candy kicks

I'm always on the fence when LiveJournal starts busting out new shit - and I do mean shit. This whole thing with the friends page changes is ridiculous and I'm so sick of all of the spam, primarily because I receive the email notification for old accounts that I don't want to log back into just to delete it all.

I'm still not ready to give up my 200+ icon capability that came with my permanent account, which my friend Miyu gave me a year and a half ago. All I had to do was pay for the rename token, and I regained my old journal name I had previously deleted and later pined for again. I've been very lucky. But I fear their demise is coming within the next couple of years thanks to the fuckwits in charge.

Woke up this morning just before 10:30, which gave me enough time to snuggle with Bowser and still make it to Panera for breakfast.

Oh, did I mention Will got me a kitty on my birthday? =3 His name is Bowser and he's one of my best friends. <3 Even Will loves him, and it melts my heart whenever they're snuggling together.

It's a fantastic lazy Sunday. I wish I could just stay here all week after work instead of having to go back to my mom's for Thanksgiving. The only thing I'm looking forward to is Black Friday with my aunt and cousin.

I'm 95% decided that I'm going to stay here for Giftmas. That might be difficult to break to my mom, but I'm a grown adult now with a job and a boy and kitten who are essentially my new family. I can't be going back all the time, nor do I want to.

Things in my life are finally looking up.

I changed jobs. Even though I'm in a temporary position right now, I'm working full-time and I'm fairly confident that I will be a permanent worker with this company by the end of 2012. This is a proper 8:30-5pm office job and I have weekends off for the first time in months.

Finally, I have a purpose. I don't feel guilty for working only 15-20 hour weeks while Will works his butt off cooking at the restaurant, a popular diner chain that many who aren't familiar with mistake for a hotel. I'm going to be able to make enough money to pay my bills, and even buy menial things like tissues, shampoo, paper towels, toiletries. I took all of this for granted until I was unable to buy them.

We have less time together now, unfortunately, but that makes the time we do have sweeter. This has been one of the best weekends I have had this year, if not in the entire time since I've been back from Japan.

Tomorrow is our 2 year anniversary. I'm so happy we've made it this long.

My new phone came yesterday, so I rushed straight to the Verizon store to get things transferred over. The only difference I've been able to spot is that now when I close my phone, in the screen where it shows you if the phone is locked or not, it's a translucent blue bar instead of the old clear one. I don't know how to change that, but I don't care, either. I think the software's a little newer. Also, the battery sticks out just a little more, but pushing it in a little tighter (that's what she said) has become a new habit of mine, much like squishing the plastic phone strap when I'm bored. I figure if I get really tired of it, I can just switch out the battery from my old phone. I haven't really been able to understand why it doesn't completely fit in, but I haven't sat down with my phone and played with it either.

Went to the casino and won $12. Later spent $5 trying to win more, but either way, I walked out ahead, so I'm happy.

Today is Homework Mode. Phone off. I started doing that earlier this semester when I was trying to write a reading response and kept getting texted/called by people. It's nice to disconnect. I've gotten the two Japanese homeworks done that are due on Tuesday. What I have left now are two Japanese Linguistics assignments (one for Tuesday, the other for Thursday), a response paper for Japanese Fiction over Tetsuwan Atom due on Monday, and a response paper due for Sex & Pop Culture on Wednesday. The goal is to finish them all by this weekend, if not the end of the day.

It so does not help that I'm on DreamWidth right now. Damn you, intarwebs!

Ah, but I've done better at writing response papers lately. When you forget everything your high school teachers told you ("Don't use 'I'!") it becomes rather easy. I've gotten full points on the past three papers I've had to write. However, this Sex & Pop Culture response might prove tricky. My TA said it can't be an opinion piece, a summary, or a writing over how it made me feel...I'm like, "So what the hell does that leave!?" What I have written down in my planner (his words) are "What struck me in the chapter, a theme, etc - critical thinking! analyzing!"

I feel he is slightly contradictory. I am not looking forward to this paper, but I should get used to it because I'm going to have five more due over the course of the semester.

Egh, back to work.

Testing out my new crossposting footer.

