Hawaii 1-2-10

Pretty slow day today. Slept in until 8:00, went to IHOP for breakfast of french toast. Walked around a bit, I wanted to go to this gelato place I had seen a day or so ago, but when we finally found it, there was a sign in the window saying it was closed for business. Went back to the hotel and finished packing, then went to Duke's for lunch. Ate cold nachos (not very good), checked out of hotel and went to Na'uana Pali Lookout:
Left there about 2:00PM, drove to the boat dock. Got on the boat and have been here exploring since. The staterooms are very small. With 4 of us in here, it's very cozy. I'm also disappointed in the pools, they're very small, but we also don't plan to be on the boat that much. Tomorrow, we have a whale watch scheduled for 4:30PM, but nothing other than that, so I figure it will be a very relaxing day.

And we danced all night

Big mail day for me today. I received both my prizes from the OWOH giveaways. This nice bear from Kathy and a picture book from Twinkietinydog. Also received my UHU sample of the month, a star box, that I need to decorate, write a review and send them a link to my review.

As I've been sitting here at work, I've decided I really need to clean my house (OK, I always say this, I pick up a few things and call it clean, but this is different). I am a huge packrat (I think most artists are, because we see something and think, oooh, I could use that in something someday), anyways, I think part of the reason I find it so hard to get myself going on my projects (of which I have a ton of this month, is that I have to open my tiny closet (it is tiny, I live on the 3rd floor of a Victorian house built in the late 1900's and my closet is stuck under one of the eaves), drag everything out into my hallway, and trip over everything until I have finished the project I'm working on, and I usually just shove everything back in the closet and shut the door. I am in the process of putting together my supply package for Jules, that she won on my other blog, and I think I can put quite a few things in there (it's the medium flat rate box from Priority mail). I think if I cleared out enough room to actually work in my closet (which isn't that appealing now that it's cold), I might get more inspired to start on stuff. And I sure need to extend the less of a packratness (new word) into the rest of my apartment. I also need to buy less stuff, I have a tendency to buy a lot of material things when I go anywhere (though I didn't buy that many in HI), and if I stoppped buying, not only would I have less stuff, I'd sure have more money.
Now, since all I really have to do this weekend is work tomorrow morning and go grocery shopping, I'm sure going to put in the effort. I have no excuse for not cleaning, though lately, I've been watching one of the seasons of Bones, because I got this wild idea to put hold requests on all the seasons they have at the library and watch them, and since they only check out for a week, I have to watch them quickly. I also need to NOT turn on my computer in the morning, I don't know what I do, but I waste SO much time in front of it. Kinda like now, but I'm at work, that's different. OK, not really, I should really be reading all these books I also checked out of the library. But, I can blame my wasting time on computer in the evenings on the One World One Heart Blog event, I found so many new neat blogs through that, that I added way too many to my blog roll.
I know Kevin totally hates my mess, and I know my parents would love it if I got tidier. I currently have over a week of dishes soaking in my sink now, and of course way too much stuff on my floor.
I really shouldn't keep things I know I'm never going to use, or the completed Greatest Dot-To-Dot books, I mean really, what am I going to do with them now?
I really need to get rid of some of my old college books too, I had this thing where I underlined a LOT when I was in college and I highly doubt anyone wants me books.
I also need to throw away magazines I've read. How much can I really get out of old Glamours? Reader's Digest and Real Simple actually have useful things I can use later in life.
I need to stop picking up the free books at the library and things I may alter in the future, I have so many things that fall in that category, but just pile up in my closet.
I need to learn to get rid of clothes I'm never going to fit into or never going to wear and just keep because someone gave them to me.
Also things I'm never going to use, but keep because someone gave it to me.
I need to get rid of all the old toys from when I was a kid that have a little sentimentality.

Now if I could just stick to that list. Anyone got any ideas about organization and what one should and shouldn't keep?

