A Stream of Consciousness from Annie

Oh my goodness!! My computer is going so slow! I have been sitting here for 20 minutes just trying to get the pages to load! My poor compy . . . I've tried to remove files to clean up the system; I've deleted my web browser history and temporary internet files; I've defragmented. Maybe I have too much music . . . If I had a million dollars--
Background Vocals: If I had a million dollars . . .
Me: Cut it guys. That wasn't a cue. Seriously, if I had a million dollars, I'd buy a seperate hard drive just for my music. :::mind is flooded with all of the possible uses for a million dollars::: On second thought, I might not. First, I'd pay off my loans. And Paul's loans. And the car. I'd set aside some for a new car. And for a house. Let's see, how much have I got left? :::breaks out the calculadora::: How many zeros are there in a million? 100; 1,000; 10,000; 100,000; 1,000,000. That's a million, right? Ha ha, I think I put one hundred million in the calculator. But that would be cool, too. Oh, I'd set aside money for a mini-van (weird, huh? Someday I'm gonna be a mom!). I think after that, I'd pay off my parents house. Then I could probably pay off my siblings loans. :::checks how much money is left::: Yeah, okay, I think I'd buy a hard drive just for my music.

Whew! Now that we've got that figured out! I wrote a post last week, and it disappeared! And I didn't have time to post it to xanga and blogger, so I just posted it to xanga. And it didn't post. I don't even remember what I said except for something about watching the movie Rigoletto. I'm writing this post in notepad, so I'm doing the html myself, and I'm having fun with tags. Hense the excessive use of emphasis. :::happy sigh::: I haven't hardcoded in so long.
Background vocals: So long! Farewell! A veider sane goodbye!
Me: Cut it out, guys! If you can't speak (or spell) the language, just don't even try to sing it.
Background vocals: :::hanging heads and unconsolable::: Goodbye!!!!

Annnnyhoozers. So, I can't believe that it's the middle of November already! Yesterday, I went to Olive Garden to hang out with Christy, Kendall, and Alisha 'cause Alisha was in town! :::waves arms like a puppet::: Yay!!!! I hadn't seen Alisha since the wedding. The sad thing is, I hadn't seen Christy or Kendall in almost as long. :-( After Olive Garden, we went to IHOP to celebrate Shawna's birthday!! Happy birthday! Shawna, her mom, her dad, Zoot, Kurt, and Paul all came, too. We had a lot of fun. I hadn't laughed so hard in a long time. I needed it, too.

Work is okay. I enjoy the job fine, but I dislike the environment. The business expects us to sell about $1000 a day and unload the stock and do visual merchandising and do markdowns. In hosiery, socks, slippers, cold weather (gloves, hats, scarves), accessories, hand-bags, and jewelry and watches. And they have about nine of us there at a time sometimes. There were :::mentally calculates::: eight of us for most of today--no wait! I forgot two. There were ten of us there for part of today, nine of us for most of the day, and for part of this evening, there were eleven of us. Now how are eleven people supposed to all sell $1000 a day when there aren't that many customers? So I'm probably going to get a pay-cut in a couple of weeks which is thoroughly undeserved because I work exceedingly hard. Unlike some of my co-workers. :-\

On the uphand, Paul has job interview in about two weeks. Yay!!!! And hopefully, he'll have more, too. He's been working really hard on an insane project for the past several days. He only got two hours of sleep last night (he's taking a much needed and deserved nap right now). So, prayer requests (and a chance to use more of those fun html tags!)

