My Husband Makes Me Laugh

“Paul, why am I crying while reading about baby showers and wedding showers on a pottery studio website?”

“You’re—a girl.”

“That’s not a good answer!”

“For guys it is.”

“That’s not a good answer.”

“Cause you’re a girl and you find it touching when your friends get married and you want to have a baby someday and you’re caring.”

“That’s a better answer.”

“You’re a girl.”

::::frowns::::

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“What was I listening to earlier?”

:::singing::: “Who let the dogs out? Who! Who who who!”

“I was not listening to that!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Why won’t Kurt answer his facebook? Maybe it has something to do with the fact that he’s in DUBAI!”

:::phone rings:::

“IT’S KURT!”

:::phone stops ringing:::

“Oh, Kurt. Why did you abandon me?”

God is Good and I Have Friends. Yay!

I happened to notice that it’s been a week since my last post. I needed a break from homework anyway. So it seems like all of a sudden, a ton of stuff is happening every weekend. I’m afraid to keep asking off for work. I don’t mind working weekends, its just that stuff keeps happening on them. Nothing’s going on this weekend (as in tomorrow), but next weekend, I’m heading out to a Renaissance Faire with Sarah/Katra/Ashatan/and-I-forget-what-else. I’m excited! Yay! I need to get going on my Pirate costume, but I thought I should do my school first.

The weekend after that, Alisha, Shawna, and Jennie are coming to visit! Yay!!! I’m really excited about that. They’ll be here a couple of days. The weekend after that is the air show that Paul wants to go to for his birthday (which is that Tuesday). I guess nothing happens for awhile after that. Then, the Saturday after Thanksgiving is a family reunion. That would be really fun to go to. But of course, the weekend after Thanksgiving is peak time at the retail stores. So I don’t know about that one.

I’m excited that I’ve got so much going on, though! Yay!

I have a lot of friends who need prayer right now, for various things. Some aren’t feeling well, some have big decisions to make, and some are going through rough times. If you think of it, would you pray a blanket prayer for my friends? Hey, you could be one of them!

On a similar note, I’d just like to mention how awesome God is. He has taken such good care of Paul and I. I needed new clothes and a winter coat, so God got me a job at Eddie Bauer. I needed new glasses, so God led me to a place (through Abby) where I could an eye exam and a pair of glasses for fairly inexpensive. Paul and I both needed to see the doctor, so God got us into a place that is less expensive than others and has a need-based payment plan.

And that leads me to my last point. I’ve decided that I like vets better than doctors. No offense is intended for all of my medical friends—you all are competent! But out of the doctors I’ve been to and the vets I’ve been to, the vets seemed to know what they were doing. The doctor yesterday said, “I don’t know” a whole lot more than I thought she should have. ^o_o^ oh well.

And that’s this weeks Really Long Update in the Life of Annie

Having Friends is Nice :-D

You know what's funny? That book I told you about in the last post is still bothering me. :-\

So things have been going pretty well here. A week and a half ago, Kyle and Lisa came for a Sunday and we hung out together. We went to lunch, Best Buy, Borders, and downtown to the Riverwalk. We had a lot of fun. I've missed hanging out with friends. Of course, that night I had a dream that a 747 landed on our roof and Paul nearly got squished 'cause he was too busy goggling at the plane to run away. :-D

Last Friday, my cousin Abby texted me and asked if I wanted to go see Fireproof with her. I hadn't heard of Fireproof before, so I watched the preview and thought that it looked good. It was a good movie. It was fun, too. It was a Christian movie, but they did a pretty good job of not beating the audience over the head with the gospel. The acting was a little cheesy, especially at the beginning, but overall, it was good. The guy--I always forget his name--Kirk Camero--is a good actor. The girl who played his wife could have done better, but it wasn't bad. And it had some good comedy relief. After the movie, Abby and I went to Chile's and talked until around midnight. I had a blast. I hadn't been to the movies with a friend I'm not married to in awhile.

Work is going well. I get a good discount, so I'm going to buy a new winter coat for January in Vermont. Also for visiting Montana in the winter, which will hopefully happen soon. Grad school could be going better. I don't know why I'm having so much trouble getting things onto paper. I think part of it has to do with the fact that my glasses are 4 years old. I only realized that about a month ago. They've been giving me headaches and making it hard for me to do anything that has to do with computers, books, television, or writing. So basically, I can play the piano, do housework, and sometimes crochet. Paul my sweet and wonderful husband is going to take me to the eyedoctor's, even though we don't have insurance. He's so sweet!

