Dinosaur Party Hats

delicious pot stickers

2011-09-18T03:08:00.001-07:00

I made pot stickers again today, this time with wrappers made from scratch. It took FOREVER but hand-made wrappers definitely taste way better than store-bought wrappers. They're also a lot easier to work with, so I was able to put more meat into them and they weren't super puny like my last ones. I don't have any pics right now, but I froze most of them so I'll take a picture next time. I'll probably post the recipe on my sketch blog. I made a batch of pork and cabbage dumplings and beef and green onion (no chinese chives available) dumplings. Pork definitely tasted better. Also it was a million times easier to make these in a "kitchen" (which is really a bar--Val and I don't have a kitchen in the area we're renting so I have to go upstairs to the main part of the house) than it was to make in a tiny dorm room. Still made a horrible mess, though. Val gave the pot stickers a thumbs up but he was drunk so I'm not sure if I should believe him.

Man, where is everyone

2011-09-06T22:19:00.001-07:00

I'm the only one with zero life who checks this blog constantly.

sore

2011-02-02T14:16:00.000-08:00

Riding in a Black Hawk: Awesome.

Riding in an MRAP: Not so awesome (But still kind of cool, I guess)

I started going to the gym with a group of co-workers. Did you know it's easier to lift when you have buddies with you? I should have started this years ago!

it's cold

2011-01-27T09:39:00.001-08:00

I'm in Iraq now. And as you can guess from the title, it is cold. It also rains a lot more than I expected.

Where is everyone

2010-12-05T16:08:00.001-08:00

What happened to everyone!

I'm in New Jersey right now. It's cold.

Delicious Beef Stroganoff

2010-09-04T04:14:00.000-07:00

WHAT UP GUYS

It's been hectic and crazy here, as always. But lately it seems even busier. On top of that I have some huge things I need to prepare for and it's sapping both my mental and physical energy.

Anyway, I just wanted to post about a recipe that I cooked a couple of weeks ago. It's a beef stroganoff recipe that I got from this website. I've cooked a couple of other things from this site before and they were really good. And I love beef stroganoff, so when I saw this recipe I just knew I had to try it for myself!

It was very easy to prepare. I think the most "difficult" part was slicing and flattening the filet mignon. And even that wasn't hard; I just hate touching meat. And it was so delicious. I don't even know how many servings I made, but I finished it all by myself in like two days. Man... so good. The first night I ate so much of it that I made myself sick.

Here's the recipe if you'd like to try it! I definitely recommend it!

Oh man TDYs are so awesome

2010-08-21T20:32:00.000-07:00

Well at least that one was. I thought everybody there was going to be DoD; boy, was I wrong. I heard there were over 65,000 people registered (which I don't believe, I think it was maybe more like 6500). The banks had some goodies there that you could take. I got a Citibank bag since of course, they are the bank I was there for. But JP Morgan was giving out these crazy awesome bags that were way better than all the others!! I rushed back over to that side of the conference to grab one but they were already gone...

Going to that conference made me feel like I had a regular job. I woke up around 6 in the morning, made myself some coffee, went to "work" by about 7:30 and then hung out there until around 5. Then I would pick some dinner up on the way home, unwind a bit, work out, then go to sleep. It was pretty awesome. When I went back to work the week after, everyone commented on how cheerful and well-rested I looked. By Thursday everyone was asking if I was okay because I looked so tired and worn-out, haha. Anyway... it was nice to be dressed in cute office clothes instead of a uniform for a change. The last day was kind of stressful though, since I had to speak at a panel that I originally thought I didn't have to participate in, then I had to navigate my way through downtown Atlanta back to the airport with a broken GPS. I don't even know HOW I managed to find my way to the airport, but when I did, I was so relieved that I didn't bother trying to hunt for a gas station to replace the fuel in the rental car. On top of all that, I ended up leaving my GPS in the car... oh well, that piece of crap was broken anyway.

Now I'm back at my super stressful yet dreary job. I'm actually pretty excited to leave in December. I have a month of training before that though. NEVER FEAR, I shall be planning my wedding from abroad! Hope all of you guys are doing great.

I need a planner

2010-08-03T22:18:00.000-07:00

Or something to keep all the crap straight. Val and I made the guest list this weekend to get a feel for how big the wedding would be (about 90 people, which is way more than I thought) and our budget (we're poor). We tried to discuss a little bit about what we wanted everything to look like but quickly got distracted. Anyway, all this stuff is pretty confusing. I guess I better head over to the store and pick up some sort of notepadthingiemajigger.

In other news, I'll be in Atlanta next week, for my very first TDY! I'm pretty excited. I think I'm going to try to visit the aquarium if I have time, since I heard it's pretty awesome.

pictures

2010-07-31T00:47:00.000-07:00

We need a new picture of the three of us. That one that is up is... so old... Why must we be scattered across the United States? :(

Wedding Plans

2010-07-27T22:22:00.000-07:00

Val and I will be hitting the wedding planning full-force this weekend, but thankfully we already have a couple of things taken care of. We found a photographer and got a pretty good deal, which I am so grateful for since most of the photographers I looked at were either totally awesome and too pricey, or super cheap and really crappy. Now that it's out of the way it's a huge load off my shoulders. We also have our wedding cake taken care of, since Priscilla's mom offered to do it (with a discount as well!) although we still need to work out all the details such as size, design, etc... There are so many little details that are involved with planning a wedding; at times it gets a little overwhelming. And we still have to take care of the big stuff--location, food, officiator...!

We are opting for handmade invitations, or at least something we designed ourselves. Although the wedding isn't for over a year, I just know I'm going to procrastinate on them!

Anyway, I heard a rumor that our office was going back to 12-hour shifts again (ugh) so I guess I won't have a lot of time to make a bunch of plans. Hopefully it doesn't last long. I think I still need to post a bunch of pictures from my trip a while back as well!

I'm tired

2010-07-20T07:03:00.000-07:00

Just finished a 13 hour night shift at work. Surprisingly, I think I enjoy the night shift more. It's far more quiet and there aren't any customers constantly bugging you about things. The only downside is that it's hard to get a hold of people when you need something quickly.

Man so tired don't even know what I'm typing!

I got engaged.

2010-07-14T00:42:00.001-07:00

About a week ago, actually, on the 6th. It's been so busy at work (I have to wake up in 4 hours...) that I haven't had much time to talk to anyone. Especially these two lovely ladies here who graciously accepted to be bridesmaids at the wedding (ecstatic!). <3<3<3<3<3

2010-06-29T22:13:00.000-07:00

Today was ridiculous fun (even with the disgusting being covered in other people's sweat)!!!

Best set: Motion City Soundtrack, by far. I wasn't expecting LG FUAD, but I was really, really happy to hear it.

Now I am super gross and tired. Poor sleepy Myra.

random compliments = happy!

2010-06-17T17:17:00.000-07:00

So today, two random people at work told me I looked nice.

I do really like the clothes I was wearing, but I'm pretty sure I've worn this dress several times. And while my shoes are super cute, the woman who told me she liked them never talks to me. Never, ever, ever. So it really was super random.

Has everyone just gotten used to my super-casual-but-not-denim pants and ballet flats that I normally wear to work? Because I also really love the purple ballet flats I wore yesterday and not one random person complimented them.

Anyway, I just hope everyone had something nice said to them today. Because otherwise, I'm sad for you :)

I bought a car.

2010-05-22T23:00:00.001-07:00

No time to use it, but at least I have one now!

Moving...

2010-04-30T00:43:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I found out that I have to be completely moved out of my room by next Friday. I'm not looking forward to all the crazy packing I'm going to have to do... but my new room has a kitchen! Finally! (although the room itself is probably half the size of the room I have right now). Anyway, the rest of the entries about my trip are going to have to be put on hold until I get everything together. As if anyone thought I was going to post the updates quickly, anyway.

Here's hoping I can get everything done this weekend without going crazy! (not likely)

I'm like the worst friend ever

2010-04-27T23:36:00.000-07:00

On Monday while I was showering after PT, I suddenly realized that I had totally forgotten to call dear Leah on her birthday (which was Sunday... unless my dates are messed up). This after I'd been staring at my calendar for about 5 days beforehand thinking to myself, man, I can't call yet, it's not her birthday! (I know that makes no sense at all) AND THEN ONT HE ACTUAL DAY I FORGET!!! Then after that I realized I had also forgotten to call Myra back for her birthday, too.

So I promised myself to call both during my lunch break. But then I ate a sandwich instead.

I'm a terrible friend.

Happy belated birthday, Leah!!! I'm so disappointed we didn't all get to spend our 25th birthday together. To me, 25th seems like such a big milestone, so much more important than turning 21 or whatever. I hope you had a good time with cake and presents and everything. And I will call... eventually. I will make no promises since I'm clearly the worst at returning (or even starting?) calls.

And Myra... same for you. Hope it will be soon. Like, still April, soon.

On another note, I started a different diet and workout regimen again. And by different diet I mean buying my own food and eating that so I can keep track of everything that is in it (dining facility is a mystery). And by new workout regimen... I mean my boyfriend made a workout plan for me. So now I can't skip it, no matter how tired I am.

Goal: lose 25 pounds! (not going to happen but I'll try anyway!)

my teeth hate me

2010-04-19T15:01:00.000-07:00

back in my boring class. time to post something. today we are talking about climate change. fun fun. my prof used to work for enron so he likes energy things.

today was a very horrible day. i had to a root canal. or at least the beginnings of one. and soon i have to another one. and my insurance will only pay for part of the first one. it only pays $750 per year. i am totally going to run out of money.

my novocain has worn off. now my face really hurts. i had a smoothie for dinner and it sadly didn't make me feel better.

last night erin and i had an ironing party while watching (500) days of summer. the movie was cute. especially the first half. and it had a movie-phone guy voice over. it made me feel uncool for not liking the smiths. ok. it's not that i don't like smiths. it's that i don't even know enough to have an opinion on them. it reminded of me of reading the perks of being a wallflower, when i also felt uncool for not being familiar with the smiths. o well. i am preppy, not cool.

it's very hard to pay attention in class due to my face. it hurts. i am whiney. o well.

now we are having a presentation. joyous.

an afternoon at the libs

2010-04-18T13:39:00.000-07:00

this is such a leah article: What Presidents Read i think i should have studied presidential reading habits and how it affected their decisions. or theoretical physics. i really like theoretical/astro physics. i wish i had studied that. except i don't basic boring physics that involve vectors and bodies in motion, whatnot...

i am supposed to be working on my statistics project. it is boring and lisa is doing most of the work. we are trying to predict dollar/pound exchange rates. it is not horrible and is actually using the stuff we are learning in class. but only one person can really use the program at one time. and so i am taking notes. but, of course, they are leah-like notes and very babbly.

Promises Kept

2010-04-13T21:29:00.000-07:00

Finally decided to get off my bum and post about the trip I took with Val last month. Although, technically, I guess I am still on my bum... but anyway...!

First, I want to apologize for that ridiculous post I wrote a few nights ago. "Drunken ramblings" as Leah said (yay for Leah posting!). I don't have any recollection of typing that post... In any case, that was the most intoxicated state I've been in for over a year. The last time I got anywhere near that drunk was on my 24th birthday. Oh well, good times.

First, I'll start off with a couple pictures of the flowers that Val got me for Valentine's Day! Yeah I know, nobody wants to see this shit, especially since the pictures are bad. I can't even
blame my camera and its terrible lack of ability to shoot in low light conditions (someday I will own a fancypants camera like the rest of you do). Anyway, these flowers were delivered directly to the office along with a box of chocolates. I almost had a heart attack because the secretary called me and was like "AIRMAN SOM... Please come see me in the Command Section." I totally thought I was in trouble. Gosh, I'm rambling. Anyway, they came with a lovely note as well. It was nice to have these flowers around since I was so anxious to see Val again. I've never been apart from a boyfriend for such a (continuously) long time.

The flight to Texas was pretty long, but I really couldn't complain since Val's flight was more than twice as long (his flight back to Korea was even worse). The scenery was nice, anyway. I took a few pictures of the sky since it looked so crazy. There were two layers of clouds and when we flew in between them I swear it looked like we were in Mordor. Of course I didn't manage to take any pictures of that... but I got this one that I thought was interesting. Reminded me of The Lion King!

The day after we reunited was our one year anniversary. There aren't a whole lot of restaurants in the area Val is from, so we ended up just going to PF Chang's. The food was still delicious, anyway, although we were pretty full from all the food we ate earlier. It was nice to spend dinner alone since I had a pretty grueling time of meeting everyone in his family. Although I think I have the names of all his brothers straight now!

Val took me on a mini tour of his neighborhood. His house was literally five minutes away from the Mexican border. We originally planned on visiting Mexico as well, but there is a bunch of dangerous activity in that area so he decided that we shouldn't go. Also, that whole area became restricted for us a couple of weeks later anyway, so I guess it was a good thing we didn't go. I was too scared to take a picture of the border "gate", haha. But I did take pictures of some of the buildings around the area. A lot of them are still standing for historic purposes. Val said some of them really are just abandoned houses, though. Also there were a lot of structures that I thought were destroyed houses, but they were actually houses in the process of being built... Everything in that area was in Spanish and I had so many Mexican treats that I must have gained at least 5 pounds over the course of the trip. Val's mom also taught me how to make a few Mexican foods. So fattening yet so delicious.

We didn't do a lot in Texas, but it was nice and very relaxing (after people from my office stopped calling about work). It really is amazing what a bit of rest can do for you. My skin and hair was better... etc. All the stress from work really takes a toll on your body.

Hmm, this entry came out a lot longer than I expected. I'll write about our visit to Phoenix next time.

i should be paying attention in class....