• Paul has a lot of work to do to finish up the semester, and he's getting overwhelmed. Please pray that he's able to get everything done and finish out strong.
• Please be praying that God will provide a job for us. Or at least let us in on His plan, but a job would be good. :-)
• Pray that we're able to go see my family for Christmas. I haven't seen Karen since the wedding, and I miss her like crazy. However, my job doesn't give us any extra days off for Christmas.
• Please pray that I can handle my job for just a little longer. The physical work is getting to me some (I've had back problems in the past that all the lifting aggrevates, and on Saturday, my heart was aching all day from all of the lifting and climbing and things). Also, some of my co-workers drive me nuts. And two of my co-workers had a screaming fight in the stock room on Saturday. They're still friends and they're fine, but it's stressful when they do that. Especially since all the customers can hear them, and I'm standing there trying to figure out what to do about it.

Okay. Well, this post is probably long enough. I hope that everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving! I hope that I do, too. This is my first Thanksgiving away from home. But it's also my first Thanksgiving with Paul, and that's something to be really grateful for. Oh! One more prayer request!

• Pray that I get the apartment clean for Thanksgiving! We're having a couple over, and the apartment is a wreck!

Okay, catch ya'll later!
Background Vocals: GoodBYE!!!!

P.S. Doing html in blogger doesn't work so well . . .

P.P.S. It's taken me almost an hour to post this thing, not including the 20 minutes that it took me to write it. Slow computer . . .

A Weekend! Oh My!

Dear devoted following,

Da da da da! Drumroll please! Er, scratch that; reverse it. WE HAVE INTERNET!!!!!! Yippee!!!! The only problem is that it’s dial-up. :-/ Even though the guy who lived in the apartment before us had high-speed with att, we can’t get it. ^O_O^ Who knows. So we were going to get highspeed with cable, but when I called to order, they said, “Oh, you have to order cable TV first.” Well, we wouldn’t use cable and we don’t need the extra expense. So we have dial-up. It’s actually not too bad, but it’s running kind of slow right now. I’m trying to catch up on facebook, but I once I started crocheting between pages, I decided this was silly and I could update my blog using Word while I wait for pages to load.

So, this was my first weekend since moving to Longview. It’s been nice. I had my first Saturday off, followed by a Sunday off. Whoohoo!!! It will probably never happen again. I had a wonderful day yesterday, though. Paul and I just hung out all day. He played Age of Empires and I crocheted. In the evening, Paul went to a movie with Zoot and Kurt. I stayed and took a luxurious bath while reading The Fellowship of the Ring. Then I went to Hobby Lobby for a few items for my crochet project. After that I made a super quick Wal-Mart run (‘cuase I really didn’t want to go there) and bought a 25 foot phone cord so that we can sit on the couch instead of the floor while using the Internet. Then I came back and made a yummy homemade frappacino which I drank while playing on the Internet. Fun stuff. :-D

Today, Paul and I actually got to go to church!!! Yay!!!! I hadn’t been since last Spring, and I was really missing it. And we just happened to pick a day when there was a Mexican themed pot-luck afterward. It was yummy. :-D

My grad school application is due tomorrow, so I got everything turned in on Friday. I’m so nervous! I really, really, really want to get in. I mean, I’ll be devastated if I don’t. When I thought I wasn’t going to get my application in on time because some of my stuff hadn’t gotten to the school, I had a complete emotional breakdown—worse than I’ve ever had before!—and just shut down. Paul had to tell me what to do. I’ve never wanted anything like this before because I was always confident of the outcome. I knew that I would get into LeTourneau, I knew that I would marry Paul, I knew that I would be rejected the first time I submitted a manuscript. But suddenly, I don’t know if my writing is good enough. I don’t know if this is really what God has for me. But I think that it is. Please, please pray that I get in. I just can hardly wait.

That’s probably a long enough post for now. Let me see if my blog will load . . . .

