Bedtime story

Sometimes I get awaken in the middl of the night and can't get comfortable enough to fall asleep. Then my mind starts to wander and all bets are off. Tonight is one of those nights. My back is stiff and achy and in certain positions this muscle right above my knee twitches. So, what's on my mind tonight? When I was a kid I shared a bedroom with my brother then when I was a little older I shared one with my sister. Then she moved out and I had a bedroom all to myself until the age of 14. That's when my mom was arrested and I stayed with my friends family for a few months where I had to share a room with another foster girl. The owner of the house decided to sell so my mom had to move. She was able to find a 2 bd apt. When I moved back in, I tried to share a bed with my mom. It was such a foreign concept sleeping next to my mom. Her breathing drove me nuts. Her small movements drove me nuts. I just couldn't take it. So I decided to sleep on the couch, which was always a fight between me and my brother. My dad also lived with us, but him and my mom were seperated so he had his own room. My brother and I would argue over who would get the sofa and who would get the loveseat. Eventually we got bunk beds in the living room. That seemed to work out better. I slept on the top bunk and would tape magazine clippings to my wall. They were mostly of good looking couples from the cosmo magazine. Eventually my mom made my dad move out and I got the bedroom. I really can't remember what my brother did and that makes me feel bad. He acted out a lot and it later got us kicked out. I found us a nice 2 bd duplex. By this time I had acquired a trundle bed, so me and my mom again shared a room and my brother got the other one. My mom slept on the trundle right next to and slightly lower than my bed. I still had the same issues, breathing, slight movements, bed creaking. It drove me nuts. My mom ended up setting a bed up in the garage and making a lil bedroom out there. I feel kind of guilty about that now. When I finall decided to move out, my mom kept my bedroom how it was just in case I changed my mind. Eventually i convinced her to move in there I think. I can't quite remember. She eventually got her own room anyway when they moved to another apt and now she owns a house and has a big bedroom. But when Moved out of the duplex that started the next chapter of bedrooms. Kevin and I moved in together. That had it's own issues but we had to get over them bc we were a couple sharing the same living space. Sometimes he would kick me out to the couch though bc we would argue. Didn't happen too much until this current apt. We got a more comfy couch from a friend and now sometimes I end up going to the couch bc I can't get comfortable in bed and I feel bad for keeping Kevin up, just like tonight. It's currently almost 5:30 am. I've been trying to fall asleep for the last 2 hrs. My cats are here to snuggle me now though so I might be able to finally go to sleep. I got all this outta my head so I should be good right? Let's hope so.

comment for jessica, but also kind of an update

So I've read all your blog entries so far and am still enjoying them. The Citizen's looks SOOO nice! and I LOVE your Tiffany necklace! I can't wait for wedding stuff also. : ) To answer your question from facebook, I've been kind of negligent on my blogging. My food blog (crystalsfoodjourney.blogspot.com) has been vacant for some time. I stopped my dieting. At this point I think I've gained like 3-4lbs from it, but it could be the way my body is normally changing at this point. I don't know. I don't complain too much these days because people just tell me to shut up. I have been taking pilates at school though. It's tues/thurs from 10:30-11:50am. I've skipped two times though >.< but I really like it. My teacher mixes it up some and incorporates some yoga and some other work out moves to work the obliques and the quads and back and abs and I really feel it afterwards. Here's a simple thing you can do that was taught from my class: Imagine that your belly button really was a button on the inside and your spine has a little spot for that to be button. So you're always trying to get that little button to the button hole. I like to imagine mine that I have a string attached to the back of my belly button and i'm trying to wrap that string as tight as i can get it around a button on my spine. Either way works. You're constantly enganging your core muscles if you're "buttoning your navel". Helps work those muscles. As my teacher says, we all have those muscles, some of us just have some more padding around them. haha. Helps with posture too. (which I'm really bad at). I'm also really bad at carrying around large amount of stress, so that's probably not helping my cortisol levels. It's something I need to work on. I have been trying to blog at seewhatsbeneath.blogspot.com, but it's a here and there thing. I might make it private with inviting people to be able to read it. I'm really broke right now, so it's hard for me to buy (healthy) food (i do try and grab some fruit when I can) and I wish that I had money so that we could go out and maybe even sign up for some exercise thing together, but I go to school 4 days a week and work 5-6 days a week and only really have free time on sun mornings and (sometimes) wednesday evenings and thursday evenings. And I generally try to spend at least one of those evenings with Kevin. I know it's 'excuses' but it makes it really hard when you have little time and very little money. Anyway, now that I've been ranting. I have to go take a math exam at school in Folsom. I'll see you at Renee's baby shower, if not before then! Ciao bella!

