A Cartoonish Life

It's done!! I'm done painting my bedroom walls! It turned out so nicely! I'll try to get pics up soon once my room is cleaned up and I get some new shelving units in here in the next month or so.

I never realized how much CRAP I have until I decided, "Hey, I want to repaint my bedroom." I mean, I had a good idea, but GOOD LORD. It doesn't help that my dresser and desk and queen-sized bed take up the majority of space in here. I kind of want a smaller-sized bed, to be honest. A full-sized would be ideal. Kevin jokes around that if I ever get rid of my bed, he'd gladly take it off my hands "because it's so comfy." Ha ha, his room is smaller than mine. He'd barely be able to move around with all the stuff he has.

*tangent* Oh my freaking God, I can't WAIT for Halloween. I have to get started putting my costume together soon. I won't be able to wear it to work on account of it being kind of...well, skimpy. (It is a ballerina costume, after all.) But I'll be going to Help Me Mommy's Rocky Horror Halloween show, and maybe another party, so I want to dress up. I don't care if I'm 30. I'm starting to feel like my good ol' festive self again. :)

*tangent* Well, Jessica moved out and she and Hunter broke up. (Again.) Hunter tried to paint it like she was the one who did the "dumping" and gave some excuse about how if she stayed with him, she'd never be able to live to her potential. And Hunter agrees, really. We all do. And he said that yeah, he's sad about it, but he's not exactly heartbroken over it.

But there was a lot more to it than that. ( Read more... )

*sigh* Enough about that. That's been the drama that we've been dealing with here for the last week.

*tangent* Kevin was asked to step down from his position at his job. He's now second-shift IMS, and he's got a weird work schedule now, but after one day of doing IMS work, he said it's definitely not as stressful now. Maybe it's for the best.

So a few weeks ago, my brother's girlfriend moved in with our family. We had to do a massive (and seriously overdue) cleaning-out of the basement and around the house. I ended up consolidating a lot of my own junk. We kept talking about doing a yard sale, but you never really bring much money in with those things, so we pitched a lot of it.

But yeah, Jessica's living with us. The main reason being that her parents are ripping her off money-wise. I'm not going to get into the details here, but long story short, they were pulling a fast one on her. We're not charging her rent or anything, and she really isn't all that much of a burden around here, but the way Mom goes on and on about it...

Oh well. We'll see how long this lasts. I don't mind her staying here for a while. She and I like a lot of the same things and we get along well. I think Mom makes a big deal over nothing, really.

*tangent* Not much was done for Labor Day. I had a day off, and I tried in vain to re-figure my wiring setup for my TV and my DVD/VCR and my Blu-Ray players with my adapter because I'd like to be able to record stuff (like "Regular Show")....and now I have no way of watching my DVDs or tapes because I got utterly confused in the process. Kevin gave it his best shot, and he got confused as well. It would help matters immensely if I had a more modern TV with a normal setup in the back. Kevin says he has a spare newer TV from when he was still living with his dad just sitting in his closet. I told him he doesn't have to just let me have that and I would just make do with this till I can get a new one. So we came to an agreement. He said he'll let me use that TV so I can be able to watch DVDs until I get a new one. (And TVs will be going on sale in a couple of months anyway when we get closer to Christmas.)

In an ironic twist, the "Rage Against the TV" of "Regular Show" aired yesterday after I was having my TV problems.

*tangent* I still don't like my job. What else is new? Trying to keep up with my work blog and doing my best at writing that book. I've fallen into a rut. Working on my art is taking up a lot of my time. I made a vow that I'm going to go the next 30 days trying to get at least something drawn. And South Shore Arts will soon be starting up another round of classes so I can brush up on my skills, so I have to keep my eye open for that.

*tangent* I could cry. Alton Brown just tweeted that they wrapped up the last episode of "Good Eats." But he's moving on to new projects, and as long as we have the Cooking Channel, "Good Eats" will live on. As long as I have my books and DVDs, I'll be good.

