be fine.

I have no idea how I'm going to pay for school, magic or something I guess. But oh well. It will be ok. I'll be around more of my peers so hopefully I'll make new friends. I'm excited, and a little nervous, and hopeful.

This should be interesting.

Then she said....

2006-12-17T18:17:00.000-07:00

Dear Kathryn Smith,

First off, I would like to apologize for not responding to your email sooner. I am sure you know how busy a student's life can be during finals.

Next, I would like to thank you so much for taking the time to read my article. It is good to know that we at the Journal are putting out a paper that people actually read.

I would also like to thank you for voicing your evidently strong opinion in regards to my article. However, I feel that you took too much personal offense to my message instead of taking note of the positive words I included regarding student employees.

I also feel the need to inform you that if you ever care to come down to the Journal office (located just off to the left of the Living Room in the Student Center) and offer some of your expertise on competent writing and effective grammar skills, we would greatly appreciate your services. Unfortunately, none of us have yet to perfect our writing skills and are always looking for help.

Once again, Thanks so much for your time and I hope that you continue to read the Journal next semester.

Happy Holidays, hope you are enjoying your Christmas break!

Thank you, Samantha Arnold

"None of us have yet to" indeed.

I think I won...

Thou shalt NOT piss off the Katy, lest thou get smote

2006-12-11T12:30:00.000-07:00

In the University Journal last week, an article appeared that had me ALL kinds of annoyed. So today I responded with this:

Ms. Arnold,
I recently read your editorial piece titled "SUU workers need attitude lift". I must say, as a student employee of Southern Utah University, I took some offense.

I am going to try and avoid critiquing your writing "style" and I'll do my best to avoid correcting grammatical errors. I do find it interesting however that a JUNIOR communications major and a "senior staff writer" for the University Journal has such a difficult time stringing together a coherent sentence, let alone a coherent article. An article that demeans the hundreds of student employees currently working for Southern Utah University should be handled with extra care.

We, as you stated, provide a service to our fellow students. On top of studying for tests, doing mountains of homework and taking care of paperwork that, heaven forbid, you have to fill out yourself, most of us have not been in our jobs long enough to know all of the intricate details that go into running a university. Our employment by nature is temporary. Those employees that stay any length of time (I myself have been employed here far longer than the norm) glean the opportunity to learn more with every passing year. Unfortunately, many of my counterparts spend a brief semester with us and move on, making it impossible to give them the kind of training they need.

By the time student employees are competently trained, they move home for the semester or simply move on to greener pastures. Our employees are in high demand in the community BECAUSE of the training they receive by working at SUU. Community employers know that we are well-trained, competent young people and are able to make us offers few could refuse. The university's general job placement for graduates should be evidence as to the excellent adults that are educated here. Part of that education is student employment.

There is also the issue of confidentiality and level of responsibility. I personally, have never dealt with you, but I do deal with fellow students. One of the hurdles my superiors and I face, is how much information I am actually allowed to have. There are things in my records that I wouldn't want other students to have full access to, not because of any mistrust, simply because of self preservation. Maybe the problem you faced wasn't a lack of ability but simply an inability. The level of student employee responsibility is restricted by the university. Not only to protect you as a student, but to protect me as a student employee. I wouldn't want the kind of responsibility my superior has, especially for the salary I make.

For your own future reference, when publicly degrading other people's competence, it is a good idea to make sure you yourself appear competent. Otherwise you will be left appearing the fool and no one will ever take you seriously.

Sincerely,
Kathryn Smith

Take that!

It still hurts

2006-11-29T16:55:00.000-07:00

Not all the time, not even often, but sometimes it still hurts, and I’m sick of it.

Everyday I tell myself I’m doing SO MUCH BETTER. And 99% of the time, I am. I’m awesome. Then some silly little thing triggers some silly little memory and I have to stop, close my eyes, and regain my composure. Today it was packing tape. How ridiculous is that? I was thinking of sending out Christmas packages soon and wondering if I could still find that cute seasonal packing tape like they have sometimes at Old Navy.

That made me think of the packing tape I bought there around Valentines Day a few years ago.

That made me think of the package I wrapped with tape covered in little pink and red hearts and dropping it off at the post office one day after work.

That made me think of the man at the drop off smiling and saying “Looks like someone’s in love.”

That made me realize I don’t go to the post office anymore. I don’t put together fun little care packages full of silly presents and tasty treats for anyone anymore. I don’t buy rolls of seasonal packing tape and smile at the nice man who thinks I’m in love.

I’m not in love anymore.

For lack of a better idea....

2006-11-16T15:57:00.000-07:00

In a word...

Yourself: Progressing
Your partner: Missing
Your hair: Aggravating
Your mother: Hopeful
Your father: Oblivious
Your favorite item: Bed
Your dream last night: Forgotten
Your favorite drink: Pepsi
Your dream car: Big
Your dream home: Cozy
The room you are in: Office
Your ex: Fluffy
Your fear: Bugs
Where you want to be in ten years: Closer
Who you hung out with last night: Angie
What you're not: Ready
Muffins: Blueberry
One of your wish list items: Kitchenaid
Time: Wasted
The last thing you did: Ate
What you are wearing: Comfy
Your favorite weather: Rain
Your favorite book: Novel
Last thing you ate: Twix
Your life: Frantic
Your mood: Tired
Your best friends: All
What are you thinking about right now: School
Your car: Messy
What are you doing at the moment: Blooooogging
Your summer: Distant
Relationship status: Happy
What is on your tv: A candle
What is the weather like: Springy
When is the last time you laughed: Accounting

Stay tuned for the tale of the miracle dollar and the evil coke machine of doom!

Didja miss me?

2006-11-08T18:12:00.000-07:00

I know, I know. I'm just boring at the moment. I figure if I bore myself I'll probably bore the hell out of everybody else. I just don't anything too fabulous, I'm not seeing anyone (who has the freakin time?), school is keeping me HELLUH busy, and I have found myself planted firmly in the rut of my life. I guess I just didn't see the point in sharing the dull.

My social life is better than before but still not great. I find myself shaking my groove thang at dances on a fairly regular basis which adds to the smokin hot body I'm workin on. That and going to the gym every. freaking. day. At the Halloween Howl (where I was a smokin hot pirate) there was a karaoke stage. And we all know how the Smith girls feel about karaoke. I rocked the hizzy with I Will Survive, people were on their feet, singing along, stopping and standing at the door. It was awesome. Also some strange guy in a hazmat suit kept following me around but wouldn't talk to me.

Business law sucks. I don't think I'm learning anything. Honestly, if someone sat me down right now and told me to write a list of what I've learned in that class, I would say "Professor Lewis greatly enjoys the sound of his own voice....and also needs to comb his hair..."

After business law, every monday wednesday friday, I go to McDonald's, which is probably slowing down the smokin hot bod. I don't care. Is tasty and I get to hang out with my Angie friend. I was also wanting to win 5 million dollars in mcDs monopoly. Sadly, I didn't have the all important fourth railroad.

I love psychology. Is great. Is fun, I like my teacher, I really want to know "Why I do the things I do", which is good, cuz that's all he ever says.

Math sucks! SUCKS SUCKS SUCKS!!!!! I get 100% on the homework, 100% on the quizes, and still manage to fail the tests. I somehow get the feeling that the problem doesn't lie in me.

I am going to be an accountant when I grow up. Today...for now. I like it, I'm good at it, and I can make lots of money. The end.

I also have very cute new hair. It's short, and choppy, and dark red and blonde. My mom "can't decide". I don't know what she thinks she needs to decide, it's my hair, but I guess she's the one that has to look at it.

Anyway, I have now officially blogged. See ya in another six weeks.

I want some apple crisp.

2006-09-20T10:14:00.000-06:00

There is no good food on campus. Well, that may be unfair. There is some ok food. SUU is a Coke school, which I think means all the students are required to sit around and get high before doing their homework.... No, I think it's actually means SUU only sells Coke products and Coke gives them lots of money...or something. What it REALLY means is "aw shit" for Pepsi drinkers like me.

There's a teeny tiny Starbucks kiosk thing for a caffeine fix if I can't stand it anymore, but real live coffee does bad things to me when I'm supposed to be sitting still and paying attention in class, and all of their tasty baked goods are prebaked and shipped in and taste old, and the selection is terribly limited. That's pretty much all that's available as far as breakfast tastiness. Unless you want to spend a buck on ONE nutrigrain bar, or a little thing of poptarts. But I want something warm and gooey and fresh.

Lunch options are a little better. We have the T-bird Grill with it's selection of wraps (that pretty much all taste the same) and fried goods. The cafeteria, which I have never dared to venture near. Cuz yikes, and eew. The Country Store usually has something that Food Services made that morning, slopped into to-go containers, and has kept warm under those creepy red lamps for the last 4 hours. And of course, fried goodness. We have a Hogi Yogi and a Teryaki Stix, so there are tasty sandwiches with carefully portioned processed cheese and meat goods, and gyoza. Which I have to admit, I LOVES ME some gyoza. mmmm. But it's getting to be fallish, in fact it's freaking cold outside right now, and I want something spicy and good to warm me. Instead I will sit here and bitch about the fact that everything is fried, processed, or chocolate. Oh well, I guess that's college food for ya.

In other news, school is going surprisingly well. I guess not surprisingly. I've been working my ass off to make it be going well. I had my first test in Business Law, which terrified me, but I got 88% and my teacher loved my essay, he said he wished I'd had more time. I got 98% on my first Psych test, which is a good thing, since my teacher now knows me as Amanda's little sister and therefore I'm brilliant by association. The class average was some thing insane like 76%. Hence the theory that the students go home and smoke crack before they do their homework. I took my first accounting test yesterday and I feel good about it. I'm a little worried about my form on some of my financial statements but that's what Quickbooks is for anyway. My first math thest is Friday which has me a little nervous because I have to remember equations and crap :P. But I'm sure I'll do fine. I'm still working out fairly regularly. Yesterday I actually ventured into the scary weights area of the gym and worked my upper body. Uhm, ow. Everytime I sling my 25 pound back pack over my shoulders they scream a little. But I'm gonna be all skinny, and toned and hot! So what all this adds up to is I'm in school or at work from 9 to 5 (sometimes later for work but that's another story) every day. Then I go work out for a while then go home and do homework til my brain shuts down. So I don't so much have the social life I had hoped to develop this semester yet, but I'm doing much better then I did last year. My arms are heavy....

Yo ho yo ho a pirates life for me

2006-09-11T19:21:00.000-06:00

So we got all pretty and piratey for the party that uhm wasn't so much a party as about seven people in pirate costumes drinking cream soda. But check out all the Katy hotness (I'm not posting the picture that makes me look like I'm about 8 months pregnant). And the Angee hotness. Like the little ghost orb peaking up Angee's skirt? Pervy ghost. It took me two and a half hours to curl my hair. Then we went to the "party" but didn't stay, and decided to go to Dairy Queen in all our yoho hotness. We're going to revisit the pirate look for Halloween though, so all is not lost.

Also, here's the latest cake. In case you're interested.

The end is near

2006-09-08T16:59:00.000-06:00

So have you noticed the lack of blogging? Maybe not. Sure I've been busy. Sure I seem to have actually gotten a life. Sure I have more homework than you can shake a schtick at. But really. I just haven't felt the urge. I've found myself starting multiple entries since the one almost two weeks ago but just don't have the drive to finish them. I feel like maybe the age of the blog is coming to an end for me. Maybe not. I dunno.

Then I was going to talk about the deterioration of Heath Ledger. Remember golden boy circa A Knight's Tale? And his brooding bad boy hotness in Ten Things I Hate About You? And now he's turning into this? I mean ok, still semi-hotness. Though I would appreciate it if maybe he shaved. And let's talk about the complexion for a second. On second thought, no. We better not, I might cry. But Heath honey, you're a movie star. You make lots of money. You don't have to look like a homeless person. And I'm pretty sure you can afford a bottle of Suave. I'm just sayin. Think about it. Also rumor had it that Paul Bettany was going to play The Joker in the Batman Begins sequel. But according to IMDb, it's Heath Ledger. Which I have mixed feelings about. Paul Bettany would have been awesome. And Heath...well....I just don't know. I have my doubts.

So for any interested school is going well. Two weeks in and I'm still passing everything. I somehow got dubbed the smart kid in math which is surprising. I'm still going to the gym and getting all sweaty. It's kind of embarassing that a half an hour of brisk walking makes me all sweaty and breathless. But that's ok, a brisk walk for me is like a light jog for all the shorties out there. At least that's what I'm telling myself. There's a Jolly Roger party tonight that my friend and I are going to. You have to be dressed like a pirate to get in so this is going to be all kinds of fun. I have a feeling there are going to be LOTS of Captain Jack Sparrow's cuz heaven forbid we get creative. I'll probably take pictures of our costumes before we go. Should be fun.

Shake it!!

2006-08-29T16:22:00.000-06:00

I'm pretty sure I've moved more in the last two days than I did all summer long. Want a tour? K here ya go.
I start off Monday morning searching for parking at 9 AM. I usually end up in one the three parking lots shown in yellow. After parking (which sucks a lot) I head over the the little red dot. Also known as the Business Building. Climb a few billion stairs and to my Business Law class then sit and listen to this guy prattle on. I'm afraid my opinion of this class so far is somewhat tainted by the opinions of my predecessors. Although, I'm pretty sure the first day of class he told us we needed to beat our kids more. May not have been what he meant but it sounded like it. Also did I mention Ean was in that class? Just keeeeeps gettin better. It'll be ok though. I'm tough.

After Business Law I go to work. Which is the blue dot at the top of the picture. Work work work. Then to the purple dot and down a couple stairs to Psychology 1010. Whyyyyy do we dooooo the thiiiiings we doooooo? Cuz we wanna :P. I snaked the last seat in Les Jones class almost by accident. So far, I find him delightful.

By the end of Whyyyyy do we dooooo the thiiiiings we doooooo? It's noon and I have a break. I haven't actually taken said break yet, and honestly I probably won't ever take said break but it's there. Which is nice. So in theory I have an hour to myself to catch up on homework, catch a few zzzz's in the living room, or eat something.

At 1:00 I run off to Math 1050 (college algebra) with him. He's American!! Yay! He speaks english, he understands english, he learned math in english!! Honestly you couldn't really ask for more from a math teacher at SUU. Of the 14 full time math professors, at least six of them speak english as a second language.... and not particularly good english.

Then I'm done with class and it's back to work til 5, and Monday's over. Something the map doesn't show too well is that the campus is pretty much ALL UPHILL! I think my office is the lowest point on campus. If you start from there and head towards classes you're in for a trek.

Tuesday and Thursday I work from 9:00 to 11:30 then headed back to the pretty red dot for Accounting with Mary Pearson I am actually excited for that class. My brain likes numbers, numbers and money is even better! After accounting I have Math again (EVERY DAY!!!) and then I work some more. Is good fun.

Also last night, I actually went to a social event. A couple friends and I went to the welcome back dance where I shook my groove thang for three hours, flirted with a cute boy who I only know as Rainman, and got elbowed in the chin. I think I've lost 10 pounds in the last two days.

Uhm yeah, still here.

2006-08-24T15:35:00.000-06:00

Life here has been fair to partly dull. I was going to take a little mini-break, now I'm not. School starts in (GASP) four days. I made another cake the first of this week for my boss's parents. It was cute and simple. I'll post pictures someday. I'm going to do a cake for my mom this weekend and hopefully scurry my lil butt to SG for a little back to school shopping. So yeah. School. I'm taking Business Law, Intro to Accounting, College Algebra, and Psych. I've also signed up for Circuit Weight Training so I can get back in shape. HA!! Back in shape. Right. Like I've ever been in shape. Hopefully since the class is set up to give you a grade to go to the gym I'll drag my butt to the gym to work out. We'll see. I bought my books online a couple weeks ago. They're all here. Plus one. Apparently my silly little brain shut off for a minute because I ended up ordering two of the same book. Woops. Hopefully I'll be able to pawn one off on somebody the first day of class.

Today is my mom's birthday. She's 56. Ya know, I realize I get annoyed with her, she gets annoyed right back, but she really is my very best friend. We have some codependence issues but we both recognize them and try to give each other our space. My mom is a great lady. Happy birthday mom! I love you!!

Anywho. I'm out of things to say now.

Picures!!

2006-08-13T22:04:00.000-06:00

YAY!!

Have you guys met Tito? Duh nuh nuh nuh nuh BATDOG!!!

Teeny little pink cake for the sweet old lady I house sat for a couple weeks ago.

Remember my friends puppy? I give you JACK!!

No more Jack. That's quite enough of Jack for one post. How about some me and my hair cut I got a month ago?

And last but not least, the super cool Strawberry Shortcake cake for Princess Sophie. Before and after. Behold the splendor!!

And also, here's my peach pie...

Back to our roots.

2006-08-10T21:44:00.000-06:00

That vision in crimson in the middle is yours truly. Please ignore the eyebrows. To my left is my good friend Crys (aka Happy, aka Daina) we go way back.
The dill hole to my right is Ean. Some boys just never grow up.