" and I was like ok? And she said "a lot of people died." I hadn't really grasped the magnitude of what had really happened. Our school still made us go

This day 9 years ago, I was in the 8th grade. My best friend at the time, @Brittany holmes, came up to me and said "two planes crashed into two buildings

I want to say now I am sorry to all those who died and their families for my ignorance. It was a tragic day 9 years ago and we shouldn't have lost you.

to class and refused to let our parents take us home early. My history teacher, mrs. Wagner, made us go on with our lecture instead of watching the news.

Bottom Line

They really should put the title box below the post. Some of us just don't know exactly what we're going to talk about and feel pushed to put a title FIRST before writing. I know, I know...you could just type it in at the end, but I just can't do that.

I haven't posted in awhile because I've been busy and boy has it been kicking my butt. School started the day before my birthday and it seems like my body just hasn't caught up yet to the change in schedule.

So for an update on school: I'm taking Math 100 (Elementary Algebra), Pols 301 (Intro to Govt), and Pilates. Really the only one I'm excited to take is Pilates and I had to be persistent in order to get into that class. Math seems to be going ok except that it's going to be a lot of homework. I think I'll do fine in the class, because it's pretty much review. Picking that old algebra up from the back of my mind and dusting it off. I really don't see the point in the math class though because when am I going to use this stuff? I'm going into the field of Psychology and specializing in counseling of adolescents and children. I also think it sucks that I had to pay $75 to access my homework assignments online. Ridiculous! Intro to Govt is going ok so far. I feel like I'm not fully prepared for the class as I don't really like to talk about politics or current events (which is a requirement in the class). I also have the old edition of the book, so I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to use it to do my final project. It'd be better to have the new edition but it cost like $80. I need to start feeling like I have a handle on this. It's been 2 weeks already. 14 more weeks to go.

So today is labor day and I have no plans. So far the plan is to make pancakes. Buy Kevin a new watch. ..... We'll possibly go see The Last Airbender at the Sunrise Mall and go shopping. I have a $25 Sears gift card and a $40 Anchor Blue gift card. Although I just found out that there's not an Anchor Blue at the Sunrise Mall anymore, which means I'd have to go to Arden Fair Mall or the Roseville Galleria. Who knows what I'll do? I'm getting hungry though so I think I'll go make pancakes now.

With Whip and Caramel

Today is starting off sucky! Had to wake up at 7am this morning! Bleh!! Got a Starbucks frappacino though. That was yummmmy. Though it's not sitting well in my tummy. So far I've got many birthday wishes and that's been nice. My dad even called me to tell me Happy Birthday. When we were talking about the inconvieneces that surround my birthday (school starting, birthday the week before the 1st, etc), my dad asked, "Why couldn't you have been born at the 1st of the month instead of the end of the month?" and then said "Well, Have a Happy Birthday even though there's no money around". haha. so true. I'm broke. My mom's broke. Dad's broke. Oh well. At least I have buy one game get one free coupons for bowling tonite : ). I have four coupons that are each good for up to 6 games. *yawn*

I'm taking my kitty back to the vet today. I have a suspicion that he has a blockage and may need some laxatives or something. Putting it on credit this time though bc I have no more dinero.

Well, gotta go try to get into pilates! Ciao.

"high school kids are like infants with stupid opinions" "Infants don't have opinions" "exactly"

"not everyone is a super genius at math like you." "ya not everyone can multiply by 2"

Do you know what a maybe invite is? It's the I don't really want to go so I'll try to hold them off until I can find something better to do. Haha. Jk jk.