Hawaii 1/1/2010

I can't believe it's the new year already. I'm a little buzzed from the drink I had with supper, so I hope this still makes sense. I woke up way too many times because of people celebrating. My MP3's batter finally went out around 3AM, so I attempted to plug it in and in my quest found out that the outlet my phone was in didn't work, so I plugged them both into another outlet and got them charged up.
Mom and I caught a bus to the zoo, and the driver wouldn't let us pay, we were all ready with our money out and he wouldn't take it, so that was cool. We got to the zoo too early, so we went out on the pier at Wakiki Beach and watched swimmers in the water. When we went back to the zoo, I found this really cool leaf (which you can't see and now isn't very cool anymore), but it was an oval leaf, probably about 8 inches long with pink and green on it, it was pretty neat. We got to see birds and monkeys and zebras and lots of animals you'd normally see at the zoo, unfortunately they didn't have their lion exhibit open (I always make it a point to visit the zoo and see the lion, or the aquarium when we go on vacation). This monkey below was one of the ones we saw, actually I think it was a lemur, but I really don't know. Anyway, he was just sprawled out in the morning sun like he was tanning, it was so cute.
Mom took a picture of me with a giraffe statue and I think it's pretty cute:

Also, Kevin called me and that got me happier. Ross picked us up around 11 and we went to the Dole plantation where we ate lunch, took a train ride and a garden tour. I didn't find it that impressive, we also ate some pineapple ice cream. That was pretty good. I bought a couple of postcards including one with a train that I sent to Kevin. We then went to the North Shore and watched the waves. We then decided to go back and deal with supper. We wandered down the beach and went to one place where we were suppoes to cook our own food. We all decided against that and went to the restuarant next door. I keep seeing all these people either doing a little cuddling or holding hands and I really wish Kevin was here.

Tomorrow we get on the boat for our cruise.

Whether I stay, whether I go, depends on whatever you say

*NOTE* Pity post for me, don't read if you're already in a bad mood.

I am so sick of snow, I want to go back to Hawaii where it's warm and brightly colored and warm and not snowy.
I hate shoveling snow, it feels like I've been doing it every day for the past week.
My arms hurt, and I'm very sore.
I hate change, I hate the fact that my boyfriend has a job where he works usually 7 days a week, or like now he's on layoff and decides he needs to go home for a month. I've seen him maybe 4 days total in the last month, because there's nothing for him to do here except hang out with me and I guess that's just not fun enough.
I want flowers or candy or even a night out to a nice restaurant and a movie. Instead I get to cuddle with a giant stuffed frog in front of my TV.
I hate growing up, I loved high school: all I had to do was get up and go to school, I didn't have to worry about paying my own bills or making enough money to live.
I hate that I have over $1000 in medical bills to pay right now, which isn't a ton by any standards, but it's more than I can afford.
I hate where my mind wanders too all the time and the fact that it always puts me down when I mess up in any way.
I hate that I suck at making friends and that I don't have any close friends to chat with here in town.
I hate that I'm in a bad mood and don't really have any outlet for it.

One World, One Heart giveaway

Well, it's been a fun few weeks, but the One World, One Heart blog event is now over. There were over 1100 blogs when I visited the site last Monday night and I visited all of them, read all the posts and entered (mostly) all the giveaways, a couple were for things I wouldn't be able to use like a fishing trip in Canada, and some I could quite see the link to add a comment. I had a ton of fun and plan on going back to quite a few of the blogs and reading them again, I have added at least 10 new blogs to my following of blogs and you can see them all on the sidebar, check them out, they are very interesting.
I got an email (post on The Frog Palace) about me winning a very cute bear today, though I didn't go to these blogs to win, it's always fun to win things (and I secretly hope I win more). I also got an email from Twinkietinydog about winning a cute picture book, can't wait to see it. And, I have picked the two winners for my prizes on this blog (The Frog Palace's winners are already posted, hop over there to see who they are), so here they are: the winner of the scarf is FairlyGirly and the winner of the movies is Linda. I will be going to their blogs momentarily and adding a comment telling them they won.

I have had a lot of fun with this and I hope you all have too.

Congratulations to the winners.

