so we aren't going to tennessee after all because of the snow out east.

and today grant fell playing dodgeball and had to go to the emergency room.  he's okay now, but he blacked out and has some bones broken in his face and some stitches in his chin.  kinda scary.

we got our package from john today, and he sent me a book of his that he liked.  he's the only person we have ever met that reads exclusively travel writers.

anyway.  this holiday will probably be even less fun than if we had spent half of our time in a small car together.  really looking forward to it.

christmas lights pictures.

and one of the bridge with the blue lights.  (which i think is silly.)

i have had a crazy last week at work.  so many rude customers, so much time cashiering.  i have had some really bad back pain too, which has made me even less happy, and then, yesterday i went into work at seven until close, and then i had to get up and work until seven today.  so out of a 24-hour period i was at target for over 12 of them.  not at all fun, especially since my dad (unintentionally) woke me up at 6:45 this morning.  but i have a week off since we are going to tennessee for christmas, and laura's present came today, which i opened immediately.  i am now the proud owner of a non-powerpuff girls hat and a book about new zealand.  i think i might actually like christmas after all.

happy birthday blogs!

laura's blog is one year old today...which means mine is too.  i succumb easily to peer pressure.

saw the lemony snicket movie today...it was good, even though jim carrey annoys me to a certain degree and they changed some of the stuff around (as usual) and added the aflac duck to it.  (yeah.)  i particularly enjoyed the end credits.

i can't believe that christmas is in a week.  how time flies!

i really do think my quality of life would be better if i was a sheepherder in new zealand or a dogsledder in iceland.

and whoever schedules me at target really should consider that working a morning right after working a night really isn't the nicest thing to do.

just in case anyone ever questioned whether or not this phobia of mine to call people on the phone was real or not...i've spent the last hour trying to work up the courage to call just to ask about the job. 

edit: what a rip off! after all that, it was a voice recording directing me to a website, and then you have to pay a $10 fee to apply for the job!

grr! 

there is a nanny job for $700 a week.  the upside is that is very good pay.  the downside is that i'm not sure that me+kids is the best job for me.  but if i'm interested, i should call today or tomorrow.

what should i do?

what you can't see is that truck is in four parking spaces.

my new toy

i have a new toy:

it's truly december!

we're finally getting into the christmas spirit at my house!

today i got to see santa at hy-vee.  santa and mrs. claus were very adament about getting to take my picture.  it's the first time i've ever sat on santa's knee.  it was kinda funny, in a slightly i'm-weirded-out way.  but he did say he'd bring me a job for christmas, which would be really nice.

then, stephanie and i decided it was time to start getting the christmas decorations out.  (we're in charge this year, i guess.)  we only had one strand of outdoor lights that's about thirty years old, so we went to wal-mart to get some more, and as we were finishing hanging them, dad came back with four more.  so we went a little crazy with them.  plus, we have stephanie's huge "noel" candle that we put out too.  we were literally only one of two houses on our block that didn't have some kind of decoration out, now we are the only ones on the block with any lights that are not white.

but then, we don't have tacky moving deer in our yard, either.

snapfish has some nice features

such as the putting of your photos online so you can see them, and share them with your friends.  without having to scan them!  such as i am doing now.

these are from the saturday night when john was visiting, and we went to stephanie's friend troy's house.  they aren't necessarily the clearest pictures, but i like them the most because of the lighting.

just in case you already didn't know this,

but i am kind of an idiot.  i went in to work today and, oh, oops!  i was actually supposed to work yesterday.  this means i am only going to be working for four hours this week now.

revisiting shakespeare

i thought that perhaps i might not be able to survive 8 hours of frenzied shopping this morning, but clearly i did.  although there were times near the end when i was worried about my mental health and whether or not i was sleep deprived enough for me to start hallucinating.  (it's been known to happen.)  the best part of my day was when i got a "great team recognition" card after a guest "raved" about the great service i provided.  good feeling was quickly dashed by a petulant guest.  after work stayed a little longer to do a little shopping myself, but only since i was already there, not because i enjoy the crazed consumerism.  bought a few things off of my ever-growing shopping list including my brother's christmas present.

tomorrow i head to davenport for erika's baby shower.  i'm very excited to see her.  and almost as excited to get the gift out of my room, where it's been sitting on the floor for a month.