*tangent* On the flip side, "My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic" will be starting up on the hotly anticipated season 2 next week! And JG Quintel just announced that season 3 of "Regular Show" will be airing in a couple of weeks as well. (WOW, that was fast.)



(Anyone want to help me turn THAT into an LJ icon? I'll love you long time if you do.)

*tangent* Mom goes in to see the doctor for her test results next week. Keep your fingers crossed for her.

*tangent* Now is the time of year where I have to start thinking about what the hell I'm going to do for Halloween.

*tangent* I'm going to get started re-painting my bedroom walls next week. I'd LOVE to be able to do a big mural all over them like Rapunzel did in Tangled, but no. If I were going to be living here forever, I wouldn't have a problem with that. But I aim to be out of here by next summer, so I'm just going with a nice neutral. Mom says I should get one gallon because "that should take care of the whole room," but I call bullshit on that. One gallon was NOT enough last time we tried painting in here. For crying out loud, one wall in this room is still unfinished!

And that's it on my end. Later, dudes.

Some things of interest did happen while I was AFI (or "away from Internet," if you will).

--I got a new DirecTV receiver!

--I lost a toenail! It freaked me out, and it didn't really hurt. I just started noticing this white spot on my left middle toenail, and then the toenail started coming up and separating from the base, and....yeah. And the thing that freaks me out the most is that I have no idea how this happened. I didn't exactly bang my foot against anything, or drop anything on it, and after she saw it, Mom told me this wasn't like I was developing a fungus on my foot or something. (She would know.) But it's slowly growing back.

--...............................I did it. I got my hair cut.

It's a little shorter than I anticipated, but the best part is that all of the damaged stuff (like a little over a foot of dyed, fried crap full of split ends) is GONE now. It's about shoulder length now, and pretty much back to my natural brown shade.

Then I came home from the hairdresser, and I found my mother had withered away!

Then my boyfriend died!

Then I cried!

Then he came back to life!

--Speaking of which, amongst all of the DVDs I've acquired, of course I got Tangled. And a gripe, if I may? I thought Disney would include better special features with it than what ended up on the Blu-Ray. Did they even bother to animate anything for the first "When Will My Life Begin?" reprise? And I thought that they'd go a little more in-depth for the behind-the-scenes featurette. I feel a little let-down.

--And like I said, I've been REALLY getting back into my artwork. Eventually, I'll get this stuff loaded up onto DeviantArt. (Give me time, give me time...)

Christmas was okay. Nothing spectacular this year, really. And yet, it was the second year in a row we celebrated at Gramma Julie's without Mom and Dad. Mom claimed she wasn't feeling well and didn't want to make the trip to Gramma's. Right around the corner and down the road. Hunter was pissed at Mom. Gramma was slightly disappointed. Me? I wasn't surprised. Frankly, I don't blame Mom. Because of the MS, she gets drained of her energy over the tiniest things. And considering how much it snowed for the holidays....you think a woman of her condition is going to want to leave the house to deal with the snow and relatives who are letting her down left and right?

Oh, that last part?! HOO boy, let me tell you about that.

Well...we let TJ (my 18-year-old cousin) have the '91 Explorer for free for his 18th birthday back in October. FOR FREE. Because he and my "Aunt" Diane do nothing but bicker, and Mom said she wanted him to have the car so when he turned 18, he could just take off and Diane couldn't do shit about it because he had a car of his own. (Yeah, we don't care for Diane that much. The word "divorce" keeps getting thrown around whenever we talk to Troy about it.) We heard last week that he pretty much totaled the car by sliding off into a ditch on some black ice. The story he told us on Christmas Day--with no Mom around--was that he totaled it on purpose so he could trade it in.

Mom heard about that from me and Hunter, and BOY, IS SHE PISSED. And I don't blame her. She said she could've sold that car and taken the money from that as a down-payment for a NEW car for Hunter after his car accident last year so he doesn't have to drive around in Grandma Cozie's Freestyle anymore. (The ABS on that is pretty much shot after Hunter went off in the ditch on the 12th coming home from work. That day we got the messload of snow when I called off.)