Hawaii 12/31/09

I woke up at 3:00AM, 7:00AM Iowa time, found my MP3 player, stuck it in my ears and floated back to sleep until our wake-up call at 5:30AM. I ate the rest of my croissant from the night before and some water for breakfast. We went downstairs and drove to Pearl Harbor. We waited in line for awhile and got some tickets for 11:00AM, that was about 2 hours away, so we drove to the Bishops Museum and walked around there. We saw some historical Hawaii stuff, and some very cool replicas of dinosaurs. Besides the picture below, there were T-Rex, Brontasaurus (will probably butcher the spellings on these), the things with the plates on their backs, velocirapters, and quite a few others that I have no idea what they're called. They all moved when you walked past the motion detector. I also wondered through the lava exhibit.
When we finished there, it was time to go back to Pearl Harbour. We got to watch a short documentary on it, and then got on the boat to go out to the memorial. I was too busy taking it all in to get any pictures, but I know my brother got plenty. We got back on the boat and went through the museum and gift shop, I bought some postcards. We went back to the hotel and decided to walk down to a deli for lunch, I got a vegetarian sandwich and some water. Mom, Dad and I decided to walk to the aquarium and Ross decided to relax by the pool. It was quite a bit longer walk than we thought (or were led on to believe by Ross), but very enjoyable, we walked by Wakiki Beach. At the aquarium we got to see quite a few fish and seahorses, etc. We also got to watch them feed the sharks, that was pretty cool. At the gift shop, I bought a fish magnet, some postcards and some fish stickers. We stopped at the zoo to find out their hours for the next day before we headed back to the hotel.
On our walk back, we passed by a Harley-Davidson shop, so I had to buy a cute pink T-shirt with butterflies on it. I'd noticed how the prices were higher in HI, but the prices at the HD store seemed to be about the same as they would be in Iowa. We also walked by quite a few ABC stores (their convenience stores) and I bought a really cute green tube dress, some scotch tape and deoderant. We also picked up some food items for breakfast the next day.
We decided to go across the stree to IHOP for dinner as Ross was eating with his friend and we didn't really have anything planned. I was really hoping to find some authentic Hawaii food at that point. I fell asleep watching TV.

If you want to see all of my Hawiia photos, go here.

What happened this week?

I feel I've been pretty lax in posting lately, and I really don't have a good reason for not posting, especially with as much time as I seem to be spending in front of my computer.
This week has been pretty busy though, Kevin (my boyfriend) came back on Sunday and we spent quite a bit of time driving around and buying stuff we didn't need. By the time we got back to my house, the Super Bowl had already started and I decided to make hamburgers with the ground beef that desperately needed to be cooked, except I didn't have buns, so we went out again and ended up going to the SuperWalmart and getting food and other stuff we didn't need. By the time we got back and got our nachos (they sounded better than burgers) fixed, the Super Bowl was pretty much over.
Monday, I had to get up and shovel snow and then venture to work, got to eat lunch with Kevin after work and hang out a little before I had to go to another job.
Tuesday, got up and went to work, came home and shoveled snow again. The news people said we got about 10 more inches of snow with that storm that lasted from Sunday until Tuesday afternoon. And we're supposed to get more tomorrow. I'm really getting sick of snow. Went to work again that night.
Wednesday, woke up and pretty much messed around all day on the computer (I'm blaming it on the One World One Heart giveaway, there were over 1100 blogs on that list). And went to work that night. I got woken up about 3 AM to Kevin trying to bury me in frogs (I love frogs), and he spent the rest of the night cuddling with me.
Thursday, got up and did my laundry, Kevin and I went out to breakfast (or lunch for him), came back and had a birthday lunch with my dad. Don't remember what I did with my afternoon before I had to go to work.
Friday (that's today), wasted a ton of time on the computer again, went with dad to the grocery store, and spent more money on stuff I didn't need. Went to work, which is where I am now, and it's not very busy (which is why I can update my blog).
My weekend's not looking THAT eventful, I'm going to my cousin's wedding tomorrow, we might stay over because of the forecast of the winter storm, don't know how that will turn out.
I should really work on art projects tomorrow during the day, I have my Yahoo! group's neon cards due at the end of Feb, a bird collage swap due the middle of March, but I have to mail it to the UK, so I figure I need to be done at least by the 5th, 13 inchies swap for the same group due in March, a puzzle piece swap for that group due in March also, and a trivial pursuit swap due in April, plus my group's Girly cards for March and fabric cards for April. Of course, I can't do my group's stuff until those months as people are still sending me stuff.
I'm also planning to make/alter something for my One World One Heart giveaway on my other blog as I have over 200 comments on there, and I figured I'd do something for every 100 comments I got.

