4 days till Christmas

I turned 20 today!

I had a nice, low key birthday. I had Becky and Yining over. We went
and saw King Kong. I liked King Kong a LOT. It definitely was well
done. It was a bit long, though, but good none-the-less.

For my birthday I got a new stereo, two horse calendars (I like
calendars and you can never have too many!), M&M candy dispenser
(it's pretty cool), time to go see HP in iMax theater, Message edition
of the Bible, horse night light (it's like a stain glass type),
homemade wine, chocolate, cute PJs, and some other stuff.

The new stereo was nice. I've missed my ol' stereo since it died on me.
It died a few months ago. The CD changer inside doesn't work. It'll
play CDs, but it won't change or eject CDs. Everything else on it
works, though! It was sad. It was at LEAST 5-6 years old, though. I
got its use out.

I like all my gifts!

It will be weird thinking of myself as 20, though. I'm not a teenager
anymore. I suddenly feel old in some way. I dunno. Oh well. Can't go
back and I have no regrets!

Oh, work...goodness...I'm gonna die or something. Work has been SO
stressful lately! I'm starting to get a headache just THINKING about
it. Customers haven't been too bad, yet. I'm thinking tomorrow and
Friday are going to be hell days. People are going to be stressed to
find a gift and we won't have something. *rolls eyes* We are selling a
lot though, which is kind of surprising. With gift cards and on-line
shopping, I figured we wouldn't sell as much, but we are. People still
like that personal touch, apparently. There's not too many funny
stories. Mostly they're customers who are being dumb. There have been
some really nice customers I've liked though and some odd ones, but
it's been pretty good. I'll write up some stories lately. I'm tired.

All for now.

8 Days till my 20th birthday
12 days till Christmas

I'm DONE with this semester!!! YAY!!! I'm FINISHED! It feels SO nice! 6 weeks of NO school.

Grades so far:
SBS: A
Chem lab: A+

Guesses:
Chem: A+
SL: A
ASL: A
HPWE: A+

I'm hoping for a nice 4.0 this semester. We'll see if it works or not. So far, I have almost a 96% in ASL. I'm still missing my iMovie/Mask assignment which is worth a lot so we'll see what I get on that and if it'll change my grade. The last time I looked at my grade in HPWE it was an A+. I was short 3 points from a perfect and since then, depending on my paper, I still was short those 3 points. She gives an A+ at 96% or something. Chem, going into the final, I had 72 extra points. The final was worth 130 points. PLUS she grades on a curve. So who knows what I'll get now. I don't see why I shouldn't get an A in SL too. I've been doing well on all the assignments. So, there we go. My hope is a 4.0 with a few A+'s.

All for now!

I'm hoping this is easier to read than the other picture I had. I had a mostly white background one, but white is the new blinder and it was voted not to put it up.

2 days till I'm done with this semester
10 days till my 20th birthday
14 days till Christmas

YAY!!! So...Classes...I'm finished with my SBS class. I have an A in the class! I'm done with my health class. Dunno what I got in it though. I'm assuming an A. Finished with that class last Tuesday. I'm done with ASL. My teacher got really sick so he can't come in tomorrow or Tuesday to give our exit dialogues. So I turned in my ASL video tonight and I have to turn in a hard copy "self-grade" sheet and then I'm finished. I've finished my take home SL final. So tomorrow I go to class, turn that in and sit and watch some presentations. Tuesday is my Chem final and then I'm FINISHED!!! It feels so good to be almost done. I swore I thought I was going to die from this semester. I've been so stressed out lately.

I gotta try and sell back some books tomorrow. I'm hoping they'll take all my books I bought this semester. Most of them aren't textbooks, but more like non-fiction stuff. We'll see if they do or not. I won't get a whole lot back for them, but it's better than nothing! I'm going to try and put my old Chem textbook up on half.com too. Though it's an old edition of a book now. Who knows. Anything is better than nothing!

I'm working Thursday, Friday, and Saturday this week. Some how my GM found out that I might get out of school early this week. I don't know HOW she found out about that. She called me and asked if I could work any extra days this week. I told her Thursday. So I get to work 12-7pm on Thursday, 4pm-12:30am Friday, and 1-9pm on Saturday.

I'm done with my Christmas shopping too! Yay for me!

Whelps, that's all for now. Write more some other time.

8 days till I'm done with the Fall of 2005
15 days till my 20th birthday
19 days till Christmas

I'm going to survive this semester, I'm going to survive this semester, I'm going to survive this semester...So far I'm keeping up with everything. I'm looking more towards next week than this week! The only thing I'm dreading for next week is my 10 minutes of signing with my ASL professor. That's going to be the LONGEST 10 minutes of my life.

So far, I've got an A in every class. Who knows after this week though. I've some more major assignments due in various classes. The only classes I'm worried about is ASL and SBS. I'm borderline right now in SBS (almost a 92%) and I have almost a 95% in ASL, but he hasn't entered in 3 grades yet. Those are 3 BIG grades too (not including our iMovie which is worth two assignments and is due Wednesday and Friday).

I've also maintained a 2-3 am bedtime since last Thursday, too. I'm partially up so late because of homework and the other one is because I'm so stressed out and worried I just can't fall asleep. It's the pits.

Any ways, gotta go work on some homework. Going to try and go to sleep around 1 am tonight. I have class tomorrow at 10am.

This looks to be the new background picture I'm going to use, unless I find time to put the other one I wanted. It's not up because it was just too hard to find a quick font color that you could still read without straining to read. It had a lot of alternating between white and dark brown/black. I like this picture though. I might try to find a better font color than white, but for now the white will have to suffice. It takes way too much time finding a font that works.

