Lessons from Irene

Just in case you were wondering... WE SURVIVED! Irene killed our electricity for a day and half, threw tree branches across our yard, and made us miss the summer finale of Leverage. But we're ok! And not only did we survive, but I also learned a few things.

#1 God answers prayers. The news had been reporting for days that this could be the storm of the century. Our local weathermen were predicting the storm to make landfall right over our heads as a Category 3. Instead, Irene began to break apart some before hitting us as a Category 1. What had the potential to be another hurricane Katrina turned out to be just a minor mess-maker for a majority of our area. And I am so crazy thankful to God for it.

#2 I should not spend all the celebrated hurricane day in my worn out pajamas. Because crazy people will unexpectedly show up to check on me in the middle of the storm. Like my boyfriend, Bob. So note to self for next time: Jeans and a comfy t-shirt.

#3 I am way too addicted to Facebook. It nearly killed me that our cell service was out and I couldn't check my news feed or post statuses about the hilarous thing my mom just said. I actually had to handwrite notes to remind me of what I needed to post when I had service again! Can you believe that?! Who handwrites anything anymore anyways?! Crazy, I know!

#4 We have the absolute best neighbors. The Wachs next door allowed us to plug in to their generator to power our fridge and some fans so we could sleep that night. I pray God blesses their socks off. If we ever end up moving out of this house, I will see to it that our new place has an open house next to it so the Wachs can follow us.

#5 LED flashlights are the bomb dot com. I stole acquired this teeny three-bulb LED flashlight from the church and used it when I had to walk around in my dark and scary house. Not only did it keep the vampires away (I've had too many nightmares about them lately to deny their presence just beyond my line of sight), but it was also super useful for temporarily blinding sisters. Everyone should have one.

#6 Storms are the perfect opportunities to mess with our cats. The hard rain and loud wind makes Patches skiddish. So when I sprinkled some water on the unsuspecting kitty at 3 am, she got crazy wide-eyed and jumped back about five or six times before running at full speed down the hallway. Dad and I nearly fell out of our chairs laughing.

#7 It doesn't take much to make me laugh a lot when I'm missing out on sleep. See #6.

Oh The Laughter!

Yesterday, my family embarked on an all-day trip to visit my grandad in Chesapeake Virginia. It was a great visit with him as we got to simply chit chat for a couple hours. But for a moment, we all had the scare of our lives as the fire alarm sounded in the super snazzy assisted living facility. Poor Grace had just got into the hallway bathroom and the alarms started the moment she flipped the "Occupied" switch. She had a hard time stumbling back out of the bathroom because the flashing lights had temporarily blinded her. I would be lying if I said I didn't laugh a little.

As opposed to Grace's discombobulation, Sam immediately went into action in the midst of the lights and annoying noises in Grandad's apartment. Being the awesome sister that she is, she grabbed my jacket and scarf and headed out of the room to investigate. As the residents told her the fire plan was that they all stay in their rooms, the giant metal hallway doors that segment the complex closed. For a moment she feared she was trapped and death was near, and she decided that if her life depended on it she would jump out of the apartment's window. She's watched enough Burn Notice to know how to do it properly.

Fortunately the whole ordeal was just a false alarm which made a good laugh among the more lighthearted residents. But really, this wouldn't have been a successful family trip if there wasn't laughter every 15 minutes. In nearly every trip, I've found myself doubled over in my seat trying to catch my breath multiple times. One of my favorite memories happened on a trip like this almost three years ago. At the time we had XM radio in our minivan and we were listening to Jeff Foxworthy on the Comedy channel. For the life of me I can't remember what he was talking about because I think my subconscious blocked it. But all six of us were painfully laughing and crying, and even dad was laughing so hard he turned cherry red and had to pull the car over on the side of that skinny rural road. For 10 minutes we continued to laugh as our sides and bellies screamed in protest.

It may have been the same trip, I don't quite remember, but once we had a little fun with a Starbucks employee. We pulled up to the drive through and were greeted with a happy male voice saying "If you can guess my name, your order is free!" Dad guessed George but then the guy said we were wrong and that his name was Anthony. We then gave our order and got our ridiculously overpriced gourmet coffee at the window. But just for gigglez, we went back to the drive through and was greeted with the same guessing game. Dad said "Your name is Anthony" and the poor shocked fella stuck his head out of the window and tried to figure out what was going on. Laughing, my dad confessed we'd already been through but just wanted to mess with him. We all waved as we left the drive though and now almost every time I hear the name "Anthony" I have to fight not to laugh.

