I'm in a perfectly good mood, other than my ragweed allergies, which are making me a little draggy and out of it.

And someone asks me if I'm okay, because I 'look mad'.

...really? O.o

I mean, granted, I'm not smiling up a storm, and I'm sure the circles under my eyes, and the red eyes themselves from pollen irritation don't help the zombie look ..but seriously? Mad? The hell?

That's a confused 'the hell', BTW, not an angry one. I'm just honestly perplexed. I know I smiled and said hello.

Are my facial expressions really that out of synch with how I'm feeling, and what I think I'm projecting...or have people just gotten so poltically correct that unless you have a smile that can light a room by itself, then people assume you must be angry?

I've never been a person who gets migraines - I think I've had a total of maybe three in my lifetime.

Last night was a freaking DOOZY.

I couldn't fall asleep, the pain was so much. I felt like vomiting. One thirty rolled around, then two thirty. I think I finally fell asleep at around three, which is -yes- a half hour before my alarm goes off.

It feels a bit better this morning, but almost as if it's just lurking to the right side of my head, ready to pounce back in. I considered coming downstairs and looking at a schedule to see who works this morning and if I could call in someone to open if I were the only manager.

I think I shall try to brave it, though.

Sheesh.

• 22:17 Epic deal - Xbox 360 for $170 with 20 gig HD. Woot #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

The vanity cats in WoW make me squee. I love watching their little tails and butts bounce when they're running. And I love the fact that the little paws are textured on the bottom, too. I love seeing those little pads flash up into view!

Yay on the girls starting to get along.

Thunder scares my cats.

Foot gave me three different silent meows with eye-scrunchies tonight. It made me feel all gooey inside.

I hate ragweed allergies. They make me grouchy, migrainy, sniffly, ill, and wanting to do nothing but sleep. :/

Yep, even after being pretty much lazy for a whole month, my apartment is still much cleaner than the trailer ever was after the first couple of years. :) My worst vices are not dusting and not always taking the trash out in a timely manner (not overflowing, but I do press the breaking point of the bags sometimes...). Leaving the dishes overnight is my third vice (but they always get cleaned before I head off to work because I don't want maintenance seeing ugly stuff in the sink).

Got my yearly eval. Getting full amount of available payraise. only 3%, but it's better than no payraise at all (possible in this economy and with the hospital being in between owners), or, you know, not having a job at all. Also--attitude still improving. Still needs a little work, but it's lightyears above what it was even last year this time after a few months away from the ex. Maybe in another year or two, I'll actually be the not-so-pissy person I once was...(or at least think I was...^^;).

Looking forward to cooler weather.

I has LOTS of cat and human food in the house, and a decent start on Ula's vet fund. :)

Three paydays this month. That, plus raise, makes all things good.

If you aren't already aware, the crazy Duggar family that has 17 robotic evangelical children whose names all start with J has their own TV show. I am watching it now. On this episode the oldest son, Josh, proposed to his girlfriend Anna. It was a clusterfuck of an example of A. the results of growing up in such a family and B. the future of the other 16 kids. I'll just give a "what's wrong with this picture" rundown of the whole thing.

1. Josh told Anna's parents to take her to a nice restaurant so that he could surprise her with a proposal. The place they took her had booths lined in vinyl and servers wearing neon screen printed tshirts. Basically it looked about as fancy as your neighborhood Chili's.

2. Josh shows up in a suit and looks totally out of place - even his fiance is in jeans and a polo shirt.

3. He is carrying about 15 balloons with him, which not only awkwardly bob in front of him as he surprises her, but also seem childish and creepily underscore the fact that he is basically a kid and so is she (they're both 20).

4. The proposal itself is awkward and involves a lot of Josh nervously staring and stammering at Anna. Can't blame the kid for being nervous though - however excruciating, this was the most normal part of the whole exchange.

5. After she says yes Josh explains in a voice over how he really wanted to kiss her, but that they are "saving that moment for their wedding day."

Yes, you read that right. Not sex. Kissing. Even a closed mouth peck is verboten. In fact, even though they are engaged, they still only go on chaperoned dates.

The rest of the show was the other 490490 siblings reacting to the engagement and endorsing their support of the "no kissing" policy.

The theory behind this is that not having physical contact beyond brief hugs and hand holding is that it "builds trust" and helps prevent emotional baggage.

