Hot Chocolate and Cookies, Yum

I am done with aiding Christmas shoppers in their frantic state of manic "holy moly I haven't even bought a single gift and only have TWO shopping days left!" gift grabbing. I luckily am not on the work schedule until 6pm on the 26th so I have relocated myself to B-town for Merry Ho-Ho festivities. In fact, I've been here for about an hour and am half way watching White Christmas with Dad. It's great, I walked in the door and had hot chocolate waiting for me! I should totally come home more often.

My drive down was a breeze, though without any breeze as far as I could tell. I took my newly found short-cut to the 166 (saves me about 8 miles by not driving east to the 99) and I barely saw anyone until I got to 101. But even on the 101 there wasn't as much traffic as I expected. Maybe everyone was over at the mall and Best Buy shopping center stressing out and driving store employees batty with their silly questions. "Do you have more of the big gift baskets with all the cool Bath & Body Works stuff in it?" "Why yes we do have more of the really cool gift baskets but decided to hide them in the back since empty displays look so nice and we thought it'd be fun to see you stress out..." I understand why they ask but when half the tables of the special items and gift baskets in the store are very bare, you gotta assume that it's for a reason. We have at least ten people working and only five registers so whoever isn't working the registers is filling displays as quickly as possible, if we have the product left. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind answering customer's questions and helping them find something that suits their needs but there are only so many times that I can say "yes, all the items on the table that says 50% Off are in fact, 50% off."

Yesterday when I was working the sales floor (I've mainly been at the register) I had a lady asking me if we had any gift bags for sale. I pointed out our large selection of bags and boxes which were 50% off and she turned to me, winked, and said "you can give these to me for free?" Uh, sorry miss fancy designer (non-knock-off) purse, you can't afford a bag that is not on sale for 50 cents!? Even I can spring for a fifty cent bag! Then she asks if we have tissue paper and I told her that we did (we use it to wrap breakables) and could give her a few sheets if she needed it. I ended up helping at the register when she came up to pay and she proceeded to ask again if I would give her the gift boxes for free, the equivalent of three packs of tissue for free, a roll or our ribbon (we use it when we gift wrap items in cellophane) for free, and the expensive item that's barcode isn't scanning for free. Each time she winks at me (not like a kidding wink, but a I won't tell if you hook me up wink) when asking and leans in a little bit in anticipation of my answer. Which of course, was a (very forced) polite 'no' each time. I mean, if she'd just joked once that the item that won't scan is free I'd have laughed and joked back, but the persistent attempting to score free merchandise really irked me.

I'm glad that I finished my Christmas shopping early. Though I still had to give myself an extra 15-20 minutes just to find a parking space when going to work. It took me 10 minutes one day to get from the road the mall is on into the parking lot. I was at the point where I'd be yelling out my window to people asking them if they were leaving and slowing following people as they walk down the parking lanes. I just got so tired of circling and getting the spot I was driving towards or waiting for poached by soccer moms. And there's a limited area in which employees park, especially when working evenings, so those rare spaces were like gold. We all try to park in a certain range so that we can all walk out together at night and aren't too far from the hallway we exit from.

Ok, I have to end this especially derailed train of thought entry because Rascal keeps scolding me. He is ready to go to sleep now and I need to get into bed so he can sleep on me.
Loves.

Making Spirits Even Brighter!

You must must must watch this elf video. Mom made this one and it's totally how we spend each Christmas after we've finished building and wrapping all the gifts.
Loves.

Survey Says...

I found this and thought it'd be kind of fun to do seeing as it's totally that holly jolly time of year. Is my Christmas excitement annoying yet? Think so? Just you wait. I think I'm making up for the fact that it doesn't really feel like Christmas time to me. Snippets of my day do but I don't feel like it's only 6 days away. So, here's a holiday themed survey.

Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Hot Chocolate. Really, it has CHOCOLATE.

Does Santa wrap presents or set them under the tree? Sets them under the tree. The elves wrap the presents, Santa wouldn't be able to do much with all those (potential) paper cuts on his hands.

Colored lights on tree or white? Colored lights. White lights should only be used in moderation, or for lawn deer.

When do you put your decorations up? In the past, when Dad got around to it. hehe. This year about two weeks in advance.

What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? Ham. I love a good ham. Or our traditional scrambled egg breakfast.

Favorite Holiday memory as a child: Becca and I in our bunk beds listening for Santa when we went to bed on Christmas Eve.

When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? What truth about Santa? Oh, you mean that the mall Santa isn't the real Santa just a helper? Yeah, I learned that a long time ago, the parents and I discussed it.

Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Not normally. Would if it was cute PJ's to wear that night.

How do you decorate your Christmas tree? Very slowly. We now each put up about 5 ornaments then get bored and give up. At some point somebody gets tired of the nearly naked tree and the billions of boxes with all our ornaments sitting around and finishes the job.

Snow! Love it or Dread it? Love it. Probably because I don't know any better. Though I am dreading it a little bit because most the highways out of here were closed a few days ago because of snow. I want to be able to get home for Christmas easily.

Can you ice skate? No. But I can rollerblade. I've never tried to ice skate.

Do you remember your favorite gift? I don't remember a lot of my gifts from when I was little. More the excitement or the waiting for assembly.

What’s the most important thing about the Holidays for you? Being with my family and friends.

What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? Pie. It makes a wonderful breakfast.

What is your favorite tradition? Stockings, scrambled eggs, presents.

Which do you prefer, Giving or Receiving? Definitely giving. I love finding unique things that I think people will love. I don't like having to shop off of wish lists.

