I've got my computer!!!

Hurrah! It's here! And it's cute! I'm psyched. Although I'd be much more psyched if I didn't have homework and a paper to do.

*shaking head*

Ok... I want to know who in their right mind mails something to Fairbanks, AK from Nevada, via Tennessee AND California (in that order). So much for overnight mail. Oh well, I'm not really complaining, just confused.

My computer is in town! Somewhere. At the FedEx place, wherever that is. If I knew I'd probably show up and beg for it. But no, I can wait a couple more hours until they deliver it to the residence life office up the hill. And in the meantime I have to work on this damned paper. :S

So much to do, so little time to do it, and no motivation at all.

I'm getting overwhelmed and all I want to do is be done with it all! Too much schoolwork is the worst part, especially this damned paper. Although my schedule in general is filling up very quickly too. I've already triple booked dance events for this Saturday, and somehow I'm going to try to make it to all of them. Friday is a contra dance. Thursday is packed with classes and homework. Wednesday, tomorrow, is all homework and work too if I can fit it in. I think I'm going to not go to work tomorrow though. I have to work on my paper, I have advanced accounting homework that has to be done, some corporate strategy stuff to read, think about, and write a paragraph or so about, and also four business law chapters to read and answer questions about. All tomorrow. Yeah, I'm not going to work. Erika will understand. My bank account won't be as understanding, but it'll live, or I will... hopefully.

Next week is going to be insane as well. Sunday is sleep in day, followed by homework and tango class. Monday is another go insane day, as the paper is due Tuesday, so anything not done by the end of this week will be done Monday. Tuesday is classes, homework and salsa at the pub. Wednesday is any homework I didn't get done Tuesday for Thursday classes. And Thursday is my last day of classes! Which means homework due in two of them and a final in the third. Then I'll have a week to, well, go insane a bit more, pack, study, and visit people. The following Thursday I take my last two finals and Friday I hit the road to Anchorage with all my stuff.

Which brings me to a question for y'all. Does anyone need a ride to Anchorage at the end of the semester? Or, does anyone plan to drive to Anchorage and would like to caravan down? Or, does anyone know anyone who might be interested in either of the above? If so, please either email me or leave a comment and I'll get in touch with you, or them, about it. I do have to drive down on Friday the 16th of December, since I have finals the day before and I fly out of Anchorage the day after. But time of day could possibly be played with. Let me know asap! Thanks!

Is it over yet?

My birthday was great. A big thank you to Brad and his family for that. On Sunday, Brad and I drove back to squarebanks. The trip back went very well. There was one area with somewhat slick roads, but the sky was perfectly clear the whole way until we were on campus, where there was some pretty major ice fog.

Today I went to work, then took my car back to the mechanic to get the clutch readjusted again. Apparently my clutch is worn out and will likely need replaced soon. Grr... it was just replaced last December, so I don't see any reason why it should have worn out that quickly. Apparently the clutch itself could probably be replaced under warranty from the previous one, but they're still going to try to make me pay for the labor to put it in, which is around $430. Needless to say, I'm getting very tired of all the trouble this car has caused me. Dammit... I need a job.

Christmas Shopping and Apartment Hunting

I dragged my silly butt out of bed yesterday morning at 4 a.m. Why you ask? Cause of that silly little day called Black Friday. No, it's not a tradition for me, and god help me if it ever becomes one. But I decided to give it a shot this year, with Brad's mom, Kim. We headed out and arrived at Fred Meyers at 5 a.m. I got some presents for my family and some socks for myself. What is it with socks and Christmas anyways? I'd be horrified if I ever received socks for Christmas! But since they were on sale, I bought some for myself. I needed them anyways. The dorm dryer seems to like eating my black socks. Anyways, then we went to Allen Peterson, a kitchen store, and I got a $10 gift certificate to use someday... probably when I'm ready to add a thing or two to my kitchen, when I've got my own. We went a couple other places next, then home to take a nap. 5 a.m. is pretty grueling. Then around 10, Kim and I headed into Anchorage to do a bit more shopping and apartment hunting. We went to Title Wave books, where I got another present, and then we headed to go look...