2010-04-12T14:33:00.000-07:00

hello!

i was inspired by stacy's latest post to say something. if stacy can post drunken ramblings, i can post something boring.

i should be paying attention in class right now. this is class is totally boring. it is international political economy. i don't know why i find this class so boring. the subject matter is decently interesting and my prof has a fun british accent. but, alas. earwax. i spend the entire class on my laptop. today we have a speaker on migration. i dislike labor unions.

i needed to have done more work this weekend. mostly, i left the house or slept. on saturday i went to the national cherry blossom parade. it was o-kay. every entry in the parade stopped at the grandstand and performed. i heard lots and lots of songs and saw many children riding unicycles. the parade had 2 different groups of unicycle riding children... we then attempted to go to the japanese cultural festival so that i could eat fried tempura. i guess the word tempura implies fried... but the festival was PACKED, as in you could barely move. so i had to abandon my goal and instead had a burrito...

yesterday i went to the outlets and bought many, many things. it's not quite as horrible as it sounds since i was mostly replacing things in my lost suitcase. having to replace 38 pounds of stuff is really annoying... and trying to make a claim against an airline that has no office in the states is really annoying. my suitcase got lost on my flight to israel and was never found.... it's just so much stuff to replace and shopping takes a lot of time.

ok, i don't have much else to say, but i really don't want to pay attention in class so i will try to find something to babble about. some kids from class are talking about the readings and discussing migration, immigration, labor unions, political backlash... they passed out peeps. my prof just mentioned arizona! i heart arizona. but our readings all used the philippines as a case study. it made me think of jackie lou and jeremy. oh, our speaker is from the philippines. he looks my age. but listening to his bio, he can't be.... awkward. maybe i will pay attention when he starts talking...

soood runk

2010-04-11T02:59:00.000-07:00

omg soo drunk
dinosaur part hats

tking a lassy c=tyrb
turn
classy turnb
....
tu
turn

myra pics coming soon

eventually

leah soudolh ajoin

FUICK THIS I CAN;/R RHISR TPE ARHGHH

NYT Crossword!

2010-04-09T16:58:00.000-07:00

27 across - Table scrap
A: ORT
!!!!!

Also, wasn't I promised pictures and a post from Stacy?

And because Leah never joins the Dinosaur Party, articles she sent me this week:
A Family that Reads and Reviews Together
Baby-Sitters Club Returns
The Parent Problem in YA Lit

I sense a theme...

What the...

2010-03-23T22:47:00.001-07:00

The layout is broken; how can this be? Time to switch to a new template. I will do this.. later. (way too lazy right now)

Also, post and pictures of my trip will be coming.

Fat on Mexican food

2010-03-04T15:02:00.001-08:00

I am typing this into Val's iPhone at his parent's house. Each day has been filled with mexican foods and snacks. I despair of ever reaching a proper weight again. Luckily, we are only here for a couple more days. But I am sure that the week in Phoenix will not be any better. We brought our gym clothes with us but haven't touched the gym once.

Val is falling asleep on my shoulder now... I think all this food is sending him into a food coma. His mom showed me how to make some authentic Mexican food so I am pretty excited to try it on my own.

Whoa putting self to sleep

What is the deal with macarons

2010-02-23T00:32:00.000-08:00

I keep seeing macaron recipes all over the place recently. What is so great about these things? I've never had one before, but all these pictures and recipes are starting to make me want to try one. If anything, I just want to see what the big deal is all about.

Unfortunately, I have no idea where to buy them. So I guess I'll be baking and eating some bastardized form of them.

Wonton Noodle Soup

2010-02-13T21:28:00.000-08:00

Today I made myself some wonton noodle soup. No pictures as my webcam is currently occupied and plus I totally just ate half the bowl. I have plenty of leftovers though, so maybe I'll take a picture next time.

Again, I used store-bought wrappers because I'm too damn lazy to make my own, but I found myself wishing I had done the extra effort while I was wrapping the wontons. The store bought wrappers are pretty uneven and it irritates me, even though you don't really notice it anyway once you've cooked them.

I bought the wrong kind of noodles, although I don't think it matters much. I only say it's "wrong" because it's not the kind of noodles I always eat wontons with. It still tastes okay, but it's not as chewy and I really don't like my noodles to be too soft unless they're supposed to be (like in.. chicken soup or something I don't know).

For the filling, I used the rest of the ground pork I had leftover from the pot stickers and mixed it with minced shrimp and water chestnuts and scallions. I like my wonton to have extra crunch to it. But I think I still didn't put enough water chestnut.

No char siu because I didn't feel like going through all the trouble of figuring out how to make it when I was going to be the only one eating it. I mean, that would be like a shit ton of pork. Maybe next time, though; I'd really like to learn how to make char siu. Maybe I can make some barbecue pork buns with the rest or something. (even though I don't really like char siu bao)

Anyway, that was my oh-so-exciting adventure today. It's Valentine's Day in Korea right now, so I wished my darling a happy V-day... He had flowers and dark chocolates delivered to the office for me. They were so beautiful... pictures posted later. (maybe)

Christmas Card 2009

2010-02-09T20:10:00.000-08:00

I briefly overcame my laziness and finally saved a web-version of my card. The cards I printed did not have that black border around the image; I just stuck that on there for the web-version because the non-bordered image looked so awkward.

So that's how I draw seals when I am half asleep. And I kind of messed up the background. But this card was pretty fun to make (except for the seals and the igloo, which I did after I was already fed up with everything).

Hope everyone who received one liked it! I need to start my card earlier this year. But we already know that's not going to happen.

Edit: Ugh, on second glance the border actually makes it look MORE awkward. Ehhh... too lazy to change it right now.

Christmas Presents and Potstickers

2010-02-04T00:26:00.000-08:00

I thought I had made a post about the gifts I received for Christmas, but I don't see one anywhere... so I'll just post them now! I got a ton of really nice and cute gifts! Honestly I was surprised that this year my parents bought me a lot of frivolous items because they usually scold me for putting that kind of crap on my list. Anyway:

* The entire Elegant Sweets set from ReMent (minus the secret set). You can view it here. I LOVE ReMent miniatures so I was ecstatic to receive this set! I already owned the gelatin set so I gave the new one to Art's sister.
* Scribblenauts for DS (awesome fun). I made a bunch of seals. They ort!
* A rice cooker recipe book, very useful for living in this shithole of a dorm
* A bunch of hair accessories
* An Enzo Milano curling iron!!! It works amazingly well! Although my hair is pretty long so it's difficult to curl the whole length in one go.
* A black cocktail dress
* Gift cards to various places (Val got me $100 to buy makeup at the MAC counter at Macy's... haha. I don't even know how to use half the stuff I bought!)
* External harddrive from ArtyArt for... (...)
* A Ralph Lauren purse from ArtyArt's mom!!
* The "Purity" CD from Mythos (relaxing New Age music)
* "Asian Dumplings" cook book from Andrea Nguyen

I wanted to make special note of the "Asian Dumplings" book my mom bought for me after listening to me lament over and over again about how I missed eat foods like pot stickers and tay and joong (?) and other crap I don't know the names of in English. I've also been wanting to cook these types of foods for quite a while now since I never learned from my grandmother while I was living in Arizona. And it doesn't look like I'll be seeing her for a while, so I guess recipes are the way to go! I made pot stickers this weekend, although I didn't really use the recipe from this book; I used a different one that I found online somewhere. I didn't make my own wrappers because I felt lazy. The filling was made from pork, shrimp, napa cabbage, and plenty of chives. AND THEY WERE DELICIOUS!!!! But, they looked really ugly. I mean, really ugly. I've never wrapped a pot sticker before and I really didn't put enough filling in the wrappers so they look really puny (and got wrinkly too). Next time I'll know not to leave so much "skin" on the edges. I also accidentally tore a bunch of them and also over crowded them in the pan (hey I was hungry). They were so much fun to make and I can't wait to make them again! I ate them with a sauce made from some vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil, and red chili flakes. Man. So good. Here are some crappy pictures I took with my webcam. You can see how tiny they are.

Awwwwww yeaaaaaaah.

Next time I'm going to make wonton noodle soup with the leftover pork and shrimp that I have. I think it'll be a lot of fun.

Oh, by the way... here's the Christmas card that I sent to everyone last year (more like this year, with my procrastination... sigh). The seals came out really messed up since I was in such a hurry. Actually, there are a ton of mistakes everywhere... but oh well, IT'S DONE. Enjoy.

... wait...

Awww crap, I forgot to save a web-version of the card. Oh well, too lazy to do it right now. UNTIL NEXT TIME...

Uninteresting Post

2010-01-19T18:59:00.000-08:00

So, tonight, while shampooing my hair (what an interesting life I lead!) I opened my eyes and saw a spider dangling a foot from my face. I then made a sound that was very brave and not girly whatsoever and ran away.

I seriously thought the dangling spider in the shower thing only happened in really cheesy horror movies. I learn something new everyday!

Also, I'm now scared of my shower.

I saw Avatar... and I liked it.

2010-01-04T19:47:00.000-08:00

First off, I just wanted to say that I knew Avatar was a highly anticipated movie but that I wasn't expecting much from it. It wasn't that I had "nerd rage" and decided to hate it out of some sort of bias; it just didn't seem interesting to me from the previews (actually, it looked kind of terrible to me). Needless to say, I was pretty shocked when I saw it this weekend and ended up loving it. Seriously, that movie really draws you in. I had an intense urge to run off and live in a forest after it was done. I did see it in 3D, which I was also skeptical about. Normally, I dislike 3D movies because they often seem too... gimmicky, or give me a headache, or something. But I honestly forgot I was even watching a 3D movie during Avatar. I only remembered when I tried to scratch my face and my hand slammed into the glasses. The visuals were amazing, also. Sure there were some parts where the animation was kind of off, but for the most part it was awesome. The story was nothing spectacular, but everything else was so great that I kind of overlooked the cliche plot. It's long, but entertaining to watch. In fact, after I finished the movie I actually wanted to watch it AGAIN. But honestly, if you're looking for a very intellectual movie that makes you think, Avatar is not the movie for you. But otherwise, I would recommend the movie to anyone.

It never fails

2009-12-24T07:05:00.000-08:00

It's Christmas Eve and I've barely finished painting my Christmas card for the year. I've written out maybe ten of them so far... Every year I always procrastinate and my Christmas cards don't get to anyone until like, New Year's. Last year I procrastinated so much that I didn't even make any cards!! So, my New Year's resolution will be to start the Christmas cards earlier (we'll see) in addition to my perpetual goal of losing 15 pounds.

Procrastination sneaks into my sleep schedule too. It's 7 AM and I haven't gone to bed yet. Why? NO REASON, just lazy. Can you believe it? Too lazy to go to bed. Sigh.

Longevity

2009-11-21T12:20:00.000-08:00

My grandma is so funny. She's going on about how most people she knows who had big weddings didn't stay married for long. Grandma: "Their marriages only lasted ten, twenty years at most."

Admittedly, my grandparents have been married for 67 years, so maybe twenty years doesn't seem like much, but when I think of people who got divorced quick, I think a year, two tops.

Perspective changes a lot with age.

I have a fitness test tomorrow.

2009-11-17T19:05:00.000-08:00

Needless to say I am quite worried. My extra running has helped me but I don't have the speed that I had when I left tech school. I'm sure I can pass the test for running... not so sure about the push ups and sit ups though.

I just realized I need to purchase stamps. I'll probably forget again tomorrow.

I shall never cheat again

2009-11-08T22:34:00.000-08:00

We had Friday off last week so I decided to celebrate, since I didn't do anything last weekend (also a three-day weekend). I decided to cheat a bit on my diet and bought some Taco Bell, after receiving Val's blessing. WHAT A MISTAKE. I bought a crap-ton of tacos and burritos and who knows what else, and I was already full after two tacos. And you know I can't let food go to waste... so I ate Taco Bell the entire weekend. UGH. Today I just couldn't take it anymore and I made myself some rice with different vegetables. I still have a couple of burritos left... but I think I will just let them sit there.

I've learned my lesson!

Join me on my journey...

2009-11-03T22:37:00.000-08:00

... to lose 25 pounds. No, seriously. Okay, I feel like I am always dieting and never really make any progress, except for that time I got super fat and somehow worked off all those pounds before I enlisted. Well, that was a combination of diligent exercise and careful monitoring of my food intake. It's a little difficult to do that here since I eat at the dining facility and who KNOWS what they're putting into that food... If I had a little more money I think I would just eat food made with my rice cooker every day. Anyway, here are a few goals I would like to obtain in the future (preferably before the next time I see Val):

-- Lose 20-25 pounds while somehow retaining my "strength" (hey I need the most I can get!)
-- Run 6 miles without stopping (I told Art that I was going to do it... AND I AM) and then...
-- Run 6 miles in an hour (I'm very slow, a steady 10 minute mile is quite difficult for me)
-- Fit into those freaking skinny jeans I bought while I was in tech school (A MOST LIKELY UNATTAINABLE GOAL... but I shall dream)

I'd also like to run my 1.5 mile in 12 minutes but I've never been able to run that quickly. I don't know how Priscilla does it; that girl is like a gazelle. And while working all that, I'd like to work my strength up again so that I can do a bunch of pull ups, etc., like I used to. It's distressing how quickly you can lose your strength and how difficult it is to gain it back. But mostly I'm tired of feeling fat all the time.

Anyway, there's a few things I've done in an attempt to reach these goals. I tried to regulate my diet a little better (probably needs to be altered some more though... I really don't trust that dining facility food) and am exercising a lot more. I hate, hate, HATE strength training but I am forcing myself to do it. I want to try spin class but I will probably die... I do need to go to the gym too, though. Sigh. I feel like there are not enough hours in the day to do everything. Oh well. I'll monitor my progress here. I should probably get myself weighed soon... but I am pretty wary. Maybe the 25 pounds will have to be 30 or 35. D'oh!

Wolf Pup

2009-11-03T00:16:00.001-08:00

Link: http://www.odditycentral.com/news/rottweiler-dad-adopts-wolf-cub.html

I just wanted to post that because the wolf pup is named Beldaran. TOTALLY from the David Eddings books. I came across that article through Stumble and you bet I squealed with glee when I saw that (okay, not really, but you know what I mean).