What is your favorite Christmas Song? I really like Baby It's Cold Outside.

Candy Canes! Yuck or Yum? Yum in hot chocolate.

Ever recycled a Christmas present? Yes, but it was a White Elephant gift.

I Get It From Dad

Seeing as we're getting closer to Christmas I thought I'd throw another festive post up here really quickly. Last week (when I had four days of nothing going on) I dedicated a day to wrap all my Christmas gifts, watch Disney movies (my traditional viewing when wrapping), and decorate my apartment a little bit. I think my need for putting up some Christmas lights comes from dad's need to compete with (and totally beat) the mad skills of Clark Griswold. Dad wins because he uses color lights and more decorations than Clark. Really, anyone can cover the entire surface area of their home with boring white lights and throw Santa and his reindeer on the front lawn. It takes a special type of skill and many evenings and weekends to strategically place all the different elements and make sure minimal fuses are blown when the lights are lit up. That and our Santa never gets launched into orbit by toxic fumes released by a crazy in-law... On that note, here is my festive decoration for the apartment.

I tried to put the lights up outside but there was no outlet available. Then I was thinking about plugging them in through my porch light on my patio but I didn't have an adapter to do so and Longs didn't have one when I bought my lights. So then I was going to hang them on the outside of these blinds so that it'd look festive inside and outside but I couldn't close my blinds then... But that's ok, this way I can be a little Grinch-like and not share my holiday light spirit. Muhahaha. Next, Max and I will go sledding.

I'm also including photos from Dad's decorating skills from last Christmas. Ah the fond memories of using more than two power-reliant items in my room at once only to blow the fuse then walking to the backside of the garage in the cold and dark to restore power... Apparently this year he is trying to eliminate such a threat of half-house blackout and is plugging some of the lights in through the back yard.

Six days until Christmas!
Loves.

I Want A Charlie Brown Tree This Year

I am totally in the mood for Christmas. In fact, I'm really into the whole winter season this year. Normally I just get into a holiday mood, not so much a seasonal mood, but I think I'm embracing my cold fingers this year. Last night I dug through my closet to find my gloves because my fingers were freezing! I figured that wearing my gloves would be more comfortable than sitting on my hands all evening. Plus it's difficult to read when sitting on your book which is in your hand. Difficult and uncomfortable.

I love iTunes because they give me two free Christmas songs a week every week after Thanksgiving. They've been doing this for a few years so I am getting a pretty good collection of holiday songs. I have a great range of artists from The Killers and Jimmy Eat World to Tony Bennett and Harry Connick, Jr. Right now I have about 30 songs on my computer (good mix of free and bought) and two more CDs somewhere in my stack of music. Once I transfer the songs from my computer to a CD I'll have non-stop music for my drive to and from B-town for the holidays.

I'm off of work all week (I'm not on the schedule until Friday) and tomorrow I am going to Longs to buy myself some Christmas lights so that I can have a festive patio like many of my neighbors. I also have to get some sort of adapter so that I can plug my lights in through the porch light out there. Maybe I'll even get myself a Christmas tree like Monk's. It's nice, no worrying about cleaning up fallen needles or remembering to water it. Cardboard cut-outs are great. But really, you can't beat the classic Christmas tree.

That's about it for now, I'm going to go find the rest of my Christmas music.
Loves.

Finally Facilitating Fragrance Finders in a Friendly Fashion

Yesterday was my first day of work. Finally! I've been waiting to be on the schedule or even to be used on any of my call-in shifts. I was scheduled to work from 3pm to 8pm with a possible extension to 10:30pm if it was busy. I had my VCR set to tape Ugly Betty and Grey's Anatomy, a Luna bar in my purse to snack on during my break and was ready to rock the sales floor. At Bath & Body Works they give us girls lockers to store our purses in so I got to fight with a silly combination lock for a few minutes after I got clocked in. You would think that after working at a bank that has two combination locks on the safes that I would be able to work the stupid things. But no, it took me about four attempts to get it open at the start of my shift and three and the end of it. I got my name tag made, apron on, and spy gear placed (ear piece and communication pack, very top secret like) before I stepped out onto the floor for a quick overview of the many specials and sales going on and then instructed as to what I'd be doing.

I was working the front half of the store greeting people, introducing Vanilla Noir the new fragrance, helping people find what they're looking for, giving bags to people with their arms full of merchandise, and straightening the displays. For a while foot traffic was kind of slow and the front of the store was so well stocked and straightened you would have thought we had not opened yet that day. Well, maybe it wasn't quite that organized but I had nothing else happening so I just kept making sure everything looked good. Later Suzanna, one of the managers, told me that she liked that I didn't just stand around if there weren't customers in the store. Go me! Even if I wasn't new and trying to impress them so they give me more hours, it bugs me when people think it's ok to be paid to do nothing. I've worked with a few people that thought it was ok to put off doing the work that needed to be done and I don't think it is fair to everyone else that they work with or the customers that it may end up affecting. The only thing that she said that I needed to work on was offering demos to customers. I just find it a little awkward just demonstrating a product on a customer but I figured out a way that I can easily offer the demo. Instead of something along the lines of "we have a new fragrance, Vanilla Noir, let me have you try the lotion..." I have been practicing "we have a new fragrance, Vanilla Noir, that I'd like to show you, would you like to try it or just smell it?" That way I'm giving them the choice to try that product but still making sure that they are introduced to it. That's right, along with my spy gear I was also wearing my thinking cap.