Your devoted followee,
Annie

The first month

Woah! It's been exactly one month since I last posted! Which means it's been exactly one month since I started work. That's right--during lunch that fateful Tuesday, Dillard's called and said, "Oh, you don't start next Tuesday, you start tonight. At five. Til nine-thirty. :-D" So I had to rush back to Hallsville to change into my suit and then eat a sandwhich in the car in the mall parking lot before I went inside. Ha ha. So, I guess I've been working at Dillard's for a month. It's been good so far. I just graduated from training on Saturday. We get monthly schedules, which is really nice. I get two days off a week (at random times--this week it was Tuesday and Friday; next week, it's Sunday and Wednesday) and I close two nights a week. But even when I close I still get home at about 9:40pm, so that's good. And the earliest that I ever have to be at work is usually 9:50am. The pay is really good for Longview and for this type of job, and I get some benefits, like health insurance (after I've been there three months).

Our apartment is about five minutes from my work and twenty minutes from Paul's school. Usually, Paul takes the bus to the school or work, but sometimes, like the past three days, I drive him. Our apartment is really nice. The only downside is that it doesn't have a pantry (^0_0^) (that's the shruggy shoulders smiley). But, it has a dishwasher that is AH-mazing. We don't have to rinse anything even if we don't run it for a day or two! And Zoot is lending us a washer and dryer. Paul and I each have a walk-in closet, and our dining room living area is pretty nice. And since it's a "non-updated" apartment, we get lower rent. Wohoo!!! God has really blessed and taken care of us.

We have really good friends here, too. Last night, we went over to Shawna's apartment and got to eat pizza and hang out with friends. I got to see Christy and Jodie, neither of whom had I seen since the wedding. Christy told me that Michael Card would be at chapel today, so I drove Paul to work and then hung out at Speer chapel (playing piano!!!!) until chapel. At chapel, I got to see Kendall and Jamin and his wife and baby. :-D Life is so good. Oh, but I think that there is a class in this room now, and I get to go meet my hubby for lunch. I like getting to be with Paul so much. I miss him when we're apart even during the day. Well, he's my best friend! she answered their rolling eyes with arms akimbo. :-D Catch ya'll later!

Annie D.

Life is Good :-D

Wohoo!!!! I'm married to the love of my life! And my best friend. And the awesomest man in the world. And the perfect man for me. And the hottest guy around. And I'm only married to one man!!! Incredable, huh?

The wedding went so well! My only regret is that the reception didn't last longer and that not all of my songs played. I wanted to keep dancing with my friends. I know that it could be years before I see some of them again, so I hated to leave, but Paul was really sweet and understood. However, once we left, I was just so happy and excited to be with the man I love.

People keep asking me how married life is (or, as my mom says, "What's it like, now that you're an old married woman?"). So far--it's great! I am thoroughly enjoying being married, and I'm really excited to set up our new apartment this weekend. My only concern is job stuff. For one thing, I'd rather stay home to write, cook, and clean than have a normal job (that's just my personality), but for another, I'm hoping they still need me! They offered me a job, and I accepted, but that was a couple of weeks ago and we didn't sign any papers or anything. Training starts next Tuesday, so I'm hoping they get back to me saying, "Oh yeah, you're still hired." So be praying!

Anyway, I should probably be at DPS right now getting my liscence changed or I should be at Payless buying new business shoes. Or I should be curled up in a corner somewhere reading the last few chapters of Harry Potter. It's so intense!!!!! And THEY ALL DIE!!!!!! I'm just kidding. I haven't finished it yet, so I don't know if they all die or not. I kind of doubt they do. Anyway, I don't want to spoil it. Okay. I guess I'm off to zanzabar to meet the zanzabarbarians!

P.S. If anyone who still regularly updates xanga would comment on this post, that would help me know which blogs to read. And if you have a different blog that you regularly (or semi-regulrarly) update, let me know. Now that my friends really live all over the place (now that we're graduated), I'm going to try REALLY hard to keep up with blogs and facebook and e-mail and things. Having no homework will help as well. Annnnnyway, this is the Princess Leia Organa Skywalker soon-to-be Solo, signing off.

**End Transmission**
(that's a tribute to Sarah)

Almost There!!!