I played Queen Aggravaine, and Crys played Lady Larken. Ean was a lowly knight, weilding his little plastic sword. I guess some may consider foam and duct tape a step up.

I'm going to move on with my life now.

I LIVE for these moments

2006-08-09T16:24:00.000-06:00

OK, I don't live for these moments. But they certainly make me chipper. HAHAHA OK...forgive me a cruel chuckle... ahhah.

I was cruising around in the mule at work today and drove past the quad. There, I saw these very dorky looking boys with home made swords and shields and bows and arrows and such and I thought,"Wow, them's there are some big geeks, not your average garden variety type geek!" So I'm cruising along and I look over just as the tallest of the duct-taped avengers spins around to block an "attack". SHEBANG!!! EAN!! In all his immature, duct-taped sword weilding splendor. Made my day.

So I had to grab my phone and run back for a picture. Sorry, the picture kinda sucks.

He's a grown-up type person. I have no problem (ok, I have a small problem) with those really passionate people that get together and reenact some major event, or those that get together in their peasant garb and hang out at the renaissance fair. In fact, I love when the RenFair is in town. But come on. If you're going to reenact, DO IT. Running around the local university lawn in a T-shirt you've had SINCE THE 7TH GRADE!!!! with a giant foam and duct tape sword, is just plain silly. And to think, I cried myself to sleep over this man....boy. HAHA!!!

Random randomness

2006-08-07T11:41:00.000-06:00

I think I might take a couple days off. I don't know what I'll do with those couple days off, but I haven't taken anything even CLOSE to a vacation this year. Maybe just cruise up to SLC for a couple days. Or maybe I'm all talk and I'll just keep on keepin on with what I'm doin.

It's been a weird couple of days. Work is at a total standstill. Someone above me has failed to get things done and therefore I can do nothing AT ALL until the matter is resolved. So I sit at my computer, read recipes, read blogs, plan cakes, and learn origami. So far I've made about a billion bookmarks and a frog. I was making paper cranes for the kids sitting next to me in church yesterday and the little girl said, "Cant you do anything else so I'm learning to do other fun things. I'm pretty proud of myself considering one of the sights I'm learning from is written in Spanish. Clever clever me.

The girl I was supposedly moving out with bought a puppy on Saturday. So now she probably won't be moving out next semester. If I can save up the 1200 bucks for the semester I will be heading out on my own. Fingers firmly crossed for that event. The puppy is helluh cute though. He's an English Springer Spaniel and looks like this. We named him Jack, I tried to convince her to name him Spike, but no go. So he's Captain Jack Sparrow. Cuz he's English, and kinda floppy.

Saturday was busy. I went to St. George in the morning then Angie and I went to WM and found the puppy. I want a puppy so bad! Jack had a sister that was brown and white and had blue eyes. I was thisclose to snatching her up. But I still live at home and the parents don't want a dog. Also, the apartments I'm wanting to move into don't allow pets so getting a dog at this juncture would be dumb. Still I'm sad that I don't have a sweet little doggy to love me.

Cute boy I have a crush on's dog is about to have puppies. I should just become his very good friend and adopt his puppies.

Enough about my lack of dog!!

I made a peach pie yesterday. It's pretty tasty and was really easy. Fresh peaches, sugar, flour, cinnamon, bake it up. Tasty good.

Speaking of baking, I have to get started on The Soph's birthday cake. She has requested a Strawberry Shortcake cake which will be fabulous. The cake is going to be Zer Cute, and I have a cute little Strawberry Shortcake candle for the top. I feel bad I didn't do a fabulous cake for Boo's birthday. I will have to make a fabulous very merry unbirthday cake instead.

Have I talked about house sitting? Probably not, it was pretty uneventful. Except for their bed is the hardest thing I have EVER slept on. I'm still recovering, a very scary stuffed goat watched me while I slept, and they had a pet bird. I'm opposed to pet birds. First, they're gross, and second, they should be flying, not sitting in a cage staring out a window.

I had me a minor little breakdown yesterday. Just sat and cried for a couple hours. Not sure what triggered it but I had a general feeling of sucktitude. Feeling inconsequential, like a big ol failure... ya know, the usual stuff. I'm doing better today, suffering the after effects of a day rife with self loathing. I have too much time on my hands. School needs to just start already.

This one's for Boo

2006-08-02T09:44:00.000-06:00

Remember this and this? Well, in honor of the birth of Becky, Mandy and I composed a list of things we remember from the last 31 years...or 23 years in my case.

31 things about MissuzJ

She is a great french braider.
She collects turtles.
In the apartment she lived in when she first married E, she had a tiny ancient stove and still managed to make the best roasted chicken ever.
She makes up great games.
She has mad karaoke skills and often rules the stage.
She has a big ol' crush on Spike.
She is the Rainman of music lyrics, she knows all the words to hundreds, nay maybe even thousands of songs.
She is an amazing teacher and enjoys making a difference.
Since she was born in New Zealand her "real" birthday is actually a day before her birthday birthday... confusing.
Her first car was a red VW bug named Earnest.
Her second car was a grey Ford Escort that she had to start with a pair of pliers and a nail.
She has never ever been to busy or too cool to play with me. Even on her wedding day she made time for me.
She took me on my very first spa day.
She in an amazing mom and has riased a beautiful, funny, brilliant little girl and helped to raise a silly, polite, intelligent young man.
She is a wizard with flowers and ribbon. She make beautiful floral arrangements and did most of the flowers for her own wedding.
Once while cleaning her room she excused its dirtiness by saying that if the world was ending and MacGeyver needed something, he'd know exactly where to find it.
She's always quick to compliment.
She will make you laugh until you think you might die.
She always has a shoulder to cry on.
She sometimes has low self esteem even though she is one of the most amazing beautiful women I know.
She's not only a great sister she's a best friend.
She was the first of the sisters to blog, Mandy and I followed her lead.
She is a crazy fast reader. She reads lines at a time instead of a word at a time.
She can kill anybody at Scrabble.
She used to have to find Mandy to help her find her glasses in the the morning because she was that blind and her room was that messy.
In one of her early apartments one of her roommates lived in the closet (literally).
She has a great legs and beautiful feet.
She throws the best porch parties EVER.
She has an awesome T-Shirt collection.
She had a devilcat named Daisy that would launch itself at your head as you walked up the always slightly scary staircase to her first apartment with E.
Her worst birthday memory ever was when she turned 8 and had her Chuck E. Cheese birthday party. Our mom had wrapped underwear for her as a present and she had to unwrap it in front of all her friends.

We love you Boo!! Happy Birthday!! Make sure to stop by MissuzJ's blog (like I have anybody that reads me that's no a Boosciple) and share the love!

I feel a rant coming on.

2006-07-28T16:13:00.000-06:00

I am at present seriously annoyed.

I am a 23 year old, single, childless female. Which I guess means I'm also independantly wealthy. I just went and looked into getting a student loan so I can move out and be sane and stuff. Well, the lady that I could barely hear over the remodeling going on across the way, said that I was probably only eligible for about 3500 a year. Now, I realize 3500 dollars is 3500 dollars. However, if I were 24, married, or motherly, I'd be eligible for a lot more.

First the being 24 thing. How does being 24 make me any more or less dependant on my parents? Shouldn't the fact that I am seeking said loan so that I am no longer dependant on my parents mean something?? And why 24? There are some people whose parents kick them out the door when they turn 18, but because they are not 24, they aren't eligible for federal aid. Being 23, I still have to use my parents taxes to apply for said loan because what I make doesn't matter as much as what they make. Just because one's parents make lots and lots of money, doesn't mean one ever sees a friggin' penny of it. Ok, to be fair, my parents are very helpful and supportive, I'm just sayin'.

Second...married. Since I think my head just BURST into FLAMES I'll just say that it's so nice to have one more thing in my life hinge on my marital status. "What's that you say? You're single? Well, not only are you broken in the eyes of the society you live in, you're also broke. HA!" Forget trying to better myself before I settle on the person I'm supposedly going to share my life with. Apparently people should rush into getting married when they're only half way developed so they can afford to go school. Besides, I'm a woman, what's a woman going to do with an education anyway? Best to just bide my time until some strapping young buck comes along and graces me with a marriage proposal. You don't need a degree to be barefoot and pregnant.

Which brings me to the child thing. Do you think if I could afford a kid I would be standing in line and the financial aid office asking for money? I realize there are those that don't plan on having kids but have them anyway and go to school to provide for them which is really really great. I, however, am single and childless and am getting the financial shaft for it. Great.

The lady I'm grannysitting this week said I should get artificially inseminated. Then I could get more money and have a family and I wouldn't have to put up with those stupid men. Heh, she's so great.

Dinner for 30

2006-07-28T10:26:00.000-06:00

I made this last night. I had to scale it up to 30 which meant five cloves of garlic and now I stink. No vampires are gonna be nibblin on me any time soon.

You may be wondering to yourself why I would be making pasta salad for 30. That's a good question. It started when this guy allegedly broke into a motor home parked in the Wal-Mart parking lot. There are lots of different stories floating around about exactly what happened, and the story changes every time it's in print, it boils down to the fact that he was shot in the head with a 12 caliber shotgun by the owner of the motor home who says he was protecting his family. Anyway the dead man's parents are in our ward and they have a lot of family in town for the funeral which is tomorrow. So, some of the women in the neighborhood are making dinner for them for tonight. My mom said she would make a salad but she's also involved with some of the funeral arrangements and feeling a little stressed, plus she's getting a cold or something, so I said I would make the salad and not to worry about it. So I made pasta salad for 30, while she went over and supervised setting up for the funeral luncheon.

This guy died the day before. I went to high school with him. He was a year younger than me. They don't know how he died, but there's speculation about an overdose, all I know is that he just didn't wake up that morning.

Not to in any way make light of the situation, or say that their deaths were a good thing, because they're not. They're tragic. But both of these men had issues which led them to early deaths. The silver lining about all of this is that it makes you, well me, realize that maybe I'm not as screwed up as I thought I was. I hope these men have finally found peace and that the families of these men will too.

Also, please ignore my appalling grammar. It's Friday.

The new digs

2006-07-27T09:49:00.000-06:00

I've been feeling the winds of change in myself lately. I'm digging myself out of the slump I didn't know I'd been in for the last two years. About a year ago it seems I just stopped trying. I didn't much care what I looked like. I wasn't heading towards any specific goals. I was a shadow of my former self. Well, I'm sick of it. Somewhere in the last two or three years I lost track of the Katy I was. I lost track of the Katy I wanted to be. I became the Katy I am. A Katy with very little individuality. A chameleon who is different depending on who she's talking to. I don't want to be this Katy anymore. I want to be honest, strong, sassy, what you see is what you get Katy. So here I stand. At the beginning of a road where I seek to lose the Katy I have been and find the Katy I will become.

Apparently, that means I needed a prettier blog.

Not quite so boring

2006-07-25T10:52:00.000-06:00

This weekend was a little more exciting than last weekend. Summers in Southern Utah are just destined to be dull I guess. Since the WHOLE FAMILY was out of town this weekend, it was pretty much up to me and my dad to entertain ourselves. Friday we went to Superman which was LOTS better than I thought it would be. In fact I could more than likely be convinced to go to it again. In fact, I would probably go again with no convincing whatsoever. Especially since the first time was free. Yeah, it pays to know people. I used to work at the local movie theatres and I trained a lot of the kids that are managers now, so if I can catch a nice one they let me in for free. By the end of the movie, however, I was feeling less than fantastic so I pretty much went home and went to bed where I read into the early hours of the morning.

At about 5 am Saturday morning I woke up to feeling of not goodness. By 6, I was downstairs in bad shape, so I ran myself a bath to try to relax. 6:30 I was laying on the bathroom floor between bouts of nausea and vomitting praying I wouldn't die. By 7 I was praying I would die. I actually couldn't get myself off the floor, the best I could do was crawl. When I did try to stand up I got so dizzy I fell and smacked my head on the ground. At one point in my delerium I must have started clawing at my belly to get whatever was so bad in it, out of it because I had some gnarly red scratch marks covering my lower torso. Aren't you so glad you read today? I did start feeling better around 8, not good, but good enough that I could drag my butt upstairs and go back to sleep for a couple hours. My poor dad. This is the second time it's been just me and him that I've gotten really sick. Doesn't help any when he asks what's wrong and all you can say is "Girl trouble". Those poor men must just be horrified by us sometimes. So I spent Saturday on the couch with my brothers dogs.

Sunday, pretty much the same, without the feeling like death on legs. I just took it really easy.

Monday came and I finally got off my butt. The 24th of July is when Utahn's celebrate Pioneer Day. It's basically comemorating the settling of Utah by the Momon's which means we get a day off, and there's fireworks (though there weren't last night, thunder storm). So Dad and I travelled down to St. George to try the new Thai restaurant. He wasn't impressed, but I thought it was pretty good. Of course I had never had Thai food so I had nothing to compare to. The soup was really good, I could have eaten that all day. Then we both had Pad Thai. Which was good. It wasn't what I expected, I thought there would be more flavor. It was good though, it makes me want to try really good Thai food somewhere else. Then I cleaned and did laundry and went to the store and all that stuff you're supposed to do on weekends.

OOH I also finally signed up for Netflix. Hooray! I should be getting my first movies today sometime.

Maybe it's just me...

2006-07-19T13:09:00.000-06:00

But this may be the best idea EVER!!!!!!

Dull Dull DULL!!!!!

2006-07-17T12:12:00.000-06:00

Yeah life is dull right now. I work all day, which is busy, but dull. Then I go home and read til it's time to go to sleep. Then I hit replay and do it all again the next day. This weekend was pretty good. I mean, good in a dull way. I did a lot. At the risk of boring you to death, here is a recap.

Friday night: Mom and Dad and I went to the Renaissance Fair and had gyros for dinner and wandered around a bit. Then I babysat three little kids that live down the street from me. Their mama cuts hair so I'm watching her kids for trade so she'll make me beaut-ee-ful. Read the kids a story, tucked them in, and spent the next two hours or so in front of the TV with the volume really low so I wouldn't wake up the kidlets.

Saturday: Woke up, went back to sleep, woke up, went back to sleep, woke up. Went downstairs and read for awhile. Then my brothers dogs came and fell asleep on me so I literally laid on the couch for three hours. I couldn't very well wake the doggies up could I? I'm so kind hearted. Then I went and got my hair cut and colored, FINALLY! It's been almost a year since I've had anything but a trim. That night I went to The Devil Wears Prada on a date with myself. Then went home and worked on a handout for church the next day for TWO HOURS that more than likely either doesn't get taken or gets thrown away as soon as they walk in the door. Grr.

Sunday I went to church (remember the dull) then I went home and made dinner. Want to know recipes?? I thought you might. I made Chicken Cordon Bleu with some changes, of course. Instead of browning the chicken before baking it I just baked it. I didn't want to add the extra greasiness. I also didn't bake the chicken in the sauce, instead I served the sauce on the side so you could have as much or as little as you wanted. Something I would suggest that I didn't do, would be to use grated swiss cheese instead of swiss cheese slices. They were a little hard to manage. Also, add about a 1/4 cup of swiss cheese to the sauce and stir until melted. The sauce was REALLY good, especially over steamed asparagus. If you don't brown the chicken before baking thought it takes WAY longer than 15 minutes. Closer to 45. I think it's just something you have to figure out for yourself. Then for dessert I made eclair cake. Oh. My. Happy. Happy. Taste Buds. This is so easy and so tasty! I didn't even tweak it. OK I tweaked a little. I used french vanilla pudding instead of plain vanilla pudding. It says it serves 14 but it's more like 7 cuz everybody's going to want seconds. Mmmmm. Seriously...go make this. Right. Now.

Anyway, dully dully dull. But at least there was food!

Look y'all!!

2006-07-05T12:56:00.000-06:00

I write smut!!!

Where's my check??

My love at first sight story

2006-06-29T15:06:00.000-06:00

I was young, just days away from my nineteenth birthday. I thought I was sowing my wild oats when in truth, I didn’t even know where my wild oats were. It was spring break 2002 and I was in Tijuana. My parents hadn’t wanted me to go, but they realized I was an “adult” living away from home for the first time, and that I would go, whether they wanted me to or not. And I did. My roommate M and her “good girl” sister C and I were determined to party, and party we did.

I remember the trip there, the excitement building as the scenery changed. The car we were driving was bare bones, no CD player, not even a tape deck, so I held a small boom box on my lap and DJ’d the trip, hours of gangstah rap had us all ready to dance. We left late in the afternoon on a Sunday because M had had to work at the shoe store that morning. We stayed one night half way between St. George and San Diego. The second day we traded in our $20’s for $5’s and $1’s and hit the road. We reached San Diego early in the afternoon, splashed around at Mission Beach for awhile, did a little souveniring, then headed to our hotel to glam up for the night ahead.