I came to move move move move

My mind feels like there is so much lying behind a thick curtain. I can tell my mind is not calm, but yet thoughts don't like to come forward and stay in focus very long. It can be quite frustrating. I bought some new shoes today. A pair of black boots and a pair of black flats. I really like the look of the boots, but I'm not sure if I can pull them off. They were kind of a splurge though. I shouldn't have bought them though because I should have used that money for my birthday in Tahoe. Guess it was just an early birthday present to me.

Speaking of my birthday, Ariel said she was going to get people from work to chip in to get me a contact lens exam ($89, not including cost of contacts) and also get me a new bra for my birthday. I'm not sure either of those will happen though. Currently, I'm still waiting for Tyler to buy me a new shirt. There is a diva server at work that hated one of my shirts so much that he offered to take my shirt and buy me a new one if he could destroy the old one and make a video out of it. I agreed and handed over my shirt like 3 weeks ago. I think I might ask for it back if he doesn't come forward with something schnazzy soon.

I need to go buy some new clothes as I gained a little bit of weight and am not fitting so well any more in my clothes. I also have only one pair of slacks for work because my plain black pair decided to come unsewn right below the zipper. lame. I also need some new clothes for school.

It is fall though, so I guess it doesn't matter too much because I'll pretty much just be bundled up in sweaters and pants. Maybe I should invest in some cute sweaters and scarves and skinny jeans to fit inside my boots.

I'm a little nervous about school as I'm taking political science and algebra this semester. Nothing fun. I hope I can keep myself motivated and disciplined enough to get an A or a B in both classes. I haven't bought my polsci books yet though. Those are going to be like $100. super lame.

Dang, just realized that I paid my credit card late. I was doing so well too. Oh well. I don't plan on making any big purchases anytime soon. What I do plan on doing is going to bed soon because I'm getting tired.

I'm a little bummed out because Kevin has two class orientations tomorrow, which means that he has to take the car. I was planning on going to my mom's house in between work, but I guess that's not going to happen now. : / I guess I could always call my mom and see if she'd come get me and then take me to work. I dunno. We'll see. Ciao for now!

It's blue! not purple.

So today was a very exhausting but rewarding day for me. Got up this morning with only eating some fresh fruit for breakfast and helped my mom load up her apartment and get it (almost) all unpacked and put in place. Kevin came with me, which I think helped a lot. Camille and her friend also came and worked hard too. I pretty much unpacked everything and got my brother's bedroom in place and I think it's the nicest bedroom he's ever had. I would have helped my mom out more in her bedroom, but I didn't have really as much things to work with artistically. I'll try and sneak some pics of my mom's house on another day. I forgot today because basically I helped her from 11am-9pm. Small break in between to gulf down 3 cheeseburgers and slurp down 3/4 of a bud lite (which only effected me by making my mouth dry and feeling thirstier). I'm thinking about stopping by Friday night after I get off of work to check out how its going over there. My grandma is supposedly moving in on Friday.

That's a story all in it's own. My grandma had decided to buy this house for her, my mom and my brother to live in. Then, she let her diabetes get out of hand and ended up in the hospital. Since then, she's been recovering at my Uncle John's house (which is like two houses down across the street from my mom's new house), which means that my Uncle Richard who is living at my Uncle John's gave up his bedroom to house my grandma because he was so worried about her health (but from what I hear isn't really doing much for her lately anyway). She keeps being wishy washy on whether she wants to move in with my mom because my Uncle Richard gave her crap about how my mom's so spoiled and blah blah blah. He's mad because my grandma didn't buy him a house or a car. Well, my Uncle Richard has been a vagrant his whole life. What has he really contributed? My grandma obviously felt that she wanted to do something nice for my mom to show her that she loves her and is proud of her. So how this all ties in, is that my grandma probably either thinks that she's not going to live long after her last hospitalization or she's feeling guilty, except that because my Uncle Richard knows he can't move into my mom's house (like he tried to guilt trip my grandma into letting him do), he wants his bedroom back. So, he's basically trying to force my grandma to move in at my mom's now. My Uncle John is kind of neutral on it, except that he said he'd give her a month to stay at her house and then she'd have to move in. Drama, drama, drama. I hope my mom knows what she's getting herself in for living right next to her two brothers and living with her mom.