I finished the Mukai Osamu fanlisting today! It turned out completely different from what I originally was making, but I like the result. Go, look at Prettypants. If you like him, do join! It's so much more fun with two. <3

Today Charter (our internet provider) had its rewards redemption center open with Mad Men merchandise. According to my mom, what they normally have is pretty crappy, so she's been letting our reward points accrue and today it paid off. The sale started at 11am, and I was able to go there at 5 'til (It was first-come, first-serve!) and get some sweet things. I got us a snowglobe, a soup mug, and the season 2 soundtrack...taking us from nearly 20k points to just over 100. *laugh* Well, that's why we saved up! Really excited for these things though. My mom loves snowglobes, and I didn't tell her I got one. I'm hoping she'll be surprised and the website didn't send a confirmation email or anything. (Additionally, I found S2 at Target yesterday for $20. =3)

I called her to let her know I got to the sale successfully, and it turned out she was leaving work to catch the Metro back to the suburbs, as she had a doctor's appointment at 2:30. That wasn't for a few hours, so she asked if I wanted to meet her and an hour later I was at the station. We went out to lunch and then thrifting in Belleville - I bought eight old vinyls (I decorate with them and listen to them when I can with my mom's player), a strawberry napkin holder, and a strawberry artwork thingie all for under $3. I love that thrift store. We're going back, I've decided. Everything's so cheap. The most I paid individually was 50c for the artwork.

After that she went to her appointment and I walked around downtown some more, ending up in an antique store and buying these lovelies:


Vintage issues of Seventeen, one each from 1959, 1960, and 1961. They're not in the greatest condition, but they're far from falling apart and indeed very readable! I haven't decided if I want to keep them whole (I don't think they'll be very valuable in the state they're in) or design my apartment with the pages.

I've been packing and packing and more packing since getting home. I'm so bored. =/ Mom, stop talking on the phone and let's go watch Hell's Kitchen~~

I was so looking forward to sleeping in this weekend. Sleep in tomorrow, sleep in Sunday, and for Saturday I'd be okay waking up to an alarm as long as it meant going to Six Flags.

Naturally, my plans became overturned.

Sleeping in tomorrow, yes. Six Flags on Saturday, probably not. Sleeping in Sunday, questionable.

I was called tonight by my cousin asking if I could dog-sit with her Saturday night. It's a bit of a long story, but we'd basically be taking over for her uncle so the uncle could go with my uncle (her stepdad/his brother) and his son (my cousin/her brother) to the lake, because my aunt doesn't trust her husband alone with his own kid on a boat. However, her uncle was supposed to be dogsitting for his relatives. With us taking over for him, he would be free to go to the lake as a "spotter," as my aunt put it.

I love making things more confusing than they really are.

Anyway, it's been established that I have an extremely difficult time turning down family favors. I knew that this would likely mean no sleeping in on Sunday because I'd be staying the night with her at her aunt's place where the dog is. This also meant no Six Flags. However, it did mean we could swim in (or at least tan by) their pool...I thought this over quickly and agreed. I figured I could just bring over my laptop too to continue drama marathoning at night.

My aunt texted me about two hours ago to say that my cousin and I were no longer needed as dog-sitters, so we're back to my original plan.

(^_________________________^)

I'm a little disappointed about not getting to go to the private pool (it must be nice to be wealthy) but I'm looking forward very much so to sleeping in. I still want to go to Six Flags too, so aunt or no aunt, I'm going to ask Mom about it. We've got season passes and have only used them once so far.

I'm so excited to sleep in tomorrow. It feels like it's been weeks. Waking up at 6:40am every morning is taking its toll on me; I'm not used to this kind of schedule. I don't know how I survived high school.

My mom came to town last night, and today she's helping me move a bunch of my stuff to storage (about an hour and a half away where I have other family - we're using a small house that's been in my family since the early 1900s to store everything like my other relatives do xD) along with one of her friends from her old workplace. They're both driving there right now and I should be packing. I've been doing it in increments and taking breaks. The bad thing is that I have two places things need to be going - if I don't need it during the summer, it goes to storage in Iowa. If I need it, it goes to Illinois. Things in my mom's friend's van go to Iowa and the Illinois stuff in my mom's car later when they get back. It's a little confusing.

She'd kill me if she saw me right now, sitting in the middle of the mess to take a break. *laugh*

I went ice skating with friends yesterday after packing a little bit. I haven't been ice skating since elementary school, so I was insanely rusty. I'm surprised I didn't fall at all. It was pretty fun~ One of my friends (who swears he's never been) was practically flying across the rink >O I hate him. LOL~ I wasn't anywhere near that courageous.

It's a little sad how much stuff in this apartment is mine. Why am I always the only one who brings stuff to live on? I like a cozy apartment (but NOT messy), and the roomie likes wide and open ones. Which means NO FURNITURE.

I can't wait to go home. Or at least be done with this.