I had the most excellent day -- I was unexpectedly called on standby and never got called in.  What made it amazing was that originally this day was a sad day, as my cousin Anna (newly engaged and going back to Chicago this week), was going to have a celebratory luncheon with the family.  I was super bummed I couldn't make it (and I'm a bridesmaid).  However, I got to go, and we helped Anna try on some preliminary dresses.  I even tried on a preliminary bridesmaid dress and was totally in love with how much weight I've lost. Granted, the wedding is in November/December now, and I will be down the last 20 lbs by then, but I still am super excited.

There are also other amazing reasons life is cool right now, but I'm not sure if Livejournal is the appropriate venue for such talk.

So life has been exceedingly strange lately. I'm gradually becoming the person I wanted to be -- I only have 20 lbs more to lose total, and I'm totally okay with that taking a year. I'm trying to work on maintaining my weight in December, and getting my metabolism to come up again. I really want to be done with the diet thing though by Otakon, so I can cosplay as Tifa from Advent Children.
My Soi Fon cosplay is coming along nicely, though, and I'm planning a gothic lolita-esque outfit for the Naka-kon rave, if I can get away with it.
Work has been keeping me busy, but it's okay. I feel relatively fulfilled in terms of doing something worthwhile with my life at this point. I applied for graduate school so I could start on my nurse practitioner, which makes me nervous, but there you go.

Also, apparently I'm a loli type character.
( Killing time. )( Read more... )

So New Moon was pretty good, although it wasn't as fangirl-tastic as I assumed it would be. Granted, I didn't care much for New Moon the book and it's the only one of the series I hadn't re-read. Hadley, Noah and I went to see it together at the giant amazing AMC near their apartment. The theater was even selling shirts -- freaking shirts! -- that said Team Edward or Team Jacob on them. I was puzzled on if I ought to purchase one, but then I realized I had an Edward shirt I bought last year at home lost somewhere in the throngs of my closet. I decided against the shirt.
Also, it is too readily apparent that I am not allowed in the kitchen. Hadley was making biscuits and gravy for dinner, and she asked me and Noah to open up the tinned biscuits. I looked at the container, saw the can-like top, and I figured a can opener was appropriate. They stopped me mid-way with can opener in hand with this look of shock and horror.
"That's... not how you open up tinned biscuits. ... You tear the paper off. ... How do you not know this?"
"... I never was allowed into the kitchen much..."
"......."

Though I will admit Jacob and Bella have better chemistry on screen than Edward and Bella. At least Jacob is passionate about things -- Edward is just kind of, "Blah blah angsty blah blah" throughout this film. The trailers also made me assume they had expanded more fighting scenes, but they hadn't. At least we have Eclipse to look forward to for that. Not that Breaking Dawn won't be a whole fiasco of blood, crazy, and WTF the whole time, but there you go. I will definitely have to go to the midnight release of that one, just to watch all the Twi-hards freak out and punch each other in the face.

Driving home, Hadley and I desperately wanted to play Freak Out the Twilight Noob on Noah and tell him exactly what happens in Breaking Dawn, but he wouldn't let us.

Anyway, erm, let's see, what else... I started playing D&D with the Kansas Nakama, though we haven't done much except pick our characters out. I am proudly a chibi elf cleric with a bow, who is technically older than everyone else yet with the mentality of the youngest one in the group. I love irony. I also got my Soi Fon costume in the mail for Naka-kon, and it seriously looks good. The only problem I'll have is setting up the wig (the hair extensions and the wig itself are separate). I also don't know what to do anymore to dress it up for my original character on Friday.
Also, anyone interested in two Renfest dresses, a full Harry Potter costume set from Alivans, and an Arrancar Orihime cosplay dress? I don't want to just get rid of them, considering what they cost me, but they're far too big now. (Yay for losing 20 lbs since June). I ought to put them up on Ebay at least, but I've never done that before. I need a crash course in Ebay-selling.