Paul and I have both been feeling overly tired lately. I'm not sure if it's a lifestyle thing or if we're sick or what. It's been very frustrating though. If you wouldn't mind praying for us to figure out what the problem is so that we can fix it, we'd really appreciate it.

Well, that's probably a long enough post for now. Talk with you later!

Annie

I LIKE happy endings!

Yay! I wrote something! :-D It makes me happy. That's only the second short story that I've come up with on my own. I've written a few others, but those were all for the Book Thing. My short story is different than the stuff I often write, but I enjoyed writing it. It was nice to know that it was short, so I didn't have all of this pressure.

On a sad note, I just finished reading Specials, the last book in that series I was telling you about. Well, I had really enjoyed the series up until part three of Specials. I just really didn't like the ending. Okay, I'm gonna spoil the ending, so if you want to read the books someday, don't read between the asterisks. *The ending was so sad! Through the entire third book, the main character was doing things so that she could be with her boyfriend, the one she loved. She was trying to get him medical help and change herself because her superhuman senses saw him as weak. Well, she goes through all of that, and in Part Three, he dies! And it wasn't like he died in the big battle scene or that his brain damage got too much. It was for a stupid reason. He tried to get surgery that was too risky, so his brain rejected the surgery and noone was around to help him because of the battle. So, his brain just stopped working and they took him off the life support machines 'cause they needed the bed. It was a horrible random death. And the last time he and the main character had been together, they had a fight. It was HORRIBLE! Why do people keep writing these terrible sad endings for books? I really enjoyed the rest of the series, but I'll never read it again now. What really gets me, is that his death didn't even make sense with the plotline. I can think of some other things that would have made more sense. Like if he'd just been in a coma and then the main character turned the villain good and she came and fixed him. Anyway, it's just really been bugging me. It probably wouldn't have bothered me so much before I started dating Paul, but now I can imagine what its like to lose the one you love. I honestly kept hoping the main character would die 'cause at least she'd be at peace then. Ergh!*

Okay, rant over. I should probably get back to writing. I'm not sure what, though. I guess I could write an essay until I think of something creative to write. Catch ya later!

Awesome Summer!

I know; I’m a bad blogger. It’s all my love/hate relationship with technology. This summer has been pretty awesome. I went to graduation and Christy and Joel’s wedding in May. Seeing so many ELH-3 girls together again was awesome. We got some good pictures. In June, I went to Audrey and Jason’s wedding and got to hang out with Holly. And Karen came to visit, which was amazing! I’m so glad that she and Dave live closer now. I was going crazy without them!

In July, I went to grad school, which was also amazing. I had a blast and got so fired up about writing again. I went from grad school to Jonathan and Malori’s wedding. From their wedding, Paul and I went on a road trip to celebrate our first anniversary. I had so much fun! That was our first really long road trip. It was stressful in some ways—like that crazy mid-western storm! 120 miles long and at least 4 hours to get through—but a lot of fun. We ate original deep dish pizza at the original deep dish pizza restaurant! And guess what? The guy who invented it was from Texas! Yup, everything good comes from Texas. ;-) I can say that, too, ‘cause Paul’s mom was from Texas, so he came from here, too.

In August, I got to go to Kendall and Joshua’s wedding, which I didn’t think I was going to do. I road the train to meet up with Christy, Alisha, and Amanda and we road tripped up to the wedding. I had so much fun with the girls again. And guess what?? Christy and I got to be flower girls! Yay! And hanging out with Kendall was great since I hadn’t seen her in forever.

I finally found a part-time job. It’s been pretty good so far (I’ve been there about two weeks). They’ve been working with my schedule and mostly scheduling me for afternoons. Yay. Part-time is so much nicer than fulltime.

Grad school sucks right now. Not because of grad school but because of my infernal writer’s block. ARGH! Quick, someone give me an idea for a short story based on character! Any prayers for my writing would be greatly appreciated. I’d hate to waste this opportunity.