Our trip yesterday seemed especially full of puns and laughter. During our delicious lunch with Grandad, we all ate until we couldn't stuff another fry in our faces. When asked about dessert, Grace rubbed her belly and said "There's no more room in my inn." I had no idea what she was talking about until the Christmas story reference hit me about 15 seconds later as I laughed and confessed "I just now got that." Then the rest of my table enjoyed laughing at me.

During most of the ride there, I was able to look out the window and see yesterday's snow covering the ground. It was so pretty. And then I finally got to play with some when we stopped at Grandad's place. As we were eating at the Italian restaurant, I held the Parmesan shaker and said "It looks like snow!" Sam immediately took a picture of the shaker and posted in on her Facebook saying "No Mandy, this is a Parmesan container, not a snow globe." I would have tried shaking it, but then that would've had the urge to lick it off the table that's just unsanitary. Here's a pic of my little snow globe friend...

On our way home, we passed a field of cows. One of them was running and it struck Sam funny, so she imitated it complete with totally un-cow-like sound effects and awkward arm motions. I love Sam, but for a moment she looked mentally challenged. She claims she was imitating the cow who appeared to her as mentally challenged, but I don't believe her. Challenged or not, her funny face and unusual antics made her sisters erupt in laughter and a chorus of "DO IT AGAIN!"

During this laughing fit, tears freely rolled down my cheeks and I used tissue after tissue to soak it all up. Innocent and curious, Sam looked at me and asked, "Is your mascara running?" I laughed even harder as I replied "Better go catch it!" It's a wonder that I was able to speak clearly enough for my fellow passengers to understand and appreciate my joke enough to continue their own laughing fits.

While I am very talented at speaking while laughing like a maniac, Lindy still needs tons of practice. At one point in the trip, she was trying to whisper something to Grace but would only get a few words in to her statement before her increasing laughing transformed it into a jumble of incomprehensible noises. The she tried to explain to all of us what she was trying to say, but again got a few words in before her laughing and wheezing dominated her statement that was never completed. She tried a couple more times with no success apart from making us all laugh.

We've all been stuck behind bad smelling trucks, but yesterday we were stuck behind one that smelled of a particularly foul bodily function. I can't say exactly what it smelled like because mom said I couldn't say that on the interwebz, but I think you all get what I'm talking about. At first I thought maybe it was just me that smelled it, but then the next second I heard a Sam sniff. We all looked at each other with inquisitive and accusing eyes, until I saw Grace's face twist in reaction to what she smelled and my silent accusations turned to very loud laughter. Then one by one, we said "Wasn't me!" No one claimed it, so we're blaming it on the mentally challenged cow.

I could go on and on about other things said and done on Carroll car trips but I'm afraid that if I keep typing, my laughter will induce pain on my belly and sides again. Then when I start whining about how my body hurts, I fear that I'll flash back to last night when my adorable mommy defended her slow driving style saying "Fast people should thank me for getting in their way so I slow them down and keep them from getting tickets!" ... Oh, the pain!!!

Lookit The Fishies!

Instead of getting a new TV or game console for the family for Christmas this year, we're taking several mini families trips in our area. We've already done a big expensive dinner together which is super rare. Still on our calendars are the bowling trip and the movie trip, but today we did our trip to the Aquarium in Pine Knoll Shores. It's been years since we've walked through the fish filled building, but it was nice to walk through with all the Christmas trees up and the lights all over the place. Even the big brass critter structures had Santa hats. It was adorable.

Although my phone has a good camera on it, I wish I had a professional one to take some really great pictures. But here are a few things I saw that I thought were cool...

This is an albino baby loggerhead turtle discovered on our beach a few months back. Since I'm in the media, I heard about it the day after they found the cute little thing. I was so glad to get to see him after hearing so much. Since he's unable to survive in the wild, he's going to live a long spoiled life in the aquarium.