So I'm planning a costume for next Halloween -- I was inspired by masquerade (both from two of my favorite films, Labyrinth and Van Helsing), and then Japanese folklore as depicted by a few of my favorite artists.

I recently saw this deviation from VanHeist, and it obviously made me think of Miyazaki films such as Spirited Away and whatnot.  In my attempts to locate masks for this year (of which I was unsuccessful), I can across Merimask's handwork on Etsy.  They are BEAUTIFUL.   That is precisely what type of mask I want.  (Sadly Merimask's etsy is very much empty now; there were more a month ago.  Luckily, this person does commissions)
So my goal next year is to have a Japanese-styled kimino, or something similar, maybe a miko outfit -- the cosplay outfits I am getting this con season might wind up redone for next Halloween.  But I'm very torn on what type of mask to get from this person.
Wolves are my favorite animal... But foxes are so much fun!  Not to mention kitsunes are very much in fitting with the kimono thing.  Owls, however, are the animal I most identify with and I think may symbolize me more than others.  Okami Amaterasu might be properly in fitting with the concept of the spirit thing...
I just don't know T___T

At least I have plenty of time to think about it.  But next year, I want a costume that is just freaking amazing.

I don't know what I'm doing anymore.  X_X  Sure, my job is taken care of -- and I know I'll be working on my master's degree within another year.  But that isn't the point.

What am I doing?  Who AM I anyway?!

I used to have visions of me being some famous webcomic artist with a published book and a legion of people who wanted to be my friend.  I wanted to be some tournament-level Super Smash Bros player, some retro girl who wore cat-ear hats and took messenger bags to Starbucks to play WoW on her days off.
Well, there's a few problems with that -- gaming makes me feel guilty.  I will have just spent hours not socializing with people, sitting in front of a screen, accomplishing virtually nothing.  And there are no Starbucks in Lexington.  In fact, there is NOTHING in Lexington.
I keep feeling like I desperately need to move back to Kansas City.  But I'm in the lease still for at least a year, and anyway, it's almost an hour commute otherwise.  I could try relocating... But the hospital I work out now is much less stressful than city hospitals -- and it's still extremely stressful.
I see virtually none of my friends.  The other nurses mostly have night shift, and we rarely have the same days off.  The Kansas group is awesome when they're not working and I can drive out that far -- but still, that isn't very often.  fluffylovekitty  is in Columbia... Which, granted, we've now been seeing each other once a month, which is a vast improvement from once every six months.

I realize now I desperately needed art classes -- I have no opportunity to do that on a nurse's schedule.  I can't take martial arts classes, I can't take anything outside of nursing things -- and that's only when I get into graduate school and clear it with my work.

I like having my own place but I don't like living isolated from my friends and family. 
I just don't know what to do, I don't know what to change.  But I know I want to change. 

Somebody, please give me advice!  T_T

So I would like to bring up one thing -- okay, wait, no, perhaps a whole slew of things.  First of all, where I live is not considered the big city.  There is no white noise here -- when trains go by, you really notice, as opposed to the city where you're like, "Oh, it's a train, whatever.  Another will come by in an hour."  My apartment also has thin walls.  Hence, when I decided to try and prevent myself from waking up for work this morning at 5:45 am in a groggy haze wondering why I couldn't sleep any longer, I decided to attempt to sleep at 9:15.
There I was, dozing off into dreamland, my peripheries getting foggier and my brain turning into mush when I heard OMFG DRUMMING.  Someone was playing the drums.  Badly.  And hell, it sounded like it was RIGHT NEXT DOOR.
My neighbors are sweet people.  They aren't the type to let their kid bash around on drums at 9:15 at night.  Thusly, I began to follow the noise.  IT WAS FROM A HOUSE.  DOWN THE STREET.  I COULD SEE THE LIGHTS ON.
I just seethed.  After listening to it for FORTY-FIVE MINUTES (you have no idea how bad drums sound in the hands of some sucky person.  This person apparently thought he was hot, though, because he just kept playing), I walked outside in my pajamas and shouted down the road.  "PLEASE STOP PLAYING THE DRUMS."
The person began to play louder.
I could have sworn I was giving myself an angry anxiety attack.  What if he kept playing past midnight?  I would never get any sleep -- how would I survive 12 hours of work?  I couldn't be the only person lying in bed at this point in the apartment complexes wishing the asshole would stop playing.  I mean, if I could hear it from four houses away, what about the houses in between us?  What about the three other apartment complexes centered around mine with the same thin walls? 
Anyway, I finally fell asleep from exhaustion of planning his demise around 10:10.  I didn't hear any gunshots, so I assume he lived.  Maybe someone came and smacked his face around a little.  ... That concept pleases me.