right now i feel like when i would stay up really late to work on papers.  at the time, i knew they were completely incoherent, but i thought that the words made me sound at least somewhat brilliant.  and then, in retrospect, i would realize i sound like a complete idiot.  yeah.

you know you're a nerd when...(part 2)

has anyone else been watching regency house party?  i taped the last episode because of work, and when i watched it last night i was so sad it was over i almost got teary.

deer hunting without a license

today elroy and i had a run-in with a deer.  i'm fine, but elroy needs to have his windshield replaced.  my dad said he will also pick up a new headlight assembly, but the cosmetic damage will not get fixed.  as far as i know, the buck that hit me is fine too, but i don't really know and i don't really care either.

on the upside, at least i had an excuse for being late to work.

john and stephanie.

i think by this point it is obvious that i cannot take a non-blurry picture, especially if a digital camera is involved.

briefly

still dislike my job but, since i am usually in a hurry to leave when i get off i have been spending less money.

got a package of goodys from laura yesterday including my birthday present, a book, and one of my t-shirts.  i've been using the card as a bookmark so i have something to smile about at work.

john is not arriving until thursday now.  we don't even know what time because we aren't even sure where he is anymore.

but at least i get to go to my sister's phi beta kappa thing tonight.

and i don't have to deal with pledging anymore.

if you are one of those ridiculous people who thinks it's a great idea to get up at ridiculous hours of the morning the day after thanksgiving so you can start your christmas shopping and at the same time get a free piece of cheap crap, for crying out loud be nice to the poor workers who have to get up and cut their holiday short because of your insanity.

(i have to be at work at 6am-2:30 that afternoon.)

help!

can anyone help me out?  since my dad installed norton on our computer, i haven't been able to get hotmail to work correctly.  i get emails where i am supposed to click on things, and another window then pops up, but i can't get anything to pop up.  i have had problems with cookies before and it wouldn't let me do things like that, but i can't remember how i fixed it or if that is even the problem this time around.  *sigh*

i'm keen on keane.

our friend john (the guy from england who i didn't see when i was there in january) is visiting us next week.  he arrives on tuesday, and i am missing my sister's phi theta kappa ceremony to pick him up at the amtrak station.  i hope that i can understand his accent better than when he calls drunk.

work sucks donkey balls.  i'm getting so bored with it.  there's no variation.

curiously incongruous has some more really amazing photos of london.  i'm indescribably jealous.

playing with fire

this weekend my brother's friend tim was visiting, so they had a bonfire.  they're both into building things, so they had the wood in a sort of hut, which burned really fast and really well.

then they put in a copper pipe, which, when it burns, gives off green and purple flames (i don't know how it works exactly).  it's a really neat effect, but doesn't photograph the best.

it's true, be careful what you wish for.

you seen the new target commercials?  the joy to the world a la three dog night christmas commercials?  i heard that for seven-and-a-half hours today.  over and over.  and i had been thinking earlier about how i would like to hear some music at work once in awhile.

canadians...

marry an american

things that are depressing

a list by me:

my room, the permanent disaster.

working seven-hour shifts at what is quite possibly the most mind numbing job i have held to date.

four more years of record deficits, war, outsourcing and general idiocy from the bush administration. also, w ≠ women. and no health care really, really sucks donkey balls.

from opendiary, quiddity lost her battle with cancer recently. it's very sad, and the world has lost someone amazing.

i can't wait

for the election to be over.

and...i like most of my church. via wallstreetjackass.

halloween

my pumpkin:

a differently lighted version:

the inspiration (thanks ingres):

me dressed as hermione:

next year i want all of this to be for, oh, something like a party. because i'm pretty sure that the trick-or-treaters didn't really care.

i'm such a sucker. i'm going to be knocking on doors on tuesday reminding people to vote (and not in my precinct, somewhere across town no less) and then i get to go to work for something like 5½ or six hours before i come home. i am also on the list to take food for the volunteers and i was thinking about making something like banana bread. i guess at least i won't get bored.

for amelia:

a free sample of reach access flosser.

the give bush a brain game

so much fun.

who's there?

i saw an opthomologist today. my eyes are fine, even if my prescription is approximately -1,000,000. (my dad wonders how my lenses on my glasses can be so thin considering how blind i am. i have no idea.) the best part is that my eyes have been dilated. i can barely see the computer screen unless i sit way back and tilt my head.

yes, i have a blogging addiction.