The end.

Working like a dog of the military

2009-10-21T22:21:00.000-07:00

Well, since Myra said she was saddened that we never, ever post, I decided I should probably make some sort of update. I know I myself promised to write about my trip to Phoenix, but that obviously never happened. Basically, I saw all my darling friends again, had a small get-together for my brother's 21st birthday, and subsequently turned my brother off of alcohol FOREVER. Good times. I didn't accomplish everything I wanted to, but at least I got to see everyone. I was disappointed that I did not get to see my grandmother, though, as she has been in Maryland for the past few years and only seems to come back at times I am not around.

Other than that, life has been both hectic and lazy. There is a huge inspection happening for the base right now, and nearly everyone has been working 12 hour shifts. I worked a night shift on Saturday, but I got lucky and didn't have to work on Sunday and Monday night like a few other folks (had to come in like normal on Monday, though). Of course, I am always busy at work, but it's worrisome that even with these 12 hour shifts I don't seem to be able to catch up on anything. There are a couple of programs I am supposed to monitor that really eat up a lot of my time, especially when they are only additional duties and not my "main" job. I honestly pile all of my main duties onto my alternate, which I feel terrible about, but I don't have much choice.

I think most people know that I didn't choose this job, and rather it was chosen for me. It's not bad, really, considering the other choices. But I'm looking into training into a different career field (if I don't commission soon). That won't be for a few years, though. And currently, our career field doesn't even allow us to retrain due to manning levels... ridiculous.

On a happier note, I got my new computer built! My dear friend Art helped me with it (read: did all the work). I'm giving my old one to my mom after I've wiped the drive and installed some games for her.

I've been looking at a lot of recipes lately and I really want to make dumplings... like pot stickers and wontons, etc. But I want to make the kind my grandma makes. I've never had the ones she makes ANYWHERE else, although I'm sure there are restaurants somewhere that make them. I wish I could see her more often so that I could learn. I know only the basics from what my mom taught me, but all the important details are lost in the fuzziness of my memory. I hate not having my own kitchen over here. Otherwise I'd be experimenting up a storm (and probably burning down everything around me).

Myra is so interesting

2009-10-19T16:44:00.000-07:00

I have real [but not interesting] babbling about my life (including a long summary about NADWC that I wrote back in September, random squeeing about how much fun it was to see FOB and blink182 [shut up, I can like teenage music], and upcoming Nanowrimo excitement) but I'm really too lazy to do that now. I've also promised a really long post about all the audio/books I've read this year, but I don't think anyone but me has any interest (or reads this blog...). So I'll see if I feel like it ever.

Really, the whole point of this is to say how very sad I am that we fail at having a collective record of our thoughts and experiences.

North American Discworld Con!!!!!

2009-09-04T10:57:00.000-07:00

Is it ridiculous that I'm happy the hotel has free wireless? It makes my desire to share all the minute details of my day (and sit and enjoy a cup of tea before it all starts) a little more pleasurable.

I'm getting books signed my Pterry today!!! I brought the Bromeliad (which isn't in this dictionary and I hope I'm spelling right!!!) and Good Omens!!!! Which might not be exciting to people who get to see Terry Pratchett all the time, but I'm really happy NA Discworld con is here today!!!!

Anyway, I must got pick up my t-shirt. Then I get to see Terry Prachett in the midst of other fans!!!!

Sims 3

2009-08-03T20:10:00.000-07:00

I started playing The Sims 3 (my little brother bought it for me as a late birthday gift... he is awesome). Wow, I knew that you could customize some of the textures and colors on the clothing, but I didn't think it would be quite THAT customizable! It's insane. I like it a lot. Though there are a few things that weren't customizable, like necklaces on some of the tops, and glass on some of the lamps, which doesn't really make a whole lot of sense to me. I think I spent more time creating my character than I did actually playing her. And then when I got to the house I started trying to customize some things but it was just taking so long and I wanted to start playing.

It's a lot different from Sims 2. I'm not sure how I feel about that yet. I do like the game, but it somehow seems a lot harder. Or at least, a lot harder to do a whole bunch of different things at the same time. Maybe I just need some more time to play with it.

I tried to register the game so I could get some "free" downloads or whatever, but it looks like someone already yoinked my game key, because it keeps saying it's invalid (wtf). Oh well.

I guess I'll make another post later about my trip to Arizona.

500 Days of Summer

2009-07-26T20:30:00.001-07:00

I'm in Phoenix right now; just flew in yesterday morning. I can't believe it's so humid here! Definitely not what I was expecting at all. Somehow the heat doesn't bother me as much as it used to, though. Maybe because I'd gotten used to San Antonio and Biloxi. What did surprise me is how hot it remains at night. I'd completely forgotten about that. I'm so used to being at Travis; really hot in the day time, but really cold as soon as the sun goes down. Kind of throws me off that it's still very hot even when the sun isn't shining over here.

Today I saw "500 Days of Summer" with Priscilla. It wasn't a masterpiece or anything like that, but it's definitely an entertaining movie to watch. I don't think I would ever purchase it, but I wouldn't mind seeing it again. I initially thought that it would be a love story, but it really wasn't. There were lots of funny parts and some really good lines in it (even though they might have been a little cheesy). If you are bored and just feel like watching a random movie, I would recommend it.

Disgusting

2009-05-21T18:12:00.000-07:00

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8062705.stm

I heard about this incident before, but was reminded of it when I saw the article on BBC. Every time I see an article like this I get a terrible, sick feeling in my stomach. I hate to think that I'm part of a group that has people who would do this kind of thing. Three guys holding a 14 year old girl down so a fourth one can rape her? WTF?

It disappoints me, but I guess it shouldn't surprise me, since crap like this happens everywhere. There are some truly terrible people in the world.

Break out the party hats!

2009-05-15T13:59:00.000-07:00

My brother and almost-sister-in-law-Leah (as opposed to party hat wearing Leah [although I'm sure Leah isn't opposed to party hats {are there people opposed to party hats?}]) are getting married in just over a week! I'm freaky excited. I just picked up my bridesmaid dress from getting altered, and it's adorable (or, you know, whatever adjectives bridesmaid dresses are supposed to have) and I'm leaving for Atlanta in a few days and it will be great fun for all. If stressful fun. Oh well.

Leah had told me (in a meandering way through the use of pictures and idontreallycare) that I was aiming for bronze strappy shoes (at least, that's what I got out of the pictures). I ended up buying a shoe that looked nice, but now I'm convinced look like fancy heeled flipflops (it's the straps. I don't know what I was thinking). So, LeahandMark, if I ruin your wedding by showing up in fancy flipflops, I'm sorry!

In other news, I'm totally not dead. I'm just lazy and antisocial feeling. I promise that I'll make more friend-like effort after I get back from Atlanta.

Also, I'm sure we discussed this at the beginning, but are these DinosaurParty Hats or Dinosaur PartyHats? Because I see no dinosaurs either way.

Trip to Vegas

2009-05-05T21:02:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Val and I took a trip to Vegas a couple of weeks ago. It was a fun time, but we were definitely ready to go home when the trip was over. We missed doing a couple of things, like going downtown (actually, we were just too lazy to drag ourselves over there) and going to a nightclub (we were too poor for the ridiculous entry fees), but it was very relaxing and we did get to see a Cirque du Soleil show. I took him to dinner for his birthday; although his birthday isn't until later this month, the trip was supposed to be a birthday celebration of sorts. We went to PF Chang's. Not the fanciest place ever, but I like it. I made him try the banana spring rolls because he LOVES bananas. After one bite he proclaimed it to be his favorite dessert, ever, haha. So if anybody knows a good recipe for banana spring rolls... please give it to me. Maybe even a good recipe for homemade coconut ice cream.

Here are some pictures. We spent a lot of time wandering around on the strip. Caesar's Palace is huge! We went inside the mall where I lamented about being a poor person unable to buy all of those fancy and expensive clothes. There was a beautiful white dress at BCBG but it was way too expensive. And also such a nice dress that I'd probably never have any occasion to wear it. There was a huge Japanese stuffed seal at FAO Schwarz, which Val bought for me the day we left (yes, he spoils me... a lot). Also, there is a gelato stand in the mall and Val had never had gelato before. So I convinced him to try some with me, before I saw the prices. Over $16 just for three flavors! (small portions, too). I was shocked! So it was over $30 for the both of us. And I love gelato, but not THAT much. And there was really nothing special about that particular gelato, either. If it was the most amazing gelato in the world, then maybe I could (sort of) understand the price. At first I thought the sign must be wrong, or that I was mistaken, but nope. It really was just that expensive. Maybe I am just too poor or ghetto but damn. $30 for two small cups of what is essentially ice cream just seems like way too much for me. But then it is Vegas. And all the other shops around there were expensive, too.

We ate at some random Mexican restaurant that I can't remember the name of, but it was tucked away in some corner of the mall. It was okay. We had a couple of drinks there, which were okay. All the drinks on the strip seemed pretty weak. Maybe they are strong in the clubs or something... but in all the casinos and restaurants they were super sweet, even to me. When a drink is too sweet for me you know that is pretty bad... haha. Anyway, I didn't mind so much, except that the drinks were also so expensive and then they skimped on the alcohol. But, listen to me. I sound like I only have complaints about the trip... but no, I had an awesome time.

The Cirque du Soleil show that we saw was KA at the MGM Casino/Hotel. The tickets were expensive but definitely worth it! I haven't seen any of the other shows but I really liked this one. The costumes were so beautiful; I really found myself wanting to paint/draw after we got out of there. It was really fun to watch. And there were some comedic scenes during the show, also. Unfortunately, they had a very strict no-cameras rule in the theatre so I couldn't take any pictures. But anyway, I definitely recommend seeing it. Or maybe a different Cirque du Soleil show. I assume that they are all pretty amazing.

Not sure what else to write about... oh, the food. Well, to tell the truth, we didn't go to a lot of unique and fancy restaurants. On our first night there we went to the buffet at The Mirage and completely overstuffed ourselves. We had been wanting to hit the casino afterward, but after dinner all we could do was slink back up to the room and into the bed to fall asleep. Except we couldn't even fall asleep because our bellies were so bloated. So worth it though. They had some kind of mashed sweet potato thing there and it was delicious. Seriously my mouth is salivating right now just thinking about it. I really wanted to go to that steakhouse at Circus Circus (since we kept seeing ads about how it was the number one steakhouse in Vegas... or something like that) but we walked to Circus Circus once and then didn't feel like walking back there again later that week. Also the area around there is pretty shady looking.

Man, I can't remember what else we did, besides a lot of much-needed relaxing and lounging around. Definitely nice until I make my trip to Phoenix later this summer (which really is not very relaxing at all). Not a whole lot going on, otherwise. Val is gone for a couple of weeks so it's a little lonely without him, but it's not so bad since I know he'll be back soon. Pretty sure I'm going to collapse into a quivering mess when he leaves for Korea, though. Anyone have tips on a long distance relationship? I know I've already been through a couple, but hey, I'll take all the help I can get!

Books

2009-04-19T00:40:00.000-07:00

On another note, I just wanted to mention this: I totally completely forgot that you guys had recommended some books for me. I went to Paperback Swap and ordered a whole bunch of terrible chick lit books. I am reading The Devil Wears Prada. The main character is 5'10" and weighs 115 pounds. She is considered to be fat.

WHAT

THE

ASS

Nobody ever updates

2009-04-19T00:27:00.001-07:00

Well, neither do I, but nothing exciting ever really happens in my life. Everything I've done in the last few months can be summarized in this short post.

A couple of weeks before my birthday, I had to do 12 hour night shifts for an exercise on the base. Actually, I only ended up doing one full shift... On the first night they told me to not even bother coming in. On the third night I was only there for maybe 4 hours before they told all of us to just go home and keep our phones nearby in case we got called back (we never did). And then I didn't have to come back the next night, since the exercise ended early. A pretty easy week for me!

The week after that, I was put on "base detail". We did pretty much nothing. We took lunch from 10 to 1. One time we even left for lunch at 9. Then when we came back at 1, they told us to go home. An even more ridiculously easy week.

That weekend was my birthday, and it was amazing. Priscilla flew up from LA and got to meet some of my friends here. We went to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse which was DELICIOUS. A couple of my friends from work threw me a party and we all went to the club afterward. My crippled boyfriend even came out with us and danced with me.

The weeks after that are kind of a blur.

I went to San Francisco last week and that was a lot of fun. We are going to Vegas this week. Staying at The Mirage! Maybe I can post some pictures for that. In fact, I will even post some pictures here. Let's see...

Oh man, hella sweet!

Okay so now I will post a picture from my birthday.

Yup. Anyway, I am pretty drunk in this picture. No makeup. I was late to my own birthday party so I didn't even do my hair or anything. I guess it doesn't really matter when you are in a dark club, though. I fell down so many times; there were stains all over that dress. I had to take it to the dry cleaners twice to get it all out. Thank goodness it looks good as new now, because that dress was expensive.

Right, well, hope everyone is doing well!

Boot Invasion

2009-03-14T11:49:00.001-07:00

My friend Priscilla flew in last night so I am very excited about this weekend. We're heading to San Francisco for a few hours in a bit here, then after that is my birthday party!

I am so hungry, but I've been putting on too much weight this week. Too much eating out and not enough exercise.

Sesame Street

2009-01-29T20:28:00.001-08:00

I just spent the last half hour watching Sesame Street videos from the mid-late 80's. Did you know that seal character was named Wolfgang? And nobody believed that there really was a seal character! But there was! And it was super cute!

MY DEAREST LEAH

2009-01-22T23:30:00.001-08:00

Give me a call (or text or whatever) when you come into town. I probably won't be over in Sac but... maybe!