M & C were too busy arguing on the way to Tijuana to see the “Last US exit signs” overhead and we actually ended up driving into Tijuana which had not been our intention. We were going to park in the U.S. of A and walk the rest of the way, or catch a cab. Instead we drove across the border, C (she was driving) started freaking out because no one was following the rules of the road, and M locked all the doors and proceeded to scream at C. When we finally found our way back across the border (after having our car searched by the border police) we parked and walked back into Tijuana. We went to M’s favorite club from the year before, “The Zoo”?…”The Animal”? I don’t remember, but the waiter’s name was Juan and he waved us in with the promise of two free drinks for all of us. Which was particularly handy since C wasn’t drinking. We settled into a table by the “window”, really just a whole cut in the plywood walls, and started sipping. My first mixed drink was a Sex on the Beach.

After we had a couple drinks in us and the crowd started to fill out we took to the dance floor. Dancing and flirting with all the silly college boys. I had my eye on one in particular, Josh, he was tall, and thin, and had blonde hair. He wore dark jeans, a black t-shirt and was drinking Tecate’s like they were water. We danced together once, he looked deep into my eyes and kissed me. His lips were like two slabs of raw beef that had been soaking in horse piss for two weeks. In my slightly buzzed state I laughed, patted him on the back, and turned to go back to my friends. That’s when I saw him. He was sitting next to M, who was doing everything in her power to brush him off, she had a thing for brown boys, white boys were “just so predictable”. I walked to our table, told M to go get more drinks, and sat next to him.

“Is your friend always so pleasant when she’s been drinking?” He asked.

“That was M being pleasant.” I replied, “You’re not her type.”

“I wasn’t hoping to be her type,” he said cocking his head and half grinning, “I wanted to be your type.” Then he grinned and looked away, actually blushing.

“Then you should buy me another Sex on the Beach and ask me to dance.”

“I don’t dance.”

“I guess you’re not my type then.”

With that, he walked away, and I got up to dance. Through a few more songs I would glance his way. Some 5’2” blonde bimbo was trying to sink her claws into him and he was polite to her, but I would catch him glancing my way occasionally and I would shoot him a coy look, as was my almost 19 year old girl way. When the first notes of some Shakira ballad played over the speakers I sat down to catch my breath. No sooner was I settled and listening to M talk about “Rick” then a pink cup was placed in front of me and I heard “So ya wanna dance?” I did.

He took my hand and we walked to the floor (a whopping 5 feet away) where he pulled my hand around his neck, wrapped his arm around my waist and took my other hand with his, holding it between us. He pressed his mouth against my ear and asked my name.

“I’m Katy.”

“I’m Bill.”

“Hi Bill.”

“Hi.”

When Bill said he didn’t dance, it didn’t mean he couldn’t. He could, very well, and we did, very often. After another hour or so of getting to know each other, he asked if he could kiss me, and I let him. We talked, we danced, we drank, we laughed, we talked about school, the future, our families, everything. He invited me to go to San Diego Zoo the next day with him and his friends, and I said yes and gave him my cell phone number, neglecting to write the area code. Then he had to go. He kissed me goodnight and walked out the door. The rest of the night was a bust for me. I didn’t want to talk to anyone else, dance with anyone else, I just wanted Bill, there was no doubt in my mind that I would see him again. When M and C were finally ready to leave it was about 4 o’clock in the morning. Bill had left around 2, and I was ready to be done. I had danced with a couple of the waiters after the crowds thinned out, C had fallen madly in lust with a waiter named Enrique who was old enough to be her father, and M had spent a lot of the evening wrapped around Rick in a dark corner.

We walked back to the border, showed the nice men our ID’s (which is a whole other story) and walked through the double doors back into America. Three boys were half asleep on a bench at the bus stop. One of those boys was Bill. They had missed the bus back into San Diego. He walked over to me, wrapped his arms around my waist, and hugged me like he hadn’t seen me in 10 years. We held hands and walked to where we had parked the car, still talking non-stop. He wanted to know about Utah, when he found out I was Mormon he asked about that too. He was genuinely interested. We went back to my hotel because he couldn’t tell us how to get to his Uncle’s house where they were staying, and we called him a cab. While we waited for the cab to come we snuggled on the curb and he started laughing.

“What’s so funny?” I asked.

“This.” He replied

“What this?”

“Coming here, meeting you, what I’m about to say.”

“What are you about to say?”

“I know it’s crazy, but I fell in love with you tonight.”

“Me too.”

The cab came, they drove away, and I went to bed in a daze.

He didn’t call the next day. Actually, I tell myself he did call. That he called all day but that my phone was being it’s usual stupid self squared. Which is valid. This was before the time of “The Network” and my phone which a Cellular One brick at the time would only work when I was sitting, leaning to the right, just outside the hotel door. So he called. He wanted desperately to see me again but the communication age hadn’t quite worked out all the bugs, and destiny missed its chance.

To Bill, you were the best 7 hours of my life.

Trip trip trippin'

2006-06-28T16:22:00.000-06:00

So I went on a little journey through this blog o' mine. Trippy the stuff that I was SO EXCITED about and that is now merely a memory. Or all the loose ends I'm noticing in my life. For instance, I still have that ingrown toe-nail, but it started getting better so I didn't go to a doctor, and now almost a year later, the puss monster is again rearing it's ugly head. That poor toe.

Also, I haven't written much in the book, remember the book? It's still floating around in my head and all, but when I sit down to actually write nothing happens. I get bogged down in technicalities, and let me tell you, getting bogged down in technicalities in a book about faeries is TRICKY!

Remember the tooth? Remember how urgen the dentist made everything sound? Remember how I still have a gaping hole in my head where that tooth should be? Yeah....

I am still the third cow. Thank goodness.

This one isn't a loose end but I'm glad I found it. I needed a reminder.

And now, a quote I found in my Mary Engelbreit calendar that I thought everyone could use every once in awhile.

"Be not the slave of your own past. Plunge into the sublime seas, dive deep, and swim far, so you shall come back with self-respect with new power, with an advanced experience that shall explain and overlook the old." That Ralph Waldo Emerson...smart guy...though it is reminiscent of being called a fish...but in a good way.

Heh...oops

2006-06-23T12:56:00.000-06:00

I just realized that my remedy to the "I'm so sad" blog, was just an "I'm still sad" blog, except for the puppy. I want one. Anywho, to take a page out of the sarcomibook here is a Somethings Friday.

Somethings I love:
1. My baby pod! Isn't she so cute? Her name developed into the iBitch somewhere along the way because she's what I use when I feel like a bitch and need some alone in my head time.

Obviously this is not myPod. I have way more songs than this. And none of them are Santana, there is one called All That I Am that I kinda love though.

2. That Thing You Do. No, not that thing you do, but that's nice too. This That Thing You Do.

In fact, I am shocked and appalled that I do not own this movie. I do however own the soundtrack...on CASSETTE! There was a time (when I was 13) that I would strut around the house with my walkman on singing everysingle lyric to everysingle song! When I found out that the Oneders/Wonders weren't an actual band I was downright irate. "In every life there comes a time when that dream you dream becomes that thing you do." *Sigh* words to live by.

3. The peanut butter cups I made last weekend. DAYUM! Them's good eats. Want the recipe?? They're really easy! OK!
a. Make some of this.
Peanut Butter Filling
4 ounces or 1/2 package of Philly cream cheese
1 cup creamy peanut butter
2 cups powdered sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
a few tablespoons milk
Use your favorite blender to cream together cream cheese and peanut butter. Add powdered sugar (a little at a time or else you'll end up looking like the ghost of christmas past). Add vanilla. Add milk until you reach the desired consistency (pssst, the desired consistency is just a bit softer than the creamy peanut butter started, I think I added around 5 tbsp milk, but whatever.) Cover and stick in refrigerator until firm. Meanwhile....
b. Fill these with a tsp. or so of your favorite melted chocolate. Use the spoon to nudge a little chocolate around the sides so you end up with a little chocolate cup. (Don't worry, this isn't rocket science, just smear the chocolate around a little) Let set. They don't have to be completely set unless you're OCD like me :).
c. Form peanut butter filling into balls about 3/4 inch in diameter, or more, depends how much peanut butter you like. I used a baby spoon and it worked great. Drop the little peanut buttery goodies into the chocolate cups and press down to flatten. Cover in more melted chocolate. Let set (completely this time). EAT 'EM UP!

4. This Place!!! They have the cutest stuff. I want it all!! But most especially, I want this.

5. Lasagna. I want some. RIGHT! NOW!

Happy weekend

2006-06-23T09:51:00.000-06:00

K, I didn't want that "I'm so sad" crap at the top of my blog anymore. I am feeling better, not great, but better. I have just decided that I can't trick myself into believing that my life is perfectly fine the way it is, that I am in a totally good place, and that I am happy. Obviously it's not, I'm not, etc.... So, I'm going to go find somebody to talk to. See if I can't work through some of my underlying issues. I am also actively searching for a different living situation. I think it's time. Anyway, yeah, I'm ok. I'll get o.k.er.

I should wear a sign.

2006-06-21T16:46:00.000-06:00

I'm having a hard time deciding to write this because I will undoubtedly cry more than I already have in the last ten minutes and I am still at work, so that could be awkward.

I've felt myself slipping the last few days. Back to that angry, sad, self-destructive Katy we all knew and hated a year or so ago. I don't know what's triggering it but I'm fighting it with everything I've got. I just can't seem to shake this feeling that I am indeed an immense failure. I can't shake the feeling that I haven't accomplished anything of value in the last 23 years. I've started hating myself again and therefore am hating everyone else. I'm snippy, I'm sullen, I'm hermitish. I don't want to see people, I don't want them to see me. If I am forced to see people, I don't want to talk to them, and they sure as hell better not talk to me.

I find myself asking what is the point in Katy? What is the point of me besides breathing others air, and filling a chair, in a classroom, at work, whatever. Why am I? The constant weight of uselessness is hanging over my head and it's making me tired.

And there....with the crying...bye.

Pretty Cupcakes

2006-06-20T22:45:00.000-06:00

Wow...that's giant bag of M&Ms!!

2006-06-19T22:15:00.000-06:00

Just kidding!! It's a cake!! Totally had you fooled though huh? I know I'm so tricky!

Hey yooooooou entertain meeeeeeeee....

2006-06-19T15:22:00.000-06:00

It's a long boring day at work and NONE OF YOU are thrilling me with tails of your weekend. So I will have to thrill myself by thrilling you with tails of MY weekend. You asked for it.

Friday began one of two Fathers Day cakes. We made a cake for Julie's husband that looked like a giant bag of peanut M&M's and lots of little cupcakes to look like M&M's spilling out of said bag. It was great, and very low stress, and not terribly time consuming. Pictures are soon to come. We finished the M&M cake Saturday afternoon, then Julie went home to her baby's daddy and I got started on my daddy's cake. Now, I had not planned on making my dad a cake because I have always been under the impression that he doesn't like cake. Actually I was going to make him a meatloaf cake. Cuz he loooooves meatloaf. But meatloaf makes me gag so I decided against it. Then mom requested a spice cake with cream cheese frosting so I thought yeah that'll work, and be fast, and no big deal. So I whipped up the cake and the frosting (forgetting that I had very little powdered sugar in the house and hardly any coloring) so I ran to Julie's house, borrowed her black Americolor and stole a bag of powdered sugar. I figured I would do what is known in the cake world as a frozen transfer. That is when you invert the design you want on the cake, trace over it, and freeze it. Then invert it again onto the cake and peal off the paper and VOILA pretty picture. I had never done a frozen transfer before, and usually you would use buttercream, but I was using cream cheese frosting. Julie has done a couple frozen transfers so I figured if she could do it, I could do it. Heh...right. So I pipe out the design (Dogbert saying "Out! Out! You demons of stupdity!!) and stick it in the freezer. Ice the cake, with too soft icing, and remove the frozen transfer from the freezer. Now, I don't know if it was the cream cheese frosting or what but bitch would not freeze. Just got rubbery, which caused Dogbert to stretch, strangely. Pictures are not soon to come, because I didn't atke any, because it was bad and I am in denial. Was damn tasty though. Sunday I started feeling blah and today I continued feeling blah. I need a nap.

I'm going to a Garden Party Wednesday (insert eyes rolling here) and taking lemon cupcakes with lil white butterflies on it. They'll be cute. I'll post pictures.

Princess Penelope

2006-06-15T10:36:00.000-06:00

Isn't she pretty? I haven't managed to actually upload any songs or anything to her yet. Apparently my computer had like 5 GB of music stored on it so when I told it to upload my music files it just pointed and laughed. So I'm filtering through my music collection trying to decide what I want to put on her. Fot the time being she just sits there and looks shiny

2006-06-12T13:16:00.000-06:00

Since blogger, ya know, SUCKED last week, here is a brief recap,

Wednesday, did the karaoke thing. Very fun. I’ll probably go again, though I will have a play list already in my head and probably go over the words once or twice.

Thursday, uhm…yeah, what happened on Thursday. Did anything happen on Thursday? Apparently not. Moving on.

Friday. Hell. Friday sucked a little. My mom has been more on the “get Katy married” track than usual. Well, I don’t know if she’s pushing more or if I’m just unusually sensitive. Anyway, every time me and my single status comes up I just clam up. I don’t want to talk about it, I don’t want to think about it, I don’t want to fuel her fervor, I don’t want any advice from a woman who hasn’t dated in over 30 years. I know she just wants me to be happy and all, but really, it just makes me feel like some kind of failure. Sometimes the best way to deal with her is to just not talk to her, at least that’s my way. If I thought I could say what I needed to say and that she’d listen without getting all defensive and that we’d both come out of it on the other end unscathed, I’d talk. But I know that won’t happen, so I just sit back and let her think she knows best. See, I’m scared of being alone for the rest of my life. She knows that and seeks to rectify the situation by finding me a mate. The problem is, that I can be in a room full of people that love me and still feel 100% alone. What I need to work on isn’t finding someone to complete me, it’s completing myself. I get a little better every day, but it’s a long road, and I’m not at the end yet. So, in my mind, finding someone to share myself with when I’m not yet a whole and complete person would be a terrible mistake.

Becky says I need to move out to find myself, Jon seems to think that being a business owner will succeed in giving me that sense of self-worth I long for, my dad thinks I need to stay home and finish school and then I can get on with my life, and my mom wants me to stay her little girl, forever and then some. My problem is I don’t know what I need, and having four people drag me different directions is only succeeding in tearing apart my already tenuous grasp on my self. It’s rough. But I’ll figure it out.

After all that I had to get out of town for a bit, as much as I love my family, I needed to be away from them for awhile, so Julie, and I went to SG with her little boy. We had a good time. I bought an MP3 player, which I got home and realized won’t work on my computer. Bummer. It needs Windows XP and I have Windows 2000 Professional. So I’m going to take it back and get and IPOD Nano. Why am I dropping 150 bucks when there is possible moving out to be done? Because I wanna dammit. Besides, I have way more to figure out before the tentative moving out occurs.

So anyway, I’m annoyed, torn, and MP3 playerless. I’m gonna go live in a cave.

Tasty Salad

2006-06-06T13:30:00.000-06:00

This is the salad I made for lunch today. It was helluh tasty so I though I would pass it along. This is a single serving and not a very big one cuz I don't eat tons...I wish I had more though, not cuz I'm still hungry because it was good :)

Chicken:
Marinate 1 boneless skinless chicken breast in Lawry's Sesame Ginger Marinade. Damn, that's stuff's tasty. I marinated mine for a couple hours but whatever.

Grill chicken. (That blackened flavor makes it extra tasty.)

Cut up half of chicken breast into large dices, reserve other half for another salad or for a snack later. (I actually used the left overs from the previous nights dinner)

Dressing:
2 parts Lawry's Sesame Ginger Marinade (not the stuff you used to marinade the chicken, throw that away or you'll get salmonella and die)
1 part extra virgin olive oil.
A few healthy dashes of soy sauce (to taste)

Parmesan Crisp:
6 tbsps fresh grated Parmesan Cheese
Black pepper, paprika, or whatever sounds tasty.

Preheat oven to 300

Scoop Parmesan a tbsp at a time onto a baking sheet, lined with a silpat or parchment paper (to prevent sticking) flatten mounds out until they are 2-3 inches in diameter, making sure there is about 2 inches between the circles, sprinkle with seasoning, or just leave plain. Bake 6-10 minutes until crispy.

Salad Assembly:
Toss together a couple handfuls of your favorite greens, the chicken, and the dressing until everything is well coated. Top with a crisp and some slivered almonds. Dig in.

I want a waffle.

2006-06-05T11:57:00.000-06:00

Usually I am not a big breakfast type eater. Until today, which is the first day of the new diet, which means I couldn't have an Eggo smothered in buttery syrupy goodness even if I wanted too. So I settled for a sugar free jell-o cup. Yeah, I know that's not exactly eating smarter or healthier or whatever, but it's fast and portable, and I am most certainly NOT a morning type. Sugar free jell-o it is. At least I'm eating something right? Also, because my two beverages of choice are now off limits I have moved on to the Diet Peach Iced Tea, more fake sugar, more headache making.

