june 16

my tenure at IT will come to an end. i've given an official cease and desist date. only thing now, i've got to decide if i want to work on a part-time basis. i'm leaning more towards the no, because i know i'll be stuck with the shittier parts of the job. maybe if i come up with my own terms, my own hours, i will consider it. i've got a few things lined up. nothing official or structured. i need to get my own freelance business underway, i've been putting it off for entirely too long.

used indesign for the first time, don't know why i've been been putting it off for so long. quark and indesign are almost interchangable. i don't understand how some people can work with one and not the other. i'm not loading quark on my laptop, switching over to mac and adobe completely. aaron's been using the pc. i can't seem to dismantle the thing. it's been sitting there so long, it'd be weird to walk in and the space be empty. it's also convenient to have two computers. aaron has his and i have mine. tony said he can get me creative suite 2. i am pretty happy with what i have now, but it would be nice to have all the latest software. this baby is gonna be jam-packed.

i've gone on a spending spree. cleaned out my closet and made room for a ton of new things. i gave two huge bags full of clothes/shoes to leeanne to give to her 13 year-old daughter, she told me she ended up giving a majority of them to skylar, her 9 year-old. ego boost, i've got the body of a 9 year-old.

i wore one of the skirts i made today. nobody asked me if it was hand-made, so i'd say it was a success. i've got to hem and put a zipper in skirt 2. maybe a project for the weekend. pics to come.

beef ramen

not a good thing, to be home alone with nothing better to do than surf the net. came home today and found another pair of my sunglasses obliterated by miss marley. i have no idea where she found them, i'm almost positive she pulled them off the kitchen table. devil dog. where can i find another cheap pair that are fairly fashionable? ebay, of course. found a quick ending auction and won a pair of boho, fashionista pair. we'll see if i actually wear them.

consequently, i've been on the internet for the past 3 hours. haven't budged from this spot just yet. why beef ramen? my hands smell like the stuff and i keep telling myself to go wash them, but a good song starts playing, so i'm in a vicious cycle. surf, smell, song. ahhhh.

aaron went to the cardinals/pirates game tonight with the caraways. only had one spare ticket. which is fine. i like having a little time alone. had 2 tickets to blast! and considered goin solo. changed my mind after getting home late from work and tried to give the tickets away an hour before showtime. no takers!

ok, i'm going to wash my hands now and get a bite to eat. maybe you'll get to see my recent purchases in a few days!

fire, fire

what a productive and fun weekend.

friday night semens had a bonfire and meal for the residents to meet his histo techs and to see his new lab. we ended up staying there til midnight. as we were leaving, jamie stood up holding hayden and quickly fell back on a hay bail. had a bit too much to drink. she then asked if someone would help her walk with the baby, so i knew she was in no shape to drive. we get to the cars, put her baby bag in and i ask her if tom's gonna drive and she says yes. cool. as we're pulling out i see she's in the driver's seat and i pull up behind them, get out and ask her if she wants me to drive. she quickly says that would be a good idea. so tom hops in with aaron and i drive jamie and the kids to their place. we're on the complete opposite side of town and i'm not sure what's the best way to get there. so i choose to go through town rather than around using the interstates. of course this proves to be a long mistake. lights are never timed right in this town. made a couple of wrong turns but we finally get there. i get out and smell something burning. does your car burn oil? oh, my we just rode all the way home with the e-brake on! i guess i should have looked a little closer at what exactly the warning lights were on the dash. i just assumed it was the check engine light, which always seems to be on in a ford. everyone was home safe, so we'll let it slide. who puts the e-brake on when you're not parked on a hill anyways. that i couldn't understand.

yesterday we ended up in new salem, camping with tom, jamie, xia, tony and the 2 marks. it was fun. actually brought marley along as well. i think we're gonna do it again some time soon. it's always nice to have a break from the norm. i think we're done camping in the dead of summer. i almost gave it up after last year's fiasco, but now i'm looking forward to it.

today spent the entire day outside, doing yard work and fixing the rotting shed in our backyard. stripped the panels off and replaced and painted new ones. felt really handy. i think i may have burned my feet in the process. i can visably see a flip-flop tan line. sweet. i was gonna avoid getting too much sun this year by getting sun-kissed tan from a bottle. of course that didn't go as planned. streak-free is never patch-free. i've been wearing jeans the past 3 days because of it. gotta hop into the shower and clean off 2 days of sweat and dirt.

the space

i posted this as a bulletin but for some reason my bulletins aren't showing up...i think tom has it in for more. probably a good thing. i was going survey crazy.

quite possibly the worst. . .