Oh, and Sandy and her BF never showed up. Turned out they were stuck in Indy an hour later than expected, so they were just going to bypass Gramma Julie's. GOOD. We all know how I felt about the whole Sandy situation. More food for us this year. Hunter pigged out on the shrimp cocktail and spinach-artichoke dip to compensate.

Diane didn't show up. Typical. Now Troy is telling us she's moving to Arizona for a month to collect unemployment while he'll be moving out. For GOOD, we hope. Either shit or get off the pot. Why is Diane moving to Arizona? For a month? Arizona is allegedly where her new lover lives. For a month? Well, I can't explain that.

But other than that, Christmas wasn't that bad. I just wasn't really looking forward to it that much this year. My haul was decent, considering I didn't ask for much.

--Mom was prepared to cut me a check for my Christmas present, but I told her to hold off on that because my winter boots are supposed to be coming in any day now. I'll consider that my Christmas gift from her and Dad. I don't want them wasting any more money on me that they need to save.
--Hunter got me Family Guy and Philosophy: A Guide for the Petarded. FREAKING SWEEEET.
--Jessica got me a PILLOW PET!! The ladybug! I can't tell you how giddy that makes me feel. And it's cute, too. (It goes with my Pascal plushie so well. :P )
--Gramma Julie gave me $25.
--Nothing from Troy and Diane. (Frankly, I don't care.) Well, the family got these "Yule Logs" that I'm pretty sure was the free gift from their $50+ purchase from the Swiss Colony. You know what these "Yule Logs" are? Glorified Hostess Ho-Hos. Yeah. Pissed Mom off even more.
--From Kevin's mom? Labyrynth on Blu-Ray. AWESOME!!!!!!!! Kathy is great. Love her.
--Kevin got me "Mad Men" season 2, "American Dad" seasons 1 and 2, and.....the Tangled soundtrack. Uh-oh, I got that as soon as it came out. Now I knew I was getting "Mad Men" and "American Dad" because I saw Kevin pick those up when we went shopping at FYE. But dammit, I should've TOLD him I got the Tangled soundtrack the day it came out. He wanted to surprise me!

(See? My BF feeds my obsessions. I'm already fixing to keep growing my hair out next year and dye it blonde and get some green contacts, and he can keep his goatee and ditch his glasses. We're gonna be Rapunzel and Flynn Rider next year for Halloween, YEAH!!!!! And he doesn't even know it yet!)



I took it back to Best Buy and got $13.90 in-store credit for it. I'm going to put it towards Rocky Horror on Blu-Ray when I get my paycheck this week. I at least told Kevin about it, but I feel bad that I ruined that surprise. :(

*tangent*

I have, like, NO CLUE what I'm doing (with Kevin?) for New Year's Eve.

*tangent*

Susan put in her two weeks' notice at work. DAMMIT. She's one of my favorite co-workers. Everyone that was hired around the same time (or prior to me) at that place are LEAVING. I CAN'T stay there much longer, I JUST CAAAAN'T.

I haven't had a proper update post in a while around here. Not a whole lot has been happening on my end, but here's the gist of what's been going on.

Dad finally got a job! He was called back to Roadway, but he actually got a maintenance position with Macsteel in Chicago. This way, he has a more steady work schedule and he's not on the road all the time. But he's still driving us nuts around the house.

*tangent* My work schedule still sucks. I'm schedule to come in on Halloween at 9:45 AM. I'll be at the Art Theater for the Halloween showing of Rocky Horror the previous night, so I'll be a nice cranky mess that morning. And they have me for a midnight shift this coming Friday. UGH.

*tangent* Speaking of Halloween, I really need to get on the ball and work on Kevin's Halloween costume. (Note to self: stop by Factory Card Outlet and see if they have kazoos.)

*tangent* I posted about it over at customers_suck. I had a customer a couple of days ago make a crack about my acne. He told me I "should get my rosacea taken care of." I told him it's adult acne, not rosacea. He tells me, "No, that's rosacea, I should know, I've worked in pharmaceuticals for over 30 years. You should get it taken care of."

