Meeeeeem

Rachel's blogs place these responsibilities on me. I MUST do as they say!

Share 7 random and/or weird things about yourself.

1) I made up my own religion. It involves a lot of superstition and quasi-paganism, but only in a lackadaisical kind of way. If we ever have another Inquisition, I am in trouble.

2) I eat dessert concurrently with the main meal. I like the contrast of flavors.

3) I martyr-eat my salads. I eat the things I dislike the most first so by the end of the meal, there's nothing but tomatoes in the bowl. Then I eat those!

4) Almost every day I feel a compulsion to sing songs from Les Mis at work. If no one's around, I sing really loudly.

5) I often purposely mispronounce the names of foods.

6) I like slightly burnt popcorn.

7) When it's almost dinner time, and I'm trying to write something, all my thoughts turn invariably to food. Maybe that one's not so weird, but I need to wrap this up because it's dinner time!

Yay!

I love this thing!

1. What did you do in 2007 that you'd never done before?
Got a real, full-time job, moved to California, got my own apartment, lots of grown-up things ike that.

2. Did you keep your new year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I was going to work out every single day. Well, I got closer to that goal this year than last year, and I'm really happy with my body right now, so we'll call that one accomplished!

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Elaine! To half-brother Roro aka Robin.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
No, knock on wood.

5. What countries did you visit?
None. Sad!

6. What would you like to have in 2008 that you lacked in 2007?
Airplane tickets to Alaska, vet school acceptance.

7. What date from 2007 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
June 25th: the day I left Hawaii. Again: sad!

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
The ability to move to a completely new place where I know no one and actually do ok for myself.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Gave in to emotion too easily.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
I got strep again! Tcha! I will do my own tonsilectomy with a rusty spoon before I got through that again!

11. What was the best thing you bought?
Rental cars! Also my futon-couch Munkarp.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Rental cars. Also rent.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
People coming to visit me in Hawaii, trips up Mauna Kea and to Hapuna, the 5k with Jackie, New Hampshire, the S2P mini-reunion, the October road trip, trips to Ikea

16. What song will always remind you of 2007?
Tilly and the Walls' "Rainbows in the Dark," Fergie's "Big Girls Don't Cry," Avril Lavigne's "Hey Hey," Plain White Tees' "You and Me."


17. Compared to this time last year, are you
happier or sadder? sadder, I won't be home for Christmas : (
older or wiser? Wiser. I know what I don't want now.
thinner or fatter? thinner! Thanks to being poor!
richer or poorer? Poorer! Wtf, full time job??

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Staying in Hawaii.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Thinking.

20. How will you be spending Christmas?
Working. But working with Chrissy at the zoo!

21. Did you fall in love in 2007?
Love is such a tricky word. I'll say yes.

22. How many one-night stands?
Not a one.

23. What was your favorite TV program?
The Office! Also Arrested Development and Mr Show.

24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
I intensely dislike someone.

25. What was the best book you read?
Life of Pi.

26. What was your greatest musical discovery?
The Shins! Also, I assume it'll be the Killers' new CD, but I'll have to wait two more days to make sure.

27. What did you want and get?
A genuine full time job with health insurance and my own apartment.

28. What did you want and not get?
I got what I thought I wanted, but it turns out I don't actually want it.

29. What was your favorite film of this year?
Maybe Hairspray? I can't even remember what I saw this year. Oh! Blades of Glory! How sad. Rachel had movies that require, you know, brain cells. Also The Mist because it was so incredibly bad!

30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I threw a tantrum. I was, and am, 24. Actually, I'm gonna go ahead and say the MRxL beach party was my birthday party!

31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
NOT getting a real job.

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2007?
Awesome! Knee-high boots figured in heavily, as did swimsuits.

33. What kept you sane?
The beach! Also TV, sad to say.

34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Dwight Schrute. Kidding! Probably Zach Braff.

35. What political issue stirred you the most?
Global warming.

36. Who did you miss?
Family and friends. As always.

37. Who was the best new person you met?
Jackie! also Sara, Emily, Rachel K, Robbie, and Roro!

38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2007.
You never know what you got til it's gone.

39. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
For Jan-June:
"It was just another night
with the sun set
and the moon rise not so far behind
to give us just enough light
to lay down underneath the stars
listen to all the translations
of the stories across the sky
we drew our own constellations" ~Jack Johnson

Also:
"Hey hey, you you, I don't like your girlfriend."