Well, the wedding is less than a week away. I can hardly believe it. I'd been concentrating on unwedding stuff so hard for awhile that it kind of snuck up on me. Paul and I have an apartment finally! Yay! God worked everything out for us in just a couple of days. I'm gonna start training for my job around August 14th, and I'm actually excited about it even though it's not in my field at all.

I'm really excited about this week. Almost all of my friends are coming in for the wedding, and I'm so excited to get to see them all! I think that this week is going to go so fast! I really want to enjoy hanging out with my friends because some of them live pretty far away. Then, on Saturday, I get to marry my best friend! Yippee!!!

Anyway, I think I need to go take out my contacts and take off this make-up.

Happy 4th of July! I miss html . . . 16 Days to Go

So, I missed a few days, but that's okay. I'm getting married in two and a half weeks!!! Less than, actually. I'm really, really excited. I have pretty much purchased everything I need, so I don't have much more to do. I have to make some phone calls today about job stuff. Which is why I'm writing a Xanga right now. No me gusta el telephono. AH!!!!! Estoy olvidando mi espanol! Es muy muy mal!

I had a good fourth of July. We had friends over, which was really fun. I got to play Spades again, and I didn't do horribly. I went blind nilo and actually got it! Woohoo! And I fell asleep for awhile (because of my annoyingly groggifying medicine). And we had brisket, yummy!!!

So last night, I dreamed that I was Hermione. I was in Defense Against the Dark Arts with Harry Potter, and the professor was evil. She was trying to get Harry to do some spell that would let him see the Death Eaters, but I figured out that the spell worked both ways and that then the Death Eaters could see him. So I had to tackle him and knock the wand out of his hand. So he went off and sulked somewhere. I ran into Ron, who was talking to Cho Chang. Then I turned into Cho Chang and went to take a bubble bath in the Prefect's bathroom, but it was really dirty. I realized that if I was Hogwarts, then I should be able to do a spell to clean it up. I had to concentrate really, really hard. I'm not sure if it worked. It was a very interesting dream.

I also dreamed about making pasta in the middle of nowhere and having to drive an hour or two away to pick up a friend of Amanda's (Africa's) at the airport. Weird. . . .

Okay, I should get going. Catch ya later!

20 Days

Today was a fun day. Live Free or Die Hard was a fun movie. Too many previews, though. All in all, I've had a good weekend. And now, I need to go to bed so that I can get done my Monday to-do list. Goodnight all!

21 Days

Well, it's after midnight 'cause I'm a slacker, but I'm still going to count it. Today is 21 days until the 21st of July, according to my wedding countdowns. So, I decided to start a 21 day countdown. This is pretty fun. Things I still have to do:

Buy the cake topper
Buy the bubbles
Arrange the flowers
Miscellaneous other tidbits

All in all, that's not a bad to-do list! Well, I need to go to bed. Tomorrow, Harry, Dad, and I are going to see Live Free or Die Hard for Dad's Father's Day present from Harry. We've done a Die Hard marathon this weekend. I'm looking forward to it. Anyway, catch ya'll later! (yes, the apostraphe does go there, and if you think otherwise, you don't know what you're talking about)

Getting Close

So, things are moving along toward the wedding day. Three and a half weeks! :::gasps:::: I have a lot to do. I'm enjoying doing most of it, like arranging the flowers and making my veil, but it's still stressful. Plus I have a lot of other stuff to do. I'm really proud of myself for all that I have gotten done though. Not the conceited kind of pride, but the "Hey, I'm actually doing something and doing it well for once!" kind of pride.

I just read Peter Pan today. And you know what? I miss starry nights with friends, racing through the clouds. I'm really glad to be grown(ing) up, but sometimes, I feel very sad that I can't ever be a kid again. Being a kid was fun! I just hope that I don't try to relive my childhood through my kids! That could be bad.

