Sweet Catastrophe

We’re missing a word in that title there. Any idea what that word might be? Oh my friends, it would most definitely be, “Tequila.” Aye!

I had an interesting introduction into the world of alcoholic beverages. I started off with hard, straight whiskey, chased by….vodka…lol. I was playing with the big boys straight out! You’d be surprised to know how few times I’ve actually gotten sick, given my history with copious amount of hard liquor. I flew through that phase though, and quickly settled in to finding things I can truly enjoy at leisure, not something I’ve got to choke down for a quick buzz. That’s just not how I roll. [Most of the time anyway…I am, in fact, still a college kid, ya know? ;)]

About three weeks I finally introduced myself to tequila. It’s something I’ve taken my time getting to, knowing that tequila is my mother’s, “No sir!” drink, as in, she ain’t drinkin’ that or she’ll be in trouble! Also, I’m still really acquiring my taste for any alcohol beyond things heavily masked with the flavor of fruit. *shrug* I’m a girl, I know. I’m wary of drinking anything too cheap, or otherwise unwanted for fear of turning myself off of something I may one day enjoy.

I did it right. When Jonathan left, he left us a bottle of Patron he had bought for his graduation night. I wasn’t disappointed. I only wish I had found tequila a little sooner, but now that I have, with the help of The Tequila Guy, I’ll be doing it right!

To say he’s got tequila covered would truly be an understatement. I’m particularly interested in his virtual encyclopedia of tequilas, featuring price ranges, types, and taste ratings. Going by his system, I picked a fairly good tequila to start off with, mean to me, it can only get better.

I’m looking forward to doing some research of my own this semester, and comparing my results with his. No, I can’t promise you any drunken blogging, but the prospects look pretty good!

[Disclaimer: I ALWAYS have a D.D., that is, if I’m not drinking here at Parkview, a mere staircase away from my own bed.]

In two weeks I’m heading to Oklahoma! It’ll definitely be the farthest I’ve gone from Georgia. Previously, I’ve only visited Florida, Tennessee, and Lousianna. Why on earth am I going all the way to Oklahoma? My brother James is getting married!

^^^That’s just a reenactment. I believe he busted in on one of her last classes to officially propose. They’d already decided they were getting married and were waiting until after graduation to make it official, but he just couldn’t wait. How cute

My mom and step dad were the only ones from his family that were going to be there, so I decided that since there wasn’t any real reason for me not to go, I might as well. I think he’s really happy I’m going.

But this means a 15 hour ride. Luckily, my iPod was upgraded when I got a new one, so now I have a video iPod. Which means I’m open for suggestions! I need movies to watch, people! I’ve got all 3 seasons of The Office ready to lock and load, I just need some movies to watch as well. Any suggestions?

At the beginning of every Fall semester, we have this event called “The Happening.” In the quad, local businesses and student organizations have tables set up to give out info, get you to sign up for mailing lists and such, and give away free crap! I almost didn’t go this year because it’s just so hot and I didn’t feel like walking over, but Catie was nearby so I decided to see if she wanted to meet me over there. She’d never been so she reluctantly agreed; I think she was satisfied.

Talk about a ton of free stuff. I’ve got keychains, highlighter, koozies, buttons, stickers, magnets, a stress star, chap stick, a ton of pens, 8 cups, a fan, a 128mb jump drive (!!!), letter opener, mirror, etc….I also got a t-shirt, a mocktail (it was yum), a popsicle, and an icee. I entered into a drawing for a Wii too. Wouldn’t that be great?

These guys made their own advertisements! It’s just a balloon filled with fine sand. Tada! Instant stress ball! All they did was use a sharpie to write their name on it! Isn’t that great?

Catie gave me a ride back to my apartment, but we stopped by her place first so she could change before work. There, I picked up my Phantom poster she brought home for me! It used to be in her mom’s classroom and it has a really great story about why it’s got a hole in its eye. I love it! I forgot to take a pic, but it looks like this:

And that’s all the crazy free stuff I got today. I’m really excited about the jump drive. I need one for class and I can’t find mine!