So I spent about $80 on hair combs. Not those kinds you brush your hair with, but the kinds you use to hold hair up... or whatever. I don't know why I spent so much on them. I don't even know how to use them. I'm pretty sure they won't even stay in my hair, since my hair is so thin. But they were so shiny and pretty and so many different colors. After I bought those (on Etsy, by the way), I went over to Amazon and spent nearly $200 there... also on hair combs. LUCKILY my willpower prevailed and the browser was closed before I could confirm the order!

Basically what I'm trying to say is that I hate online shopping. I'm pretty sure if online shopping didn't exist then I would have a lot more money. A lot more money, and a lot less clothes/hair accessories/metal CDs. ...

Tonight I went to a really yummy sushi place for dinner. Then after that we went to this custard shop thing where you could mix all kinds of fruits and toppings in to... your... stuff. Like a self-serve Coldstone with frozen yogurt!

Work has been retardedly busy.

Last weekend I went to a party and got ridiculously drunk. I was the OLDEST PERSON THERE. Also, I think that was enough drinking for a while. I don't know how I managed to drink every weekend in Mississippi.

And that's about it, I guess.

Because Daddy is cow. …Cow that eats rice. I am special cow.

2009-01-20T21:34:00.001-08:00

Hahaha, I love My Mom/Dad Is A Fob.

Mom: "All girls have rose. It no good to lose it early. Boys want to pick your rose, but you no let them. If every boy pick your rose, garden will be empty!! Then what give your husband then? No one will want to marry you. *dramatic sigh* Then you end up with old man with bad teeth, like Mama here."

http://mymomisafob.com
http://mydadisafob.com

What.

2009-01-11T00:35:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to say that I can't believe Leah made a post. I haven't even read it yet. But I saw that pink and purple party hat and I COULD NOT BELIEVE MY EYES.

In other news, I saw Gran Torino tonight. And yesterday I went to a casino and actually gambled a little bit of my own money (on the slot machines...). I won $80! And it was on a Star Wars machine, too!

EDIT: I still didn't finish reading the post. BUT LEAH

IF YOU ARE GOING TO SACRAMENTO YOU HAD BETTER FREAKING VISIT ME

I WILL BURN DOWN A CHURCH IF YOU DO NOT VISIT

i posted

2009-01-08T14:48:00.001-08:00

i just looked at my post. it is so long. i bet stacy is falling off her chair right now. but now i finally get to leave work. hurrah!

book recs for stacys

2009-01-08T14:18:00.000-08:00

okay. i have to say that i am finally posting in this blog because i have done absolutely nothing for the past 8 hours. I am working at a tiny show with 20 booths. Even if each of them had one question, that does not make 8 hours worth of work. Especially since the exact same thing happened yesterday. o well. i guess a slow pace is a nice way to ease back into to work after christmas vacation.

i still haven't unpacked. i am a horrible person. my friend rob is coming to visit tomorrow. it is my goal to finally unpack tonight. but i will probably fail miserably. i really should be working on my grad school applications tonight. the first one is due the 15th. the next one is due the 30th. i stupidly agreed to go sacramento the week before it's due, so i maybe need to finish it early.

i have spent lots of time over the last 3 days looking up things on weight watchers online. i decided i needed to join since i have gained weight since high school and i have gained 5 lbs since getting my car. that angers me. and lord knows i eat way to much candy. we will see how this goes. so far, i have not exercised, which is half the plan. working on that. it would help if my wii fit wasn't broken. noooo!

okay, it's not really broken. but the controller ran out of batteries for the first time the other night. i ordered a charging station from amazon, but it has not arrived yet. that was a crappy night. i wanted to watch the georgetown notre dame game on tv but i failed miserably. my roommate got a new fancy tv for christmas. i figured out how to play wii on the new tv but not actually watch tv. i had no idea how to make it work. and erin's email directions failed to help and she didn't come home until after 11. so i tried to play wii but then the controller broke. and georgetown lost.

i spend too much time obsessing over georgetown basketball. we have lost 2 in a row. my life is over. we have a tough game against syracuse on saturday. hooray for season tickets!

yes. i was recommending books for stacy. i don't feel like writing reviews as stacy suggested because she can look them up on amazon like everyone else. but i can list some.

i really liked mistborn by brandon sanderson. it is about a band of rag tag con artists and serfs who work to overthrow the evil dictator by eating metal and using that to produce magic. the plot is decent but the world builidng is quite inventive. my favorite book he has written is called worldbreaker. it hasn't been published yet but is available for download on his website. (i realize this is not helpful for bookswapping.) but i do have to mention that it really bothers me that is writing the last wheel of time book. how i can like an author that writes robert jordan books? shoot me now!

i really liked the lies of locke lamora by scott lynch. it is about a band of theives who try to pull off the ultimate con while being ballsy and witty. it goes back and forith between locke's child and the con. quite fun. i also recommended this book to myra, but i doubt she listened to me.

over christmas i just read the name of the wind by patrick rothfuss (sp?). i was very pleastantly surprised. this book is about some dangerous bartender with a dark and mysterious past telling his story about the truth behind his notrious needs. i was afraid it would be quest fantasty, but it was not! it was another coming of age story about a musician. he even enrolls in university. i heart coming of age novels. now if only he was studying to be an assasin.

stacy, have you ever read the assasin books by robin hobb? i really like those. however, i disliked her books on boats and her lastest trilogy was god awful.

however, if you are into boats, i really liked inda by sherwood smith (yes, that wonderful author who wrote court duel.) it's about a small boy going to military academy, who is sent to sea due to politics. he then becomes a pirate. this book does involve politics, but then, i like that.

Books that you recommend

2009-01-05T23:59:00.000-08:00

I totally forgot that I have a Paperback Swap account with a ton of credits on it. However, I have no idea which books I should request. Why don't you guys suggest a few? (pretty sure the people who even read this thing have some sort of idea as to what books I like)

EDIT: BETTER YET, why don't you guys suggest a book by writing a short review for it in the form of a blog entry. YEAH. I mean c'mon, there's like, one Leah entry. ONE.

Are you fucking kidding me

2009-01-03T01:51:00.000-08:00

There is no hot water, AGAIN. I don't understand why it is only this building and the next one down that constantly have problems with the hot water. All of the other ones never do. The last time this happened we were out of hot water for 4 days. And nobody comes in on the weekends...

EIGHT DAYS MEME

2008-12-30T22:02:00.000-08:00

I've been posting this on Facebook, Myspace, Livejournal... everywhere but here! When this is my actual blog! I kind of forgot about it (again).

EIGHT DAYS MEME: For eight days you have to post something that made you happy that day.

I was tagged by Anne, but I won't tag anyone; I'll just leave this to anyone who wants to do it (since all of like, 3 people read this anyway).

29 DEC 08
Actually today was a pretty terrible day for various reasons. But I guess there were still a couple of things that made me happy.
* I got to wear one of my new underwears/bras. Man it's so awesome. This addiction is bad for my wallet, but oh well.
* I got yummy ice cream with a friend. Coldstone! My typical sweet cream + white coconut, walnuts, strawberries.

30 DEC 08
Today wasn't so bad. I felt terrible at work (I think I have been sick or something) but I got a lot done and we even got to leave early, although I didn't end up leaving until the normal time anyway.
* Finished computing all the final pay for everyone retiring this month... and I thought it would take me a lot longer!
* Got some really cute gloves and a cute and fuzzy hat as a Christmas present. They are warm and so super cute, I love them. And I've been wanting mittens/gloves for a while now!

31 DEC 08
Nothing made me happy today. The entire day was pretty shitty.

01 JAN 09
HAPPY NEW YEAR! While today wasn't as craptastic as the previous day, it still wasn't very good.
* A friend asked me to watch a movie with them and that was pretty much the highlight of my day. Something so simple like that can make me happy!

02 JAN 09
Today was a pretty good day, but I ate WAY TOO MUCH.
* Went to San Francisco with a coworker and that was a lot of fun. We went to this yummy Indian restaurant and he paid for it (because he's freaking rollin' in it from his constant poker winnings) so I got free food too! YEAH!
* I got to buy Mamegoma stuff... I spent WAY too much money, but damn I love Mamegoma. I WANT MORE. They had giant plushies but they were like 70 dollars!
* We also went to Chinatown where we bought a bunch of Chinese pastries and I purchased delicious Hi-Chew and dried mango. I am content.

03 JAN 09
Well, nothing really happened today, to be honest.
* Had my bike put back together, but unfortunately there are a lot of things wrong with it and it seems rather troublesome to get them fixed. But I guess at least it's finally in one piece again...

04 JAN 09
Another lazy day, but at least I did a bit more than the previous day. I have been so tired the past couple of weeks; I don't know what's wrong with me. But at least the nausea is not so bad anymore.
* Went to the Nut Tree Village today, and since my friend won another $4000 last night, he bought me a bunch of candy from the Jelly Belly store, haha. I got a bunch of random chocolate-type things.

05 JAN 09
The last day! Nothing spectacular happened, just a normal day!
* I thought one of my friends was really mad at me, but it turns out he is really not. Well... maybe. Actually, maybe he is just annoyed at me, but oh well. At least he doesn't hate my guts like I thought he did!
* I saw someone I care deeply about today, but I don't actually know if that's a good thing.
* I did some running today (for PT of course... Need to get off my bum and run on the non-PT days)
* Ate delicious packaged noodles. IT IS MAKING ME FAT.

I GUESS THAT'S THE END OF MY 8 DAYS THINGIE MA JIG. Man, I feel like there is not a lot of happiness in my life, when I read over this. Clearly something is wrong.

My Christmas presents

2008-12-28T19:52:00.000-08:00

I was going to include this at the end of my previous entry, but I totally forgot. Also it was ridiculously late and I was way too tired.

Here is a list of what I got, in no particular order:
-----------------------------------------------------

* Cooking Mama 2 for the DS (I've been wanting this game for so long)
* Yoshi's Island DS
* The Sham Mirrors album from Arcturus
* Awesome super fuzzy pajama pants
* Grey short sleeved turtleneck thing
* Blue sweater
* Cute white dress shirt
* Grey shorts
* Black corduroy shorts
* "I magnetize and I sing. Little desk friend"
* Colorful and shiny paperclips, small and large
* Saving Fish From Drowning by Amy Tan
* That REAL Ultimate Power book, the one about the ninjas...
* This "What's the difference?" book that is really cute
* Two little figurine things, one seal and one penguin
* 2 GB thumbdrive (pink!)
* Fables volume, I forget which number. The one about the Frog Prince though
* A crapton of cash moneys

And maybe some other stuff but I don't remember. All the presents are completely awesome, though.

I am back in Fairfield

2008-12-28T02:42:00.000-08:00

My trip to Phoenix was okay. It was very busy and I didn't get to see everybody, but I did at least see my closest friends. Here is a day-by-day list of what I did (roughly) because I am too lazy to type it coherently in paragraph form.

* On Saturday I arrived In Phoenix and was picked up by my dear friend Priscilla. She had to wake up early the next morning for her flight to Mexico so we didn't get to do anything too crazy. But we did go to La Parilla Suiza (best cheese enchiladas ever) and then rush to Walmart so she could finish purchasing things for her trip. I ended up spending almost $80 on underwears/bras. I DIDN'T EVEN NEED THAT MANY.

* On Sunday, I went to lunch at a Greek place with my friend Anne from college. I hadn't seen her in like... two years (pretty much since we graduated). So that was pretty cool. We drove around randomly and went to a lot of bookstores. That evening I went to a bar with Pancho, Abe, and their friend Matt. I had a bunch of drinks but... I guess I ate way too much food because I barely got tipsy.

* On Monday I spent the whole day with my mom. For lunch we went to this awesome Vietnamese place (I treated the whole family). Man that place is so awesome. Like a whole two months before I even went back to Phoenix I was just thinking about that place and drooling. NO JOKE. Then my mom and I went shopping... where I bought even MORE underwear and bras. ARGH!!! I also bought Kevin a couple of presents. I really wanted to get him this Volcom hoodie because it looked totally sweet but that shit was too expensive. Anyway, he ended up liking the hoodie I did get him better than the Volcom one... Also, did you know Anchor Blue gives military discounts now? HELLZ YEAH! Uhm... anyway my mom bought me a bunch of stuff. We got a bunch of things from Mervyn's since they were closing and everything was crazy on sale. For dinner we went to Red Lobster. Yep.

* On Tuesday I had lunch at Rainforest Cafe with Myra and Leah! I hadn't seen Leah in forever so I was really happy. We also wandered around the mall a little bit, but I had to leave early. I went to my aunt Tricia and uncle Doug's place for dinner with my dad and brother after that. Cousin Greg showed us that Wii Fit game which was AWESOME and only made me want a Wii even more. SOMEDAY. I picked out my TV so I can get that soon! And then after that... a Wii shall be in my possession.

* On Wednesday my mom took the whole family to this little Chinese restaurant. I guess they like to eat there a lot now. It was all right. I liked everybody else's food better than what I ordered for myself, haha. For dinner, I had sushi with Abe, cousin Jason, and Kevin. The sushi was good but we were in a hurry. We saw "Slumdog Millionaire" that night. I definitely recommend that movie if you haven't seen it yet. It was really good. I was already interested in seeing it before we watched it but it was even more than what I expected. Definitely going to buy that movie when it's released on DVD.

* On Christmas day I went to this lady Pat's house for lunch. I am going to be completely honest-- I have no idea who Pat is. I think she is the mother of my cousin Mimi's (sadly deceased) husband, but she might be his aunt or something. NOT SURE. Pat's mom is awesome though. She kept talking about the good ol' days and young whippersnapper good-for-nothing nurses. The food was yummy and there was also a really cute dog there. For dinner I met with my mom's side of the family at this Chinese buffet place... It sounds really ghetto but that buffet is like on steroids or something. There's a sushi bar there in addition to Mongolion BBQ. And the sushi is actually good, since they are constantly preparing it fresh. They had freaking Las Vegas rolls!! Among other things. I finally got to see my grandmother so I was really happy about that. After the dinner, Jason and Kevin and I went to Zoo Lights, since Jason never saw it before.