I, also, took off the flooble comments-message thing. I figured I'm never going to redo the flooble thing so I'd take it off. I ended up with a ton of room to the right of the screen now.

HAPPY DECEMBER!

I'm working on changing the background of this here site. I'm fiddling with various pictures. I'm kind of tired of "Sky Song" too. I've only had it up almost since day 1 (that was over two years ago, mind you). I'll probably use some more digitalblasphemy.com pictures. I LOVE the stuff ("Sky Song" is a digitalblasphemy.com picture). I'm a member of digitalblasphemy now so I can get some cool pictures. I figured I've been downloading his pictures for years, I might as well go for the $25 a year and be a member. I haven't regretted it!

I'll probably do a Christmas theme. My first try called "Morning Star" didn't look as nice it should. The text and one banner takes away from the overall picture.



That's the picture with a size adjustment.

So, if you one day come on here and don't see a picture, see a different one, or a different one the next day it's because I'm fiddling with the background.

Happy end of November! Or 1st of December (depending on your time zone).

The countdowns begin...

12/13 days left of school
21 days till my 20th birthday
25 days till Christmas

The 12/13 days of school depends on when I take my finals. I either will be done with finals on Monday December 12th or Tuesday December 13th. There's a rumor that my Chem teacher might let us take our final a day early. Also, if I get to do my ASL exit dialogue on Monday or Tuesday. Come to think of it, I don't even know if I have a final in my HPWE class...*shrugs* If I did, that'd also be Tuesday. So who knows. I'll find out next week (end of) if I get out Monday or Tuesday.

Okay, to update on my end of the semester. I survived this week. I worked my butt off for two days on Thanksgiving break. Now I've gotta somehow work out all my assignments for next week and work 2.25 days. I have a two-hour meeting on Sunday night along with my normal hours at work.

What I have due next week:
Monday - Democratic Participation Paper (SBS), Book review essay (SBS), Demo #4 (ASL), Journal 9 essay (SL)
Tuesday - Wellness Plan Paper (HPWE), Chem lab (Chem)
Wednesday - Bird 9 (ASL), Mask of Benevolence discussion (ASL), On-line portfolio (SBS), Dorothy's Presentation (SL)
Thursday - Lab? (Chem)
Friday - Mask of Benevolence iMovie (ASL)

I have a ton of projects and such and have I really started working on ANY of them? Nah. Starting to write my Wellness Plan Paper and Democratic Participation Paper (DPP). I don't need to do any reading or a whole lot of thinking on my wellness plan paper. My DPP takes a bit of research for, but it's mostly free form too. What's next worrying me is my iMovie for ASL. I have yet to finish the reading for it...Also my book review for SBS. The SBS one is easier though. I have to make 4 comments on the reading and 5 questions. I can kind of fib around on it. The only assignments that aren't such a BIG deal to me is my chem lab and KIND of my SL journal 9. Everything else is either a "final" or HUGE part of my grade. Kind of scares me.

Any ways, off to work on homework.

UGH!!!!

So...I went to go register for my classes tonight since today is the first day I can register, well! My ASL 202 class, my LAST semester of ASL, it's FULL. I checked like a week or two ago and there were 3 people registered for it. Now it's a full 30. I'm SO upset! I can't believe this! I'm going to have to check daily and like twice or trice a day now to wait for someone to drop and a spot opens up. I'm fairly sure a spot will open. There's a few months till Spring starts.

On other register notices, I decided to drop my Nature Photography class and take Calc III (Multivariable Calc). I decided just to go for it. I can take my art almost anywhere and anytime. I wasn't very partial to this particular class too. So next semster I'm HOPING to take ASL 202, Bio I and Lab, Stat 250, and Calc III. That'll be a solid 16 units. I was thinking of just going for the 20 units and doing Nature Photography, but I dunno if I can handle another 19-20 unit this semester. 2 math classes, bio, ASL 202, and photography just don't strike my fancy. I'm probably going to go for a 20 unit in the fall of 06, though. Gotta challenge somewhere and after a nice calm 16 and a summer I should be ready then.

On totally different news, I've seen Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire twice now! Saw it at 12:01am on Friday and 1pm on Sunday. Excellent the first time and 2nd time I saw it. Now I'm waiting for Narnia to come out!

Think that's all for now!

How is it...an Asian band called "Twelve Girls Band" now has 13 girls in it?

3 more days till HP comes out!

8 more days till Harry Potter: GOF movie!

Candy is my friend...*eats sour patch kids*

Btw...I bought my HP 12:01am ticket already! YAY! Movie comes out the 18th of November!

Btw, have I mentioned that I've seen almost 20 minutes of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire? I don't mean those TV Spot commercial ones or trailers. I mean REAL clips of the movie! I'm SO excited for the movie to come out! Reminds me, I need to buy my 12:01am tickets...Yes, I am going to try and see it at the midnight premier!

See, it all worked out! The 17th of Nov is my last class before Thanksgiving break. I get out of class around 1pm (probably sooner because we have a test in Chem that day and it'll take me about 1.5 hours and class starts at 10am). I can go to the theatre and stand in line (yes, I'm going to go REALLY early...need good seats!) and then I can watch the movie at 12:01am. Get out around 3am (movie is 154 minutes long). Go home, sleep until 2pm. Get up, go to work at 3pm! I work Fri from 3pm-11:30pm, Sat (normally) at 1pm-9pm. Sunday is church. Monday is...Thanksgiving break! No school that week. So I don't have to worry about getting homework done or anything! It all works out...