danes do it melancholy

this weather doesn't help much. and neither does my job. but i really wish i could go back to london. instead, i will have to settle for watching bend it like beckham like an obsessed maniac once i get the cords back to my dvd player. (laura, don't take this as a hint to hurry and mail them to me. it's probably a good thing you still have them.)

i really like this photo. it reminds me of one of mine, but in color and better.

photo from curiously incongruous. (go look at the photos, they are beautiful.)

books 4 sale

books sales are a very dangerous thing. even going to goodwill is very dangerous, i usually end up leaving with at least one book (and almost always an agatha christie). today the library had a book sale. my first trip was on my way back from the wapello democrats meeting (where i was the only person under 30 attending). i spent over ten dollars buying books that i just snatched up. i don't even know what i bought, other than the two art books and the guide to learning disco. i think i bought some martha grimes and a ngaio marsh. i know that someone beat me to the agatha christies because there weren't any. i also bought anil's ghost, because i recognized the author as being one that laura liked. so then i convince grant he needs to go with me, and when we get there it's sack time, where one sack costs a dollar. so i picked up more books, under the pretense that they are for my mom. (since it was her money they really are, i suppose.) i got some more martha grimes, a couple of dean koontz, and a sue grafton novel for her. plus, i bought some that i wanted, like elizabeth berg and the brothers karamazov.

even if i don't buy any more books and stop going to the library, which will not happen, i have enough reading material for the next year. i really need to learn some restraint because i do not have any more shelf space!

bye bye, toenail.

part of my toenail (the one that the thing fell on) has decided that it should no longer be attatched to the toe it was previously attatched to. i'd go into gruesome details, but i don't want laura to leave me nasty notes about how i've grossed her out or something.

so i'm back from my third weekend in a row of visiting. my grandparents are hilarious people. when/if i've been married for over 50 years, it'd be great if it was like that. at their gourmet club (eight old people, and my mom and i makes for hilarious conversation) my grandad pulled out the chair for my grandmere and she said "he spanked me!" oh dear lord i tried not to laugh. then there was the incident with the pepper grinder...they are like children!

then i came back and worked at target. oh. my. goodness. i was SO BORED the entire time i was there. the only thing i found interesting where some purses i was looking at when i wasn't helping any customers. (what? sarah + purses? i know.) i still haven't decided if i like the pink one or the blue one better.

and cleaning up after the store was closed? yikes...if i can never do that again, that would be great. people are so disorderly.

my weekly post.

wow, if you use the lyrics from a popular song in your post, you sure do get a lot more hints. but then you get people who say things like, "Dear god, please help these children that are so out of this earth that they must write about what THEY DO!!! ffs! WAKE UP CHILDREN!"

??

i found this while logging into hotmail. apparantly bush and cheney are related. (of course, they're something like ninth cousins once removed, which doesn't even really count at that point.)

yesterday i had my first day at the register by myself. it was interesting. i don't really think i have much else to say on that subject at this point.

after work i treated myself to a purchase of björk's new cd, medúlla. i like it, although on a couple of tracks i get worried that someone is going to hyperventilate or something. my mom doesn't like the cover because she's worried that björk's clothes are going to fall off. (my mom worries about things like that.)

i don't work again until sunday, but between now and then i will be in ames. this weekend is the lincoln highway artists studio tour, and my grandmère is on it so we will be helping out on saturday. which means tomorrow i guess i can hang out at the mall...at least it will be a different mall.

i must resist the impulse to spend any more money.

i'm not entirely sure how i'm going to dig this whole target thing. i'm just glad that, as as cashier, i mostly have to worry about armed robbers. (joke! all of the videos we had to watch mostly dealt with the salesfloor. the only one that pertained to cashiers was an armed robbery one and what you're supposed to do.)

seriously though, the only reason i am looking forward to this job right now is the 10% discount which will come in handy since i sometimes go to target out of boredom.

the best part of my day was hearing a hard rock version of john lennon's "imagine"

i had a post...and i saved it...or so i thought. alas, i must write it all over again! (and the second is never as good. sorry!)

so yesterday was the day that i met with erika in iowa city. we met at pancheros to eat yummy burritos and talk about things (baby!) and reminisce. it was fun, and she looks really good. when we were done we went downtown for a little while before she had to go back to cornell.