Oh, and Sunday is not looking very exciting either. Kevin's in Colorado at a Storm Chaser's convention until then and he goes back to work on Monday night, so I'm guessing he'll try to stay up on Sunday night to get back in the swing of things. I'm thinking of going downtown and purchasing myself some Valentine candy or something, and then watching movies with my frogs, or working on art that day.

And that is the update in my not-so-exciting life. Maybe I'll have something more exciting next week.

Also, a question for my readers, what's a good horror movie?
I've been drawn to horror movies lately, which I find strange as when I was little they always scared me. I think it's because I used to watch Supernatural and some of the things they showed on that show were pretty creepy. That's used to because when they started to go on about good and evil and God vs the Devil, I became disinterested. Granted they still have the cool car and the good looking guys (pretty much the reason I started watching it), but I don't know how I feel about that stuff and I'd rather figure it out before I start watching shows/movies about it. Plus, I work Thursday nights (when it's on), and I close the store at 8, which doesn't get me home until about 8:30, by that time, it's half over with.
Some movies I have already watched are: The Orphan, Case 39, The Omen, The Exorcism of Emily Rose, Skeleton Key, The Last Winter, The Ring, I know there's more, but I can't remember them now. Any really good ones that will really scare me?

Hawaii, Day 1, 12-30-09

I got up at 2AM, crawling back into bed until 2:15, packed the few things I had left to pack and made sure things were unplugged. Mom made sure we all packed boots and a heavy coat in the car, so if we had any probelms on our way back we'd be ready. We left home about 3:30 arriving at the airport fhortly after 4. We had to ride in a tiny pnae, but got to be in first class, which pretty much consisted of extra drinks.
We got to Chicago about 7:30 and waited until 11:30 before leaving again, we were supposed to leave at 10. There were problems getting the plane in. I got sit in business class with Ross and his friend. It was soo cool:
The seats could recline into a bed, we had blankets and pillows. There were little TVs where we could watch movies, TV, play games, listen to audio books and music. We also got lots of extra food: warmed nuts in a little ceramic bowl and drinks in real glasses. For lunch we got some kind of salad with some kind of really good cut of beef, so tender and spicy walnuts with rolls and a warm chocolate chip cookie for dessert. We got real cloth napkins and warm towels. Later we got grapes, pineapple, honeydew melon, swiss cheese, cheddar cheese and crackers. I watched Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Orphan, and Case 39 and most of Up! I really hope we get business class on the way back. For some reason, my phone wouldn't turn on after we got off, and we haven't been able to figure out why. We finally got in to Hawaii about 5, Iowa time. It was about a 9 hour flight. We found our rental car and drove to the hotel. After somewhat unpacking, we wandered around looking for food. Unfortunately, we ran into too pricey, dark, and too long of a wait. Finally we stopped at a food court.
After eating, we went back to the hotel and collapsed into bed.

Double post

Here's a question for all the people in the US that sell stuff on Etsy: do I have to worry about the income I make from etsy on my taxes? My dad usually helps me with all my tax questions and has said in the past that I don't have to worry about my profit from Etsy, but I was on Etsy today reading this article and it says I have to file a form for my profits on etsy. I know I've made barely over $100 with both of my stores combined, and I sure don't do it full time, so it's not like I'm really investing a lot in it (I know, I should be doing more).

Any comments would (hopefully) be helpful.

UGH

Alright, I'm sorry it's been like a week since I posted, and I honestly have to reason to not post.

Except for yesterday, I was plagued with severe abdominal pains and pretty much spent the whole day at the doctor's today figuring out those are from a 3mm kidney stone. YEAH! So, at the moment, I'm drugged up on Ibprofen, cold and tired.

Let's hope the upcoming days are much better than today, and I hope all my readers are well.