In other news, I have added two blankets to my bed and mourned the fact I really do not have any giant blankets big enough for a full mattress.  I mean, they work, and luckily I'm just one person.  But damn, that's one thing I hate about fall and winter -- I'm freaking cold all the time.  I even got out from under the five blankets last night to put pajama PANTS on instead of CAPRIS, and fuzzy thick socks instead of thin ones.  And then I lay in bed shivering for a half-hour, wishing death on the Little Drummer Boy.

In other other news, my pants keep falling down at work.  This is a combination of the fact I've lost like 20 lbs since I bought the scrub sets, and some pathological need to walk around like I'm wearing a parachute.  Luckily there are drawstrings on said scrub pants to prevent mooning mishaps, but it's like putting a dress on upside down and tying it around your waist expecting it to stay up!
... Wait...  How would you walk in an upside-down dress?
....
I digress.

I hope today is freaking easy, because I am still tired and dammit, I am not going to my parents' house tonight I am SLEEPING IN.

So I got a call this morning around 5 am.  I was pretty much anticipating it anyway.  Yesterday, when I went into work, they had put me as the aide for the day.  By 5pm, we were so overstaffed (4 nurses to 8 patients, not counting me; two of them orientees), they told me I had to go home.  They let me peddle around and draw out some tasks to get some extra time, but I was still home early.  I couldn't believe how much time those two hours felt like!  Anyhow...
So I was scheduled to work today, but now I'm on stand-by, meaning until 7pm they can call me in at any time.  It's not so bad though -- I have coffee, the internets, and some creative tasks to complete!