* On Friday morning I was a complete bum. I pretty much didn't do anything. Jason was still hanging out there from the previous day. We pretty much just played video games all day in Kevin's room... then later that night I went over to Pancho's and drank too much. Okay actually I didn't even drink that much. I just drank it too quickly. And that Asian flush was hitting me pretty hard. ANYWAY I got to see Nemir that night, so that was good. And then I went back to my parent's house. I think my dad was trying to get me to watch one of those Christian propaganda videos but I was way too tired/drunk to deal with that. So I went to bed... after playing Cooking Mama.

* On Saturday I woke up late and realized I hadn't even started packing! So I was rushing around the house doing laundry and stuffing things into my suitcases. Then realizing that I didn't have enough space to just randomly stuff it like that and had to remove everything to repack it nicely. For lunch I had a TV dinner of shells and cheese, haha. Kevin ate one with me, also. My dad tried to get me to watch that video again but I was in way too much of a hurry (I would have escaped anyway). I was freaking out on the way to the airport because I thought I was going to miss my flight, but the check-in and security line was SO FAST. There was hardly anyone there! I was really expecting it to be a lot more like last year when the line was like an hour long. ANYway my dad tried to give me some more of those Christian mini-booklets or whatever but I ran away. (okay... I didn't really run away. But I definitely did not take those damned booklets.) The guy I sat next to on the plane just happened to be stationed at the same place as me. AND works in the same building. AND is separating in a few months so I'll be seeing him really soon for briefing/outprocessing. SO CRAZY!

So I got to Sacramento and my friend picked me up and we ate dinner at TGIFridays (they ran out of the food that I wanted!!!) and we failed to find Lollicup and then we went back to the base and I went up to my room and spent the whole night reorganizing my underwear drawers to fit all that new crap I bought and also I cleaned up a little bit. And discovered that my suite mate made a MESS of the shower while I want gone. I don't even know how I'm going to clean that crap. Nor do I want to.

Also, I feel really bad about constantly escaping from my dad's attempts at converting me back to Christianity but man I am so tired of it. Apparently he is starting to get at my brother too, but probably less in-yo-face than with me since he sees him on a regular basis. He's been leaving those little booklets all around the house. Kevin said he thought my dad was just being his usual absent-minded self leaving his junk everywhere but then my dad tried to show him that video also. I know my dad is just trying to save his daughter from eternal damnation or something but man, it is not going to happen. SORRY, DAD!

Now that I am back up here, I realize that I really need to have some female friends up here. It was bothering me a little bit before but when I got back from Phoenix I realized that I don't even have ONE female friend up here. WHAT THE HELL IS THAT! I don't think hanging out with dudes all the time is very healthy. Or fun. No offense to dudes... they are cool to hang out with but sometimes I would like a lady friend or a few to go shopping with or just do girly things.

Explosions In The Sky and evolving musical taste

2008-11-29T17:03:00.001-08:00

Okay, so I'm not going to pretend that I know how to write a music review. But if you are a fan of instrumental post-rock stuff then I highly recommend the band Explosions In The Sky. They've been around for quite a while but I think all their albums are pretty good. It's very emotionally-charged, yet calming.

Yesterday I was organizing my MP3s (yet again) and discovered that the Metal folder far surpasses all the others in size! The other folders I have are Classical/Instrumental, Videogame Music (haha, shuddup), Movies/Tv/Musicals, and Other (which is pretty much everything else). The only one that even comes close is the Other folder. Man, I remember there was a time when the Videogame folder was bigger than all the others combined. Now the Metal one is three times the size of that. Anyway, I only bring it up, because while I am a pretty big metal fan, I don't really consider myself to be a hardcore metalhead. I still listen to most of the stuff I did years ago, but it's interesting to see what other things I've picked up along the way.

Twilight: The movie

2008-11-23T18:43:00.000-08:00

In the past couple of months I've seen some pretty bad movies. Most of that stemmed from the fact that my friends and I didn't do enough (or any) research on the movies before we went to go see them. With "Twilight", I think we've finally learned our lesson.

THIS MOVIE SUCKS. And it wasn't just because I was expecting it to be some action-packed thriller (which is what my friend led me to believe); the movie is just downright terrible. I have never read the book(s?), but I'm pretty sure I would still hate the movie even if the books were the greatest things ever written. The story was pretty cliche--human girl falling in love with vampire. Actually, throughout the movie all I could think of was that the screenplay had been adapted from a really terrible Buffy fanfic or something. The main character was a total Mary Sue, with all the boys in school falling head over heels for her. And she had NO PERSONALITY. Actually, neither did her vampire-lover. All of the supporting characters were way more interesting than the two main characters.

The acting was terrible. I don't know who played the girl, but she should never be allowed near a stage again. The main vampire actor wasn't much better. In fact I'd almost be tempted to say he was worse just because there were so many shots of him just staring intensely into the camera.

THE CINEMATOGRAPHY WAS TOTAL CRAP. Man, if you're going to have a movie with shitty acting and storyline, at least you could make it LOOK nice. And the MUSIC. AARGH! The music itself would not have been so bad except the same 20 seconds were reused quite noticeably throughout the film. Luke said the movie reeked of low budget. I'm pretty sure they spent all their money on the costumes.

"Twilight" is pretty good if you want to see it just to laugh at how horrible it is. I don't think I've ever laughed out loud so much at a movie theater, besides maybe the time I saw Superbad.

No offense to anyone who may have actually liked the movie... (!?!?!?!?)

Left handed people are more inhibited

2008-11-05T22:29:00.000-08:00

No super proof or anything, but I thought it was rather interesting to think about since I am left handed! (and as some of you know, a very shy and cautious person)

Link to News Article

My umbrella

2008-11-01T13:09:00.000-07:00

It's been cloudy over here for the past few days (which I love) and today it actually started raining! I was so excited that I finally got to use my umbrella. I've had this umbrella for 11 years and it's never even been taken out of the plastic case. The tag was still attached to it!! I didn't even know the umbrella was green (I thought it was black) until I took it out.

So I ran out with it and stood in the rain for all of 30 seconds before Luke pulled up in his car and made fun of me for bringing it. But I finally got to use it!

Tech School

2008-10-19T14:44:00.001-07:00

Haha, I tried to make those last two posts short but as you can see it was a spectacular failure. Anyway, so much stuff happened while I was at Keesler, but I'll try not to ramble TOO much about it.

A few of the other girls in my flight were also going to Keesler, so I was happy about that! We made tentative plans to hang out with each other (none of which we actually followed through on, haha). AND I PACKED LIKE CRAZY. I had to throw out so much stuff. Everything had to fit into my duffel bag, my civilian luggage that I'd originally brought with me, and this little backpack that I bought while Jim and my family were with me. And of course I'd been silly and totally spent my money on things I really didn't need... like a leather jacket with Air Force symbol on it (which I'm probably going to try to get removed... sigh). The group that was going to Keesler had to leave around midnight, I think, so before we headed out a bunch of girls crowded in the hall way to give each other hugs. It was sad to say good bye but I was also eager to get out of there.

It was a long ride but I had two seats to myself so I tried to get some sleep. I don't really know what to say about Keesler. When I first got there I had a roommate who was going to graduate in a few weeks. Each room had a bunk bed and then a regular bed on the other side, two desks, two sink areas and one bathroom with a toilet and standing shower (man, I hate those). Also 2 "walk-in" closets. It was pretty nice to be able to shower privately again. At tech school you were given a lot more liberties but there were still a lot of restrictions that made you totally hate it. The phase program wasn't that bad (unless you did something stupid and got phased back, then it sucked a lot). Phase 1 sucked because you had to be in your uniform if you left the squadron and it was HOT outside. Plus you couldn't go off base, and curfew was at 10 every night. But it only lasted two weeks, although those two weeks seemed like forever. Phase 2 was three weeks long; we were allowed to wear civilian clothes outside the squadron but had to be in blues if we went off base (kind of a hassle). Curfew was at 12 on the weekends. During phase 3 you could wear whatever you wanted off base and there was no weekend curfew (school nights still had a curfew at 10, though).

So the first weekend I hit phase 2, my friends and I made a mad dash for the club on base to get drinks. And after that... I pretty much drank every weekend, getting progressively more drunk each time. That's where all my money went at first, before guys started buying all of my drinks. I also bought way too much clothes while I was at Keesler... like, a LOT. Not even kidding. It's like I went crazy or something. Actually, I think I did go pretty crazy while I was at Keesler.

Duty days were LONG. I'd usually wake up around 3:50-4 AM (some people woke up a little earlier to get breakfast at the DFAC, but I just made oatmeal in my room) then rush out to the drill pad around 4:55. Then we'd stand around for a while (seriously), get formed up, march to school... arrive at around 6-6:30. Then we'd be in class until 3 PM. March back to the squadron and arrive at about 3:50, PT at 4 or 4:30 depending on what day it was (Tuesdays were eval days and we did those at 4), and we'd be done with that around 5:30-5:45. Then we had to go back into our rooms and wait until we got released. Sometimes they'd be jerks and we didn't get let out until like 6:30. Anyway, on Mondays I had white rope meetings at the student community center... then I'd rush to dinner, come back and finish whatever homework I had, did laundry (I always had a lot of it, for some reason), slack off, read, go to bed. Actually I don't know what the hell I was doing most of the time but it seemed like I never had any time during the week to do anything. Details were at 9:30 and since I was on the first floor we had a lot more details and I got it every single week up until the week I graduated. Most of my friends were only on it for a few weeks because they were on the 2nd and 3rd floors.

In summary, tech school pretty much sucked, although it was fun at times. I made some good friends and also made some not-so-good friends. And I discovered there, that not everyone is a good person. Before I joined, I always believed there was some good in everyone. But at tech school... man, there were some grade-A douchebags. I guess it's a good thing I learned it there though, so I don't have to be so naive now, haha.

Anyway, I left Keesler at the end of August (just in time for it to start getting cool again!). I went to Phoenix for a few weeks. Took a road trip up the coast of California... I guess I'll talk about that later. Sorry for this long post that really doesn't say anything!

Graduation

2008-10-19T14:16:00.000-07:00

So, I was incredibly relieved that Warrior Week was finally over, because I was convinced that I was going to be recycled that week (my flightmates said I was crazy for thinking that, but then again, I was constantly worried about something). But we weren't out of the clear yet!! The week after that was our final PT evaluation (which I was completely not ready for) and our end-of-course test, which as academic monitor I had to make sure everybody was prepared for it. That week my TI gave me CQ runner duty as often as she could so I spent the whole time typing up quizzes for everyone to do. And it was kind of fun, actually, although maybe only half the flight did them, and a couple people who really needed to study flat-out refused to.

Meanwhile I half-heartedly tried to do extra push ups every night because I knew they were my weakest. We got some extra running because most of the girls had problems with their run times (I was the opposite...). Anyway, I miraculously passed the PT eval, although I barely made it for push ups and sit ups (so sad).

I think we did the end-of-course test the day after our PT eval. Everybody passed which I was happy about, although I was disappointed that we didn't do better than our brother flight. At tech school I found out that there were usually a few people who failed the test in each flight, so I felt a little better about it later.

Our last week was easier but a lot more nerve-wracking because TIs were still trying to find ways to get you recycled. Then there was stuff like open ranks and drill eval (which I barely remember). BUT ANYWAY. On Thursday we did the Airman's Run. They said it was 3 miles but I seriously doubt it. We had practiced it a lot slower but on the day of we were being paced by somebody else. I felt really bad for our guidon bearer (she tripped a few times) and she had to carry the guidon while we were running. I was a little disappointed because my dad, brother, and Jim weren't there to see the run, but oh well.

After that we had the coin ceremony, which for the band flights kind of sucked. I didn't even get my coin from my TI. And we messed up the playing pretty badly, but the band director didn't really get pissed at us for whatever reason. And after THAT... I knew my dad, Kevin, and Jim were supposed to arrive sometime after that but I was panicking because I didn't have a way to contact them. Also I forgot my phone card at the dorm. Luckily my flightmate's husband let me borrow their cell phone... So we were finally able to meet up. My dad only commented on how dark my skin had gotten. I can't even remember what we did that day... we had to stay on base so there wasn't much to do. I think I may have eaten a lot of pizza or something like that.

The day after that was graduation, which again, for band flights, kind of sucked because we don't get to march on the bomb run. So we just kind of stand in the middle and play, and we're so far away that nobody can really see us. And we had actually gotten Honor Flight, but they don't really mention it when you're the band flight. They don't even mention you at all when they talk about Honor Flights, because the band guidon bearer can't go up there to receive the streamer. Man, we didn't even have our guidon with us, even though we'd received a couple of other streamers. So that was disappointing. But then again, most of us were just happy to be graduating!

After that, we marched from the band hall back to the squadron where our families and friends were waiting for us!! I probably had more tears in my eyes for that than I did for the actual graduation ceremony. I showed the dorm to the guys (my dad kept wondering how come they didn't let us just throw crap everywhere or ride bikes around to get to places, wtf). My TI stopped us on the stairs on our way out and scared the shit out of me, but she was all smiley and introduced herself to my dad. I was too speechless to do anything, really.

We went to Sea World and also the Riverwalk. San Antonio seems like an interesting town so I'm a little sad that I didn't get to see more of it. I hated the humidity but that crap was NOTHING compared to Mississippi, which I would soon discover!

Jim stayed an extra day after my dad and brother. We wanted to go to Chick-Fil-A but we forgot that it was closed on Sundays. So depressing! It was really sad to see him go when he dropped me off back at the base, but I was thankful that anyone came to see my graduation anyway.

I spent the rest of that day frantically cleaning out my lockers/drawers and packing my bags to get ready for my departure to Keesler AFB that night!