after erika left, our friend bobby met us at prairie lights and we looked at the children's books and then tried things on at ragstock. he had to leave, so then stephanie and i waited on the ped mall until her friend eldon got off of work. at one point, we went to the library to use the restroom, and we ran into katy stavreva. we chatted for a few minutes, mostly about the shakespeare play, and then stephanie and i went back to our bench. when eldon arrived, we sat on the bench for a while and they talked and i took pictures. (which i will not burden your internet connections with.)

so anyway, we were walking eldon back to his dorm, when we passed masala's. i looked inside and thought i saw a familiar person. i kept looking, and they saw me, but i just couldn't tell. so i stopped and waited, and lo and behold...

it was ALISON!

we only saw each other for a few minutes, alas, because she and erin were in town with kathy for ruth's wedding. but that was fun. i wasn't expecting that!

after that i drove home, wishing that i was still in iowa city, but not wanting to hang out with my sister's friends. then i went to bed and went to church and then i got a phone call from target saying that my drug test came back and can i come to orientation tomorrow afternoon? (the drug test is a story in itself. i think it was possibly the most embarassing moment of my life to date.) so i guess i will finally have some money and maybe i can start visiting people in a few months!

happiness!

i got to talk to erika today! we are planning to have lunch on saturday. i'm a million times happier than i was earlier today!

so i know that i said i would write about my weekend about, oh, three days ago, but i just haven't felt like it. not because it wasn't fun or anything, but i'm just not in the mood. i'm just sort of meh, i guess.

but, because i said i would, i will try.

so i got to cornell on friday after driving in the driving rain (haha!) for two hours and nearly going ballistic because i nearly got killed on the interstate due to no fault of my own and spent a little bit with cheryl. who got all teary when i walked into the door. yikes. but it was nice, and familiar, and i liked that. then i went to nikki's baby shower. i never knew that people played games at baby showers, but they do. you learn something every day. it was a nice baby shower, it was a surprise so that was really cool. so then i just snuck into sodexho and hung out with people at tenth ave, and then went to the bars. i got to see a lot of people and most of them asked me if i was going to axetoberfest.

on saturday i ate a chicken quesadilla (and nearly felt sick from all of the grease. one thing i definitely do NOT miss) and then spent the afternoon not really doing anything. i went to cr with natasha because she had to get a metronome, and then we went to the lincoln later for dinner. (so good!) then we went to axetoberfest. but i was not the only alum there, so it was okay. (and i don't mean lame alum either, ben merrill was there.) i definitely had fun and i got to see even more people like the wonderful sarah goldman. it was really cold though, especially on the rides to and from the farm. we were in the back of a truck and the wind blowing was FREEZING!

so anyway, i didn't go to the bars that night but just went back to bowman and went to bed. sunday i did even less, as i recovered from the night before. then i went with michele to a bbq that the delphis were having at tenth ave and ate some really delicious food before coming back home. it was a nice weekend, and i was so glad to get away from home and to see everyone that i did. i miss everyone even more though, i think, now.

but it was weird because right when i got home was when this impact world tour thing was starting, so my dad asked me if i would go with him. i couldn't really say no, plus it was the pacific islanders dance night which i thought might be cool. i handled the testimonial bit okay, but then at the very end the guy said something about the sanctity of marriage being threatened and some other stuff and i got very uncomfortable. i was relieved that my dad asked if i wanted to leave at that point. i did enjoy the dancing though, and i really liked the maori dancing because if you've ever seen whale rider, some of that was what they did. so that was pretty cool.

but since then, yeah. mostly just hanging out at home trying to keep warm. still no job, but a lot of places are hiring for the holiday season so even if i get something temporary that would be nice. of course, everyone will know when i finally do find something.

i was planning on posting about my weekend, but i think i will wait until tomorrow. my new watch came from swatch today, and you can tell they know nothing about me because i think it is sort of ugly and i almost cried when i opened it.

i don't know what to do because i already spent a bunch of money sending it in in the first place.

*sigh*

Sarah is at Cornell and that makes me happy!!!

Michele here... I am the special guest blogger for today... I am supposed to write about what a great guest Sarah is, but I think I shall share some stories from her visit thus far and let you decide...

1.) She brought the blanket that I gave her for Chirstmas, which is all fine and well, but then she informs me that she hasn't washed it since then... I guess I have to wash the futon cover once she leaves...

2.) She started talking about how much she sweats while she sleeps... I guess I have to bleach the futon cover...

