Sweet Catastrophe

I think you guys all know by now that I struggle to keep this apartment clean. Ryan and Andrew are constantly leaving things all over the place, and it all stacks up.

Let’s add to this that Ryan’s a bigger pack rat than I am. He doesn’t know it, but I secretly throw away his junk all the time. A lot of times he’ll agree that something can be thrown out, but if I wait too long, he’ll come up with a reason to keep it. It’s such a headache.

Because of all this, I’ve become somewhat addicted to storage. I can’t tell you how excited I am to be getting Ryan’s old bed when his mom moves. It’s a twin with four drawers underneath, and we’re gonna set it up to be a couch and replace the futon. This means no more scary stuff under the futon, and more storage place to actually organize stuff!

I was introduced today to NeatContainers. It took me a bit to figure out just what was so great about them. So they stack? What’s so great about that? Well, NeatContainers stack, but each individual container will slide out of the stack, like a drawer, without disrupting any of the other containers.

The front page of their website offers a few videos that’ll really help you grasp the concept. I even had a few questions that, shortly after thinking of them, the videos went on to answer. I’m definitely impressed.

I’m interested in maybe getting a shoe organizer; I don’t have a ton of shoes, but I have enough that they get in the way–sitting in a pile on the closet floor. It drives me nuts to find a pair of my nicer shoes crushed from Ryan trampling on them in search of his jacket.

I’d really like a set to put up behind our door as well. There’s a little corner space there, currently occupied by a rolling cart that has seen better days. The bulk of it is in the structure itself and notsomuch storage space. I think these would be a really great alternative. Ryan tears that poor cart up searching for a tiny cable he may still have, or a disk, or a tool…you name it.

I just know I need a better way to keep this stuff organized. I can’t do boxes anymore; Ryan just rips through those and then I have to clean up all the surrounding boxes as well. I think I’d have a better shot with a system like this. I think I might order 6 of the shoe pod size and then 3 or 4 of the medium accessory size to try them out. I’m gonna wait until after my Birthday and see if I end up with any Birthday cash.

I really can’t even begin to tell you how much time I spend shopping online for the best deals I can find. Nine times out of ten, I’m looking for different media–movies and cds, or some gadget.

I’ve found my newest shopping bookmark for tech bargains. I’m loving the setup at TechBargains! I’m still working out some of the ins and outs of all the features they offer (there’s just so much there) but I can’t wait to check out the reviews and comparison features!

They stay updated 24/7 with all the latest deals in technology. You can even select among a huge variety of notifications from email feeds, to text messages. All are fully customizable to ensure you’re receiving the info on the stuff you really want.

I really like that they’re not exclusive to just sales; they’ve got up-to-date info on current coupons and rebates as well. Rebates are so bittersweet–you’re not saving any money immediately, but that rebate check always seems to arrive just when you need it most.

I’ve already been on for an hour, doing different searches for things from my own wish list, and things from Ryan’s. He finally settled on a Zune, and I’m seriously considering this listing on TechBargains. I’ve got to crunch some numbers and see if I can swing it right now. I really want to get him a black one, but I feel pretty certain he doesn’t really care about the color, and if he does, we can pick up a cover for it.

I was so good today. SO freakin good. After class this morning, Ryan and I went to Tallahassee with a few of his friends so they could go to this um….card shop–the subject of which shall remain nameless for my own ego.

Anyway, we spent a significant amount of time in two malls. I paid for my supper, I bought a drink, and I spend $6 in a candy shop on some chocolate covered caramels and rock candy. The end. We hit this one shop that had so many pretties! Jewelry-wise and just cool stuff in general. I wanted to buy things. Lots of things that I did not need. I got lucky though–I found a really cute claddagh necklace I really liked, and at some point Ryan snuck back and bought it for me. [Okay, so he didn’t do a very good job of sneaking, ’cause I totally knew what happened, but ya know…] Anyway, yay for presents!

I like shoes, but I like really comfy shoes, not like, heels and overly cute stuff…anyway, I found about 15 pairs tonight that I was prepared to buy. I’m still not really sure how I managed to talk myself out of them.

I found a nice little stack of books I wanted to pick up too, but I thought it over and convinced myself that if I really wanted them, I could get them here in town. I’m proud of myself for that one!

