i have cleaned nearly every inch of my apartment

i found this sign in my neighborhood and thought that it was cute (click it for the full photo):



i finished reading the book "smashed : story of a drunken girlhood" by koren zailckas.
it's supposed to be a fascinating memoir on koren's "drunken girlhood".
i suppose the book was likable, but it was a little over the top.
i could have lived without the pop-culture references mentioned on nearly EVERY PAGE.
in fact, it probably would have made the book more enjoyable to read.
the memoir (like so many others) is supposed to be made into a film soon.
i can't even see myself enjoying the movie version.

i am half-way through reading the book "blink" by malcolm gladwell.
this was another book that got a lot of hype.
and i think this book actually deserved it.
it makes you question your immediate gut-instincts and what you would do in a blink of an eye.
it goes over series of various tests, statistics and algorithms to prove points.
there is also a section of the book about the music artist kenna (who i love), so that makes it even more enjoyable to me.

on sunday night i decided to make cooky cookies with my new stand-up mixer (a black friday buy that i will go into further later).
normally i follow the recipe as usual.
but this time i grated up some orange peel and added that and orange peel powder to the ingredients.
i also added chocolate chips to some.
if you don't like oranges, then you probably would not like my results.
but i love them. especially the ones i added chocolate chips to.
i plan on taking some to my co-worker (doug) tomorrow and see if he likes them or not.
he'll eat just about anything so i dunno if he is a good food critic, but maybe he will enjoy them.

i tried to call my sister on thanksgiving, but it went straight to voicemail.
and i was thinking maybe my mom would finally call me on thanksgiving... but she never did.
it is my first thanksgiving/christmas a way from family, and they did not care to call me.
mom has not even emailed me back in the last 2 or 3 months.
i guess i could continue to keep pushing for a relationship with her...
but i am the kind of person that always waits for the other person to initiate contact.
only because i feel like i am intruding.

so i spent thanksgiving with steve and his mom.
she made a nice meal that we were not able to eat until about 7 or 8pm. lol
the turkey just didn't want to cook.
but it was nice visiting with her and steve and watching Big and playing some weird dice game.
i brought sweet potatoes for our thanksgiving dinner.
i never make them because i don't like them. so it was a first for me.
i followed a recipe that said to make them with orange juice.
at first, i thought it'd like them... but no, i didn't.

even after staying awake well until midnight or 1am on thanksgiving, i decided to wake up at 5:30am to go to target for black friday shopping.
i had my list and my plan.
i was to go in and get what i needed and get the hell out.
well, when i got there a little before 6am (when the store opened), there was a line of customers wrapped all the way around the outside of the building.
as i was making my way to the back of the line, it finally started to move a bit.
it didn't take long for us all to get into the store.
i grabbed a shopping cart (bad mistake, but i needed it) and made my way to my priority items on my list.
i was surprised that there was plenty stock of the kitchen items i was going to buy (the crockpot and stand mixer).
after i made sure those two items were safely in my shopping cart, i continued on with my list.
all the while people are hitting you with their shopping carts and not really bothering to acknowledge what they just did.
then there was the task of trying to find where the check-out line begins and ends.
i ended up somehow in the electronics check-out line.
which took about 45 minutes of waiting and bonding with my fellow customers around me.
after check-out, i still had to push my way (with my cart) back through the crowds of people to get to the front of the store to leave.
by the time i exited the store, i was so mentally drained that i decided no more black friday shopping.
so this year was my FIRST and LAST time shopping black friday.

a few weeks ago, this column was posted in the Inlander under the "I Saw You" section (click it for the full photo):



naturally, i felt that steve needed to make a reply back to it.
so we emailed a response to the Inlander promptly about it:

I wasn't choking on your odor, I was choking on my pride.
I couldn't bring myself to speak to you at the time, and for that I am eternally sorry.
As an educated business-woman society tries to keep us apart, but I will no longer let society dictate my life.
You take my breath away, yet only asked for a dollar.
Would you accept my heart instead?
A 3-course dinner, a couple drinks, then relax in my jacuzzi.
You can search me for change.

my guess is that they got so many people replying back to it, they chose not to print any of them.
because ours has not gotten printed in the last couple of issues. :(
the only result of emailing them the above passage proved was that they sell your email address asap to other companies and you get hit hard with spam mail.
luckily, i used a spare email address i have laying around.

as many of you may know, i had been sick (amongst other things) the last few months.
i have finally regained all of my energy back!
and just in time to have my hours cut-back to part-time again at work.
so, this means i have cleaned nearly every inch of my apartment (and washed every article of dirty clothing) and now i am so terribly bored.
i've cooked and baked all that i can.
i've walked the dog more times than she has needed.
i'm more than half way through a book i started less than 5 days ago.
i'm in the process of researching a long list of household items (empty dish soap bottles, egg cartons, etc) and what they actually can be reused for.
i guess at the moment i feel like i am going a bit (more) crazy.