I just got interrupted by a rousing rendition of the happy birthday song. :D Apparently I get spice cake w/cream cheese frosting for my birthday today. Yay!

Ok, where was I. Oh, then we headed to go look at the apartment I've been hoping would be a good one. The neighborhood did look very nice, the buildings appeared well taken care of, and the apartment they showed me was awesome! It hadn't been cleaned yet, but the layout was nice and roomier than I expected. The carpet looked nice, the murphy bed was great, the kitchen appliances are older, but looked good. The yellow kitchen countertops are annoying, with dark wood cabinets, but there are possible decorating modifications that can be made if I get creative enough. So, I paid the deposit on it!

Now I'm off to go get a shower, then Brad and I are going to go watch a movie in Anchorage. After which he's planning to make his world famous (at least in my world) Thai curry. :D

Happy Thanksgiving!

I am thankful for all my awesome friends! You guys are great!

Today has been fun and relaxing. I woke up late, took my time getting ready for the day, talked to Kate, then helped out in the kitchen. Brad's mom is a very good cook and everything turned out really well. Another family joined us for dinner and we had 10 people total. It was particularly fun talking to Amanda, Brad's sister, for awhile.

Yesterday was also rather exciting. Brad and I drove down to Wasilla from Fbks. We left around 10 a.m. and got here sometime around 5 p.m. It was snowing almost the entire way. Some areas weren't too bad, but there was one point where I couldn't see an inch beyond my windshield. And I really dislike semi-trucks now. Five of them passed me twice! It is really frickin' scary to be passed by 2-trailer semi's when the roads are snowy, it's snowing, and a bit windy too! I was sure we were going to be pushed off the road, and then when they did finally pass, I couldn't see where I was going because of the snow they kicked up. That's when I was whitewashed the worst. But we made it in one piece and without any real difficulties.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Computer died...

My computer is officially dead. Well, it was entirely dead, but now it's mostly dead... I am typing on it right now, and it is responding, but in order to start the thing I had to gently hold it at an angle, slap it a few times, and hold it that way for quite awhile after it was up and running until whatever it is that's making the dreadful noises quit making them. It actually is doing exactly what it did when I had to send it in for warranty repairs just before the warranty expired. When they sent it back it had a new cpu, motherboard, and random other things. Basically everything but the hard drive. Anyways, since I was able to get it up and running again, I copied everything possible onto my external drive so I don't have to worry about that.

And I bought myself a new computer today. :D It's a little Dell Inspiron 700m notebook, 80 gb hd, 1.7 ghz processor, 1 gb ram, DVD burner, and a wide 12.1 inch screen, with a 4 year warranty. It's gonna take a bit longer than I'd like to get here (ignoring my impatience), but it should be here in time to finish up the semester.

Snow, Harry Potter, Matt, Car, and more...

It's snowing again... very pretty, but not as warm as it should be. It was very cool seeing individual snowflakes land on the windshield of my car though. You could see the actual shape of each flake, with its perfectly symmetrical branches, and each one completely different.

I watched "Harry Potter: The Goblet of Fire" last night. It was generally very good. I think they could have shaved down a few parts and added some other parts from the book that explained the story better, but I do understand that with a book that big, there is no way they could do it properly and not have a 5+ hour movie. It was a lot of fun though. I love Hermione's dress at the dance!

Matt left last night to visit his family in Northern California/Southern Oregon. I took him to the airport just before going to the theater. I haven't heard from him yet as to whether he made it safely, but I assume he did. I'm going to miss having him around to dance with, and just hang out with. He's a great guy, even if he does listen to talk shows. ;)

My car went back to the shop today, for a short while at least. Yesterday it was having a hard time starting, and finally I discovered that the clutch wasn't pushing the ignition button. So I had to reach under the dash to push the button while reaching my other arm up to turn the key each time I wanted to start my car. And all this while my knee is firmly planted on the snow or ice outside my car. It's fixed now though. It didn't take them too long. I knew it was just a little adjustment and tightening of a screw or two.