We found a shop too, that sold personalized pens, pencils, mugs, cosmetic mirrors, etc–all that kind of stuff. Oddly enough, they actually had “Jade”! I never find my name on stuff unless it’s the stone or the color. I wish I hadn’t talked myself out of getting the pens. They were a little overpriced, but the only pens that don’t get stolen at work are the ones with my name on them. Maybe I’ll work in a trip to the mall when I go back for the Lifehouse concert.

I’ll admit that the first mall stop made me pretty grumpy. I spent a lot of time walking around by myself, not spending any money or really getting into any of the stores. Then when I thought Ryan was done, we set off to go elsewhere and he ended up just going back to the card shop so I walked around with two of his friends. Not what I had in mind when he talked me into coming so he could spend time with me.

I got over it though. The card shop is what we truly went for, and we were alone together for the whole ride and we all stuck together at the second mall.

I almost feel like a failure as a woman for turning away from so many shoes today.

I just updated my Amazon Wish List. It’s pretty much ridiculous how much I actually enjoy doing that. It’s like some sort of pseudo-shopping where I don’t actually end up with anything! lol

But I try to use my wish list for when I randomly feel the need to spend a little on myself. I like to check out my wish list and pick out something.

I finally went back and finished saving all the Johnny Depp movies I need. There are only two missing from the list and they’re probably not gonna be acquired easily on Amazon.

Now if I could just find some pseudo-money to use for this pseudo-shopping, I’d be in business.

I’ve become so addicted to web contests! I look for them almost daily and bookmark the ones I’m interested in, sorting them by final date so I can enter them all in a timely manner! Yeah, it’s an addiction!

UltimateCoupons.com is running a contest on their blog, Everybody Loves Coupons, to win a Nintendo Wii, and a brand new copy of Mario Party 8! The contest runs until October 31st, after which, the winner will be chosen at random and other notable entrants will be receiving either some consolation prizes, or linky love–something to be later determined. Of course I’ll be entering on Aftershocks, I can’t resist! I’m working on a corny little poem =)

UltimateCoupons.com is your one stop for coupons, and at this time of year, who can resist saving money? I’ll admit I’ve become a little addicted to shopping online with coupons. I can’t resist a great deal, even if it still leaves me broke!!

I can’t sleep. I was up pretty late last night playing video games with Josh and then when I finally got ready to fall asleep, Ryan started texting me so I was desperately trying to stay awake and drag some information out of him.

He reminded me earlier of something I wanted to look into for one of his Christmas gifts, but obviously I couldn’t check on it then, so that’s what I’ve gotten carried away doing now.

Planning all of this earlier means I’ll have plenty of chances to wait for an online coupon to pop up for some of the things I’m getting.

HerCoupon.com will hopefully play a big part in saving me money this year. I’ve got a lot of baby and couple-ish gifts to take care of and they put more focus on female-oriented gifts. I’ve already got some great ideas for Jesalyn and Joshua just by looking at some of the stores they offer coupons through.

I just hope my shopping continues on track like this. If it does, Christmas will be such a breeze.

Phew! I found a great dress! It’s brown and light blue (Ashley’s wedding colors are brown and pink) and it’s 3/4 sleeves so no arm flab! It’s pretty thin material too, so it won’t be too warm or anything.

Of course, buying a brown dress totally threw me off. I was all set with a black clutch and black shoes….now what?! After way too much searching, I finally found some brown shoes. See, the dress is like a deep chocolate brown, almost black, so it was hard to find shoes that looked right and didn’t just clash. No luck on a new clutch though. I’ve got a little tan canvas handbag I’ll just use. It’ll be better than my huge bag anyway.

This will probably be the first time I’ve worn heels twice in one week in a loooooong time….if ever. Be proud of my extreme girliness this week.

I talked to James yesterday. He’s really excited about us getting there. He wishes we’d come a little earlier so we’d all have more time together outside of him doing all his wedding stuffs.

I’ve been thinking the past few days how proud I am of my brothers. They’ve both had really sketchy pasts. I mean honestly, they’ve gone from drug rehab to preaching. Well, actually I think Rocky Joe was the only one to actually end up in rehab, but James definitely had to have a breathalyzer in his vehicle.

Their current lifestyles aren’t exactly what I want for myself, but they’ve really made something of themselves and I’m so happy for them both. I still can’t believe Rocky Joe is married and has two kids….where’d my horndog brother go?! Haha!

I can’t wait till James and Ashley are expecting. I know they plan on waiting a while, but Ashley’s gonna be such an adorable pregnant woman. And those kids are gonna look like little angels, for certain.