3.) She gets parking tickets... and then puts my name down on all of the paper work... I might be an RA, but I can't move mountains... and by mountains I mean [you know who, but michele asked me to take this part out. :)]...

4.) She comes into my room smelling like ass (and by ass I mean bar) at 2:30 in the morning...

5.) In the morning, she watched Blues Clue's.... apparently, she has a dirty little secret that I am now going to expose to you all... she has a crush on the guy on the show... Joe... how sick is that?

Here is the thing though... it is Sarah and I love her... and this is all funny, not annoying... so in short, she is a fabulous guest and I heart her lots, and I am glad that she came and stayed with me... even though I had to be a loser and be on duty so I couldn't really hang out with her... but it's all good...

Ok... I am going to go - maybe I will be back if more interesting things happen while Sarah is here... but I will leave you with this picture of her and I for you all to enjoy...

a rather heavy object has recently fallen on my toe. it hurts an awful lot and now my toenail is green. i'm a little worried about the future of said toenail.

and also, if it doesn't stop hurting, how am i supposed to sleep tonight? or for that matter drive tomorrow...

i got soul, but i'm not a soldier

i just found this via kick the leftist. i think it is HILARIOUS!

so at dinner, somehow our discussion turned into something about health care in different countries. i think it started out as a conversation about hurricanes, so i don't know how that progressed. anyway, it's very hard to convince someone who willingly listens to the likes of rush limbaugh that a lot of people can't afford health care and that instead of companies providing it and giving the money to the people to buy their own does not solve anything. also, capitalism ≠ democracy and vice versa.

i'm not sure i enjoy discussing politics.

what i do enjoy is the killers. it's some great music, i must say. i also enjoy the idea that some day perhaps i will have a job. wouldn't that be lovely.

i'm having some nice weekends to begin and end this week with. last weekend was my birthday, then on saturday i went to see some art with my mom. i also went to jordan creek for the first time (and probably not the last, but only because they have a j. crew) and also picked out a christmas present. then yesterday i watched a scary movie (the turn of the screw) and then whale rider. today i finished taking slides of my stuff from my show (and if anyone is interested in any of the photos, seriously! i'm not against selling them or anything!) i also found out that the dorm supervisor job i applied for in the summer is open again, and i asked them to open up my application and consider me for the position. (again). this next weekend i'm going to mt. vernon to visit since jessie will be in town, and i'll get to see michele too. so i'm pretty excited.

it's just the days until friday that i'm not looking forward for!

new layout?

i wanted to try three columns, but i don't know if i like it or not. decisions, decisions...

it's my birthday today. highly uneventful. the best gift i think i got was whale rider, from my brother. guess we're low on ideas this year. but i'm 23 now, which makes me feel old, somehow.

i've spent my entire week reading the abhorsen trilogy by garth nix. and the only reason it took me five days instead of three was because i had to wait a day to get lirael, and then it took me an extra day to read abhorsen because of grant's cross country meet yesterday.

i finally got a picture of grant running:



he's on the left, cameron is on the right. grant got 31st, which is good considering the competition.

since the meet was in indianola, i also got to see my friend amber who is finishing at simpson this year.

i have more to say, mostly about this movie i watched today, called iron jawed angels. basically, i thought it was really good, and i was surprised that our library would have it. mostly their selection consists of about ten different versions of south pacific. (and i'm pretty sure i'm not exagerating about that, either.)

weekend update

this has been the weekend of the phone call, apparantly. on friday, kate called me, which was a surprise because i thought she was in france already. (i had, in fact, already deleted her number from my phone i was so sure she was gone.) she is leaving on wednesdsay, and i'm very excited for her. she also gets to see kid (the wonderful amelia), and said she would email me pictures. that i am also excited for, because i miss amelia too.

not long before kate called me, sue called my mom. she lives in manson, where we lived two towns ago. her daughter emily was my friend then, and after we moved to clarion, she got pregnant, married and then finished high school. she has mostly been in arizona since, where her husband (josh) is in the air force. she now has three kids and josh has recently arrived back in the country after being gone for an extended period of time. but he isn't living with them anymore because he doesn't want the responsibility. it's sad, because i don't think this is where emily saw her life headed at the age of 16, but that's where it is now.