My room is starting to look more like a dorm room again. I've gotten compliments on how cozy and nice it looked over the last week or so, but yesterday I started packing anything I won't need for the next few weeks so I can haul it down to Anchorage when Brad and I go down on Wednesday. Now half the shelves are bare, there are boxes full of stuff lying around and it's looking a lot less like a cozy room and a lot more like the bare-walled, cold dorm room that it started as. Fortunately I don't have to live in it too much longer. I'm out of here in 25 days, and almost 5 of those I'll be gone for Thanksgiving break.

One distance class is entirely done on my end, and I'll be finishing the other one tomorrow. I also have a take home exam in Advanced Accounting that is due by Wednesday at noon. So... 3 exams in 3 days. And hopefully I'll have them all done by tomorrow. Which means I need to get to work on studying for the one and taking the other. Plus a paper to work on and some business law reading and questions. I just want to scream and be finished with all this!

2nd Place Winners!

The competition was absolutely awesome! Matt and I danced better than I think we ever have together and we pulled off a stunning performance that landed us in 2nd place. :D It was so much fun. Megan and Michael got first place, and they definitely deserved it. Megan did tell me though that I made her work hard for it. ;) So many people were congratulating us both before and afterwards. And Matt's shirt was complemented more than my outfit! I guess I should have worn a skirt or dress. Bah! Oh well. Hehe. It was tons of fun. Patrick even got to compete with Anna (sp?). They looked fabulous too, despite the last minute throw together. Patrick's hat tricks were awesome! And Mary and Alisa were gorgeous. The other two couples did a great job too. It was a really fun night.

Dance Dance Dance Dance

Last night I helped co-DJ/host the ballroom dance at Alaskaland. It turned out to be excellent, and I received many compliments on the music list. I also received many compliments on my outfit. :D Little black dresses made by my mom tend to do that. Thank you Mom! After the ballroom dance, I came home and changed and then went out to the blue loon, with a few other dancers. We had a grand time dancing to latin, hip-hop, and such. I got to dance with a few hottie latinos too. :D Alejandro was one (my hottie latino from Hot Tamales), and Juan and Julio were the others. And of course Matt and Michael made excellent partners as well. ;) I'm hoping Matt is getting a bit more comfortable with the idea of competing tonight. He is such an excellent salsa dancer, all we really need to do to win is make it flashy and be completely comfortable. Well, at any rate, we will have a blast, regardless of who wins. :D

A Blown Kiss

by Amanda Chadwick

Fly quick, be swift,
Don't catch on a snowflake.
Fly swift, be quick,
My dear one is waiting.
Fly quick, be swift,
Don't pause, nay nor stumble.
Fly swift, be quick,
He is waiting for you.

Many miles, many mountains,
Many stars, many fountains.
It is far, do not fail me.
Gently place my message clear.

Fly quick, be swift,
Don't catch on a raindrop.
Fly swift, be quick,
My lover is waiting.
Fly quick, be swift,
Don't pause, nay nor quiver.
Fly swift, be quick,
He is waiting for me.

Musings

Everything is blanketed in glittery white. I love how the snow here glitters. It's not a gaudy kind of glitter, but a very natural, cheery kind of glitter. I also love how at night, when it's snowing, everything on campus is bathed in a surreal golden light. It's almost like the world is getting all dressed up in white for a very special magical event. If it didn't have to be cold, and if snow wasn't actually a form of water, therefore wet, I would love to grab a good book and just go sit outside in the snow, at night, reading by the golden light. Preferably a good book such as The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe. A fabulous book about magic and winter. Although winter isn't a good thing in that book, it's still beautiful imagery. I am definitely looking forward to that movie.

This evening I had a most wonderful time. It began with a salsa dance practice session with Matt in the Wood Center that turned into a mini latin dance. Megan and Michael showed up, as well as a few other random dancers and we had a blast playing with moves and trying out different music and such. After I finally managed to tear myself away from that, I walked up to Brad's apartment for a cooking lesson and dinner. Brad taught me how to make his fabulous Thai green curry! :D It's really not that hard, and as always, it was so incredibly good. Thank you Brad!

