Forget the Gridiron, It's Basketball, Baby!

Tonight the lady Runners are playing one of their biggest games of their season. They are playing the Gauchos, yes the UCSB Gauchos! CSUB recently became a part of Division 1 and are hoping to make a bid for the Big West Conference so they now play all the fun schools that people care to watch on TV. Both teams have similar records and have been on winning streaks recently so this should be a really good game. I'm going to sport my royal blue shirt and attend this Pack The House night to root for both teams! Though I'll have to cheer louder for the Runners since I do attend the school, but UCSB has always been my team that I cheer for and I cannot possibly abandon them just because I don't currently study there. It would be very rude of me if I turned my back on the school at which I attended basketball camp and improved myself as a player. So if you find yourself in front of the TV and not sure what to do, see if ESPN 8 (The Ocho) is showing the game and play Where's Kimmers. I'll be in blue.
Loves.

Making Use Of My Toolbox

I went to my favorite store last week and bought a new storage thingy (the official name even though the box says otherwise) to keep my photos and other items in. I still have a cardboard box filled with photos from when I moved and figured I should unpack it since everything else has (finally) been put away. I also figured that I should have somewhere that Lavender can live and enjoy sunshine since he probably can't remember the last time he saw the sun. All he remembers is the kitchen and sitting near my recyclables. A few days later I watched re-runs of crime-dramas on TV and assembled my cabinet. Not that it took me multiple shows but that's what I was doing when I decided to bust out the screwdriver and hammer. Next step, moving Lavender over.

Here is the new addition to my living room:

Next to it is a similar storage thingy that Mom assembled when I first moved up here. (Told you I'd give you credit!) Target is totally my go-to store.
Loves.

Another Music Moment

You have got to watch this video it's one of the coolest videos ever. Very creative and fun to watch.



Loves.

A Tornado In Bakersfield

I feel like I survived a tornado. That is if I lived where there are tornadoes and if I knew what surviving a tornado felt like but I'm sure that what I'm feeling is that same sensation. Last night I set my alarms on my cell phone for 8:50 and 9:00 so that I could take a really quick shower before I had to go to work. My regular alarm clock (the awesome iHome that I won last year) goes off at 8:30 daily even though I normally turn it off and go back to sleep. Now you can understand why I set multiple alarms different times in the morning, by the time the third (or fourth) alarm goes off I'm tired of telling them to "shhhhhh!" so I just get up.

So this morning my first alarm goes off and I turn it off because the people on the radio are being rude by talking when I'm trying to sleep. I'm expecting my phone to go off in about 20 more minutes but the next time I wake up it's 9:40... It's amazing how fast you wake up and get out of bed when you realize that you should be getting into your car at that exact moment. I ran to the bathroom to get ready, realized I forgot to grab a shirt (kind of necessary when getting dressed), ran back to my closet and threw it open, ran back to the bathroom with my shirt and got dressed so fast I'm surprised nothing was backwards or inside out. I then reached into my kitchen and filled my water bottle and grabbed a granola bar as I was running out the door. Yes, I have super extender arms and a really fast faucet otherwise that would totally be impossible to accomplish. Amazingly I arrived at work at 9:59 which was probably do to the fact that I was driving when people aren't going to work or dropping kids off at school and I didn't have to worry about weekend traffic. Had this been a Saturday, I'd have been doomed.

Don't worry, I've learned my lesson, next time I will just shower the night before. That way I won't sleep through my shower again.
Loves.

Why I Don't Brush My Hair

My hair is getting out of control. Because of the wave and wannabe curl it can get a lot of volume going, and sadly it's not always in the desirable way, so I have to make sure I don't go too long between re-layerings. The other night I brushed my hair before bed and I felt like a lion there was so much hair! It made me laugh so I took a photo to share, though it doesn't do it justice.

I just rolled a bunch of change so I think I'll stop by my local SuperCuts and have them re-layer the beast. :)

Oh, here's the awesome housewarming/Christmas gift Jas gave me:

Ok, gotta go review for my second test today.
Loves.