the last phone call was the one i made to laura. i tried to call her yesterday but she was busy so i couldn't get ahold of her. so i did today, and it was fun. i always like talking to her even though sometimes we just sit there on the phone. i miss her. i think she was much easier to live with in that one room in bowman (or merner, take your pick) than having a whole house i have to share with my family.

my weekend has been much nicer than the rest of my week was. i didn't think about job hunting at all, instead i went to target and went baby clothes shopping and then saw sky captain and the world of tomorrow with my sister and reuben. i hearted it a lot, but won't spoil it for the people who haven't seen it yet because i could easily do that if i keep talking about it.

i also read the book eragon by christopher paolini. it was pretty good, it had a good storyline, but some of the language (as in, the made up words) and stuff reminded me of lord of the rings. but then, i figure lord of the rings is sort of the definitive fantasy series and almost anything else i read in that genre will somehow remind me of it. i know, i'm a nerd. and i'm going to go continue being a nerd by recommending books to my library. i really hate that they buy one book in a series, without buying the books before or after it. clearly, i am not in charge or that would not happen. (it's really annoying!)

whiny

all i want is to have one lousy job. but NOOO...gainful employment is apparantly too much to be asking for. i even perused a website about cruise line jobs a few minutes ago as attractive the idea of the sun and sea might be, i really don't know about me + lots of random strangers. this was after i talked to my friend john today and briefly considered teaching english in another country until i remembered i wouldn't be able to teach a fish to swim, let alone english to a non-speaker.

so to kill time (and to clear out space in my room) i've started cleaning again. which means taking everything apart:

my closets look pretty much like that too right now.

i'm so flipping bored!

visitor

al franken just spoke in the park downtown. i didn't get my picture with him though, and i'm kind of sad. he wrote lies and the lying liars who tell them: a fair and balanced look at the right and rush limbaugh is a big fat idiot. neither of which i have read, but are on my list.

i guess cheney is supposed to come tomorrow and they want people to go protest, but since they didn't say what time he's going to be here, it's kinda pointless.

i took these at the last cross country meet, at fairfield. maybe it will help the homesick iowans? (or make it worse.) the trees are already turning here, some of them! it's crazy.

i also took some of my brother, but i still haven't figured out exactly when to take a picture in order to compensate for the slow reaction time of a digital camera. (maybe it's just ours, but it has to think about it before it takes the picture. that's why a lot of mine turn out badly.) i also used up a roll of b&w, and then last night used the other two i had around town. there really is nothing of interest in ottumwa to take pictures of.

it can't really be september

my birthday is in a couple of weeks. have i mentioned that? have i mentioned that i'm a little freaked out about that? because i am. i can't believe it's already september.

since this will be a sort of longish update due to my disinterest/laziness/lack of anything interesting to say until yesterday, i'm going to try to make it easier and use bullet points. why? because i can! but that doesn't mean that it will be any easier to read.

• high school cross country season has started, which means that grant is running again. i'm really excited about this because a) i love hs cross country and b) my brother is really good (he's an xc rockstar!) and since i'm at home and jobless, that means i can go to every meet if i want to. so far that's only been two meets.
  the first one was last week at wildwood park, here in town. last year at this meet, my brother got 30th. this year, he got 6th place. that says how much he has improved since last year. he's been running all summer and doing weightlifting and stuff. you can tell too, he looks a lot different. (he's six inches taller than me and weighs less than me. you can really tell when he puts anything, fat or muscle on his frame.)
  then yesterday he had a meet at grinnell. this was with bigger and better schools, so i was thinking that maybe as far as placement he wouldn't do as well as at wildwood. he got fifth place! i'm so excited for him, he even got a medal. i also got to meet jaya very briefly, because she was there running for her school. (she is the girl that my brother likes.)
  the other thing was that i met the mother of one of the girls who runs varsity, and she said that her husband's school (as in he is the principal, not like he owns it or something) is always looking for volunteers to help teachers, and that i should think about it. so i am, and we'll see if i decide to do something like that. i suppose it couldn't hurt since it's not like i have a job yet.
  anyway, so i had fun at his meet and afterwards we all went out to pizza ranch in oskaloosa, because that's what grant wanted. and since, if i am not eating pizza, i am thinking about eating pizza, i did not object. i can't wait for grant's meet tomorrow in fairfield.


• we redocrated my room. well, not really. we just put grant's tv in there because that way i can watch the daily show/adult swim/whatever is on pbs (shut up!) at night without my dad getting all mad. it required a lot of effort to move the cable cord into my room, so it will be staying for awhile.


