Monday, July 31, 2006

Swing Batter Batter Swing

Okay I admit I have a country song going through my head. I'M SORRY. But yeah, I'm also sorry for not updating much lately. I lost some weight--I'm down to 115 in the morning now. That's probably about where I should be. I can't say I've really been doing much lately. Last Friday, I had to go to work, and then I ended up watching my cousin after all. So I got in work for two jobs that day.

Then on Saturday I went to Kris's house and for the first time ever, did not get lost. We had a good time--watched a little South Park and thought about watching Date Movie but decided not to. Had lunch. Then later I read his novella and it was really sad. It made me cry and it was just a work of fiction. I really didn't think I was that emotional of a person. Then after that, we went to karaoke and NO I did not sing. I had a Pepsi and watched him sing and met some of his friends.

Yesterday, I went to church and then in the afternoon, Brandy and I went to Chrissy Pugh's baby shower. We sat at the same table as her boyfriend's mom. I won the "How Well Do You Know Chrissy?" contest and got a picture album for it. That was pretty cool. I could have won the nursery rhyme game too, except there was a 3-way tie and so they had to find a way to determine the winner. This is great--I would have never thought of it, but the girls gave us each a roll of toilet paper and said we had to guess how many sheets it would take to go around the fattest part of Chrissy's pregnant belly. Oh my gosh. I guessed like 6 sheets--I don't think that even made it across the front of her belly. So anyway, needless to say, I lost that competition. That's okay though--I didn't need to win two prizes.

Like I did at Shawna's bachelorette party.

You know, I only remember one of the games I won. Folks, I was proud of myself. I won the "Pin the P**** on the Man" game (which is just like "Pin the Tail on the Donkey" except the poster and game pieces are a little different).

Well, I worked I think an hour and 45 minutes today, give or take. It wasn't too bad. Then I got paid--very nice. I haven't been working much at all though, so I don't know--my check will probably just pay for the gas I've bought since last pay period. Sad, huh?

I see Brandy has left me a voice mail something about doing something tonight, so I better call her back and shoot the bull with her a little bit. I'm not for sure as to what I'm going to do this afternoon.

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Skyrockets in Flight

So today is Wednesday. I haven't worked in forever. I almost forgot I even had a job. My boss doesn't need me to come in until Friday. I had to pass up a babysitting job Friday because of it, so I better make some money Friday. I could have used the extra babysitting cash--GRRR.

My mood swings are not cool at all. I keep getting depressed for pretty much no good reason. I'm not too depressed right now though.

I went to Mattoon with my grandma today. It was cool. We went to Steak 'n Shake and I got me another of those cookie dough shakes. Ladies, if you haven't tried them yet, you must--they are excellent!

Rach, sorry if you thought I was snappy on the phone last night. I was tired and had a case of the PMS grouchies.

Then we went to Wal-Mart--is it possible to go to a town larger than 3000 without visiting a Wal-Mart?

After that, we came back to my granny's house and I helped her add contacts to her cell phone. Then I came back home. I'm really tired right now. I may just read and take it easy. Not sure what I'm doing tomorrow. Yesterday I did a little sunbathing while I read. Today I just wanna lay on my bed in the air-conditioning.

Just out of curiousity, how long is a good amount of time to date before seriously considering marriage? This question is in reference to some couples I know who have gotten engaged after only a few months of being together. I just wonder what you all think on the subject.

Sunday, July 23, 2006

Glory Days

So yeah, I've put over 2222 calls on my cell phone. I've only had the phone for a little over a year, but whatever. I went to see Kris yesterday--I had a really good time. I got lost going over there, and then got held up by a train, and had to take a detour on the way back.

Some people say I'm not updating enough. Well, the thing is, I haven't done a great deal lately. I had to pick Mom up from Bloomington on Friday, but there's not a lot to talk about there.

Nora wrote me today and informed me that she wouldn't need any more summer DEN columns. But I was offered a position in the fall. I think I will be writing either monthly or bi-monthly. Well, I can tell I've been watching Beavis and Butthead--I started to laugh at the "bi" part of bi-monthly.