A Moment of Music

One of my favorite bands, The Killers, just released their newest single and the music video. I love it! Spaceman is such an awesome song and their videos are always very unique and cool. I like the fact that even though MTV and VH1 don't show music videos anymore they still create awesome videos. I'm putting it here so I can watch it whenever I want. :)

Spaceman

My Payday Bonus

On Friday I ran a few errands and picked up my paycheck from work. Attached to the normal envelope was a second, envelope with a card. I assumed that it was a thank you card for working hard as holiday help since the semi-annual sale ends this Sunday and that's how long they needed the holiday help for. When I got home I opened the card and found this written inside it:

"Kimberly,
Thanks for all your hard work this holiday season. We'd like to offer you a permanent part time position. If you are interested please let any manager know ASAP.
Sincerely,
BBW Managers"

I was very happy to read that because they had not given any indication as to whether they were going to offer any positions. It had been told to us when we were first hired that they may (though not a guarantee) have a few positions at the end of the season. I don't know how many people were asked to stay on--everyone appeared to have had an extra envelope on their paycheck, either as an offer or thank you--but I should know next week.

Maybe Crazies Do Study Psychology

In my research methods class on Wednesday we did some group work with people sitting around us. I ended up working with three other girls (ladies?) though one of them is in the "woman" category. Another category she's securely in: crazy. That was probably one of the most awkward classes I have ever been in.

No more than twenty minutes after meeting each other and in the midst of normal small talk she shares about her therapy sessions and her history with restraining orders. Yeah, not at all inappropriate... In case you were wondering, the restraining order was against her, and she was proud of it! Then she shared about how she and her mother-in-law didn't get along at all and when the mother-in-law was practically on her death bed Crazy intentionally "tortured" her by driving in a manner that really scared her. Don't worry, I am not sharing any of my information with her.

After class on of the normal girls and I walked to the parking lot together discussing how we may need to start sitting on the opposite side of the room. Though that totally messes up my plan for sitting near the hot guy. Sigh, the sacrifices we make for personal well being.

Calling At The Wrong Door

Shortly before the new year I made a new friend. I wasn't looking to form any sort of bond at the time. In fact, I would have preferred to have had no interruptions at the time we met, but he insisted on getting my attention. So I put aside my book, climbed out of bed and peered out onto my patio. Starring back at me were bright, hazel eyes and once I turned on the patio light I saw that he also had orange hair and cute white whiskers.

That's how I met Jack (I have no idea what his name is, but he looks like a Jack and is a wanderer) shortly after midnight on a cold night. I told him he had the wrong door and that unlike Motel 6 I was not leaving the light on for him. He didn't seem to care and still wanted to come in out of the cold. I allowed him to come in with the warning that he couldn't stay but only warm up his toes, ears, and nose. He was a very polite house guest, opting to sit on my lap and purr rather than snoop through my stuff. I let Jack stay for about fifteen minutes and then sent him on his way. About an hour later I heard him at my door asking to come back in with his kitteny meow (funny because he is a big cat and did I mention has 6 toes?!). I had already turned out the light by then so I just tried to lay low. Kind of like what you do on Halloween when you run out of candy. He ended up leaving and I didn't see him again.


Until yesterday that is. I had just finished my lunch and happened to look out my front window only to see that cute little orange boy trotting across the parking lot towards my building. I went out to my patio to greet him if he decided to stop by and because I really needed to sweep off the patio. And yes, he did come say hello and stayed nearby to supervise my sweeping skills.

Is It Syllabuses Or Syllabi?

Today was the first day of winter quarter and I made it to my classes on time! Not that I didn't think I would, but it's always good to start out with a positive. Although really, there was no negative about today. My first class of the day was Principles of Learning or Learning Theory or Why We Don't Repeatedly Touch Hot Things...something along those lines. That one is the earliest class I have had since high school, starting at the crack of dawn: 9:30AM. [Laugh it up Dad] On second thought, I think I did have a photography class at like 8:30 but that is a fun class and I'd go to photography at any time. So I arrived at Hot Don't Touch class right on time, parking was a bit more challenging that I was expecting it to be, and we covered the syllabus, the general idea of chapter one and were free to go at 10:45. Sweet! Early release is always nice especially when you're getting out a full hour early. That gave me a nice five and a half hour lunch break. Later the long mid-day break will come in handy for homework but when you don't have any it just gives you a chance to go to the gym, shower, eat, and get sucked into your latest book. Thank goodness for my alarm clock on my phone! I've missed classes at AHC that way before.