One Heart One World

***EDIT*** Posts for this post have now been closed. I have 156 comments on it, but I only picked from 149 because some people didn't have blogs and some people didn't have active blogs. Without futher ado, the winner for the scarf is #26 which is Fairly Girly and the winner of the movies is #11 which is Linda . Congratulations you two, I will be adding a comment to both of your blogs and please get back to me by the 18th or I will pick another winner for your prize.
Welcome One and All to another snowy, cold and gloomy day in Iowa.
I know that's not somewhere you'd really want to go on a Magic Carpet Ride, so I'm sorry about the weather. But inside it's warm, somewhat bright and I have Chai. Plus, you can always cuddle with my guinea pig and that always cheers me up.
As you can probably tell, I'm participating in the One Heart, One World International Blog Event, and I hope you all are having a wonderful trip.


If you look around my blog, you will notice my interests are very vast. I graduated with a degree in Sociology and Criminal Justice from college about 3 years ago and have yet to really do anything with my degree. At this point in time I have 3 part-time jobs which I love (I just finished a temp job last week, which I also loved). Even though I have those 3 jobs, I still have quite a bit of free time which I spend on my artwork, exploring Etsy and getting reacquainted with leisurely reading.
One of my jobs is working at our local library and it've very hard to work there and not check out books.
I'm still pretty interested in Criminal Justice, I just don't know what I want to do with my degree (or my life), if you look at my blog list, it's mostly a mix of art blogs and cop blogs, and I'm always interested in adding more. I love learning about other people's lives.

OK, now that you've hung on this long, I'll tell you about the give away. If you're participating in the One Heart, One World Blog event, you know already, but for my regulars or anyone just stumbling in here, I'll explain:
In 2007, Lisa Swifka started this event to "bring bloggers together from around the world who may never ordinarily meet. It closes the gap of the blog community and enables us to interact, discover new and wonderful people, and in the process possibly win a prize or many prizes along the way." (That was copied from Lisa's website, which you can get to by clicking on the picture at the top, the picture in the sidebar, any one of the OHOW words, or here.

I found out about this from a fellow blogger and artist from my collage group on Yahoo! Thank you Ms Paper Princess. Yesterday, I spent a good chunk of the afternoon and evening flying from one blog to the next.

MY GIVEAWAY
Here in Iowa at this time of year, you need lots of warm clothing, so to help some people out and because it's composed of very bright colors (we all need those right now), I'm giving away this beautiful scarf, that I acquired in October. I already have a scarf and I've been meaning to do something with it, this the perfect something.

THE RULES:

Please leave me a comment in the comment section about anything.
Please make sure you leave me a way to contact you in your comment, whether it's an email address or blog site.
You must comment on THIS POST ONLY to be entered.
ONLY one comment per person
ONLY bloggers can win, since this is a blog event. You must have an active blog.
This runs from now (6:46 AM Jan 26th) through midnight February 15th (that's 12:00 AM).

I will use a random number generator to find a winner.
Once I pick a winner, I will mention it on this blog and contact you privately.
The winner must get back to me by noon (12:00 PM) February 18th, if I have not heard from them by then, I will pick a new winner.

***EDIT*** Now that I have over 100 comments, I'm giving something else away. It will be two gently used movies: Universal Soldier: The Return and The Grudge. For everyone who wants to enter my giveaway, but doesn't want a scarf, or for the people that like action movies or horro movies, or Jean Claude Van Damme or Sarah Michelle Gellar, or for people that want to pass it on to their SO's that would like it, or whatever.
I believe I'm close to 200 comments, I will be adding another giveaway if I am, every 100 comments I get, I will add another giveaway, granted I have no idea what I will be adding, but I'll let you know.

Also, check out my art blog for another give away.

I hope you all are enjoying your ride, I hope our cold weather hasn't frozen you too much, maybe you're next stop will be somewhere warm.