Now I'm sitting here, musing, and thinking of all the things that have made me happy today. Snow, dancing and curry are definitely on the list. Also someone reminded me of some happy memories that made me smile and even laugh a little today. That was happy. And I did not get my test back in Corporate Strategy, which made me very, very happy. I was sincerely hoping my day would not be burdened with having to think about that. I didn't get to talk to John today, but just thinking of him makes me happy. We talked last night and I also got to talk to his mom a bit. She is very funny and overzealous, but wonderful all the same. I still can't believe she had a pattern and fabrics picked out for a quilt within fifteen minutes of deciding to make one!

I suppose I won't be as happy tomorrow unless I get some sleep, so thank you to everyone who has added to my happiness today and goodnight all!

Computer problems and such

So my computer crashed today. I managed to get 2 BSOD's within the course of about 5 minutes. I have absolutely no idea why it crashed, and I also have absolutely no idea why it is working perfectly fine at the moment, and has for the last hour or so. Maybe it just wanted to be shut down and allowed to rest for awhile. Whatever the case, a new computer is definitely on my to-buy-when-I-have-the-money list.

In my mind I have already finished school and am moving into my new apartment in Anchorage. Of course, in reality I am still in school and don't even have an apartment in Anchorage yet, but that is more or less beside the point. I believe this condition is called senioritis, and I guess I should be glad it's only hitting me bad now, instead of much earlier in the semester. I am most definitely ready to be done with school, however, and am particularly looking forward to Thanksgiving break, in the meantime.

This evening is looking fairly happy too. The salsa lesson at the pub starts at 8 and I'll get to try out my new dance shoes. :D

Dance Shoes & Extra Credit

I got my dance shoes today! :D I'll get to try them out tomorrow evening, see if I can manage to break an ankle or something. ;) We'll see how it goes. At any rate, I can guarantee I'll get many blisters over the course of the next several weeks of breaking them in. The heel is a half inch taller than I'm used to, and slightly narrower, so they'll take some getting used to, but I'm sure I'll manage.

Anyways, I just finished my advanced accounting homework AND the extra credit! And all in record time too. Or at least it felt like record time. I'll find out tomorrow in class if I actually did it all correctly or not though. I'm fairly confident I did, but there are a few spots where I'm not quite convinced.

Well, it's bedtime. Class at 7:30 a.m. and staying up too late don't mix well.

I love this song...

Here By Me
Three Doors Down

I hope you’re doing fine out there without me
‘Cause I’m not doing so good without you
The things I thought you’d never know about me
Were the things I guess you always understood

So how could I have been so blind for all these years?
Guess I only see the truth through all this fear,
And living without you…

And everything I had in this world
And all that I’ll ever be
It could all fall down around me.
Just as long as I have you,
Right here by me.

I can’t take another day without you
‘Cause baby, I could never make it on my own
I’ve been waiting so long, just to hold you
And to be back in your arms where I belong

Sorry I can’t always find the words to say
But everything I’ve ever known gets swept away
Inside of your love…

And everything I had in this world
And all that I’ll ever be
It could all fall down around me.
Just as long as I have you,
Right here by me.

As the days grow long I see
That time is standing still for me
When you’re not here

Sorry I can’t always find the words to say
Everything I’ve ever known gets swept away
Inside of your love

And everything I had in this world
And all that I’ll ever be
It could all fall down around me.
Just as long as I have you,
Right here by me.

And everything I had in this world
And all that I’ll ever be
It could all fall down around me.
Just as long as I have you,
Right here by me.

Surgery...