My next class was Research Methods I (I get to take II next quarter) and that one is from 5:20PM to 7:35PM. Coincidentally both of my in person classes have the same instructor, hopefully this will be a good thing, so the drill was very similar to my morning class: syllabus, general idea of what the class will be all about (slightly different from what we learned from the syllabus) and free to go at 6:00PM. I think this was the easiest first day of quarter/semester I've ever had. Too bad these will be difficult classes, they may be my only early outs I get. But don't you worry, I enjoyed my "free" time and didn't put it toward practical use like going to the grocery store.

Well I'm officially off of free time now so I guess I have to go be productive and do laundry so I have a shirt for work (if they use my call-in) tomorrow.
Loves.

Playing Catch-Up Christmas Style

Happy New Year!! I hope that everyone enjoyed their wonderful holidays! I know I did. Winter break (since November 26th) has consisted of three drives over to B-town to visit my family and friends. Though none of them last nearly as long as I would like them to.

Christmas was wonderful. On Christmas Eve I went over to Jaslynn's house to help decorate cookies and deliver her gift. I love decorating cookies with her because she sends the 'ugly' ones home with me. My decorating skills really decline once I enter her house for some odd, unknown reason. For Christmas she gave me some really cute froggie slippers (to make friends with the toads that poop on my doorstep) along with an awesome photo frame that holds eight photos which she loaded up with beautiful photos she took of flowers and fruits. I have to get a good photo of it so I can post it up here because that little sentence doesn't do it justice. I have it on my wall to the right of my computer--it currently doesn't have to share this wall with anything else. It's funny that the best wall for hanging photos up on and I hadn't because I couldn't decide what I wanted to hang up. I have been going through my photos (and there's a lot of them) and changing out what's in some frames yet I still haven't gotten to the point that I needed a hammer or nails.

Christmas morning we had our traditional opening of our stockings (in our pajamas, of course) then having breakfast of scrambled eggs and homemade cinnamon rolls. Actually until just recently we'd have some sort of breakfast muffin or coffee cake but Mom has learned the magic of cinnamon rolls so we get to enjoy those instead. They are sooooooo good I'd eat them all the time if I didn't want to have to practically live on a treadmill as a result. After breakfast we open presents and either Becca or I (in our 20s) still play 'Santa' and pass out gifts to everyone from under the tree. This year it was Becca though she took the easy way out and passed out multiple gifts at once rather than make multiple trips to the tree. She's a sneaky one that Becca. I think we all gave and received some very nice gifts this year. I personally was very proud of my gifts to Dad. I gave him a glass from BJ's Brewhouse; he'd wanted to purchase one a few months ago but they didn't sell any then. I also got him a bar of C.O. Bigelow Mentha soap. Finally I gave him an awesome new hat that you can't get just anywhere. You have to go to a special store and ask specifically for it.

That's right, a paper In-n-Out hat! I thought he'd appreciate it, after all he told me not to buy him anything so I kind of did what he wanted. I think he must have known that I was getting him such an awesome gift because he gave me a perfect addition to my kitchen. A pineapple upside down cake pan! It's awesome and can be used for molds as well so I just may make little Jello pineapples for giggles. I can't wait to make some little cakes.

That evening we drove down to Santa Barbara and had dinner at my aunt's house. Julia made so much good food: pork roast, vegetable shepherd's pie, a yummy salad, apple pie, and pumpkin pie. Luckily her recipe for shepherd's pie makes a lot of food so I was able to take some leftovers home with me. :) I really need to get a copy of that recipe. After dinner we all played charades, which was very funny and sometimes hard. We were using pre-created topics to act out and some of them were words of wisdom, such as 'a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush'. But the phrases weren't always correct--or at least we didn't think so. Some of them were just a little off, like one about crossing your bridges when you get to them. Maybe it was a translation issue or just poor grammar but for the most part we didn't force the guess of the 'wrong' answer but took the phrase wording that we were familiar with.

Stay tuned for details of how I rang in the new year. I'll give you a hint: it involves being very tired the next day.
Loves.