I had a few interesting customer interactions at work, the type that make you want to go back just to see what other situations you may have. I had one lady who kept asking me questions about the air freshening products that we offer. She wanted to know what she could use that isn't a plug in because she doesn't trust those and isn't a candle because she doesn't like to burn things. So, I told Anti-Pyro that we have room sprays that work nicely and have the travel ready air freshener which can be clipped or placed wherever she needs. So after talking to her for far to long about how she can make her apartment smell nice for the holidays she wandered toward the back half of the store to do more shopping. About five minutes later, Anti-Pyro walks back up to me and asks me how much our cashmere teddy bears are. I check the tag, let her know and she thanks me and walks back to the other end of the store. After that I start saying "let any of us know if you have any questions" rather than "let me know". Not that I minded helping her but she could have easily asked one of the three other girls working instead of walking all the way back up to me. Later this nice, chronologically advanced woman came into the store and told me that she was happy to have found us. Apparently a few years ago the store was downtown or something and she moved away when the store moved to the mall so she didn't think we were in the area anymore. I don't know, I was very confused I just know that she was happy to have been reunited with the store. I showed her Vanilla Noir and answered a question she had about one of the products then left her to browse when I checked on someone else. A few other times I helped her with stuff and when her bag was full and about to head up to the register to check out she walked over and asked me if I work on commission. I told her that I didn't but then wondered if she was asking because she wanted to give me credit or because I acted like I was looking for a sale. I am pretty sure it was because she liked me and the service I offered her and she wanted to give me credit for the sale if possible.

I also had this guy wander in who looked so lost. He was buying gifts for an exchange at his work and had no idea of what to get. I helped him out with some of the pre-made gift sets and you could see the relief on his face. I also had this guy who was shopping for his wife and had no idea about what was going on. I think he thought we were more like Sephora or somewhere that has more of skin care products rather than pamper yourself products. I asked him if he had any ideas and was trying to ask him open ended questions to get an idea of how I could help him with suggestions but he just wouldn't answer with anything helpful. Seriously the only thing I learned was he didn't want lotion and she has oily skin. I feel like I offered nearly everything possible but he just didn't seem interested. I felt like sending him to Longs or Rite Aid to just look in their skin care section.

My last interesting person was a grandmother shopping for her 12 year old granddaughter. She wanted to get her some fun lotions and lip glosses that are age appropriate so I showed her where our kids collection is and helped her pick out some lip glosses that were just shiny and glittery rather than adding color. The lip glosses are currently on sale for $5 each rather than their usual $7.50 so go get some for stocking stuffers and make the ladies happy. Sorry, couldn't help myself. So granny bought a handful of lip glosses, two kid lotions, two kid body sprays, mini seasonal hand sanitizers, and a pair of the softest socks in the world (also on sale!) for her granddaughter. I loved helping her and talking with her but I had a hard time freeing myself to check on other customers which I need to be able to do. Turned out that it wasn't too much of a problem because we weren't too busy otherwise and she ended up spending about $75 on all the stuff she bought. Our goal, in order to meet our sales goals, is to have something like 4 out of every 10 people that coming in to buy something and I think that of the people that I helped, probably 7 of every 10 ended up buying something. I doubt it was all me, but I like to think that I facilitated in some of those sales occurring.

So you would think that with such a successful sounding shift they would have needed me to stay until 10:30, right? Wrong. Even though people that were coming in were also leaving having purchased something, we were not getting a lot of people entering the store. Because of that they ended up sending me home at 6pm. So my shift that should have been five hours was only a smidgen over three. My training lasted longer than my first day of real work. So I am trying to find out if Color Me Mine is still interested in hiring me. I can't have a job that doesn't need me to work. Doesn't make for a very good paycheck nor does it keep me busy. I don't need to read through my Stuart Woods books that fast. Hopefully I'll have good news from them soon.

Sorry about the new record breaking long post. But I hope the alliteration aided in any agony.
Loves.

Hair! And I'm Not Talking About That Hippie Movie.

Yesterday I decided I would color my hair since I had nothing else going on. It's been a while since I've dyed my hair and I was ready for a little something different. I generally don't go too far from my natural color but I really like giving it a little somethin' somethin' every once and a while. I busted out my Clairol's Natural Whatever in Navajo Bronze that will wash out after about 28 shampoos and got to work staining my orange towel. Luckily I already knew that I would be ruining a towel so I used the oldest towel from my collection. Though now luckily little orange towel will get to play along any time I decide to color again. After I dyed my hair I let it air dry, again had nowhere to go so no need to blow dry, and a few hours later I went to check it out in the mirror. I try not to keep checking out the color as my hair drys because I like the final 'ta-da!' I get by seeing it wet (to make sure I only dyed my hair and not my head or ears) and then fully dry. This time my 'ta-da' moment was more of a 'ta-oh that's no fun' because apparently my natural hair color is very very close to Navajo Bronze (light caramel brown) so there is essentially no change in my hair color; it just looks a little glossier. I though it would warm up my color a little bit more and maybe give it just a little bit more of a darker brown. Oh well, next time I know not to go for light caramel brown, I need to go for medium or darkerish.

Tomorrow I am going to the dollar movie theater to go see Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist. It was one that I wanted to see and luckily I get to catch it for really cheap! I think there should be more theaters that play movies two seasons later than their release for only $1-$2. I haven't been to a movie at this theater yet but I have a feeling this may be a semi-regular outing.

Loves.

Psychology Major? Looks Like English To Me.

I just realized that my posts tend to be essays. I know I don't post terribly often but this may be some sort of disease. Maybe I should be an English major...