I can’t believe I almost forgot my entry into Colleen’s monthly giveaway! This month she’s giving away an 80GB portable harddrive and a copy of The Wedding Singer on dvd.

I’ll take either one, but I could definitely use the portable harddrive with all my computer classes. It’s so easy to lose a tiny flash drive. This sleek portable would be amazing to have. I’d have to be careful though, don’t wanna get my drool in it!

I’ve also taken to finally getting all my pictures offline…and stealing people’s pics from Facebook as well. I really need somewhere to back those up. A new portable is definitely in my future; let’s just hope it’s in my future for free!

How can you get a shot at this baby? What happens is you get entries into the drawing for doing different things.

10 entries for blogging about it
2 entries for posting a bulletin
1 for posting in a forum
1 for Digging
1 for commenting on the blog post.

Hurry up though! Today is the last day to enter for this month, but check back, she’s got a new one every month!

Not what you think, really. I have a mini gripe and a normal gripe. First, the mini gripe!

When you write out a check, why do you write “dollars” on the line?

 See? It already says dollars on there. It’s not something that bothers me, really. It’s just one of those tiny pet peeves, and something I’ve always been curious about. I only really care when it comes down to writing checks that are in the thousands and someone is freaking out trying to squeeze it all in on the line! “But Jade!! I’ve got to write my change in there too!” Umm….so you know why you write $.34 as 34/100? That means 34 hundredths of a dollar. So if your amount is $175.34, you write, “One hundred seventy-five & 34/100,” the”dollars” is already there.

This is the one that really gets me though. Your debit card can be used as a credit card. Take a look at your card. See that little logo in the bottom corner? It usually says Visa or MasterCard. That means it’s backed by one of those companies. It can be used as credit!

 

I run into this problem WAY too often with people whose cards are old, and thus our system can’t read it properly. If I have to type in your number, it’ll be processed as credit. What does that mean? Not a damn thing except that, like a credit card, it’ll take a day or two before that charge will show up.

I’m fully aware that most debit cards provided by credit unions can’t be used as credit; that’s not really what I’m referring to here. I’m talking about the people that want to argue with me that this BOA debit card can’t be used as credit. Guess what? You know all those fast food restaurants and gas pumps where you’re not typing in your pin number? Those places are processing it as credit. Is that enough to convince you?

And for the record, I always ask if it’s okay to run a card as credit because I’m aware some companies charge you for using it as credit.

As a whole, I hope to see the day when people know how to use debit cards, period. At least once a day I get someone who’ll swipe their card, type in their pin number, and then strike credit and sign for it. You’re not inputting your pin number, I hope you know. If you put in your pin number, you hit enter and that’s done. You don’t need a pin number to use it as credit. *head desk*

Okay, I’ll zip it now.

 

..You came and you gave without taking……except for that one time

*deep sigh* My Andy is leaving me. You know Andy, right? He’s so amazing he’s even on my About page. He’s my neighbor….for another day *tear* Ya see, Andy has graduated, and it’s now time for him to fly away. He’s heading out Monday morning to tour for a month, and then who knows? Mayhaps Andy will come stay in Valdosta for a few more months, or he’ll go straight to Chicago, where he ultimately plans to end up.

I hope he comes back for a few months, but that’s my selfish side. I truly hope he ends up in whichever situation is going to be best for him.

I’d like to say Andy and I were pretty much instant buddies…at least instantly when we actually talked one-on-one for the first time. We were probably both drunk at the time, which explains why I can’t give a clearer idea of the beginning of our friendship. I know it started with a joke about there being a test when you’re 12 to determine whether or not you should be allowed to continue living. Andy, on that night, felt that Josh wouldn’t have passed.

