Lessons I (re)Learned This Week

Unfortunately, you can't go a day without learning something new, even if it's just a small realization. I thought a good idea for a blog would be to revisit those lessons and share them with anyone that will read them. Seriously, I'm not picky. So, here we go!

Lesson #1 - PetSmart has a two week return policy on fish. 
I really had no idea. I bought my first few fish at Petco (just because it was closer) and later bought a few more at PetSmart (about 8 of them). The lady who was so kind to have snatched up my fish told me if some didn't make it, I could get a refund. Well, I didn't plan on letting them die, but low and behold, every single last one of my fish that I got from PetSmart died, including 4 from Petco. Devastated, I took a water sample to the store to see what deadly thing was killing them all.
Tester Lady: "Your water is fine!"


Me: "Then why are my fish dying??!?"










Tester Lady:  I don't know!

Time to use that refund policy.

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Lesson #2 - Bruce Willis is all man.
You must be thinking, "You just learned this??" To that my reply would be "well, kinda." For as long as I have known who Bruce Willis is, I knew he was the roughest, toughest, hottest, smartest, sweetest, cool man ever (until my future husband comes along), but this week I got to watch a movie with him in it *cough pulp fiction cough cough* and he was hands down, my favorite character. I was watching it and my sister said "Holy cow, Bruce Willis is all man. And I though, yes. Yes he is.

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Lesson #3 - Everyone is a bad driver. Some are just worse than others.
This is completely true. No one who has ever driven a car can say that they have never sped, got a ticket, bumped a car, or anything else for that matter, went over the curb, parked badly, on accident or purposefully cut someone off, drove too slow, made someone car sick, etc. We have all done it. I was driving the other day and I was congratulating myself on being such a good driver. Never even been pulled over! But then I almost took a wrong turn and quickly swerved back into my original lane. Did I even check to see is anyone was behind me? Nope. That could have been messy.

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Lesson #4 - Always have a spare key.

I was at an estrogen filled party last night, similar to one of those Tupperware parties. The evening went well and we all had fun. My sister works early in the morning so she decided to leave a little early. Not 3 minutes later, she comes back in. She had locked the keys in her car, while the car was running (she has bad luck with cars). Anyway, there was no spare key in existence and a locksmith had to be called, and those guys are not cheap! So we plan to get her a spare or two for next time. I probably will too.

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Lesson #5 - A week is too short to learn more than 4 lessons.

Maybe next week I will have more life shaking lessons learned.

Check out Crest-o-SilverFire's Gallery!!

She's got some amazing photography skills!

Uncomfortable Birthday Bash!

I'm entirely obsessed with my stats. And by that I mean the ones regarding how many times my blog is viewed. I know not many people visit (about 7 today already!!) but I do get very excited when I see I had 181 views in the last months! Then I remind myself that half the people don't even read it and probably just skip on to the next blog. Then I remind myself that it doesn't matter if anybody read it because I was doing this for the sake of writing.

I totally lost my train of thought. At work yesterday, we had a birthday party. With myself being the receptionist, it is my duty to order a cake and select a card. The first few birthdays were stressful for me, I could tell you why but then you would think I was a weenie. Those first few times, I got cakes that were way too big and cards that were generically festive. I was the new girl and I hadn't quite got a hold of the humor of each employee, the fact that some of them even had a sense of humor was debatable. So to play it safe, I got the cards that said something along the lines of- "you're a good person, this is a celebration". 

Now that I've been here a while and I got my sass back (which is a necessity if you work around some of these attorneys) I decided it was time for a funny card. The attorney whose birthday it was is a younger guy with a subtle, yet witty sense of humor. In the card section of Fry's, I noticed a Star Wars card (which I now think is a little odd). I picked out out and was about to leave when I noticed dear Edward Cullen looking at me with smoldering eyes. The card said something to the affect of "Hope your birthday doesn't bite, *open card* except in that cute vampire sort of way". 