Thanks for stopping by,

WW

Hey hey here we go

I meant to do this earlier, but I really haven't had time, so here's the 2009 end of the year meme:

1. Will you be looking for a new job? Not new, but maybe another one.
2. Will you be looking for a new relationship? Of course not.
3. New house? Would love to get out of this one, but don't know.
4. What will you do differently in 2010? Work more, since I have more jobs, other than that I don't know, I'm trying to eat healthier, but that's been an ongoing thing.
5. New Year's resolution? I don't make resolutions.
6. What will you NOT being doing in 2010? Won't be going to Okoboji most likely, other than that, don't know.
7. Any trips planned? Not at the moment.
8. Wedding plans? Not for me, but my cousin's getting married in Feb.
9. Major think on your calendar? Don't have anything really big.
10. What can't you wait for? Warmer weather, and more color, I'm so sick of white and gray.
11. What would you like to see happen differently? I've got some things in mind, but not going to share.
12. What about yourself will you be changing? Still working on eating better, hoping to get back on my walking plan.
13. What happened in 2009 that you didn't think would ever happen? Went to HI, ok technically that was more in 2010, than 2009, got a job I've been wanting for awhile.
14. Will you be nicer to people you care about? Maybe.
15. Will you dress differently this year than you did in 2009? Feeling more girly, so maybe.
16. WIll you better your relationship with your family? Maybe.
17. Will you do charity work? Probably not.
18. Will you go to bars? Maybe.
19. Will you be nice to people you don't know? Maybe.
20. Do you expect 2010 to be a good year for you? I hope so.

And I have a question for you all: What do you get a guy for Valentine's Day, other than the obvious?

Pics & a weird commercial

I've uploaded my pics from Hawaii to Picasa, go here to see them. It keeps popping up with a message about stack overflow or something like that, I thought it meant I had too many pics, but I deleted some, and it keeps doing that. So, if you get that message, just click ok until it goes away, if anyone knows the secret to get it to stop doing that, I would love to know how.

Also, I was watching TV last night and saw this commercial. A guy wakes up to a not so pretty overweight snoring girl, he looks over at the nightstand and sees a bottle of alcohol with a glass next to it. The voiceover says something about how people can forget a one-night stand as the guy slips out of bed, grabbing his clothes and wandering downstairs. Then he sees a wedding picture of him and the chick, and the voiceover says something like unless its every night of your life. Then it flashes to a black screen with a site name with an O, the o being a gold ring falling over and underneath it says life is short. Have an affair. I'm curious what's on the site, but I don't want anything like that on my history. But, who advertises for someone to be unfaithful in their marriage on TV? I thought that was the weirdest thing.

randomness

I've noticed lately, I'm becoming more girly. I believe it's because of a mix of Kevin telling me I look hot in certain things and me having more confidence in myself.
I have been buying more cute/sexy lingerie, and saying I'm buying it for Kevin, but I feel so hot and in a great mood when I wear it. I was JCPenney's yesterday and picked up a cute baby doll/thong sleepwear set. Kevin at the moment is at his parents home, but I told myself it was an extension of his birthday gift. I tried it on last night, and it put me in a really good mood, I looked pretty damn good in it too.
Also, while I was in HI, I kept saying how certain dresses and skirts I saw in store windows were really cute. I even bought myself a couple, and I really like how I look in them. I feel really girly.
And today, I think this is a huge step, I bought myself this wallet. OK, this isn't just one I can stick in my back pocket, this is one that I have to carry in a purse.
My wallet that I carry in my pants pocket, is way too big, now that I re-stuffed it with all my essentials after getting back from vacation. It's way too packed full, and kinda makes my butt go numb when I sit on it. Not a nice combination. I have been eyeing this wallet on Etsy for awhile now, and considered it when I bought the one I have now. I told myself when I had the money I'd get it. Well, when I had the money I kept telling myself I didn't want to be dependant on a purse. I still don't, but with all the extra stuff I carry around (sunglasses on sunny days, my calendar, my checkbook, and at times my camera), it's way too much to shove in my pants and coat pockets.
I also got a pretty cute bag from Glamour when I renewed my magazine subscription with them, only problem: it's got one huge pocket and no closure. I'm looking into sewing (obviously not professionally) a zipper into it, I figure, as long as I put a black zipper in with black thread, it shouldn't look too bad. I had bags with no closure.

