goodbye, 2006.

This has been one hell of a year.

No, really. It has. I have gone from being completely antisocial to not being able to sit in my house for more than a few hours. I'm different now. Everyone's different. I've lost some friends, made some friends, and grown even closer with current friends. I got a job and made good grades in school. I went the whole year without falling in love, which might just be a miracle. I also started to appreciate my family even more than I already have.

So now I'm going to wish everyone a happy new year and hope that 2007 is amazing for you. :) I would be out partying, but I have to work tomorrow morning, so I'm being forced to go to sleep no later than 12:30 am. Get good and drunk for me, and kiss someone you love. ^_^

excuses, excuses.

Since I haven't written much at all in any of my journals in the past few weeks, I think I'll update you guys on the month of December. I started working at Blockbuster a few weeks ago. I really love my job, and my co-workers are really great, too. My second day there, this guy started flirting with me. He was kind of goofy and had lovely eyes. Meru decided to get her bellybutton pierced, and since he's into piercings and tattoos and stuff, I invited him along. We all had a bunch of fun, and he was really great.

So we started dating, I guess. But then last Wednesday I was cleaning my room a bit and my phone rang. He was calling to tell me he didn't want a serious relationship. I was little confused because we'd been dating for a little more than seven days, so I wasn't sure when we discussed this serious relationship business. I was pretty pissed the hell off, though. That night I hung out with my cousins (who are fantastically wonderful and I love them a lot omg) to get my mind off of this random occurence. By the time I had to go to work the next day, I was much more calm about the whole situation. He was getting off at 5 and I was working 5-12, so there was a 10 minute window where I would be put into his presence.

I walk into work, smile at everyone, grab the office keys from Krystal, and head to the back to put my stuff up. He then started running after me and said something like, "I got some traumatic news last night." And in a slightly uninterested tone I said, "Oh, what's that?" And he says, "I found out I'm going to be a dad."

Words cannot explain how much of a WTF moment that was. In about 10 seconds I forgave him and acknowledged that he had given me the only excuse that would've worked in this situation. Good luck to him with all that, since I am so not into helping with a baby. I haven't actually talked to him lately since I haven't worked with him since then, but whatever.

I'm actually fairly proud of myself for not freaking out and shutting down and crawling into bed as soon as that happened. A year ago I probably would've stopped working at Blockbuster because of that, but it's so pointless now. I mean, it's not like I fell in love with him or anything. He did have really great tattoos, though. Sad.

Bah Humbug

A picture I took of my dad at Thanksgiving made it into The Times online "Reader Christmas Photos" Gallery. I tried to link to it but the site is being wonky. Jerry is photo number 31.

I'm disapointed it didn't make it into the paper. I think it's a much better photo than the ones selected but what do I know?

I also noticed that there's a "buy this photo" button you can click to buy that picture. So who gets the money? The Times gets paid for a photo I took? Nothing was said about this when I submitted the photo. Geez, I better shut up I'm starting to sound like the Bah Humbug.

New Family Photo

Since we started this blog we've talked about getting a family photo up on the page. So today when we went to the Louisiana Boardwalk, I bugged everyone while we rode the trolley so I could get a decent picture of the three of us. It does have a bit of a myspace angle happening.

Charlie and Katee said I antagonized them too much but now if I'd really wanted to get on their last nerve I would have made everyone wear a red or green shirt. And stop off for a teeth whitening session. (Kathryn)

No Driving with Momma

I've been forbidden to teach Katee to drive. She kicked me out yesterday. So Charlie's taking over the driving lessons.

But really it's not her, it's me. I think she's wounded that I'm stompin' on the floor of the passenger seat side trying to find the brake. She did drive up Thrill Hill (Creswell Drive) yesterday. Did great! However that didn't keep my heart from flickering like a strand of cheap Christmas lights from the dollar store.

work!

Last night was my first night at work, and I had to close. Woohoo.

By the end of the night I was, like, limping. Gonna have to get used to walking around for 8 hours. BUT it's okay because I like getting moneys. :D

Look, I'm sorry about not updating much lately, but it's the holidays, you know? I am so exhausted, haha. I finished all my finals and so now I'm just awaiting the final grades, which hopefully don't suck.

Anyway, just a little update, to anyone who cares. :)

shine on.

So today might have been the best day ever.

A few days ago I put in an application at Blockbuster. Then about 24 hours later, the manager called and asked me to come in for an interview today at 3 pm. So at about 1:45, when I was trying to dry my hair and watching Friends, someone knocked on the door. It was my friend Lydia and a mutual friend Sam. We talked for a little bit, and Lydia let me in on a piece of interesting information.

