Welcome To My Life

I know this is an old song but Simple Plan is my favorite band and this song seems to be really fitting right now; it's pretty much how I've been feeling lately. I feel like Molly is my only friend these days since we spend practically all of our time together. I talk to a select few friends from home, but to many others I feel like I'm making dead attempts to keep up with them over the summer. I'm looking forward to start working all day every day next week and I can't wait till everyone starts moving back down here in a few weeks. I miss my friends more than ever right now and I'm going crazy all alone in my dungeon every night!!

"Welcome To My Life"

Do you ever feel like breaking down?
Do you ever feel out of place?
Like somehow you just don't belong
And no one understands you
Do you ever wanna run away?
Do you lock yourself in your room?
With the radio on turned up so loud
That no one hears you screaming

No you don't know what it's like
When nothing feels all right
You don't know what it's like
To be like me

To be hurt
To feel lost
To be left out in the dark
To be kicked when you're down
To feel like you've been pushed around
To be on the edge of breaking down
And no one's there to save you
No you don't know what it's like
Welcome to my life

Do you wanna be somebody else?
Are you sick of feeling so left out?
Are you desperate to find something more?
Before your life is over
Are you stuck inside a world you hate?
Are you sick of everyone around?
With their big fake smiles and stupid lies
While deep inside you're bleeding

No you don't know what it's like
When nothing feels all right
You don't know what it's like
To be like me

To be hurt
To feel lost
To be left out in the dark
To be kicked when you're down
To feel like you've been pushed around
To be on the edge of breaking down
And no one's there to save you
No you don't know what it's like
Welcome to my life

No one ever lied straight to your face
And no one ever stabbed you in the back
You might think I'm happy but I'm not gonna be okay
Everybody always gave you what you wanted
You never had to work it was always there
You don't know what it's like, what it's like

To be hurt
To feel lost
To be left out in the dark
To be kicked when you're down
To feel like you've been pushed around
To be on the edge of breaking down
And no one's there to save you
No you don't know what it's like (what it's like)

To be hurt
To feel lost
To be left out in the dark
To be kicked when you're down
To feel like you've been pushed around
To be on the edge of breaking down
And no one's there to save you
No you don't know what it's like
Welcome to my life
Welcome to my life
Welcome to my life

12th Time's a Charm

Ta-Da!! After sending in my 12th application which started out as a joke with Molly, I finally have a job! First Site was the only place to call me back (and a day after I sent in my application, mind you.) I had an interview the next day, a second interview yesterday, and I signed a contract today! I start Friday at 8am to meet the other new employees and be taken around to all the apartments and sites. What is this job, you ask? Here are some fun facts:

• $9.00 per hour
• $10.00 per lease completed
• Eligible for individual/team bonuses
• Leasing, assisting customers, assist in preparing marketing materials for prospective residents, preparing market surveys, attending weekly department meetings, and other tasks/projects given by the supervisor
• The rest of the summer I will be working MWF 12:30-6pm, TR 8am-6pm, Sat. 10am-4pm (that equals 41.5 hours)
  
• When school starts I will work TRF 2-6pm, Sat. 10am-4pm (that equals 18 hours)
  
• Company Vehicle while working
  

I now have 45 days to obtain my leasing license which will be fully paid for by the company and they will take care of all the details. They say the tests aren't difficult...

Soooo lots of hours, good pay, and I think it will be a fun job. Also, I told the guy that I will be living in the Oaks in the fall and he said my apartment is just about ready and I may be able to move in early!! YAY!!! I can't wait to get out of this house and into the air conditioning AND not have to worry about stepping in dog poop every time I go to the bathroom!!