So far, I feel that my mom's house is all her own, but I'm sure it'll seem a little differently once my grandma moves in with all her stuff. My mom's got it filled pretty well already so I'm wondering where everything's going to go. Anyway, it was pretty rewarding today to see my mom have something so nice after she's worked so hard. I also was able to cross something off my list "help my mom make her house nice"

I guess I owe my savings account $50 so far, because I've completed 5 things on my list. I get to depositing that at some other time. Haha. Because I have school books to buy (like $100 for political science books and Kev still needs to spend $170 on school books). If you'd like to donate or gift money to me for my books, you are more than welcome to. My birthday is coming up the day after school starts (Aug 23rd).

Speaking of which, I decided on bowling as my birthday party. I have a feeling it might be a dud this year like it was last year. Eventually I'll stop planning to celebrate my birthday. I am a little bummed out because I emailed the bowling alley and they said I can't bring in outside food or drinks. I was planning on bringing Little Caesar pizzas and cake. BOO! I'd like to see Eat, Pray, Love eventually except that I guess it's not doing well in theaters because for next week, they don't have many showings planned for it, which does not help me out at all. I hope I get to go to Tahoe with Kevin on Wednesday. Spend some time at the beach and gamble a little bit and have a nice dinner.

Well it's bedtime now. Ciao!

Bowling for My Birthday

I've decided to go bowling on my birthday evening. I have school until 2:20pm (lame) and Kevin has a class that starts at 6:45pm (super lame). So, friends and family it is. I'm thinking Tahoe on Wednesday though? Maybe.

what a stud

So today has turned out differently than I expected. I woke up at about 9:45, which means that I got about 7 - 7 1/2 hours of sleep, but I felt fine. So I got up, did a little web surfing and decided to do my errands.

First stop, Les Schwab. I let her know I need two studs replaced (those are what holds your tire on w/ the lugnuts) and she tells me it's by appt only and it'll cost like $80. Wayyy more than I was expecting. I tell her I'll have to do it another day then and asked if I could just have the free brake inspection done. So, as I wait for them to do the inspection (which is making me sleepy just waiting around), I notice that see that the studs are broken and eventually they pull me in there to show me. I told them I already knew about it, but didn't want to pay them $80 to fix it and I had someone else that was going to do it cheaper, but the manager comes over and says that they can't legally let me leave like that because it is unsafe. And I tell them that I let the girl know that it was like that before I asked for the inspection to be done and if I would have known that they would have said that, I wouldn't have done the inspection. So, the manager offers to fix it for me for the cost of the parts and no labor. Sounds good to me as studs don't really cost anything. They also had to replace the spindle nut and lug nuts. Soooo, the only problem was that they don't have studs on hand (lame) so I had to wait FOREVER for someone to bring two studs to them. Ended up costing $30. That's more like it. They also told me that my front rotors need to be replaced and my brakes still have some life on them, but the used tires that I bought yesterday from a tire stop in south sac are no bueno and have about 5000 miles left on them, which is not what the guy told me (he said 15k). So there goes $80 down the toilet.

Then, I head over to fed ex to send my cousin some posters for her daughter's bedroom and they tell me they don't ship to PO boxes and that I'd have to go through the post office. My cousin hadn't responded right away so I left. Guess I'll just have to send it another day.

Then, I had over to Autozone to get a small little tube replaced and they couldn't figure out what the heck it was and suggested I go over to Napa auto parts or to the Ford dealer. I didn't really have time to do that so I looked inside and it wasn't cracked on the inside so seems safe for now. I'll have to do it another day.

Then, I head over to Walmart to get items for my picnic at the lake, but I have grease all over my hands; so after picking out some items I went over the bathroom (which is inconviently located at the BACK of the store). Turns out, I have bad luck today. The janitor guy decided to clean the bathroom. Had to wait forever just to wash the black off my hands. After checking out, I forgot that I wanted to go to safeway to buy grapes, but I was already so far behind schedule that I just went home.

When I got home it was already about 3pm, so I felt that it was too late to try and make a trip out to the lake. Kev wasn't really feeling that well anyway, and now I'm really sleepy so I don't feel like going out to the lake either. So much for an eventful day. Let's see how the rest of the day turns out. Maybe I'll go out to my mom's or something to help her out.

