Sweet Catastrophe

I got something in the mail this weekend that I’m a little excited about.

I had to fight with my camera to get a decent shot without so much glare, and here’s what I got:

I’m adding this to my concert collection!

I was given the chance to choose among a variety of dog tags to customize and check out. I chose a musical note and had it engraved to say, “The Original Lifeho.” Erm…It’s a Lifehouse thing, you probably wouldn’t understand

I can’t wait till my next show when I can wear this. Until then, it’s hanging in my car. It makes me smile!

It’s really great quality metal, so I’m not worried about it still looking great by the time the guys decide to make an appearance near South Georgia again *eyeroll*

They’ve got great prices too, so I’ve been thinking about all the different things I could do with it. We never went through with getting parking passes made for Parkview, and there are only a few of us here so I thought it’d be a cool idea to do some of these to hang in our cars. It’d definitely be different! I may give it a shot when we all get our excess checks this semester.

Ryan picked me up from work Friday night in my freshly-cleaned car and we weaved through the traffic to pick up some subs. We got home and got everything ready to go and headed out. I took a Dramamine to try and get some sleep. It really didn’t work. I was restless the whole drive, but it actually wasn’t too bad. My memory is blurred, but I think we got in sometime between 4 and 6. We sat up with his mom for a bit and then passed out.

On Saturday his sister woke us up around 11 and then she fell asleep. (She works overnight at Harrah’s casino.) We left to ride around ‘Old’ Sidell and stopped by a Who Dat store…it’s all Saints and Tigers stuff. Ryan picked up a gift for his aunt and uncle there and we left to go to Ryan’s favorite place to eat in Slidell, Lee’s. They ground their own beef for burgers, and I’ve got to admit, it was a pretty damn good burger. They had some awesome onion rings as well. After that we went to Home Depot to order some doors and pick up some lights and stuff for the house. That was an adventure…no joke. Finally, we picked up Ryan’s sister, Vanessa, and went out to eat. We tried Texas Roadhouse but it was packed. Outback had the same wait time, so we ended up at some Mexican restaurant they love. I don’t enjoy Mexican, so it was hunger and heartburn for me!

Sunday we got up and made our way to the zoo! This is what I was excited about doing. Despite the cold, I had a really good time. It was lunchtime and cold, so there were a few animals not out, but I was expecting that. We had to circle back around before we left to check out the white tigers. I adore white tigers and they weren’t out the first time so I had to check back. Ryan and I took a picture with the little white tiger background. For some reason my head looks huge, so I’ll just keep that one to myself

After that, we headed over to Riverwalk to shop. We got halfway through and decided to go to the Aquarium. We skipped over that and went shopping in the French Quarter, then to some flea market thing, where I swear I’ve never seen so many gold chains, then back to the French Quarter.

When all that was said and done, we decided to go to Harrah’s Casino and play the slots.

Now, I think we all know I’m a pretty lucky gal online. Just this year I’ve won $1500 in PPP contests, and over $1000 in cash and other prizes in other contests. I had a feeling I was gonna do fairly well at the casino.

Bitch please! I am SO not lucky in a casino. We all gave ourselves a limit and I was done practically immediately. Not only that, but any time I stood with Ryan while he was playing, he would start losing. Eventually I just made my way over to a table and sat to play solitaire on my phone. I generally win about every other game of solitaire on my phone. Um no. I probably played close to 50 games on my phone while I was there and I couldn’t win a single one. It wasn’t until late the next day that I finally started winning at that again.

Now I’m not superstitious, I’m just a little stitious, but I think I’ll be staying away from casinos thankyouverymuch. They steal my mojo fo’ sho’.

After some more shuffling and back and forth decision-making between Ryan and his mom, we finally ended up at Cracker Barrel for an amazing dinner.

Monday I opted to sleep in while they fought the crowd at Honeybaked Ham. When they got back we went to pick up groceries and we all split up to try and cut down on our time in the crowd. We lunched on some AMAZING sandwich meat we picked up, something like salami turkey. Again, amazing.