So today, even with JCAHO running around, I somehow managed to kick real hospital ass.  I had been disappointed at how my stand-by day didn't even turn out to be a "stand by" day -- I was called in even before I could get an extra minute of sleep, and I pulled a full team of patients first thing in the morning.  I soon learned one of my patients from yesterday was going home, so I quickly got her charting done to prepare for that.  I had all my orders in line, was talking to physicians like I was an old salty experienced RN, and was delegating tasks to Kathy, who was being the aide for the day.  I got ALL MY MORNING CHARTING DONE IN THE MORNING.  That almost never happens in nursing, period. 
I knew I would probably get admissions, with the entire hospital full, and one of my patients leaving.  I made sure everyone else was in line, and then waited for an admission.  Marilyn, the charge nurse, warned me there was an admit downstairs in the ER that had been there waiting for a room since midnight the night before -- it wasn't my turn to take an admit, but I volunteered, as the only open room was on my back hallway.  I felt it was better to take on the new admit out of order than make a nurse split her floor up complete at two ends of the hall.  It does kill you over 12 hours.
Marilyn scheduled me for first lunch break, so around twelve, I asked her if I could grab food.  She said yes, so I ran downstairs and grabbed fried chicken.  Kitchen Marilyn (there are two Marilyns), mentioned how I'm always in such a good mood -- I'm just always really perky when I'm at work.  Anyway, I told her the promise of her fried chicken was what got me through the morning, and she just lawled. 
I got upstairs, excited as a lark to eat some lunch on time, when Marilyn peeked her head in and said, "Your admit is ready."
My heart faltered -- my admits had always taken two hours in the past.  I left my poor chicken abandoned in the nurses' lounge and resigned myself to get report from the ER.
My patient was awesome.  He was a young guy (I'm always glad when I get someone independent, oriented, and not a fall risk).  Apparently, he had some fainting spells and weird chest pain in the past, so I used my nurse's judgment to place him as a fall risk anyhow.  When I was in the room doing the admission history database, all of a sudden, his eyes went wide and he grabbed at his chest.
"Are you okay?" I asked, abandoning the computer and running to his side.  His wife's eyes were horrified.
"I'm having the chest pain," he gasped.
"Rate it for me on a scale of one to ten --" I barked, walking across the room to grab a vitals machine.  He answered, and I turned around in one motion and ran to the accudose machine.  I pulled out a bottle of nitroglycerin tablets, flipped the top open, and slipped a tablet under his tongue and slapped the blood pressure and pulse ox monitors on him.
"We're waiting five minutes," I said.  My perky hyperactive attitude was gone, replaced by the voice of some knowledgable person I hadn't really met before.  "I want you to tell me if the pain worsens, or begins to be relieved."  I pocketed the bottle of nitroglycerin tablets like a ninja sheathing a kunai knife for later use.
"It's getting better," he said, and I kept my eye on his blood pressure and heart rate.  His oxygen sats were great, but I kept that monitor on him for a good few hours.  I took his blood pressure religiously for about a half-hour straight.  I think he and his wife were so impressed by my magic experience that they were very sorry to see I wouldn't be their nurse tomorrow.  At one point -- the patient was a jokester -- when I asked him if he was still having pain, he said "Yes, in my neck."  I grabbed my stethoscope and mutated into Serious Nurse Lacey, and he shook his head and giggled weakly. "I mean my wife."
We laughed.
After the episodes had passed, I locked the nitroglycerin tablets into the patient's lock box, and charted in detail the entire experience.  I ran over to Gayle, who by that time, had replaced Marilyn as the charge nurse for the rest of the day.
"EVERYONE YOU WILL NOT BELIEVE THIS," I said, arms raised over my head like a child.  "My patient had chest pain and I didn't even stop and think, I just ran and grabbed nitro and FIXED IT.  And I monitored the oxygen sats... I monitored the HELL out of his blood pressure!  AND HE'S OKAY!!!"
"DID YOU CHART IT?!" asked Gayle, who has been quizzing me like crazy telling me everything I ever do wrong.
"YES," I said.  "I charted like CRAZY.  In DETAIL."
Everyone just burst out laughing.

I mean, I do miss things on occassion -- mostly little charting things, or stupid legalities that are different in each hospital.  But when it matters, I freaking DO know what to do.

Also, totally awesome thing -- I found out from my favorite physician at the hospital (favorite thus far, anyway), that I diagnosed my patient from last week before he even did. 
I was like holyshit.
I am freaking going for my doctorate in a year.

So I drove up to Columbia today for fluffylovekitty's birthday -- in fact, as I type this, we sit in the living room watching Kim Possible and peddling away on our computers.  Laura had warned me she didn't have a cake, so I brought one up where I scribbled "Happy Birthday Twin! =D " in purple gel icing.  We went to Jazz's to eat dinner with some of Laura's coworkers, and then headed up to Trops to drink alcoholic slushies.  Afterward, we headed back to the apartment to pick up fold-y chairs, and drove out to Fingerlakes State Park to watch the Perseids.  I was so excited -- I haven't properly watched a meteor shower in a long time, and watching a meteor shower with friends was one of the things I had on my list of things to do before I died.  We saw some amazing shooting stars, and even a UFO -- it was quite odd.  All of a sudden, it just appeared, as bright as the planet in the southern sky, just by the Little Dipper.  It was moving very slowly downward, like a satellite, and as it did so, faded slowly away as it moved until finally it disappeared.  It was far too slow to be any type of meteor, and far too bright to be a satellite. 

The half-moon rose up close to the end of our watching, blood-red and quickly faded to a bright orange.  it was gorgeous.  And afterward, we headed back to the apartment for cake.