wasted 8 bucks on quite possibly the worst movie EVER! easter sunday we decided to catch scary movie 4. it was about the only movie danny hadn't seen. i guess he's been a bit of movie mogul down in carbondale. we get there for a fairly early show, 7:40pm. mistake number one. of course there's a ton of teeny-boppers who think they're comedians and don't mind using the confines of a theater to show off their latest acts. i absolutely hate tweeners and when they're in the group setting it's almost unbearable. let's sit on laps, yap it up on cell phones and holler out during the previews. (damn, i'm a bitter, old lady)

the movie finally starts and of course it's riddled with sexual inuendos, which i expected. but not a single one was the least bit funny. i think i may have cracked a smile, maybe twice the whole time. the thought did cross my mind, maybe i'm too old for this. but no one else was laughing as much as one would think. another problem i had was that it referenced movies i hadn't seen. so if there was a joke, it was totally lost on me. i did a quick seach on rottentomatoes.com and imdb.com and i can't even understand why it has any good reviews. maybe my taste in film has become a bit more refined. ha. right, this movie sucked. it was barely an hour long, it wasn't remotely funny and it was definetely not worthy of a theater viewing.

easter tacos

nate and katie brought danny up to springfield this weekend so he wouldn't spend the holiday alone. mark and jane decided to head to egypt for two weeks and left him to fend for himself. no worries. tomorrow we're gonna have a taco feast, no easter ham in this house. since danny is very particular with what he eats, usually things that involve the word pop. (i.e. soda, tart, sicle) we decided to have mexican. it was either this or chicken nuggets, which he had tonight at dinner. we'll top off the evening with a little family outing, involving sequel number 4 to scary movie. i haven't seen 2 or 3, apparently it doesn't matter. i was trying to convince the boys to see failure to launch which becky told me was hilarous, but was quickly out-voted. damn westphal boys, why'd there have to be so many of them. i'll never get to see any movie i want.

today, first game at new busch, and it was fantastic. cards win 9-3. i've got pictures to post. i don't know why, but baseball is about the only spectator sport i can watch...that and competitive cheerleading and tennis. ha. nba finals, superbowl...absolutely no interest. throw in some pom-poms and i'm hooked. dana, dana, dana...i'm gonna have to go digging for some cheesy cheerleading photos. next task.

came home from the game to a tie-dyed carpet. purple and baby blue. marley dragged a full container of cranberry juice out of the cupboard and somehow deposited it sporadically all over our carpet. the funny thing about it, on the way down to the game i was trying to convince aaron we needed new carpet sooner than later. he thinks we can wait til we're gonna sell the house. marley must have been feeling my carpet argument, because no sooner did we discuss it, nate called and reported the news. that's my girl! :)

tick you

i'm all for nature and the outdoors, but freaking bugs, namely ticks, irk the hell out of me. walked the dogs down south this past weekend and sure enough found 3 of the bloodsuckers on me. not sure if they're the cause of my extensive bugbite collection. but i'm sure it's a safe bet they are. what i don't understand is why both my dogs came out unticked. they're crawling through brush, dodging bushes, running through the thickets and i'm the one covered with them. every little itch i get, i immediately think it's one both aaron and i missed. yes i had him do the primate thing and check me completely over. i sat all day at work monday and scrutinized every little bump on my head. still not 100 percent sure if i got them all. i don't think i'll ever be satisfied til i soak in a tub full of gasoline. funny how these things begin to snowball and you realize how obsessive-compulsive you can be about certain things. my latest worry...there's a tick on me too small to be observed by the naked eye.

finished hemming a skirt tonight. probably took me just as long to make it. why is it so tedious? i think hemming and installing zippers are two of my least favorite sewing things to do. as of now at least. i'm sure that'll change when i try harder projects. katie wants me to make her a sundress. so that may be my next project. i have a feeling it's going to be extremely difficult. maybe i can convince her she needs a smock instead.

i'm actually lying in bed typing this. how convenient. free wireless rocks. the signal in here is even better. i think we're gonna just do away with our cable modem. haven't used it at all. that reminds me of a photo i took yesterday that i need to post.

projectile vomiting

amazingly enough, i witnessed two people vomiting inches away from me this past weekend. and i'm proud to say, i was not the one doing any hurling. i won't mention any names, aw and st. ha, one's only two but can produce more then her fair share of upchuck. how many ways can i refer to puke in this paragraph, i wonder. i got a car wash out of it, so that was a bonus in a crazy sort of way.

speaking of projectile vomiting. joel, the new guy, is gone. last friday, he came to work, proceeded to insult me and basically told sharon to take the job and shove it.