Every other time I've been here, the octopus has been hiding in a corner taking a nap. But today he was swimming around giving us a show! He moved all over the tank and stretched his tentacles from one side to the other. For the first time in all my years going to this place, he finally let me take a decent picture.

I love Jellyfishies. As long as their behind glass and not wrapped around my legs, of course. Every time I see them, I think of the movie Finding Nemo. Honestly, I'm surprised it took me until this point to think of the movie! That tells me I need to watch it again. Jellyman!

I can't remember what this one is called, but it cracked me up. It looks so sad and disapproving! I made fun of it, and then it looked all the more disapproving. I love it.

Since we're in a big fishing community, the Aquarium featured many fish that are often caught by our fisherman. They had a tank of Bluefish, and I wanted to take one home and fry it up. As if my mouth wasn't watering enough, they sold fish cookbooks in the gift shop. Is it just me or is it a little weird that they're selling cookbooks at an Aquarium?

There were a couple places at the Aquarium that we sat at for about 10 minutes just watching the animals. One of the otters was having a blast making laps in the pool and annoying his sleeping friends. He was a bit of a show off really. He proved he could swim upside down, but that doesn't mean he has to do it 20 times, ya know? We also sat for a while in front of the giant shipwreck exhibit filled with sharks, loggerhead turtles, and other fishies. It was a very relaxing view, even though the sharp teeth on the sharks kinda freaked me out.

Looking at all the critters, I was amazed at God's creativity and originality. Our little Aquarium houses only a very tiny portion of what God has made and it blows my mind that there are things at the bottom of the ocean that we haven't even discovered yet. But what amazes me even more is that He made all of this and still cares for me. Like, wow.

Redecorating!

I have lived in the same little room full of all my stuffage for nearly eight years. Every now and again I find myself bored with the decor. But instead of emptying my room to paint and rearrange furniture, I replace pretties and pictures on my shelves and walls and clean out some of the stuff I don't use anymore. I would rearrange the furniture, but I know there's absolutely no other way to could get all my stuff to fit within these four walls.

So this weekend, I barricaded myself in my room to redecorate as opposed to getting up way before dawn and suffering from social claustrophobia while fighting people for toys and electronics. The spirit of creativity and cleansing came upon me and I proceeded to make a huge mess of my room before throwing things out and prettifying the place again. With papers, candles, and stuffed animals tossed about my quarters, I shifted all my books and DVDs around and infused a cutesy thing here and there. And ta-da!! I have a new looking room!

My already significantly reduced cd collection had been filling up needed space on my shelves, so I donated most of them to our church youth group. Since I have all those discs ripped to my hard drive and I download (legally) most of the music I have, there's really no need to keep them. However, I am holding on to a few cds for sentimental reasons. Like two of them have autographed pamphlets and remind me of great concerts. I absolutely cannot let go of Josh Groban's "Noel" album. And another is a gift from one of my favorite teachers at my old high school. That's particularly funny because we would often get in debates with him about how Christian rock is good while he said it was an oxymoron. But then the cd he gave me was rocked out praise and worship music. His wife probably purchased it, but I like thinking that maybe I did win those debates after all.

For the longest time, I've been wanting to put large pictures from my trip to Charleston SC from about three years ago. I'm not very artistic, but I know a pretty picture when I see it. And so yesterday I took the plunge, got three of my favorite photos printed off as 8x10's, and bought three matching frames. Here are the pics:

This one makes me feel like I'm spying a little because it's somebody's personal balcony. But it's in the historic district so they know their place is gonna be looked at and they shouldn't mind, haha! But I adore the wrought iron decorations and the overflowing flower pot in the middle. And those iron plates at the top and left side of the picture have their own special story. While taking a carriage tourist ride, they explained that bombs rocked the city during the Civil War and the buildings became structurally unsound. So to keep the walls from falling off, they ran long iron rods through the house and secured them with the plates on the outer walls.

One of my absolute favorite pictures, this was taken from the wall of the city that overlooks Charleston Harbor and Fort Sumter. I love these lamps that dot the walkway surrounded by mountains of giant azaleas. Maybe it reminds me of Narnia, thus flinging me into my own fantasy world of kings and fauns, except here it would be southern gentlemen and smelly horses. Ok, maybe it's not that fantastical, haha! And then I also love the old historic homes and buildings in the background.