Ryan’s cooking me dinner now =) Most of my stuff is packed, just waiting on one more load of clothes and then I’ll finish throwing everything in my suitcase. I’ve got all Kristi’s stuff together too, just gotta drop it off at the post office tomorrow.

Oh and I totally passed my Astronomy test, thanks to Andrew and his amazingness! I owe him cookies, for real.

So today was the first day of classes. We see where I am though. I looked into everything that was open that I could sign up for and had no luck. So today and tomorrow, I’m just checking registration every hour or so, waiting for people to drop classes. Wednesday, I’ll go around and work on getting overrides into some classes if I can. I’ve been able to get back into two classes (Bio/Lab) so that’s 2 down, 3 to go. Keep your fingers crossed for me, please! I’m so sick of getting screwed out of a decent semester just because VSU Financial Aid hates me or something…

I had to go to Best Buy and pick up a new cable splitter. Ours has been crapping out for a while now. Hopefully that’ll be the end of our issues, if not, you can bet Mediacom will be getting some angry phone calls from me!

I rediscovered the joys of the Dollar Tree today! I went in on a whim and discovered some of the better things they sell. Such as the same cheese sticks I buy (same brand and everything) there for $1, while I usually spend almost 4! I spent way too much time browsing the snack too. I couldn’t resist pickup up a bottle of Faygo root beer…do you know how long it’s been since I’ve had Faygo? Way too long.

The big Harry Potter weekend has come and gone, and I survived! We picked up our books at midnight when it was released and headed home to read. Well, we’d all had pretty long days, so I don’t think we made it quite to 4am before we decided to call it a night.

Saturday, I got up around 11 and read almost non-stop until 4:15. Off to work for a few hours and back home by 10:45. At that point, I sat and read. I think I moved from my spot on the couch twice before finishing the book around 6am. My neck was cramped! Luckily, I had just been given some samples of Freeze It, a gel for muscle, joint and arthritis relief. Now was the perfect time to test it out!

I was thoroughly satisfied! Within ten minutes I could feel the tension leaking out of my aching neck. It could’ve been a sleepless night, but luckily, Freeze It eased me into a blissful nap–and yes, I mean nap because I had to be at work at 10am that morning! Oops!A few days later, I decided to have another go at the Freeze It on my feet. See, I work on concrete floors, and no matter what anyone tells you, you never get used to that. You grow more accustomed to it, and you have less aches, but try taking a few days off and coming back–it’s as though you’ve never had to endure that before! Occasionally, I’ll end up at work in a pair of Chucks, without checking to see if my inserts are worn out. Well, this was one of those days, and after a longer shift than normal, my feet were crying!

I decided to really test out the Freeze It. How much was it really helping? So I pulled out another sample and applied it to just one foot, taking care not to really massage my foot or anything, as that would obviously help and not necessarily be attributed to the product. I was actually a little shocked at what a difference there was between the two. I even walked up the stairs once to note the difference; the same cringe-worthy feeling was left in the uncoated foot, while the Freeze It foot was doing just fine! Needless to say I hustled to coat my other foot and enjoy the relief!

I’ve got a lot of unusual knee pain as well. It’s been getting much worse lately; it’s to the point that I’d like to go consult a physician about it as I know it’s being caused by the concrete floors, but for this level of pain, I think there’s something not quite right somewhere that’s just being agitated by the concrete floors. I’ve decided that I want to really put Freeze It to the test and try it on my knees tomorrow night. If it helps that, that’s it, I’m off to the store to stock up!I’m totally sold on this stuff! I think my favorite part, aside from the pain relief, obviously, is that even though initially you get that strong menthol smell you’d expect from a gel like this, it clears out almost immediately. I was concerned about being able to sleep with the smell the first night I used it, but my fears were quieted when I noticed the smell was gone by the time I’d finished applying and dressed for bed. You just can’t beat that.

It’s that time of year when all the new stuff comes out, and why not? Everyone’s at home looking for something to do, something new to buy to keep them entertained or just make life easier.

The folks over at TVProducts4Less are no exception. They’ve got plenty of new gadgets on hand and I’m totally eying this Clapper Plus. Andrew and Ryan leave pretty much everything turned on and I’m constantly running up and down the stairs to turn off this that and the other. I’d really like to have one of these just to turn off the laundry room light and probably the kitchen light.

Take a quick look. What’s your gotta have it item of choice right now?