I know this is getting long, but I just want to thank everyone for their prayers for my brother-in-law. Jeff is doing pretty well. He got the back brace off this week. This whole situation has really been a miracle. God was really looking out for Jeff. Hit by a drunken driver while riding his bike and only two cracked vertebrae and no paralysis—I’d say that’s a miracle! Continued prayers for his recovery and for the medical bills are greatly appreciated. Neither Jeff nor the drunk driver has insurance. And if you wouldn’t mind praying for my mother-in-law, she has hepatitis or something crazy like that. The doctors hope it will clear up by December. We’re praying it clears up sooner.

Well, that’s another brief update from the life of Annie!

P.S. I read this book Uglies by Scott Westerfeld for grad school. It’s not wonderfully written, but it’s not horrible either and it was pretty interesting. The main character kind of drives me crazy, though. I just finished the sequel, Pretties, and I’m taking a brake before I start the third one.

In Vermont, “BBQ” Means “Cookout”

This post is about cultural differences. Sometimes, we don’t realize what our culture is until we’re thrust into another one.

Example #1: Yesterday, dinner was scheduled as “BBQ on the college green.” One of my classmates, Katie, and I were sitting on the grass reading our workshop pieces for the next day. “Are we having hamburgers and hotdogs?” Katie asked as the smell of charcoal wafted our way. “Because that would be odd since we had that for lunch.”

I replied, “I thought we were having BBQ.”

Knowing where I’m from, Katie understood my confusion. “Do you mean pulled pork or pulled chicken?” she asked.

I didn’t really. “I meant brisket.”

Katie asked, “What’s brisket?”

She’d heard of it before, but thought that it was some kind of Mexican meat. I further realized my ideas on BBQ when I went through the food line. I was incensed when people passed up the potato salad. Alright, so it was fancy potato salad with no mustard and made out of red new potatoes, but how can you eat BBQ without potato salad? I got potato salad and coleslaw, noting the lack of charro beans. As I neared the end of line, where people were serving themselves lemonade with a ladle, I set down my plate and began looking for the sweet tea.

I guess this proves that I lived in East Texas for four and a half years.

Example #2: I was sitting at a picnic table today, writing a letter, when a few scattered drops fell from the sky. I heard people say, “It’s raining!” and head briskly toward a building. I stayed and enjoyed it. My paper barely got a few drops. Later on, when the rain grew harder, someone said, “Take an umbrella if you go out. It’s pouring!” I came out (on my way here actually). It’s raining, not pouring. My bag didn’t even look like it had the measles, just some acne. If my bag and I aren’t soaked by the time I get from one place to the other, it’s not pouring.

So, those are just some of the cultural differences that I’ve noticed here in Vermont. :-D

P.S. It feels like early fall here, not the middle of July. Which is good, considering the dorms have no AC.

P.P.S. Some of my classmates and I played Apples to Apples last night, and “The South” won for “Distinguished,” so I’m not alone here! :-D

Airport Adventures

So here I am! I'm at residency! I'm thinking that I might make a new blog just for writing things, and I'll keep this one as my blog on life to keep friends updated.

So, adventure one! I didn't go to sleep until 1:00 am the night before my flight to Vermont. No matter how much I prepare for a trip, I seem to always be packing until late into the night. I got about three hours of sleep as Paul and I had to get up at 4:15 am to get to the airport by 5:00 am for my plane, which was scheduled to leave at 6:23 am. (They schedule planes to leave at strange times.) As soon as we got into the car, I started feeling extremely nauseas. My stomach had been upset the day before, and I thought it was due to lack of sleep, but I think maybe that I had some food poisoning. We got to the airport and I managed to check-in at the kiosk. Paul and I went over to drop off my suitcase with security, and TA DA!! the electricity went out! They had a few lights on a back-up generator. They kept blinking on and off, on and off. That did not help my nausea. All of the security stuff went out, so they had to do pat downs and manual bag searches. We waited in the security line for about an hour (Paul held my stuff while I sat on the floor and tried to ignore the lights.) The electricity finally came back on, about the time I ran to the bathroom and threw-up. I felt better after that.

My flight was an hour late in arriving, so I missed my connecting flight (by around 20 minutes :-( ), which meant that I missed the bus to get me the 45 minutes from the airport to the school. Thankfully, they had another flight late that afternoon. So I was stuck in the airport for around 4 hours. I had an expensive McDonald's wrap for lunch and read Nero Wolff. I wound up on the same flight as another new student, so we talked. We also shared a cab to the school with two other students.