Well, yesterday took an interesting turn right around 4 o'clock. I went to work in the morning, per normal. Then stopped by Gabe's afterwards so they could adjust my car. It's working fabulously now! :D Then at 4 o'clock I had an appointment with the oral surgeon (who took my wisdom teeth out a bit more than a month ago). I had set up the appointment the day before because my cheek had swollen up and I couldn't quite determine what was going on. So I went in and they seemed pretty worried about it. Then they told me they were going to have to cut it open and clean it out. :S I wasn't thrilled with this prospect, but I quickly realized I didn't have a choice in the matter. It was that or let it sit, get worse, and end up in the hospital. Yeah... I guess I'd rather a little pain and hassle now, vs. a lot later. So they numbed the area up with local anesthesia, which managed to frighten the heck out of me. I mean, I can handle needles... I've never had much trouble with them. I mean, I'll wince a little sometimes, but that's all. Well, needles (even really short ones) on the inside of the mouth... that's a whole other world. And it sucked. I had a terrible time trying to control my emotions after that. I think I had been a bit overly stressed before all this and getting poked repeatedly by a needle inside the mouth was just the last straw that put me over the edge. Well, despite my tears and desperate attempts to stop them, the surgeon managed to do what he needed to do pretty quickly and the whole thing was over in a matter of minutes. Then I stopped by Freddy's for some antibiotics they prescribed, and headed home to eat (carefully), take vicodin, watch movies, and crochet. It was a very relaxing evening actually. I watched Mary Poppins and then Notting Hill. You know, it's odd how vicodin doesn't affect me much except to make me think I'm not hurting. It does that very, very well. But it doesn't make me tired, or make me lose any sense of where I am and what I'm doing. But anyways, so now I get to keep my mouth washed out with salt water (rather icky stuff), and all that other fun post-op kind of stuff. Fortunately I can still eat normal food pretty well though. I just have to chew it with the left side of my mouth. So Matt, Michael, Megan and I should still be able to go to Jalapeno's today. :D And hopefully I'll get to go see Bye Bye Birdie this afternoon, followed by Jalapeno's, then some dancing, but probably not with quite as much enthusiasm as normal, as I do have to take it a little bit easy. In the meantime though, I need to work on homework.

So Exciting...

I may have found the perfect apartment for me. :D It's near the airport, in what seems to be a very nice community. It's a studio apartment, unfurnished, but with a murphy bed (the kind that folds up into the wall), a washer and dryer, and a fireplace (I believe). And it's right in the price range I was hoping for. If anyone knows Anchorage well and I haven't already asked your opinion, please contact me and I'll be more specific about where it is so you can let me know what you think.

Sam's baby arrived a few days ago! And Mary is expecting in February. It's exciting. But I must admit, I feel a bit sidelined. It's not that I want to be married or thinking about kids at this point in time, cause I most absolutely definitely do not. But it is a bit odd when so many of my friends are in those situations. I keep being told that it's normal for people to wait until much later to get married and such nowadays, but that's hardly what I'm seeing. Maybe I'm in the wrong state. Maybe that's really true elsewhere. Oh well, I never agreed to conform to "normal" anyways, so I'll take my own sweet time about it, regardless of what everyone else is doing. And I'll enjoy their adorable little ones in the meantime. :)

Things

I'm done housesitting now. And my car is supposed to be finished today, so I'll hopefully be independent again. I don't mind asking for rides when I need them, or even when I just want them. But when I have to ask for rides over a long period of time, and I wouldn't have to except that my car is inoperable, well, that rubs my independent nature the wrong way after awhile. Oh well, Matt has been very gracious, and I think he actually likes getting teased by Michael about having a blond in his car. ;)

I took my 2nd cost accounting exam yesterday. I now only have 2 finals left, one in cost and one in governmental accounting. Those should show up in the next week or so and they shouldn't be too hard to study for. And I have 8 days of regular classes left! 1 more this week, 2 the following week, 1 Thanksgiving week, and 2 each the next two weeks. Then finals week, with 2 finals, and I'm outta here! Then I drive down to Anchorage (anyone want to drive down with me?), fly to Wrangell, spend a week and an early Christmas, then fly to Ashland and spend Christmas and New Years there. Then fly back, move into my apartment, and start work. :D

Well, enough for now. I'm going to try calling apartments today, and start that process. Also I have a paper I need to work on and a memo to edit later.