Making Spirits Bright

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Turkey Coma Is My Favorite Coma

Today was actually my second time leaving Buellton for Bakersfield this weekend. I was on the schedule at B&BW for call-in shifts for Friday and Saturday. If I have a call-in shift I am supposed to call about an hour and a half before the start time to see if they are busy and need me to come in to work. Since the drive from B-field to B-town is three hours I would have to call from the road, after having pulled over of course. I don't have a bluetooth for my cell phone and I'm not going to get a $100-ish ticket for using my phone and car at the same time.

Friday morning, later than I planned because I overslept (big surprise...), I left B-town with my lunch packed and ready to report to work. I figured that they were going to need everyone who is scheduled since it was Black Friday. I got to New Cuyama, about 1/2 way between the B's, pulled over near their market and called work to verify if they needed me. Turns out, they decided not to use my call-in. So I don't have to work, possibly, until Saturday at 5pm. Since it was nearly noon and I had my delicious mom-made turkey sandwich, I got comfy and had a lovely picnic listening to Maroon 5. I picnicked in my car because it was windy and cool outside! After my lunch I got back on the road and about an hour and a half later was back to B-town. Since I had an extra 24 hours or so and they had leftovers I decided to go back down for an extra day. I had been joking that I was just going to drive to New Cuyama for a picnic Friday and then go back and visit for an extra day and knew I had to stick with that plan. Plus the sky to the east looked less inviting than the sky in the west. It was nice being able to just hang out for one more day.

So today I packed up, with a killer case of deja vu, and left the house at about quarter to 2 and pulled off at New Cuyama to call B&BW to check if I was needing to come in for my call-in shift. Go ahead, guess what they said. Guess yet? Ok. They said that they would not be using my call-in today. Again! So guess what I did. I drove to... drumroll please! ... Bakersfield! I wasn't going to turn around again, that's just a ridiculous waste of gas, my time and I did need to feed Lavender. Bonus: the sky to the east didn't look scary today!

I got back from Buellton about two hours ago and it seems so quiet here. Not that it was loud at home but there were people there and a cat who was telling me all about how he is mistreated and forced to sleep on a bed smaller than his bed. And why did I take his bed away in the first place, it was working just fine, thank you much. But he was very excited that the air mattress was set up for his use while I was down there. So not only did he get a big bed back but his human pillow that he is so kind to share his bed with! His life is so rough. Haha

Thanksgiving was great. Mom cooked a delish meal and my Turkey Bingo turkey was so yummy! (Each year the Elks have a turkey bingo where the prizes are turkeys and I won last year!!! We've been going for years and this is the first time we've won.) I actually ate cranberry sauce this year, figured I had to try the dish that I made. Julia came up and it was great being able to see her, plus she brought the pies. She made pumpkin and apple and they were so good! I had brought down my Wii so we all ended up playing Wii Sports after dinner. We played tennis since we didn't want to kill ourselves after having eaten. Although towards the end of the night Becca and I did box each other and that was killer! We tied with two KO's each but I am going to say that I won, not only because it's my blog but also because she wouldn't fight a rematch to declare a winner. Ha!

Ok, I have to go find myself some dinner before it gets way too late.
Loves!

Cramming Those Silly Finals In

I have a long weekend! Well, I usually have a long weekend of three days but this week I get four whole days. I love an extra day off. Finals are this coming week and since I only have two classes with a final I manage to have Monday off. Yippee! I'm not sure how I managed it but out of my five classes I only have two classes that require a final. I like this, much nicer than community college. hehe I hope I am so lucky next quarter, although I only have three classes winter quarter so having two finals wouldn't be quite as big of a deal. Neither of my prerequisite psychology classes have a final and neither does my on-line jogging class. I still get a giggle out of the fact that I took jogging on-line. So my two classes with a final are History of Greece and Film Music. My music final should be fairly easy since it's identifying listening examples that we've been studying all quarter. I just need to make sure I remember the years and composers for the films. I can recognize the songs easily. My Greece final will take some studying. There's quite a bit more to that one and I want to makes sure I can keep my currently good grade in that class. If I work hard I may be able to pull off a 4.0 this quarter. It'll either be that or a 3.8 I think.

Next quarter, as I said, I have signed up for three classes. Though I will still be considered full time since I am taking 12 units. (Anything 12 or more units is full time) Somehow I managed to get all my classes on Mondays and Wednesdays which will be nice for my availability for a job. I will be taking two psychology classes and a "passions" class. The passion classes are extracurricular classes in which the professors choose the topic that they teach. They teach something they're passionate about, hence the name. I'll be taking a class that is basically an on-line book club, only with one specific book to read. I don't remember the title off the top of my head but it looked like it'd be interesting. Amazon.com allowed me to read the first few pages of the book and I made sure it was written in a style that wouldn't be painful to read. I just had an assigned reading of a novel and it was so difficult to read that I wanted to make sure I wasn't going to be stuck in that position again. It's never a good sign if a reader has to force themselves to read. I just hope this book doesn't interfere with my Stuart Woods time. I can't seem to put his books down for too long now that mom's introduced his work to me. I even manage to neglect the Stephanie Plum novels by Janet Evanovich.

