new layout, new missouri-hate

Yesterday was a very productive day. Rose and I completely cleaned my room, rearranged a bit, and moved a bunch of things out to my car. We also took about a thousand magazines to the recycling center and put all of my clothes to donate into trashbags.

The things in the corner under the mirror are things that do not belong in my room but my parents refuse to put them anywhere else or let me donate them. That TV is a piece of shit and we already have a newer TV in every room in the house, so what's the point of keeping it? Idk. My parents are packrats and it drives me nuts.

For dinner Rose and I made lemon ricotta pasta from Budget Bytes. If you haven't heard of Budget Bytes yet, it's basically the best recipe website I've found for poor college students. It has quick, simple recipes that require very little money. Tomorrow Rose's boyfriend is coming in to town and we are going to make pesto stuffed shells and garlic bread. We're all really excited to see how the shells come out. I discovered last night that I'm really not a fan of ricotta and the shells' stuffing is made out of ricotta.. so it should be interesting. 

After I dropped Rose off last night, I walked my dog Simon around the walking trail in town until I ran into Scott and Christian. We went over to Sonic, where Christian fed Simon a bunch of cheesy tots and Simon licked the bottom of my straw and grossed everyone out. ha.

As you can tell, I changed the layout and I really dig it. When I was uploading it and changing the coding around I wasn't a fan at all. But now that I've spent a good amount of time messing with everything, I think it looks good. How do you guys feel about it? The only thing that bothers me is in my profile on the sidebar, when I lowered the font size of the description, it also changed the size of all of my name and city.. and I can't figure out how to get them back to their original size. But it still looks okay with them small, so whatever. I'll deal.

As for the Missouri-hate in the title... My parents are driving me nuts. Every day I have been loading and unloading the dishwasher, washing dishes that can't go in it, doing laundry, and cleaning anything that happens to be dirty (floors, cabinets, toilet, etc). But any time my parents come home, all they can do is complain. If the dishwasher isn't unloaded yet, they start yelling at me to unload it so they can reload it... If my clothes are still in the dryer or I just put a load in to wash, I'm instantly yelled at because now my grandma can't wash her work clothes... If I accidentally leave the soap on the sink after I use it, I'm yelled at... I'm getting so pissed off. I do all of this work around the house and no one even cares, all they can do is yell at me and make me feel in the wrong. 

Last night I straight up lost it and started screaming back about how I'm the only one doing any work, how I clean up after everyone's messes, and how my parents refuse to do anything I ask of them. For example, a basket of clothes to donate has been sitting in the living room since the day I moved back. My mom wouldn't let me take them to the thrift store because she wanted to go through to see if she wanted to keep anything and make sure I'm not throwing out anything that doesn't need be. The basket was still sitting there yesterday when I came downstairs with the 3 bags full of clothes to donate. Both of my parents started in on how I don't need to throw out that much, how they always buy me clothes and I never wear them, etc. etc. I simply told them that if all of the bags need to be gone through by Wednesday morning because I'm taking them to the donation center then, no matter what they say.

I'm just sick of not being appreciated for all of this work I do. At the dorms at least Corinne would acknowledge if I cleaned the bathroom up or our dishes. No one cares here and it hurts. I would stop doing anything but then I know the house would turn into a sty and my parents would complain even more.

bleh

This morning was very emotional for me.

NCMC's woman in charge of all of the proctors emailed me back saying that no one was available to watch me take my midterms or finals... meaning I'd have no way to take those exams unless I wanted to fly back to Salt Lake multiple times during the summer. I mean, I'd love to do that but I definitely cannot afford it. So I dropped all of my classes. It seems kind of dramatic but I was already getting swamped with the work and how often I've been working, so I suppose it's for the best. But at the time I was really upset cause I'd already spent hundreds of dollars on the textbooks and I'd gotten a grant to cover everything and it was already disbursed. So I was crying on the phone to grandma as I explained the situation to her.. and then I proceeded to lie on my floor and sob. While babysitting my 2 year old brother. It was awkward. I'm glad he can't talk to tell everyone exactly how pathetic I was acting.

I sorted through all of my clothes and came up with tons of things to donate. I was so reluctant to throw anything out though. I refused to give my nicer, more expensive things to the thrift store so I made Rose take them off of my hands. I'm such a mean, selfish bastard. I also decided to donate a lot of things I have from an ex. It was a pretty big step.