I think there was some lazy time and then off to watch the latest installment in the National Treasure series. Loved it! I’d say it was just a slight notch behind the first, but only because it’s hard to recreate the amazement in watching Cage’s character solve the puzzles. We’ll be picking up the dvd a.s.a.p., I’m sure. I also managed to guilt Ryan into taking me to see Sweeney Todd this week when he gets back, so bonus points for me!

We ended the night back home to grill some steaks and finish wrapping Christmas gifts. Cozy night.

Christmas day was just….I dunno. I guess this was the first year I wasn’t home, so it was weird for me. It finally happened though. I finally had the Christmas gift experience. You know it, that sweater. The one that looks horrid on you, but you have to wear it. Yeah. It was actually a really nice sweater, and I liked it before I put it on, but it just wasn’t built for me. I looked like a potato sack. Unfortunately, I had no way to weasel out of wearing it. It put a damper on my day. Hormones, plus negative body image, does not equal a good day to meet new people you’d like to impress.

So off to Ryan’s aunt’s. Not really much to say. We sat around and talked for 82 hours. She made me some fresh pralines to bring home to my grandmothers. I really like his aunt but it was hard to completely overthrow my grumpiness.

We stayed there later than planned and Ryan’s mom started talking herself into waiting until the next day to cook. Now, Jade had a really crappy Thanksgiving, and Jade was really looking forward to ham, turkey, rolls, and macaroni and cheese. Jade almost cried.

I told Ryan what was going on, and on the drive home, he subtly talked her back into cooking that night. So we had an amazing dinner and I got tipsy and there were people and yeah, it was just fun. Unfortunately it got cut short when Ryan had to abruptly leave. The truck for their gig was overweight so Ken wanted Ryan to drive it on over while the weigh stations were closed. We were both mad, but what can you do? I ended up bunking with his sister which was a little weird, but I quickly got over it when I found out she had a tempur-pedic mattress. Best sleep.

Wednesday I got up and ate a little and just slowly decided to hit the road. Pretty uneventful drive.

Pictures of all five dachshunds, the two cats, and our zoo trip can all be seen on photobucket. There’s also a video there of one of the bobcats walking in a figure 8 for no apparent reason. We still haven’t figured that one out!

I think it’s kind of sad when I’m this proud that I made it through my entire shift.

The rest of my day was really busy, but everything went pretty smoothly. Well, I guess I should say it was frustrating, but nothing I couldn’t handle.

I did come close to an anxiety attack over one customer. I’ve been on the edge of one for the past few days and this almost sent me over.

Ya see, I have sort of a phobia of seeing people in stores with oxygen tanks. I know that’s weird, but when I worked at Kmart, I had a woman drop dead 3 feet in front of me and she was carrying an oxygen tank and it’s pretty much just stuck with me. Understandable, right?

So this younger guy comes in and not only is he dragging an oxygen tank, but he clearly has cerebral palsy as well and he takes a fall right in front of the service desk. He ended up being fine, he just tripped up over his own feet, but for a few moments, I just lost it a little in my mind. I’m glad I didn’t have a panic attack ’cause I don’t know what David would’ve done if I’d had to leave early.

After work I had to stop at Wal Mart to pick up the new pills I’ve been taking. I had samples for two months so this was my first time going to buy them and I was pleasantly surprised to find out they were half the price of my old pills! I was prepared to pay more, so I was definitely happy.

And now I’m gonna do my laundry, watch Buffy, and wait for the storm to roll in outside!

And probably blog a little more in a bit….

Well, I stayed home yesterday to fight this cold/flu/death thing and I’m feeling only a little better today, but I went to work anyway.

There are 5 sections that each require at least one cashier present–garden center, returns, customer service, checkouts, & lumber. 5 is an absolute minimum. Today we have 4 people opening, and 4 people closing. There are no mid-shifts to cover lunches.

I’m running Customer Service, Returns, and checking customers out because there’s no speed requirement to be a cashier….

So that means I’m answering phones, ringing someone up, and calling a department for a pickup while someone else is standing in Returns tapping their tootsies waiting on me. This was a slow moment.

And I’m sick.