I've watched a few good movies lately. My parents got me G-Force for Christmas, the real reason I wanted it, was because it had guinea pigs in it. I finally watched it the other day (sometime last week), and I really liked it. Sure some of the scenes where the government is chasing in their SUVs guinea pigs in guinea pig balls aren't really realistic, but how realistic do you think you're going to get with talking guinea pigs as government agents?
I also watched X-Men Origins: Wolverine, that's also pretty good. The only thing I really didn't like, is when Logan is looking at his "claws" in the mirror at the old couple's house, they look really fake. You can very well tell in that scene that they're CGI'ed in. I loved the story line and the new mutants they introduced. It was also nice that Logan's loss of memory was explained, though it was hard accepting him having a normal life and a woman he loved.
I watched Monsters Vs Aliens as well, that one wasn't as good. It was still good, but with all the previews, you knew what was going to happen for about half the movie.

Where have I been?

Alright kids, I'm sorry I've been so lax in posting lately. Here's what's been happening since I last posted.
12/19/09: was supposed to work graduation for Hilton, instead woke up with stomach pains and felt crappy all day, drank lots of water, stomach pains went away by bedtime.
12/20/09: Worked two basketball games
12/21/09 - 12/24/09: worked and got ready for Christmas.
12/24/09: worked a 2 hr shift at library, went home had a quick Christmas lunch with Kevin and my family, opened my family's Christmas presents, went home with Kevin to his parents house.
12/24/09 - 12/27/09: Was home with Kevin ignoring the rest of my life, had a nice Christmas with his family.
12/28/09: Came back to Ames and worked
12/29/09: Worked at the library in the morning, took care of stuff at post office, went out to lunch with Karli, finished packing for vacation, worked at store.
12/30/09 - 1/12/09: Hawaii vacation.

I will be posting my 'journal' entries about Hawaii very soon. Also will be adding all my pictures with descriptions to my picasa online album and will put up a link here. That might not happen for about a week as I have been working at the bookstore since the 13th and will be there until the 22nd.

Hope everyone had nice and happy holidays

UGH!

It hasn't been a fun week, well, except Sunday, Sunday was fun.
Sunday was my mother's family Christmas, and that was fun, with the food, the family, and the activities.

Monday I check my voicemail after work and find out my dad's in the hospital with kidney stones, and of course it's crappy weather outside.
Tuesday it's still really cold out and decides to snow while I'm at work, not a lot of snow, but with it being so cold I wasn't going out to shovel.
Wednesday, my dad has surgery to remove kidney stones.
Thursday I got to scrape the 1+ inches of packed snow off the driveway for 2 hours, that wasn't fun.
Friday, I don't really remember Friday except that the store had a really good day.
Saturday I was woken up early with abdominal pains, so painful I couldn't go to work and had to try and find a sub, but it being the Sat before Christmas, everyone who wasn't already working was busy. So, today I get to see what that does to me. I had pretty severe abdominal pains until about 3:30 pm, they'd come for a few minutes and be so painful, I'd double over and then they'd go away. Since kidney stones were on all our minds I was drinking lots of water and peeing a lot. Around 3:30, dad and I went grocery shopping because I needed food, and the pain was not going to get in the way of that. Then mom and I went to the mall to find a present for dad. I didn't really have any pain until maybe after 6pm, but it was very tiny, and I try not to make my parents worry, so I didn't mention it.
Had a few small pains for the rest of the night and then went to bed. Woke up at 2AM with a severe pain, went the bathroom and did some not so nice stuff, went back to bed at 2:30 and haven't been in pain since, though I did do some more not so nice stuff in the bathroom this morning.
I'm thinking it was food poisoning, because I had a frozen dinner of salmon on Fri before heading to work, and the salmon didn't cook all the way through, but I was impatient and ate it anyway. I was thinking it was kidney problems before this morning. Personally, I have no idea, but I have decided I will be going to work today. I missed out on 4.5 hrs pay yesterday and had no one to fill in for me, that's not happening today.

Hopefully, this next week will be tons better. It's gonna be Christmas, it has to be better.