i subscribe to rss feeds for 35 financial type blogs.
one of them is even in a different language.
i just like the photos she posts. lol
i have WAAAAAAAAAAY too much time on my hands now.

i need friends?

the price you pay for a beautiful october autumn

obviously, i have not written in my blog for quite awhile.
i feel like i have had a lot to say, but no energy to actually spend time typing it up (hence one reason i signed-up to get a monthly supply of eboost).

it's been a year full of firsts for me... and our nation.
since i can not share all of my "firsts" with you... i will talk about the election.
i was not able to vote because i would have had to re-register and i would have to be a washington citizen for a number of month more than what i have been.
on the night of the election, i went out and bought a coax cable so that i could get the basic tv channels.
and of course i sat on my couch in front of the tv for hours watching and hoping.
and like so many others, i did cry a bit when obama was announced our new president.
having obama as our next president has also made work some what better since i work with mostly democrats... i don't have to hear a bunch of political crap anymore.

so i had a goal for the month of october to watch 31 horror films.
unfortunately, i fell short of this goal by 3 movies.
ideally, i wanted to watch movies i had not already seen before... or had not see since childhood (such as the parents and alice sweet alice).
i did find some gems during my conquest.
i have a few new favorites such as the quirky scary movies (the signal, otis, and botched). i also have some foreign favorites (oldboy, audition, and the orphanage).
just about everything else was really not worth watching. i did watch cannibal holocaust twice.
and it was not as gross the second time around.

gwar is going to be playing downtown this friday.
they are one of the bands i have always wanted to see live... but never liked their music.
tim and his wife are going to go.
but as usual, it really is not a good time financially for me to go. :(
so i guess i will have to just have tim tell me all the crazy crap that happened.

steve and i have had our list of ups and downs in the past 6 months of our relationship, but i think something that has happened recently between us has made me feel closer to him than ever.
i can't wait until we can move in together in march and spend all of our time together.
but i think it would be even better if he got me another chihuahua first to torture him with.
one puppy constantly licking his face is just not enough.

the weather lately has been really crappy.
probably the worst i have experienced since i moved here.
it's been rainy and cold the past couple of weeks.
and it gets pitch black by 4 or 5pm.
it's been kind of depressing, but more so is helping drain my already low energy level.
i guess it's the price you pay for a beautiful october autumn.

i keep telling myself that i need to get out and make some new friends.
but like i said, lately i have no energy to do anything.
hopefully that will change soon.
and hopefully my workload will lighten a bit as well in the next month or so.
i have been working full-time since mid-september.
i like the paychecks (even though they go right back to them since i shop too much at macy's)...
but i am dead tired when i get home.
i'll just be glad when the holidays are over with.

do they still make chocolate cool whip?
anyone know???
steve and i wanted to buy some last weekend, but were sorely disappointed to not find it at our local grocery store!

the signal

as of today, the elevator in my apartment building is STILL NOT fixed!
first we were told the 23rd, then friday the 26th, then monday the 29th and now it's october 1st.... still not working. it's been broken for about 2 months now.
if it's not fixed by monday, i am going to request some sort of rental discount.
it's not fair that i live on the 5th floor and have to walk up that many flights of stairs several times a day.
if i knew the elevator would be broken for TWO damn months, i would have stayed on the first floor.

i have begun my 31 days of horror movies like i did last year.
i can't remember now how many films i watched, but i am hoping to surpass it this year.
so far i have seen the signal and stay alive.
i actually liked both movies surprisingly.
some guys from work recommended some foreign horror films i plan on checking out soon too.

i rearranged my living room furniture recently.
i'm still not sure if i like it or not.
but i do have room that i didn't have before for a chair and bookcase.
maybe some day soon i will purchase one or two of those items.

one of my co-workers is on vacation with week,
so i get full-time hours.
which will probably only amount to an extra $100 on my paycheck,
but it's more than what i had before i guess.
my boss also asked me if i wouldn't mind picking up more hours for the holidays.
of course i said i would. i hope that i do not regret it.
it's been a kind of slow work week, so we have been on the 6th floor unwrapping xmas tree ornaments.
i've come home 2 out of 3 days this week so far covered in glitter.
ah, the magic of macy's.

i am starting to wish that i worked in a bakery.
i've developed such a great desire lately to bake.
i enjoy baking things and seeing and tasting how they turn out.
i love making cookies now because i used to always mess them up and would never be able to bake them right.
but now, i almost always get them right.
i imagine that i have also put on 10 pounds due to my new found love for baking.
yay new cookie sheets and muffin pans!

i finished the book 'the remains of the day'.
the book received really good reviews online, but i have to disagree.
there was nothing special about this novel in my opinion.

mom still has not called.
i told her that she could call me over 20 days ago.
i guess even when i give her permission to talk to me,
she still doesn't want to.... even though she said that she did.
i wonder if she ever realizes how unloved that can make a person feel?

my new tommy hilfiger pillows make me feel loved though and i sleep slightly better at night now.
i just wish they made a steve-shaped pillow.
maybe someday.