101 in 1001 (half a list so far)

Going to post the list here too:

1. Learn to Cook 10 Meals
2. Buy a Video Camera
3. Spend a Whole Day at the Beach
4. Get My Palm Read
5. Make a Pie From Scratch
6. Sew Myself a Dress
7. Get a New Digital Camera
8. Give Up Soda for a Month (which is funny because I'm drinking a soda right now)
9. Put Away $10 for Every Goal Completed
10. Get Contact Lenses
11. Get Updated Glasses
12. Clean Out My Closet
13. Buy a New Bookshelf and Organize All of Our Books
14. Make a Cake From Scratch
15. Go to a Drive In Movie
16. Create a Photographic Journal for One Week
17. Trace/Research My Family Tree
18. Get a New Year's Kiss
19. Play a Slot Machine
20. Make a Cheesecake from Scratch
21. Release a Message in a Bottle
22. Read Atlas Shrugged
23. Swim in the Ocean
24. Bake My Own Bread
25. Bake Cookies from Scratch
26. Bake an Apple Pie from Scratch
27. Have a Romantic Stay at a Bed and Breakfast
28. Vacation in Las Vegas
29. Go Camping
30. Find Something Other Than a Strawberry Mango Margarita to Drink (been drinking dif beers lately)
31. Visit North Lake Tahoe
32. Visit South Lake Tahoe
33. See Phantom of the Opera the play/musical
34. Make an educated vote in the election
35. Help my Mom Make Her House Nice
36. Throw a Good Christmas Party
37. Tip Someone 100%
38. Take a Baking Class
39. Go Zip Lining
40. Make a Crafty 4th of July Dessert
41. Go Swimming in a Lake
42. Go to an Amusement Park
43. No Fast Food for a Month
44. Have a Little Red Dress
45. Go See a Film on Opening Day
46. Get to My Ideal Weight (125lbs. currently I'm 135lbs)
47. Go Tubing (technically I went floating, but there were tubes involved for some people)
48. Get Both of My Cats Checked Up
49. Get my AA in Psychology
50. Type Up the Letters I Wrote to My Sister and Facebook Them to Her
    
51. Go to a dermatoligist and get my mole on my toe removed and checked
52. get tires on the Focus
53. get a break inspection done on the Focus
54. get matching touch up paint for the Focus where I tried to break in to it because I left the keys in my purse which I locked in the trunk.
55. Buy the fall semester's school books
56. Get an A (or B) in my fall classes
57. get a hair cut
58. Get tires on the Focus again, since I bought shoddy ones the first time around
59. Find out what the tapping noise is on my car and get it fixed
60. Get a new (or used) queen size (or king size) bed, cause my bed is so uncomfortable
61. Read the Tourist before it comes out in theaters

What I thought Would be Impossible

I'm pretty tired so I'm not sure how long this post will be. Not a whole lot happened today. Kev and I went to Denny's today for brunch and it was pretty tasty. After that, I went to work (which was pretty lame). Then, came home and watched Big Brother and here I am.

My friend, Kayla, moved her birthday plans to 8/12 instead, which could actually work out a little bit better because Kevin has Portuguese lessons on Wednesdays. This Thursday we're going to attempt to make it out to Dillon Beach, though I told Kevin the water would be cold. Today it said the surface temp was at 55 degrees! brrrr.. We really should get wetsuits if we want to go out to the northern pacific ocean beaches. Anyone got any wetsuits they'd like to let us borrow? All the "warmer" beaches are in SoCal and I don't want to drive down that far.

Well, my brain has trailed off and left me. So, I think it's bed time. Buona Notte!

Oh no..

Created a 101 in 1001 list. check it out: http://dayzeroproject.com/user/mscrystallia/

Leave Me With Some Kind of Proof It's Not a Dream

I feel like I should have something really interesting to update you guys on, but I don't. Work was pretty chill today. Got tipped $10 by someone for taking some pictures of them; that was pretty sweet. Ate some pretty good risotto and then went home, where I pretty much just facebooked and am now about to go to bed.

I might go down to Chico to visit my friend Kayla for her birthday. I haven't decided because I would be spending all day up there and I'd have to drive my car there and back. I know that sounds a little like, "Um...duh..." but I'm just a little worried about my car right now and it's a stick shift. Bleh. But it'd be really fun hanging out with her, so that's the part that's a little enticing.