It used to be that I could decide I wanted to lose 10 pounds and they would be gone. Like just my brain going through the motions of making a fat related choice, chased the fat away. Not so any more my friends. Not so. So this is my first official diet. Full of veggies, and meat, and low fat dressing, and fake sugar. Wish me luck. I get the feeling my blog is turning into a food blog. I guess that's ok.

In non-food related news, uhm... (sorry having a hard time getting past the need for Dorritos) my boss is sick. Which means I'm bored. Not that I would be more or less busy if boss were here, just not by myself in my big huge office. People keep coming and asking me to do things that A) I don't know how to do, and B) I'm not even allowed to do, and then being annoyed that I'm less than helpful. Oh well, they can wait a day. So I'm blogging, checking out South Beach friendly food, fixating on the fact that I can't have a cracker, or a red vine from the 2 pound bag sitting in my cupboard, and eating peanuts. Which is todays salty snack of choice.

I think I might have a date with the Karaoke DJ that missuzj mentioned. It will be in the couple weeks because he's a workaholic and doesn't know when he'll have a free night, but Beck, and E and Sean and I are going to double. Sounds like fun. He called last night at 1 in the morning to make plans but I was delerious. I think the extent of our conversation went something like this.

Phone: Doo doo doo doo doood doo do doo
Me: Whubbah? Huh? morning? no... phone... Sean. (answering phone) Hebwo?
Him: Hi.
Me: Meh
Him: You sound tired.
Me: mmm'ochay
Him: You sleep and I'll call you tomorrow.
Me: mmmm'ochay
Him: Bye.
Me: sssshyaah

See, I wasn't actually asleep, but I wasn't really awake much either. I was in that half and half place right before you fall asleep. The place where you see the monsters in your closet when you're a little kid, or if you're me, can't decide if the sound of your phone ringing is the alarm clock, or a UFO coming to get you but you're fairly certain that it's not your phone. Then my brain snaps on but my body fails to follow its lead. So you end up with your brain saying, "Hi Sean how are ya?" but a mouth saying "Meh" then you wake up and remember the conversation and how ridiculous you sounded and decide that if anyone asks you don't remember a thing, in fact your phone was abducted by aliens and they were probably talking to them because I was at home.

Katy wanna cracker.

Rage against the machine.

2006-05-29T22:49:00.000-06:00

So, I had a big long post, loaded with pictures all done a couple days ago. Then when I tried to publish it went all crazy and my post was lost. Angriness. I was going to show you all pictures. I was going to show you the Frylock cake, how it got squished:
Then building half a cake out of styrofoam. Then, when I tried to cover it, the fondant kept tearing, then there was the going generally crazy and crying. Then worrying that I didn't have enough cake to feed everybody so I made cupcakes and sweet Becky covered them in some lime buttercream, and I finished them off with these cute little chocolate shield thingies, but when I got all the chocolate shields done and flipped them over they were backwards, so I made them all again. Ugh.
So, we had cupcakes, a naked Frylock cake and a mildly insane Katy. Rather than attempt the fondant again because, well I was ready to break things, I just covered it in buttercream and we had this:

After Frylock I was feeling pretty inferior, not up to the challenge of a wedding cake. So Julie and I decided to do a practice cake, and since it was mothers day we did something pretty and frilly for Julie's mother in law. I give you, Fuschia.

Pretty huh? Unfortunately this cake didn't make the trip over the mountain to the mother in laws house. The car was hot and apparently half of it just fell right off. Bummer, again with the total lacking in cake skills. What the hell right? So we started about two weeks before the wedding and I made her.
Yeah, I'm aware she has not arms. They fell off. She was also huge, and looked like a boy. A boy in a dress, but still a boy. So I tried again and eventually came up with these two:

I fixed his arms, made them less gorillalike. I fixed his suit (made it blacker), and fixed his face. It was fatter than it needed to be. Finally we made cakes. ALL DAY SATURDAY!! With the mixing and the cleaning and the baking and yeah. This is a lot of work. Did you know that it takes an hour and a half to bake a 16 inch round cake? Yeah, 95 minutes. Did you also know that flipping a 16 inch cake out of its pan is freakin hard? Did you know that covering a cake that size in fondant is nearly inpossible? We had to roll a piece of fondant to 24 inches a cross? Yeah, that's a lot of fondant. Also, crumb coating a 16 inch cake takes 4 batches of butter cream. I think we made 9 batches of butter cream total. Yeah. That's a lot. So, here are the nakey cakes:

Looks an awful lot like cheese huh? Yeah. I know. But it what the bride wanted and it is my job to do what the bride wants. So there ya go. Eventually the cake ended up looking like this:
Want a closer look? Ok, here ya go.

I think bridezilla was happy. I woke up the day before the wedding with tummy issues. stress? sick? I know not. But I didn't stay around for much of the reception. I haven't seen any $$$$ yet, but that's not too surprising. I'll be mailing out an invoice tomorrow. All in all I was very pleased with how it all turned out.

And now, since you were patient, here is a picture for all you Sophie addicts. And also, a pretty flower.

Some people...

2006-05-22T11:05:00.000-06:00

So the date was uneventful. Painfully uneventful. We ate, he insulted my taste in movies, reading material, free time activities, ultimately he just rolled it all into one and insulted my intelligence. Then I went to the craft store with the 20 minutes I had left before I had to go back to work. Haven't heard from him since. Shocking.

I've been pretty busy lately. Busting my butt with the wedding cake that will be delivered (OMG!!) Friday. Tuesday I dropped a hundred and fifty bucks on supplies for the cake. Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday I molded a little bride and groom out of gum paste, I'll post pictures soon. Saturday Julie and I baked for like seven hours. Want to try something yummy? Get a Duncan Heines Spice cake mix and add a packet of instant butterscotch pudding. Damn, that's tasty. Anyway, we made two 16 inch round chocolate cakes. A 16 inch cake requires 18 cups of batter, and 85 minutes to bake. Also, a 16 inch cake pan juuuuuust barely fits into my oven. Its huge. Also, a pain in the ass to flip, but I got mad skills. I also made two sheet cakes of just plain yellow cake mix. They only require 5 cups of batter, and bake up nice and fluffy like in about 25 minutes. Then we did two 6 inch square spice cakes, which take about 20 minutes to cook and take 2 cups of batter. I think it was only two.... We also made 3 batches of fondant and 4 batches of butter cream. My house will forever smell of cake. Also during the week we made 120 little tiny edible pearls, and 50ish edible gumpaste roses.

Wednesday the mother of the bride returned a call I had made to her about flowers, saying that she couldn't get a hold of the florist, then gave me her phone number. Then she proceeded to question my qualifications. First she asked if I really thought I was able to do this. If I didn't think I could do it, I wouldn't have offered. Then she asked if I would be able to call Mrs. J (my ex's mom) in case I got stuck. I told her if it really came to that I could but that it wouldn't, I was perfectly capable. Then she asked if I was really going to do a Romeo and Juliet scene for the topper. I said yes, I was doing what the bride asked for. Then she asked about money and I told her that I told the bride I would do it for my cost, which was going to be about 150 dollars and then my time was her gift. To witch m.o.b. replied "Oh thats nice, but you're not getting her anything else?"

I was in total shock. First she calls me and questions my skills, then she gives me grief for not getting a present after I'm making her a 500 dollar cake but only charging her 150?!?! I should have said, OK, I'll charge you for my time at 20 dollars an hour for the 40 hours I put in on the cake, that would be 800 dollars. Then we'll add a little since I had to put up with you and your daughter and your total LACK of communication with ANYONE, say, another 150 dollars... Then add in the cost of supplies, ingredients: 150, decorations, another 50. So yeah... that's 200... adds up to 1150 dollars right? Yeah, that sounds fair. So you write me a check for 1150 dollars, and I'll go buy her a 10 dollar picture frame from Wal-Mart.

I'm going to be so glad when this is over. Things are pretty stress free right now, which is good. We have a schedule, we're sticking to the schedule. Everything is peachy. But I probably won't be around much until the end of this insanity.

Am I actually dating again?

2006-05-11T11:34:00.000-06:00

I have a date in a half an hour for lunch. Yes I met him online. Yes I know how scary that is. Yes I remember what happened last time. However, we will be remaining in a public place for the duration of the outing. It will be broad daylight. I actually have a solid excuse for the date only lasting an hour. And, my boss will know where I am and that should I not call or return by 1:15, to call out the posse.

This guys name is Jason. He's been trying to get me to go out with him for like 2 weeks now. Maybe 3 actually. He's been so patient (or is it pushy?) that I figured lunch would be good, non-threatening fun.

Why am I so terrified of dating again?

I really don't think it has to do with the last asshat I met on the internet. I can handle myself in that kind of situation. It's easy, fight back. But for some reason the idea of getting close to someone again has me petrified. Is it worth it? Is the whole dating, getting hurt, getting stomped on, taking risks with yourself thing, worth the 1 in a billion chance that you'll actually find someone you want to spend the rest of your life with? Is being married so great that it's worth all the bullshit to get there?

Discuss...

Please sir...can I have some more?

2006-05-03T12:24:00.000-06:00

I have a highly addictive personality.

I am also something of a hanger on.

For instance, last week my friend bought a Take 5 candy bar and proclaimed their goodness. So obviously, the next day I bought my own Take 5. And the next day, and the next day, and the next day. Monday, I bought 5. They're yummy. For those of you haven't experienced the greatness that is the Take 5 bar let me introduce you.

Take 5 bar, I would like to introduce you to my friends. Friends, meet Take 5 bar. This is the beginning of a beautiful friendship. One filled with the salty goodness of pretzels, the smooth satisfaction of caramel, the crunch of peanuts (I loooooves peanuts) the goody goodness of peanut butter, all wrapped in a perfect little cacoon of chocolate. I could see myself, if deemed necessary, stealing a Take 5 bar from a child. They're little, they'll get over it. Luckily each bar is actually two bars. So it is perfect for sharing. As long as I get a bite. I be happy. mmmm.

Also, I have not encountered and alcoholic beverage in something like 2 years. Maybe a year and a half. Anyway, I have kept far away from their dizzying goodness because I know I stand on the razor's edge of alcoholicness. But I really want an Appletini. BAD. I am a big fan of the Appletini. And the Cosmo. But more the Appletini. Seriously, I have to find a way to have a virgin Appletini. Gonna have to google that... I watch Food Network and the cooks are always topping something off with a lovely little cocktail concoction, that looks yummy. mmmm.

I get addicted to TV shows. My current favorites are Grey's Anatomy, America's Next Top Model (but just because I want to see when Jade gets her ass kicked off), and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Oh, and Gilmore Girls. Grey's Anatomy is the only one that I DO NOT miss. Sunday night 9:00, you will find me on the couch, wide eyed, clutching a pillow, waiting to see what happens next. I have never been a hospital drama type person. I just can't resist. The addition of hot vet Chris O'Donnell just makes the whole thing oh so much better. I've had a crush on him since Batman and Robin and now he's all woodsy, and animal lover, and scruffy, and his name's Finn. Dude, please oh please let us see him shirtless very VERY soon. Also, I occasionally suffer through an episode of Smallville on the off chance I might get a glimpse of James Marsters. Which leads me to my next addiction.

SPIKE!!!! OMG!!! Really, I have a problem there. I have found myself suspending reality ala Ally McBeal and having my own little mid afternoon fantasies. For instance, that last sentance took me like 5 minutes to type because I was busy ripping Spike's clothes off. See? See my problem?? I mean, James Marsters is the hotness. But Spike...rrrow. The leather, the attitude, the dark side. The accent! Really... I just... I mean... Damn. Then in Once More With Feeling, the singing Spike!!! Even better. Since I was little I've had a thing for the darkside. When I was in Middle School I was all about the Nightworld series of books. Then freakin L.J. Smith just fell off the planet and stopped writing them. My friends and I even roleplayed different characters. WE ROLE PLAYED!!! Then I got all Buffy obsessed and oh how I wish I could conjure up my own little Spikey clone for those long nights... I have a problem... I know. But admitting it is half the battle... Do they have a Spike Lover's Anonymous?? Is there a pill or something I can take? OK, I think I've sufficiently embarassed myself...

bye bye.

Just FYI: MissuzJ's internet has been down at home and the great and mighty district blocked blogs at work so that's why she's a bit MIA. Just so you all know.

Quick quick!

2006-04-27T12:55:00.000-06:00

K guys, is the last week of school! Is Thursday of the last week of school! Then is finals! Then I's done for months!!! I's so excited!! I am rocking at the final projects. I am tired, and fried, and last night was the first night I slept more that four hours in a week. I will be studying my poor little ass off all weekend then test test test test DONE!!!! YAY!!! Til then, I will be conspiculously absent. But I still loves ya!

Also, I am planning my next cake. It's Aqua Teen Hunger Force themed. You can't wait to see it can you.... Hehehe, I know.

BYE!

PS: I did my PR Final Project yesterday. My group and I were working on it for WEEKS and we are the first group in the history of him teaching that class to get 100 out of 100. AND he gave us all 50 bonus points because we just ROCK that much. I'm sooooooo hyeppy.

Look what I can do!!

2006-04-24T16:03:00.000-06:00

My friend Julie and I did this cake for her son Noah's first birthday. The bottom is a half sheet cake iced in buttercream to look like the choppy ocean. The ark is two round cakes sculpted to look like the boat and covered in chocolate fondant. The little house on top is chocolate covered graham crackers that Julie woodgrained (she also did the woodgraining on the boat) The animals were hand sculpted by Julie and I out of fondant. Everybody loved it!

I'm one year old today

2006-04-20T14:30:00.000-06:00

I have this cutesy little desk calendar that I got for Christmas. It's Mary Engelbret, I love her stuff. Anyway, I pulled off Wednesday the 19th and TADA Thursday the 20th. The picture on the side says Happy Anniversary. Which made me think, "I wonder when my bloggiversary is?" So I looked back and WEIRD. It's today. That be's crazy. So in honor of my bloggiversary I will become completely self absorbed and give you a list of things that have changed in the last year.

My hair color...regularly.
My glasses prescription. I haven't changed it yet but I can't see.
I got over the looooooosah.
I started dating again. Kinda...
I made lots of new friends, both blogging and...
Back to school!
I changed my major...thrice...
I left the bank.
I started work at the hotel.
I started working for the University.
I stopped working at the hotel.
I moved jobs within the University and am now working for my buddy Julie.
I started writing a book.
I stopped writing my book.
I turned 23.
I flew (well I rode in a plane...the pilot flew) by myself for the first time.
I quit drinking soda.
I started drinking soda again.
I grew my hair out.
I got my camera!!
Mad cake skills.
My insomnia is worse but my body's learning to function without the sleep.
Cake nightmares, at least once a week, what the hell?
I met the Patrice folks FUN!!!
Which reminds me, I ate deep fried pickles, yummmmmy.
I cooked with wine.
I went to the liquor store and bought wine...
I learned how to make candy....I really need to go make some candy....
I got my first real professor crush. "Le siiiiiigh"
I ran out of things to list....

Farewell all my newfound friends! Here's to another year! Damn, I hope more fun stuff happens.

A brief rant

2006-04-19T14:10:00.000-06:00

OK, school is suddenly kicking my ass.

I found out today that my PR teacher has decided, rather than administer a final test, we are to put together a personal portfolio and we'll be graded on that. Personal portfolio?

Dear Professor Egotist:
Do you realize that we are barely halfway through the book and that you haven't taught us what goes into a portfolio, let alone how to compile and present one?? Do you!!?? Also, the fact that you don't have your tests written, and the fact that YOU are behind in YOUR work, does NOT constitute an ermergency on my part. And, yours is NOT the only class I have and the fact that you are JUST NOW realizing that perhaps you better give us something to score so that you can perhaps grade us, does not mean that you are allowed to pile on hours and hours of busy work so that you don't appear useless to your colleagues. You don't have to try and trick them into thinking you're good at what you do. They know you suck. They hear it from us. Oh, and if you are going to make us put together a big ugly presentation to present to you, please do us the kindness of STAYING AWAKE!!! Thank you and have a nice day.

Sincerely, The Smart Kids.
PS: It's time to retire....Really.

In other news, I thought my lit final project was due next week, nope, is due tomorrow. Hell. So I need to finish reading my book and write a 6 page paper tonight to hand in by 4:00 tomorrow. Not a big deal. Just induced a mild panic attack on my part. I can do it. So why am I blogging when I have so much else I should be doing. Because I'm paralyzed. Have you ever had so much on your plate that you just wouldn't deal with any of it rather than try and deal with part of it. That's me.

Uhm, quick something I like about school so I'm not just bitching, and Rob is happy.
It makes me go outside.
It pays the bills. (though it kind of makes the bills too)
It's excellent blog fodder.
I appreciate my time off more.

The end.

Daffodil

2006-04-18T21:49:00.000-06:00

Daffodil
Originally uploaded by katydidz.

Hello! I love daffodils. They're so freakin cheerful!!

First Tulip

2006-04-18T21:45:00.000-06:00

First Tulip
Originally uploaded by katydidz.

Poor little dude doesn't have a stem yet, but he's determined!!!

Free ski weekend in hell

2006-04-17T16:57:00.000-06:00

Yes my friends, hell hath frozen over.