For October:
"Love is war/I'm your soldier"


For Nov-now:
"I never really gave up on/getting out of this two-star town." ~The Killers

It's quarter til one in the morning, and I have work tomorrow. I've been sick for the past two weeks. The new cat's been sick since I got him. I just found out two interesting facts. First, you can get a long-lasting flu-like disease from being snotted on by a cat. Cat Scratch Fever is a real disease. Thank you WebMD. Second, aforementioned cat has been peeing in my closet for quite some time. I was just extolling his peeing-in-the-catbox abilities to my dad, saying this cat is a keeper. I think he's gotta go. His constant illness and terrible hygiene are sources of unbearable stress. Why can't I handle pets anymore? Also I think someone's been stealing my Netflixes out of the mailbox.


This is pretty much the most miserable I've ever been and for the longest amount of time.

Cat Scratch Fever

Ok, now that I'm recovering from my flu of death and have cleaned my apartment of cat urine, I feel a lot better about Fresno and life in general. Don't get me wrong, I'm still busting out of this place in a year. But I feel more confident I can survive until then.

The cat's still sick. I'm going to write an amazing novel and get it published and never have to have a real job again. Real jobs are lame, I'm discovering. But planning for the next thing is not! My head is full of dreams of seasonal work and internships and living with a billion roommates in a rent-free house. What I was doing before this, basically. It's like they say: you don't know what you got til it's gone. In the meantime, I'm going to take some kind of class here and try to save some money and just be me!

It's like the Beach Boys say, you just gotta have a little faith in yourself, darlin'. And everything that you do. New love: Arrested Development. Old, rediscovered love: Mr Show. Ahhh TV, you never let me down. Wait, yes you do. All the time. "Next Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader" much? Scrap that. Ahhh carefully vetted Netflix reruns of old TV series, YOU never let me down!

This Thanksgiving weekend, I was and still am thankful for my family, my friends, my relatively newfound sense of independence, the fact that the holiday season lasts for a month and a half, dark chocolate, cranberry sauce attractively displayed, Martinelli's and the fact that living in California has brought me into contact with this incredible sparkling cider, my boss' benevolent views on sick days, and the fact that I live somewhere and in such a way that I can afford to worry about whether my current job is fulfilling and where I have the freedom to quit and move anytime I want but the convictions to stay for at least a year.

Every Day I Want to Cry

I am not having the best adjustment period here. This parade of terrible cats (I traded in Rosey and got Jayne) makes me question not only my abilities as a pet owner, but whether I like animals at all anymore. And if I don't like animals, what am I going to do? I had a fever last night. I think the cat gave it to me. Jayne peed on a lot of my stuff. I found out I'm happiest when I'm driving away from this place.

Good thoughts:
Mom's here in two weeks; two weeks after that, Chrissy's here; six weeks after that, Rachel's here
I got paid today
Thanksgiving at Dianne's was excellent


I would give anything for some do-overs.

Keep on the Sunny Side

The situation here in the 'no is getting a little desperate. I'm overdrawn (almost) on two bank accounts, the cable guy is coming, and I owe a tuition payment today. Payday is Friday.

Rosey the garbage cat is not working out. I didn't really feel a connection with her when they brought her into the vet hospital in a trap cage full of fish heads, but I assumed, because I love animals, I could forge one. It's a little more than a week later. She's looking good--put on weight and flea free--but I do not like this cat. Maybe I don't like animals anymore. She keeps me up at night, she's destroying all my stuff, she smells terrible, and her little meows are not cute, they're annoying.

I'm having a little trouble getting on my feet here in Fresno. It'll all be better after payday. I hope.

His Name is Garbage Because He Eats Garbage!

I got a cat!

Well, actually the keeper who's responsible for pest control trapped me a feral garbage cat. Her name was going to be Opala, Hawaiian for Trash, but I went with Rosey instead. It's sort of an homage to my late Uncle Jim, who had an awesome old cat name Pinky who sort of resembled my trash cat. She's a black and orange calico kitten with a broken tail, stink-butt, and a nasty case of fleas. She's also my project! Just watch. In ten days or so, she'll be a gorgeous picture of kitten health. You'll be able to pass her off as a dutchess at the embassy ball.

Now repeat after me, Rosey: The rain in Spain stays mainly on the plain...

