Pumpkin Pie Cupcakes

Sorry, Jess, I know it's been a while. I have been extremely busy with everything lately. Work is finally starting to slow down a bit. Funny how I am scheduled to work 20 hours a week and my check that I got yesterday had 62.5 hours on it! Considering that plus commission, where else can you work part time as a college student and bank over $600 in 2 weeks? I guess I'll try to start complaining a little less about work... We have rented over 270 apartments and have just 100 left! That is insane....

In other news...I was voted vice president of AMDA which I am pretty excited about. I don't know how much I am really going to be able to help this semester with mads and night class but next semester should be a lot better. I am also going to help with the set for the spring fashion show and am considering actually designing for it this year. I think I need to invest in a sewing machine...maybe I'll start a fund for it...

Classes are still going ok, I have 3 tests on Wednesday which is not cool but I guess I'll get through it. I changed my research project from transvestites (which my teacher wanted me to do) to tattoos. I was going to get pictures of transvestites, conduct a survey, and compare the results between guys and girls. It would have been interesting, but I was having trouble finding pictures. So I changed it to tattooing and I am going to compare 5 episodes of either Miami Ink or LA Ink. I am also going to conduct interviews with people who have tattoos (such as Molly). She's pretty excited. I think it should be pretty interesting.

Last night I was going to catch up on some reading but had a slight change in plans. Ally was abandoned by her roommate for the weekend, Rachel went home as always, Ashley went to Southern, and Debbie was at work. So I made Ally go grocery shopping with me because I have been desperate for them for about a week and a half. Then I made a delicious strawberry banana yogurt/jello/whipped cream pie for Grandpa's birthday on Sunday and a yummy pumpkin pie to take to my sister's tonight. Apparently I made too much pie-ness and it started to overflow! So...I also made some funny looking pumpkin pie cupcakes! Ally, Debbie, and Jessica all said they were delicious so I guess they must be good! Debbie was very proud of me for actually baking something right and put a note about it on the white board in the kitchen! She's funny... I'm very excited to see sister's new house and spend the evening with her and Other and see everyone on Sunday!! I feel like I haven't been home in forever. Ok I guess it's time to get back to work... (Or at least pretend to be doing work) :)

Angry Eyes

I finally made it to the eye doctor after 2 straight weeks of not being able to wear my contacts. I have no time to go home just for an eye appointment, so I found a Pearl Vision at the mall and had my appointment today. After several pictures of the inside of my eye, straining to read way too small letters, getting shot in the eyes with puffs of air, having orange dye put in my eyes and looked at with a blue light, I found out that I have an infection. How wonderful! I have an inflamed retina that has caused numerous white blood cells to flood my eyes. So...he wrote me a prescription and said I have to come back in three days. I pay my bill of $167.00 thinking it included new contacts. Not even close. It was $49.00 for the exam, $39.00 for having the retina photo thing, and $79.00 for the rest of the exam. Not cool. I then go to Walgreens to fill the prescription and wait 20 minutes in the store for them to fill it. They finally announce that it's ready so I go up and the guy asks again if I have a prescription insurance card. He said it wasn't going through so they had to call the insurance company, and if it wasn't covered I would have to pay $87.00. Ten minutes later it was finally worked out and I still had to pay $40.00. Needless to say, I was not a happy camper and I don't even want to think about how much I am going to have to pay when I go back on Thursday. I'm sure I will be charged for another office visit on top of what the contacts themselves will be.... Then I came home and took a 3 hour nap.