Apparently needed edit: It was a big step to donate ANYTHING, not to donate things of yours. I don't donate my things. I don't like getting rid of things I've purchased or that I still wear. I ended up taking 5 bags and two boxes of my clothes to donate. That's not something I do so yes, it was a big step. Why are you even reading my blog? 

Then I worked for 7 hours and hated my life just a little more. My job is relatively easy since we're dead the majority of the time I'm there. But there are some nights that straight up suck. Tonight was one of those nights. First, I was working in the back. I worked in the front for two years and in the back for maybe 3 nights.. so I don't exactly have everything memorized. My boss was also in the back for a few hours which made me nervous and clumsy. So everything is going fine, I'm kind of bored because all I'm doing is making pizzas for the bar and waiting for them to cook. Then we get a rush of orders for like, hundreds of large pizzas. We run out of dough, the dough machine refuses to work for me, I keep spilling sauce off of the pizzas and onto myself, the counter and the floor... I'm a complete mess. Plus, I'm delivering so as we're trying to get all of these pizzas made and in the oven, I'm running all over town and back and ugh. It was a nightmare. Then everyone left and people stopped calling and we were dead again... Blah. I hate Royal Inn.. and Missouri.

It seems the only happy thing I have to think of right now is my trip to New York with Katie. It's not until March during spring break but it's gonna be so much fun. Holy crap, I'm so excited. We're going to have breakfast at Tiffany's and break into a Broadway theatre and sing on a real Broadway stage! But not really, because neither of us can sing. We are planning to see a show on Broadway though, which will be a thrill! Katie's already thinking of all kinds of fun things for us to do while we're there. :)

I have to work in a few hours so I'll put this to an end, but you should definitely check out this website. My beautiful cat Smudge started a Dailybooth. Corinne gave me the idea months ago after reading this textsfromlastnight:

(917): i think i am going to devote my summer to making my cats internet celebrities

Oh, speaking of cats. On 3 different deliveries tonight I told women how freakin' cute their cats were. One gave me a look that clearly told me to get off her property, while the other two went into detail about the types of cats they had and let me pet them. It was awesome. I love cats.

forever 21 please.

I've been trying for the past couple of days to convince my mom to give me her credit card so I can go on a shopping spree at Forever 21. My reasoning is that I need nicer tops to impress my friends in Utah and make them like me more. She's like, "your friends must be really shallow if they don't like you in your current clothes." No mom, I'm the shallow one. I want to look nicer. Once I showed her that most of the items I want are less than $15 she seemed to cave a bit.. so I'm hoping that by next week I'll be in Kansas City buying all of these things:

Kitten w/ Glasses Top $12.90

Tribal Stripe Top $15.80

Striped Burnout Top $8.90 

 Audrey Graphic Tank $14.80

 Tribal Tank w/ Crochet Yoke $15.80

Exposed Shoulder Top $14.80 

 Crochet Back Tribal Top $15.80

Slub Knit Trapeze Top $9.90 

 Bevy of Bows Lace Bib Dress $19.80

Knit Button Up Top $15.80

My trip also depends greatly on how the weather is next week. Ever since Friday, tornadoes have been ripping the Midwest apart. Joplin was completely wiped out on Saturday, along with a few places in Michigan and Oklahoma. Today a tornado touched down in Sedalia (only 2 hours from here) and then sirens went off in Chillicothe, the city 20 miles from here where my mama works, and freaked everyone here out.

I want to go back to Utah. :(

moar sims

It is already Wednesday? Did I seriously waste the better part of my weekend and the beginning of this week playing the Sims? 

Of course I did.

So Delia (Paul's daughter) is basically always pregnant. Cassie wanted 5 grandchildren and I couldn't say no to her. Plus, how can you carry on a legacy without any heirs? Hint: you can't.

Later, as one of the kids was aging up and blowing out their candles, the cake burst into flames and proceeded to burn down the entire kitchen.

THEN Cassie went to the park and made me fall in lesbians with her when she successfully charmed the snake and got a kiss from it. Not even Paul Kim was able to do that. I had to cheat to get his mummy-induced curse to gtfo.