Anyways, redirecting back to my finals for a moment... My finals are Tuesday evening (5-7:30 pm) and Wednesday evening (5-7:30 pm). The school was so nice to bump my classes that normally end at 5:10pm to 5:00 start times for finals week. They must want to challenge those of us who hope to drive home for Thanksgiving a little bit. I'll show them, I'll have my car packed when I get to school so I can leave straight from there. Muhahahaha! I should get home around 10pm depending on how long I take in that final. Then I'll have all of Turkey Day to hang with the family and Friday morning I'll drive back to B-field so that I can go to work. This will be my first real day of work. That's right, I'll be working Black Friday with only training from a video! Whee... That is I am assuming that I'll be working. My hours for Friday are call-in hours so I only go in if they need me. My plan is leave B-town at about 10am then stop at New Cuyama to have an early lunch and call work to verify if they'll want me to come in. If they do, I carry on my merry way. If they don't, I might just turn around and go back and hang with the family one more night. I will for sure come back Saturday though because I have another call-in that evening and I won't do two New Cuyama trips, besides I'll need to feed Lavender by then.

I feel kind of bad. I have had Lavender for about a month and I just noticed something about him. He's a little special. Betas have really cool fins, and Lavender seems to have a little extra fin. Basically, he has extra of the long belly fin on his back right side. It's hard to explain but it's extra and it's cool. Also I noticed that he has Nemo fins! His right "hand" fin (my former marine biology teacher would be so proud) is bigger than his left "hand" fin. So I think I should additional-name him. His new extended name is: Lavender Judd Nemo Gooms.


That's about it for now. I'll save the exciting news about how I did a ton of laundry for another day. Kidding, I won't share all about my sock sorting, even though I know it'd be riveting.
Loves.

Stop the Presses! Top News Story!

Exciting news! Last night I got the phone call I've been hoping for. I officially and finally have a job!!!!! I applied for a position at Bath & Body Works and on Monday I went in for an interview. It was odd because they were doing group interviews so there were 4 of us in there at once all answering the same questions. I tried to answer first or second because by the time the third and forth people are answering they are just repeating the same statements as everyone else or saying "well, basically what they said..." I felt that I did a very good job and when they asked why I want to work at B&BW I didn't say "well, I just really want a job and would love the employee discount." Yes, two people said that. I was honest and said that I wanted to work there because I've been a customer for a really, really long time and like the product and company. Though I totally want the employee discount! hehehe

Here's a masterpiece I created with the paint program of near-future me at work.

Thursday they are having orientation for us new employees from 5 to 9:15. If I remember correctly they hired 20 new people for the holidays. Yes, 2-0 people. Crazy, right? This morning I went over to Old Navy, my favorite clothing store, and bought a couple shirts for work. The dress code is black pants and either a black or white shirt. Since the only black and white tops I have are t-shirts (all my bank clothes were colorful) I needed to get a few tops that I could wear. It worked out well because I had $20 free dollars for Old Navy and they were having a sale on most stuff so I ended up saving a lot of money.

After Old Navy I had to stop at PetSmart (it's on my way home) and give some love to all the kitties there. Since it's the weekend they were also having adoption days and there were two kittens that were so cute! They had the poofy kitten fur and big eyes I just wanted to smuggle them home in my sweatshirt. Last time I was there they had an orange tabby with 6 toes, I named him Hemmingway, but he was gone today so I hope he found a home. Yes, I name the cats that I don't own. He had a silly name so this was a total upgrade. There is a certain cat there that I have fallen in love with. Her name is Sweet Pea and she's a tabby but I think she looks like a jungle cat and want to name her Bagheera. She's been there for weeks and I would bring her home in a heartbeat but I have to save up money for a pet deposit, her adoption fee, supplies, and her first month's rent. Really, it's the pet deposit that's stopping me. I'm thinking about asking the office if I can pay the deposit in installments. I just can't see myself writing them a check for $300 anytime soon. Untill then, I visit her and give her loves.

Better go, I have laundry to fold before it gets even more wrinkly.
Loves.

Do the Mash, It's the Graveyard Smash

Ok, it's two minutes to six and there is no sign of any trick or treaters. I know that it's early but I was kind of expected the little kids to be out by now. Their bedtime is like two to three hours away and there's a lot of buildings in the complex so they should be making the rounds so that they can do the important candy swap back at home before bed. That was probably one of the best parts since Becca didn't like chocolate I nearly doubled my loot. Chocolate was gold, she knew that she could get my Sweettarts and Starbursts for the right amount of Twix and Milky Ways. Mmmm...Dang, now I want candy.

So my plans tonight aren't terribly exciting. The Fox theatre was sold out for the free show of Rocky Horror Picture Show. Funny that it's "sold out" when really they've issued tickets to fill capacity. But I guess "You can't have a ticket because then the fire marshall will come and shut this party down" is too long of an answer. Tonight, I will be handing out Tootsie Pops and M&Ms (if I run out of pops) to trick or treaters if they ever show up. But I did kind of dress up. I looked at my closet and said "Self, what can I do easily and with minimal effort but that looks like I put in a smidge of effort?" And to that I replied "Self, you could be a high school bench warmer for the basketball team or a rock star on her day off." Since I had to run some errands today I went with rock star who does her own grocery shopping. And of course to stay in character I bought a basket full of booze. Kidding! Only a hand basket full, not one of the push baskets, that would have been ridiculous. hehehe Basically my 'costume' consists of my Converse, skinny cut jeans, dark colored t-shirt, skull and crossbones scarf, with messy hair and eye makeup. If I was really dedicated I could wear my sunglasses indoors but that's just silly. If I get bored I may give myself a few Crayola tattoos. Maybe a four letter word written across my knuckles like R-O-C-K or C-A-K-E or V-O-T-E.

Included for you enjoyment, a self portrait of Rock Kimmers. Note the appropriate amount of attitude with the smirk.