It's amazing how much your wardrobe grows once you do your laundry...or mine at least since I don't do laundry very often! I like to leave my closet doors open now so I can see my lusciously filled racks. O my, that sounds funny. :) I've survived another week of crazy work and class schedules. I don't have much on Fridays so in my mind my weekend starts on Thursday the minute I get off work. And it's even better when the next day is pay day!! It feels so good to finally have some checks coming in again. I still have to work a ton this weekend but I'm going to use every free minute I have to catch up on homework, study for the tests I have already next week, relax, and do some artwork. My walls are still too white and definitely need to be covered up with something. I know my art's not the best, but I take pride in it nonetheless and feel more at home with it covering the walls. Although, "Johnny Depp at the Piano" is probably my most favorite thing in the room and he makes me so happy every time I walk in!! I think Ashley and I are going to resign out here at the Oaks which makes me really happy. I love it out here and don't want to leave! We just need to find a couple new roommates which we are working on. I'm going to miss my Little Debbie!! Speaking of, I'm just waiting for her to come home from work so we can hit up BWW's for cheap boneless wing night! I love that stuff! My throat is itchy, I need to find something to moisturize it a bit...

I Solemnly Swear...

...to never eat kiwi again!! (the fruit, not the bird, of course!!) This happened a few days ago but I haven't had time to post anything about it yet. So....the other night Ashley and I went for a run and of course came back to the apartment hungry. I didn't want to eat anything that I would regret, after having just burned a bunch of calories, and remembered that I had bought some kiwi that I didn't want to go to waste. So I get them out of the fridge and cut up all 5 of them and put them in a bowl. Jessica, Debbie, and Ashley were all here too so I figured they would eat some too. I don't know what it was exactly about these particular kiwi, but they seemed especially delicious. I had eaten quite a few pieces when I started to feel a little funny. My tounge began to tingle and burn a little bit and my throat started to feel scratchy. I disregarded it at first but after a few minutes I said something to the girls about it. Then my throat felt like it was made of splintery wood and it hurt to swallow. Soon it felt like there was a piece of chicken caught in there. I kept biting my tounge as it got fat and bumpy. I started freaking out and didn't know what to do. I have eaten several kiwis in my life and never has anything remotely close to an allergic reaction happened before. My roommates and Jessica are practically rolling on the floor with laughter at my apparently comical antics. Sure, I was making a joke of it but I was a little frightened as well. Debbie ran and got me some benadryl and said if the swellingness didn't go down in a half hour or kept getting worse she was going to take me to the emergency room. Um...red flag here, I am terrified of hospitals and wasn't too excited about the idea of possibly having to go!! 2 benadryl and a bowl of soup later, the swelling and the tingling started to receed and I felt much better about life. I am just oh so sad that now I will never be able to eat kiwi again!! :(

Hold On Tight

As hard as it is to believe, that time has come already....school started last Monday. Although these last 2 weeks have been fairly calm, I know that this semester is going to be by far the greatest challenge I have encountered in my college career so far. I'll do a quick run down of the classes I have this semester. Let's see, Apparel Product Development will be pretty fun I think. We will make 5 projects in there, a hand bag, pajama pants, skirt, t-shirt, and blouse. The only scary aspect of that class is the industrial machines. They go so fast and are really hard to control. Clothing and Behavior has already proven to be an interesting class, and I've only been there 3 times. Italian is the same old same old, just a little bit harder now that I'm in my 3rd semester. Mads and voice lessons will be the same... We've got some really fun new people in mads which will be good. Politics of Latin America, Africa, and Asia I think has the potential to be an interesting class. At first I didn't think so, but I think I'll try to make the most of it. My Marketing class is a joke, or at least my teacher, Merlin, is. The class will probably be somewhat difficult but the guy is clueless. On top of all that, I'm still working a ton of hours a week. That's going to have to stop soon. I need time not only to do my homework but to get in some relaxation as well. This semester is going to be crazy enough as it is and I don't want to get too burnt out too fast. I feel like I'm going head first into a whirlwind of fury! I'm looking forward to going home this weekend to see my family and get caught up on my readings for class. I need a few days away...

Last Day of Summer...