Anyway, I should get to bed. I have to take my dress to be cleaned tomorrow, and I'm going to go see Sarah's play!!! (unless they're sold out). You should see it, too, if you're in the area. Oh, and I'm gonna work on more flowers tomorrow. I've finished the bridesmaids boquets and my toss boquet, which I used for my bridal portraits.

Goodnight all! I'm off to visit my own neverland, and it isn't a bit scarey.

Anne M.

Going Quickly Insanve--as is evendeced by my spelling

I actually just finished Eldest. Paul gave it to me for my birthday. That was a good book. I think I liked it better than Eragon. Oh oh oh! But I predicted the end! Actually, I predicted the end when I was reading the middle of Eragon. :::::blows on fingers and rubs on shoulder:::: I'm good. Did anyone else predict the ending? Don't say what the ending is though because we don't want to spoil it for everyone else.

So, who's going crazy? Annie's going crazy!! (Ha ha, English nerd: I was just thinking of how the meaning of those two sentences would totally change if I just changed "who's" to "whose.") My wedding is 39 days away (according to one website; it's 38 if you go to a different website and 37 if you go by the Harry Potter countdown)! I have so much to do. At least I finally got almost all of the invitations out. Note the almost all. Those things have been a stinking pain. Now I need to make my veil, do the flowers, finish the attendant gifts, and holy cow! I still have to order the stupid cake. Oh my word. I'm going insane.

But, I can't do any of that this week because I have to work on job hunting. I have to figure out what kind of job I'm looking for, find places that are hiring, apply, try to set up interviews, and whatever else I may need to do to find a job. I don't really know because noone ever told me and this is the first time I've done a serious, bona fide, full time job hunt. And I need to fill out stuff for our apartment application. I think. I don't really know.

On the super amazing uphand, I get to see Paul the day after tomorrow!!!! ::::waves arms like Kermit the Frog:::: YAY!!!! I haven't seen him in ::::::mentally calculates:::::: :::::checks Outlook calender::::: 4 and a half weeks. I know, I know, most people have to go a lot longer without seeing each other, but this is the longest we've been apart since we even liked each other, so it's a big deal for us.

Anyway, I've gotta go drive Karen and Dave to the airport. Talk with ya later!

I have a wedding to plan, my wife to murder, and Gildor to frame for it. I'm swamped!

Get your rest. If you haven't got that, you haven't got anything.

Dear all,

Well, I didn't write on xanga much this year because I honestly was far too busy. It feels so good to be finally done with school. And I think that my creativity is coming back, slowly but surely. I've already written one song and come up with one new story idea. That's nothing compared the 20-something ideas I used to come up with in a year, but since I started college, the number has been zippo, so one is good.

Let's see, recap of this year: Classes were okay, worked 8-10 hours a week first semester (and around 2 second semester :-\ ), shared an apartment with three friends, apartment dinner once a week, Thursday night Alias (we watched all five seasons in three semesters), wedding planning, forbidden to wedding plan, practicing piano 4 hours a week for friends wedding, internship freakout, finished internship, Going to ENGLAND!!!!, not going to england . . ., Shawna visited, Shawna visited again!, Shawna visited again!!, 5 bridal showers in one semester, 7 weddings in a year, hysterics--school is evil!, happy times--I like school, graduating, walking across the stage, I HAVE MY DIPLOMA! Oh wait, that's just the case for the diploma, hurriedly snap pictures, run to turn in gown, THEN I get my diploma, clean, clean, clean the apartment, go to bed at 4am, spend Sunday asleep and eating, rehearsal dinner at Papacita's, wedding, played four songs for said wedding, drove six hours home with no one to talk to but Fer 'n' Gully my new pet ivy, get home, sleep, wake up, drive to Corpus, mother's day lunch, come back, crash, brother's graduation!, wedding planning, wedding planning, wedding planning, wedding planning . . . .