You know...why can't people just keep their fucking mouths shut about the way I look?! And I was having a good skin day, too. I've been using the Murad acne complex system for the last two weeks and so far, so good. (We'll give it two more weeks for my 30-day trial.) But when you feel the need to give me unsolicited advice about my skin condition and have the nerve to tell me, "Don't take it personally"....well, too late. You don't know me, and you don't know how unsettling it is to hear shit like that from total strangers and how self-conscious I am about my face in the first place. But yeah, he really angered and upset me to the point where I was crying about it. Why do all the asshole customers have to come to my register?

*tangent* On a good note, I've lost five pounds! *does the happy dance*

What's been new with me, you say? Not a whole lot, but fun was had, WTFery was witnessed, and big things coming up!

So Kevin and I went to Six Flags Great America on Saturday (because I had gotten discounted tickets from work). This time, we went to the adjacent Hurricane Harbor waterpark that's free with regular admission. It was pretty standard for a waterpark. They had maybe one or two things that Deep River Waterpark doesn't have, but it was fun. A little more crowded than Deep River would be, though.

The thing is, Hunter was wanting to come with (he has a season pass, and he said he wanted to go a second time so he could get his money's worth out of it), but he forgot to put in a request-off with his job. He then told me he didn't want to go to the waterpark because "he looks fat." WTF, dickhead?! You're somewhere between 220 and 230! You're not as fat as you used to be! But noooo. If he's going to a waterpark, he wants to look supergood and ripped, so he can stand out from the fatties and be the "diamond in the rough." Yes, ladies and gents. He's so vain, he probably thinks that song is about him. *eyeroll*

Last time I went to Deep River, I was...well, astonished at how waterparks will bring the overweight and obese people out in droves. I can't erase the sight of a very overweight teenage girl stuffing herself into a size small bikini bottom. Just.....ugh. What has been seen can't be unseen. I saw nothing of the kind at Hurricane Harbor, however. (Some lady's dimply ass was nearly shoved in my face while on the steps for a waterslide, though.)

I don't want this misconstrued as fat wank. If there's more of you to love, good for you, I applaud your confidence and self-acceptance. HOWEVER, if you decide to go to a waterpark......for the love of God/Allah/Buddah/whatever, wear swimming attire that properly fits you. Dress for your bodytype. If you know you can't wear a size small bikini bottom, then don't wear it.

But like I commented on my work blog....I had an epiphany while at Great America this weekend. It's not the store that brings out the stupid in people....it's just people in general really are that stupid, whether or not they're grocery shopping! Kevin and I were waiting in the park entrance line with our tickets, and we were waiting behind a family that also has a baby stroller. A park worker came up to them and asked them to go to the end of the wheelchair/stroller accessible line because they were in the wrong line. The father (I guess?) started to give the park worker attitude about it, but for crying out loud....was it so hard to read the sign above the entrance?! Hell, you didn't even have to read it, because it featured the symbols for baby strollers and wheelchairs!

Then the incident on Superman: Ultimate Flight. (Which I already posted about at grocerygal.) Right before Kevin and I went to board Superman, the car in the loading bay had a malfunction! My guess was that the platform was stuck and wouldn't raise, so the car was still in the horizontal "flight" position. (I think the platform has to raise back up first before the seats can go back to the normal upright position.) We're kind of all, "OH SHIT." And after a few minutes, the ride operator got on the PA system and made an announcement: "Attention please, Superman: Ultimate Flight is experiencing a technical difficulty, and we will be delayed. If you choose not to wait, please exit the way you came. Thank you."

The chick behind us in line decided not to wait, but....I shit you not....she was all, "....But which way do I exit?!"

....The announcement just said to "exit the way you came." NOT through the FlashPass line; THE WAY YOU CAME. Oy. Ignorance must be bliss, I tell ya.

*tangent* And it's come to this. I'm starting work on my book. It's going to be a Project (with a capital P). But this is something I truly do feel passionate about. After hearing about that Steve Slater yesterday (the JetBlue flight attendant), I just feel this book needs to be written.

