Christmas Break & Work

"If it's sent by ship then it's a cargo, if it's sent by road then it's a shipment."
-- Dave Allen

Yesterday I managed to get a really good deal on card stock. I bought a value pack of 300 assorted card stock that's 8.5" by 5.5" and a value pack of 300 assorted card stock that's 4" x 4". The bigger one was $9.99 and the smaller $5.99. That's makes the bigger pack less that $.04 per card stock and the smaller pack about $.02 per card stock. If you buy them individually it's usually about $.30 to $.40 cents per card stock.

Also yesterday I was working at Subway from 3 to 9 and the weirdest stuff went down. Some friends came in drunk (drove in) and we yelled at them to go straight home and wait until they were sober before driving again. Then an ex-coworker calls in asking if its alright for her to come over, but apparently she's been banned from this Subway. She calls a bit later and talks to Mya to see if it's okay to get 4 foot longs for free. Of course it's not okay. Then a "friend" (not really) of Mya's comes in with a bloody fist, apparently from punching his truck over his psycho girlfriend. She counsels him for a while before he leaves. All in all that was a little exciting. We even made a threatening phone call to a two-timing jerk that was hitting on a coworker that is jailbait. We know this guy has a girlfriend. So we just told him how old she was and that if we found him coming here again to talk to her, we would be in contact with her mom and his girlfriend.

Today I need to go shopping in a little bit for some basic stuff. Oh yeah, I also made a blood drive appointment for when I'm back in Portland. I needed to wait until after the day after Christmas in order to donate blood again, but there are no blood drives until the 5th around here. I'm leaving on the 4th for Portland, so that didn't work. Now I'm going to be donating on the 10th, a Saturday.

Well, I have my duties I need attending to. I also have to work later today as well. Ciao!

Christmas Day

Microsoft: "You've got questions. We've got dancing paperclips."

Christmas is a wonderful holiday with many good memories for me. I didn't even realize how much I've matured until 3 hours after waking, I remembered I had a stocking. Normally that's the first thing I do on Christmas morning, because I'm going to have to wait until afternoon to open any presents. That's when Uncle John and his two dogs arrive for Christmas dinner. Instead I played speed (card game) for a while with my mom. When we tired of that we started playing hand and foot, a card game that needs 5 decks to play and has four matches per game. I spent all of last night putting the finishing touches on my handmade christmas presents.

Uncle John didn't arrive until 2 in the afternoon. My mom and aunt had been procrastinating with the dinner in hopes that Uncle John would drop by soon. And it worked. We had a lovely honey ham, sweet potato yam mix, fruit salad (yuck), peas and carrots, and broccoli. It was a really good dinner. I even manage to eat two small bites of broccoli! I hate that stuff.

After that it was a while before we managed to round up everyone for opening presents. Jimmy, my eldest brother, pulled a classic last minute gift wrapping.

What I got:
-130 Rubber Stamp Collection from Aunt Kathy
-"The New York Times: The Complete Front Pages from ???-2008" from Uncle John
-2 Egyptian cotton green towels from Dad
-3 books from my brother John
-Watercolor pad and sketchpad from Jimmy
-$25 Barnes & Noble Gift card from Matthew (Cousin)
-Chinese Brush Painting set from Erin (best friend)
-Slippers from Mom
-Backpack/Luggage from Dad

Seems like a lot, doesn't it? But this year I didn't get my bunch of tiny gifts and one big gift like I normally do. Mom and Dad didn't get me one so that they could justify all the help they are giving me for college. I like it better this way.

And now I'm all excited about my new hobby: card making. The rubber stamp collection and my handmade presents helped inspire me. I love the idea of making cards for people. Customized, thoughtful cards.

Edit [Sun, 28th 9:55 AM]; It looks like I saved this entry as a draft instead of posting it. Corrected that mistake.

Lovely 6 Hour Trip

Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils
- Louis Hector Berlioz

Yesterday was not my favorite day for travel. We already knew that the weather would slow us down a lot coming over the pass to Portland, but due to a jackknifed semi we spent about 6 hours traveling. In normal conditions we can make it there in about 3 hours with a lengthy stop at Government Camp to talk to my Aunt and Uncle who own a grocery/liquor store there. We didn't eve do that lengthy visit this time because they weren't going to be there. Man was it miserable to be a passenger! I can't even imagine how horrible it was for my mom, who had no break from driving.