I'm thinking if I can convince my former Calc teacher to move the multivariable calculus (aka Calc III) to MW at 10am I'll go for the minor. I can't tell him "move the class from TTH at 4pm" and NOT take the class! It'd be kind of nice if he did because I'll have 3 classes on MW (10am-12pm, 12pm-2pm, and 8pm-10pm) and then only 1 class on T (8:25am-9:50am) and 2 on TH (8:25am-9:50am and 2pm-4:50pm). I'm wanting to have ONE day in the week open so I can leave that option open for work and take Sundays and Saturdays off from work. Course, I'm thinking in GENERAL on working one day a week next semester or fewer hours in a day. I don't know. I'm finding I get all these opportunities to do things, but I just DON'T have time to do them! I'm kind of tired of telling people, "I'll see if my schedule allows it." Either that, or I'm just tired in general. I'm still trying to figure out, though, what I want to do. I still need to get my art in somewhere. I'd either do it in the winter at MPC or the summer at MPC. I'd also like to take speech at MPC instead of CSUMB. I'm still trying to get out in 4 years if I go for the minor. If I decide to take the extra Policy classes though, I'm gonna shoot for 4.5 years. We'll see though. LOTS more time to decide all this since I can't even register for classes until the 21st of November!

I'm currently signed up for ASL 202 (my last and 4th semester of it), Stat 250 (statistics), Bio I (that funky 8:25am class and 3 hr lab), and a TTH photography of nature class (my art on TTH 10am-12pm). I dunno if I'll take off the photography of nature and do multivariable calc instead or not. Depends!

HAPPY NOVEMBER!

So...I got a 100/100 on my ASL iMovie (yay!) and a 100/100 on my ASL dialogue from last night (yay!) and a 90/100 on my ASL demo/story (yay!). I've got a 94% in ASL! YAYAYAYAYA!!!

2nd...I got a 94/100 on my Chem II test (yay). Not as high as I'd like, but it's STILL good. I've still got a nice A+ in the class.

¡HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

The picture below is the Mugglenet fan art contest winner (Sharon Young) and I absolutely love this picture.



This one is the runner-up winner (Sarah Sheehan) of the same contest. Another great picture!



If only I could draw as well as these two people...

As for school...nothing really new. I haven't decided what to do about the math minor. I have a few more months to decide, though. As for last week (my CRAZY week), I survived! About died by the end of it though. Still haven't gotten ANY grades for what I did last week, though. I dunno...maybe I don't want to know...We're getting to the point in Sign Language where we're starting to make-up a lot of our own stories and such. Scares the dickens out of me because I'm NOT good in making up SHORT stories especially in another language! I just hope my next one is better...

Work is going good. We're getting ready for Christmas, yes, already. Tomorrow the Christmas decorations are going up! We're promoting Robert Sabuda's newest pop-up book. He's an AMAZING pop-up illustrator/designer, but our store is going to look like you walked into some white/glittery fairy book or something. We have all these 3-D designs and stuff that are going up all over the store. 3-D snow flakes, 3-D snowman that has something move on him, 3-D doved "popping" out of a sign, 3-D penguins ice skating, etc. It'll be interesting. Our GM wants to start the Christmas music now too. *cringes* I have no love for Christmas music now...after you hear it for 2 months...Let's hope we can get her to put it off for a few more weeks. I dunno, though. Christmas books and music have already come into the store. Oh well, I suppose.

Well, must go off and do some homework. Laters

So...I was thinking of NOT doing the math minor because multi-variable calculus wasn't going to be offered in the Spring, well...Come to find out, Heath (my calc I and II prof) might be teaching multi-variable calculus in the Spring, any ways! I've always said that if he teaches multi-variable calc I'd take it (in the fall, that was), but he didn't. Now I find out he is! I don't know what to do now! Do I double-major? Or do a minor? Or do neither? I need to find out, though, if I need to do double-Service Learning and double-capstone if I do decide to do a double-major. If I don't, it's only 4 more classes I'd have to take to get a double-major, which I'm being told is the best way to go. I might end up taking multi-variable calculus any ways, but I'll decide this all tomorrow (some way or another) when I talk to Celeste.

That is all for now!

Top of October to ya!

So...I'm working on a ton of projects and papers for my various classes. They're all due somewhere towards the end of October. I'm ACTUALLY trying to do things ahead of time...what a novelty, considering I waited until today and yesterday to start an outline for my SBS class book discussion. 320 page book, in two days! My outline, 1.5 spacing is 18 pages long...The requirement? 7. Oh well

So get this...Spring 2006 class schedule is already up. I can't register, yet, of course, but I don't even know what to take! I am thinking, now, of double majoring. Marine and Coastal Ecology, is my primary major, but I was thinking of doing an emphases on Environmental Policy, but they turned it into a Concentration, so now I'm thinking of double majoring and tossing out the math minor. If I do the minor or the 2nd major, I'm going to have to take another semester worth of classes, either 3 (for math) or 4 (for 2nd major). I'm going to need to do some summer classes, here...or start packing on the units. I'm on schedule to graduate in 4 years with just one major and nothing else, though. That's a good thing! I'll decide, sometime, on what I want to do. If I decide to do both those majors, they're so closely related, I'm sure I could pull it off. I'll have to talk to Celeste, sometime.

Any other news...Hrm...not much! I still can't wait till Goblet of Fire comes out! All for now.

