It's All Par for the Course

I don't know that anyone cares or not, but I have good news. Neal is going to be moving here for next semester. I'm sooooo happy about this. It'll be 5 years we've been together on the 30th, and, except for summers, we've spent the whole time apart. It just feels like, to both of us, that it's time for us to get to be together on a daily basis instead of only on some weekends or special occasions. It's just going to be really nice to sit and watch tv together or to make dinner together or to go out together. He's coming up tonight, and I'm just really excited. By the way, I'm still looking for gift ideas if anyone has any they'd like to share. Below is what I've gotten for people so far.

Mom	Dad	Mamaw	Papaw
Handheld trivia game	Ted Nugent Double Live	Woodburned jewelry box	? (maybe digital golf scorecard)
?	Deep Purple Machinehead records	?	? (maybe handheld flight simulator)
Hayley	Morgan	Boy	Neal
Woodburned jewelry box	Woodburned jewelry box	Large sketchbook and pencil set	Gravity, Back massager
MP3 Player	MP3 Player	MP3 Player	Vellux blanket and ? (need ideas)

So... anyone wanna help me out with ideas?

Blog Forum

Since the Christmas season begins officially on Friday, I want to start a new forum for anyone to add their best gift ideas. I'd like to see some creativity here, not just go to some stupid store and buy some stupidly popular something or other... I want some genuine unique ideas. And if you have no new ideas, add some of the best gifts you've either gotten or received.

How can I bitch at other people for lack of posting if I don't do any updating myself? Good question, huh? So I'm posting... Lauren and I are moving as soon as we find someone to sublet our place. So if you know of anyone who needs a place to live in Bloomington, my apartment is dirt cheap for being freaking huge and freaking nice. We want to live in a house though, and we don't wanna have to catch crap for having pets, so we're moving into this awesome house. It has walk-in closets, yes, plural, one of which we're thinking of using as a doggie bedroom b/c it's so big and open. The kitchen is all brand new, there's a enclosed back porch, a front porch, and a fireplace, and it's only $15 more a month than I'm paying now. Woo hoo for us. Oh, and the living room is big enough for a pool table, which Lauren is getting from her dad b/c his place is too small for it. So...party at our new place as soon as everything is settled. Job is getting less and more stressful, if that makes any sense. I'm managing to 'tard my way through it, which is good, but I have a deadline coming up on the 15th of December, and I'm not sure it's going to happen. I'm the course director on that project, and I've done all my work on it; my job now is to harass everyone else to get their stuff done. I am not good at that part of the job; I don't like to talk to people I don't know, much less tell them what to do. I just have to keep in mind that this is awesome experience (the company has been featured on 60 Minutes as one of the few bright spots in e-learning) and that by the end of January, I will have enough money to buy a new car in cash and put my P.O.S. to sleep:) Excellent. Now all I need is for Neal to get his crap together and transfer up here. I'm right there w/ Leah, by the way, on the whole remembering crap from high school. It's actually kind of fun to think of things you didn't even know you remembered Ern, I really can't beleave you don't remember the Dammit Doll; that was fun for at least a whole year... How about the bear? The one that mooed and had this unexplainable stain on him? Oh, and Leah, I still have the bathing suit that Reg tore the strap from; I wear it to mow the lawn and do garden stuff. I'm in a better mood now, actually. Ok, I think I'm done talking now...

Here are my results in the quiz on Leah's site...
Protector

The ULTIMATE personality test
brought to you by Quizilla I think it's pretty dead on.

So I Guess It's Update Time

Okay, I'm finally ready to update some stuff. Let's see... My birthday was on the first, of course, and it was a fun little affair, though I still haven't gotten my present from Neal. It was supposed to be a surprise, but we're going to go get it together instead. I went to a costume party that night, as a nurse, and Neal was a doctor. Lauren was Rhiannon, the Greek moon goddess, and Jason was an army guy. We looked pretty good, if I do have to say so myself:) My job is really, really hard, but I'm finally at the point where I am starting to think it might work out okay. I thought I was going to be doing just writing and editing, but I also am responsible for coding everything into HTML documents using tables, which is the most difficult part of HTML, for anyone who has never experienced their hell. This would all be fine, but usually 3-4 people work on any given project, and for the one I'm working on, it's just me! Yeah... how much sense does this make???

• I've worked there for going on 4 weeks
• I'm in charge of creating a course on how to work at Option Six, but I've never been told any of those things
• I'm doing the work of 3-4 people
• I have to work in HTML, which I told them I could not do when I was hired (obviously they did not believe me)
• ...and I've been given 2/3 of the time projects are usually given ( I have 8 weeks to do a 12-week project).