And finally, I spent half an afternoon at this place. The Waterfront Park is filled with benches, flowers, and the occasional college student taking a nap in the grassy spots. For a second I considered going to school there just so I could act like a hobo like these other people. When Sam and I weren't sitting next to the pineapple fountain, we relaxing on the pier in the back of the photo. If you look closely, you can see a battleship to the right. I love how this picture is taken in the shade under a tree and looks out on the sunbathed plants surrounding my favorite fountain.

I'm not even completely done redecorating my room, but I hope it's a while before I feel the need to do this again because it's exhausting. Now please excuse me while I take much needed nap.

Imagination > Animation

It has been way too long since I last posted anything. I would blame my lack of posting on the fact that I've been super busy, but I know my mom would disagree and cite all the tv shows I've spent time watching recently. (Psych and Burn Notice just came back, so I've been absolutely giddy. Totally loving Shules, but Jesse not so much) So I'm not gonna even bother trying to excuse myself and move on to the topic that's been bouncing around in my head all week.

*Ahem*

This week, my friend Katrina and I spent an hour in Walmart shopping for an Operation Christmas Child box. We spent more than half of the time walking down each aisle of the toy department pushing buttons and being thoroughly creeped out by the animated toys. When I was little, we didn't have these toys with moving body parts which hilariously fail to imitate real animals. We had to use our... wait for iiiiit... imaginations!!

Really, I think animation significantly limits the toy's usefulness. Sure, moving arms and legs may be sorta cool in that you don't have to waste allllll that energy to move them yourself. But stuffed kitties with mechanical insides are absolutely no good for cuddling. You can't squeeze their plushy lower half into your Barbie Corvette so they can drag race against the beanie baby on the next shelf. Just give me a toy that does absolutely nothing so that I can make it do whatever I want! Confused? Let Phineas and Ferb explain it:



Genius, right? My favorite Disney boys totally get it. And my favorite Disney toys from Toy Story get it too. Yes, Buzz Lightyear had the wings that pop out and the voice box that apparently has an epic Spanish setting. But practically all the other toys in Andy's room were simple and therefore able to do absolutely anything. At the very end of Toy Story 3 as Andy drops off his toys to the little girl down the street, he hands each one to her while describing just how awesome these individual toys were. He didn't describe their high-tech animations, but rather the characters they played in his imagination which made them a special part of his childhood. *sniffle* I may need a tissue.

Anyways, Katrina and I picked out a little stuffed monkey with no mechanical qualities whatsoever so that the little girl who receives it can make it do whatever she wants. I even tested its cuddliness before putting in the box to be sent to another country. It passed with flying colors. I liked it so much that I may have to buy myself another one. Yes I am almost 22 years old, and I may be purchasing a stuffed critter for myself. As if I didn't have enough already.

Breaking the Habit

Normally where food is concerned, I am a creature of habit. My family and friends will tell you that I always order the same thing at Chick-fil-a: Number one, no pickle, fries, LARGE sweet tea. And maybe a small ice cream later if I feel like it. But I've been branching out and trying new foods lately and I'm lovin' it. (No McDonald's reference intended, although they also have good sweet tea)

Experimenting with sammiches has been a blast. After trying a bacon, lettuce and tomato sammich at a restaurant, I decided I would make my own with LOTS more than just three little slices of bacon. And omgeeee it was heavenly. Unfortunately bacon is expensive so I can't make this all the time, but since I got paid on Friday, I may have to make a special trip to the grocery store. Here's a pic of that loverly sammich...

I also considering trying turkey bacon. Supposedly it's better for you, but I'll have to examine some price tags before I can figure out of it's worth it. Darn my limited income.

A friend of mine made some black bean brownies recently. I was a little unsure when she was describing them to me, but it sounded so interesting, it was definitely worth a shot. Instead of using the regular eggs, water, and veggie oil, you mash up a can of black beans and throw it in with the brownie mix. Well not the can itself, because that wouldn't be very delicious at all. Anyways, I tried one and it wasn't as weird as it sounded! It was not as sweet as normally brownies, but it wasn't bad.