Ok, that's it for now. I am going to celebrate Halloween properly by watching Scary Sherry! For those of you who are missing out by not knowing what I'm referring to it's the best episode of Psych, which is the best TV show ever. Watch it, seriously.

Happy Haunting!
Loves.

Goblins and Ghosts and Ghouls, Oh My!

It's almost Halloween!! I love Halloween, it's probably my second favorite holiday though I am not sure how I am celebrating this year. I don't have a costume, in fact I can't remember the last time I didn't dress up for this bewitching day. Sigh. I'll dig around in my closet and see if I can't figure out something that isn't too minimal effort looking. I will not be dressing up as a college student, even if I do have a plethora of school sweatshirts. In fact, I still need to buy candy for trick-or-treaters! That is if I'll be at my apartment to hand out candy. I may go out with some people or go to the free showing of Cloverfield, Poltergeist, and Rocky Horror Picture Show downtown. I don't know yet, and probably won't until Friday afternoon!

Here's Dad and I from Halloween one of the last two years.


Are you dressing up this year?
Loves.

Dorm Life? Pass!

Today I ate on campus for the first time. From what I was hearing from one of my classmates I was kind of expecting food similar to what Hawkeye was constantly smelling and describing as 'a sock after it had been in surgery for 12 hours wearing Winchester's cologne' or something along those lines. But the food was edible, though really not great. Because I do not live on campus I had to pay for my meal, we tried to get me in for free with no luck, and I did not get much bang for my buck. There was excitement by the regular diners because of the fact that there was fruit. That's not a good sign. I ended up having steamed green beans, spaghetti, fruit, and a roll. Let me just say, I am glad that I have a kitchen and can cook my own meals.

I also hung out in one of the dorm buildings for a little while this evening. I have a 5-page paper on the Persian Wars due Monday so one of my classmates and I were going over the parts of the novel Persian Fire to figure out where most of our quotes and information will come from. Apparently their neighbors diagonal across the hall don't understand the concept of mandatory quiet hours or courtesy quiet hours for midterm week. "So, I, like, have to be quiet all the time?" No silly, just during peak study times for the students that care to study. Though they're not sure if these girls are capable of being quiet ever. They lock themselves out and pound on the doors, invite their friends over but don't let them into the building so they are pounding on the outer door, blare their music all night... Jealous, right? Yeah, I too wish they were my neighbors...Well, maybe not. I'll keep my porch poopers as neighbors even though they leave a mess and try to come in my front door at night. Darn toads. Other than the minor eye-rolling gripe session about the loud girls, we did far more chatting and laughing than looking at the book. Which as I see it, is a very successful study session. The fact that we even opened our books and exchanged email addresses is huge compared to what normally is accomplished in study groups. Or maybe those are just my study groups...Either way, I approve.

Thanks mom and dad for not making me live in the dorms!

Next time, sometime, details on my visits from dad, mom, and Jaslynn!
Loves!

Don't Vote

I found this earlier today and loved it. Please watch.

Loves.

It's Like a Scene From a Zombie Movie...

I cannot sleep. I lie in bed and just lie there. I don't sleep. It's driving me slightly bonkers. I have been up since eleven am Thursday and it is now nearly five am Friday. I was in bed for a few hours earlier and was lounging on the couch earlier as well but I gave up and decided to update my blog. I don't know if my insomnia is due to my new surroundings, new school, new room, new noises, new whatever or if it's just worse than usual but it is absolutely worse than usual. Before, when I'd have bouts of insomnia it would be for a few days at a time and then I could go back to a normal sleep schedule. I haven't been able to have a normal sleep schedule since I moved here. I try not to stay up too late, I try to unwind before bed by reading for a little bit, I try not to sleep in too much in the mornings but it doesn't seem to help. I'll lie in bed for hours before I am finally able to fall asleep but even then I sleep very light and wake up every half-hour to hour. So even if I manage to fall asleep by three in the morning and sleep until ten, my seven hours feels much more like five hours of sleep.

Though on the bright side, I still don't have a job so I don't have to worry about being a zombie at work... That's right, I've lived in Bakersfield for two days shy of a month and I still don't have a job. This is just an uplifting entry isn't it? I was really hoping to work at Color Me Mine which is basically right around the corner but I haven't gotten any reply from them despite my popping in to follow up. Then I can't seem to get any sort of answer as to who I need to follow up with or even if the location is still hiring at PetCo. I received a nice "thanks, but no thanks" letter from Target, that one nearly broke my heart. My favorite store rejected me. Not to keep sounding like Debbie Downer but even my one call from a potential employer ended up leading to a big fat goose egg so far. I applied at Go Wireless, a local Verizon wireless retailer, and received a call from the regional manager stating that he would like to meet me for an interview and that he's interested in possibly hiring me for one of their locations (about 4 miles away). Of course I say that I would love to and we set up an interview for Saturday morning at eleven. Saturday morning at about 9:30 the regional manager calls and cancels and we still need to set up a new interview time. So this one is basically in a holding pattern.