Happy end of September! (since I forgot to say Happy September... )

My update...well...school is going...I'm swamped in assignments and projects that are coming up this week. It's a pain. I have a project due a week from this Tuesday. And another one due 2 weeks from tomorrow and another one due 2 weeks from this Thursday. I'm...slowly getting behind. I have my first chem test this Tuesday...*sighs* It's just been crazy for me. Going into my 5th week, though. My, how time flies...

On top of school...I got sick! Two weeks ago tomorrow I came down in a small cold. No one could tell I had a cold, but I just felt slow and like I had a cold. Had a small sore throat, sniffling, stuffy head, not much. It went away by last Sunday and I felt fine that. Well, Mon night or Tuesday I got that sore throat back again! And it came back with a VENGENCE! It's a sore throat I've never felt before. It hurt to swallow or eat. My mom looked at my tonsils on Thursday afternoon and told me my tonsils were really swollen and they had white patches on them. I could tell by looking at my throat in the car that they were swollen and that's saying something because I can never tell usually. I felt yucky still on Friday so she basically said you're going into the doctor today. Called and got me an appointment at 2:50pm, which wasn't a GOOD time because I had work at 3pm, but my boss basically waived me being late because I was going to the doctors. I saw the doctor and explained what was wrong. So she went to go get one of those wooden spoon type things to help hold my tongue down and got a light. She didn't have to look long. When she looked at me she looked kind of startled. She's all "I didn't even need this (the wood thing)" and then said "well, I can understand why you're having trouble eating!" She said that my right tonsil had a bacterial build-up on it and they were splotchy. She wanted to do a strep test to see if I had strep throat. She did and I was negative on the test so she gave me antibiotics, a solution to gargle (it's part lidocain (sp?) to help numb the pain), and 600mg motrin to help with the swelling and pain. Now, I must say, that over-the-counter motrin is 200mg and you can't exceed 6 pills in 24 hours. I have to take a 600mg motrin every 6 hours! I also have to take an antibiotic every 12 hours. It's been loads of fun. I've been waking myself up at 6:30-40am to take my antibiotic and motrin. I get a little funny feeling from the motrin, but it's hardly even noticeable. So...yes...feel sorry for me! It hurts to eat, talk, and drink. I've come to the conclusion...warm/cold/plain liquids (i.e. water/hot water) and popsicles are my best friends! Anything solid such as hard bread, taco shells, big pieces of food swallowed aren't fun. I have to chew everything to a pulp or it hurts going down. I have a new found sympathy for people with strep throat...! Or my brother when he had his tonsils out!

Oh! On Thursday I went into the eye doctor. I'm getting new glasses. They're not frameless. They have a frame on the top, none on the bottom, but it's like a light gold and they're more oval or smaller in general than my glasses now. They're Vera Wang too...LoL. *rolls eyes* It's going to be like night and day compared to my glasses now. The doctor said that my eyes moved up a whole new strength. My eyes are gonna hurt some when I get them, though, but I'll be too happy to see! I'll be able to read the boards at school without squinting! I'm excited...!

So, yeah, I'm being the expensive child this year. Mole removed, orthodics, new glasses, my whole throat thing. All I need to do is go see the dentist and hope no cavities! That'll be some other time though. To think, all this and I'm not even 20, yet...I'm fallin' apart!

I spent $212.81 on books, so far, this semester. I'm still missing one book. I can't remember if I ordered it from work...or if I couldn't or what...I just realized I'm missing it too...any ways...It's $233.73 less than I spent last semester! Yay for me! My first semester still holds the record of the least I spent, but...considering I only had 3 books that sem (1 txt book, answer guide book, and hardback non-fiction book) it's kind of hard to compare. I have to have 11 NEW books this semester, but I own one of them already so I've only had to buy 10 new books. The thing that REALLY helps...is my Chemistry book, with that included it makes 12 books total. But I get to use my chem book from last semester so I'm saving myself $154.

Well...for my chem class...the prof seems to be good. I've heard good things and bad things about her, so who knows what it's going to be like. She seems to be a bit more organized though. Though...I get a feeling her class is going to be a lot of "figure it out on your own" type. She's a geochemist so...who knows. She also talked for a HALF HOUR on nuclear weapons and radioactive stuff..

My health (HPWE) class isn't that bad. The prof told us in the beginning of the class that she's known to ramble on about stuff, but she always gets back to her main point. Well...it's true! She started off on spirtual wellness (not specifically religon) and then ended on extra credit and picking up trash on the beach...yet, they all had to do with each other, but she just kind of took a long about way. *shrugs* To say the least...it's gonna be my easiest class and probably somewhat boring.

So that was yesterday...

Today...I had a harsh day...I got a mole cut from my inner-thigh today. I have 6 stitches! So...I can't say I've never had stitches now. *shrugs* It hurts a little and tugs on my leg, but it's not bad. She cut it off because it looked a little irregular. I have one on my calve on the outside, but she didn't seem concerned. She numbed my leg and cut it out. I didn't even feel her cutting it at all...and when she finally cut it out and took it off I felt this blood running down my leg. It was interesting I guess. I go in a week from this Friday to get the stitches removed and they should have the "lab work" on the mole back then too.

Whelps...all for now. I gotta go rest before I go to class.

Oh...quick reference to my classes and what I'm taking...