We're shovelin' shovelin' shovelin' all day long

Ya know, I used to love snow as a kid, but now that I have to shovel it, it's not nearly as much fun, not even today where pretty much all the city is getting a snow day. Of course, the reason they're getting that snow day is the blowing snow, the fact that it's +8 (without windchill) and the fact that we got somewhere around 11 inches of snow. That, is not fun conditions to be digging out of the 11 inches of snow. It took us (mom, dad, me and Kevin) about 2 hours to get all the sidewalks shoveled, the porch cleared off and the driveway cleared off. Kevin was using the snowblower on the driveway while dad and I shoveled the sidewalks. Right about when we were done with city sidewalks and going up to clear off the porch mom came out and said she would do the porch. After dad and I did all the heavy lifting, but of course that's what mom does.
Afterwards, Kevin and I went out to look for some food. We found that the bank, Fareway, McDonald's, Walmart, the Chinese Buffet, HyVee and Village Inn were open. Everything else we passed was closed. We didn't go to the west part of town, so I don't know what was open over there. It was so weird to be driving around in the middle of the day and there were at most 20 cars on the roads, though there were quite a few people out walking around, mostly college students.
Tonight the low is -14 and tomorrow the high is 10. I hate winter in Iowa, but like someone told me yesterday, you deal with it or move. I choose to deal and complain when we get stuff like this.

Hello Winter

It is officially winter, not technically, but I think it is. We had our first snow (OK, not first, but first that stayed on the ground), and temperatures below freezing, and (I heard) plenty of accidents from the snow.
I also just finished shoveling (more like moving) the snow off the driveway.
I was thinking as I finished shoveling, I like this weather. OK, not the snow turning to slush and then ice on the streets, but the temperatures in between 21 and 34 degrees F, when it's calm outside, its beautiful. Don't let anyone know, but I love how I get all hot and sweaty shoveling, and then I'm not cold when I get done.

Please take a moment today and give some prayers to the families of the 4 officers killed in Washington over the weekend. It's a horrible tragedy and I hope they catch the asshole who did and I hope he resists arrest cause he really needs a beating.
My mother's reaction to this story was that they needed to do away with all guns. But, if we're going to get rid of all guns what about the police officers, what do they use to protect themselves. I realize (at least I'm guessing here), she didn't mean their guns, but the criminals will always find a way to do what they want. And that means taking the guns away from the law-abiding citizens that use them to protect themselves. My parents and I very much differ on our opinions of guns, I hope someday to have a safe full of guns in my house with one either under my pillow or in my bedside table. As long as you use your gun for legal activities, there's nothing wrong with owning one, of course you also need to know how to use it, I wouldn't recommend anyone just going out and getting a gun for protection if you don't take the time to learn about and how to use it, that's an accident waiting to happen. I think (purely speculating here), that my parents don't like guns is because they know next to nothing about them, my mom did shoot a gun during the citizen's police academy, but as far as I know that's the only time she's shot one, I don't think my dad's shot one at all. But, time and again my dad has said he does not want guns in the house. I bet he'd be thinking something different if someone broke into the house and assaulted one of us. I don't want that to happen, but in today's world, it can easily happen. My parents still believe that my town is safe enough to leave your doors unlocked and you don't have to worry about anyone breaking in or anything bad happening. Getting my degree in criminal justice taught me a lot about crime and knowing the officers and having my boyfriend who used to work with them, I have learned a lot about the crime in my town, and it's not tiny town crime. We still have armed robberies and domestic assaults, unfortunately, people like my parents feel that if they ignore it, it doesn't actually happen. Minds like those I believe make things worse in my community.

Didn't mean to ramble, the reason for my post was to get you to think about those officers. It's sad they can't sit down and do work without having to worry about an idiot coming up and shooting them. Keep them and their families in your prayers and thoughts.

I'm so pissed at myself. I was in a hurry rushing to work today and I dropped my cell phone in the toilet. I quickly fished it out and dried everything out, but I turned it back on a little while ago and I had troubles hearing in the ear piece and the connection between the SD card and the phone seems to be a little off.
The Verizon people said, just let it dry out for a couple of days and it should be fine. Thankfully, it's the weekend and the only person that would be calling me is Kevin, I really want to talk to him, but I guess I'll have to dry my phone first. I shouldn't have anyone else calling me, but anyone else that would, that would be important (close friends and family) have my home number, or they'll just leave a voicemail and I'll get back to them.
I know people have dropped their phones in water before, but I'm so totally pissed at myself, and of course we didn't get insurance on them, we just got the phone in Aug, so I feel extremely bad cause it's a pretty new phone and if it does dry out and work fine, I don't want it to die before it should.
So pissed at myself.