• the beach is closed! hooray! the end was bad, because nobody wanted to work, so it got very complicated as far as rotations went. i also had a hispanic man flirt with me, and then he kissed my hand (i shouldn't feel too special, though, he kissed erin's as well). there was also a group of three kids on labor day all in red, white & blue/stars & stripes swimwear, which frightened me to no end, and a staff party on monday night which was a blast.

i need to make some plans for today now. i'm supposed to call a bunch of people, including my ex boyfriend from high school so that we talk about meeting in fairfield for indian some day. that should be an interesting lunch. since it's been basically about four years since i last saw him, i don't really know what we'll talk about or anything. he's a nice guy, but i'm not sure i'm looking forward to it.

my sister on the fourth of july when we had our home fireworks.

i should really just upgrade so i can do albums if i'm going to keep posting photos.

améliorer (french) - to improve

that's just for laura.

i feel like conjugating verbs now. i really need to stay away from my sister, it's her fault. she's always speaking french or about french. the only reason i know this word was because i couldn't sleep the other night for trying to remember the french word for "blueberry". so i got out my eight years of french notes to search. i didn't find it, but i saw this.

i am such a geek. the other day i was looking through my text from critical theory, reading roland barthes. i don't even ENJOY literary theory, i think i'm just suffering from some sort of academic withdrawel.

speaking of academic things, indian hills is now in session. my sister is now a victim of drive by harassment, as well as my poor dog. i think he's on the verge of developing a nervous twitch or something.

i've been trying to incorporate these shoes into my post for the last ten minutes. i want them. more than anything.



if only they didn't cost over $300.

...and i'm not even drunk...

in case you haven't noticed (you might not have) i changed my picture again. i liked the other one, but i'm fickle about certain things and since i'm determined not to change the layout of my blog (because that confuses me) my picture is somewhat inconsequential. i have been taking self portraits all summer using up the batteries in the digital camera, but i never like the results. well, i like the blurry ones (clearly i have a thing for blurry photographs) but most of the clear ones i look way to pensive, but it's really because i'm concentrating on taking the picture. the ones i took today were okay, but some of them i looked really confused and tired (which is appropriate, because i am mostly these days) but who wants to see sarah with circles under her eyes, right?

anyway...so i was working on a project today of taking slides and digital photos of my prints from my show, so that i can get a move on and sell some of these babies. i took one roll of slide film and realized that my digital pictures were all blue, but since i can't tell if it's the camera or what i'm waiting to get those back before i take the second roll of film. no point in wasting things, yeah?

speakig of digital pictures, i really need to buy a photo editing program. the one that came with our computers is crap because i can't resize things, and consequently have used over 50% of my available space on typepad because i insist on uploading the pictures anyway. perhaps for my birthday, which is now less than a month away. (the only other things i was going to ask for were new glasses, which i guess i'm getting anyway, or a plane ticket to new york. but i figure i might actually get, say, photoshop over a plane ticket. especially since my dad buys his [tickets that is] all off of yahoo! and would pay the full price while i spend all of my free time looking at plane tickets anyway and could get a better deal.)

pretty soon we're also going to have a talk about what i'm going to be paying for which i was unhappily reminded consists of car insurance (i only even want a car because if i get a job i can't take public transport in this town, and that's it which is so stupid) and a cell phone (which i can definitely do without if necessary). but that's still more money that i thought of so my plans to save up and travel are kinda down the toilet now. i don't know what my deal is, but suddenly i really want to go back to england. yes, i was there in january, but i think that either my living at home or the fact that cornell just started classes has facilitated this desire to leave and travel around the world, also, i've been reading a blog about a couple who is doing that, and i find it completely unfair. (the link is on the side, it's "where are sarah and rich around the world".) i think i need to ban myself from expedia and priceline and it will all be okay.

the beach is taking over my life.

today at work i was spraying mold in the showers with bleach water when the bottle fell off the sprayer and splashed into my eye. it doesn't hurt anymore. i also think i inhaled some because i feel pretty ill and stuff. also, i think it's anemia and not mono because i almost passed out into the pool when we were cleaning the drains on the pool deck.

the good news is it's cold outside so at least i got to come home early and read all of the books i checked out from teh library. i know, it's such heavy reading. i wonder how i'll manage.

here are some pictures from our beach party on wednesday.

stephanie and reuben. those are marshmallows in stephanie's mouth.

drew

dale

more croquet.