We missed dinner, so I ate dinner around 9:30 at an Irish pub. I ordered a ham and cheese panini thinking that cheese meant cheddar. It didn't. So, I didn't eat much of my sandwich. I mostly showed down on the sweet potato fries. They were good, but I don't think they were as good as the ones I had in Montana.

Today is the second day of activities. I just finished a lecture. I should probably get to lunch soon, and then it's off to workshop and another lecture after that. I'm halfway through with my quota of lectures already! But I'll go to more.

Well, I just got hungry, so I guess I'm off. Hope everyone is doing well!!

P.S. I know more than 8 people getting married or just married this summer!!! Insane! But I'm so happy for everyone! :-D

Paul and I went to the museum today. Admission is free from 3pm-8pm on Tuesdays. We packed up some sandwiches and ate them in the car after we had parked. The weather was very pleasant, with some rain and a nice breeze. We got into the museum at about 3:20 and we stayed until they closed at 8. We had a lot of fun. We got to see some old photographs (I thought of Visual Literacy) and a lot about wildlife around here.

Just a week away!

Ha ha, so I keep saying that I’ll get better about updating, but I never do. I think once I get into my grad school schedule, I will require myself to update once a week. That sounds like a good plan.

Guess what? I leave for grad school a week from Tuesday!! AHH!!! I can hardly wait. I’m also freaking out, too. I’m going to be extremely busy during the residency. We just got the tentative schedule. I want to go to practically everything, but there’s no way that I can. Thankfully, we can purchase CD’s of the lectures, so I don’t have to attend all of them to hear them. I have a lot to do before the residency to get ready.

On the writing scene, I’ve actually been working on another story. I’m really excited. It’s been a long time since I just sat down and wrote for hours without having to force myself to. It’s probably not much good right now, but I’ll get better as I get back into it. Oh, and it’s a NEW story, not a recycled story.

On the job scene, I had a second interview with Gymboree, and I thought everything was looking pretty good, but I didn’t get it. :::sigh::: Oh well. I know God has a plan, I just wish I knew what it was. Ann Taylor actually did offer me a job, but they were going to give me only 12 hours a week, plus or minus with emphasis on the minus. I really need more hours than that. Maybe I should have just taken it. At least it would have been something. But Paul and I prayed about it and felt like God said to wait. :::shrugs::: Oh well.

The other night, I dreamed that I went to Mars and went to the beach. The sun was so bright there that the Martians had to get shots to inoculate them against the sun. To prove how hot the sun was, one guy put butter on his leg, and it started sizzling! I got really burned. Then we all went to see the Beatles perform because none of them actually died; they just all went to Mars. ‘Cause that’s where they’re from. That was a fun dream. :-D The next night, I dreamed I was with Hermione, Ron, and Harry and I was trying to do magic to fight off these creepy little fuzzy things that looked cute but were really dangerous. My magic wouldn’t work though because my dreams seems to have a policy against violence.

That’s enough for now! Until hopefully soon!

P.S. I just finished reading Harry Potter all the way through. That is a good series. :-D And it makes a lot more sense when you read it the whole way through instead of reading with 2 year increments between books.

Meet Jameson

Wow. I really need to update more often. So, in the last month and a half, I finished Christy's wedding present, went to the Longview area for two weeks for graduation and Christy's wedding, got accepted into another grad school, sent my workshop submission to grad school (a ton of people I've never met are going to be reading my story!!! Ah!!!!), finished my scarf, almost finished my placemat, started working on more wedding present stuff, applied to a ton of jobs, and had one interview. Did I leave much out? Oh yeah, I got a new compy for my birthday!!! I guess technically it's only partially new. It's got new guts. But it's amazingly large and fast and new to me. :-D His name is Jameson.

I had an interview with Dress Barn on Monday and I have two interviews tomorrow, one with Ann Taylor and one with Gymboree. I have no idea which place I'd rather work. But thankfully, I think that they're interested enough that at least one of them will hire me (prayers are appreciated though). At this point, I don't really care too much what kind of job I get. I just need something part time to keep me busy and bring in a little money. Once Paul and I get settled in somewhere, I think I'd like to find an internship or something.