In the short time since then, we’ve shared many jokes =) We’ve also weathered the recent tragedy together, and I don’t know what I’d have done without Andy.

Andy, darlin’, I love you! So very much and I hope the short time we’ve had together has cemented a strong enough bond to carry our friendship across the distance. I’m gonna miss you so much! Hearing that door open just won’t bring the same happiness anymore.

Just don’t forget to make trips to Valdosta. =(

Skeet was kind enough to tag me so I could play along with the Middle Name Meme. Yes, I’m fully aware I can just do memes anyway, but it’s just more fun to me if I’m officially tagged!

The Rules:

1. You have to post these rules before you give the facts.

2. Players, you must list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of your middle name. If you don’t have a middle name, use the middle name you would have liked to have had.

3. When you are tagged you need to write your own blog post containing your own middle name game facts.

4. At the end of your blog post, you need to choose one person for each letter of your middle name to tag. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

Shall I give you time to throw out some guesses of what my middle name may be? It’s really not hard, I promise

*waiting*

Okay I’m impatient.

J– I knew who John Mayer was waaaay before you…and he was much better back then.
A– I have severe allergies. I’m even allergic to cats, but I’ve always owned one.
D– I honestly can’t tell you how many DVDs I own, but I know it’s a ridiculous amount.
E– Ed is an old nickname of mine, for Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky IV.

(J was lame…I got stuck though =( )

Now to tag some others! Kristi and Catie for sure, and I’ll add two others later!

Crissy is having a 50 for $50 contest! I write 50 words about her site, and maybe she’ll give me $50. It’s a chance I’m willing to take

I’ve actually visited her site a random few times. I really like her writing style and enjoy that, like me, she varies between more personal, ‘journal’ type posts, and informative or entertaining blog posts.

She does something I’ve always wished I had the skill to do…she’s an amazing photographer, and her artwork makes me ridiculously jealous…

If I’m lucky, Crissy’s fingers will find my name in her magical hat when she does the drawing for this contest. My PayPal account could definitely use an extra $50 to soften the blow of all these course books I can’t even afford…

Okay, so there’s a new(ish) app on Facebook called Cash Cliques. Basically it works like this:

You go to the app page and click on an ad.
It opens with a timer at the top
After 30 seconds, you get a penny.
You can click 10 ads a day.
You can cash out (through PayPal) when you reach $10.

In this way, you could cash out after 100 days. Here’s the thing though, when you refer friends, you get a penny for every ad they click as well. So if you have 10 friends, it’d just be a little over a week before you’d earn ten bucks.

There are also bonus prizes, which I haven’t fully looked into, but I think it just goes that when you click an ad you can win up to $100. If a friend you referred wins a prize, you get 40%.

So, it’s a really simple idea, but it’s only really worth it if people sign up under you and do it as well, so in the spirit of that– my referral link.

It’s about 5 minutes of your time a day, and I’m doing it in one tab, while browsing in another tab.

I’ve read through discussions and such that yes, they’re making money doing this, but about 90% of their profit is going back out to payouts (including 10% that’s donated to charity.)

So again, really simple idea, can either be a waste of my time if no one else bothers, or a really easy way to make extra cash if other people sign up!

(Sorry for the brevity of this post, I’ve gotta get to my real job…*tears*)

One thing Pete and I could always talk about was Phantom of the Opera. Our Gifted class read it back in elementary school and we’ve both adored it since. We even went to see the movie together when it opened.

I always told Pete if I became a millionaire, I’d sponsor a production of Phantom and he’d be my Erik/Phantom.

I’ve decided to get a memorial tattoo for Pete. I’m getting the Phantom mask, but I can’t decide on the text. I’m strongly considering, “Angel of Music,” but I want to consider other lines from the production. It’s going to be on my ankle, so it needs to be fairly brief. Any of you familiar with Phantom have any ideas?

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Now playing: Andrew Lloyd Webber - Think Of Me
via FoxyTunes