It's bittersweet... I love being down here and I'm so happy to finally have roommates. I love them so much and we are going to have way too much fun living together. I can't even begin to express how happy I was every day this week driving by the dorms and watching everyone scramble to move into the dorms. I've already seen Kathryn and Ally a couple of times but it will be weird not seeing them all the time every day. Monday night I met Kathryn and Sarah over at Atkin and joined them for the honors meet and greet night or something like that. Basically we all walked over to Avanti's and we ate some yummy food and I met a few of the new girls on their floor. Tuesday night Ashley and I cooked up some delicious stirfry for Kathryn, her younger brother Jacob who is now a freshman down here, Ally, and Sarah. It was a nice little reunion dinner! Wednesday night Debbie, Ashley, and I improvised a pasta dish with tomatoes and parmesan cheese and some herbs...we're so good... :) Thursday Andy and Brandon came down so we went to Buffalo Wild Wings for 50 cent boneless wing night. SO GOOD!! Friday night Ashley was making tacos for us so we decided to go over and invite the new neighbors who had moved in earlier that day. We didn't think they would really come but about 20 minutes later all 4 of them showed up at the door! They're all pretty cool, 2 are on the golf team, 1 will be on the hockey team, and the other goes to Hartland. We already seem to be pretty good friends with them and they invited us over for chili cheese dogs last night. I went to Dr. Carlson's for a little bit for what was supposed to be a thank-you-for-summer-mads-dinner but me, molly, jonathon and his wife were the only ones who came. Oh yeah, and NIALL!!! So that was fun and Carlson made some delicious salmon and rice and zucchini pie...yum! Then Debbie, Ashley, and I stayed in and had a Sex and the City marathon until the neighbors came home and we hung out with them for a little bit before we went to bed. So I guess it's been a pretty good week. On top of all that I worked like..53 hours?! I can't wait till I get paid on Friday!! Should be a really good one....

It still hasn't really hit me that classes start tomorrow. Is this really the last day of summer? I'm not ready for it all to be starting again!!! And I have six classes tomorrow, starting at 8am! ugh...

For My Sister

Sorry, Sister for not having written anything in a while. I have been very busy working full time and singing at Shakes Fest several nights a week. I didn't realize you enjoyed reading this thingy so much! :) So even though I worked from 7:30am-6pm today and then sang and its now 11pm and i have to work at 8am...I'll stay up just to write a little somethin-something for you! Because I like you that much. So let's see...Saturday after work I went to Peoria to visit Justin which was fun. I hate that I don't get to see him very often!! Mom, Dad, and Jessie came down last night to hear me sing at Shakes Fest and check out the new apartment. Of course, we had to go to Avanti's for supper. I love when they come down because it's pretty much the only time I ever eat there! This is the first summer I've been away from my family and it's kind of hard and definately weird. I don't like not being able to see them very much either!!! I finally got my computer reformatted and after hours and hours, now it all works just great. First Site installed broadband yesterday so I had to buy a wireless router tonight which sucked because it was kind of expensive, but it will be ok because the roommates will chip in and this internet is so incredibly fast!! It's awesome, even though it also took me a couple hours to figure out. But hey, I did it all on my own, so maybe I'm not quite as dumb as I look... And I'm glad I finally have something to do to keep me occupied while I'm sitting all alone in my apartment!! I get 2 checks on Friday which is awesome and I'm going to go buy myself a TV!! I need one of those.. Ashley is moving her stuff down on Saturday and then coming back for good either Monday or Tuseday. Debbie will be here sometime next week. She came down today for an interview so we went to lunch and then she came in the office and I did her orientation and gave her her keys. Rachel will be down next Saturday, and school starts on Monday the 20th. I am definately not ready for that. It seemed like the summer was just dragging on but now it seems to be coming to an end way too fast and while I want everyone to be here, I don't even want to start to think about going to class! Ugh... Anyway..Sorry, Sister, that this is rather short and uneventful but hopefully this will tithe (is that even a word?) you over until I can think of something fun and clever to post for you. At least now I have internet so it will be much more convenient for me!! I'll be heading back to the 'Doza on Saturday to make my appearance for the infamous Sweet Corn Festival. I think everyone is coming home and I am most looking forward to seeing Melissa whom I havent seen since December!! So sad... Until next time, stay classy, San Diego..