Total Units: 19

Monday: SBS (history and democratic participation), SL (service learning, community service and class discussions), ASL (American Sign Language, lvl 201 (3rd sem of ASL))

Tuesday: Chem 2, HPWE (general fitness/nutrition class...it's all written, no activities)

Wednesday: SL, ASL (I have SBS this day, but it's on-line work)

Thursday: Chem 2

Friday: NOTHING, but work

Whelps...I didn't get to switch my ASL classes His 6pm is FULL. So...I'll have classes on M and W from 12-2, 2-4, and 6-8...Oh well...I guess. I'd rather have gone 6 hours in a row, but I can do homework and practice and such before class, which can be nice.

I'm pretty happy at Mo too. He's ORGANIZED and he's funny and he just seems to really want to make sure we understand him. It's such a relief after my last ASL prof. I'm kind of looking foreward to the semester with him now. I'm still a bit nervous about how much I know and don't know, but I think he'll really work with us to help us. So...I'm not as scared as I was yesterday or earlier today!

Tomorrow I have class from 10am-1pm, and 3:30-6:30pm. Funny...Monday I have 3 classes to attend, Tuesday 2 classes to attend, Wednesday 2 classes to attend, Thursday 1 class to attend, and Friday no classes to attend. Like I said before, my SBS only meets once a week.

Any ways, that's all for now. I have homework to do!

UGH!!! Reminder to self: Mondays and Wednesday bring a snack of some sort to eat. I'm HUNGRY, but I'm too lazy to walk all the way over to the middle of campus and all the way back here under an hour. So...thus...I sit in the "sitting area" of this building waiting for the class I want to add to start in a half hour, now. If I can't add this class then I'll go get some food on campus. I don't think I can go till 6pm on essentially a Boost all day, which is just a nutritional drink.

I have to say I'm really happy that I'm spending less money on books this year! The only really expensive book is my new Chem book, which I'm still trying to get out of having, but we'll see. I have to go back to work this week and pick up the books I ordered and a new book for my service learning class. I have to get _Guns, Germs, and Steel_ by Jared Diamond. I'm SO thankful I work at a bookstore...*shakes head*

My first two classes so far have gone well. My history (SBS 212) class should be interesting. The class is to be taught looking at different perspectives on history from 1900 to 2000. She's...kind of radical in her thinking. Basically assuming all of us college students does drugs, drinks, and has lots of sex. Also the assumption that we think history is a pointless class compared to math. Which, funny enough, everything she said that we don't do walking around in the world I sometimes do. So...proves to her that I'm NOT the average student. The nice thing about the class...Is Mondays we are in-class and Wednesdays is no class. Part of the class is on-line and part is face-to-face. I have to do two hours a week of on-line discussion stuff. That's not too bad. The bad thing...I have to spend some ACTUAL time with a civil rights group...I have to pick a civil rights group and spend some actual time helping them or whatever. It can't be "office work" it has to be actually doing something....how weird is that? It's called...well...I forgot what's it's called, but it'll be interesting, none-the-less.

My other class, Service Learning (SL) 200S (disease & environment) shall also be interesting. It's basically some random class-time spent on biology, quizzes, etc and I ALSO have to do 30 hours for the semester of community service, if you wanna call it that. There's pre-ordained places, unfortunately. I'm kind of nervous on the 30 hours that I have to do and the places they have picked. The places are Natividad Hospital, Dorothy's Hospitality Suite, and 3 places that have to do with AIDS or needle exchange. To say the least, this class looks really interesting, but really time consuming.

I hate to say it, but I'm going to be SO happy when this semester is over. It looks like a lot of my classes are going to be time consuming and a LOT of reading. I mean, my SBS class has 5 required books for it. One of them we're only going to go through about half of it, but still! My SL class has one book, which isn't too bad. Of course there's Chemistry, which will be lots of studying time. My ASL class which will be hell on earth, unless I somehow really like Mo and don't kill myself. Lastly, there's my health (HPWE 161) class. Which looks really easy. Hopefully...I dunno...19 units and a lot of community service time, who knows what the heck is going to happen to me the rest of this semester. I'm just glad it's only one semester and not the whole year!

Whelps, for now...that's all. I'll update if I get into the 4pm ASL class or not or whatever else I learn about ASL...The one class I'm not looking foreward to taking.

Happy August!

School starts two weeks from tomorrow... I need to get my new books and to sell back my old ones, which I haven't done...yet... I am NOT looking forward to starting school again. I don't know why, but I'm not. If I had to guess why I think it's ASL. I'm just tired of taking a foreign language for school. *sighs* I think it's also effected from my teacher last semester. Oh well. I think I also just want OUT of college. I guess that kind of happens for any level of school. You just want done with that level to move to the next one.

I attended a family wedding yesterday down in San Diego. We went to my grandparents on Wednesday in Anaheim. I read 5 books from Wed-today and I started a new one today that I'm 100+ pages into. I just lounged around the house all day long. Didn't even go into the pool because I was so lazy! The wedding on Saturday was good and it was nice to see family and such.

Not much else is really happening. I'm still working full-time at work. Everything has been pretty good overall. Write more when something interesting happens.

Oh, btw, my new favorite British word is "snogging." Though, I suppose, I don't get to use it in context anywhere much at all, but it just makes me laugh everytime I hear it. I guess the book kind of did that too...gotta admit there's some funny humor in the book!

Okay...OKAY...I'm SORRY...I haven't updated this in well over a month! I've been nagged about it too, but I've just been too lazy to update.

So...my NEW news...comes to...NOTHING! Just working, volunteering at the aquarium, reading books, and lounging around the house. I was going to write all my lovely stories about work, but there's just too many and it'd take forever in a day to write them and not everyday I get interesting/grumpy/rude customers. So...bypassing all of that....