details. i planned on heading over to nick's new place of business later that afternoon, so matt and i decided to clean out nick's old desk and take him any pertinent belongings. we found a huge stack of resumes, and were basically thumbing through them all and making fun of about 90f them. if you saw them, you would understand. matt mentioned something about nick only interviewing hot chicks and joel proceeded to say something that i didn't hear. which matt quickly said, "that's totally an inappropriate thing to say when you want to get a job here." and i heard joel say, "she didn't hear me anyways." damn it, what the hell did he say.

diane shows up to bring me some software, and i'm standing outside with her chatting. relaying what just happened, telling her i think joel just insulted me, but i don't know exactly what he said. out strolls joel. "leaving already?"

yeah i've got stuff to do. okay.

so i go back inside and ask matt where joel was going.

"he left?"

yeah, he said he had to work on his house or something.

back strolls becky and informs us that joel walked into sharon's office and left immediately afterwards. matt heads to sharon's office, gets the scoop and fills us in. joel went in, told sharon he wanted to work full time, she told him it wasn't going to happen immediately, he then proceeded to tell her, thanks, but no thanks. and then left. okay. then matt tells me what joel said. basically he said if nick was interviewing hot chicks he must not have applied that to me. what a tool.

i wanna quit my job, but i'll be damned if i let someone like that weasel his way in. i was the only one pulling for him too. everyone complained about how shitty he was. i am so ready to get out of there, that i was overlooking the flaws. i guess he pushed some of the wrong buttons with sharon. he only worked one day and asked sharon when he could do the cover. i heard him say it too, but i didn't think anything of it, but i guess sharon thought it was a bit too cocky. what a good word for him. matt and i sat and pondered all the signs of asshole joel exuded. it's funny the things you overlook when you want something to work out. and i so wanted this.

apparently nobody wants my job. too much work for too little pay. no surprise here. i need to get out of there, fast. but incompetent candidates are not making it easy. i'm too nice and can't leave roland hanging.

a corky schizo

last weekend aaron and i decide to catch a bite at corky's bbq. we get there and there's a 20-30 minute wait to be seated, so we decide to sit at the bar and forgo the wait. we're sitting at the opposite end of a family of five. a few chairs between us. no one is smoking, this wasn't a bad decision after all. of course i spoke too soon.

in walks this guy and orders a double shot of jim beam, no ice. ok. then proceeds to light up one cigarette after another. damn. he orders 20 wings and a plate of fried dill pickles. this is all before we even get our drink order in. he pulls out his cell and starts talking obnoxiously loud while we're placing our order. i can hear his whole conversation about setting fires, skinning animals and getting layed (not so nicely said) over the noise of the restaurant. great he's psycho.

this is where i decide not to make any eye contact whatsoever and try to keep my eyes fixated on the tv screen above me. aaron is doing the same. the guy then gets up and asks the waitress where the garbage can is cause he wants to trash his coaster...apparently not too fond of it's message, "quit smoking today. call 1-800..." eyebrows go up. ok.

the guy then starts talking to aaron and tells him how he was just in california and he was not happy about the non-smoking laws out there. aaron then asks "what do the bars do when you light up? do they ask you to leave?" the guy starts going on about how he got into a bunch of fights. ok and how he's been kicked out of 15 bars in springfield and he's gonna make corky's 16. great.

about this time is when i think, maybe we should get a seat. aaron's one step ahead and tells the waitress we'd like our order to go. the guy turns to the man on his other side and says something, we can't hear, but immediately says "i shouldn't have said that, i'm schizophrenic." no kidding. he gets up, puts a $10 on the bar and leaves. the food he's ordered hasn't come and aaron and i look at each other in disbelief. what the hell just happened here. that was our brush with the corky schizo.

this was two weekends ago. this weekend i was very anti-social. sorry guys. aaron's been on a non-stop studying kick and i've been on a non-stop sewing kick. i re-covered the papasan chair kate gave me a couple years ago. looks awesome. and i made my sewing desk in the closet of aaron's study. been meaning to do this for a long time and i'm sure aaron's happy that all my sewing stuff is neatly confined to one area and not spralled all over the kitchen. i'll have to post new pics of my new projects soon.

in other news, nick is officially gone. yes, i'm sad. it's so weird that he's no longer there. we've got two new guys. matt and joel. their both eager to work...which is a good thing, that way i can easily phase myself out of there. i told sharon that i wanted to "phase" myself out by june. 3 months notice, it's what she asked for. she's trying to get me to stay part-time afterward, but i'm just not feeling the vibe anymore.

i did order my macbook. it should be here in a few days! yipeee!

we'll be in carbondale this weekend and st. louis the next. let me know what's up, kiddies!