I have a lot of opinions about this, but mainly I feel bad for this entirely earnest kid who yes, might be marrying his true love - OR might be marrying a girl who he connects well with on an entirely platonic level. How can they know? Physical attraction is what separates friendships from relationships, and if they aren't allowed to see if they have any chemistry until after their wedding vows, they are taking a huge gamble especially considering how taboo a divorce would be in their ultra conservative community. All of their "saving everything for that one person" is potentially setting them up for a devastating disappointment and I mostly just want to dress as the Ghost of Miserable Futures and warn them before it's too late...

Or, 'Look, ma, we can (finally) get along!'

( Ula and Foot after a game of 'chase the lazer mouse' )

As per usual, the blathering on of my head can be skipped.

( Life. Whatsit to ya? )

Some people have asked me to update, and honestly, I have been wanting to, I'm just SO BUSY. College is insane.

Classes have been going really well. I have yet to make a C on anything, which is really encouraging. I am adoring French. Being in that class really makes me want to visit France - I love absolutely everything my professor talks about and her accent and the pastries she tells us about and oh, it sounds divine.

I got the part for the Student Directed One Acts. It's a play called The Maker of Dreams, and it is beautiful. My character, Pierette, is hopelessly in love with her business partner, Pierrot. They run a small singing and dancing show. Pierrot could care less for Pierette, until a Cupid-like business man comes knocking on their door and makes Pierrot realize he loves Pierette, and then all is wonderful and happy.

Rush just ended, as well. At Mississippi College, there are no sororities because it is a Baptist run school and they didn't want us to have sororities. Instead, we have tribes that function basically the same. There are four - Laguna, Kissimee, Nenamoosha, and Swannanoa. Rush was crazy, but I got in Nenamoosha, the one I wanted, and now we're all busy pledging for the tribe. We have follies coming up, and our theme for our skit/dance is Saved By the Bell. :) First practice is tonight.

I'm almost to the halfway point with Cody being gone! And honestly, I'm even more in love with him than ever. I feel like I'm living in Austen era with all our letters. I write him every night, and he writes me when he can. I have 10 letters from him so far. He has about 40 - 50 from me :) He's doing incredibe from the sound of it, too. Out of 214 guys, only 7 got Expert Rifleman on their qualifying tests, and he was one of them.

In his letter today, he wrote the following:
"As I stood there, I saw a father and a mother coming toward me with a baby carriage. They looked happy, were well dressed, and apparently were well-to-do. I watched them for a little while as they walked on and thought how beautiful it is that God permits a man to choose one woman who seems the most beautiful and lovely to him and she chooses him out of all the men she has ever known. Then they seperate themselves to one another." - Dawson Trotman

I thought that was the most beautiful, appropriate quote he could have included, because it's everything I have wanted to say to him for the past month. We are doing incredible and are making it through this long-distance thing. He's worth it. No one else compares.

Anyway, pictures, cause I know everyone likes those.
( pictures )

Hee hee. Watching the old Wham! video made me look back at a couple of other Wham! songs.

The one that gets me every time is "Edge of Heaven".



This song has so many massive memories for me. It was popular on the radio when I was eleven. My family was renting a ginormous, beautiful, old house in Davenport, Iowa. We only lived there for about two months, but SO much happened during that time.

- I remember fearing the house, convinced that it was haunted. I would wake up in the middle of the night and swear that I saw ghosts flying at me or hovering near the ceiling, watching me sleep.
- I remember the side yard and back yard was covered in an ivy of sorts.
- There was a tree out front that was absolutely PERFECT for climbing. I spent the last of my summer vacation up in that tree.
- I got my first period. I was a woman!
- Two days later, I was molested by my mother's boyfriend, which led to...
- Trips to the police station to tell my story, investigators at the house, finger printing my window (where he climbed in in the middle of the night), and a nervous start to the sixth grade.
- One month at Jefferson Middle School (I think it was) where I was fascinated by the periodic tables and where a teacher read to us from The Lion, the Witch, and The Wardrobe.
- We were probably the poorest we ever were. I remember trips to various churches so that we could eat meals of macaroni and butter.
- Our house was BEYOND infested with millions of cockroaches. We bombed the house, but nothing helped. I remember changing bedrooms because of a combination of waking up in a cockroach infested bed and not feeling safe in my old bedroom after the Tim Incident.
- Mom split the upstairs and rented it out to two different couples: a youngish man and woman in one, and a gay male couple in the other. They were the first Gays I had ever really known. Mom also hung out with an extremely tall black man named Train. Both of these things helped to open my eyes - and heart - to the fact that there are different people out there. Growing up in TINY all-white, severely Christian towns in Iowa and Kansas had caused me to hear all sorts of negative things about both "types" - I remember coming to the realization that KINDS of people weren't bad, it was the individuals themselves that were good or evil, so to speak. Everything else was just silly to put much weight on.