But I do have some excitement to look forward to: Mom's probably coming up/over this weekend to visit me! I've been all kinds of lonesome and I only have one of my two classes on Monday so I thought it would be a perfect excuse for her to stop by. Not that I need an excuse to think people could stop by but this was just the loverly cherry on top. We probably won't do much but I don't care. I'll have someone to hang out with. I still haven't made any friends at school so the majority of my real conversations are over the phone. Not that I don't love chatting on the phone but I love real chatting so much more. I keep telling Dad that I just need a cat so then I have someone to talk to but I think I have a long way to go to convince him to agree with me. For a couple weeks I did have JuJu McGumbo here with me, though he was only interested in my presence when he though it was dinner time, but sadly he died last weekend. Shortly after I cleaned his home and changed his water he got sick with Ick and was unable to recover. It was really hard watching him get sicker despite my best efforts to help him. For those of you that don't know, or remember, JuJu McGumbo was my beta fish who had so much spunk and personality that I had to use a Psych reference to name him. After he died I couldn't help but think about the episode of The Cosby Show where Rudy's goldfish dies and they have a funeral for him in the bathroom. I could understand how the death of a creature that has a memory of 3 seconds could be upsetting. When you talk to your fish you don't take into account they can't even remember the beginning of your sentence, you just care for them and are entertained by their silly suppertime dance. Let me tell you, JuJu McGumbo had a killer suppertime dance, and he attacked those beta pellets like a shark which prompted me to hum the Jaws theme whenever I fed him. RIP JuJu McGumbo: June 2008-September 2008.

I'm going to try to sleep again. Hopefully I'll get a bit of shut-eye otherwise Mom won't want to hang out with me too much. Sorry if this post was ridiculous but you were warned, I can't sleep so I really should not be held accountable for any ramblings. Sounds like my upstairs neighbor is awake. I'll write later about my apartment life and school schedule when my brain function is slightly higher.
Loves.

Internetless in Bakersfield

Hello all! Just a quick post letting you know that I'm not ignoring you, I just don't have any Internet until Monday the 15th. But how did this get posted? Simple, I made my way around the corner from my apartment to the Kern County Library and have hijacked one of their computers so that I can check my e-mail, apply for jobs, find out two of my classes have been dropped, and similar fun activities. Yes, two of my classes have been dropped. I knew about one of them but the second, not so excited. It was my 5 unit class on personality and I was looking forward to it. Now my Psychology classes are all prerequisites and I only have one real class. Not that I mind only having one real class but still I bought the book yesterday. I don't need to deal with this when classes start on Monday! Especially without the luxury of taking more than a hour on the Internet and on my own computer. Oh well. I think I'll just scoot on over to campus, about three more blocks, to see what's up and return my one book.
Loves.

Somewhere To Lay My Head

I had an amazing birthday! Not just because it was my birthday and was able to hang out with my friends but because I officially found out that I got an apartment at the complex I was really wanting to live at!!! Well, technically I found out on Friday but on Saturday (my birthday) was when I signed the lease agreement and faxed it it back which officially claimed unit #611 as mine. It's mine, all mine...muhahahahaha...

I'm sure you can see why my birthday rocked so much. That and Jaslynn, Lauren, Lindsay, Chris and I all went to see Wall-E before I went to dinner with the family. Then Sunday, to further extend the birthday celebration, Jaslynn, Becca and I went mini-golfing at Boomers, out to dinner and had some Yogurt Creations. (For those of you that don't know, Yogurt Creations is an amazing frozen yogurt place where you get to build your own treat) I amazingly got a hole in one while golfing (yes, that's without cheating!) and I'm not counting the hole in one we all gave ourselves for the hole that was out of order. I even won, and I'm not talking about winning like Grandma wins at these low-score-wins type games. After mastering the putting greens, and Jaslynn driving her golf ball deep into the "pond" we head inside to try our hand at the arcade games. Becca, as usual, gravitated towards the ticket winning games because she always kicks butt while Jaslynn and I played games such as air hockey and a water rafting race where you have to paddle the oars. By the last stretch of that one my arms were killing me! Once we, or should I say Becca, were done winning tickets and playing games we turned in our few hundred tickets to get our awesome prizes. We all picked out some stylin' gellie bracelets, temporary tattoos (that we applied in the parking lot), a raspberry eraser, and on of those springs that looks like a rubber ball was cut in half. Yep, good loot. And yes I really did just turn 23, not 13.

After our athletic endeavors, we were famished and because nobody over the age of 15 eats at Boomers, we went to dinner at Red Robin. I absolutely love their Raspberry Limeade!! In fact they come in the coolest glasses..kind of curved with a red stripe twirling up around it. Well, I commented that I'd love a glass like that and so Jaslynn, being the awesome friend that she is, asked our waiter if "seeing as it's my friend's birthday, is there anyway she could get one of these glasses?" To which he replied, "I think I could manage that, do you have any way to sneak it out?" I didn't realize until later that we can buy the glasses for $5 a pop, and that probably because we're so cute and Jaslynn asked nicely and it was my birthday he just gave it to me on the house. :) Birthday's rock.


So, the other day I was thinking, 'Self, you have a school to go to, a place to live, a plan of places to apply for jobs at, what else do you need?' And to that I replied, 'Kitchen stuff and a couch!!!' Well this week, both of those needs have been payed attention to, with many thanks going out to Grandma N. and dad's co-worker, John. I found out that John recently got a new couch so is selling me his old one, which has one of those nifty beds that folds out perfect for visitors coming to buy me dinner! I don't even know what the couch looks like but I don't care because I get a couch and that's way better than my previous plan of just getting a futon! And on Saturday a FedEx package arrived from Grandma containing a plethora of kitchen goodies! Sadly, I don't mean chocolate chip cookies, I'm talking about silverware, pots, an ice cream scoop, hand mixer, and other wondrous items. I'm very excited about the hand mixer because I love to bake cake and it's just fun to use the mixer and then you have to lick the batter off the beaters as the cake bakes. Mmmmm...chocolate cake. But even better than the fact that I can bake chocolate cake is that this is the exact same mixer that we have here! When I first pulled it out of the box I had to pause a second to remember that I had opened the box because I thought dad was messing with me by putting our mixer in there. But no, it was just the same style, classic! I joked that at least I won't have any questions about how to use it.