Warrior Week

2008-10-19T13:52:00.000-07:00

I really need to wrap this BMT stuff up quickly, because it's part of the reason I've been posting to sporadically. I'll try to make it short! (because honestly, who wants to read some hella long rambling post).

So anyway, the day we left for Warrior Week, everybody had to make sure we had everything we needed in our duffel bags and the trainer weapons that were assigned to us. Then we marched over to the retreat pad. HOLY CRAP that was like the longest march ever. The duffel bags were heavy so we were all hunched over, and carrying those weapons cases gets really tiring after a while (it wasn't even a long walk or anything!). From the pad we all got on buses along with the other squadrons.

I didn't really know what to expect because I'd heard everything from "Warrior Week is AWESOME!!!" to "Warrior Week sucks you gonna dieeeee". When we first got there the TIs told us not to run on the gravel but if we were just walking/marching they'd yell at us so we had to run anyway. We had to wear our helmets everywhere and carry our weapons at all times. The tents we had to sleep in weren't even that bad because they were air conditioned, although we didn't spend much time in them anyway. We ate MREs twice a day, some of which actually tasted better than the regular dining facility food. They came with a lot of junk food though... things like chocolate brownies and M&Ms.

Each day we did something different-- obstacle course, attack course, gas chamber, firing range (we did it in that order). I HATED THE OBSTACLE COURSE. I won't even get into all the details, but I ended up being one of the last people to finish because I fell off the top of one of the stations (like 20+ feet) and had to wait until IDMT came. Then the TI chased me through the rest of it yelling the whole time. I seriously thought I was going to get recycled for it. I even jumped into the water on purpose because I didn't want to take forever trying to get across the ropes, haha (I know, so terrible). A couple girls got seriously hurt though, and one even got sent back to the squadron, so I guess I got really lucky.

Attack course sucked while I was doing it, but when I got to the end it was like, "That's it?" Once you complete all the crawling crap you're so exhausted that it's hard to run through the rest of it, but it's pretty short.

I don't even know what to say about the gas chamber, other than it was the thing I was the most nervous about and turned out to be like, the easiest. It affected some people a lot worse than it did me. The worst part is the anticipation. They lined you up with your masks on outside (and I was convinced mine didn't have a proper seal on it, but they yelled at you if you tried to mess with it). Then a buzzer would sound and they'd rush a group of you inside, where they'd make you do jumping jacks and rattle your head around (again, totally thought my mask was going to fly off, because I could feel it giving way!). The instant you walked in you could feel it burning your skin, too. For us, two of us had to take off the masks, take in a deep breath, and give your reporting statement. But the other girl beat me to it, except she kept messing up her reporting statement so I was just standing there being like c'mon hurry uuuuppp!!! But, it wasn't that bad. I totally over-dramatized my reporting statement (I think everybody does though). After that you went outside and had to walk around everybody three times or something like that. The worst part was that the stuff made my eyes hurt. But I only had a little bit of snot dribbling from my nose. It probably would have been amusing if I wasn't so nervous that I had to get dressed really fast as soon as I finished circling around everybody.

The day after that was the firing range which was awesome! But I shot way better on the practice than I did for the actual test. During the test I started shooting at my buddy's target (very bad), then my weapon started jamming and I got all freaked out and just shot at my target without aiming because I thought time was running out (which it wasn't, at all). The rest of that day was hella lazy. We ended up just sitting around in the building, "studying".

On the last day, each AEF got paired up with another one for these war game things. I didn't even get to see any action... I got stuck in the front for the entire thing and nobody came in my direction so I never got switched out. The only reason I got to leave was because when they did the gas mask drill I hardcore failed it (along with my buddy who was next to me). We had like no time to put on the masks because the two in front of us took forever and we couldn't put ours on until they had finished with theirs. So when the TI came to check us she was like "WTF." Both of us had to leave to get re-evaluated for it. Oh man, I was so nervous. I thought if I failed then I'd get recycled or kicked out or something, but I totally passed. And even if I did fail (which some people did) they just had to come back the week after to redo it.

After that, we went back to the squadron and got to take long showers. All the girls shaved (our first time in over a month!). IT WAS GLORIOUS. And somehow, we were all incredibly relieved to see our dorms and our TI again.

Here in California

2008-09-21T16:01:00.001-07:00

I've finally arrived! It's very cold up here, and also very windy. My room isn't as small as I imagined it would be, so I'm happy about that. The trip up here was fun, although we didn't get to do nearly as much as we'd planned. I'll write more about everything when I get internet hooked up in my room next weekend! I hope everyone is doing well (psst, update more).

Hiking is dumb

2008-09-21T14:09:00.000-07:00

I went hiking for the first time in forever. I nearly died. My muscles have forgotten how to walk up trails and I've forgotten how to not die in Arizona sun. It's already September. It should be cooler outside in the morning than it is.

Really, my lack of physical abilities is sad.

San Diego

2008-09-17T08:05:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone! I'm in San Diego now, getting ready to leave for LA. Yesterday we went to Mission Beach. I collected some sea shells and bought this massive ice cream cone, but the bottom of the cone had a hole in it so ice cream was dripping everywhere. I ended up giving the rest to my cousin.

Going to Travis AFB

2008-09-16T09:42:00.000-07:00

Sorry to interrupt my account of Basic Training (I know, I've been really slow with it), but I'm leaving for my California road trip today! We'll be making stops in San Diego, Anaheim/Los Angeles, and Monterey. Goodbye for now!

Continued Training... and Civilians

2008-09-06T03:36:00.000-07:00

Today I hung out with an old friend of mine from college. We went to First Fridays here (which by the way... seems to be a lot more shops and less art now, but I don't know... I only went one other time many years ago). He bought me a glass ring as a Welcome Home/Farewell type of gift thing and I also got this cute little necklace (I got a discount!!). Afterward we went to this get-together at his friend's house and holy crap, it was kind of awkward. Well, I did have fun, but it does feel really weird to be around a large group of people who have pretty much very negative sentiments toward the military. It wasn't unexpected or anything, but it just made me a little sad to think about. Most of my old friends are from art school and are pretty anti-military, and all of my new friends are uh... yeah. So to switch back and forth between each role is rather hard for me. Actually, I can't even do it. It worries me a bit, like my old friends are going to ditch me or something. The recruiter I've been working with said she lost quite a lot of friends because she joined, so that worries me even more.

Anyhow... back to where I left off!

As I said before, after zero week (pretty much all in-processing), we finally began our training proper. We started PT and did evaluations on the first day. Eval days pretty much consisted of 1 minute of pushups, 1 minute of crunches/situps, and then a 1.5 mile timed run. We did those one every week... I think on Thursdays but I can't quite remember. PT was every day except Sundays and some other random day during the week. We had our run-training days and circuit training days that would switch off with each other. The running days were my favorite (I HATED circuits). It was pretty much 12 minutes or so of this Last Runner Up thing... we got into groups of about 8 people with a pacer and the person in the back would sprint up to the front. After that we had a self-paced run which was around 10-12 minutes unless the TI's got pissed at us, in which case they'd make us run for longer (oh man, don't even THINK about walking). Then after that it was walking/sprinting intervals. Sometimes we'd only do it 4 or 5 times, but if people didn't actually sprint they would make us do more. The last part sucked SO bad. It would be fine, normally, but after doing Last Runner Up and the self-paced run you are just so tired that you really don't feel like sprinting. But you end up improving your run time so fast each week after doing that routine. I wish I had the will power to force myself to do that even just for a month or so because I'd probably be able to run a lot faster now!

About circuits... the only things I really remember are Pyramid Pushups (UGH!) and tons of flutter kicks. Oh yeah, and one time people weren't sounding off, or people would do like an extra jumping jack or something, so the TI's made us redo the jumping jacks so many times. Then we finally got to where we would do the Pyramid Pushups, but people were doing them wrong so we had to start all over... I don't even know how many jumping jacks we ended up doing, but my foot was hurting every since that day. It still hurts sometimes, actually. For the few weeks after that I could barely do right-faces because it hurt so bad to put weight on that foot. But there was no way in hell I wanted to go to sick call, for fear of getting recycled or stuck in 319 (the sick-flight).

Our squadron had a special Warhawk training group which was specifically designed to produce Warhawks at the end of BMT. People were picked depending on their initial eval score. I had NO IDEA why, but I got picked for the group even though my pushups and situps were way below everyone else in the group. Potential Warhawks did PT separately from everybody else in the flight and also had to do PT in the afternoon... it pretty much sucked. The funniest part was that the first week I was in both the Warhawk group AND remedial PT (since my pushups and situps were so terrible). Anyway, I got removed from the Warhawk group pretty quickly because I couldn't keep up with their running and I definitely couldn't do the crap they had to do for Circuits. It was insane. Even though I was kind of disappointed, I was also really relieved when I got to rejoin the rest of the flight for PT. The Warhawk Training was pretty cool, but I didn't feel like I was improving since I couldn't even do half of the exercises anyway.

We also started all of our classes. The classes were nice because it was a much more relaxed atmosphere, but it was so hard because you'd really start to feel the lack of sleep once you got in there. Also since I was Academic Monitor, I had to keep track of everybody in the flight, and if anyone was gone I had to report their roster number and the reason they weren't there. And to be honest I was a very slacker AM when it came to this. 75% of the time I had no idea who was at appointments or whatever. I would make up a number, haha. I only got caught one time (and I didn't even get in trouble for it!) It was during our last class, too!

When we weren't drilling, PTing, or in class, we would usually be at the band hall practicing. Band practice was okay at times but it was also pretty boring. I had to play cymbals because I didn't want to admit that I could read sheet music... girls that could read sheet music had the option to play snare drum (usually they made the guys do that). Like classes, we shared band practice with our brother flight, but we still weren't allowed to talk to them. We had a girl who kept getting caught talking to guys from our brother flight and holy crap, we had to push so many times for that. It was terrible.

We also spent a lot of time cleaning and setting up the dorms. T-shirts had to be rolled or folded, socks had to be rolled, everything had to be lint-rolled and clipped... After the first time we had everything set up, our TI inspected everything and people got assigned to do different things if they did them very well. I got stuck with sock-rolling... and I was the only one she chose, so I had to roll EVERYBODY'S socks. Each person had like 12-15 pairs of socks!! She said I could pick a couple of people to help, but they didn't really do it the same... So when she inspected again she made me re-roll almost all of the socks they did. A couple of nights in a row I ended up staying up a few hours after lights out so I could finish everybody's socks. I don't even think it really mattered... We had 2 shirt rollers and a whole bunch of PT clothes and towels folders. We only had one underwear folder too... those were a pain to do as well. Anyway, I didn't mind rolling socks so much, since I was able to talk to people while I was doing it. Sometimes it was even sort of relaxing.

We also had different dorm-details jobs assigned. These were things like latrine-cleaning, laundry duty, etc. I got hallway duty with two other girls which honestly was probably one of the easiest jobs. The only times it really sucked was when we had to clean the ceiling and all the vents and also when people would make the drinking fountains wet and water spots were everywhere. The water fountains were a pain to clean... when the spots were on it, pretty much the only thing to get them off was toothpaste. UGH. So much polishing over and over!

Once a week we had Duty Flight jobs to do, too. Sometimes we would get Kitchen duty (which was pretty much everyone's favorite because you got to eat desserts and junk foods), or Clothing Issue (which I never got the opportunity to do), or CQ Duty. CQ Duty consisted of working on the telephones/being CQ runner, or cleaning the CQ Tunnel... I got Telephone duty with this Korean girl in my flight one day and we both ended up being the permanent phone-duty girls after that. Haha, I remember how it happened too. Everybody hated doing phone duty because it consisted of one person sitting around waiting for the phone to ring, while the other person had to sit in a desk right in front of CQ and wait until errands needed to be run or whatever. If you got caught falling asleep (it was really easy to do...) you would get into tons of trouble. One day the TI asked who wanted to do it and nobody wanted to, so she asked who had done it before. So she told one girl to do it because she didn't like her (she seriously said it was because she didn't like her) and then she was like "Som, you go too even though I like you." I was shocked because I thought she hated my guts until that day. After that I had to do phones pretty much every time... I was always the CQ Runner though, because the Korean girl who usually came with me liked being on the phones. Which was perfectly fine by me! I used the time to make quizzes for everyone to help them pass the written test at the end of BMT. Actually, it was pretty sweet. Even though it was sometimes nerve-wracking because TIs were always walking through the tunnel, it was also relaxing for me since I got to just sit there and study. It was mostly a break from the yelling. One time I thought I was going to get into so much trouble because I didn't know the name of the guy who was on CQ that day and one of the TIs asked me who it was. But surprisingly I didn't really get yelled at. They were just like "WTF how do you not know that. YOU PRETTY MUCH SUCK". Another time the TI doing CQ was getting so frustrated with the trainees coming to claim their keys from sick-call appointments that he had me go outside to yell at them to do it right. AND THEY STILL DIDN'T DO IT RIGHT. Some other girls in my flight even went outside to help yell. And the whole time I was trying so hard not to laugh, because the CQ TI kept calling me back inside saying crap like "They're killing me, Som! Just killing me!!"

Oh yeah, kitchen duty. I had it just once, I think, but I ate so much junk food. They gave us these little breakfast pastries... and at night I ate like 3 different desserts. I felt pretty sick afterward, though. It wasn't that bad, though... I don't think I got as sick as a lot of other people did, because as band flight we got to go off base sometimes and I would eat some snacks from that.

So somewhere along the line I started developing friendships with some of the other girls in my flights and discovered that everyone didn't hate me after all. I gave copies of the quizzes for everyone to do and would go over them later in the week, although only some of the girls actually participated. I had to memorize a bunch of crap for Open Ranks (inspection) since I was a formation element leader and academic monitor. Later our TI removed me from being element leader because I had no depth perception and couldn't do right step or left step correctly (so sad) and it was the biggest relief ever, besides when I get taken out of Warhawk team. The academic monitor responsibilities were so much easier for me to learn and memorize, since I actually did them... I didn't do half the crap that was listed for element leaders, since I was like... a fake element leader, haha.