I think of all of these things every time I hear this song.

I don't look back at the entire Davenport experience with any sadness or fear. It's a part of what happened to me, part of My Story.

I really desperately want to go dancing. I've determined that if there is one main reason i want to get fit for myself it's because i just want to look hot and go out dancing XD. I want the body to fit how i dance. I'd probably learn a lot more variety in that case, as well. That's really what i want.
Dancing is one of my favorite hobbies, but i have a lot of hobbies that are refreshing like it. It's surprising considering how lazy i am these days lol, but if someone throws on the reggaeton and dims the lights then there will be some moving and grooving. Reggaeton is so weird though. It's like an addiction to me and i can't help from wanting to move to it.

I wish we had things like school dances because those were the best for what i'd be looking for. No one i know really does clubs. I don't know if they'd want to. Don't know if i'd want to.
-
Anywhossle.
I went out with Deb for a bit last night. We hit up Friday's for some tasty food and chitchatting. After like an hour Dave messaged me and i asked Deb if she'd like to go on an adventure to find his place. We adventured and laughed on the way- especially when there was a street named Shinnecock :p. So i chilled with Dave for a while and we typically talked about crazy females and a random assortment of things. He dropped me back home and i talked to Eric from the second i parked my ass at the computer lol.
He called me after watching/updating me on the Red Sox game that was going on. I got a little irate at a point and needed to chill out so i hung up when he passed out and called back when i calmed. He asked if i was done yelling at him.. but i've never really yelled at him. There's just a lot of hurt and anger that stews in my head and is let out in small "wtf?" bursts. Well anyway we were all lovey again and talked about me going there and sweet things until we passed out.

I need to make a gyno appointment soon. How fun! I suppose i should bring my own moist towelette this time around lol.
Yea i don't know. I'm going to watch some episodes of Brooke Knows Best.. drown myself in the dumbs :p.

Possibly going to a gym tonight with Devon! That'd be awesome so we'll see.
Later kiddies

I love you, Eric

Yesterday my month long experiment of scale banishment came to an end. The results?

( There are results. )

On an unrelated note, I did something to my toe during my soccer game which I did not realize the severity of until many hours later when I took off the nail polish on it to discover purple rings underneath the nail. The bruising is bad enough that I will probably lose the nail. Or I could poke a needle through it and release the blood. I am no stranger to sports injuries but something about the thought of needles in my toe squicks me out the way few things can, so I will probably just stick a bandaid on it until the nail falls off. Either way it's amazingly gross but awesome at the same time except that it hurts. At least it happened after sandal season was over, right?

Okay, so it's not running 45 minutes straight. But I'm easing back into exercise now after a week of hacking up a lung and curling up on the couch with my Bluebook. So I ran a mile this morning on the treadmill at 4 mph.

Just doing my best to nudge myself back into healthy things now.

I'm in some kinda blog drought. I have no interest in logging my happenings. Life rolls on, much the same as it has for some time.

32 minutes walking
3 minutes running (5.0)

Upper body weights

55 minutes at the gym overall.

Not sure if I'm going to be at the gym tomorrow or not. Husband's at home tomorrow, so I'd like to get home to see him. But I should try to do 30 minutes of walking at least. We'll see.

Inspired by an entry written by mykirulz regarding The Giving Tree (http://mykirulz.livejournal.com/164496.html)...


Have any of you read the book The Rainbow Fish?

Poll #1272905
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

The book "The Rainbow Fish" is...

It's a children's book about a fish that, unlike the other fish in his particular pond, has beautiful rainbow scales. Rainbow fish is proud of his beautiful scales. He hangs out by himself and loves his scales, instead of playing with the other fish. One day, one of the other fish asks him for one of his pretty scales. He says no, and all the little fishies are mean to him. Finally, he gives away his scales so that all the fish have one, and then they all become friends.

( my social commentary beneath cut, so as not to sway your opinions )

weeelllll not alot going on here....