You see we came over in my mom's Honda Odyssey and my brothers Honda Civic, because John (my brother) had to go back Christmas Eve because he had to work four hours on Christmas Day (for $21/hour too, DOUBLE PAY!). My dad drove my brother's car up until Government Camp where John switched places with dad for driving. So John drove his own car, my mom still driving her car, and my dad is in the van with us just sleeping. I can't drive in these conditions because I'm such a scared-y cat when it comes to driving in normal conditions, let alone these conditions.

In a little bit I'm going to head downstairs and finish up John's handmade christmas present. I'm doing a small little drawing of his favorite animal in his favorite color with watercolors. Then I'm attaching it to a piece of colored card-stock centered and into a matching envelope. I'm doing the same thing for everyone important to me. The list goes on: Mom, Dad, John, Jimmy, Matthew, Aunt Kathy, Uncle John, Aunt Judy, and Uncle Cliff. That's just family too. I also want to make some for my good friends: Erin, Mya, Diana, Brianna, Anna, Kea, Priscella, and Xin. I'm going to be late with those, but I've already let most of them know about that. A good lot of them already know I'm late with Christmas presents pretty often. I have a horrible sense of timing for personal projects.

Today was nice due to an iHop breakfast John and I enjoyed. He was kind enough to take me with him for a parent-funded meal. My mom was also nice enough to pick up enough of my extra supplies for making gifts. She has the most knowledge on what I'm doing, but I have no doubt my mom is mentally blocking it in order to enjoy the surprise. She loves to be surprised.

Well, I need to head on downstairs. John is leaving about 3 or 4 in the afternoon, so I have plenty of time.

Sugar Cookies & Cavities Go Hand in Hand

“I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.”
- Robert McCloskey

Well I haven't gotten a new cavity yet, but one of my old fillings fell out while I was flossing my teeth. A bit ironic isn't it? I figured that out when I ate one of my cookies. The pain was horrible. This was late on Monday. I immediately went to the bathroom to brush my teeth (an effective way to get the sugar out of the cavity and end the pain). I looked at the cavity (which was on my bottom row of teeth, right side a little to the back). It was pretty big, but an older cavity I got years ago. So I made an appointment with my new dentist (Dr. Beals retired last year and Dr. Turley is who he sold his practice to).

Sometimes a new dentist can be troublesome, however Dr. Beals did a good job on selecting who to sell his practice to. It's my understanding that Dr. Turley learned a bit under Dr. Beals, which explains why his chairside manner is so good (chairside instead of bedside, since I'm in a chair). He was thorough and quick with the job, making sure I didn't have any pain or discomfort. I love it when a dentist believes you when you raise your left hand signaling pain. My mom once had a dentist who didn't believe that she could still feel everything - most of the numbing medicine takes longer to take effect on her than other people. In short, my cavity was filled in on Thursday and all is good in that department. Still flossing once a day and brushing three times a day.

Today in particular I did something that made my mom and dad really happy. I tackled the cookbook drawer in the kitchen. By tackling, I mean organizing and cleaning it out. Now there are only three cookbooks and two binders of recipes in there. Before there was at least 20 cookbooks and recipe clippings all over the place. I've also suggested drawer dividers to put in there (since now there is so much space) to put things like their wine corkscrew, can opener, etc. Basically a place to put odds and end kitchen stuff. It's pretty much accepted around here at home that I'm the organizer. It's not that no one else can organize in my house. It's more of a matter of who's willing to put the time, effort, and hard work into getting it done. I love tackling such projects. It's why I'm working on organizing the garage. Everyone who has ever had a garage understands how disastrously messy they can get. I don't think that's an exaggeration.

My dad has been doing stuff around the house to. Ever since he retired he's become handy man that actually gets things done and house-dad. He cleans dishes, the kitchen, table, floors, etc. He's putting up curtains in the three bedrooms and the backroom. Nice curtains too. He's in-progress on the ones in my room.

Also something that happened today that isn't so pleasant. Our oldest cat, Stripes, has been coming in a lot more lately. We've given her the Queen's treatment and a couple days ago she shit on my bed. This is probably due to the fact that the one time she (purposely) shit on my mom's bed, mom threw her out the door after rubbing it in her face. So that's why, instead of where she was most of the time, she went into my room to shit on the bed. >.> Then she did it again today. I've decided she can do without my petting for a while. We kicked her out after rubbing it in her face. Next time she's in? My door is closed. She can go shit on John's bed. Nice thing is my dad said it would be his fault if she shit in the house and now she's done it twice. I get to tease him about it, so it's not so bad. Plus, looking on the bright side: she didn't shit on my comforter or pillows. I can't live without those. I can change my basic bed sheets easily though.