Well, seeing as how it's way past my bedtime, I should go. I'll try to get better about updating. Really.

P.S. I dreamed about Batman and Robin last night. All of the villains were after them. I mean all. I don't think they were gonna make it, but I woke up before then . . .

I'm Going to Grad School!

Guess what? Last Tuesday, I got a call from one of the schools to which I've applied. They accepted me into their MFA program! Yay! I want to hear from another school before I decide for sure, but I'm thinking that I'll go to the one that's accepted me. I'm still praying a lot about it. I want to make sure that I do what God wants me to do. I'm so excited, though! The school that accepted me was definitely on my top 2 list. Yay!!! I'm going to grad school! Whether or not another school accepts really doesn't matter too much because either way, I'm going to grad school!! Woohoo!! Well, I guess if financial stuff works out okay. I'm going to call the financial aid office tomorrow to see what I need to do on that end.

It seemed as though I was going to say something else as well, but I can't think what it was. I'm up so late 'cause I'm keeping Paul company while he studies. I think I might lie down and read though, 'cause I'm getting pretty tired. Well, this was the shortest post ever! I'm so excited!!!

Annie

Another P.S. to the last post

P.P.P.PS. I just watched this video on YouTube, and it's hilarious. It's about LU security. You should watch it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVa1WaZ3XLs.

Mud Rain, Applications, Books, and Josh Groban

:::singing::: Don't give up because you . . . are . . . loved! ::::stops singing:::: Ah, good song.

Let's see, what has happened since I last posted? Harry came for spring break. That was fun. We played Age of Empires and Cosmic Encounter, we went to the library, we got new phones (mine plays music! Woohoo), and I forget what all we did. We had fun. But all that fun and spring breaking made getting back into the swing of things a little difficult. Last week was trying to get back into the swing of things.

Last Tuesday, Paul and I wanted to go to the museum, but the line was really, really long. We wound up going to a used book store instead. That was a really neat book store. I found almost all of The Chronicles of Narnia there! I'm buying The Chronicles of Narnia at the used book store so that I can get them in the original order--the correct order. Now I need only books one and two (which are The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian, for those of you who read them in the new order :-p). I also got the 1950 version of Emily Post's Etiquette. It was less than $10! I was so excited. These days, Emily Post's Etiquette, with updates by Peggy Post, costs $50. The original price, printed on the dust jacket, for the version I got read $5! That's quite an inflation in the last 58 years!

Oh, and that was the night that we had mud rain. Paul and I couldn't figure out what was on the car. We thought maybe the tree we parked under had dripped on it or something. Then we started driving and discovered that it was the rain! (now I'm talking to my sister!)

9:00pm That was fun. :-D What else was I going to say? Oh yeah! I sent out two more grad school applications today. Kermit the Frog Yay! ::::waves arms like a puppet:::: Yay!!! I'm so excited. I think that my applications were pretty professional. I'm getting pretty good at this. :-D I have only one more school to which to apply (I'm being grammatically correct). I hope at least one of them accepts me! If they all accept me, I'm not sure which one I'll go to. They all sound pretty good. :-D

Well, I guess that's all for now. Goodnight, kiddos!

AD

P.S. I'm really excited that Windows Media Player is playing my Josh Groban music because it won't play any of my other music. :-(

P.P.S. I was looking through my blog archives, and I came across some very amusing things. One of them was this: "Oh yeah, so I'm halfway done with my second book, and my first book is finished except that I haven't gotten any feedback on it from anyone (hint hint), and until I do, I can't send it off to get it rejected. I have to get it rejected 11 times before I find a publisher who will publish it. At least, I think that's what the ratio was." Ha ha, so I guess I have only 10 more times to go. Oh goodie! Actually, that whole post was kind of amusing. You can find it here: http://samthestoryteller.blogspot.com/2004_07_01_archive.html.

P.P.P.S. This one is pretty cool. This is right before I came back for Sophomore semester: "Hello all you cool peoples who read my blog. Weird, isn't it? Well, this is my last weekend of freedom. In just a few days, it's back to the ol' torture chamber. Oh well. I may not be excited about the mountains of homework and loads of stress (grin), but I am excited about Peer Advising and my floor. It should be a good year. I will make it a good year. Muahaha. So, uh, wow, I guess that's all." That's pretty prophetic. It was a good year.