"I'm going to the bathroom," said Laura, walking through the hallway.
"Okay!" I said, turning into the kitchen.  "And when you're back, we'll light candles."
"... All right..." said Laura, walking into the bathroom.  She shut the door, and shouted from behind, "But I have matches on the toilet."
I stood there, opening the cake's covering.  I guess we could use those, I thought.
"I have a lighter," offered AJ.
Suddenly, Laura came back out wide eyed and stared my direction.  "YOU MEANT THE CAKE."
I stared at her, nonplussed, trying to figure out what she could have possibly meant...
"I THOUGHT YOU MEANT THE BATHROOM," she said.
We began laughing hysterically.  But then we ate cake.

It was an awesome day all in all.  Though I'm really glad I get paid on Friday =D  I need to figure out what I'm going to do about my comic site's layout.  I really have no clue how to work with Wordpress or Comicpress, and my skills in coding sites has become null over time.  I used to be really into it in high school, but now... I really don't know.  I want to set up something like the Snafu comic site has, where there are comments/blogs under each entry, and the different comics are entirely separated.  I want a separate part for my Bleach doujinshi that I'm working on, old random archives, and the new comedy comic that's going to follow my attempt at Pirate Cafe in college.
Mehhhh.

I want to leave some notes for everyone in the world right now.

To Crazy Lady in Room 666:  You are not sick.  You keep forcing yourself to throw up by making yourself gag so we think you're ill.  You complain when you say you have low blood sugar, but I test you, and your sugars are 110.  For the love of God, I sat down with you to listen to your shrill whinings in attempt to get you to understand that you were having emotional responses as physical symptoms -- because I didn't want to just tell you that you are an effing hypochondriac.  Which you are.  And if I have you as a patient tomorrow you better not tell me you have too much air in your stomach to eat (I mean, we had two CT scans and a PIPIDA scan that showed NOTHING), pick at your food, then tell me you want to order something else.  Because yeah, this is totally a city hospital with a load of staff that can cook you up something entirely different at the end of the dinner hour because of the nonexistant air in your stomach.  Right.

To the person who kept screaming at me from her room instead of using the call light:  Seriously.  You got so pissed off at me that I was dealing with a load of other patients and trying to play catch up on an insane morning that you PUT A PILLOW IN FRONT OF YOUR FACE AND SCREAMED HELP. And when I ran in there and asked you how you were apparently smothering in your pillow, because I had just seen that pillow safely tucked under your head and you could NOT just have it slip there, you told me you don't know how the pillow got there, but that you're scared and need pain medication.  And when I tell you you can't have another dose of morphine for another HOUR AND FIFTEEN MINUTES, AND IT'S EVERY TWO HOURS YOU INSANE KLEPTO, you just start screaming at me that the dosage is every two hours.  NOT FORTY-FIVE MINUTES HAS PASSED OH MY GOD.

To nice man in the last room who never complained:  I love you.

I've been looking to break into the mini-computer portable market for a while now.  I've been surfing around a little, looking at some of the things out there.  What I really want, ultimately, is something that can access wifi extremely well, have simple and clean browsing (doesn't mess up the fonts/design of webpages and is easy to use), streams video (whenever I decide I want to sit in line at the DMV and watch a Youtube anime music video or a stream of anime from Crunchyroll), and can play games on.  Even better if I could put other types of applications into it, like a portable version of Microsoft Word for writing.
Originally, I was thinking about an Ipod Touch 32gig.  Their applications seemed interesting to me -- you can get Katamari Damacy, for instance -- and there were calorie-counting applications that I've heard of.  Plus, my old Ipod Video 30gig ("Steve") is slowly dying; the battery just does not hold life anymore.  And occassionally, it freezes up, and is therefore useless until I can get Steve to link up with Okami so Okami can beat the shit out of it back into submission. 
I want a device that I can count on to get me through anything, whether it's reading Ebook versions of Fanfiction, listening to music, or watching a movie.