I signed up for a Twitter account. How much of a tool am I?:

http://twitter.com/DollFace127

Not with my...*ahem* problems I'm having. I won't go into detail, but it involves poor digestion and the other end of my body. I had to run to the ladies' room five or so times last night at Hooter's; I think I surpassed Dan's record.

I have today, tomorrow and Wednesday off from work, which gives me some time to work on my final papers for my classes and to study for my finals.

I just feel so....bleh today. I didn't do much all weekend but get caught up on my sleep. Oh, and I hate work, but what else is new?

My birthday is in a week and a half. Whooptie-damn-doo.

Yeah, I didn't get home from RHPS until about 6 am. (I had to give Amanda a ride home; at least she gave me some gas money to make up for it.) Justice and Tina came to the show. (Finally!) So after the show, I was catching up with them. I haven't seen or talked to them in ages. Tina is considering joining cast to play Columbia, which would be cool if she could do it.

I need to learn to walk in my floorshow heels a little better, though. Elyse suggested I buy them a half size smaller to help out, since we have to do those chorus-line kicks during "Rose Tint My World." I'm not sure...I think I'm just going to wear them around the house this week. But I stopped by one of the jewelry booths this Saturday to see how much it would cost to get a custom-made name necklace. The cheapest it gets is $60. That's more than what I spent on the corset/bustier for my costume. Until I get the money saved up for that, I'll just stick with my "Playmate" necklace. (Janet's a whore anyway. *ha*)

My birthday is in...wow, five days. Strangely, I don't even feel like I'm 22 going on 23. I still have no idea what I want, and frankly, I don't care. I'm not a materialistic person. I never know what I want. I usually end up asking for something practical like new underwear or a bra or something like that. Drinking up at the Pioneer Tap will be fine. It'll make up for what I wanted to do LAST year: dinner with friends, then Rocky afterwards. But THIS year, people who will actually ENJOY it will be there, if they wanna. (To hell with Dan! *ha ha*) Or what I could really use? Some money to help take care of my muffler and exhaust. We got a call from Grandma Cozie a couple of nights ago (on Thanksgiving, I think.) I guess J.R. (the little peckersnot) was having problems with his transmission, so Grandma Cozie just gave him $400 to take care of it. J.R. probably takes advantage of her the worst in our whole family, and he's such a rude son of a bitch to her. I don't understand why she keeps kissing his ass after he's been such a dickhead to her. I really don't. So, yeah, I guess because of that, Hunter and I won't be getting anything for either our birthdays OR Christmas this year. *ha* Am I surprised? Fuck no. She's just like that. I can do the best I can and be the most perfect person in the world and she wouldn't care because J.R. is her first grandbaby, her favorite, the sick one who could die tomorrow or whatever and he can treat her as shittily as he can and it wouldn't matter. Well, now enough of that rant.

I woke up this morning and I felt so drained, I could barely climb out of bed. Mom said since I didn't have to be anywhere important today till later, I should just go back to bed and lay down, so I tried to watch Freeway in the process. Last night I worked from 6 to 10 at Bath and Body Works, wearing the wrong shoes again. ("Wrong shoes" meaning I wore shoes that hurt my feet after being in them for four hours.) Basically, all I did was replenish the stock in the main part of the store and make sure the displays were fully stocked according to diagram. Not hard at all, and the store was closed while I was doing this.

In light of my scanner not installing properly, I came up with inspiration for a short story, and I spent most of the time today writing about half of it. When I get it done, I'll either put it on here, or on my website whenever I can get it up and running.

That's it. The Disney Company is going to go downhill once Roy is ousted. The thing is, Roy pretty much stated in this letter all of the shit that people have been talking about Michael Eisner's back for quite a while now. Morale HAS gone down, and the quality of their projects have gone downhill as well. The last really good thing they put out was The Lion King, and that was the last thing Frank Wells was around for. This sucks, this sucks, this sucks.

My head still hurts. I'm going to log off for a bit.
**fin**