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is WONDERFUL. I finished it yesterday (Sunday). I promise not to give any spoilers. I worked the release of the book. I worked till 2am on Saturday and had to be back at work at 3pm on Sat. I didn't fall asleep till around 4am and slept SOLID till 1pm. What really did me in for getting the book done in less than 2 days was...I stayed up till the wee hours of the night last night. 5am! I closed Sat too, so...I didn't get home till around midnight.

The book is excellent, but there's a few things I'm pondering about and obviously I have that feeling of things are unresolved, obviously. Can't wait till the 7th and last one comes out in 2 years! Till then...I'm going to reread the the 6th book, again, to see if I missed anything and then go back and reread 1-5 in order with 6th as the last one to see if I can see anything new. I am slightly confused on the so-called connection between the 2nd book (Chmaber of Secrets) and this book. I see it and I don't. Maybe I made it into a bigger thing then it was, but none-the-less it is time to start figuring out new things and new ponderings of what will happen.

As for the release night it was...NUTS...I went in my "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good" t-shirt and my HP scarf that my mom made me (which looked REALLY good). I had to be at work at 6pm and activities started at 9pm. The activities were crazy...I'm glad I wasn't in our kids area because it was just PACKED with kids. I got a lot of posters from various books (The Eldest, by Christopher Paolini comes out in the end of Aug and that poster is pretty cool!). They were pretty cool activities, but it was hard to do with so many kids. At 11pm we kicked everyone out and had them line up for the release. My mom and I had gotten tickets at 9am (when the store opened) and we were numbers 62-64! This guy camped out in front of the store last night...he got to the store at a quarter till 5am! Our workers don't even come in till 5am M-F!! He was nuts... Though we had 62-64 in our numbers, it only took us about 15 minutes to get our tickets. Each ticket represents one book and some people had reserved more than one copy. When we reopened the store we actually blocked off the rest of the store and had tape on the floor so people would "flow" in a line the right way. We had all 6 registers open (I worked at one of them) and we had 3 people handling books/tickets. 1 person to punch their tickets, one to put the ticket with the "reserve" sticker facing up on the book, 1 person to get the books from the boxes. The customer would bring their books to us and we'd check them out. We went through 400-500 people in a little over an hour! It was unbelievable how fast and seemless the process was. People were complimenting us on how well it went compared to book 5, which I hear was a DISASTER and people were at the store way past 3am. In that 24 hrs we sold about 1,000 books.

Whelps...I believe that's it! I shall waddle along to bed now since I work tomorrow (or today, I suppose) at 1pm. Hope everyone is doing well!

HAPPY GRADUATION TO THE CLASS OF 2005

Oh, so I went to Monterey High's 100th graduating class. The school has been around since 1905. The mayor of Monterey, who also happens to be an alumni of Monterey, proclaimed today is Celebration of Monterey High Graduates Day. *shakes head* Big deal for Monterey! It was an overall nice graduation. Lots of jumping, hugging, moving and such from the graduating class. MY class wasn't that jittery at ours. *shrugs* Oh well. It was still nice. I saw a lot of people I haven't seen in a year so that was nice. It also brought back memories of my graduation. The walking to get your diploma...the sitting, etc.

My grades so far...are all A's except one B (from Chem). I still don't have my ASL grad yet. And...I was able to register for a class I really wanted for the fall! I just happened to check the class schedule today to see if there were spots open in that class and there was TWO! So I went and instantly registered for it. I'm excited...

For now...that is all my news.

Another story. This one is from Wednesday

This lady called us and I picked it up. I ended up being on the phone with her for at least 20 minutes if not more. Why? She was going through all her VHS tapes and was trying to get them all on DVD. And I mean she wanted the exact ones. Like...she wanted Miracle on 34th street in COLOR on DVD and they only make it in B&W on DVD. It was a nightmare....because I had to switch programs to see if the DVD was in color or B&W and then to make sure we had the right actors or actresses for each movie. *rolls eyes*

Oh...I have to say this one...it's just...interesting...Happened a few days or so ago

Grumpy/weird customer in our cafe.

So I'm over in our PaperChase area (gifts and stationary) and I walk by our cafe because I was a little bored and Paul asks where Nate is...I tell him I don't know and then points at this older lady in a white t-shirt saying she's "crazy" and she just spilled a bunch of coffee all over the place. So I tell Paul just to find Nate himself and we find Nate and Nate's talking to these two guys and these two guys are complaining about Paul with the lady Paul was talking about about 3 feet away from them. When you look at this lady...she has coffee spilled all down her front...and it's a white shirt so you NOTICE it.

This is Paul's side of the story:
The lady ordered a latte. He made it for her and she drank about half of it and wanted a refill. He explained to her that it's 50 cents for a refill...she did some complaining thing and eventually she got her refill. In this moment...Paul went to help another customer and she spilled the coffee down her front and was running to the bathroom. She comes back...takes the rest of the coffee that's in the cup and throws it at Paul, complains, and then takes her cup and walks away...

The two guys said that Paul should have put a lid on the coffee and that she burned herself and Paul was rude and giving bad customer service...Nate's response...we don't PUT lids on our coffee because of the whole McD's thing with the coffee and the lid wasn't on all the way and someone went to drink their coffee and it spilled and burned them. Nate just basically ignored the two guys and telling the employees it wasn't Paul's fault (he's the nicest guy) and that the lady wasn't acting in her right mind...a little out of it. She stayed in our store with coffee spilled down her front to read and even asked Nate what she was suppose to do with a coffee stained shirt...*rolls eyes* Nate said "Go home and change?"