To summarize, a typical day went like this:
We'd wake up early in the morning, either to Reveille, or even earlier than that if we had extra crap to do like make the beds super fancy.
PT would be immediately after that. After PT, we went back to the dorm and took a quick shower.
After showering, we'd do morning details and then (finally!) head out for breakfast chow. French toast!
Then we usually had classes, with some drill and band practice sprinkled in there. And then lunch! After that, more of the same.
Sometimes we would return to the dorm and work on setting it up. Then we'd go to dinner.
After dinner, we returned to the dorm and showered. Then we'd do nighttime details. We'd also do each other's hair, if we had to. We were only supposed to wash our hair every other night so that we wouldn't have to redo it every time. It was a pain... and nobody liked to do my hair because it was so slippery. Also, I started going bald sometime and my scalp was getting destroyed.
Anyway! After that we went to sleep. If we were lucky and really well-behaved and awesome that week we would get to write and read letters.

I'll write about Warrior Week next time. Feel free to ask me any questions! There's so much to write about!

Arriving at Lackland AFB

2008-09-01T19:35:00.000-07:00

Finally I have (mostly) unlimited access to a computer with internet, so I can write a little bit about what I've been up to since April.

I suppose I'll start from the beginning! The day I left for the MEPS in Spokane was pretty hectic. Jim was getting ready to move out that day as well and we were still packing, dropping stuff off at the goodwill, shipping my crap back to Phoenix... etc. I was sad to leave since I knew I wouldn't ever be returning to the Tri-Cities (nothing there for me anymore, really, except for a few of my friends) but I was also anxious to start the next chapter of my life... as cheesy as that sounds.

My roommate in the hotel room in Spokane was a girl leaving for Army BMT and she only had one tiny bag! I had my huge duffel bag that was actually pretty heavy so I was really worried. I tried to squish it down but it didn't really work. Later it turned out to be a good thing that I had brought so many clothes because my flight in BMT didn't even go to clothing issue until like 5 days after we got there. I heard most of the other flights got their uniforms on the 2nd or 3rd day arriving at Lackland.

Anyway! The night passed by and I got pretty much no sleep. By morning I was so nervous I couldn't even eat any breakfast. When we got to MEPS I discovered there was another girl named Stephanie who was also leaving for Lackland so I felt a little better after that. I can't really remember what happened at MEPS except that the doctor was all happy that I lost like 20 pounds since the last time I'd been there. After we finished processing (it felt like it took SO LONG), we finally got on the plane to San Antonio. It was already hella late by the time we got there. We were instructed to sit down and not look at or talk to anyone. My recruiter already warned me about it so I wasn't surprised... what did surprise me was that some people there were already crying. Even the boys!!

During the bus ride to the base, the driver let us use our cell phones one last time. My stomach was all over the place at this point. Then when we finally got to Lackland we had to run everywhere (of course they started yelling at us right away) and I was already daydreaming so I totally missed all the instructions they were giving us! Later we got filed into this huge briefing room where they asked which of us had played an instruments before, and then they proceeded to threaten us that if we lied, terrible things would happen. Of course I lied and said I had never played an instrument in my life. BUT I GOT PUT INTO A BAND FLIGHT ANYWAY. Although I didn't even realize it until later that week when one of my flightmates was like "HAY GUYZ WE HAVE BAND PRACTICE TOMORROW!!!!!!" (I never looked at the weekly schedule... even though I was supposed to!)

Anyway, after all that we got back onto a bus that took us to the different squadrons. I was in the 323rd (Strike First, Strike Fast, Strike Hard!!!! 323 Vipersssssss!!!!!!!!!). The whole time I was praying that we got a male TI because I'd heard the female TIs were like, the worst (and I did find out later that male TIs are a little bit more lenient with things when it's a female flight...) and of course we pull up to the squadron and a female TI strolls out. The driver was just like "Ohhh man I recognize her, she's a feisty one." We all piled out of the bus and ran inside, TIs yelling at us the whole time. We had to find an empty bed... I still remember my first one too--number 57! I was totally panicking the whole time because they yelled at us to take the batteries out of our cell phones and then put the cell phone away in the locker, but I couldn't get the battery out because I was so nervous so I just chucked the entire thing into the locker. I was stressing out about it the entire week before shakedown because I was so convinced I was going to get caught and I'd get recycled (kicked out into a flight behind you) or something. Also I messed up the blankets on my bed when they yelled at us to go to sleep so my TI threw a pillow at my head.

I didn't sleep at all the entire night. Apparently they let us stay in bed longer too, since we had gotten in so late. I heard Reveille playing and TIs yelling cadence outside. Plus lots of running sounds and other yelling. Some of the ECs that night were hella bitchy and yelled at us... Since we were new we didn't realize that they were also trainees who were in like their sixth week or whatever. But the girls who ECed for us later that morning were pretty cool. One of them gave us a lot of tips for fixing our hair.

I really don't remember what happened that first week, except that the first day or two they would only give us this really shitty rice concoction to eat and I would only eat a couple bites before they yelled at us to get up. But I was strangely never hungry those first few days. Probably because of stress or something. Clothing issue sucked because they were yelling at us so much that I totally picked the wrong size boots (WAY wrong). I got like a size 8.5 when I was supposed to get a size 6. And then the people there had trouble sizing me because my legs are so short so I had to try on so many different sizes. I was like the last person out of there. Sometime during this week the TI made me the third element leader (just for marching, I wasn't a student leader, THANK GOODNESS). When she was assigning jobs she would ask us questions like who had managerial experience, who had catering experience, etc... then she asked who scored high on their ASVAB. Like half the flight raised their hands. So then she asked who scored 90's on every section and I half heartedly raised my hand... then I looked up and realized nobody else had their hand raised so I quickly tried to put it down, but it was TOO LATE. And that is how I got stuck with the Academic Monitor job. It was pretty fun though, once I figured out that I was allowed to actually do crap. But it also kind of sucked because I never really got a chance to study for myself... and then you had to help tutor people... Ugh.

Anyhow, zero week passed by pretty slowly, but by the end of it I'd gotten used to using the restroom hella fast, showering with 40 other girls, etc. By the 4th day I was finally able to actually fall asleep right after lights out. I was pretty convinced that all the girls in the flight hated me but I guess that's normal when you first throw a ton of girls all together. Our first PT day was the first Monday after we got there... and I was extremely nervous about that.

For the record, our TI was Staff Sergeant Saulsberry. I was terrified of her all the way up until the day I left for Keesler AFB!

Almost done with tech school

2008-08-16T16:07:00.001-07:00

AND THANK GOODNESS.

I've definitely learned to hate it here in Mississippi. I guess bugs like the taste of me or something because everytime I go outside I get a million bug bites that swell up really bad.

I got my orders and I'm going to Travis AFB! I'll be leaving here in two weeks. So hopefully I'll be able to update with some actual stories about what's been going on.

And you guys need to update more!

School is dumb

2008-07-08T19:29:00.000-07:00

So, I fail at consistently posting anything. Oh well.

I finally got around to sending in my mid-program, need-this-crap-to-graduate paperwork and the program adviser emailed me back to tell me that the mid-program reflection for my eportfolio (these mini-papers they insist that we write to prove that we've "learned" things) has to be finished before the paperwork can be filed. Okay. That sounds reasonable. Also, my 504 reflection is too short and needs to be fixed. What?

504 was the first class required of all students. The reflection was written as part of the final exam. We were told that they needed to be a paragraph or two. Now, I'm being required to write 2-3 pages.

Besides the silliness of having me write my intro and mid-program papers at the same time, would it have been too much to ask for the professors of 504 to have mentioned that we needed to write a couple more pages for our reflections? I mean, I don't think writing four 3-page papers (in lieu of, you know, writing a thesis or taking a comprehensive exam) is too much to ask for. I still think it's an incredible silly and pointless requirement for a master's program. But that's beside the point.

The point is that if these reflections actually have some expected page length, then the professors could have mentioned it before I was 2/3 done with this.

Oh well. Even though I have no memory of that incredibly boring week last year, I'm sure I can make up junk about how much I learned and how it prepared me for the program and my Future Profession...

On another note, I have no idea what "multicultural literature" means. I picked up some book at the library the other day. It was about some kid being bullied for being "different" and Buddhism was one of the subject headings. I somehow got it into my head that this book was about some kid getting beaten up for being Buddhist. Or something.

Actually, some kid, Jinsen, gets beaten up for being weird. I mean, he's all artsy and an [oh-so-sad]orphan and just generally weird. However, he had a mentor who really changed his life and his mentor was a Buddhist (although this is all backstory and the mentor isn't around or anything). And the kid is interested in living the principles of Buddhism, which is kinda implied for some of the book and directly talked about for a short section.

Is this book multicultural? I mean, there are cultural misunderstanding issues, which I think can't happen without some sort of variations of cultural. But really, most of the book is about some middle-class white kid getting beating up by the school's rich jocks for acting different. The weird kid isn't even the main character. Everything that happens is filtered through Justin, who learns a powerful lesson to do the Right Thing and tell on bullies...

I'm also wondering if reading a bunch of graphic novels for teens counts as fulfilling my required reading as long as each book is more than 200 pages long...

Hello from Keesler AFB!

2008-06-15T15:34:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone! I haven't forgotten about this. I've graduated from bootcamp at Lackland AFB and am now at Keesler AFB studying Financial Management (yeah, that programming job wasn't available, unfortunately). I don't have much time right now but I'll be sure to share some stories when I am able to.

Hope everyone is doing well!

Been bothering me...

2008-04-26T14:11:00.001-07:00

Since starting UA, I periodically would get email intended for some random guy. I immediately looked him up and we do have very similar email addresses. Depending on the content of the email (which I felt perfectly justified in reading and judging) I would either email the person back with "You have the wrong email address" or I'd ignore it. Maybe this other guy missed important messages because I couldn't be bothered. Whatever.

About a week ago, I received several emails about some random travel registration. Clearly, it was intended for this other guy. Out of the kindness of my heart, I forwarded it on to him with this message:

[Guy's name],

I have no idea who you are. However, I periodically get emails that
are clearly intended for you.

Your email is ...@azcc.arizona.edu. My email is ...@email.arizona.edu.

I can see how this could be confusing for you, but I would really
prefer to not be constantly replying to emails and telling them that
they have the wrong email address.

Please update all your correspondences with your correct email address.

Myra Nelson

Now admittedly, it wasn't the most polite message. But I could see in the message that either he or someone working for him had filled in the email info with my address, not his. Whether purposeful or accidental, my information had been given out in a way that would guarantee that I'd get lots of random stupid emails. Not cool.

He later responded with:
Dear Ms Nelson,

Thank you for forwarding this correspondence to me. For the record I am a [his position at the university]. May I suggest that you think about adding your middle initial to your email address and may be this would also slow erroneous emails to you.

Again

Thanks

MN

This just pissed me off. While his suggestion is practical, it in no way addresses the fact that he is giving out the wrong email. I've given out my school address to many people because it's my OFFICIAL EMAIL ADDRESS. His suggestion puts me (once again) in the position of inconvenience by requiring me to contact everyone and say "oh wait! I've changed my email by one letter!" Maybe he didn't mean it in an annoying way, but it really bugged me.

I think from here on out, any email I get intended for him is going to be reported as spam.

Congratulations!!!

2008-04-23T09:18:00.001-07:00

My brother is engaged! How awesome is that?

Goodbye for now!

2008-04-19T17:06:00.000-07:00

I've really been slacking on packing my computer up. I leave on Monday and am about to start unhooking everything. So if all goes well, the next you hear from me I will be part of the United States Air Force!!

Goodbye and good luck to everyone!

(Myra and Leah, you better keep posting about your adventures while I'm gone).

Why Roommates Are Awesome

2008-04-18T10:56:00.000-07:00

Birthdays are eh. I mean, yes it's great that I was born. Of course everyone should celebrate. But *I* don't want to actually do anything. I like staying in to watch tv and nap.

My roommates, however, are made of awesome. Wednesday, I work up to a decorated door and a basket full of goodies. One of my roomies made a cake with a sprinkled 23. It was adorable. I have no idea how I'm supposed to each all this food (although the cake is nearly gone).

My roommates also took me out for dinner. We went high class and got burgers. Mmm ketchup.

Thursday evening, I walked in after class and found them putting together a birthday feast (part II). Eirin had made Filipino dishes like pancit and bangus (which I think is yummy but is totally an acquired taste). It was really sweet, but the expression on my other roommates' faces when they saw the fish was hilarious. Mmm fish.

We also made s'mores outside on the grill. And then later in the microwave.

Anyway, birthday goodness was had by all. This 24th year will be awesome (like my roomies!)

***

On a completely unrelated note, I discovered a lost book!

You know. Those books that you vaguely remember from your childhood but can't describe well enough to find again. Years ago, I had read some book about a couple of socially awkward kids who made up a club WEIRD or something and ran around (saving the world, maybe?) There was Baba Yaga and a house with chicken legs. I think they went in space.

This was really the entirety of my recollection, but it's stuck with me for over a decade. I had no idea what this book was or how to find it.

Last night, I was telling one of my roommates about that fairy tale with some girl who has shoes that make her dance until her feet fall off. Or something (no discussion about whether Han Christian Anderson counts as fairy tales...). Afterwards, I was searching for this story online (It's Red Shoes if anyone cares) and rediscovered SurLaLune Fairy Tales (which is a great site!). I noticed a list of modern interpretations of the Baba Yaga story. Since Baba Yaga was the one distinctive element I could remember, I lucked out! My book was Weirdos of the Universe, Unite! which sounds just like a book I would have picked up back in the day.