But it just doesn't seem like anything is really out there yet.  Though when I research, all I run into are crazy fanboys who scream for their device over anyone else's.
No, I don't want an Iphone.  I have Verizon, refuse to pay for the stupid 3G internet, and to me -- phones are disposible.  You use them for the one/two year contracts you have and then you get a new phone.  All a phone is to me is a safety net, a way to call anybody anywhere when I want, and a texting service -- occassionally, a stupid camera.
I want something that can stick with me for five years.

I was looking into the PSP as well -- it's so freakishly able to be modded and hacked it's just amazing.  However, I don't know much about modding and hacking, and anyway, Sony is kind of rolling over again with a new system; the PSP-Go doesn't even have the PSP-disc slots anymore (they want to see how well digital media works over discs when it comes to purchases)*  It's only a side-line to the PSP3000, which is kind of old now, and there are rumors of a PSP2 system out in a few years that may be able to replace the PS2 console.

*I am AVIDLY opposed to digital media.  For one, you lose the right of first sale -- when you buy a book, you can loan it to a friend, you can sell it to a garage sale.  With the Kindle ebooks, you buy the book for the same price as the paper version, and can never move it anywhere.  You are infringing on copyright if you do.  Plus, devices with hard drives malfunction.  They wipe.  Sometimes you have to wipe them anyway -- and then you've just lost everything you purchased.

I'm not really too worried if I stick with my old Ipod for a music player and get something else for all the other applications/games/browsing, because anyway, I use my Ipod in my car as a CD player.  And it makes me less nervous to have something old in there that cost me $180 to begin with (thank you CMSU's student discount), and probably resells for $50 now secondhand.  Plus, I like Ipod's music system, I'm used to it.  I don't want to change THAT. 

But what do I do?  I don't know much out there about these portable systems.

Living on my own has been great thus far -- I enjoy my apartment, and I'm very proud of how I have it decorated. It's so adult-like to be in charge of your own place, pay your own bills, and go to work of your own accord.

Speaking of work, I am so glad I chose nursing. I had a series of days off last week (from Saturday until today), and, oddly enough, it made me feel down and slightly useless -- as if I wasn't worth the air I was breathing that day. To make it simple, I just didn't feel motivated. I forced myself to work on a doujinshi (a fan manga) that I'm writing, based on Bleach. And even though I got the first page done, and I cleaned the apartment, and watched the entire Darker Than Black anime series, I still felt odd.
But then I went to work today (a twelve-hour rotation), and I felt so happy when I was there, and felt so uplifted when I was home. I felt like I made a difference, that I was definitely doing something good in the world.

I think I really do want to look into disaster management. I talked to a nurse who is currently going through her last semesters of a master's degree in a family nurse practitioner program (what I'd like to look into), and she was working full time (and isn't far from my age). I realized it was something I could definitely do, and if I can find a doctorate program instead of a master's, that's even better. I think I could be both a DNP and a certified disaster response person. That would be amazing. So that is my career goal for now, although I have to finish this year of work first before I can restart my education!

Just as a footnote, I want to reiterate how glad I am that I chose my profession. I get to see amazing things and work in amazing situations. I get to witness and experience both exciting and sorrowful moments. Today, I helped record in the insertion of a cardiac central line, debreed a stage 3 wound (or so I think, although it wasn't fully cleaned -- and for you non-nursing folk, a stage 3 wound is this; DO NOT GO IF YOU ARE SQUEAMISH). And yeahhh... It was on the foot. I helped someone walk, I inserted catheters and pulled out IVs, I sat and laughed with my patients. It was a happy day, and I'm so glad I was that lucky -- there are some days that aren't so joyous, and I come home worn, in tears.
But even then, I wouldn't have it any other way.

New York City:
- NINJA restaurant
- Nintendo Store
- I want to ride on a subway or something

Japan:
- Akihabara!  (!!!!!!)
- I also want to visit historical stuff... But I don't know much Japanese yet.

London:
- King's Cross Station
- I want to go on some kind of history tour
- The London Eye which is apparently a huge ferris wheel hell YEAH
- Wax Museum
- West Minster Abbey

I think, eventually, when I have money, I am going to upgrade my LJ account so I can have more UserIcons -- I want to have more assortments to pick from to go with the mood of my posts at the time. 