To say the least, everybody in the office got a good kick out of it. The birthday boy looked slightly pink in the cheeks but accepted the card with grace. I saw later that he had stood it up on his desk the rest of the day. That day, I really took what one of the attorneys had to say to heart. He told me that birthday celebrations aren't for the celebrated, but for the celebrators. That sounds right to me. We celebrate so we can eat their cake, to give them cards that make them feel more than slightly uncomfortable, and share a great day among friends. But mostly to make them uncomfortable.

I'm just thankful my birthday isn't for another 10 months.

Once again, it's time for my Art Feature! 

Here is a link to Chikara's Gallery! 

She is actually a fellow Washingtonian and went to the same high school as me! Check out her work; she really is full of creativity and talent! She's even drawn me a couple of times which puts her pretty high in my book. :)

Sniffing and Hummus

It's Friday again. Huzzah. Normally I would be more excited, but the fact that I didn't get to shower today puts a damper on the festive-ness.. I woke up 25 minutes before I had to leave for work which is around the length of a normal shower for me. So I looked in the mirror for a few minutes and contemplated the best way to salvage my bed-head. It didn't take too long to make my hair look decent, but the yucky unwashed feeling doesn't go away with just a washcloth bath.

The 2nd best part about Friday, (1st being the fact that it's the last workday of the week) is that it just so happens to be Casual Friday. My one true love. Besides cats... and lizards... and my fish... and books, etc. But today I had to ruin it by taking forever to get dressed. How I can do that when it's as simple as throwing on jeans and a t-shirt, I have no idea, but for some reason I was being a dinkus and didn't think the outfits "worked". So I feel very badly dressed. Darn you, Haley. Darn you.

Luckily today was busy enough to keep me occupied and there is a nice background sound of my coworkers on the phones or in the conference room. I't better than complete silence where they can hear me yelling at my emails and every sniffle or sneeze I make (yes, I'm sick).

Oh! Do you want to know how I got sick? I'll tell you anyway. Ariel, Mom and I went to Thai Basil, a wonderful restaurant where Ariel always gets the Tofu Pad Thai and I always get the Chicken Yellow Curry. So there we were, chatting and waiting for the waiter.. haha waiting for the waiter. Anyway, we noticed he had a stuffy nose and would wipe his snots on his hand and proceed to bring the food to other patron's tables. Mom warned us to use hand sanitizer. Now that I think of it, I probably deserve it because my thought then was: Psh, I never get sick! I'm as resilient as an ox!!

*sniff*

Serves me right. But, to redeem my hygienically challenged day, myself, Ariel, my Aunt Karen, and my Mom are planning on going to Pita Jungle for dinner. One of my all time favorite places to eat!! I always get the same thing though: Cilantro jalapeno hummus, a pita crisp, and a strawberry banana smoothie. :) This makes me happy.

You know what else makes me happy? Art!
So check out Moni's Deviant Art Gallery!!

Depression With A Side Of Cool Links

Everyone gets those downer days, right? The times when our day just goes south, or maybe the day was perfectly fine but for some strange reason you can't seem to shake the little grey cloud that hovers above your head. Rain and lightning included.

Yesterday was one of those days for me (and it seems to be spilling into today). A mixture of tired and hopeless is the worst way to start your day. Yesterday after work I was physically, mentally, and emotionally beat. The drive home consisted of listening to only the saddest songs on my iPod at full volume. Why is it that when you're depressed the things that appeal to you most are being alone, sad songs, and heart-wrenching movies? I guess when you're that low, everything else around you has to match.

Once I was home, I slipped out of my uncomfortable work clothes and put on the softest shirt I possessed, some sweat pants and a jacket (yes, I live in Arizona, but my Aunt loves to crank up the AC). Once properly attired, I grabbed a worn down copy of Twilight* and poured myself a bowl of sugary cereal. All alone in the house, I wallowed in my misery... and loved every second of it. I even contemplated watching 7 Pounds (for those who haven't seen it, it's wonderfully depressing. One of my all-time favorites), or maybe even The Road. (But I have to read it first!!! *insert rage face*)

For some reason, my favorite movies and/or books are the ones where the main character dies, but it has to be in the perfect way or at least well written/filmed. Nothing makes a story more profound then "Oh my gosh... he's dead. WTH?!?" So if anyone has any good recommendations for sad movies, books or music, let me know!