So yeah, that was exciting when that all happened...

Happy June!

I should write all my work stories into here (the ones that are PG). It'd be funny and a good way to record them all.

So...Tonight's story of the night....

A dog. A dog that just WANDERED into our store. A dog that was lost and REALLY friendly.

So this dog walked into our store (someone must have let it in) and was wandering around our store. It decided it liked our cafe and went and sat in the seating area with some of our customers. Of course, it being a cafe, that's not sanitary. So we litterally dragged the dog out of the cafe and got it onto the carpeting area and the sat sat/laid down with one of our employees (she had to watch the dog to make sure they didn't go back into the cafe). It was almost an hour that this dog was just chillin' in our store. We called animal control (no one ever came), we had customers who would adopt the dog, we had employees that would take the dog home for a night. The dog was super friendly. Kind of looked like a Golden Lab, but it wasn't. One of the employees was calling all the stores around us (Target, Ross, Pets Mart, Boston Market, Burger King (yes, BK), etc) to ask them to announce over the PA that we had a dog at our store and to please come and get them. We also called the number on the dog's tag, but it was for the Arizona Humane Society and the place was closed. Then...one of our customers LET the dog out of our store. We couldn't really do anything so...the dog went outside. We don't know where the dog went. Then...disaster hit...The owners came and wanted their dog about 20 minutes after the dog left! When we told them we didn't have the dog anymore they got UPSET with US! Then we found out that they were actually sitting in our store reading while their dog happened to also be in our store and the dog got out of their car because they have a "soft-covered" Jeep. *rolls eyes* For some reason...our store attracts weird things...They thought we should have kept the dog. They left the information for the dog at our information and they left. We told them to go check the other stores around us, but we don't know if they found her or not. My co-workers and I were trying our best not to get upset that they 1) left their dog untied in their car 2) that they LEFT their dog IN a car for an hour so they could read and 3) the gall that they had to get mad at us for not having their dog.

So, yes, that is the story of my night...the joy it was...

Work's kickin' my butt...I wanted this entire week and next week off to rest and stuff and to get over school so I could be "fresh" going back to work, but our staff has been cut down a lot with the end of the school year and such and I've been asked to work the rest of this week and next week. So....My last day of classes was Wednesday I worked Thurs, Fri, and Sat...and I have Sun off and then I work Mon, Tues, have Wed-Fri off (Thank GOD!) and work Sat. I'm dying....I'm SO glad I have tomorrow off. I think I'd pass out at work tomorrow if I had to work. My legs aren't use to long hours of standing and moving so they're killing me and I'm just plain tired...I come home (doesn't matter what hour) and I just go to bed and read...relax...I'm just REALLY glad I have 3 days off in a row next week there's light at the end of the tunnel and that's the thing that's really keeping me going at the moment. Though, the money won't be bad...

Any ways, thus is the reason why I haven't been on AIM or such. I've been on long enough to check e-mail and that's about it (and to write this tonight). I hope everyone is good and had a good end of the semester and for those Seniors in HS...ALMOST finished!!

SCHOOL IS OUT....SCHOOL IS OUT!!!

I think I did okay on all mmy finals. I got a 93% on my Ocean final and that's the only final I know about. I didn't go and get my atmo final or my ASL final....so I'll just have to see what my grades come out to be. Chem final was "okay." I don't think I flunked it, but I don't think I did that hot either. Math...is a shakey "okay." I HOPE I didn't flunk it! I'll find out tomorrow.

I'm tired...I'll update some more later. Not like there's much more to say...

Pics of my new dress and new face pic, I guess?

Gala/new pic/dress Link

So....Tonight...the gala...and Wednesday...CSUMB fundraiser...where to start, where to start.

Wednesday night:
Overall it went really well and I'd go again. The people I met were extremely nice and took me serious as a college student and valued my opinion and basically said by the end of the night I was very well mannered, held myself up with poise, and they were very impressed with how well I was able to articulate. One of the guys I met wrote a book, wanted to give me a copy of it, and wrote in it to me and said "with respect and admiration." Pretty good for 2 hours! More like 3, but it was over an hour of award recipients speaking and introductions of the recipients (each award recipient had someone introduce them that was a PAST award recipient and KNEW the current recipient personally. Their intros went anywhere from 2-3 minutes AND the award recipients on average went between 5-10 minutes and they were SUPPOSE to be 3 minutes! Talk about a bore...). I had an intellectual conversation with a guy at Driscoll's (sp?) strawberries about the ocean and supporting education of the oceans, another convo with him and a guy who works sat Alliance home something corp. about the type of internships students look for, and lastly with the guy who wrote the book about various things. I'd go again next year in a heartbeat! Some well named people in our community were there too. The Panettas who are well liked around here and was Clinton's chief of staff, I believe, Chef Curtino who co-founded the Sardine Factory and is on the Cannery Row Company board or something (world famous chef and NICE guy), and some other people.