It feels good to know I can take a break from columns for a few weeks.

Well, I'm pretty hungry right now, and I really don't have much else to say. Catch you all later!

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Lovin' Every Minute Of It

Well, I goofed off a lot today. I guess that's okay though. I did clean my room some (I actually threw away two pairs of pants) and I have several shirts to give away. I found my Sergeant Pepper CD and my Daisy Fay book (by Fannie Flagg). I even found one of Brandy's birthday presents! I put on my bathing suit and sunbathed some in the backyard this afternoon. I also made pizza. I was in a better mood today than I was yesterday. Heck, I'm feeling motivated. I think I'm going to look for column ideas and maybe even get back to studying for the GRE. I want to try to call Kris around 9:00 when my free minutes start, so I might as well do something productive between now and then.

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Happy Birthday, Brandy!

So today is Brandy's 22nd, everybody! We went to Champaign to celebrate it. I took her to Olive Garden (sorry Megan) and then to the mall and Borders. I have never eaten so cheaply at OG before--I only spent $10.77 as I recall, and that bought enough food to fill us both up. I think I spend more at Arby's!

So Kris finally changed his MySpace profile to say that he's in a relationship. After being together for 3 months, I was getting a little tired of his profile still saying single.

I had to take Mom to Bloomington on Sunday afternoon so she could go to this week-long banking school thing at the Wesleyan University. After I dropped her off, I went to Tilton to see Kris, who in turn took me to his sister's house for a small pool party. I'm not big on pools, but I gotta say, I really enjoyed the hot tub.

We finally got to dance to "Wonderful Tonight" which was fun. He kept apologizing for the England thing that I don't really want to talk about. I hope he doesn't do that again, because though I can forgive him, it still hurt me. I had a great time with him. Stayed a little late though... I didn't leave his house until 12:30 A.M. and his mom kept trying to get me to stay the night there. I told Kris I'd call him and talk to him on my way home (he was afraid I'd fall asleep driving) and it is a 2-hour drive, so that was a rational concern. I'm glad I called him because I probably wouldn't have been able to figure out the route to get home otherwise.

But enough of that.

I would have probably done more shopping today, but I am pretty tired and depressed. I miss Kris already, and his mood swings are pretty stressful. Also--and I think this is the main reason that I'm depressed--it is dangerously close to that time of the month. So... I go from really hyper to ultra-sad to daring to in love to depressed and back again. I guess my mood swings are pretty severe too.

I went to Lisa's house last night. I didn't do much at all. Just hung out on the couch and listened to Sirius music channels. I did help a very little bit with moving furniture. Other than that, I was pretty much worthless.

I'm sorry, but I really can't stand Doug's new dog.

I think I just need to take a nap because right now I am depressed and don't have a very good reason to be. I'm just tired and worrying too much about pretty much everything.

Saturday, July 15, 2006

I spent over an hour in Christopher and Banks today. I love my Mommy! :)

I see it has been a while since I updated, considering I usually think I need to update daily. In fact, probably half of my friends that I have blog links to actually beat me to updating. Kudos to you guys!

No, I've not been terribly busy as such, but I've been to town 7 times in 7 days, if that says anything. Tuesday I went to Chucktown to get copies of the DEN and hang out a little with Brandy.

Then Wednesday I spent the whole day with Kris. It was an interesting day, but a lot of fun. I plan on writing a story about it sometime. His car wouldn't start on two different occastions in the same day, if that tells you anything. And we were both running late getting to Charleston. Yeah I went to Chucktown two days in a row--it's all good!

Thursday, I went to work for 4 hours. Then I went to Lisa's house and watched Date Movie. There is a certain part of that movie that takes place in "A Restaurant" that cracked me up so much I thought I'd have to go outside or to another room or something. I mean, I was literally Rolling On The Floor laughing and was crying so hard I missed about 10 minutes of the movie. I still get cracked up thinking about it.