Big Mama

I am never having kids. This children's theater camp that Molly and I were so excited about directing has turned out to be an absolute nightmare. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs? More like Snow White and the Seven Devils. Every day we have kids starting stupid fights with each other and either someone threatens to quit the play or someone else ends up in tears. I did not sign up for this. Nor did I sign up to experience what happened yesterday. So Molly started her summer classes last week which means she can only be there for about the first half hour the kids are there on Mondays and Wednesdays; Fridays she can stay the whole time. Which means...I am normally left to babysit 16 kids. Our three leads are awesome. They do everything we ask of them and they can act. The rest are absolutely horrible. What ever happened to parents actually parenting their children? These kids do. not. listen. I guess it's too much to ask for them to come and give us their undivided attention for 3 hours. Do they realize they have a show to put on in 3 weeks? I don't think so. And I can't work with them on making their show good because the whole time I'm trying to break up fights between the little crappers and console the ones who are crying hysterically. I have to deal with this every day. We get through it. I even survived the day the crazy one tried to run away. However, yesterday even though the first half they were acting like little angels, the second half was a whole nother story and somebody messed with the wrong kid. Now there are 2 sides to every story and I know that both were somewhat in the wrong here. Child A was getting frustrated at the other kids for not listening when she was where she needed to be and was actually paying attention. Child B was talking to me about the scene that was coming up. A was continually yelling at B to get in her place which escalated into an argument. Both have very strong personalities and are difficult to deal with. So child B got upset and her little sister decided to get involved and began yelling at A. A told C to shut up, C yelled more, B started crying...end scene. No...not even close. So I have to stop the scene we are doing because I can't work with my actors and deal with this and had to break up the fight. By this time, our time together was over and B and C left in an angry rampage towards their van. Child A comes up to me and begins defending herself which...I was there, I know the story. So I was just talking to her about it and most of the kids had left by this point except Child A and her sister and one more, we'll call her Fifi. Then. Here she comes. The Big One. The Big Mama. The mother of Children B and C. Dun Dun DUN!! Molly and I have dealt with her before but before she was always talking about OTHER people's children...never her own. So here she comes thundering down through the park. The talk starts off pretty harmless..."So, what's going on that my kids are wanting to quit and crying every day? Is it them?" Yes, lady, I'm going to tell you to your face that your children are just as bad as the rest of them and they often stir up the fights. So I simply said, "It's just little fights that the kids have every day." What happened next I was not expecting. She turns to poor child A and starts screaming at her, saying that she "will never say anything to her kids ever again, blah blah blah, if on Wednesday I hear anything happened, I am pulling them out. I did not pay $130 for my kids to come here and get in fights every day. If I hear that it's my girls I will come down here and pick their butts up and take them home!" Then she rounds on the other 2 girls who did absolutely nothing and points her huge finger at them. "And this goes for you, too! If I hear that you were saying anything...blah blah blah..." And my favorite was, "Have you been to college? Have you taken theater classes? These girls have and they have so much to teach you and they can't because they're worried about breaking up your fights all day." Now, I see so much truth in what Big Mama was saying. However, she had no right whatsoever to come down and scream at these poor kids and threaten them the way that she did. I was so scared for them because I didn't know what this lady was going to do. She then proceeded to give me a hug and said sorry and I'm thinking woman, don't touch me! You are RUDE! So she finally left and I looked over at Child A and she just started sobbing. I was heart broken. I felt soooo bad for her so I talked to her for a bit and comforted her. Both she and her sister gave me a big hug when they left. I hope this never happens again. Molly and I are getting together today to paint set stuff and get props, make copies of music, etc. and we are going to talk to our boss. We are going to have to have yet another talk with the kids tomorrow before we get started. We have done everything we can. What else is there for us to do? I thought this theater camp was going to be such a great experience and I would rather be doing anything else right now....

Bumpy Rides

Molly and I took our first bike ride on Constitution Trail on Thursday. First we had to make a stop at the bike shop so Molly could get her flat tire fixed. We were there for quite a while and made friends with all of the employees. They were so in awe of our beautiful vintage bikes and couldn't believe we only paid $5 for them. The ride was so much fun and we took the trail all the way out until we couldn't go any farther! Hello silos, cornfields, and FS grain elevator! Molly says, "Wow, is this what it's like to live in the country?" Sure is. The craziest part is when the trail goes under the overpass of I-55. It sounds like you're in the middle of a battle field! We met a lot of interesting characters on the path and saw some really cute houses along the trail. We think we should try to make friends with the ones with the in-ground pools and basketball courts in their backyards! Going out it seemed like the trail was a million miles long but coming back it seemed so much shorter. So we rode around town a bit, stopped for a sandwich at the Garlic Press, and rode back to Molly's apartment where we sat in the wonderful air conditioning and played some intense games of Mario Cart. (All of this happened after the wonderful wipe out on the quad.) So it turned out to be a pretty great day with tons of bike riding and countless battle wounds. I'm still finding more and more bruises all over my legs. It's cute.