*I must not have been that depressed, because if I was I probably would have grabbed New Moon, which is by far one of the most depressing books I've read.

Also, check my Deviant Art Feature!!
Here is Alexiuss' Gallery, and I might add, one of my all time favorites!
Check out the Romantically Apocalyptic comic!

Like A Boss

So I'm feeling especially friendly and awfully nice. Today is glorious Friday! So wonderful, in fact, that there should be a song in it's honor! Oh, wait... never mind. Anyway, I'm feeling like a social butterfly today: chatting up my coworkers, handling the phones like a boss, and pwning like a savage with the walk-in clients. Why is this day so good? I don't think I'll tell you, but it has to do with a small, insignificant thing that happened this morning that I probably over-thought and blew way out of proportion... which is how I roll.

I also feel really cool because I changed the water jug on the water cooler... without struggling! I'm sure everyone in the office appreciated it. Cool water for everybody!!! : D

The only thing that would make this day better, is if I could go home already. I love work, but I'm ready to fire the engines and start the weekend. Speaking of engines, my car is currently in the repair shop... sad day.  But hopefully I hear back from them today that absolutely nothing is wrong with my car, and that the noises I heard was me over reacting again, AND that my car is actually getting YOUNGER and has LESS miles on it then I originally thought! Wunderbar! Ich liebe mein auto!! Ich liebe alle menschen! Kommentar wenn Sie zu übersetzen hatte!! <-  yelling in German.

Hooray for Google, right? Anyway, to further my niceness streak today, I am now going to feature a Deviant Art artist at the end of my blog for each entry, so I want you guys to check them out and appreciate them, like I do.

Check out Terribly's Gallery!
http://terribly.deviantart.com/gallery/

Before I Fade Away...

Not sure why this came to me, but I started thinking about the things I want to do before I die.  Unfortunately, there is no guarantee that I wont keel over at any moment from a random brain aneurysm, so I don't want to be totally obsessed with this list.  These are the things I would like to get done, that I would like to do. If for some reason, whether it be death, disability, or the apocalypse, that stops me from finishing this list, I can honestly say I wont be too upset. If you want to know why, you will have to read my mind.  Although some of you may already know.

Now as I get older, money is becoming an important part of life, and the accumulation of such is a necessary task. In the money aspect, I would like to be able to pay for my own college without the help of my parents. With 4 other children besides me, they have enough to worry about.  I would also like to never own a credit card and never have to go into debt.  I believe with strict planning and budgeting, this can be possible.

Now travel.  I would love to say I plan to travel the world, but seeing as I am a being of logic, I will say I want to go to a select few places.  To begin, Rome. Splendid, powerful Rome (in it's glory years). If you mention it around my sister or I, we will assume a glassy-eyed dreamy expression and a smile of fascination. I would have to take my sister with me if I didn't want her to slit my throat when I got back.  Also, I would like to go to South America for the sole purpose of walking through ancient ruins. New York would also be pleasant to stroll through.

'Things to accomplish', I think to myself as I eat my Curious George fruit snacks. Well, I'd have to say I want to be in a dance performance with the costumes and everything. Paint something that can be sold for over $100.  Get published. Even if that means just a short story. But I will finish at least one novel. I want to find a wonderful man and marry him. I want to decorate a whole house, that includes painting the walls to my liking. I want to swim in a warm ocean and go on a horseback adventure.

I actually thought this list would be much longer, but then again, there are a few things I omitted for the sake of personal matters. And as I said before, not all of this needs to happen for me to have a fulfilled life.

Write your own list, or comment your ideas below. <3