I am so very excited. I need find a copy of this book and read it. I hope it doesn't disappoint me after 13-or-so years.

the sweetest thing

2008-04-16T04:48:00.000-07:00

So I'm going through my box of old letters and cards (having to toss some out.. really sad) and I came across this old ratty one with some clipart of a seal on it. It turned out to be a card my dad had made for me and stuck in my backpack when I was in elementary school. I remember finding that card too; I was all embarrassed and stuck it back in my bag all fast before anyone could see it, haha. But I remember that it made me really happy, too.

I hope if I ever become a mother, I will remember to do sweet things like that for my children as well (even if it embarrasses them... haha!)

Learning from the past

2008-04-14T21:32:00.000-07:00

Kind of a shame to post this right after a long-awaited post from Leah, but I've been wanting to say something about this for a few days now. Just kind of unsure of how to put it into words... I've never been good at writing, anyhow.

As I mentioned before, I've been packing up my things so I can ship them back to my parents' place in Phoenix. While I was going through the books I came across my old journals! I've been keeping a written journal since my senior year of high school. Anyway, I originally started the journals because I had a really hard time understanding my thoughts and emotions and also because I was really terrible at expressing myself.

So I started flipping through these journals and it was very interesting to see how much I've changed over the years. I never really think too much about how different I am, but it's totally apparent in my writing. Even the writing style is completely different. Not to mention the handwriting!! (it was really nice back then, and now it's chicken scratch, haha). What really shocked me is how it was totally obvious what was going to happen next. Like with my relationships, each entry would become progressively more angry/depressed until it ended with a breakup. And it would be so obvious to everyone around me, but I'd be stuck in denial or something. Ahh... well, I can't seem to explain this feeling too well. But everything really did happen in a pattern. And it made me wonder if I'm doing something wrong, if there's something I need to change to prevent that from happening. Even though I'm a different person now, does everything keep going in circles? It's really depressing to think about!

Even though it was pretty depressing, it was really amusing to read all of it. Also kind of embarrassing. There were times when I literally laughed out loud at some of the ridiculous crap I'd written in there. Also, I found it highly amusing that in my high school senior year alone I filled up like, three whole journals. Then there was a journal after that for my first year and a half or so of college. The journal I'm writing in now was started at the beginning of the year 2005! There was one year where I only wrote in it about three times! It was kind of sad to me, because my first relationship spanned like, 3 volumes. But my last relationship was only about 30 pages, even though we dated longer. I hardly wrote in that thing at all after I moved up here. So I've decided I really need to get back into writing in it more. I've been writing in it almost every night for the past few weeks in a mad attempt of completing the journal before I leave. It's pretty boring, though... It pretty much just says stuff like "I packed one (1) box today. Tomorrow I shall pack two (2) boxes." Such a big difference from those high school days when every trivial thing seemed so important and life-changing.

That was a long and boring rant about journals. But it's pretty awesome to go back and read about stuff you've completely forgotten about. DAMMIT I'M GETTING OLD.

who needs teeth?

2008-04-14T18:54:00.000-07:00

Hi! Myra and Stacy are being mean to me and making me post in our joint blog. I mean, what's the point of having a joint blog if I can't pass the buck and make Myra and Stacy do all the posting?

So today I left work early to go to the dentist. I hate the dentist! I hate the way whenever it is painful they blame you. It's my fault that my gums hurt when they poke them. Today the dentist devised a new method of torturing me. She blew water on my teeth. Now, that doesn't sound particularly painful, but it is gruesome. It reaches the spots of your teeth under the gum. Now they are under the gums for a reason. A good reason.

Okay. This so counts a post. Look, it went into three paragraphs. Yay for me! Now I must go iron so that I can look cute at work tomorrow.

Waves!

Plant pictures!

2008-04-10T17:34:00.000-07:00

My plants are so fascinating...

You can see here that my dwarf schefflera (the middle plant) is huge compared to the other two. Also, the bookcase the plants are sitting on is very messy and I should have cleaned up some before taking plant pictures. Oh well. Anyone who knows me also know how incredibly messy I am.

My false aralia, which I love dearly, is struggling.

While in WW, it had grown big and pretty and it loved me dearly. It got a lot greener when I brought it home to Phoenix in May. It sat in my east-facing window and got plenty of afternoon sunlight.

Then I killed it with heat by leaving it in the car for a day in August. I have no idea what I was thinking. All but two stalks lost their leaves. I trimmed down the stalks and hoped for the best.

And it grew! It did! But the leaves it grew were a different shape than they used to be, weren't as green, and seemed more fragile. It's beginning to grow leaves like the ones it used to have, but I don't know if it will survive for long.

My dwarf schefflera, which I also love, is all healthy and happy. It loves Tucson. It spent the same day in a car with the false aralia, but the dwarf schefflera only lost a couple of baby leaves. Otherwise, it's been growing like mad.

When I bought this plant last June, it was the exact same size as the false aralia. Since then, it's more than doubled in size while my false aralia has gotten puny. Clearly, I need my plants like this and fewer delicate houseplants.

I had a third plant, which I bought in August, just before moving to Tucson. It never recovered from the car incident, and I finally gave it up for dead last December. Tossing the polka-dot plant left me with an empty pot. It seemed like a shame to go from three plants to just two, so I got a random plant from the dollar store.

I have absolutely no idea what kind of plant it is. It came with no tags identifying it or giving care instructions. I'm really surprised I haven't managed to kill it, but it seems pretty low-maintenance. It's gotten a bit bigger and wider since I got it.

I really don't have much to say about this plant. I spent the least amount of time with it and it just sits there and grows.

So, those are my plants. I go through phases where I care about them a lot (and spend time looking at plant pictures to attempt to identify my stupid dollar store plant) and other times when I don't notice their soil is dry until leaves start looking sadder.

I really am quite proud that I've managed to keep anything alive for this long. Although, the false aralia really is going to die any day now. Maybe I'll get something pretty with colors besides green.

Also! My cosmos are starting to sprout! I really wasn't expecting them to start growing this quick (although I knew they were supposedly easy to grow plants). It they do well, I'll send them home with my mom when the parents come to visit me in a couple of weeks.

There's no sign of growth from the lavender. Those are supposed to take forever.

(If I'm not careful, all my posts will be about my plants. Next time, I promise I'll talk about books or something)

Coconut Pineapple Ice Cream

2008-04-10T00:47:00.000-07:00

Today Jim and I went to Walmart to pick up some packaging tape (so I can send my junk back to Phoenix) and he mentioned that he wanted to get some ice cream as well. So we walk into the ice cream aisle and WHAT DO I SEE???

Dreyer's has a new coconut pineapple flavor?!

Yeah, I snatched that up quick. Coconut Pineapple is my favorite ice cream flavor and it always pisses me off that I usually have to get the expensive (and not very tasty) Haagen Daaz version in that little cup. There isn't a place around here that sells the awesome Thrifty's brand so I have to settle for that. BUT ANYWAY.

The Dreyer's version is not as sweet as the Thrifty's kind, but it is more creamy. And I definitely have to say that it's very yummy. Way better than the Haagen Daaz. Not that Haagen Daaz is bad; I just don't like their coconut pineapple.

You know what else is really good? Those coconut popsicles. Oh man there is this one brand that comes in a blue box, called like... Mexi-something. SO DELICIOUS. If you ever see them you should try it. It is like ice cream on a stick, but more awesome. They also have strawberry, mango, and a bunch of other flavors.

I LOVE COCONUTS

I need more friends

2008-04-09T12:54:00.001-07:00

Even though I have piles and piles of work to do (like the tutorial I'm supposed to be creating...), I decided I desperately needed to get gardening.

Not that I have a yard or anything. I've had my potted false aralia since Walla Walla (it managed to survive a winter of being ignored in the cold!). I bought a dwarf schefflera last June, and I also have a completely unknown plant that I bought at a dollar store this past January. Even though I have these three houseplants, I decided I desperately needed more pretty.

I'm trying to grow some cosmos and lavender from seed. Unfortunately, I planted them yesterday and today is all cloudy and cold. I'm pretty sure the seed are confused about the lack of sun.

I really do hope that some of these seeds sprout so that I can transplant them when I go home in a month. I want pretty flowers, not just green plants.

(I feel like a really bad plant owner because my false aralia is sad. I almost killed it this past summer after leaving it in a hot car for a day. And now I think it hates me.)

Really, I'm working hard to keep myself from digging up the seeds to see how they're doing. I hear that's bad for some reason.

"Dreamin' of your love and not knowin' where to start..."

2008-04-06T19:12:00.001-07:00

Sometimes I have these dreams where I'm totally in love with someone. Some random stranger whom I've never met before. The dreams aren't about anything in particular; once I had one about us running around on some mountains, one where we were stealing beds or something, another one where we were fixing our hair and makeup in a public restroom (yes, both of us, in the same bathroom, what the hell?), etc. But, I am always deliriously happy in these dreams and every time I wake up feeling sad because that love doesn't exist. And the person in the dream isn't real. I once asked Jim if he had those dreams and how they made him feel, and he said he has them but when he wakes up he feels happy that he was able to have that experience at all, even if it is in a dream. Do you have these dreams? What do you think about them; how do they make you feel?

Anyway, the reason why I brought this up is because I had such a dream
last night. Although it was about someone I actually know (which
almost never happens). KIND OF CREEPY. This time I just woke up
feeling confused, though.

In other news, Jim and I looked at some prices for boxes so I can ship
some of my things back to Phoenix. Why are boxes so expensive? A
20x20x20 box was like $10! I don't know about spending $100 just on
boxes. It feels really wrong, somehow.

Something good and something bad

2008-04-06T00:23:00.000-07:00

I guess I'll start out with the bad news first. I just found out today that my cousin Mimi's husband died. I was shocked because I haven't heard about him being sick or anything, except for some back problems. Apparently he died from "mysterious circumstances". Hopefully I will find out more later tonight. Anyway, it's pretty sad; he was a really cool guy and so young, too. And I feel really bad for my cousin, since her father (my coolest uncle!) died a few years ago, and now her husband too. She doesn't have any kids, so she's all alone.

My GOOD news was supposed to be that I have finally tasted the awesomeness that is Nutella (so delicious) but that wonderful chocolate-nut taste turned pretty sour after the aforementioned discovery.

Mad!love of books

2008-04-05T20:10:00.000-07:00

I was reading this article and thought it gave the worst possible impression of librarians. Two parts in particular stuck out to me:

At the end, the former librarian writes: "as libraries start to lack usefulness, the librarian becomes seen as a keeper of these sacred book objects. It gives us a certain allure." So many things wrong with that statement. First, libraries = useful. Second, the books as sacred objects argument only works when talking about rare first edition texts (which, for some odd reason seems to be all they talk about). When a normal person considers the books they own or check out from the library, high-class elite probably isn't what comes to mind. I know that while I was reading Hob's Bargain last night, I wasn't thinking "Wow! What an object to be fetishized!" Third, if she's a former librarian that doesn't seem to think much of the profession (I mean, she doesn't protest when the author claims text-messages count as reading), does she really get to say "us?"

The second thing that really irked me was when the author claims "reading has become an unassailable virtue, and you simply can't attack it. That's like saying walking is a virtue, without regard to where you're going or why you're going there." Aren't doctors kinda pushing the idea that walking for walking's sake is a Good Thing? I mean, while the destination is a factor, the process isn't without value. Life isn't always about the ends; sometimes the journey really does matter.

Beside this horrible assault on my future career, I'm good.

Self-improvement

2008-04-05T03:55:00.001-07:00

Today I jogged three and a half miles straight without stopping! I
have never been able to do this in my entire life. Although, I guess
it's not that huge of an achievement, since it was on a treadmill
(thus easier on the knees) and at a pretty slow pace. But I was very
happy because last week I was having trouble even jogging one and a
half miles at that pace. Last week I decided I had better step up on
my running so I forced myself to run at a much faster speed than
usual. And I thought I was doing terribly, because I was exhausted
after only a mile or so. This time I reverted back to my old speed to
see how long I could continue. I wasn't even tired when I stopped! So
I am happy about that, but still not celebrating because I have a long
way to go in these next couple weeks. And I spent so much time
slacking off!

After tonight, it made me feel really bad about not starting this
exercise much earlier. I moved up here in October of 2006 and gained
30-40 pounds in the four months following that. Yes, FOUR MONTHS. So
you can imagine the terrible stretch marks (still present today!). And
I didn't bother to start exercising until last October. If only I'd
gotten off my lazy bum earlier, I'd be in much better shape now. OR...
maybe if I didn't eat so much I wouldn't have gained all those
pounds--at least not so quickly. But man, I love food. So now I have
more muscle, but still a nice layer of fat on top, haha. I know I
should not eat so much but food is so delicious. I feel bad when I
eat with Myra and Leah because I always feel hungry and eat and eat
forever while they only eat a little bit. Also, I am not really
willing to give up food just to have a rockin' body, which, in my
opinion, is far too late for me to ever obtain.

So basically I guess I'm trying to say that I am very bad at this
self-improvement thing.

Why is this here?

2008-04-03T17:56:00.000-07:00

So here is the first (real) post for this blog. One of the reasons I started this blog was to document my adventures after joining the Air Force so that I wouldn't clutter up everyone's inboxes with pointless emails. But, in truth, I had wanted to have a joint journal with my dear friends Myra and Leah for quite a while now. Except that Leah never posts in anything (but maybe I can badger her into it...?).

Some background information about me: I'm originally from Phoenix, but after graduating from college (with a degree in Animation!) I moved up to eastern Washington to work in a studio. Anyway, let's just say that choice of career is not for me. So I joined the Air Force, which is what I wanted to do since high school...

... and probably what I should have done in the first place, because now I have many glorious student loans to pay off.

But that's okay; everyone makes mistakes, right? And I don't regret the time I spent in college and all the people I met living up here. Right now my biggest worry is getting through Basic Training. And I'll be honest--I'm definitely not an athletic person. I have three more weeks to get myself into awesome shape. Wish me luck!