In other news, I have this mole on my middle toe that I've had since as long as I can remember. When I was younger my mom swore that I never had that mole, but I could remember having it for a long time. Anyway, today it started hurting slightly. Almost like somebody just barely touch you with a needle or some light annoying "pain". It feels like its got bigger (I would describe it as a little more bulbous?..almost like its some squishy thing protruding my toe) which kind of stresses me out. It also kind of grosses me out and probably does to you too. I don't have really any health insurance that I could just go to the Dermatologist and ask them to remove it and then check for melanoma. That'd be absolutely scary, but it's something I worry about.

There's so many health problems that run through my family I'm curious what my issues are going to be. It's like I can't stop thinking about the impeding doom in front of me. It's like a car accident I see happening in slow motion but can't stop it. There are some thing I can do to try to prevent some things, like eating healthier and exercising, but so far I've put those things off. It's that darn young mentality. I've got time...I'm not really that unhealthy...I walk and stand a lot in my jobs. You know..those kinds of things. I'm pretty sure I'm screwed in this aspect, but that's another one of those "kinds of things". Gotta get over myself and put the effort in.

Maybe another day.

For now, I'm going to go to bed and wake up in the morning and go to Denny's with my boyfriend. <3 Ciao!!

August Already

Where has the summer gone? The countdown starts until I begin school again. 22 more days to go. This month seemed to arrive so fast. There're a lot of birthdays this month, particularly me and my brother's. He'll be 21 on 8/9 and I'll be 22 on 8/24. I'm not sure what to get him for his birthday. He wants money (of course), which I don't want to give him. I'm thinking I'll get him a haircut and buy him some nice clothes. I got screening passes to see The Expendables on his birthday so I offered to take him to that. I feel like it's pretty lame though, because it's his 21st birthday and he probably wants to party it up. I don't know.

I don't even know what to do for my own birthday. I was going to go to South Lake Tahoe for 3 days, but it'll cost me like $400 or so and that's a lot to spend. When things seem to be overwhelming, my mind just goes blank. It's like my mind says, "This is too much to think about" and checks out. It's really quite annoying. The other alternative is that I get really stressed out and that's quite annoying also. Where's the middle ground??

My mom is moving into a new house with my Gma and my brother. My Gma bought the house outright from money she got from a life insurance policy when her husband died. It needs a lot of work though, so my mom's been over there lately working on it. I'm sure they'll end up making at least the outside look nice and the inside decent enough I suppose. I kind of wish I had a bunch of money so that I could buy nice things and decorate her house for her. What I have in mind that they'll end up doing is putting a bunch of mismatched stuff all over the house and it just won't look as nice as it has potential to.

I dreamt last night that I told someone that I also wanted to do Interior Designing. It would be quite interesting, but it's so much coursework. In order to be a good interior designer and to be respected by others, it seems like you would have to take so many art classes. Like art history classes, color theory classes, compostion, structure, etc etc etc. I once also thought about doing culinary school, but alas I decided to go with psychology with a specialization in child/adolescent psychology and counseling.

-----

Sorry, went to make myself something to eat. Ended up making banana bread oatmeal (w/ one packet of maple and brown sugar), I added half a banana to it and should have stopped there, because I added a spoonful of peanut butter and I feel my insides are being clogged now. I can hardly eat it now, it's just so thick and sticky. Bleh. Oh well I guess.

Well I've run out of things I want to talk about right now. So I'll chat later. Ciao!

It's Crunch Time

I guess my boyfriend was craving Raisin Bran Crunch this week?

I wanna know, If you're thinking of me

So I decided I wanted to start blogging again, but I don't really feel like blogging about my non-existent diet @ My Food Blog, so that's why I created this one.

Right now, I'm listening to some awesome music on jango.com. I think I like this site much better than Pandora. Simple and plays music I like. I'm skipping a lot less than Pandora.

Speaking of Pandora, my original thoughts for name this blog was going to be pandorasjar.blogspot.com but it was already taken. I suppose my title will suffice.

It's kind of hard to blog, when you have distracting music in your ears and when you're tired because you never stay up past midnight (I know I'm like an old woman..). Guess I can start out by telling you a little about myself (although if you're reading this you probably already know me).