:::singing::: Annie and Grad School

So, this past week has been fairly crazy. I spent my evenings and much of my days feverishly getting stuff together for grad school applications. I found this neat looking school that offers an MFA in Writing for Children and Young People. I thought that I had missed the deadline (Feb 1), so I wasn't going to apply. I just happened to visit their website around Feb 20 and saw that they had extended the deadline to March 1, which didn't give me much time. I had to get references sent, ask for transcipts, fill out an application. And then, I had to read a YA book so that I could write a 3-4 page critical essay on it. I picked Westmark by Lloyd Alexander. I hadn't written a paper in several months, so it took me a little to get back into the mode. But you know what? I actually kind of enjoyed having to stay up until two am to get it done. I didn't think I missed school that much. I also had to write a 2-3 page personal essay addressing a ton of stuff. And then, I didn't really have time to edit my 25 pages, which I'm sure stink, but maybe they'll accept me anyway.

I had to get all that application stuff pretty much done by Thursday because Friday, Saturday, and Sunday I spent with my family remodeling--or updating--the bathroom and Harry's room. So far, we've pulled up the carpet and linolium in both rooms, we've painted Harry's room (two coats), and Dad and Paul fixed the ceiling in Harry's room and the subfloor in the bathroom (the toilet was seriously gonna fall through if we didn't do something).

I enjoyed this past week. I probably enjoyed it because I didn't spend it getting rejected by would-be employers. So far, I've been rejected by Amegy Bank, Citi Bank, Planto Roe Financial, Chase Bank, and a couple others that I can't remember. I'm gonna have to start applying to places like Old Navy and Bath and Body Works. Hey, maybe I could work at Bed, Bath, and Beyond . . . ^o_o^ Oh well. God has something in store for me. At least I'm not working at you-know-where anymore.

I guess that's all for now. If you think about it, please pray that I'll know what to do about grad school. Thanks! Hope you all have a great week!

Playoffs and Life

I'm really excited right now because I just bought a pair of jeans for $8.24. In fact, I got four pieces of $34.50 clothing and one piece of $24.50 clothing all for under $35.00. :-D Yay, I'm proud of me. Old Navy was having a sale, so I used some of Christmas money there. I also got the Aladdin DVD. Yay!

So, it's been awhile since I've written. I'm sorry that I don't keep in touch with people better. When we were in Longview, I was so exhausted that I mostly slept, ate, and worked. In the reverse order. I'm hoping to do a better job now becuase I'm hoping to have a better job. :-D

I'm no longer working at Dillard's because I'm not in Longview anymore. I'm back home with Mom and Dad. Well, Paul and I are. I'm gonna be looking for jobs this coming week. This past week, Paul and I have been sick and recuperating. Just sleeping is nice. I've actually had two Saturdays off in a row! I'm so happy! Until last Saturday, I hadn't had a Saturday off since October! I'm so glad that I left Dillard's before inventory. Otherwise, I would have been up all night last Saturday night and Sunday night. I'm looking for a job that has more normal hours, like 8-5 Mon-Fri. That would be amazing.

I'm learning how to knit. So far, I think knitting is lot harder than crocheting. Oh, and I finally finished crocheting the scarf that I started for Paul's birthday, ha ha.

I had a crazy dream last night. I dreamed that the Cowboys were still in the playoffs, and my family went to go see them play the Giants. Well, one of the the players got sick, so they made ME play. They were all excited 'cause they said, "The other team won't tackle a girl!" Well, I didn't play very well, so all got mad at me. We made it to the Superbowl, but the player was still sick. I was trying desperately to get somebody else to play instead of me 'cause I don't know how to play football. Well, nobody else would play, so I had to play. When the dream ended, I was wearing a Snow White princess dress, trying to safety pin the skirt up so that I wouldn't trip over it while playing for the Cowboys in the Superbowl. . . . Weird, huh?

We're watching the playoffs right now. Dad is cheering for the Giants, and Paul is rooting for the Packers. It's very interesting. I guess that's a long enough post for now. I'll try to catch up with you guys. Thanks for your comments!!

Annie

P.S. Did you know that some of the original Power Rangers are almost 40? Weird, huh . . .

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.