Anyways, I have work tomorrow so I should be heading to bed about now.

Working Me To The Bone...Or Not

“There's no half-singing in the shower, you're either a rock star or an opera diva.”
-Josh Groban

Nice thing is I'm back on the Subway work schedule. Yay! This is mainly due to a coworker getting himself fired. Now, should I be happy about that? Yes. Jacob pushed the envelope one to many times. In the past he did a no call no show, which usually gets you off the schedule (and effectively fired) but someone pleaded for him. Then there was that time he did something stupid and got himself in jail for a couple of nights. I do believe I covered his shifts while he was in jail. No one told Mike, our manager, because we figured that Jacob needed help in order to hold down a job. Then last weekend someone calls him to come in a couple hours early because they'll be short a person, and Jacob tells them he can't come in at all because he's in Christmas Valley. Mike was told this time, because this is exactly what we don't need. He's now off the schedule, which is the kiss of death. Mike doesn't actually fire him (thus he can't get unemployment) but makes him quit.

So now I have his hours. Yesterday I was supposed to cover his 12 to 6 shift, but was called by Mike and asked if I could do a 4 to 9 shift instead. I did and we closed at 9 (we close lobby at 9, drive-thru at 10) because of weather. Thus Mike called me today to say that I shouldn't come in today due to lack of business, but I do have a 5 to 9 shift tomorrow which I know will happen. Any night shift lasting until 9 or 10 is a for sure one, because we are the closers. Hopefully I get to work with Diana. Also, the Christmas Party at work happens tomorrow. I'm going to be bringing chocolate sheet cake (a recipe of my mom's) at around 4 when the party starts. Originally there was going to be a meeting as well, but alas this will not happen.

The reason I'm not to worried about the lack of hours is due to my other job. I'm cleaning and organizing the garage for my dad. $10 an hour. It's good work. I also need some time to clean my room properly. Plus, my dad's going to be cooking the turkey my mom got on a good deal (69 cents per pound, a steal!) and he needs supervision. I've never even cooked a turkey before, but I know that I'll be needed due to my kitchen experience. You need to at least look at directions when cooking, which my dad has a tendency of not doing quite as thoroughly as I do. And the first time you do a recipe you need to pay ATTENTION. Only after having successfully done the recipe can you alter it. Or so I believe.

Well, I'm going to get dressed and ready for the day. I need to start making my christmas presents or they won't be finished in time. I will be putting my Aunt Judy and Uncle Cliff's on delay, for our christmas party we have after christmas. They are always so busy working during Christmas. Later.

Crazy, Crazy Happenings

"“The ability to quote is a serviceable substitute for wit.”
- Somerset Maugham

So, I haven't posted in a while due to hives. Monday morning I woke up all itchy and went to take a shower. Once I got out of the shower I noticed I had an itchy, red rash all over my body and especially on my face. Immediately I went and showed my dad (I put on clothes first, of course) and he told me it looked like hives. He gave me a couple benadryl and a nice breakfast. An hour later I fell asleep, probably due to the benadryl. I woke up a few hours later still feeling horrible. I was itchy all over and that does not feel good.

Later that day I took more benadryl (6 hours after first dose) and then a couple hours later we went to the clinic for a walk-in. The docter told us what we already knew: a) I had hives, an itchy red rash b) unless my throat starts swelling closed, I should just take non-prescription drugs. She then gave us a list of drugs good for taking care of hives along with the generic name, joking about how she doesn't have any stock in those companies so she doesn't care if we get the cheaper generic drugs. She also said I should wear more green to be festive (since I'm red all over). My dad came to the clinic to find out what meds I needed (I went with my mom) and went off to Wal*Mart to get them.

That night was the worst of the nights for sleeping. Even though I took benadryl before bed, I woke up four hours later and couldn't fall asleep. My mom came in and checked on me, to make sure I was breathing fine. A little while later my dad comes in and asks if I want more benadryl. Thankfully that helped knock me out until about 5:30 in the morning. Not that long after waking up again though I fell asleep on my own. It's not uncommon for me to wake up once or twice in the night, but usually I just fall asleep right away.