Tonight:
The gala overall was fun. Things happened that don't involve me, but overall it was interesting. Case in point: Lauren and I went and got dessert. She got a plate of all the chocolate cake type, whatever, desserts, and I got a plate of all the fruit and drizzled chocolate over it. Lauren, back at our table, gets a piece of banana with chocolate on it and goes to take a bite, it falls off her fork! The banana fits the end of my dress, which is black (check the picture link above), splatters on her dress (which is mostly pink and some white), and LASTLY falls onto MY foot (which is in a strappy, black, sandal). The dresses weren't cool, mine seems to be fine (it's black), hers will live, and you really can't see the spots, but she felt bad, but it was cool. I had no issue with it...the FUNNY part...was my FOOT! It's covered in chocolate...we go to the bathroom to see to our dresses and I stick my foot into the sink (the aquarium has grown human height sinks and little kid height sinks, I put my foot into the little kid height sink) and washed my foot. Did you know that melted chocolate is pretty oily?! So yeah, that was FUNNY. Jack, well...I was suppose to go to the event on his ticket, but he couldn't come last, last minute because his parents had to go see a relative (or something) and he had to watch his sisters. He felt bad when I FINALLY got ahold of him and it seemed like he was bummed he couldn't go. I got in, though, the aquarium didn't even CHECK to see if I could or not...I had no issue getting in. I saw lots of people I knew too, which was cool. The food was like last year. It's not bad food, pretty good, dessert was good...dancing of course there was (I didn't, but lots of others did (I left early)). We were lucky, the group I was with, that we got a table! They did NOT have enough tables for everyone at the gala, it was unbelievable. People were sitting everywhere, it seemed. But again, overall it was a nice night.

So...that was my week, overall. There was some shocker news throughout the week too, but *shrugs* Life. Nothing life threatening or anything. Finals begin for me on Monday, May 9th with my ocean final being the first and that day I also have a chem exam. I gotta start studying!!

Hope everyone is well and for all of you that are OUT next week...You better be VERY sorry about it! For everyone else, hope finals go well (and for those who are finishing up).

Jamie...you suck for being out of school next week! I still love ya though.

Yeah, so, I haven't updated in a LONG time...SORRY! I've been too lazy to update my xanga and then my Internet has been a little flakey and school and stuff. *shrugs* What can I say?

It's been pretty much the norm lately. School M-F, Work F & Sat. I'm tired, I have hw, I have tests.

I didn't write about Pismo though. My family and a bunch of other family members went to Pismo. It was fun. I got quite a few mosquito bites, but only 3 of them really festered into being a problem. One on my leg is still trying to heal and we went to Pismo on the 8th! The swelling and heat on the bite is gone, but I've got this funny kind of circle/ring around the bite. *shrugs* All I know is it's healing. And the one on my arm is doin' okay. It's mostly gone, but the one on my hand scarred or something. I didn't scratch it much at all...but it swelled up into a red bunch and now it looks like it scabed over and I picked the scab off, which it never did...it's really odd...but it hasn't changed at all. *shrugs* (I know you all just WANTED to learn about my bug bites!) The other fun thing is I got to drive my brother's ATV around a little. It was lots of fun, a bit nerve racking at first since it has gears, but I finally got it and got to 2nd gear! LoL. It was fun though.

What else have I done since then...Not much else...I got an 80% on my last math test *cough* and an 81% on my last chem test *cough.* (I took those tests before I went to Pismo)I don't know what I got on my last ASL test, yet (I took it the week after Pismo). I think we find out this week. I got a 96% on my last Ocean test, which I took last week. I don't know about my atmo test yet since I don't have that class till Wednesday.

Oh! Something cool...I get to go to Monterey's National Weather Service office and Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center this Wednesday!! For a time those offices were giving the weather for Iraq. I'm pretty excited about going.

Since I'm actually in present news now....I can tell about this week!

Wednesday I'm going to a $175 dinner at CSUMB. It's called A Celebration of Community and awards 8 people in the community in different categories. I'm going because it's also a fund raising event to help to get money for the local area scholarships, which I am a recipient of. All 300 seats are taken...amazing...

The other big thing is the Aquarium's Spring Gala is this Saturday. It's been a PAIN in the rear to go to, too! So...I tried to RSVP, but I couldn't because I'm on leave. I find this out the DAY I find my dress! So I HAD to make sure I could go. I call two friends, and one of them has a guest ticket because his friend isn't able to go so I'm going on his guest ticket, but I told my friend that I wanted to take her (before I found out I couldn't RSVP), so I'm hunting around for a ticket (still, in fact). So I have the dress and a ticket, I look at my work schedule and I'm all "okay, I work my normal schedule," then it clicks in my head AFTER I left work last Saturday and Anthony (one of our managers who does ths schedule) isn't around that I'm WORKING 4pm-11:30pm on SATURDAY. I panic...call work to see if I can switch with someone and luckily enough for me...a co-worker had told me that her hours were cut way down this week so she's going to take my hours. I hate to miss the hours, but at least I got the night off! I asked for that night off, but Anthony must have forgotten, oh well. I still haven't found a guest ticket for my friend, but I'm STILL working on it! I'm up to asking 13 people now...5 of them haven't responded yet, but I BETTER have a good time this Saturday at the Gala or I'm going to be one MAD person!

Okay, I think that's all for now. Gotta go change my laundry loads, eat dinner, unload the dishwasher, and study.

Hope everyone is doin' well!! 3.5 weeks left till summer...

Oh my goodness...I have been SO busy lately! This week is absolutely crazy. I have a chem test on Wed, math test on Thurs, and a chem lab due Friday, math homework due tomorrow (my brain won't function for the homework), and I was SUPPOSE to have an ASL test this Thursday, but she was sick last week so I don't think it's this week, least I'm hopin' so! I ain't ready for it if it is. On top of it all...I'm leaving for Pismo this Friday and I have to do the questionnaires and surveys, still, for the conference. I haven't even studied math yet, and I KINDA studied for chem this last weekend at work. I'm a bit stressed. I'm more worried about getting my math hw done, atm Any ways, all for now. I'll write more later, sometime.