I'll be 22 on Aug 24 and my (not-so)little brother turns 21 on Aug 9. I wanted to take him to the WWE event at Arco Arena, but unfortunately I don't have $150 to spend on 3 tickets, especially if I want money for my own birthday or for school books.

Speaking of school, I am currently attending Folsom Lake College and majoring in Psychology. Eventually, I'll specialize in child and adolescent psychology and go into the counseling field to help the children. Right now I estimate that I'll graduate with my AA in the Spring of 2011. I don't actually know because I'm only going half time so I know it's going to take me longer so I don't really think about the completion date, just actually getting my classes completed. I did pretty well last semester. I got an A in my summer school class and then in the Spring I got an A in one class and a B in the other. That's good for having taken a year off, due to bad circumstances.

Those bad circumstances were pretty much my mom getting into an accident that left her disabled for quite awhile, but also they found out she had malignant kidney cancer and that was the scariest thing ever for me. It still is scary to think that it could come back anywhere in her body. They just found some polyps or something when she had a colonoscapy (sp?) done. Not sure if those were cancerous or not. I'm hoping not. She's taking it like a trooper, but she's probably more scared than I am. I can't stand the thought of losing my mom.

Speaking of family, to give you a little background, I have 5 sisters and 3 brothers. Sara and Rachel are from my dad's first wife. Marie and Jason are from my mom's first husband. Olivia, Jesse and Katie are from my dad's second wife and then there's me and my brother Chris from my dad and mom (his 3rd marriage, her 2nd). I love having a big family with lots of brothers and sisters. I can't really imagine it any other way.

A little bit of background on my work history. Currently I work at Il Fornaio as a hostess (which I can't say anything bad about because I signed a paper stating I wouldn't talk crap on the internet. haha) and at U-haul as a CSR. I used to work as a florist (wasn't very good at designing), security guard, and at the movie theaters. I had become an Assistant Manager when I worked at the theaters, but it was shortlived because they don't pay well and don't give benefits. I like my current job at Il Fornaio though. I've met a lot of cool people and it's a nice place to work.

A huge part of my life is someone that has been with me through all of this, Kevin. We've been together since April 2006 and have lived together since September 2006. Needless to say, he drives me crazy sometimes, but I still love him. Even if toothpaste gets on the counter, or he leaves the juice out, or his shoes on the floor, or doesn't replace the toilet paper roll (you get the point), he's still a really good boyfriend. He's smart and loves me lots. He's been trying to keep a smile on my face since the day we met with his silliness. I love his ambition (even if it drives me nuts sometimes), it's an integral part of who he is. He loves trying new things and learning new things, which I don't always like to do, so he helps push me to do that and sometimes I actually end up enjoying it.

What I enjoy doing for the most part is just hanging out. I like watching movies (especially at the theater with movie popcorn. yum!), having a margarita with friends, and hanging out with my cats. They're silly little creatures and so laid back (most of the time). I've had Pogo since like October 2006 and Jasper since 2008 I believe. Kevin decided one day that I would like having a cat, even though at that time I didn't like animals, and he brought home a little kitten. Tiny tiny little thing. We named him Pogo, because Kevin said he tried to jump out the car window when he was driving home with him. A few months later, we adopted his brother Coco into our family, but from the start he proved to be a little difficult to turn into a house cat. He always wanted to be feral, and in the end he got his way and is free on the streets somewhere in Rancho Cordova. He's never came home because we moved to a new apartment. There'll always be a special place in my heart for him though. Jasper came to us via cat fostering. I have no idea how I got into fostering kittens, but at the time I had two cats, and I wanted to foster only 1 kitten, but it was a package deal, you had to take the siblings. So, I ended up fostering 3 kittens. 2 girls and 1 boy kitten. We named them Jasper, Angel (his twin) and for some reason I can't remember the little orange kitty's name. The two girls got adopted out by a really nice lady named Kathy and I convinced Kevin to let me keep Jasper, which I'm glad he did because Jasper is such a wonderful cat. He has so much personality and so much love.

Well, that's about all about me for tonite. I'm getting quite tired and my brain is starting to work on autopilot. Have a good night/day everyone! Ciao!