Rockabye

As I just wrote in an email to Rachel, I'm so homesick I might die. Not literally. Anyone who knows me knows I'm prone to hyperbole. I'm just really, really, REALLY homesick. If you offered me a plane ticket home right now, I'd take it, consequences be damned. I guess it's a good thing I get jobs in expensive plane ticket areas of the US, because I always cope. I always feel horrible for the first ten days after a move, and then I always get over it. And then I love the place/job/situation I'm in. I KNOW that's what happens. I know this wretched feeling won't last. You'd think that would help me through these rough times, but it doesn't. California feels farther from home than Alaska or Hawaii. Is it because this is the real deal, job-wise? Not an internship or a school semester with a set ending date? Do I feel like I'm trapped here? I'm not. I KNOW I could leave anytime. But I'll get over it. And then I'll feel great again. I always do.

Some horrible part of me worries that maybe this is the real thing. Maybe this is the time I don't snap out of it.

But no, it'll be OK. Like the song goes, "everything's gonna be alright."

I feel like I hold the world record for failure to leave the nest.

The big road trip was more than two weeks ago. Time for some introspection.

Things I Learned on The Road Trip
1) You can find places to go out dancing any night of the week if you try hard enough.
2) LA lives up to its stereotypes.
3) Santa Barbara is an underrated town.
4) If you find a band-aid on your pillow at the hotel, you should complain in person.
5) I have no reason or desire ever to go to Utah.
6) If you see billboards for roadside zoos with six-legged cows and the world's largest prairie dog, you MUST stop.
7) If you wear false eyelashes and a cocktail dress to a Burger King in Wyoming at noon on a Tuesday, you might get some stares.
8) Reno is not all it's cracked up to be, and it's not cracked up to be all that much.
9) My car can go 60 miles after the gas light comes on.
10) Speaking of my car, if you let it sit unused in a garage in South Carolina for a year and a half and then take it 3,000 miles at an average of 75 mph through mountains, plains, snow, and rain, fully loaded, it might have a problem or two by the time you get to your destination.
11) College night at the clubs is still fun when you're not in college anymore.
12) Vodka is not my friend (unless mixed with grape soda), but beer is!
13) The San Diego Zoo might still have the same black jaguars (or their offspring) it had in the critically acclaimed 1987 film "Rainbow Brite at the San Diego Zoo."
14) Coronada: fact or fiction? Fact: it has good Thai food.
15) Just because you get to Fresno doesn't mean the trip is over! You can always go back to San Francisco.
16) Cool travel companions make all the difference.

So now I'm in my new home city, trying to weasel an apartment out of the people at my chosen apartment complex. It's not even particularly nice, but I can't afford to lose my deposit. So I call the manager and her idiotic trainee manager everyday trying to convey the idea that I WILL GIVE YOU MON-EY (vigorously nod head, smile) IF YOU GIVE ME AN AP-ART-MENT! speaking very slowly, loudly, and angrily. In the meantime, I started my job yesterday, and it looks like it'll be a good one.

Halloween is just around the corner! Today I will hit up the discount stores for Vampirate costume components.

Turn, Turn, Turn

Tomorrow starts the big Road Trip West!

One of my best friends from Hawaii is flying here and together we will drive Route 70 to San Fransisco over the course of three days--two if we're feeling ambitious. Then we'll meet up with Dianne and head south along the coast. This marks a new era in my life: the "responsible adult era." The "irresponsible sponge on my parents era" is going out with a bang, though. I have big plans for these road trips!

Moving west to California seems like such a cliche thing to do. Isn't it part of a song or a graduation speech or something? "Live out West, but don't get too soft; live out East, but don't get too hard." Well cliche or not, it's my turn! Time to live somewhere I've never lived and do things I've never done before. Whenever I tell people I'm moving to California, the first thing they usually say is "oh it's so expensive out there." Tcha. I'll manage. I'm a little nervous about moving away from the East Coast, stronghold of my friends and family. It won't be like the internships where you have at least a few other displaced, new people ready to be your pre-assigned friends. This is another step outside my comfort zone, but I'm looking forward to it. All the best things happen to me when I get away from what I know. My life goal is never to be stagnant. I stole that from Jackie, because I like it so much. It'll be great! And if it's not great, which it will be, it'll be a learning experience.

I'm also a little nervous about starting a full time job. It seems to go against the "don't be stagnant" philosophy. But if I don't like it, if I feel stuck, I can always do something else! I can always get a new job or internship and move. Moving is good. Moving frees the soul.

So there ya go: new job, new state, new life, new blog!