"discussing" the rules of croquet.

korina.

oh yeah! i also bought bend it like beckham yesterday because it was on sale at target for $10. except i got full screen instead of wide screen. but since i had already opened it i'll keep it. either way, at least now i can watch it whenever i want which will be pretty much every day. i also bought a t-shirt that is from where the wild things are and i like it a lot.

anyway, i think i might go lie down or something. blech.

i think that the mono is going for one final ass-kicking before it's completely through with me. either that, or i am anemic again. too bad i have no health insurance to find out.

it's a small world after all...

jessie met grant (also known as my friend amber's brother) who is studying divinity at duke! oh that takes me back to high school. (the good memories of it, that is!)

i am so glad that the season is almost over at the beach. i spent three+ hours last night working with hundreds of high school students present. *shudder* the pizza in the carpet alone was disgusting...not to mention the rest of the park. (the poor swim team had to use the comp pool this morning before it got cleaned...) but hey, at least i got a free t-shirt and a plastic cup that i didn't need.

tomorrow i don't have to work--the beach is closed. i'm so excited. so instead, i'm cooking dinner with stephanie for some of our beach coworkers.

don't call me sweetheart, honey

some guy called me sweetheart at work today. i was like...uh...you're creepy?

something unusual is happening tonight.

i'm not watching the olympics.

i've been watching on the entire nbc network. excluding telemundo. oh yes, i've even perused the boxing on cnbc, but only briefly. it's been a riot, i tell ya...

i'm only posting because i realized it's been a week since i last did. i've tried, but all i can talk about is the olympics because besides working that is seriously all i've been doing. i'm obsessed. ask my sister.

next week we are having a beach cookout at our house with our coworkers. i think it'll be fun to be social and not just because i'm working and i need to be. okay, so i actually like most of the people, but you know. it's not the same.

i miss everybody.

okay, back to what not to wear. i'll try to not take so long next time to post, but i don't have anything exciting to say.

it's worth all that money i spent.

here's the link to the article. i'm not posting it, because it's pretty long. be warned, i sound a bit like an idiot, which isn't too much out of the ordinary i guess. this'll teach me to not write what i want to say down beforehand. (i even thought of it, but didn't, because i had gone over it in my head several times.) it's not the first part that bothers me, but the last sentence. i'm pretty sure i said some other things that surrounded it that didn't make it in. ah well, other than the few readers who will go to that link and the thousands of iowans who don't know me...

anyway, i went to the fair today, which everyone should know by now since i've been talking about it for ages. i took dad's digital camera and took some pictures, but i didn't take as many as i would have liked because the batteries were low and dad had some pictures he never took off of it.

in the varied industries building. you have to look closer to see it, but the "seamless" isn't so seamless.

this is a sculpture at the iowa state place. it's usually by whatever the auditorium is called there. (stephens? i should really know this.) anyway, it's one of my favorites, especially because it reminds me of ames.

my brother and sister.

a tub of bottledsodas at the general store that sells the pickle buttons. last year, i bought one that says "i like pickles." this year i bought one for my sister, "where's the pickle?" the soda is very good, too.

the sky lift. i've never done it, because it's silly and costs too much money.

the tubador. he's a staple at the state fair and ragbrai with his tuba and tambourine.

this was in the dollhouse area. um...a little frightening? just a bit.

there's a guy in an old car dressed like a nerd. it was so super funny! in this picture he's getting out of the car so he can show everyone his toad collection. "i found him in the road playing dodge car."

there are tons of these places, selling inflatable objects of all kinds. need a wizard? look here.

a camel at the petting zoo.

i was also accosted by some men from the john birch society. i just wanted to look at their table because i hadn't ever heard of them before. bad idea! the man talekd to tme for about five minutes and kept giving me brochures. finally, i said "i'll look at this", smiled, and walked away. hilarious! i also ate way too much gross stuff, and should not have finished with the funnel cake. i had powdered sugar all over me, and i didn't even finish the thing cause i was so sugared out. but it was a fun day, minus the newspaper thing. can't wait to go back to work tomorrow...ick.

EDIT: sorry the pictures are so big. i don't usually scale them down, i just set the width after i upload them. i forgot to do that this time, and since it took me over an hour on our dialup to do it...i'm not fixing it!