Katy went on a date. Two actually.

None of what I am about to tell you is me at my best so just remember that I love you, and I hope you love me, and therefore be kind.

My mom signed me up for an online matchmaking service. Stop rolling your eyes it's more funny than anything. There are actually some very nice guys on it and if nothing else it's put my back out there. It's fun, it's playful, it's on my level. So anyway, one of the guys I've met was going to be driving through Cedar last weekend and wanted to meet me. OK, I think, that's not so bad, I'm a mature adult woman, I can handle this. Heh. Whatever. Our communication up to that point had been instant messaging and e-mails and yes, I should have known better. We met up around 6ish..maybe 7ish and went for a walk. I'm just going to say it didn't go well, and yes I should have known better, and yes I learned my lesson, and no I won't be seeing him again, and yes, there were at least two points in the "conversation" where I was actually afraid for my life and / or my person. But that's all in the past now so let's move on to date numbah two!!

Date numbah two, was this past Saturday and we had a lot of fun. My bosses husband set me up with his brother, and the four of us went bowling and played pool and air hockey and went to dinner and then went back to the boss and husbands house and played Catan (which was really fun and I am not a gamer person). Poor boy wasn't so good at the bowling (I too suck at the bowling but always have fun), lost both games of pool, and I won Catan so he wasn't having a good night but I still think we all had fun. Hopefully we will go out again sometime. If not he's fun and I'm sure will be a good friend.

Oh, in other news, I had to get new tires put on my car. Well, I guess I didn't have to. I've been thinking for awhile I'd get new tires when I got my tax return ($$$), but Friday I hit a nail and rather than have them fix that tire and then just throw it out and pay for new tires in a month I put new tires on my credit card. Yay! I feel much better being in my vehicle now.

Well, two more weeks of school then finals then DONE for the summer!!! Oh so happy. I was thinking about doing school this summer but, uhm, I don wanna. So I'm going to work full time and spend a little time not funning around 100 different directions 100 miles an hour. Should be nice.

Happy late Easter!!

Toot toot! Blowin my own horn

2006-04-11T22:29:00.000-06:00

Nakey Cake. A ten and a 6 inch lemon pudding cake filled with lemon pie filling

The finished cake. Pretty cute huh?

Close up of my roses.

I took about a billion pictures of this cake but I'll stop for now. Too tired :)

Taking Stock

2006-04-06T16:15:00.000-06:00

Hell.

Are you guys sick of listening to bitch about school yet? Well, sorry, I'm at it again. Not so much school, but my life in relation to school. The semester is almost over. Four weeks from right this very moment, I will be finished with finals. Being so close to the end of semester means it's time to start thinking about next semester. Next semester is three months away, I have no idea what is going to be going on in three months. I have no idea what is going to be going on in three weeks for hells sake. Before this year started I was a business marketing major. Then I changed to a communications major. I didn't know what my communications emphasis would be, but I knew my major, and apparently knowing is half the battle. Whatever. So now I have taken a couple communications classes. My speech class was fun, well, maybe not fun, tolerable and educational maybe. Ok, it didn't drive me absolutely crazy. The PR class of this semester is a whole different story though. So now I am rethinking YET AGAIN the path I will follow on my school career.

This semester I have enjoyed my business management class most of all. Strange since business was my first choice but when I went to buy my books I nearly had a panic attack at the thought of taking intro to accounting, intro to psychology and other such insanities. But here I am, heading back down that road. Ugh. What I can't decide is if it's all the teacher or not? Am I considering abandoning my communications major because of my idiot teacher? Am I considering going back to Business because I enjoyed my business teacher so much? Can't I just miraculously become independantly wealthy and spend my days being doted on by hot cabanna boys named Julio??? Why isn't that an option? Schmoozing 101 with professor Smith. Being offered in Cabo San Lucas BYOB. Classes never start before noon. Now that'd get enrollment up!

So I'm asking oh wise and mighty friendternets. What is it that I should do with my life? Cuz right now I'm thinking a long nap and a stiff drink. Well, at least the long nap part.

Ew

2006-04-06T14:51:00.000-06:00

This does NOT make me want to eat skittles.

Woohoo! Check this out!

2006-04-03T22:47:00.000-06:00

My dear sis and the first pic I ever took with my new friend!

Sophie and Becky giving loves.

The horny birthday girl...hehe.

And it only took me two weeks. :)

Another cake

2006-03-30T19:08:00.000-07:00

Present Cake
Originally uploaded by katydidz.

I made this in class Tuesday. Not to interesting but it tastes REALLY good. It's a devils food cake filled with peanut butter and cream cheese filling. Yummy.

Busy bees

2006-03-27T18:21:00.000-07:00

Busy bees
Originally uploaded by katydidz.

The big cake. That's right the bees were indeed flying. Sweeeeeet!!

bzzzz

2006-03-27T12:43:00.000-07:00

bzzzz
Originally uploaded by katydidz.

This is the cake that I did for Julie's birthday. Well, obviously not the whole cake, I'll post the whole cake when I get it uploaded.

Oh Bad, Oh Bad Bad

2006-03-24T12:46:00.000-07:00

Thumbs up for anyone who can tell me where the title comes from and who says it. Do ya know? do ya do ya?

Anywho. I started a blog about my time in Tiajuana surprisingly before my sis brought it up. But it's not done. Truth be told I've been feeling busy and uninspired lately. I don't want to do another "my semester so far" recap either because, well school bores me, I'm sure it bores you too. I'll just say my criminal justice class gets more graphic every day. My business class is still my favorite. My lit class is, well almost over I guess. I am oozing with hatred towards my PR class. I find it hard to drag my butt to class because spring is finally springing. Knock on wood.

Speaking of knocking on wood, I really should have this past Tuesday. Ya see, I am taking a cake decorating class at my local craft store. Very exciting indeed. That is until I got there. I was strolling on back to the classroom when I bumped into my ex boyfriends (yes THAT ex boyfriend) mother. She offered me a curt hello, I smiled and said hi and we went out seperate ways. Now, good friend Julie is taking the class with me so I turned to her and said, "That's Ean's mom" and thought nothing more of it. Until that is I got to the classroom and it dawned on me. Ean's mom is a cake decorator, a really good decorator. Hm... So I said to Julie "Wouldn't it be trippy if Ean's mom was the instructor?"

KNOCK ON WOOD!!! KNOCK DAMMIT!!!

No sooner had the words left my mouth than she walked in the door in her full instructorness. Apron, bag o' tricks, everything. Oh. Holy. S#!@. Ok, this is cool, I can handle this. No big deal at all I'm totally over that whole situation, we are meeting now in a purely professional capacity and if she says anything mean I get to report her to her bosses. Teehe. I sit. I take a few deep breaths to counter the initial shock. I am fine.

"Did you bring everything?" She says.

What I thought: I brought my caddy which has tips and other such sundries, but none of this everything you speak of. No one told me to bring anything let alone everything. What I said: "Everything? What everything?"

"Well, you'll definitely need icing. Do you have any at home?"

What I thought: Oh of course I always have a tub or two of icing randomly laying about the house. In fact I made some between school and work and coming here just on a whim. What I said: Nope I don't usually have much by way of left overs.

"Well I have some in my fridge you can use it. You'll have to go get it though, Jeff (her husband) has the baby (demon spawn)."

What I thought: Well this just keeps getting better and better. What I said: OK, that won't be any problem at all.

So I go, I exchange pleasantries with Jeff (who might in fact still like me or at least not hate me) gaze upon the baby, who tragically looks just like his mother (ok ok he's a cute little bugger, but I didn't say that), grab the icing and head back to class, which has already begun so I'm starting off behind. Greeeeeeat.

I run in get settled and proceed to make do with what I have. What I have plus what Julie has (she didn't get the 'everything' memo either, nor did half the class) plus a little bit of what Liz (the mother) has. I did pretty good all things considered. I was pretty frazzled for the first 1/2 hour or so but I think that was because of my total lack of preparedness. Which would have happened even if it hadn't been Liz but was magnified by the fact that it was and I have always had just a touch of an inferiority complex when dealing with her. But I did will, Julie did well, Liz hovered. A lot. Everything will be fine. More of an annoyance than anything. I'll just have to blow her away with my mad skills.

Ladies and gentlemen of the bloggiverse

2006-03-15T21:10:00.000-07:00

I'd like you to meet my new best friend:
The Nikon Coolpix 5600. This is the beginning of a beautiful friendship. I will soon be uploading pictures of "the haul" and other such fabulouses. You're giddy with excitement aren't you? You are... I know...

I'm DIS many!!!

2006-03-15T08:26:00.000-07:00

It's my birthday! Woo hoo!!!!!

Static

2006-03-11T15:13:00.000-07:00

So yeah. This week scurried along with less than much to report. My fever finally broke Monday night after I slept for...oh 100 years. Just call my Rip Van Katy, or Katy Van Winkle. You choose. Anyway, besides the nagging sleepiness that's hanging on I am all better. Which is good because I had 3 tests this week.

Imaginative Lit on Tuesday, SWISH, nothin but net. It was 50 multiple choice questions and 2 "short essay" questions to be done in one hour 20 minutes. I got through the multiple choice bit in around 15 minutes. No problem. The "short essay" however kicked my butt. His idea of a short essay is a two to three page paper. Two of em, in an hour!!! The first one was a no brainer, we had to say who we thought the hero of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was and explain why using specific references from the book. Not to tough. It just took me longer than it should have so by the time I got to the second one where we had to dissect Dragonslayer and Dragonsbane and compare and contrast them, I only had like 20 minutes left. I wrote and wrote and wrote and still only got about a page and a half and didn't manage to discuss nearly as much as I wanted to but oh well. We got our tests back Thursday and I got 25 out of 25 on my first essay and 23 out of 25 on the second mostly because I didn't complete my thought. But I got all sorts of very good and excellent points and such so I was pleased. BTW, if you haven't read Dragonsbane and are at all interested in Fantasy literature I would recommend it. It's kind of a slow starter but if you can make it to the meewinks it's great.

Business test did not go as well. There was lots of best guessing going on but I had missed a couple days during that section and hadn't managed to find time to study between naps. I'm not overly concerned with that class though, I manage to get around 80 on my tests, I hardly ever miss and I participate a lot. The things that are taught in that class just kind of come naturally to me anyway. My Criminal Justice class was much the same except I managed to study and feel like I did very well.

So it snowed this week. A lot. A few stray inches Wednesday, enough that I made my mom drive me to school. Yeah yeah I'm a big woosey. But my car sucks. Well, my tires, suck. There's general suckness. By Wednesday afternoon most of the snow was melted. Thursday, no snow, blue skies in fact. Friday we woke up to 12 inches of snow and it just keeps comin. We had very little snow all winter. I would go so far as to say no real snow. A flurry here and there. Now, here we are, knocking on the door of spring and Southern Utah gets DUMPED ON. My PR teacher even sent people home that had to travel for the weekend. Last night we got three more inches. I didn't drive my car yesterday either, again making my mom drive me to school so this morning my car was buried under 15 inches of snow. Between what was building up on the ground and what was hanging over from the roof you could see about three inches of the paint job. So I bundled up and dug it out. Poor car. She was so cold, living in her little ice cave.

Bushes in my yard are completely buried. Pine trees look like little more than mounds of snow. And it just keeps coming. I look out the window right now and see static. TV is out so we read and watch movies. I was going to make St. Patricks day cookies but my dough froze. It's cold. Did I mention the doors and windows in my house were open because my mom tried to burn down the kitchen? Yeah, cold. Anywho, hope things are warmer and more entertaining where you are!

Don't eat yellow snow...

uh-huuuuuuh

2006-03-06T16:29:00.000-07:00

I got into the doctor this morning. He looked in my ears said "Yup some pressure" looked at my throat, said "That's one of the scarier throats I've seen lately" and listened to my lungs which were shockingly clear. "At least you don't have bronchitis again" he says and heads out the door. Yes, his bedside manner does leave something to be desired. For instance a bedside manner....

"Dude" I think, "You should feel my glands, they are bound to be setting records." But he doesn't. He comes in with a prescription for amoxicillan and my preeeeecioussssss histenex, and boots me out the door. Nice. So I took my meds around 10 and am already feeling better so hopefully the rest of the week will run smoothly. I already missed a not so pop pop quiz in PR today, and I have two midterms tomorrow, one of which will be a no brainer. Which is good since my brain has gone into hibernation. So I sleep today. And apparently blog. But I'm done with that now and am going back to sleep.

Thanks for all your well wishes.

PS. The essay I was so annoyed about from my lit class can be read here if you're interested.

Pity me

2006-03-05T16:03:00.000-07:00

I'm sick again. Usually I am not a sick person. I'm normally a healthy person. I am the kind of person that saves her sick days for sick-of-work days instead of actually being sick. But oooooh no. Not anymore. I am now a generally unhealthy person who doesn't have sick days because she works hourly and if she doesn't work she doesn't get paid! It's times like this I miss the bank just a little. Of course it's not like I could get sick when things are pretty laid back either. Nope, I get sick during finals like last semester. Or mid-terms this semester. Spring break is next week people. Why couldn't I have gotten sick then? HUH?? Recap of the crap:

Friday afternoon around 2:30 my throat starts hurting. I start feeling all fever tingly and generally weary. Sweet boss lady and best friend feels my forehead and sho'nuff I'm warm. Freakin great.

Go home and proceed to lay on the couch covered in piles of blankets. Finally convince my mother that yes I actually am sick and it's not just in my head. Temperature, not bad, 100.2.

Watch the new Pride and Prejudice with Mom and Dad. I'm gonna say it. I think this Mr. Darcy could very well be hotter than the BBC Collin Firth Mr. Darcy. I know I can't believe it either.

During P&P my tummy starts rumbling, my legs start twitching from the hurtiness and my head moves slowly but surely to explosion.

Mom medicates me a LOT and sends me to bed where I switch from too hot to too cold about a bajillion times in 20 minutes.

In my fever and medication induced delerium I dream that I am decorating a cake and for some reason can't get the icing to stick to the cake. Crazy.

From about 2 in the am to about 5 in the am I am either in the bath tub trying to warm up or cool down, in the fetal position on the bathroom floor, or experiencing much unpleasantness pertaining to the porcelain god. Temperature, too damn tired to check it.

Finally I sleep.

Saturday I wake up and call boss lady informing her I won't be able to hang out that day because I am sick.

Have another bath hoping to warm up/cool down.

Can't swallow, hurts to bad.

Watch P&P again. Fall in love with Mr. Darcy some more.

Kinda sorta nap.

Mostly lay around being a ginormous lump on the couch.

Fever heads back down to 98.7. Hooray!!

Go to bed freezing, pile on three extra blankets. Still freezing. Get up to take a warm bath.

Temperature 102.

Sleep, dreaming crazy fairy flying dreams.

Too hot too cold too hot too cold too hot too cold.

Wake up almost normal feeling til I stand up and I remember my head wants to explode.

Go downstairs and lay back down.

Another warm bath to try and warm up and this time I actually washed my hair. Hooray!

Current temp, 101.8. Glands the size of quarters. Cough drops/chloraseptic spray ingested, too much.

General feeling of crapiness on a scale of 1-10, 8. I am actually feeling better today than I have but dude. This sucks.

Gonna go watch P&P again.

Ranty Rantings

2006-02-28T16:47:00.000-07:00

I'm so freaking sick of school this semester. Nothing imparticular to be sick of really. I'm just tired of it. Today is officially midterm and springbreak is in two weeks. Think I can hold out? I don't know. Here's a brief overview of the semester thus far.

Criminal Justice:
Generally and interesting class. Well, I feel there's potential for being an interesting class. Instead I get Prof. Williams autobiography. "In my first career..." he says then follows up with a long story that barely touches on the subject at hand. Fun, interesting, occasionally funny, occasionally sad. Until test time when you look through the 50ish test questions and think "Huh? When the hell did we talk about this??" And I know I'm supposed to be reading the book and I do but even then he manages to find the most vague references to build test questions off of. I'm going to be lucky with a C from that class. Hell.

Public Relations:
The man is rantastic. As I mentioned it is now midterm and we have had ONE of the FIVE tests scheduled for the class session. We were supposed to take said test SIX WEEKS AGO. But didn't because he hadn't finished writing it. I managed to pull an A- off that test because I had a good study group to split the GINORMOUS study guide with but dude. Your job is to teach me Mr. Man, not stroke your ego in front of a class full of comm majors. Oh, and if you expect me to be to class on time and prepared I expect you to be to class on time and prepared. OK? Ok. Mid term grade prognosis, A-.

Business:
OK, I like my business class. Really, I do. My teacher's interesting, he actually follows some lecture plan. You can tell he's put effort into his presentation. He strives to not be terribly boring. I figure I'm getting a B out of his class. Which is ok with me.