Last night as we were leaving Shakes Fest, Molly called and asked if Jeff and I would like to go with her and some other friends to Grady's family fun park. Umm...of course we would! This place is so ridiculous and I can't believe we never knew it existed. It's like a permanent little carnival/amusement park with miniature golf, batting cages, a carousel, tilt-a-whirl, race cars, bumper cars, and bumper boats. It totally felt like high school all over again but it was ridiculously entertaining!! First we did the bumper cars and it was just the 6 of us in there so we just went all out crashing into each other and shooting lasers. It was a good thing Jackie and Robby showed up because when I put my $20 in to get one ticket, it gave me $20 worth of tickets!! Crap. But I got them all sold so it was good. Next we did the bumper boats. We could see that we were going to get a little wet from the giant dinosaur spraying water in the middle of the pool, but we thought it could be avoided if we really didn't want to get wet. We couldn't have been more wrong. Each boat has its own sprayer AND there are sprayers outside the pool for people to walk up to, put in a quarter, and spray all of us. So basically the ride turned into a battle between the 6 of us and the guys outside the pool that were absolutely ruthless! The boats were also difficult to steer so once you got stuck over by the sprayers it was very hard to get away! Needless to say, we were all completely soaked by the time we got out of that pool! I looked like a drowned rat and I think I got the worst of it. I decided to sit out for the race cars and dry out a bit. Now you know what 6 20/21 year-olds do on a Friday night during the summer... What. A. Riot.

Training Wheels?

Molly and I went to get new bikes yesterday. There's a guy a few blocks away who fixes up old bikes and sells them out of his garage. We decided this would be a great new economical way for us to get around and we could go on some exciting adventures together and get back in shape. I think we both found exactly what we were looking for. Both are vintage and we each payed a grand total of $5!! Molly's is big and green with brown handle bars and brown seat. She named it Jacques and immediately fell in love with it. Mine is smaller and blue with those brown curly kind of handle bars and a black seat. It's pretty similar to the one in the picture but it's a darker blue. His name was proudly displayed on the side, "Ross." My thoughts: perfect. I absolutely love this bike. Only one problem, it's been probably 8 years or so since I've ridden a bike. It takes some practice to get back into it. So Molly and I rode them from my house over to her apartment yesterday afternoon, taking the longest route possible to avoid as much traffic and human interaction as possible. Because we haven't gotten bike locks yet and didn't want anyone to steal our new sweet rides, we proceeded to carry the bikes up the 3 flights of stairs to Molly's apartment and stash them in her kitchen. My only question to Molly, "I wonder what will happen first, if I will crash and wipe out or get hit by a car." Her response: "I'll say wipe out." Mine: "I sure hope so." (don't worry mom and dad we are very safe and allow more than enough time before crossing the street!) So today I decided to take Ross out for his first real ride before Molly and I head out later this afternoon. One thing is for sure: I don't have to wonder anymore... No, no I didn't get hit by a car! This is where the story really gets good. So I'm cruising around campus, trying to get comfortable riding a bike again. I'm very aware that I need to practice turning...and stopping...and riding straight. I had already gone all around the quad once and decided to go around once more before heading back towards the house. At the same time there are 3 or 4 huge groups of preview students out on the quad playing games and stuff with their preview guides. Then here I come cruising down the middle of the quad on good old Ross when I start to go off the sidewalk a little bit. Naturally, I try to get back on the sidewalk a little bit to avoid any sort of disaster then BAM! I hit the concrete and flew off of Ross. About a hundred preview students turned and stared at me with their mouths open. An older lady ran up to me and asked if I was okay. My only response to her: "Oh, I just thought this looked like a good place to take a rest." I couldn't stop laughing. She says, "Oh yeah, it only hurts when you stop laughing." The whole time I'm thinking, "Ma'm it doesn't hurt at all, my dignity is simply lost forever." I could not stop laughing. This happened a couple of hours ago, and still, I can not stop laughing. My knee is bleeding and I'm not even mad. That was hilarious!! I just wanted to give those preview students something to remember their first visit to ISU...