Just last week, I discovered something wonderful. Chobani greek yogurt. I have made many attempts to like yogurt and add it to my menu, but had been unsuccessful until meeting Chobani. I think I'm gonna be addicted to the strawberry one. Like I told my mommy, it's like strawberry ice cream except it's goopy instead of creamy. I tried the peach one this morning, and it was ok. There's still and blueberry and pomegranate one in the fridge that I will try later.

I'm quickly discovering that trying new foods is lots of fun, but don't expect me to change my Chick-fil-a order any time soon.

Goodbye Earl!

Earl, you were probably the most disappointing hurricane ever. After all the media frenzy and grocery stockpiling, one would think Earl would at least be worse than our frequent afternoon pop-up storms. Maybe Fiona will make up for it. It's named after the trigger-happy sidekick in Burn Notice and the Ogre-princess in Shrek instead of the murdered abusive hubby in a Dixie Chicks song, so it should be more interesting, right?

As I was watching the endless news coverage of the hurricane, one of the reporters for a national news network was in Atlantic Beach. I was admiring his attractiveness when I noticed that he was right next to the pier, so I knew exactly where he was standing. I came so close to jumping in my car and driving out the 15-20 minutes to say hi. But I woulda had to put makeup on and that woulda taken another 15-20 minutes and he woulda probably been gone by then. Or drowned by killer waves. Oh well.

Even though by dinner time we knew the hurricane wasn't going to be as bad as it could have been, we still made our traditional hurricane cookies. There's nothing really special about them as they are just frozen chocolate chip and peanut butter cookies, but we make about twice as much as we usually do and then snack on them all night long. It's a family-wide excuse to eat an unhealthy amount of sugary deliciousness that we'll probably regret later.

Something I noticed about the storm was that even though it was still a couple hundred miles off shore, it was already covering my skies with clouds. By the time Earl got its closest to us, the sky was completely blanketed with gray clouds that stretched in every direction. It was ominous yet fascinating at the same time. While I was at work that afternoon, I stood in front of the double glass doors and just watched. That's probably part of the reason I didn't get all my paperwork done yesterday.

I joke about how I wish the hurricane was more eventful, but seriously I'm glad that it did not cause any major damage here. I've been around long enough to see hurricanes destroy homes and I definitely did not want that to happen again. Even though it's fun having the power go out and my family play monopoly by candlelight til midnight, the fun is not worth all the trouble they cause. I'm so glad my God has control over these huge storms and steered it away from us!

I Heart My Corolla

After nearly 3 weeks of non-stop car shopping, I finally decided on the car that I wanted. I drove a 2008 Toyota Corolla on my first day of test driving, and then I found myself comparing every subsequent car to it. There were several really nice cars I could have purchased, including that snazzy Mazda 6 that I talked about three posts ago. But I was absolutely in love with the 2008 Corollas that nothing else would do.

Like I mentioned before, the dealership with the first Corolla was uncooperative and sneaky when it came to price adjustments. Even though they had the car that I wanted, I wasn't willing to buy something from someone who thought I wasn't intelligent enough to calculate the numbers they were presenting. I got all A's in math, and I'm gonna use my smarticals, dangit!

So then I knew what I wanted but then had to find a cooperative seller. I found one on Craigslist, but the private seller was not willing to negotiate the price. And then I found another one on a website for a dealer about a two hour drive away. When I emailed the dealer asking for more information and if they could work within my price range, they said they could and wanted to fax me sales paperwork for me to sign and fax back! I had not even seen the car yet, so I've no idea why they thought I would be willing to purchase a car I had not even driven! And then when I failed to respond to their liking, they started calling me a few times a day! I'm sorry, but annoying dealers don't get my money. Maybe a restraining order, but not my money!

But then I discovered that one of my "honored, loved and revered" school teachers was considering selling his Corolla. I was super excited at the thought of buying a car from someone I knew and trusted! I got all the information about the car, and it was everything I wanted! But by the time I was ready to make a deal, he had traded it in for a new car.

I was so bummed until my mom made the genius suggestion of finding out where he did the trade-in. Why didn't I think of that before?!? Upon discovering the location and finding the car in their online inventory for a nearly perfect price, I emailed the dealership to tell them I would be in after the weekend to check out the car. So for two days, I was both excited about possibly buying the car and nervous that it wouldn't work out.