At some point, Delia went into labor for her fifth child. For some reason her husband Christian thought running to the hospital (all the way on the other side of town) was a better idea than taking a taxi to the hospital. As he was running a notification popped up that said, "Christian wonders why it suddenly got dark," which confused me as it was already 10pm and dark. But then a huge thunderclap erupted and I freaked out and paused the game to Google what was about to happen. Turns out, whenever you get that notification, a meteor is probably about to crash down onto your Sim and kill it. Somehow Christian was spared, but as he was running back home from the hospital he came across a ton of pieces of a meteor. Ooooh.

And just in case you needed proof that this is the Kim family, here's a shot of Delia randomly shooting me some peace signs, tongue and all...

RIP Paul Kim

A tragedy struck the town of Riverview when Paul Kim passed away earlier this morning.

Paul Kim was a gentleman and a scholar, whose lifetime wish was to become a Grand Chess Master. Unfortunately, he only made it to Rank 3/5 before his passing because that jerk Sandy Harris refused to let Mr. Kim win. Paul especially liked spying on the neighbors with his telescope, as seen above. He left behind a loving wife, Cassie, and a smokin' hot daughter, Delia. 

Grim coming to take away Paul; notice Cassie crying up a storm.

Sleeping on his side of the bed. Aw.

So I played the Sims for another 6 hours or so after I woke up today.. As you can see, Paul died. It freaking sucked because not only did he die before I could make him a Grand Chess Master, but he left me with two women who preferred bitching and mourning to going about their daily routines. My garden went to hell, Delia's grades dropped, and they both aged up poorly because they were in such shitty moods when their birthdays hit. Ugh. Women.

blogging at 4am, nbd.

Passages from the Bhagavad-Gita As It Is I highlighted today:

• One who takes shelter of the Supreme Lord has nothing to fear, even in the midst of the greatest calamity.
• Either in waking or in sleep, a devotee of the Lord can never be free from thinking of Krsna's name, form, qualities and pastimes.
• Excessive attachment for material things puts a man in such a bewildering condition of existence.

You're welcome.

My back is absolutely killing me. I've been sitting on my floor for the last four hours doing stuff for my Intro to Music Theory class. Ever since Friday night when I started working at Royal Inn again my back has been fucked upppp. Eurgh.

Earlier this evening, I played the Sims 3 for about... 6 hours. Yeah. Six whole hours. Maybe more. Paul Kim went to Egypt for a week, his daughter Delia turned into a teenager, and his wife Cassie had a nervous breakdown from the amount of gardening I was making her do. Bwahahaha. 

day of baking

Tumbleweeds outside of the desert, what? 

Rose and I were driving to Subway for dinner last night and that... thing was sitting in the left turning lane of one of our main intersections. Peculiar. 

We made lunch from this website yesterday and then cupcakes from this website I found on StumbleUpon. The cupcakes were supposed to have strawberries atop them that you put 80-proof liquor in then light on fire, but my mama wasn't home so we couldn't get any alcohol. So as a substitute we put whipped cream inside of the strawberries and then drizzled chocolate. They were preeeetty good. 

 Panko Crusted Green Beans with Soy Garlic Aioli

Mustard-Herb Crusted Pork Tenderloin 

Chocolate Cupcakes with Strawberries, Whipped Cream and Chocolate Drizzle

monday funday

 I had lunch avec ma mère et mon frère au El Nopal.

 We bought lilies at Lowe's.

Then Rose and I watched Rio.

That's basically all I did today. Instead of using my time off of work wisely and studying, I watched Don Juan DeMarco this morning before lunch. Then I made my mom take me to Chillicothe to look for Wildlife Wednesday shirts at the thrift stores. We didn't have any luck, which I find surprising since it's Missouri and people love to kill animals and wear shirts involving the animals they kill...

Later, Rosie and I caught the 7:00 showing of Rio. We got there reeeallllly early so I played arcade games until I ran out of quarters, and then we sat in the theatre for like 40+ minutes watching SceneIt ads without any sound. The movie was so freaking cute and funny, I loved it. We were in a tiny theatre and also the only people in it, so we were able to talk as loudly and be obnoxious as we wanted. Perfect.