It's funny how people change as they grow up.  I'm still relatively the same geeky wannabe artist from high school, just more independent and refined than I was back then.  Of course, I also thought I was a gothic kid six years ago and wore black all the time.  So maybe quite a few things change.
I'm joining a committee at work putting together a disaster drill in October for decontamination.  I'm very interested in disaster management, and it sounds like I may be able to work on some certifications in that area, and possibly volunteer for disasters that happen here at home in the US, if they do.  Regardless that people often need serious therapy afterward -- I could tell you horror stories our instructors told us from the nurses who reported to the Hyatt collapse in KC in the 80's -- I think it would be really worthwhile.

I seriously want to work on my artwork, and improve my portfolio and improve my skills in general.  And seriously, I want to get that children's book published, but I need to tone down the writing, I think.  It was good for my honors project, but for sales, I don't know if kids could handle how many words I shoved in there.  I think their little brains would go "OHSHITNOLEARNING!" and throw it across the playground hall.  And then stomp on it repeatedly.  Although the second and third graders I read to loved it -- I was also getting them out of class for an hour to participate in my study.
Though they did look at me in awe and call me cool.  I just sat there, going, "Holy shit, no one's ever called me cool before. ... I LOVE YOU KIDS."

I'm at the parents' house tonight, because I didn't want to commute an hour tomorrow to go to my Meditech training in KC.  Though it's odd -- I have absolutely no place to sleep, no clothes, no belongings here at all anymore (except for my hardback Harry Potter books that really can't fit anywhere else).  Then I get the weekend off -- I get to see the cute TV guy again on Saturday, and I'm going to do SOMETHING productive this weekend besides clean obsessively.  At least I got my laundry done today.

I feel nervous for some reason.  Ugh, I do not like the way weird stuff goes down once a month.  I will admit that one.

Also, I feel like I need to talk about something epic.  I think instead I will just put on pajamas and watch anime.  I have decided NOT to watch past the 2nd episode of Welcome to the NHK -- it is a little perverted, and I think it'll only get worse.  So I'm stopping while I'm ahead (and much more naive).  But I really need to find something good to watch; Eden of the East was amazing, and I need something like that. 

The weekend with Laura was a lot of fun -- I miss laughing like that on an average day =D

In other news, the Sparking/Exploding AC of Doom made a return last night.  You see, when I was moving in, the air conditioner started going "POP!"  "POP!"  "POP!"  And little EXPLOSIONS happened from the other side of the grate.  So I rapidly turned it off manually, and then screamed for my father, that it might be on fire.
Dad diagnosed it being that the water wasn't draining, and it was dripping onto the fan and, y'know, making sparks/making tiny explosions.  So we called Robert, the handyman, and he came out the next day and supposedly fixed it.
At about 11:00 last night, I heard BOOM!!!!!!!!!
I leapt up to smell a burning, smoky odor, and when I turned the lights on, there was a definite smoke-haze.  I turned the AC off again, and started checking everywhere around for a fire.  Then, I started crying.  The night before my first day of work, and it decides to play with combusting again -- no, it couldn't do it any OTHER day I wasn't working, it had to do it then.  At least it's been doing this sparking thing when I'm here, though.
I called Robert, and I got a turned-off cell phone.  I left a slightly upset message about, "Pleeassee get out here tomorrow please? T_T"  And gave him a rundown of what it was doing again. 
Then I proceeded to wake up every couple minutes until 2 am, because I kept thinking I smelled additional smoke/heard fire.

Now I need to actually get ready for work... Wish me luck!

Well, I now have a job -- I start at the Lexington hospital on the 20th, and I'm apartment shopping.  We got ahold of Brandon Whatshisname-Apartment Man, and he told us the apartments on the second floor (what my mother prefers), are two bedroom-ers, and they're only $25 more a month.
Hell yes I am going for that.  The only thing that would be better if they had washer and dryer hookups... Ohpleaseohplease!

