...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!

i don't know whether i should be excited, or scared.

the reporter from the register did call me. she called my house when i was in the shower, and my dad took the message. once again, he made fun of me because it was about greens for kerry. and apparantly, the greens are a "hippy cult" or something. um, right dad.

anyway, it wasn't horrible, but it was slightly painful. i'm not worried about whether or not i am intelligent or anything, i just have huge issues articulating things and therefore am worried about if i seem intelligent. (this topic of conversation seems familiar, i'm sure i've covered it before.) but we'll see how big of an idiot i sound like tomorrow when the paper comes out. (at least, i'm assuming it comes out tomorrow.) i'll be sure to find it online and post the article here, but it might take awhile since i'm going to the fair tomorrow.

i'm pretty excited about that. i really like the fair, it's so quintessentially iowan. i can't believe that i was about 15 when i first went, because i've gone nearly every year since. the routine is the same; varied industries building for free stuff and to enter contests, the art building to look at the photography and paintings, and then we wander around looking at the livestock and the free shows. we also hit the dnr building, even though it's the same every year. and the butter cow, because you can't possibly miss that!

anyway...it's matinee time! i'm about to see how good princess diaries 2 is. i'm a little worried about the raven/julie andrews singing bit, though...

assistance required!

so...someone from greens for kerry called me today and asked if i would be willing to talk to a reporter from the des moines register about why i'm voting for kerry and not say, nader or something. i said yes. i'm not entirely sure what i'll say. i mean, i know what issues are important to me (environment, women's rights, etc.) but i feel like perhaps if i knew statistics or something that would ease my anxiety.

of course, i might not ever hear from the reporter.

(this reminds me of a quote last night from the daily show..."kudos robert novak, you truly are a...douchebag!")

and there was much rejoicing!

what was today's temperature?

60°

what is the minimum temperature required for the outdoor area of the beach to be open?

70°

so did sarah have to work today?

NO!

was sarah excited about this?

HELL YES!

so today i did nothing of consequence, just cleaned, read, and listened to music that doesn't suck. today is also the first day in over a week where i have worn "real" clothes that are not pajamas or a swimsuit. tomorrow's high isn't very high, so i hope that we don't reach it and are closed again. it's not that i don't want to work (okay, i don't), but if it's not going to be warm i'd rather not have to freeze to death.

ah, how relaxing!

tedium.

still working every day, and the knee is still acting up. other than that, there really isn't much to report. hence, i haven't been posting. bleah.

oh, i guess i did go shopping on tax free day saturday. bought a few shirts, a courderoy blazer at target, special edition of princess diaries, and vogue. i think it's cause i miss laura. (even though it's also cause of the bush twins interview).

i jinxed myself

so my week isn't really any less boring, but i did spice it up a little bit. by accidently injuring myself. wednesday night i got to stay after and play around with some of the other staff, thanks to my great ability to whine about things. anyway, so i went down the indoor slide with korina and stephanie on this mat that made you go super fast, and at the end i hit my knees on the bottom of the pool. given my past history with my knees, that didn't go over so well and yesterday was painful. but i forgot about how difficult the day would be with my knees when i got to the lagoon. lo and behold, once again, i managed to cut myself on the metal wire things on the boats. this is the third time i've had to bandage myself while down there, and this one isn't a very happy cut. it's on the top of my thumb and keeps coming open, so it's still bleeding a little. (i know, it's pleasant, isn't it.) it's inconvenient for sure. and i get to keep going to work every day until friday next week, when i asked for it off so we could go to the state fair. it's their sesquicentennial this year as well. i wonder if this means it'll be any more exciting than usual, but i suspect if so, not by much.

the job search continues. the sooner i can find one, the sooner i can go off into the world. and that just won't be soon enough.

what a boring week this is turning out to be. it's wednesday, and besides work and the usual west wing every morning, i think i have literally not done a thing.

at least because of all of the sun, my legs are no longer blindingly white.

i'm the filet mignon, derek's the peanut butter

i had a fun weekend, but i almost think i need another break to recover from this one. i'm pretty tired.

i got back in time to see the village with my sister and my mom. i didn't try to figure out the end, because really, where's the fun in that?

and sheesh, sorry i didn't tell anyone i was going to mt vernon! i didn't even know for sure i was going until thursday night, and really, i mostly just went to see derek and liz since liz invited me and derek is leaving. the best part was driving to chicago (okay, joliet) to hang out with scooter and have a kegger with high school students. wow, if you really want to make me feel old...

speaking of which, i found someone at work who is actually somewhat close to my age. her name is veronika, and she's pretty cool. she talks a lot, which i'm totally okay with since i don't talk much at all. i'm actually kind of sad that she's going to be gone for the next week, because i like that she's around.

also, i could really use a job. *sigh*