BTW, check out Derk's blog for Lisa news, ya'll!!!

Then Friday, I got my paycheck, and got cheated out of 1.5 hours on it--grr. Guess I'll have to say something sometime. Anyhow, then I went to Chucktown once again to shop for... Chrissy Pugh's baby that hasn't been born yet! I'm excited for her. I didn't even know she was expecting until I got an invitation in the mail for her baby shower.

And today I went looking around at my grandma's old stomping grounds and then went to Mattoon with Mom, Granny, Becky, and Vickie.

I have to take Mom to Bloomington tomorrow for a week-long class. Something to do with her job.

Speaking of jobs, Megan, I just read your blog--looking promising. Good luck with everything!

I had to hurry up and pick out a column and write it, proofread it, and send it tonight.

Monday, July 10, 2006

Ceska Republika

So I called work today around 9:00 and my boss was supposed to call me back and never did. So whatever. I ended up going to town with my grandma and my aunt Vickie. We went to Steak n Shake and I tried the new cookie dough milkshake--very good--I recommend it to anyone who likes cookie dough and milkshakes.

Then we went to the eye doctor so Grandma could get her glasses adjusted. I read People magazine while I was waiting on her. They had a piece about Mary Kay Letourneaux (I'm almost certain I misspelled her name). I just can't believe she is like 44 and married to a 22 year old guy. And then I started wondering how a 12-year-old could father children.

I got my Prague postcard from Mr. Jones today--I was happy to get it. It's kind of funny that he got here before the postcard did though.

Rachel called me tonight to say the lady from her church is in stable condition. She is still in need of a lot of prayer though. I have a headache, so I think I'm going to close for now. I may even go to bed before long.

Sunday, July 09, 2006

I can listen to Clapton again :)

Okay ya'll...

So I talked to Kris on the phone last night and we discussed some things. There was quite a bit of misunderstanding on both our parts (well that just sounded dirty, now didn't it?) Anyway, we never actually "broke up," but he gave me the opportunity to leave if I wanted to. I don't want to discuss his reason, but it was nothing bad about me.

So we are still together. Brandy, I didn't want to say anything about it tonight because I didn't want you to have a fit when I was trying to watch Patti. I'm sorry if that makes me less of a friend for not telling you what you wanted to hear when you wanted to hear it, but I was just trying to keep the situation from getting bad.

And Brandy, please for my sake, stay out of this. Don't cause trouble for Kris or for me. Please.

Megan, thank you for your work schedule--we should totally get together for lunch sometime. And thanks for the advice on the earlier post. I appreciate it.

Brandy, I'm not sure about looking into that job tomorrow. I'm too hot and tired to really even think about it. I'm sorry.

Now that I have all that out of the way, here's how I spent my day:

I couldn't sleep well last night because I had some sinus problems, so I took a Benadryl and it knocked me out. I didn't get up until after 8:00 this morning--YIKES! Anyway, so I went to my grandma Pat's church this morning and it started at 9:30 in Greenup. I had never been to a Methodist service before. It was okay--totally different from a Pentecostal one though...

Anyway, after that, Pat gave me instructions on watching Patti and then I spent the next 10 hours watching Patti. Grandma and Kenneth (her hubby) went to a dance in Nokomis that was supposed to last from 2:00 to 4:30. Well... at 2:10 or so she called me to say that they thought it was supposed to start at 2:00 and when they got there, they found out that it wasn't supposed to start until 4:00! So I was going to have to stay an extra two hours. I was pretty bummed out because today seemed like a pretty day and I had to spend it inside their house, trying to keep Patti out of mischief.

I failed to mention that Patti is my 36-year-old first cousin with Down's syndrome who lives with my grandma and her second husband, Kenneth.

So Patti had 4 pieces of pizza at lunch today and a piece of garlic toast. I thought that seemed like a lot, but I wasn't sure what she was supposed to have. Don't worry, she told me. After the last morsel was savored, Patti proudly informed me that she was, in fact, only supposed to have TWO pieces of pizza and nothing else. Oh gosh--hopefully she doesn't get sick tonight--she has a weak stomach when it comes to rich foods.