For Tuesday I took a different medication that was one tablet per day. Plus my dad had me put on a bunch of anti-itch cream which helped a little bit. I wasn't as miserable at first, but later on in the day my hands and the pads of my feet swelled up. It hurt to move my fingers or walk (even with shoes on). Though for Tuesday night I took benadryl again along with some ibuprofen for my pain and some anti-itch cream all over my body. Next day? My face, which was the worse in terms of hives, looks normal except for a few tiny hives on my forehead. My arms are their normal paleness with one or two small hives. My fingers and foot pads are no longer swollen and they don't hurt as much (though they still hurt). Even though it didn't look as good on my thighs, waist, or top of my feet I felt a lot better.

I did this same meds from Tuesday night for Wednesday night. I slept peacefully and woke up with no pain, no itching. My face and my arms were completely normal and the hives on my thighs and top of my feet were a lot better. For most of today I felt no pain or itching sensation, but I did have some moments. So I was able to final start cleaning the garage with my dad. We got a significant chunk of work done today, and I plan on doing some more this weekend. Though it might end up that I work on Saturday from 4 to 7 at Subway, because Jordan can't make it. I need some money so I volunteered. I'm trained to work there, have a uniform, and I was a trusted, valued employee before I left for college. I'm going to put up a note saying that I can cover shifts for people up to the 22nd.

Tomorrow my dad will be taking the van I normally drive now in for a maintenance check and it'll be gone most of the day. So my mom asked me to drive her to work (Elton Gregory Middle School, Health teacher) so that I could have her car. The catch is I also have to pick her up and drive her back home. Not a bad deal. However I plan to mostly stay at home and work on my handmade christmas presents. I can't afford to get nice, individual and thoughtful gifts for my friends and family. Instead I'm creating some nice, personalized artwork that shows that I care about them. It'll probably cost me...$1 per present this way. I don't mean to be so cheap, but I don't have the money to spend. I don't even buy stuff just for me as often as I want. I let myself have $20 a month to spend on something for me, but I already spent it on art supplies.

I need to turn in for the night, it's getting awfully late. Later.

A Lack of Finals = Happiness

"Flying is learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss."
- Douglas Adams

Many of my friends despise me right now for the simple fact that I don't have any more finals to take. In fact, I only had one final to do and that was for my Intro to Drawing class. My Japanese final became optional and I decided against taking it since even if I had a perfect grade on it, my overall grade wouldn't even increase 1 percent. If I was closer to an A I would try it, but I'm at 88% so I won't be bumped up to an A. Oh well. It's not as if these are bad grades to have. I'll most likely have two A's and one B+ this term. Nothing to whine over.

Having no more finals means that after Japanese tomorrow, I have no more classes and can go home. My dad will come over tomorrow night or tonight and take me home the day after. I still need time to clean up my room after all. Next week while I am gone there will be housing people inspecting the rooms. I'm going to leave a note explaining my absence. Also I'm make it obvious which side belongs to me. That remind me, I need to e-mail my new roommate to talk to her about sleeping habits, cleanliness, etc.

In terms of assignments (other than this blog, of course) I only have to polish up today's D&S group work and my final reflective essay for D&S. Thankfully I already have a rough draft of the essay done and I just need to spend some time proofreading, correct my errors, and then turn it in. Then I have to study drills for tomorrow and that's it.

Well, I better take the time to get that work done. I plan to play video games for a little while after that to relax and let my stress ebb away. This week I haven't slept that well.

Crisis Averted, All is Good

“The man who smiles when things go wrong has thought of someone to blame it on.”
- Robert Bloch

I thought for sure when I woke up late (8:27 AM) that I wasn't going to be able to finish my bridge project for Design and Society. Not only did I miss my morning class (Japanese 101) but my alarm didn't go off when it was supposed to. If I wasn't naturally a morning person, I could have very well missed class entirely. I got off my butt and started my oatmeal water, but after that it was crazy. I finished the bridge at about 8:50 AM. It was really close though in my mind. I wasn't sure how much time it would take me to finish the bridge, but even though I slept in I barely got two hours of sleep. The night before when I did a bunch of work on the bridge I was going off of four hours of sleep. I really need to stop doing that.