That Monday, I met the dealer, drove the car for a few minutes, and then sat down in their office to make a deal. My grandfather/personal haggler was instrumental in negotiating the price down to a value that was irresistible. And by "instrumental" I mean that he did all the talking while I held onto my wallet so tightly that my knuckles turned white. After signing seemingly endless paperwork, I drove my new car home! Lookit!!!

I am so ridiculously thankful that God worked all of this out for me. Even though He denied me the first, second, and third Corollas that I saw, He gave me the absolutely best one. Not only did I get it for a great price, but I also know the car's history and that it was very well cared for! I loooooove it and I'm looking forward to many many years with it!

Car Shopping

Many of you have been watching my Facebook profile with great interest as I shop for a new car. My beloved little 1995 Nissan Sentra with 275,000 miles on it has decided that it wants to have its motor taken apart to be repaired. But the actual repair work would cost more than the value of the car itself, so that just doesn't fly with me. After fighting with my car for few days (It's winning by the way), I decided to invest in a new-to-me car.

I started looking around in used car lots for what I could find within my cash budget. And the result was: not much. I found a few vehicles, but they had not been taken care of and needed some work before they would be worth driving. After doing some number crunching (I rox at math, yo) I realized that I could in fact afford a small payment if I chose to get a newer used car. So payments or less-then-acceptably-air-conditioned rust buckets? Imma go with payments.

Many certified used cars at some dealerships in the area really caught my eye. I test drove several including two major contenders that met nearly all the criteria on my lengthy list: a 2008 Toyota Corolla (which was in reality just a tiny bit out of my price range) and a 2006 Mazda 6. After driving the Corolla again, I knew that I loved it, but the tough part would be talking the sales dude down to a price that I could afford. My aggressive haggler of a grandfather tried his best to bring the price down, but the sneaky dude would first say he would go down a few hundred, and then he would come back with an offer on extended payments that brought it back to the original price. Immediately following our departure from that dealership I put my algebra skills to work on my cell phone's calculator and was like "oh HECK no!!!" So as much as I adore that Corolla, I'm probably going to have to let it go. *sniffle* Here's a pic of it...

Adorable, eh?

Then we went over the place with the Mazda 6 and haggled with the sales dude there. The price is good and definitely within my budget, but I still wasn't sure. So in an attempt to make me love the car, they let me take it home for two days and see what I thought about it. I do like the car and it's super fun to drive. (V6 engine baby, *Tim Allen grunt*) But I'm not quite sure that I love it, and I don't want to put so much money into something that I do not love. Then I think about all the money that this thing will cost, and although my budget can absorb it, the thought of it all nearly paralyzes me. So I'm still not sold on it. But just for your enjoyment, here's a pic of it...

Pretty too, huh?

I'm gonna check out some private sellers online to see what I can find there for the next few days. But the car shopping thing is ridiculously hard. Especially in this heat which has given me a couple of sunburns. No fun. So anyways, we'll see what happens and I'll be sure to post something about whatever car I end up purchasing. Any suggestions would be appreciated!!!

Wii unFit

My beloved jeans have been getting a little too snug for my liking lately. So instead of paying for a gym membership, I have opted to dust off our little used Wii Fit and work on it every morning. And I'm not a morning person at all, so it's taken some extra work just to make myself actually do stuff right after I wake up.

I start out doing some yoga positions which are surprisingly difficult. My "tree" pose started out as more of a "tree in a hurricane" and then the CGI instructor would tell me how unbalanced I was. Way to state the obvious, miss instructor lady. Apparently, yoga is dependent on balance, so my lack of coordination doesn't help at all. But I'm getting better!! I always do a little happy dance when I beat my previous score, and there's been lotsa happy dancing lately.

The next stage is the more rigorous strength exercises. I still can't do a real push up, so I'm stuck doing the girly ones where my knees are still on the ground. But it's ok, because the instructor lady can't see, haha! But the lunges are even harder. It's normally about halfway through this exercise that my thighs are screaming at me, and I reach up to pull the cord to turn the ceiling fan up on high. Me no likey to be sweaty.

After the intensity of the strength exercises, I get into the somewhat silly aerobics section. I like doing the basic step, but I always get frustrated because it's giving me more "OK's" than "Perfect's". My timing is totally right, dangit! That wii couldn't keep a beat if its battery life depended on it! And then I work off my frustration with a short in-place run. Don't tell the instructor lady, but I cheated on the last few seconds of today's run by waving the remote sensor a little instead of actually running.