Now I'm back to reading for my summer classes. I swear, these classes are going to be the death of me. Semester just started today and I already feel overwhelmed. I'm just hoping I can keep up with all of the reading and homework once I start working again. D;

I just checked my grades for the spring semester... :(
My GPA dropped from a 3.636 to a 3.162. I got three B's and only one A. I'm actually really disappointed in myself. If I don't get straight A's during the summer, I'm going to be so angry. Ugh.

dave and buster's

Earlier in the week, Rosie Toes and I made dinner for my family. We made broccoli bites and sesame breaded chicken.

It was delicious.

At some point we also went to El Nopal. It was also very tasty. The queso was much better than Qdoba's.

Last night, Rose, Scott and I went to Dave and Buster's in Kansas City for Brinton's birthday party. It was my first time going to any type of arcade where you got tickets and prizes. I had such a blast. We ended up winning 931 tickets, which bought us 2 vodka shooters, 3 finger traps, and a "crazy cup" that Rose chose over a candy corn colored slinky.

As we were eating, I could not stop laughing at the things Brinton's friend Jeff was saying. Par exemple:

"Shit's disgusting what I can do with these fingers. I make Jesus nervous!"

It probably doesn't look very funny in writing. But trust me, it was. 

As we were leaving Legends, Scott thought it would be fun to slide down the railings..

summer beginnings

Let me start off by showing you my dorm room before we started packing anything away.

 Hallway.

 Calendars + three-hole punches.

 Coat collection.

 My side of the room.

My side of the room, pt II.

Corinne's side of the room.

Now look at these pictures I took the night before I moved out.

Such a difference. The room was so lonely after Corinne moved out and I had most of my stuff in the car. I spent a lot of time between Tuesday and Friday either in Starbucks or in the lounge because the room was too empty and echo-y.

Rose flew in Thursday night to drive back with me on Saturday. On Friday, I showed her around the campus and then we went to the Hogle Zoo, the cupcake store on Foothill, and the Gateway.

 We had a competition to see who could dress like Diego the best.

Rose won, but only because I look too cute and she has more of that grungy appeal.

We got Carl’s Jr. for dinner.. Rose’s meal was delicious but mine wasn’t very tasty, so I decided to order something else off of the Green Burrito side of the menu. It was also disgusting. Ah well.

As we were leaving, I mentioned that we should take a few pictures of the Blanche overload at the abandoned restaurant next to Carl’s. Because the loaner phone I have totally sucks, my pictures through the fence didn’t come out very well.. so Rose decided to hop the fence and get a good picture for me. She got a bit scuffed by the fence on the way back out, but the mission was a major success.

There was also a Blanche barely hanging on to the building that she was able to grab for me. :)

On Saturday, we drove 9 hours to Denver. Our hotel was in downtown Denver, so any time that we wanted to walk outside it was extremely sketch. But I managed to buy a new necklace and a couple of Ganesh pictures. We hurried back to the hotel before it got dark so we wouldn't get raped/mugged/killed/etc., only to find out that we bought new bathing suits for no reason. Hotels.com lied to us and the Ramada we stayed at did not have an indoor pool. :( So we got schwasty, watched Bring It On, and jumped on our comfy, king-sized bed.

Oh! Also, we had lunch at Qdoba. It was our first time. Corinne complained quite often that there were no Qdoba's in close proximity to the SLC and I couldn't see why it was such a big deal.. but their food is pretty delicious. The queso isn't as good as what Corinne made it out to be (she obviously hasn't had the goat cheese at El Nopal) but my chicken quesadilla was scrumptious. mmm.

We arrived in Trenton at a pretty decent hour on Sunday. I started unpacking but that didn't last very long. Instead, I read the introduction to the Bhagavad-Gita As It Is. It's incredible and so interesting.

I spent the majority of today (Tuesday, ignore the header's date) unpacking. I must say, my room looks pretty dank with all of the paintings and things I acquired in Utah. It's going to suck packing everything pack up in a few months. I'll bust out the wide-angled lens later and take a few shots of the room. I just love it. I've been up here basically all day. I've only left twice: to go running and to walk the dogs. After I was done unpacking, I watched Toy Story 3. A bit later, I finished the second half of Wake Up Sid (which I highly recommend to everyone, it's on Netflix here), and then started The Last Song. To sum things up, I've been productive but also very lazy. Hm.