Apparently, Mike's [ex boyfriend] roommate kicked him out because of Mike was being himself. As in, the world's biggest asshole. They got into an argument of some sort, and the roommate said something to piss Mike off. So the roommate goes up to Mike and attempts to smooth things over and was like, "Hey man, are we cool?" Because, you know, they were roommates and that's an uncomfortable situation. But Mike, who is unable to just let shit go, brought up what the roommate said in what I can imagine as a nasty, bratty tone of voice, and the roommate handed Mike his rent check and told him to get the hell out. So now he's back living with his mom.

Also, I think he lost his job at Exxon. You know, sometimes when I think about that boy it just makes me sad. I'm not really sure why he's so angry. Maybe he's bipolar and manic all the time. I don't know. I just know that when we were together I saw past all of his faults and I know he can be a wonderful person, but he can be so mean and uncaring.

Anyway, so that news kind of amused me. They left and I went off to my interview. And I use the term interview loosely because I talk to the manager for like 10 minutes. Our conversation went something like this:

Manager: Now, you don't seem to have much work experience.
Me: No, but I did a lot of volunteer work for a horseback riding place for kids with special needs.
Manager: Hmm. Did you ever do fund raisers or anything involving sales for them? Because we're a pretty small branch and have to do a lot of sales stuff to stay in business.
Me: Well, not really, but I'm very experienced in selling Girl Scout cookies.
Manager: [laughs] That's sales. Okay well, I like what I've heard, so why don't you come in on Saturday at about 2 and fill out some paperwork and we'll do a little training.
Me: . . .Okay!
Manager: Oh yeah, and khakis.
Me: What? [I thought he said "Kathy" and was not sure if he'd called me that by accident because this happens often]
Manager: You'll need a pair of khakis.
Me: OH! That's fine!

And that is the story of how I got a job at Blockbuster in the span of about 10 minutes. I'm also fairly cute and bouncy so that might've had something to do with it. I went home and climbed into bed because it is so very, very cold outside, and I called Sara back (she'd called during the interview) and will maybe possibly be doing something with her tomorrow night. Then Meru called to see how the interview went and we squealed quite a bit for a few minutes until she her break was over.

Man, I totally live for days like this. (Katee)

[Edit: Sara called while I was in the interview, but it didn't actually ring. Just in case people are concerned about these things. I know when to turn my phone on silent.]

Bifocals and Children's Books

Tuesday the eye doctor told me I needed bifocals (moment of silence for this next step in getting older). Katee also needed new glasses so I did not splurge on the no-line bifocals because I'm cheap even though my vanity really outweighs my cheapness but my brokeness outweighs my vanity (... rock, paper, scissors...).

That same day I went to Betty's Books and bought six children's books: Junie B. Jones, The Boxcar Children and Encyclopedia Brown.

I took Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus to work. I've never thought about putting a cover on any book I've ever read but as I got out of the van I thought "maybe I should've covered these in brown paper..."

On the other hand, you gotta love a book that's only 69 pages long and contains paragraphs like "The bus made a big roar. Then a big puff of black smelly smoke came out of the back end of it. It's called bus breath, I think."

My new glasses with their little lines in the lenses will be ready next week. They are, however, encased in a stylish black and pink plastic frame, almost as swell as my first pair of cat's eye frames with their little sparkly rhinestones. (Kathryn)

almost done.

So Mom decided it would be a good idea to have like 78 blogs or something and is trying to get the hang of managing them all, so that's why she's been neglecting this one a little. I, on the other hand, have been getting ready for finals which are next week. I am so very, very relieved about this semester being over. Next semester I'll be off to LSUS. Wee. That is, if I can ever get a hold of my advisor. I've e-mailed her and haven't gotten a response, so I'm going to try calling her, and then if that doesn't work I'll just go up there myself. I don't get why professors advise us. It's hard enough for them to keep up with all their classes. I find that they're all generally pretty absentminded. They should just have people whose only job is to advise. That'd be a pretty sweet gig.

Oh well. Now, if you'll excuse me, tomorrow is my last class of learning something new in math, so I need to be rested up for that. I've been taking Xanax for sleep because my doctor is a pain in the ass and wrote the wrong amount for Ambien, and if I don't go to sleep soon I'll be a zombie tomorrow. Only without the whole eating brains thing. Ew. (Katee)