I decided to change it up a bit and head to the park to do my run with the kiddos. The park is HARD. I forgot how many hills there are there and lemme tell you, hills are hard. We walked the hills and jogged as long as possible but it must not have been a good day for the kiddos cause (surprisingly) TJ got really upset/frustrated that his shoes kept coming untied and he never gets mad- but the boy has a short fuse like his momma and the fuse was gone. I told him it was alright and we were doing great just being out here! We finished our run, hopped in the car-looped around the lake to see how far we went and it was 1.5 miles (which isnt much farther than our regular route but sure felt longer!) pulled into the playground area and the kids played for a while. I got fed up with the bees and we left to come back home....

I need to head out and get some stuff from the grocery but sure dont feel like doing anything just yet. Took some ibuprofen for my shins - they ache- and I feel great, however, I feel like I barely got a workout today. Oh well...

Sadly, no Zombie walk for me or Beckster today.
In place of that we are going to scoop Mikey up and chill with him :). The threesome lives! (nope- not in a perverted way). I'm not sure what we'll do. I could go for a tasty treat though.

We went to Jack and Sadie's baby shower today. It was nice and good to see a lot of people. Marc and Daniela were down so i hung by them for most of the time. Devon offered to scoop me up to go to her gym with her- free. They got so much stuff from everyone and that was really impressive. We headed back to Jack's afterward for almost 2 hours just to hang out and mingle.
Too many children around today though. I welcomed the big puppydog that showed up later in the night. It welcomed me, as well, and hid from the children :D.

If Dave is free tomorrow night i believe we're hanging. I've been asking him a lot of things lately because his outlook on life makes me curious. I'd do the same with my other friends, but i see that they do not need anywhere near as much guidance as Dave might need. Though i do need to have more in depth conversations with Eric despite that, but he's also my man :p. It's a built in factor that i need to know him like that and i already know he is has his head on right.
Dave is just proving to be an interesting case. This was supposed to start out as giving him advice on the female mind, but it's turned into much more. It's turned into him really finding who he is- and in a good way. If it's possible, he needs help with it. I'll take the challenge. It gives my brain a way to keep thinking and my mind a way to keep cultivating itself.

God, if i could sit through all of the hubub of people i didn't really know i would love to be a counselor or therapist. Sadly, i only care about my friends and family. I suppose we'll see what the future brings, right? Maybe i'll call up my old therapist and ask him his opinion. I think i was more curious to pry into his life than i was to reveal mine lol.

Eric called me while i was out and he just adventured for some much needed toilet-time. I hope he doesn't mind me disclosing that. I'd disclose the same about myself if there was any much needed toilet-time on my end. There hasn't been though.. except for that night that i had french onion soup, grilled cheese, fries with ketchup, pickles, and chocolate milk. The combination was a tragedy in my tummy. Anywhossle lol.. he is still keen on me being there for Halloween. I'm going to push going there back by less than a week though because there is some family event going on and i'd be extremely rude to miss it. He won't mind- i'm sure he secretly loves that i'll be the Juno to his Paulie Bleeker :p so he'll deal. <3

That's all! Waiting for my friendy-friends.

I love you, Eric!

I have no clue where my phone is. Actually my only clues are, "It might still be at work," or "it might be in Tina's car." -- However, I woke up to Eric slamming the door [unintentionally] running to catch the bus to school so I have no idea how to get ahold of her. I just used LJ msg to text my phone and after searching my T-Mobile bills I found Tina's number and texted her through a free online texting site thing and told her to call Eric just so I don't worry.

I'm Allie. I'm a retard. True story! I feel so naked without my phone, like I'm trapped in Redmond. Creepy!

I made a couple more gold (actually, several, but even in my Quest For The Kitty, I spent money on upgrades and available skills, so I set myself back by at least one or two).

So, I'm up to three, almost four gold.

The Cornish is still there. BUT, the buy out price went from 5 gold to 6. (*Cries*). Same person also put up several Siamese carriers. Where she got 'em all, I dunno, but O.o. Those are still all at 5 gold buyout instead. So...we'll see. Maybe it'll be a meezer I get Ari instead.

And OH SHIT, I almost ran smack into Luz while doing a run down the middle of the Scar (got a quest where I need to get into some buildings there)! And just as I saw him, we got jumped by two zombies, and of course, I was trying to run, but Elder was already engaged, and why the hell doesn't Call Pet work when you're trying to run and get your pet off a target so you can do so??? BECAUSE IT SHOULD!!!!!

*Gasp wheeze*

Anyhow, I got back to Elder, and we managed to finish the fight and get out before Luz noticed us, but it was an interesting few seconds, let me tell you. o.O

Anyhow, I'm half blind with exhaustion now, so to bed with me. I can raise more kitty gold after some sleep. :)