So that pretty much catches everyone up on the more important happenings the past few weeks. Next up for me: my final day at the bank (thank goodness!) and a mini vacation to Ruth Lake and the Winchester Mystery House!!!! I am so excited to go to the WMH, I've been wanting to go for a long time. Expect photos for that one!

Loves!

Be Very, Very Quiet...We're Apartment Hunting

About two weeks ago Dad and I drove up to Bakersfield to look for an apartment for me come August. This is the second time we've been up, the first time with for transfer student orientation back in April. Well this time we had a real map and we knew how to use it. Also, Dad has a colleague that lives in Bakersfield and he was kind enough to highlight on said map the areas that would be good to live in. Basically he drew a giant "E" on the west side of the city, though from our previous visit and adventures around town dad and I knew that the east side would probably best be avoided. Not to say that the east side is bad...but there sure are a lot of bars on some of the neighborhood windows...plus the campus is on the west side of town so I'd have farther to drive. Not that it'd be any farther than the 20-35 miles I have been driving to campus the last few years, but hey, with gas prices at twenty trillion dollars a gallon who wants to drive?

Well at about 4:00pm in about 119 degree heat on Saturday Dad and I (well, probably less Dad and more me) were getting slightly frustrated because the apartment complex on Chuck Norris Ave, which we figured would be our cheap go to apartment complex if we couldn't find anything stellar closer to campus, doesn't rent to full-time students. In fact, many of the complexes we visited in the northern 'E' don't rent to full-time students. Something about how students are too low income but with a co-signer we then are too high income to qualify...baloney snot if you ask me. Oh, by the way, the street isn't really called Chuck Norris Ave, it's just Norris Ave but we "fondly" call it Chuck Norris. Really, if Conan O'Brian can show random Chuck Norris/Walker Texas Ranger clips, why can't we re-name streets for our amusement?

Dad and I, after stopping by Sonic for Happy Hour to cool off and reload my cup holders, decided to do a drive around closer to the school in the southern part of the 'E'. At about one block south and two blocks east from campus we happened across Super Cool Apartments. I 'bat-turned' into the complex (if you don't know the term 'bat-turn' you don't ride with me that much, hehe) and hustled ourselves from the A/C of the car to the A/C of the leasing office. There we met Janelle, a leasing consultant, and asked "How much is the rent on a one bedroom apartment and do you accept full-time students?" As she started to answer I pulled my towel from my back pocket to throw it in if need be, but rent is within our price range and they rent to full-time students! We chatted a bit longer about what's offered and were able to tour one of the one bedroom apartments that was currently vacant. It's nothing crazy phenomenal but it's really nice and I can see it as being my home while at school. Here's the layout:


If you are sitting there thinking, "Does that really say 'laundry'?" why yes, yes it does say laundry. Each and every apartment has it's own spiffy stacking washer and dryer unit as well as it's own water heater! The fact that I don't have to worry if my neighbor gets up one hour before me to take a one hour long hot shower every morning is fan-stinkin-tastic! And yes, that is also my own patio/balcony depending on if I'm first or second floor with private storage room/closet. In fact, I dig this place so much I'm going to brag about it for a bit here. It's fair, it's my blog and I've warned you. Some of the favorite community features are: clubhouse, two swimming pools, wading pool and spa, car wash, two lighted tennis courts, fitness center, covered parking, basketball court, volleyball court, RV parking, 24 hour maintenance service, A/C, playground, free ice cream, fridge, micro, oven, dishwasher, pets allowed (with pet deposit), free vacuum rentals, light bulbs available at the office... Yes, I did say free ice cream. While Dad and I were touring the apartment he checked the freezer and jokingly stated that there was no ice cream. Janelle pulled out her walkie-talkie and said that it was unacceptable and that we needed immediate maintenance service to re-stock the ice cream, kiddingly of course. So now, Dad and I joke that I can't turn down this apartment because it has free ice cream.

I took an application to the apartment complex and right now it's where I am planning on living come August/September. Unfortunately, they said they wouldn't know for sure if they will have vacancies until one month before so I wasn't able to apply on the spot. But now that it's July I can apply! I'm currently in the process of emailing them to verify if they will have a one bedroom apartment available in August, I'm hoping to move up early to find a job and earn some money before classes start September 15th. Also, I am filling out the application and had my signature notarized this afternoon at work by my co-worker Karen, Senior New Accounts Extraordinare. Typically the bank charges $10 per signature notarized but since as a notary public Karen works for the state she can choose whether to charge or not and she did mine at no charge! I love Karen. :) She doesn't know this but I'm going to give her a bottle of wine for being awesome and as kind of a good-bye from me when I leave the bank. We had hosted a chamber mixer at our branch one evening and there was a ton of unopened wine leftover so those of us that helped clean up got to take home three bottles minimum. Nice for those that drink wine but I am not too fond of it so mine are all being gifted out. Bribes accepted. ;) Kidding, kind of.

Ok, now that all the most current happenings on the apartment front are covered, I'm ending this essay. You're welcome and lots of loves to you.

Coming Soon!

If you're here, you've probably received my e-mail informing you that this blog exists. Well, the first real entry is on its way but I didn't want anyone to wander by and assume that there's something wrong with the site since were no entries displayed so that's why you get this little ramble.
Stay tuned for my adventures in finding an apartment near school.