And that's this past year in my discombobulated thoughts with emphasis on more recent events. I hope that you enjoyed. Currently, I am trying to relax without forgetting to plan my wedding, apply to grad school, and try to find a job. :-\ Do I have to? I'm ready for the wedding to just happen and end so that I go hang out on the beach. Ha ha. I need a vacation . . . .

THE END!

I just finished my last college class ever!!!! WOOOOOOOPIIIIII!!!!!!!!

Crazy-busy, busy and crazy

Busy busy busy!!!

As I have been saying for the past few weeks, we weren't meant to be students and real people at the same time. I have homework for four classes, twenty hours of internship, work, cooking, cleaning, shopping, planning our wedding, finding a job, looking for an apartment, applying to grad school (blissfully postponed some--it was originally due day after tomorrow!!!) and if possible, some time hanging out with friends since this is my last semester. Nope. Not busy at all . . .

So that's why I haven't written much and probably won't write much. But we've been engaged for a month, I have my dress--and that's about all. Not going crazy.

Anyway, I've got to get back to work. Talk to ya'll later!

Drumroll please . . .

So, I think I've told everybody in person or on the phone who reads this, so now I can post about it:

Paul and I are engaged!!!!! I'm so excited! And happy; did I mention happy? Yay!!! :::::waves arms like a puppet:::: Yay!!!!! Story time?

The Set-up
Last Friday was our 1st anniversary of dating. Paul asked me to go to breakfast with him at Saga since that's what we did the first day we were boyfriend and girlfriend. (I told him that I'm very grateful that he didn't propose at Saga, ha ha.) We also went to Anglican Prayer chapel together and ate lunch at my apartment. Paul said that he wanted to take me somewhere special at 5pm. My friends asked if I thought he would propose, and I said, "no" because Paul had said we go another anniversary if it didn't work out that one. Ha ha.

Frivolous Sidetrack About My Wonderful Shopping Skills
After Shakespeare class, Karen and I went dress shopping so that I could have a nice dress for our dinner date that night (mine and Paul's, not mine and Karen's). I don't think I've ever tried on so many dresses in such rapid succession before. . . . We spent around an hour at Dillard's but didn't find anything that just shouted "me!" Except for one dress, but it didn't quite fit So with only about 20 minutes left, we sped over to JC Penny where I did speed dress-shopping. I finally found a dress that looked really nice, was only $10 above my price range, and was two sizes smaller than the last dress I bought. BIG It turned out, when I went to pay for it, that it was actually $7 under my price range. Go me!

The Plot Thickens
So, I didn't get back until 5:30, but it was okay because it was too cloudy to watch the sunset anyway. So Paul drove us out to Lake Cherokee where we had our first date. We sat on his jacket on a rock by the lake and just talked for an hour. It was so beautiful. We kind of reflected on our year together and how, even though it's been hard sometimes, it has been so good and we care so much for each other.

The Proposal
When we decided that we should go back to get ready for dinner, Paul said, "If you stand up first, I can get my jacket." So I stood up, thinking it only slightly odd because Paul usually gets up first so that he can help me up. I stretched and then turned around to see what was keeping Paul. He had stayed on his knees. He said, "I love you." At this point, I was a little suspicious. Paul had said, "I love you," from that position before, but this seemed somewhat purposeful. Then Paul said, "Will you marry me?" and I thought, "Is he proposing?" And then I saw that Paul had a ring--well, mostly I just saw a sparkle 'cause it was dark out. I was so happy and excited that I didn't say anything at first. Then a little voice in the back of my mind said, "Say something before he gets nervous." So naturally, I said, "Yes."

I am sooooooo happy. Paul is the most amazing man I have ever known. I love him so much. He's my best friend. We love spending time together. We can be silly, serious, romantic, fun, intellegent, and all sorts of things together. My family likes Paul and his family likes me. I couldn't be more happy. . . . Well, maybe once I'm Paul's wife . . .

Thanks to all of our friends for sharing our excitement and joy. I'm so happy.