I could only handle 2 pieces at lunch and ate the other 2 pieces around 3:00, if that tells you anything.

Grandma also had some mac and cheese for supper, but I was not hungry at all by that point, so I just had a diet vanilla Pepsi (as it was the only pop in the fridge) and believe you me, I hate diet soda. Anyway, Patti happily ate a healthy serving of the mac and cheese and also made herself a sandwich--with cheese. Then she asked where the yogurt was. I almost went into a lactose fit just thinking about all that dairy. In fact, I have some terrible heartburn right now.

Brandy came over around 5:30 and stayed until around 9:00, when I left.

I also talked to Brandy, Rachel, and my mom on my phone quite a bit. In my spare time, I did some fill-in word puzzles (I love those) and read some on my book Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man and studied some for the GRE. I got tired of all that by the evening and decided to watch some American Dad and Family Guy.

Megan, you're right--Ron White is creepy. I never really thought about it like that, but maybe that's why I'm not crazy about him.

Well, all my friends, I hope I haven't caused any strife among you (especially you, Brandy) but I just try to avoid the drama when I can. Peace out :)

Saturday, July 08, 2006

I'm glad they don't call ME Tater Salad...

Well this morning I feel hopeful. My mood generally is based at least partially on how I wake up in the morning, which is usually based at least partially on what sort of dreams I have the night before. I mean, yeah I had some strange dreams, but nothing bad and I think that's why I'm in a better mood.

Haven't heard from Kris yet, but I think he's home now.

I was planning on editing my column and emailing it to Nora last night but I ended up attempting to watch Brothers Grimm. If anybody likes that movie, I'm sorry, but I couldn't watch it--it was pretty stupid. Kevin recommended it to me, but pretty much said it helped to have a little liquor in you when you watch it.

I believe it.

So after I had all I could take of Brothers Grimm, I put in the othermovie I borrowed from Lisa about three years ago, The Blue Collar Comedy Tour Movie. It was okay. Some things made me laugh a lot, but a lot of it was pretty dang predictable--probably because they were saying things similar to things I say on a regular basis. Especially that Bill guy that does "Here's your sign" because I am so sarcastic all the time and people are always asking me such obvious questions. *sigh*

And then...

"If you can identify with at least 50% of the redneck jokes that Jeff Foxworthy tells... you... might be a redneck"--nuff said on that subject, folks.

I'm sorry but I just don't get Ron White's humor for the most part. I'm surprised that guy has lived long enough to do the stupid movie. I swear I think every time he appeared he was smoking and usually had a drink in his hand. Then at the end they're at Waffle House and anybody who's not familiar with Waffle House, they have these hashbrowns and they like to brag that there are like a million different ways you can order them. So Ron White orders some of them with like everything possible and it about killed me just thinking about it. Barf, Ron.

Well, I think we're going to try to move some furniture and do some housecleaning. And of course, don't let me forget to finish up my newest column. My last column--which I thought was pretty good if I do say so--was not printed in the DEN. Grr.

Friday, July 07, 2006

Happy Birthday, Ringo!

Okay friends and foes, today is Ringo Starr (A.K.A. Richard Starkey)'s 66th birthday. Incidentally, it is also Ronnie Greeson's 56th birthday! Happy birthday to both.

Kris is coming home today--we'll see what he has to say when he gets back to Tilton and away from all the people who were driving him nuts.

I'm supposed to check in at work this afternoon. I'm so lazy--I'd just as soon have the day off. Rachel has the day off--no fair. Just kidding. I always have the day off it seems.

I went to Casey with Sarah yesterday. I had to pick up some medicine for a cat at the vet's office and by a strange coincidence, Sarah was heading towards my house just as I was getting ready to leave. I asked her if she'd like to go back to Casey with me, and as she wasn't doing anything else, she consented.

So we got the meds and then headed to Subway for lunch--it was pretty good.