School, work, and dancing... the usual

I submitted my last distance class lesson today! Now I just have 3 tests to take, as they show up. Then I'll be totally done with those classes. Yay! Then I get to devote all that extra free time to writing a paper for Advanced Accounting. Yay! :( Oh well, in 6 weeks I will be in Wrangell and done with my degree. That makes me very happy. :D

Work is going well. I'm probably not going to be able to make it to work on Wednesday, cause my car is still in the shop. Broken clutch, again... always the clutch, always a different reason. I so want a new car! But otherwise work is good. I'm working on balancing intercompany accounts right now, that is a lot of fun, although a lot of work too.

And of course dancing. Matt is going to stick around town long enough to be here for the dance competition in a couple weeks, so we can do that together. Otherwise, I've been dancing my feet off, literally, every weekend so far and there's no end in sight. Between latin dances, ballroom dances, contra dances, silver spur dancing, salsa rueda practice, tango practice, and random other dance events, I'm finding myself more than busy enough. And my dance shoes have holes in the bottoms now! Fortunately my parents just ordered me a new pair for my birthday, and they should arrive this week, hopefully. Now I'm just hoping I picked the right size.

Little Boy - the cat I'm taking care of for 2 weeks. He's so sweet! 

My Halloween

I suppose I should tell about my halloween, seeing as the actual day has come and gone already. My halloween was really on Saturday, since that's when all the dancing was.

So, Saturday I spent roughly half the day getting ready to go dancing, and the other half actually dancing. :D The morning and early afternoon were anything but productive really, but I did try to get a little homework done. Then I took a nice long shower, spent plenty of time primping, and generally came out looking like I do in the picture below.

Matt, pictured below me, showed up around 5:45 looking pretty damn good in his costume. His costume is particularly awesome to those of us in the know. I will attempt to explain. Another Matt, whom I'll call Matt L. here, always wears a tight black shirt with slacks when he's dancing, as Matt is wearing in the picture below, and has his hair cut short with no facial hair. So, Matt decided that for Halloween, he was going to dress up as Matt L. (We have too many Matt's who dance, btw.) But to add to the look a bit, he found an awesome Zorro hat, and made a mask out of a black sock. (Washed first, he promises.) Anyways, so in the end, we have Matt, dressed as Matt L., dressed as Zorro. :D Way too much fun, I know.

So, after we had some cheesecake I had made up the night before (oh that was soooo good!) and adjusted our costumes as necessary, we headed off to the Silver Spur. There I discovered a tear in my skirt, so after dancing for awhile, we headed back to the place I'm housesitting with a few friends in tow and had more cheesecake while I mended my skirt. Then it was off to the contra dance. It was way to much fun gypsying as a gypsy. :D

After contra, Matt and I decided to check out Point After to see what was going on there. The band was fabulous, as always, but it was really smoky. So after a few songs we headed to Jalapeno's for the latin dance. The turnout there was disappointing, but the music was good. We danced a lot, a random stranger bought me a drink, Megan and I played a round of pool, and then came the contests. First was a costume contest. Matt got really close, being the last one told to sit down. But it was myself and a latina lady who tied for first place. We each got $50 certificates for dinner for 4 at Jalapeno's restuarant. :D After that the DJ did a screaming contest. I wasn't particularly interested in screaming, but after a few guys tried, the DJ finally convinced me to do it. So I screamed. And I got first place. And $20. Which pretty much paid for all my dancing over the weekend. :D

After the contests, Megan, Michael, Matt and I decided to head over to the Blue Loon to see what was going on there. It was already well after midnight by this time. So off we went and discovered that that was where everyone in town was apparently. It was fun, although the floor could not have been more disgusting. We left when the place closed at 3:30 a.m., including the time change. So it was really more like 4:30 a.m. Then Matt drove me home and I took a quick shower and crashed.

Needless to say I didn't accomplish a lot on Sunday. In fact, a few of us were rather tired and zombie-like at salsa rueda practice later that day. It was entertaining to watch us try to do some of the more energetic moves.

Halloween Pictures

Gypsy! And I got to gypsy as a gypsy at the contra dance too! (All the guys got a kick out of that one.) 

Here's Matt dressed up as Matt L. dressed up as Zorro! (His hat says Zorro on it too.) :D