Imaginative Lit:
Good pointless fun. My teacher is pretty self satisfied, thinks he's brilliant. Indeed he understands the deep mysterious workings of Harry Potter, I'm sure his family is very proud. I don't apply myself too much in his class which I guess is my fault. Of course I don't need to apply myself too much in his class because there's not that much to it. I got my mid-term essay back today. I got an A, which he made a point of telling the class at the beginning of the semester wasn't easy. Whatever. Of course after handing out my A he nit-picked his way through my paper. I understand it must have been hard to hand out a precious A grade to a simpleton such as myself, but just bite the bullet, scribble the little red A on my paper and shut up. I'll get an A from that class pretty easily. That is if I don't deem it ridiculous and move on with my life. Which I may. One of the students in my lit class said when he was reading Dragonsbane (our latest book) that he pictured me as the heroine, which is pretty kick ass really. Then today my teacher said I looked like I wanted to set someone on fire, which the heroine does. My little psychic friend thinks I'm channeling a past life. K.

Of course I'm particularly irritable today since Aunt Flo came to town. Bitch. And I probably would like to set someone on fire.

But I'll refrain.

Didn't learn anything today so here's my new favorite quote:
"In every woman there is a queen. Speak to the queen and the queen will anser."

Everybody's doin it

2006-02-24T11:27:00.000-07:00

I am out of work to do for a minute so I'm jumpin on the ol' bandwagon:

Four jobs I've had:
1. Deli Doll at Lins Marketplace
2. Official Scam Artist at Assail Mrktg.
3.Teller, Trainer, Assistant Mngr.
4. Shoe salesperson

Movies I can watch over and over again:
1. Moulin Rouge
2. Serenity
3. LOTR Trilogy
4. Grosse Point Blank

Four places I've lived:
1. Coon Rapids, Minn
2. Monterey, California
3. Cedar City, UT
4. St. George, UT

Four TV shows I love:
1. Grey's Anatomy
2. The early seasons of Alias
3. Firefly
4. Daily Show

Four places I've vacationed:
1. Sea World
2. Dallas TX
3. Monterey CA
4. Disneyland (but I don't remember it)

Four sites I visit daily:
1. www.suu.edu
2. www.cakecentral.com
3. All the blogs
4. www.amazon.com

Four places I would rather be:
1. Sitting on the beach
2. In front of a fire with a good book
3. With my sisters
4. In my dream kitchen

Oh you silly silly girl...

2006-02-21T16:43:00.000-07:00

So my friend Liz is getting married in May. I've known her since we were probably 7 which makes her my longest maintained friendship ever. I hadn't talked to her for awhile so I texted her a couple days ago. We started talking weddingy type things as brides are apt to do and she mentioned they were trying to save money. We talked about invitations which she will probably make herself, we talked about the guest list, which is GINORMOUS, and of course, we talked about cake. Before I realized what I was saying I was offering to do her cake for her. It would save her money and give me practice and I didn't even expect her to go for it. Oh silly silly girl. She talked to her fiance and called me back saying, they would indeed love me to create their wedding cake.

Oh.

My.

Hell.

I am FREAKING OUT! I mean I know I have talent in the cookie area, and in the small cake area. Jabba the Cake, Blob of chocolate and gross green. Cinderelli, itty bitty cake and very few decorations. Skateboard cake. One TEENY TINY layer and a star tip. Wedding cake? BIG .... and kinda important! I'll be fine. I'll be great. I have like 3 months to learn all I need to know about cake construction. It's not that hard really. It's just nerves.

In other news, I'm really excited to be doing my first wedding cake for one of my best friends! So cool! And I have TONS of ideas and it's going to be really pretty. YAY!

Encounters

2006-02-17T14:04:00.000-07:00

Today on my way to my PR class I heard a familiar voice. An unmistakable voice. A voice I have heard on countless occasions before. But at SUU? In a hallway? Without warning??? Gasp!!! K it really wasn't that bad. In fact I was excited to see owner of said voice. It was my old theatre guru Varlo. My buddy, my pal. He who gave me my scholarship and afforded me the year or so of partial independance I needed. He who believed in me. He who dared me to live my dream in spite of others wishes for me.

The man I let down.

My second year of school at Dixie things were not going well. I didn't have a job to speak of. My grades were slowly but surely swirling down the crapper. I was obsessed with 6'5" Irishman with a drug problem and a girlfriend. I was heading down a dangerous road physically, emotionally, and spiritually. By the time I left I was considering suicide on a daily basis. In short things were not good. My roommate and I were co-presidents of the DSC theatre association and we had a lot of responsibility. She however had a job and a string of boyfriends and though she helped where she could her priorities were elsewhere, while my obsessive compulsive, micromanaging, insanity had taken over and I had to be involved with each aspect of every character, scene, show...everything. Stupid stupid Katy.

The stress from not being able to pay my bills, added to the sheer exhaustion of spreading myself that thin had me on the razor's edge. I developed a mysterious pain in my back that the instacare doctor said was probably kidney stones but that there was "something strange" about my symptoms and wanted me to see another doctor. I wouldn't because I couldn't afford it so she gave me some drugs and said to deal. Stressed, sick, and exhausted, I dealt the best I could, still running around like a chicken with my head cut off. During one phone call to my sweet, amazing, wonderful mother asking her for money so I could eat, I completely broke down. Things were bad and I had finally snapped, she told me to come home and I said I'd think about it. After all, I had obligations. Obligations to people that didn't give a shit about me. But obligations none the less. I was set to direct Trojan Women the next semester. We had plans. With me gone and my co-president so busy, who was going to run the club? Then there was the lease on my apartment, the few friends, specifically Ryan who "needed" me, my education. Things didn't get better and in a move uncharacteristically sane, I sat Varlo down and told him I wouldn't be coming back the next semester. I had to be done for my health, and sanity. He understood. I know he did. But he was my mentor. He had given me a chance. He had cast the silly little freshman girl in the first show of the season. He had trusted me and I had backed down.

So I ran into him about an hour and a half ago. He gave me a hug. We exchanged pleasantries. I found myself rationalizing why I'm a Communications major instead of Theatre when he didn't even ask. I told him I was in Public Relations and that I hoped to work in the theatre world. Which is a lie, but I was desperate. I found myself searching for some wonderful bit of news to share. Something to show him that I was great. That I had overcome. That I Katy Smith, had conquered. The best I could come up with was, "Well, I don't cry all the time anymore". Which I guess, ultimately is pretty damn good.

OK Fine, I'll admit it.

2006-02-14T10:15:00.000-07:00

It's Valentines Day. Since there is nothing I can do to change the fact that this is Valentines Day and that I think it's a stupid market driven holiday (yes I'm sure I'll change my tune when I find a special someone), here is my contribution. My mom did a couple of them but I did most of them. Look I even got sentimental on one:

And also, my skateboard cake. TADA!!!

MEMEMEME

2006-02-10T12:02:00.000-07:00

I stole from Mother Hubbard:

The A-Z's of me! Katy
A is for age: 22 almost 23
B is for booze of choice: I don't drink, but I sure miss appletinis
C is for career: Student
D is for your dad’s name: Ray
E is for essential items to bring to a party: Food and a gift and of course ME
F is for favourite song at the moment: Oh I so couldn't choose...I'm listening to Bon Jovi right now though...
G is for favourite game: Pass the pigs. Or solitaire...
H is for hometown: Ugh, I was born in Anoka Minnesota but we lived in Coon Rapids but I don't remember it and I've lived in Cedar City most of my life but I call Monterey CA home.
I is for instruments you play: Clarinet and I can plunk out a couple really easy songs on the piano
J is for jam or jelly you like: Homemade raspberry jam... yummy
K is for kids: Nope, no kids. Except my sweet neices and nephews.
L is for living arrangements: I live with my parents.
M is for mum’s name: Diane
N is for name of your crush: Ooooh, do I have to limit myself to one? I can't. So many handsome's out there....I'll say Danny Masterson, Captain Reynolds (hehe), and Gerard Butler
O is for overnight hospital stays: My birth...and when I had to take Nicci to get stitches, not overnight but LONG NIGHT
P is for phobias: Moths, grasshoppers, aliens.
Q is for quotes you like: "Well behaved women rarely make history." and "Everything's Shiny"
R is for relationship that lasted the longest: Ean, friends or dating for uhm 7 years I think.
S is for sexual preference: Eventually? Please???
T is for travel: Really want to go to Germany Austria area...and New Zealand...Ireland, and somewhere with a beach and drinks that come in coconuts with lil umbrellas.
U is for underwear: Uhm...yes? What kinda question is that?
V is for vegetable you love: Broccoli. Corn. Potatoes. Raw Carrots.
W is for weekend plans: Clean my room, make D-day i mean V-day Cookies. Do my taxes. Study for CJ test. Finish book. Oh and sleep in. That one's important.
X is for x-rays you’ve had: My mouth cuz I'm a cavity queen, and my elbow when I fell off the bleachers. X-rays I should have had? Totally different story.
Y is for yummy food you make: It's all yummy!
Z is for zodiac sign: Pisces I'm a fishy fish.

So much to do

2006-02-08T14:43:00.000-07:00

Yet still I blog.

My boss lady is out of the office for the rest of the week. She had to have a ganglion cyst removed from her wrist. Gross. So I have about a BAJILLION things I could be doing. I'm just not in the least bit motivated today. Inch high stack of data entry? No please no. I don't wanna do inventory entry anymore. IT'S ALL I EVER DO!!! It took me 3 days to ONE department. So I sit and stare at the stack kind of chuckle to myself. I'm not doing it. There's no one here to make me. Ginormous stack of filing needs done? Yeah Yeah, I'll do it tomorrow. Tuesday's and Thursdays are my really productive days. I'm here 2 and a half hours and I'm not all exhausted cuz I get to sleep in a bit. Can someone please tell me why my body REFUSES to sleep at night but then insists on sleeping through the day? I tell myself don't have a nap, then you'll sleep better tonight. So I don't have a nap and just wander around like a zombie all day but then night time comes and I stare at the ceiling til 1 o'clock in the morning wondering where all the tired went. Then I break down and read some more and doze off sometime in the wee hours of the morning only to have my alarm clock go off a couple measley hours later. So yeah, I think I've established I'll work tomorrow.

Yesterday I went shopping. I hadn't had a good shop in a while. Bought the kids some Valentine's Day presents (clothes, it's what I do) bought myself some "Nobody else is gonna" presents and cashed out at just over 60 bucks. Not bad, I got myself 4 fabulous long sleeved tees in black, green, and pink, and one that is also pink but says "love hurts" across it to wear for D-day...I mean V-day. Plus a cuteness for each of the three little kids now I just have to ponder on Janz for a bit and we'll be good.

So I got all brave yesterday and gave the cute boy at the cell phone place my phone number. We went down to trade in my friends daughters phone cuz it got killed, and the cutest guy helped us. According to his name tag his name was Brandon and he Habla Espanol. So he was doing cell phone things and my friend and I were talking and I saw an oppurtunity. So I said to T, "You need to get me a date for my birthday." And she went on and on asking things like "Can he be old" and "Can he be mail order" and "Does he have to be real" and "What if she has to pay him" and I said "No, I'm cute, you have 5 weeks to find me a nice boy to take me to dinner for my birthday"and she said OK, then I turned to Brandon and said "You're a nice boy, you take me to dinner for my birthday" and he stared at me all "uuuuuhm what" and I wrote my number on the back of handy dandy business card and said "ponder on that" and we left. Then we got in the car and I passed out cuz my heart was beating so fast... hehehe. I doubt he calls but it would be most fabulous if he did. Gotta make yourself more available my ass. I'll be available when I damn well feel like being available thank you very little. So there's a recap of my exciting events. School's going well. My papers so far have come back good. The only test I've taken came back ok, not great. I'm very participatory and opinionated. My comm teacher thinks I'm a jewel. At least that's what he told me in class today after stating that "Red heads always cheat" when I answered a question correctly. Not smart seeing as I'm one of 5 red heads in that class and my hairs really not even that red. Lit class is really fun as long as no one in there takes themselves too seriously. My little psychic friend told me the other day that I wasn't human. Nice. And my Business teacher told me I had a really good brain for business. Been a good week. I think I'm going to make conversation heart cookies for V-day and hand them out. I told T I'd help her make an airplane cake for her boyfriend. Oh, I need to get pictures of the skateboard cake I made up....

Today's thing I learned: A- I'm a redhead, B- Redheads always cheat. Whatever Gwin.

I. Am. Not. A. Fish.

2006-01-31T21:27:00.000-07:00

They say there are other fish in the sea. Irina Dunn said "A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle". I am not a fish. What is with all the fish talk people?? Do you know what happens to fish when they get caught? THEY DIE! They are gutted, thrown on a bed of crushed ice, and displayed until some one decides to eat them, digest them, and ultimately all fish get flushed! Why? Why? WHY?? Does everyone think it best to compare single women to fish?

Aside from the obvious issue of fish dying, ending up either someone's pet or someone's dinner, they're not the best looking creature in the world. True some of them are beautiful. But it is my experience that fish are not overly attractive. They're scaly, bug-eyed, and COLD. Do people really think it wise to compare a woman who, at least in my case, has fairly low self-esteem when it comes to men anyway, to these?:
G
R
O
S
S
!
!
!

Sunday night a friend of my parents came to our house. He's my friend too. In fact he's in my cell phone as an emergency contact. He has always been one of my very favorite people. However he apparently lost the ability to shut up. For some reason it's important to him that I find myself a husband. As it's important for most older people in my church for the young people to get hitched. Never mind that I'm 23, just back to college, and can barely handle myself, I should pull some poor man into the mess with me. It's purely societal I know. Some places tell girls to wait, some places marry them off young. My place happens to be the latter. I have comes to terms with that fact mostly. I realize that I always have to face the majority of people in my life and tell them why I'm 23 and unwed. They don't understand that it's a choice. I get the feeling that they think there is something wrong with me. I work hard to convince myself that there's nothing wrong with me. When I'm ready, when I'm healed, when I'm stable again, I will find someone wonderful. Until then, focus on getting ready, getting healed, and finding stability.

Then all the fish talk happens. It's not enough that I had my heart fairly broken. There are other FISH in the sea after all. So am I the fish? Or the fisherman? Are we all fish? What the hell are you talking about? Somehow Sunday's analogy wound around to me being the fish, and the poor boys out there being the fisherman. If the fisherman walks by a pond and there doesn't appear to be any fish he's not going to cast the line. Ah HAH! So there is something wrong with me, I'm not putting myself out there enough! Because I don't find it necessary to go to the extracurricular church activities. They do nothing for my spirituality and if I go for the soul fact of getting myself in the pond and being social I end up belly up in the background. Pleasant.

So by the time "Mr. I dont know when enough is enough" was finished I was crying and lucky him, he could just get in the car and leave.

So let's see here, we've been compared to cows and fish, what other unflattering animals can we think of to boost women's egos? Spiders? Hairless cats? Hyenas?

Thanks

2006-01-31T15:49:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to apologize for the sob fest that was yesterday. It really wasn't all that bad, seeing the family just always drives home the fact that I don't quite belong. That I've found myself in some sort of contest and I'm losing. So thanks for your kind words and support and I'll get the fish story up soon.

The Sucky Suckness of all that which does SUCK!!!

2006-01-30T16:51:00.000-07:00

So as you might have guessed, things suck right now.

I've been trying to avoid being overly negative on the ol' blog-o-rama because I figure nobody really cares. Not that nobody cares because I know my friends and family want me to be happy and blah, but I don't really even want to think about my life sucking so why should anyone else? Get my point?

Anyway, as you all know I got to go visit the extended family last weekend. Saturday there was driving, in a car where there was silence, except for the book on tape. And not the pleasant silence of people who like each other and don't need to talk to be in each others company. Nosirree Bob, the heavy silence that leaves the poor girl in the backseat on edge staring from mother to father in abject horror because they're pissed at each other. Not just Mom pissed at Dad. Dad's pissed too. This NEVER happens. Six hours of "I can not talk to you just as much as you can not talk to me, so there :P". Greeeeeeeat.

Then there is of course the heading to the grandma's house. As if she wasn't bad enough, somebody decided to give her a cane. Brilliant... She had her hip replaced, she's fine. Doing really REALLY well actually. Too well. She was hoping for another couple weeks of everyone falling all over themselves to do her bidding and now nobody will. Poor baby. So she keeps her cane around so strangers pity her because nobody else will.

After the visit with Grandma we went to my Uncle Mark's frozen waste land of a house to unload and change and pack and stuff before the play. Little Women the musical. Good times. High point of the evening, Fredrico's Pizza and garlic bread. The only reason I go to Logan anymore. So we eat. I field questions about my personal life. No, I'm not still at the bank. No, I'm not seeing anyone. I'm back in school, communications major, No, I don't know what I'm going to do with that. Yeah, yeah, you're kids are adorable.... whatever.

Play time. It was good. Not fabulous, but good. Basically I sat in the car in the awkward silence for a total of 12 hours to hear my Uncle Scott sing 2 songs. One of which he was completely overpowered by her majesty The Soprano! and the over was a reprise and lasted about 20 seconds. But made me cry like a little baby. *Sniffle* Play ended, we went and gave Uncle Scott big hugs for his 5.7 minutes of fame and headed home. Grandma of course leaning heavily on her cane, and grandpa until I showed up and Grandpa handed her off to me and made a run for it. I can't blame him. He has to put up with her everyday. So I helped her the rest of the way out the door, Grandpa brought the car around and Grandma clung for dear life to my arm because I was "Walking too fast" or "Not minding the ice" She is after all just a feeble old lady ya know.