Later in the afternoon, I went to see Brandy because I sort of made plans to do something with her, but we never decided what we were going to do. I felt bad for putting her off so long, but oh well. So sometime after 3:00 I headed over to her house just to hang out and got severely pissed off when I saw that about a mile from her house, they had the road completely blocked, working on it. Okay I thought, I'll just go on the Mullen road and go past Eliza's house. So when I did that (which included a significant amount of backtracking) I went the wrong way and ended up at a dead end. By this point I was very pissed off and called Brandy, but I really didn't need to because I figured out the way I was trying to go on my own. Boy was I mad.

I stayed there until the early evening and she decided to come over. I'm not sure why, because I pretty much did my own thing and she did her own thing, but whatever, folks. Yeah I took 4 pix from my digital camera and fooled around with them and put poems that I have written on top of each of them and printed them out (all 4 on a page) of photo paper. It's pretty cool. Took me about all evening to get it all done though.

While at Brandy's though, I wrote my rough draft of my column. I'd like to finish it up and email it to Nora tonight.

I put the stuffed animals I got from Kris back on my bed last night too.

The man is confused. He feels that at his age he needs to get in a hurry to commit to somebody. He's never had a girlfriend before, so he needs to gain some dating experience. While I'd never had a real boyfriend before, and I also want to commit to someone sometime, I am 8 years younger than he and not so antsy to marry the first guy I date. I think Kris likes me right now, but he also respects how I feel and doesn't want to push me into anything I don't want to do.

But three months is hardly enough time to make that kind of decision. And plus, I only got to see him a handful of times this summer. I just don't know what to do. Hopefully when we meet each other again, things won't be weird though.

Anyway, happy birthday to my once-favorite Beatle, the guy who is so short he makes me feel good about myself, RINGO STARR!

Thursday, July 06, 2006

Good Morning Again, World

Well, I'm feeling much better now. Kris's email helped and reading all his blog archives helped too. He's never said one mean thing about me. God help me, I never thought I'd see this much drama in my life ;)

I'm actually pretty much giddy right now. I must go find me some mood stabilizers though :)

Monday, July 03, 2006

Ski, Skiing, Skiied?

Well, I think my bipolarness is getting a little better. My mood swings don't seem to be quite as frequent or severe. I think I just found the article that I want to comment on for my next column. Once again, it's a doozy.

Did I spell "doozy" right?

You know, I had to call Brandy this morning before work to see if "ski" has a past tense. I was studying for my GRE, and I really didn't need to know how to spell the word, but I was going nuts anyway (anal-retentiveness). Anyway, I wrote down "s-k-i-e-d," but realized that was the past tense of "sky"--if there is such a thing. Then I tried "s-k-i-i-e-d" which just looked weird, and a little evil, truth be told. So then I got worried that maybe I'd have to use a form of "ski" in one of my essays there on the GRE. "I ski. She skis (or skiis? or skiies?) They skiied?" None of these sentences look correct. I hate the word "ski."

I really didn't do much today. I've been trying to tame down my poor birds. Yeah, pretty sure the kids of the people that had them before me must have picked on them or something. Especially Sunshine--she bites me all the time. Jasper occasionally snaps at me, but he usually just flies away. (Oh great--forms of the word "fly"--almost as bad as "ski")

Ever notice that "flies" looks like "files?"

America is so screwed up. We put the punctuation inside the quotation marks. Personally, I think that whatever goes inside the quotes should actually be what is quoted. For example, if I had written the book of grammar, I would have insisted that the question mark go outside the quotes on the above example of "files."

I knew I made a mistake when I decided against going into chemical engineering.

So last night I spent too much time researching the University of Iowa and SIU-C. I think I'll apply to 4 or 5 schools. U of Miss, U of Iowa, SIU-C, U of I, and if I'm desperate, EIU. EIU is sort of a last-ditch effort thing, because they don't offer an MFA program and I will have already taken 3 grad-level writing courses as an undergrad. No offense, Val, but I haven't really heard anything good about U of I's English department, so I'm not sure if I should really apply there or not. I was thinking that they offered an MFA, but I should look into that more too.