On the upside, if I stay in this job, I can make enough money in one year to make a down payment on a house and buy a new car! yeah, I'm going to make around $38-40,000 this year. That's so much money that I'm really not sure what I'll do with it all. That makes me happy. It's probably a good thing too, since I'll probably be supporting Neal for the rest of his natural life:) I guess that's all my news really, though I would love to actually hear some comments from you guys. Oh, yeah, has anyone heard about Kelli Rae or seen her? I know it's evil, but I think it's really funny that she's all big and pregnant now. She's always thought she was so much better than everyone else, so above Crawford County, and what happens to her? She gets barefoot and pregnant straight out of high school!!!

So.... guess who now makes $17/hour. Yep, I do.

In the Words of Joey Lawrence...

"Whoa!" There's so much stuff going on in my world right now. We have a brand-new puppy for starters. She is a brindle-colored (toffee-reddish and chocolate brown tiger stripes) pit bull named So-Co (as in, she is the color of Southern Comfort roughly). I voted for "Whiskey," but it's not my dog, so I don't count. She's really cute, but she's too timid for my tastes. I want a dog who realizes she belongs and that she'll never be mistreated; I don't take kindly to mistrust by dogs. Next, our phone was shut off... This is incredibly weird b/c when you call my number, it says it has been shut off by MY request. I assure you that I want my damn phone. The ironic thing is that I can't call them to tell them I want my phone reconnected because my phone has been disconnected. We had missed one payment, ONE, not 50, but that was only because they were supposed to credit the account with an overpayment. They didn't, and I had planned to pay the full amount this month, but it wasn't due yet. Grrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!! However, the biggest change in my life is my new job. It's going to kick my ass--hard. Today was my third day. I have already written the manifest for a course on orientation to the company, had it critiqued, and assigned the work. Does this seem a little strange to anyone else that I'm in charge of a project to write an online orientation course when I haven't been oriented?????????????????? True, I don't have to write a lot of it from scratch, but I am responsible for doing all the interviews, compiling those and all the written things people give me, and putting it on the Web. Can we say scared out of my wits? IF, and that's a big if, I survive, this job is going to look freaking amazing on my resume. This is one of the fastest growing e-learning companies in the country, and they're beating the pants off of the big shops around the nation. I'm excited to be part of it, but I'd like to get to the point at which I'm not wanting to chuck every time I think about going to work. Oh, and for the record, I am not a hypochondriac OR a prostitute or some weird combination of the two...

What You've Missed Since the Last Post

From Friday til Tuesday, Neal was with me because it was his fall break. We had the most awesome time, and it's made me so mad that we can't live in the same city. We just plain have a wonderful time together. For example, on Sunday, it was incredibly beautiful outside (warm, sunny, actual azure sky), and we wanted to do something to enjoy it, so we went to the grocery and bought a loaf of italian bread, some butter, cheese, and French pastries and then went to Oliver Winery, where we lounged on a blanket on the hillside overlooking the pond. It was glorious, just lying there with Neal, talking and catnapping. The whole 5 days were great. Also, Jason is now pretty well living here with Lauren and I (i.e., he hasn't slept at his place in over a month), and this is totally cool with me. He is an awesome guy, the kind you love to have around, and they're awesome together. Tonight, they went to look at puppies, and I think we may be getting a little pit puppy. My only stipulation is if they get a puppy, I get a kitty. Foot. Down. Anybody going to see Texas Chainsaw Massacre tomorrow? Well, I am. It's going to be pretty cool. Although, I went and looked up the true story, and it has nothing to do w/ teenagers or a cannibalistic family, which makes me wonder where the true part is... Oh, speaking of horror movies, I saw one that was beyond gory, B-E-Y-O-N-D! It is called Cannibal Holocaust, and I watched it because that sounded like a movie that just HAD to be stupid funny; however, it turned out to just be scary and real. In fact, the story and gore are so believable, the director had to produce some of the actors in court just to prove that their onscreen deaths were not real (see woman impaled from ass to mouth for losing her virginity).

Job Search 2003

Update

I got a JOB! That's right; I got a job, and it is awesome. I'm working for Option Six, the e-learning company whose biggest clients are Lilly and Krispy Kreme, (see previous post for details) starting Monday. My job will divide my time between working as a writer an editor in creating online courses and writing our marketing proposals for soliciting new business. Yeah, that last part is as important as it sounds, and I have no idea why they have that much faith in me. The next cool thing about it is that when we were discussing structure, he asked what I'm making now, and when I told him, he actually chortled (until today, I had never heard a person chortle), and said, "oh, well, we can do better than THAT." this means, all together now, I'm in the money. Yet another cool thing about this job is that one of the animation people working there worked on the Simpsons and he new Star Wars movies before coming to work at Option Six! This place is awesome, and little ole me is gonna work there. Guys, I'd appreciate some feedback...