And I had NO sleep last night. None. When I finally fell asleep, Ryan called and I was on the phone with him for an hour trying to get through how to cancel his phone because it had been stolen. This all ended with the guy who took his phone bringing it back.

And my lunch break is over now. When I left, we were waiting on two people to show up. If I don’t see their cars when I pull in, I really may just come back home. I’m sick of this scheduling bullshit.

Can I Make Big Money Online is holding a contest for the owners’ new barter site called “Barter Genius“. They are giving away 500 dollars to one lucky winner. This is an entry into the contest. For more details about the contest click here.

Yeah, I know I’m actually using their suggested text, which I normally wouldn’t do, but Nyquil owns my stuffy head right now and I can’t pass up a chance at $500. I’ve got books to buy next week! You shouldn’t pass it up either.

*wine* I’m slowly working on the Louisiana post, but it’s 5 days worth of stuff to talk about so I don’t wanna post until I remember everything I wanted to talk about.

My sinuses are beyond angry right now. My face feels huge, my head is pounding, if I’m not sneezing, one of my nostrils is literally a steady stream. Ew.

I got a Target gift card for $20 and found out today that Target had season 3 of The Office on sale for $19….so guess where I went. I had to pick up some body shop supplies anyway for my dad so he can change my brakes next week. They’re singing!

They threw me off though. They had a sign up for season 1, which was sold out. There was a sign up for season 2 and there were 2 or 3 left, but there was no sale sign for season 3 and there were tons of them. It ended up being on sale, but I was worried!

So now I’m hanging out and watching lots of deleted scenes and bloopers. Can someone cure my Office obsession? I think not. Thanks Kristi….

I’m home and alive. I had a really good trip and the 8-hour drive home alone was uneventful. I watched almost all of season 3 of The Office on the drive, so my mind stayed occupied.

I got some cute little gifts and some not-so-cute ones haha. I’ll blog about the whole trip a little later, for now I’m cold and pretty much exhausted.

I’m excited about getting back to Douglas to watch Mom’s videos from Christmas with the babies. Jesalyn got a Dora canvas tent and apparently it was the absolute greatest gift ever known to man, so I’m looking forward to playing with her in it =)

I wanna go to bed soon, but the apartment is empty and I just don’t even wanna go upstairs. I may actually sleep down here…either way, I’m too tired to blog. I hope everyone had/continues to have happy holidays!!

Oh what a day. I’ll give you the abridged version of what went down. I got pissed off at work, so when I went to lunch, I called and told them I was locked out and wouldn’t be back. My manager decided to get pissy and called back and told me I had better be back, keys or no keys. Right…So I finished my 2 1/2 hours, standing there, with nothing to do. You can imagine what a happy mood that put me in.

And customers were so ignorant that I was ready to ask them if they wanted to check out some term life insurance quotes before I took them out of this world.

We’re not going to the movies. Despite what MovieFone has listed, they weren’t showing at a time we could make it, so we’re doing all our last minute stuff before we head out.

I’ll have access to a computer, so I’ll be able to check my email and stuff, but unless things have changed, it’ll probably be like a ten minute a day thing where I hop on and check. So I’ll be seeing you guys after Christmas.

I hope you all have a merry Christmas!! <3

Ryan’s mom, sister, and his dad are all getting me gifts. I freaked for a bit ’cause we’re getting his mom a gift, but I’m not involved in any of the other gifts.

Ryan reassured me, reminding me that my name would be on all the gifts he gives, so that’s cool. Then I realized that last year, I introduced him to the world of gift cards and there’s no looking back. That’s pretty much what he’s doing this year. So my name will be on cards to his sister and cousins to buy women’s lingerie …I hope they like gift cards!!

I wonder how many other people in his family will be getting me gifts….I hope not many, I’d really feel bad.

Alright, I have 92 forwards in my inbox from my aunt and uncle. I’ve been letting them pile up. They’re the only two people who send mail to my hotmail account, so I always forget to check. Try as I may, they can’t seem to understand the need to send email to gmail. Maybe one day….

Anyway, I don’t really do forwards, so here are a few of the ones I thought were worth passing on!

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