I wonder how much I'll shell out in application fees, only to be turned down by all of my schools on a Wednesday?

Actually, maybe that won't happen because, as none of my schools have "W's" in them, then the curse of the W might not apply to me.

I heard from Kris again today. He's pretty well fed up with study abroad. Hope he's better when he gets back home.

Well, guess I better get something to eat (ever since I ate way too much at Olive Garden on Saturday, I just can't seem to stop eating--pretty scary, folks). Then I need to get back to the GRE.

Sunday, July 02, 2006

Lambert's Cafe--The Only Home of Throwed Rolls-- Since 1942

Well, I've had yet another case of bipolarness. I think it has something to do with me and Brandy's gondo-fight yesterday morning. Plus I miss Kris--haven't seen him in exactly one month. I guess he's been needing some time to think about things. Not sure what that was supposed to mean. I think the trip is driving him crazy and he wanted to get out of England (which is what this weekend was set aside for). Hopefully he's not getting that goofy idea to move out of the country again. I don't know what makes him tick sometimes.

I got him a little something yesterday as a welcome home gift. Hopefully he'll like it. I'm not really sad, but I'm not happy either. I'm in a strange state of bittersweet melancholy that I used to get all the time and I don't like it. I had a good time at church today--got to see my cousins Sarah and Tony Jones. Lots of Joneses running around, aren't there?

Mom and I might possibly be planning another trip--this time to Iowa. I would like to look at the University of Iowa and try my hand at getting into their Creative Writer's Workshop. Tennessee Williams went there, if that says anything.

If it doesn't say anything, then I'll just put it this way--a lot of published authors have gone there, so on the slim chance that I could get in, it would drastically help my chances of getting published. Still wouldn't be a guarantee though.

I finally got around and revised and sent my column. I don't know why I worry about those things so much, but man, do they ever stress me out until I get them e-mailed.

I will probably have to go to work tomorrow afternoon and I really don't want to. I'm so lazy. At least I'll have Tuesday off. Not sure what other days I'll have to work, if any.

I guess I should get back to my own creative work again. I have started a memoir, but I quit on it for a substantial amount of time. I keep starting things that I never finish.

Fannie Flagg's new book Can't Wait to Get to Heaven comes out on the 4th! I'm pretty excited. I may just have to go up to Champaign and get a copy of it that day. How patriotic of me.

Congrats to Val who may be getting a new job soon! I hope you get it and that you like it. And yeah, please help Amanda and me navigate around the U of I.

Well, I don't have anything else to say. I don't know why my mood is so erratic like this--it's pretty terrible, really. Sorry for not being my sunshiney self today, guys.

Saturday, July 01, 2006

Stinky and Sandy

Good morning all. I failed to announce that my buddy Megan got a new job! I'm excited for her, because I remember the last wonderful job we had together, and I imagine the one she has now is much better than that one.

But enough about that.

I heard from Kris again today--I was pretty excited to hear from him. His subject was "Czech me out" because he decided not to go to Spain, but instead to go to the Czech Republic. I remember when my uncle, Dean, went there and brought me back a couple of cool marionettes and a Czech coin.

Rach, I would like to run around and do something with you sometime, but it seems that we don't have many of the same interests. I'm sorry that I don't enjoy fairs or eevn really fireworks displays most of the time. I was thinking that sometime I'd like to go see a movie at the drive-in down at Newton, but I don't know--I'm kind of picky on my movies too. Plus the movies start so dang late and I've been getting up early. I'd also like to start walking on a regular basis and maybe chilling at the library too. I wanted to go with you and Sarah to Subway last night, but I was totally pooped and can't really afford to eat out anymore anyway. Mom is taking me to town this afternoon, so I probably won't be available to do anything today. I'll see about later though.

Okay everybody, I need to get going now because Mom will be getting here soon to pick me up. Take care everyone :)