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.