Back at Uncle Mark's house we sat in the kitchen and talked til 1:30 in the morning. Well they talked. I sat there trying to share an opinion and they all ignored me as usual because I'm just a little girl and don't know what I'm talking about. Went to bed. Woke up in a strange bed in a strange room in a cold house and panicked for a second in the middle of the night because I couldn't get out of bed. At home I roll out of bed on the left. At Uncle Mark's the bed is up against a wall on the left so I was trapped. Scary. Woke up, went to church with Grandpa, (Grandma isn't near well enough for church yet...uh huh). Went to go visit Granny at the nursing home. Have I mentioned that I'm terrified of old people? And hospitals, which comes into play later. Anyway, went to the nursing home. Visited Granny. Complimented her on her GINORMOUS YARN DOILIES! Got in the car and headed home.

....

HAHA gotcha. Headed home? No no, that would have been far too easy. Nope we stopped off at Primary Children's Hospital first because my mom is the Relief Society President (in charge lady) and her Bishop's son was having surgery. They were removing his spleen. He's 2. It's really sad. As I mentioned I'm scared of hospitals. I don't know what it is about them, well actually I do know what it is about them. I know exactly but I'm not going to get into that. Anyway, we went to visit and I stayed on the first floor and read my book and tried to avoid eye contact with anyone. Having not eaten all day I raided the gift shop for candy bars which caused my blood sugar to sky rocket and then plummet about an hour later. So much more suckiness in that little event, but this post is already plenty long. Another few hours of car silence and then we really were home. Except for the stop at McGrath's Fish House where I got the Seafood Alredo, with raw scallops. No, I didn't order them raw. The cook just decided I needed a little food poisoning to top off my weekend. Thank you very little.

The suckness continues. In fact yesterday was one of the worst days I've had in MONTHS as far as the depression goes. I locked myself in my bathroom and cried for awhile before my dad finally came and gave me hugs. That however will have to wait til tomorrow (maybe) because it's still too fresh and I'm still too pissed. I'll just say, I'm not a fish, and I don't appreciate the analogy.

Today's thing I learned: Immersing yourself in school and work when things suck is a very nice escape.

Now I'm off to home, where the sucking happens.

Listy Listness

2006-01-24T15:29:00.000-07:00

Have you ever:

Eaten something you thought was going to be great only to find out it was terrible then not had anywhere to spit it out?

Eaten something you thought was going to be terrible only to find out it was great then crave it?

Realized your teacher was giving you the same lecture he gave last week and wondered if he really is or if that was a parallel universe because it doesn't seem to be bothering anyone else?

Gone to the store to get a new blow dryer because the other one 'SPLODED!! and come out of the store with 20 bucks worth of junk food and no blow dryer?

Received a movie in the mail (Sons of Provo, if you're mormon, have been a mormon, or know any mormon's you'll laugh out loud) from DeeVeeDees.com that you didn't order? It's not Christmas, it's not my birthday, but apparently someone likes me. So uhm, thanks great cosmic gift giverer...

Dreamed that the doorbell was ringing and got out of bed to answer the door at 6:00 in the morning?

Had a dream that you were going to marry Fred Savage?

I HAVE!

Do you get:

The overwhelming urge to smack the kid sitting behind you because he's breathing to loud?

Confused at non meat products that are named after meats? For instance Meatless Meatballs....Then they wouldn't be meatballs would they? They'd just be balls.

Addicted to things easily? Like TV shows, certain foods, and people.

Really sad when something you cook ends up sucking?

Annoyed when people correct you?

Stubborn about stupid things that will more likely damage a friendship than prove your rightness and therefore your coolness?

I DO!

Will you ever:

Hold a Moth, grasshopper, or beatle?

Sleep with the door open?

Enjoy waking up in the hairy ass crack of dawn?

Eat Oysters?

Stop holding grudges?

Be able to sleep without a snuggle?

Watch reality TV?

Be able to trust after being hurt?

I WON'T!

Do you:

Love to cook?

Love to eat? (but strangely don't enjoy what you cook)

Still dream about ex boyfriends even though they suck?

Get panicky when you wake up somewhere other than your bed?

Feel like you don't belong more often than not?

Want to get plastic surgery to fix your chinlessness because everytime you see a picture of yourself you cringe?

Hate people to touch your feet?

Feel like this couldn't possibly be the life you were meant for?

I DO!!

And there ya have it. Sometime this week I'll have to tell you guys about the trip to see the grandparents... it was sucktastic.

Ugh....

2006-01-20T12:36:00.000-07:00

I've been doing ACTUAL WORK all morning (gasp) and I need a moment to myself.

Remember that time when Boo, Kodi, Kiri and I all went to Vegas to meet Patrice, Sean, Trent, and Bella and I never blogged about it? Me too!! So here goes. A quickie since ya'll have already read up on the details. (Anybody else notice that I've been saying ya'll a lot lately?)

Driving with Boo is always freakin hilarious. She sings at other drivers, cusses up a storm, gets relatively lost relatively often, and always comes up with the best car games. My favorite this trip was one where you say an actor's name then the next person has to either say an actor with the same first or last name or a movie that actor's in, then the next person has to say an actor with the same first or last name or a movie they're in or another actor in the same movie. It's fun, and I WON! I never win Becky games, it was great.

Upon reaching Vegas I got to be the one to call and check in with Patrice. Lucky me. Everyone had been a little anxious, including me, but after that 30 seconds on the phone I was at ease. I hung up and just said Aw, she's so nice! Then I got very excited for lunch. Which was good. Deep fried pickles ya'll, damn. I'm going to make them. SOON. Sweet Apple Iced tea, very yummy, but the apple garnish was so sour it made my eyes water, and a Pork Caesar Salad. Which was nothing like what I expected it to be, but OK.

Lunch was so chillaxed. It was nice to just hang out and eat. Our waitress bugged me for some reason, perhaps because of the rampant mamming, honeying, and sweethearting. Just trying to be nice blah blah whatever, it gets old. I couldn't wrap my head around all the conversation. I'm kind of an observer by nature anyway, I'd rather just sick back and take it all in. Becky and Patrice just acted like old friends who hadn't seen each other since High School. Sean was such a nice attentive daddy/husband/person. Trent was a total doll, every time I opened his mouth I thought "wait wait, how old are you again?" and Bella was freakin adorable! She was like bottled cuteness.

None of us were exactly ready to part ways but none of us really knew what to do in Vegas for a couple hours before the Utahns had to head home so, since none of you have read anybody else's retelling I'll tell you. We went back to the Paris and wandered for a bit. A big bronze man statue of Captain Morgan scared the crap out of me and Kiri. We found the East siders and wandered some more then Boo, Patrice, and Kodi gambled while Trent, Bella, Kiri, Sean and I went a lookin. I think we circled the entire building twice. Me holding a sleepy Bella who was all snuggly and SO GOOD. Not once did she get fussy or annoyed. Well she was probably really annoyed, just being polite. We went to the Queen store. Have I mentioned that I really like Queen, and David Bowie, and etc... Anyway I also have an obsession with crowns and other royal parafanalia (blog spell checker doesn't know how to spell that either) and everything was 50% off. Oh my credit card started humming the minute I walked in the door. Luckily I made it out relatively debt free with an awesome pink hat and ya know, my dignity and whatever.

Sadly we soon parted ways. With nothing but our memories, a pink hat, 100 extra smackers, and a new love for deep fried pickles. Anyways, to the Patrice Clan, you guys are the coolest.

Today's thing I learned: Blogger spellcheck doesn't know how to spell Blogged, or blog, or spellcheck.... hehe.

Chicken Marsala

2006-01-19T21:07:00.000-07:00

For dinner tonight I tried my hand at Chicken Marsala. An interesting choice since I had never even tasted it and had no idea what I was going for, it was my parents request. It was pretty darn tasty if I do say so myself. I had to buy a 1/2 gallon bottle of Marsala wine because that's the only size our liquor store carries so I'll have to make this again. Plus it tasted good. I got the recipe here and, as is my habit tweaked it. Here's the revised ingredients list with my tweakings:

4 small boneless skinless chicken breast halves (1 lb.) (I didn't do this but I suggest you do, pound the chicken a little to thin it out, you could also cut them in half again)
1 Tbsp. oil
1-1/2 cups sliced mushrooms
1 medium onion, chopped
2 clove garlic, minced
3/4 cup dry Marsala wine (mom and dad both said it still could have used more)
2/3 cup chicken broth
1 Tbsp. cornstarch (The sauce was a little thin, just add more til it reaches the consistency you like.
1/2 tsp. salt
2 cups MINUTE White Rice, uncooked (I just used Uncle Ben's boil in bag)
2 Tbsp. chopped fresh parsley (which I forgot but suggest.)
Mom and Dad both found it necessary to add pepper to their helping of chicken (ouch my cook's pride) but I thought it was great the way it was.

It was really good. I don't know how it was compared to chicken marsala from anywhere else cuz like I said I've never had it anywhere else. But definitely really yummy. I served it with a green salad with red grapes and parmesan and Kraft Caesar vinaigerette dressing, and garlic bread. Which I stuck in the broiler and promptly forgot about, succeeding in burning three pieces to a crisp and actually setting the fourth one on fire. Not having a good cook day. I also tried zabaglione for dessert with fresh raspberries but the eggs scrambled instead of custarding and I ended up throwing it out and we just had whipped cream (that wouldn't whip) and raspberries. The meal was pretty good even with the set backs.

Tiramisu Cheesecake Parfait...

2006-01-19T20:48:00.000-07:00

...Thingie...

Sooo, ya'll saw the picture already and I wasn't 100% impressed but the Boo liked it and my mom liked it even if it was "heavy", hence the cheesecake, and I layered it in a pretty bowl instead of in a pan, hence the parfait. It was helluh easy, and pretty good, though next time I try Tiramisu I'll do the more traditional version. Here's the recipe just in case you're interested:

1 1/2 cups hot water
3 1/2 tsps instant coffee powder (I used decaf)
1/2 cup marscapone cheese (I know, only half a cup? Next time I'll use the whole tub)
1 (8 ounce) pkg cream cheese, softened (The recipe I tweaked called for fat-free but I never bother with the stuff.)
2 tbsp darkbrown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 pkgs lady fingers (or an angel food cake cut up in chunks, but I suggest lady fingers or savoiardi)
2 tsps cocoa powder

1) Dissolve instant coffee in hot water. Chill in refrigerator.
2) Combine mascarpone and cream cheese in mising bowl. Beat until smooth. Add 2 tbsps coffee, dark brown sugat, white sugar, and vanilla. Mix well. Set aside.
3) Pour cold coffee into shallow 9x13 inch pan (Add a couple tablespoons of rum cuz that would be yummy). Quickly dip one side of lady fingers into coffee and layer in medium glass serving bowl. Spread half of cheese mixture on top. Sprinkle with half the cocoa powder. Repeat. (I threw in a few more lady fingers because I like them and I had extra coffee) Sprinkle with remaining cocoa. Cover and chill for at least three hours before serving.

This recipe was good, but if you're thinking "Hey I want some Tiramisu", it's probably not what you're looking for. If you're thinking "I want some fast and easy and semi impressive" then sure try it out.

Ya know it's my birthday two months from today....

2006-01-15T17:39:00.000-07:00

If you loved me you'd get me a real digital camera...

Hehehehe. In all reality I think I'm going to use some tax return moolah and get myself a nice digital camera. In the meantime here is a fuzzy strangely colored picture of my latest creation. Tiramisu. A recipe which after doing some research I came up with. Ok, not entirely true, I just tweaked the hell out of an existing recipe, whatever don't steal my thunder. Anyhoo. I'll post the recipe later, after I eat it and know it doesn't suck :)

The Boys are Back in Town

2006-01-12T17:44:00.000-07:00

I went back to school this week. Hooray! I was getting really bored. But now schools in again and all is well with the world, except for the fact that I'm going to be reading for the rest of my life. Here's a quickie:

First things first, Monday Wednesday Friday at 9:00 I have Intro to Criminal Justice. My teacher was a cop in the LA area for like 20 billion years and has lots of war stories and is a hard ass. I have no idea whether I'll like that class or not. He made a big point of the fact that he starts class PROMPTLY and that we are expected to be prepared for class PROMPTLY. OK, I understand that in the big bad real world you have to be on time for things and there's rules and blah blah blah, but here's a little somethin about me. My first class of the day could be at 3 and I'd still be late. I could wake up at 6 o'clock and get ready and be sitting outside the door waiting for class to start and at 8:59 I'd have to get up and pee or something. It's like anti genetic, my parents are both freaks about being on time for things so I'm the exact opposite. On time is not in my vocabulary. Maybe I'll have to ask my buddies at work to wind his clock back a few minutes :).

Then I go to work for a couple hours where I work work, file file, balance balance. Unfortunately I don't blog, I am actually TOO BUSY. That's right folks, I actually work at work now. Oh and shop, because I got my boss hooked on silverjewleryclub.com too and yeah it's really that cheap. I got my first shipment today and I love my earrings and the ring I bought is really pretty but too big for any of my fat little fingers. A strange occurence indeed.

After work I haul ass to my Public Relations class. I don't know why I insist on hauling ass to PR. My teacher certainly doesn't haul anything. Where my CJ teacher is Mr. Prompt my PR teacher is Mr. Laidback. He's from Saaaaaoooouth ya seeee, and things are slowwwwer in the Saaaaooooouth. So he's habitually 7 minutes late for class every day the proceeds to hold us over 10 minutes to get through all the course material. He gave us our first homework assignment yesterday and said "Don' aaaaaask me whuddI wont, juuust gimme whuddI wont." Uhm K... He's a pretty nice guy though, if a little full of himself.

Then it's back to work and then home where I read. Because my teachers don't lecture on what's on the test, the stuff in the book is what's on the test and why should they waste their time talking about what's gonna be on the test when we can just read it.. Uhm K...

Tuesday and Thursday I have Business in Society which is turning out to be my fave class. The teacher is funny and smart and asks good questions and keeps things interesting. And I feel like I know what I'm talking about in that class. The kid that sits next to me is gonna get smacked though. He's a fidgetter. Today he tapped his pencil on the desk for an hour and a half. He's lucky that pencil didn't end up down his throat. We may have to have words. I realize that it may not be appropriate in society to snatch some kids pencil out of his hands and throw it across the room. People may think you're crazy. "What's with the chick that always wears the sweaters and her anger issues?" Well ppllllffffbbbtt, "What's with the crazy kid in the front row that wears too much jewelry and the incessant pencil tapping?" Huh?? WHAT ABOUT HIM??

After business it's the class that I thought I'd love, but don't. I like it, but I can't say I love it. Intro to imaginative literature, sounds fun right? I get to read Fantasy Lit for credit. Some of it I'm sure I'll like more than others. However, we don't get participation points, we get skill points. Like Dungeons and Dragons. Uhm...K. I am by far in the minority of the class since I don't think that I was a sorceress in another life, I don't recall ever doing battle with a dragon, and I can't recite the entire House of Elderon from memory. And I am only exaggerating a teeny tiny bit. The one girl in that class I thought I managed to befriend because she didn't appear to crazy, just informed me that she remembered me from one of her past lives and that she just knew we were going to be best friends. Of course in this past life we were Celtic warriors and I was the most vicious of us all and I was covered in tattooes from head to toe. One good thing though, we walked past Rob today on our way out of class and she's convinced he's not from this world. Don't get me wrong I definitely believe in the mystical on some level and who knows she could be right. Maybe I did slaughter more men with my big burly axe than anyone else on the battlefield...somehow I think not.

Anyway, this semester should at the very least prove to be interesting blog fodder.

Today's thing I learned: Rob's an alien. I always kinda had a feeling...

Counter Bitching

2006-01-05T12:44:00.000-07:00

K so this is my third post in 24 hours. I spend WAY too much time on the internet. Oh well. I thought to get away from the general crapiness that was yesterday's later post I would do a list of my favorite things and the things that make me happy, etc...

The color red. Red is my friend.
Pretty new jewelry to make myself my feel better (like the garnet ring I just bought myself to match the earrings I bought yesterday)
Chai Tea. Cuz it's warm and yummy and you can't stay grumpy when you're sipping it.
My Burt's Bees zit stick. Cuz yesterday I had a HUGEMONGOUS zit, and today I have a medium zit, and maybe tomorrow it'll be gone.
My new hair color. And the cool flippy thing my hair is doing today. If it weren't for the big ol' zit I'd totally take a picture for you guys.
Peanut M&M's
My new job.
My new purple bathroom. Even if the edges are kinda crappy, I did it myself and I'm very proud.
Mary Engelbreit
Reading recipes and finding something I wanna try and then trying it and having it be really good.
My camera phone.
Puppies, when I get a puppy I'm gonna name her Trixie and I want her to be one of these or one of these.
My new leather coat.
Frog stuff
Blogging

There ya go, I feel better now. :)

What is WRONG with me?