I've been doing this every morning for about a week and can already notice how my body is adjusting to the daily workout routine. It's getting easier to crawl out of bed and get some exercise, and I'm also noticing that my abs are getting firmer! Imma have a six pack before you know it! And no, I'm not talking about Mountain Dew.

My Last Assignment

After three years of college and what had seemed like endless homework, my Associates degree was only one presentation away. This was for my Systems Support Project course in which I had to go out on my own and perform one huge project using several of the skills I had gained in my studies. So this presentation summarizing my entire project needed to be something that really impressed my instructors.

I built a powerpoint presentation and wrote up some handouts going over the basics of my project and prepared to have the details described verbally. As I wrote all of this up, I realized just how complicated this project was and therefore just how awesome I was! I did so many things over the semester including taking computers apart, installing operating systems, setting up a network, creating a website, and building a complex database. Although I knew just how amazing I was, I now had to convince my instructors.

So I practiced my presentation several times during the weekend prior to the big day, both before my family and by myself. My family really wasn't that helpful because after being completely lost in my explanations, they began making faces just to annoy me. And it was weird doing the presentation to myself. You see, I talk to myself regularly, so it's nothing new. But I don't normally speak to myself with so much thought and purpose!

I was completely calm and collected as I drove up to the school and entered the building. But as I came into the classroom and prepared for the presentation, I got all nervous and shaky and actually began to "glisten" a little. Gross, I know. I would normally blame that on the classroom that has a reputation for being ridiculously warm, but there's just no sense in arguing that it wasn't my nerves. But after getting a few slides into my powerpoint, I realized "What the heck, I know what I'm talking about here!" so I ditched the nervousness and enjoyed the company of fellow geeks who asked intelligent questions and appreciated the difficulty of my work.

Overall, I rocked my 20 minute presentation. And then the coolest thing happened. One of the people in the room asked me if I would be interested having the occasional job at the college doing classes for the corporate and community education department. No kidding. It would involve explaining to various people how to use popular software, such as Microsoft Word. Next time they need someone, she is going to suggest me!

So I went into this meeting hoping to do well on this presentation, and came out with a quasi job offer! I think it's safe to say that I totally impressed my instructors. Yeah, I'm that awesome.

Power Outage

So I have this side job sorta thing where I dogsit for people on vacations. I literally move into their house for the weekend and take care of the dog, water their plants, and bring their UPS packages into the house. It's a pretty awesome gig actually because I get paid to snuggle a dog and play house without the cost of vet bills and mortgages! I even get my own bathroom, which in my opinion is a little awesomer than getting paid! But it's not quite so awesome when the power goes out.

I was on Facebook and checking emails when suddenly the screen goes black, the computer stops humming, and all the lights go out. I'm scared of the dark even in my own home, but it's a little more terrifying when it's a different house and I can't remember where the homeowners have placed the life sized stuffed dog this time. I've nicknamed that frightening thing the Hound of the Baskervilles.

At this moment, I am super thankful that I still have one bar left on my cell phone's battery because I again discovered just how useful that device is as a flashlight. I used it to help me see as I dug around the kitchen drawers looking for matches to light the candles I found. I was so desperate for light that I didn't even care that the tiny matchbox had a UNC Tarheels sticker on it. In fact, I did not even have the would-be-normal urge to set fire to the entire box just to see the UNC symbol burn. These people are totally getting a Duke matchbox for Christmas.

Now that I had a source of light, I found myself ridiculously bored. I couldn't get back on the home computer, my laptop battery was almost dead, I couldn't watch television, and I found that it's very difficult to read by the light of an unpredictably flickering candle. And I couldn't go anywhere because my car was in the garage with the door down.

After an hour of darkness and remembering that I needed to take a shower, I called my sister to come and get me. By the time I had returned to the house with a mag light that could double as a deadly weapon, the electricity had come back and I did a happy dance. And then I watched some Disney channel and enjoyed some half melted ice cream before going to bed.

So that was my adventure for the week. God bless the man who discovered electricity. Mr. Franklin, you're my favorite dead guy for today.