I've been shopping around on the internet looking for new geeky stuff for my apartment.  Besides ThinkGeek, does anyone else know of some good places for otaku/geeky housewares?

I go down on the 7th to fill out paperwork, set up direct deposit, and get checked for drugs and whatnot.

And in other news...
I AM SO EXCITED TWINNIE THAT WE ARE GOING TO OTAKON NEXT YEARRRRRRRRRRRRR

EDIT:
On an update, I didn't get apartments through Brandonface.  We talked to people in town to find that pretty much no one recommended those apartments.  When I was filling out paperwork Mom went to the post office and found me the apartments I now have the keys to.  The landlords -- an older couple who are just sweet as can be -- have been so helpful thus far.
Sadly I have moved down a lot of my stuff, but I can't really do anything else yet.  The power comes on tomorrow, and until we have AC, we really can't finish deep-cleaning.  I managed to get through the pantry, but I desperately want my mom and aunt to help because, let's face it, it's a huge job for how throughly I want to clean this.  And I'm going to put down brand new contact paper everywhere... *is going OCD*

Okay, so, has anyone else seen -- or at least heard of -- Cartoon Network's new reality TV show attempts?  Specifically, "Survive This."
At first, I was a little tickled about the concept -- I've always been interested in survival, ever since I read "My Side of the Mountain" and "Hatchet" as a child.  I have a pack of survival equipment in the storage compartment of my car, and quite a few books on the topic.  I know some basic theory and I think I could handle surviving in a group with other people willing to work together, if not on my own for a few days. 

However, these children are retarded.  Apparently, the premise of the show is the kids have survived a bus crash in the middle of the forest (...what?), and then they must survive together for some kind of extended period of time.  But yet, they have fishing poles.  I suppose my school just never had Wild Forest Fishing Competitions.

I saw bits and pieces of the television show over the span of about a week now.  On the first day, some girl somehow closed a pocket knife on her lip and panicked for about an hour, I think, terrified once they removed the knife she wouldn't have a lip anymore.  I was staring at the apparent "injury," realizing there was no way she had just cut her lip in two.  Sure enough, paramedics "arrived on the scene" (aka the people in back who are there the entire time in mass numbers that you can occassionally get glimpses of during a bad camera shot), and pulled the pocket knife up from its folded position to reveal -- oh, surprise! -- an intact lip. 
These kids are about sixteen to eighteen, I think, and I want to know why they picked the most idiotic children to attempt this.

Throughout the entire show, the main Survivalist of the show -- an expert whose name evades me -- drops hints and advise to the cast of characters.  They did good building their shelter, he said -- except they put it ON THE FREAKING EDGE OF A CLIFF.  And then, they all start complaining about hunger.  I don't even think they have to worry about water on this show -- I have a feeling they're getting bottles of it backstage.
Basically, they roasted up some frog legs.  Everyone complained.  Then they ate magic rice that magically appeared and magically cooked it on their magically obtained survival equipment.  And then the Survivalist handed them a bundle of greens and said, "Look, edible wild herbs, you can eat these." And I stared.  Because all it was were wild violet leaves and wild strawberries.  Where are the obscure plants, Mr. Survival Man?!
Day 2, apparently, they lose their minds from hunger and a boy starts chasing an animal through the woods WITH NO WEAPONS AT ALL.  With no traps, I suppose?  Another girl starts sobbing to the camera that she knows people are going to be saying how lame they are they can't make it two days, but, "You don't know what it's like!  You aren't out here away from your friends and your family and having to do this!  You're not having to SURVIVE!"
I kind of just facepalmed.

Seriously, Cartoon Network, if this is your only idea to get new ratings, you need to change your tactics.  Let's try a Paint Drying reality show -- it would be more entertaining than this swill.

WHY IS EVERYONE DYING?!
Ed McMahon, Ferrah Faucett, Michael Jackson, and Billy Mayes!
WTF IS SOMEONE ASSASSINATING FAMOUS PEOPLE?!