2006-01-04T21:15:00.000-07:00

Time for a rehash... If you haven't read this, you might want to so you can keep up. For those of you (my sweet sisters) who are so tired of this they want to rip their eyes out to keep from reading yet another entry about the rat bastard...well, stop reading.

Ean, the rat-bastards name is Ean, and since I first saw him in the 7th grade I was crazy about him. Really crazy, like not in the good warm fuzzies cherubs crazy, like we would break up and one of us would eventually go running back to the other "because we loved each other" when really it was because he was safe, and we were never good for each other. I was always trying to make him something he could never be and he always wanted me to be someone I wasn't.

It's been over a year! It all hit the fan in August of 2004, they got married in October 2004, she had her baby (not his) in March 2005. And up until about 20 minutes ago I was absolutely fine. Then my friend Crys gave me the link to her Christmas pictures. Hi Crys, 15 out of 17 were great. However lucky number 13 and 14, SUCKED ROTTEN DONKEY ASS! There I was cruising along checking out pictures of her fam and BOOM out of nowhere I am face to face with the rat bastard himself. And not just the rat bastard. The whole rat bastard family. Evil hoe beast and the poor unfortunate child that gets to call her mommy were there too. Then I got sad. Not debiltating stay in bed for a week sad, but there were tears.

I mean it's bad enough I saw them on Christmas Eve in all their domestic holiday bliss, just throw in the family Christmas pic for fun. I swear it's not that I want to be the girl on his arm holding the baby. I don't want that with him. I just want it, and it's not fair that they have it and I don't. And it's also not fair that it still matters. He hurt my feelings, more than that he broke my heart and didn't even have the decency to let me in on it, so why do I still care anything about him? AT ALL? Tell me oh great cosmic void!! Ya know what Mr. Void, never mind, I know why, it's because we're all just ants under a magnifying glass to you and you like to make us feel like we're safe and healthy one minute then put the heat back on to hear us scream. Sicko.

Today's thing I learned: Oh I wish I would have learned something from this little episode... Any thoughts?

Look what I got!!

2006-01-04T16:41:00.000-07:00

For myself...foooooor VALENTINES DAY!! Yeah that's it. Aren't they purty?? So here's what you do, go here and wait. Every fifteen minutes they have a new piece of jewelry up. Sometime's it's ugly jewelry, sometimes it's pretty jewelry It's always sterling silver, my fave. Today I got lucky and scored some pretty jewelry. So what's the big deal you ask? It's FREE well, except for S&H which is like 6 bucks. I'm excited. It's addictive. I'll let you know in a week or two about the catch, cuz yeah, there probably is one. But maybe not. It might just be cool. THANKS NATE!

Today's thing I learned: Uhm...see above.

Happy freakin New Years

2005-12-31T22:11:00.000-07:00

So here I am. 10:08 New Years Eve. Blogging. That's right folks. I'm here ready to spend that momentous millisecond between 2005 and 2006 with you. What's that you say? Why doesn't a hotty bo botty like me have big plans tonight? Shouldn't I be out somewhere beating all the hot boys off with a stick? Well, one would think so wouldn't one. Apparently all the hot boys failed to get the memo. So I'm ... where I was last year if I remember correctly. At MissuzJ's watching the tikes. It's tradition I suppose. According to my mother I am GOING to have a date for New Years next year. Of course I was GOING to have a date for New Years this year too. There's something about this holiday that just down right depresses me. Not like Valentine's Day depresses me but still. Perhaps it's the idea that I'm looking a whole year right in the face. Shouldn't I have something poignant to say? If I had an interview with the old man who is 2005 and he asked me what I did with his 365 days what could I tell him? I started blogging and made a lot of new friends. I lost my job. I started two new jobs. I went back to school. I survived going back to school. I got over the evil scum bag. I got my first real crush since getting crushed. I got over my first real crush since getting crushed before he could crush me. I gained a wonderful new respect for myself. I grew. As for 2006, I have no idea. More school, more work, more friends. Maybe even more crushes. I turn 23 in 3 and 1/2 months and I am SO not in the place I thought I'd be at 23. If 2004 asked me what I was going to do with the time he gave me I would have been dead wrong. So, rather than end with a list of the things I hope to accomplish in 2006, I'll just say "Bring it on Biotch, I can take it".

Breathe a big sigh of relief.

2005-12-28T12:32:00.000-07:00

Christmas is over! Don't get me wrong. I like Christmas. There was just waaaaay to much stress associated with December this year. I kept waiting for something else to happen. So far nothing of note. Knock on wood. My grandma had a hip replacement the week before Christmas and since she has no tolerance for pain she kept telling the doctors her pain level was a 10 (it goes to 11!!!) so they kept medicating her, a little morphine, a little lortab, an empty stomach... Yeah grandma was in a cloud for a couple days. I guess they couldn't wake her up one morning so they called my grandpa and just about gave him a stroke. The drama... but she's awake, and finally out of the hospital and my mom went up north to take care of her, leaving dad and I to entertain ourselves.

We went to King Kong last night. It was pretty good, but just a quick note to Peter Jackson, because I'm that cool and he totally reads my blog... Trim the fat!!! 3 hours!! Did it have to be three hours?? No sir it did not. And I am not one of those I hate a movie because it's too long type people. I like long movies. Just not three hour movies that feel like six hour movies. I swear it took them a year just to get to the freakin island in the first place. If you must create an epoch, which I get it, the epoch is your thang. But take a cue from Cecil B. Demille and have an intermission. Thanks! ~Katy. Once things got going it was better though. Scary native people...like really really scary native people. Dinosaurs, whatever I can handle dinasouars... GIGANTIC BUGS!!! That is some freaky shit! Ya'll know how I feel about crickets. I freakin hate em!! And there were crickets the size of border collies trying to eat Adrian Brody's face!! Don't try and eat Adrian Brody's face Mr. Giant Cricket. This is the first movie I actually thought he was hot in... MMM Adrian Brody.... Sorry, maybe it's been too long since I went on a date.

Speaking of dates. Handsome Rob is a big fat dumb ass. Except he's not that fat at all. And his ass is actually kind of nice. Let me recap quickly since I said I'd tell you the new Handsome Rob story like 2 weeks ago. Had a little chat with Crazy Holly a couple weeks ago. Apparently Rob misses me. He was asking how I was, what was new in my life, blah blah blah. Then he went on to say that he thought I "liked him more than he intended" and that he had decided it would be best to just stay away from me because he didn't want to hurt my feelings. Yeah, that sounds logical. First, people always have a say in how much someone else likes them. When starting a relationship one always thinks to themselves, "Let's see...I think I'll keep this one at a 3...and this one at a 5." Yeah, feasible. Second, if you don't want to hurt someone's feelings the smart thing is to just stop calling. That way they're hurt and confused because it's always better to be sad and not know why. Idiot. So I had decided that Rob was dumb and just to let him think whatever stupid thoughts made him glad. But then he stopped with his little disappearing act and now I don't know what to do with him. Do I be mad, do I ignore him, do I try and salvage some sort of friendship? I'm not gonna do anything. If he wants to be my friend it's going to have to be his call. Wow, I sound bitchy, I'm blaming the crimson yuletide.

So for Christmas aside from getting confused, I got some cooooool stuff. My mom and dad/Santa got me a really nice leather jacket, a wall calendar, a desk calendar, an SUU sweatshirt and hat, a silpat!! (which will come in handy this summer but that's another story) some new slippers, and probably some other super cool stuff that I'm forgetting. I got them a couple of movies, some new pictures for the beautiful new bedroom set, and my dad the tiki head thing which UPS dropped off yesterday, and a brainteaser a day desk calendar. Big sis Mandy gave me the same calendar as my mom (yeah I'm just that predictable :)) and her kids gave me the Christmas Fairy which is an adorable little story book. I gave them CD's, an outdoor wind chime thingy that was a bitch to wrap, and Clark got a desk calendar (calendars are my generic gift for people that have me at a total loss. sorry clark). Becky gave me some most adorable fairies that are currently perched on my home computer waiting for me to get back to my book. She also got a wind chime, Sophie got a CD, Janzen got the Big Book of Everything Nasty, and Erik got movie passes (my other generic gift). Brother Jon sent me a gift certificate to Williams & Sonoma WOO HOO!! And I sent them a cute little statue that reminded me of them and their puppies got a picture frame :). I also got some very cool queen stuff, two new comfy blankies, my third copy of "He's Just Not That Into You" someone's trying to tell me something...and the sequel to HJNTIY, "It's Called a Breakup Because it's Broken" I apparently scream for relationship self help books. Oh yeah! And if your the board game type, I suggest Imaginiff. We got it for Janzen this year and it's way fun. You'll probably want to tweek the rules a bit but still great. And in case you were wondering, Sophie's Lellow. That's important. Ok, I've rambled long enough. Whoa, it's almost 1:30, time to go to lunch.

Today's thing I learned: Boo called me a couple hours ago to cement our plans for New Years. I'm hanging out with Janzen and Sophie so they can go play. When Becky told Sophie I was coming over for New Years Sophie somehow decided it was going to be a Kwanzaa Party. Complete with Bongoes and Kwanzaa cookies. Any thoughts on Kwanzaa cookies?? Anyone?

Letter from Santa

2005-12-23T16:14:00.000-07:00

Well, one of the gifts I ordered online hasn't made it quite yet. It was a one of these for my dad. He thinks they're great. Oh, I hope he doesn't read my blog. Dad! Stop reading!!! Anywho, I'm wrapping a box of kleenex with a picture of the thingy taped to the top of it and the following letter from Santa:

Dear Ray,

As Santa I get asked the same questions every year. Can I have a pony? Have I been good this year? Aren’t you worried about your cholesterol? My most frequently asked question is how do you visit all the kids in the whole world in one single night. Well my friend, because you’ve been such a good boy this year, I’m going to tell you. It used to be a LOT harder. Trying to convince those reindeer that they can’t have their egg nog breaks isn’t easy, let me tell you! But then one day one of my elves was trying to reach something on the top shelf and fell and hit his head and he discovered the Sugar Plum Continuum. All we had to do was soup up the old sleigh a little and we could have all the time in the world.

So there I was, high above the earth, cruising along in my new and improved Sleigh 5000, ahead of schedule for the first time in years, when suddenly, I hit a rift in the Sugar Plum Continuum. I know what you’re thinking…Santa can’t drive. It’s not true though! I’ve been driving that sleigh a long looooooong time and nothing like this has ever happened before. I think there must have been some sort of imbalance in the binary brittle belt. Anywho! Let’s just say the United States Postal Service lost your Easter Island tissue box. That way I won’t have to listen to Mrs. Clause go on about how there way “nothing wrong with the old way of doing things” blah blah blah. Anyway, the “Post Office” should get everything straightened out soon enough. In the mean time I ran to Wal-Mart (on Christmas Eve…scary) and got you this handy dandy replacement until the original shows up. Hope you don’t mind I used your computer.

So I better get going! Lots of good little boys and girls left to visit!

Merry Christmas to all and….oh whatever,

S. Clause

P.S. Isn’t that Katy of yours such a treasure? She’s top on my good list every year…

Quick while the boss isn't looking...

2005-12-21T11:58:00.000-07:00

I got my internet friend back!! Hooray!

I've officially changed jobs, kinda. Now I'm working for the business management chick instead of the everybody's secretary chick. I'm busy busy. Hopefully though, very soon, we will have gotten through the big fat stack o filing and things will calm down a little. Not that they're crazy or anything, I'm just transitioning to actually having something to do!! However, since we are lacking in general student secretaries, I'm still doing my old job too. I think I'm the only student employee working for FM right now. But I get way more hours and the days go by way faster so it's good.

The Christmas madness is kind of at its peak right now. Mom's home cooking, I'm handing out gifts at work and getting gifts back. So far my haul is a fuzzy blanket, some lotion, a back of EXCELLENT chocolate dipped pretzels. The kind that make you wanna cry when you've eaten the last one... and my fabulous new boss Julie gave me Dear Frankie. Which I love!! Christmas gets strange after about 12. This year I pretty much know what I'm getting from everybody. Thanks in part to Sophie handing me my present and saying "This is for you, can you guess what it is? IT'S FARIES!!!" I also went Christmas shopping with my mom where she bought most of my stuff. I don't know what I'm getting from Mandy, but Jon called me and basically said "I'm not sure what it is yet but it's going to be from Williams and Sanoma." I hope I don't sound like I'm complaining about the lack of the surprise factor. I totally don't care. I'm just making an observation.

This week my kitchen is basically in a shambles. Christmas is not a very clean time. There's more stuff everywhere but still no place to put it. If you're home (at least if you're a Smith) you're cooking. And there's little bits of ribbon and paper floating around everywhere. Plus all the neighbor crap. "Yay...more popcorn/chocolate/candy. I'll just put it over here with all the other popcorn/chocolate/candy. Thanks...." Last night I was home alone and got caroled. Awkward a little? Yessum. There I am by myself standing with the door open watching these people wish me a Merry Christmas while freezing their butts off. And there were only two carollers. What does one do? Does one invite them in to view ones messy kitchen? Does one smile and close the door so they may move on? Or does one just stand their awkwardly hoping they only sing one verse. Well that's what this one did. Then they handed me a little bag of peanut brittle (insert "yay more candy") and went on their way. In case I failed to mention. Becky, Sophie, Mom and I made candy Sunday and Monday. Toffee, caramels, peanut clusters, almond bark, and yeah, peanut brittle. I just about gave them a bag of peanut brittle back so the balance of brittle didn't shift.

So we're up to our eyeballs in food, sweet food, in fact I think I grew five new cavities yesterday. I tried to pawn some of the candy off on my work folks but only two of them took anything and that was ONE piece. I was pretty annoyed when I got home yesterday. In my little world when someone offers you homemade you take a piece, have a bite and smile. Even if you walk down the hall and throw the rest away, at least have the decency to fake it! It's the season of GIVING people, you're not letting me GIVE! I had planned on bringing some good snackies tomorrow, cheese ball, caramel chex mix, and Julie was going to bring a couple things too, but I don't think I will now. I may bring a cheeseball and just eat it myself...

OOH I almost forgot. Grades are in! I rocked!!! I got an A in Computer Systems, and communications. B's in Statistics and Library Media, and a B+ in Biology. WOO HOO!!!! I'm thrilled.

Well my little friends, I better go do some work now before the boss lady gets back! If I don't blog before then, have a Holly Jolly Christmas!!!!

I just said basically like 100 times in one post. Sorry.

Well that's what you get

2005-12-13T20:42:00.000-07:00

When you haven't blogged for a week things tend to pile up. I'll try not to ramble but it's me...and I do...so I probably will.

Last week sucked ass. Monday sick, Tuesday sick but still had to drag self to Stats, Wednesday sick with my first final (I still kicked ass with 97/100) Thursday sick, but again dragged myself to Stats because I had to hand in my final project which I did through the haze so hopefully it doesn't suck too bad, Friday yep, you guessed it sick. Here is a short list of things that happen when you're that sick for that long, at least if you happen to be me:

1. You develop insomnia for the next week because you slept for 5 days.
2. You don't get around to the oodles of Holiday baking you had planned on.
3. Making banana bread wears you out.
4. You lose 7 pounds in 5 days (woo hoo!! Just in time for the holiday hoge fest)
5. You end up grounding yourself from Food Network because you're having dirty dreams about a couple of the hosts. I loves Tyler Florence.
6. Having grounded yourself from Food Network you start alternating between Cartoon Network and Disney Channel.
7. You watch Moonstruck thrice.
8. You start adding up all the money you're not making just in time for the holiday spend spree.

So this week I went back to work and school and though I'm still coughing, a LOT, I feel human again. I do kinda miss breathing through my nose though... Work is... well, I'm not gonna talk about work cuz I don't wanna get Dooced, we'll just say, it's been a bit of a challenge lately. About the best thing I can say about school is that it's almost OVER!!!!! I'm done with two finals, the first I kicked butt on. The second more kicked my butt, and tomorrows will be a piece of cake. Then the bio final on Thursday then THE END! Yay. I think I'm gonna get myself a haircut to celebrate. I could ramble on some more, but I think I'll save the new Handsome Rob story for tomorrow. Silly boy.

Today's thing I learned: That's the joy of school being over, I don't have to learn anything.

Takin it easy

2005-12-06T11:20:00.000-07:00

K, I went to the doctor last night. I have bronchitis, strep throat, and an ear infection. So he gave me some cough syrup and some antibiotic samples since I don't have insurance. I don't know about the antibiotic though, last night after I took it I had my own little encounter with the sick bowl. That could have been just the fact that I hadn't eaten all day because it hurt to swallow and then I had a bowl of soup so my stomach wasn't prepared for the onslaught. I don't know. But today I'm feeling better. My fever is down from the 102.2 it was yesterday and I can actually stay upright for more than 10 seconds. I'm not going to work today but I have to go to Stats to see what to do about my project. Other than that I'm staying in bed.

Thank you all for your concern.