Hopefully my study group still meets up today even though I wasn't in class. I'm also hoping that they were in class today and can tell me what went down. With the written final tomorrow, I'm cutting it close. Tonight I should study at least an hours worth on grammar and カタカナ. My participation grade isn't as good as it could be. Last I checked it was just under an A, so a high B. Plus they will factor in my quizzes and my finals. I'm nervous about this.

Not to mention I have to put together my art portfolio and finish up my sketchbook for my Intro to Drawing class. Oh, and critic my final in class tomorrow for Art as well. I'm fairly confident I'm getting an A in that class, and an A in Design and Society. I won't be ashamed though if I get less than that. My eldest brother Jimmy has gotten B's before in college and he's always been smarter and better than me.

Well it's almost time for me to head off to my study group. I'm hoping that I can convince them to meet on Friday, Saturday and Sunday as well for final prep studying (our oral exam). Also I need to chose my partner for the final, and I think I'll get stuck with Hannah Hector, who has a bit of a speech problem. I love that girl, but she isn't so great on speaking. She's shy to boot which makes it hard to perform in front of others. I'll help her as best as I can. I want her to do well.

The Beginning of the End

"I refuse to answer that question on the grounds that I don't know the answer."
- Douglas Adams

Thanksgiving was a blast. It was the best Thanksgiving I've ever had. I woke up really tired at about 7am, but I somehow managed to get up the stairs and stagger to the couch. Only upon reaching the couch did I collapse. Mom chuckled a bit at that before asking me if I wanted some eggs for breakfast. I was totally for that.

She went to ask my Aunt Kathy (we were at her place in West Morland of Portland) about eggs and breakfast. I overheard part of their conversation which was about bread (the lack of it) and what to do. Mom suggested that she would make some simple biscuits for us. I've never had her biscuits before so I was a bit excited. My mom is a pretty dang good cook and the few things she bakes usually turn out good in my book. A little under half an hour later I'm lead by my nose into the kitchen to have a biscuit with butter and honey. BAM! The flavor, warmth, and texture all about killed me in the greatness of it all! It was so yummy I ate at least 12 biscuits (far too many). Mom went on to make a big breakfast of eggs with my Aunt Kathy cooking up some bacon. All in all, the start of Thanksgiving day was superb. I give it 10 stars out of 5.

Of course after breakfast I went on to check my e-mail, livejournal, deviantart, and play my games. All the while I could hear kitchen sounds from my Mom and Aunt Kathy's hard work at cooking us our Thanksgiving dinner. I enjoyed playing Castaway Stories, a sim game that is not as graphics intense and thus can be played on the family laptop. Playing any version of the Sims is very fulfilling to me. It's a game simulation of life (with some fantasy elements) that plays a bit like playing with a dollhouse. I prefer playing the Sims 2 + expansions over the Stories version of the game, simply because it has more variety and things to do. Being able to have zombies, werewolves, plantsims, witches, etc. is a ton of fun!

Anyways, more family began showing up around 1 in the afternoon. First my Uncle John (Aunt Kathy and my Dad's brother), then my eldest brother Jimmy, and then my cousin Matt came back from shopping. By then the dinner was ready and waiting to be feasted upon. We gobbled it all down and ate far to much, just as tradition dictates! Mashed potatoes, gravy, and moist turkey were my favorite parts. The rolls and peas and carrots were good as well, but I didn't nearly eat as much. We just sat around the table and talked for a good half hour after finished our food. It was that good.

It was really nice however when we found out that my mom and Aunt Kathy didn't have to work as hard to pull it off. This makes me happy because I understand how tough it is to cook and get the timing down, so when it's a bit easier on them I'm all for it. For one, it means more Thanksgiving dinners! Possibly an excellent Christmas dinner to look forward to as well.

Thanksgiving of course reminded me that we have another holiday coming up soon. Christmas will be here before we know it! But that also means I need to find good gifts...or make great ones! I plan on making a 5" x 6" rectangle of watercolor paper with a watercolor drawing of their favorite animal using only their favorite color. On the back I'll put an inspirational or witty quote, along with a few personal words and a signature. I think it's a wonderful gift for everyone. I did spend money on Erin's gift, but I used my own birthday money to do that. Erin's my best friend and I don't mind spending some cash on her. Especially when I know she's tighter with her money than I am.

Well, I've got to scrounge up something for supper. Perhaps a turkey sandwich will do... I love turkey sandwiches.