My Nemesis

Sometimes, after spending weeks and weeks within this town without leaving, I grow restless. I lose touch with optimistic thoughts and my emotions. I merely continue through my day waiting for night to come so the day is finished. Right now, I feel very cut off from the rest of the world, my friends, and my family. I feel left out and abandoned. My only thoughts are about how nasty and tasteless this town is. Anderson is deplorable and I only want to leave it and never return.

First Epic Storm of the Season

Tonight was our first serious storm of the season and of course it had to happen while I was alone at work. My coworker left at 7 and around 8:10 or so my boss called to ask if I was alive. I knew there were storms coming but until she mentioned it I didn't know it involved tornadoes. I was confident the mall managers would warn us when there was danger and I told her so.

Not even 10 minutes later, the tornado siren went off. This is the first time it's gone off since I moved to Anderson 4 years ago. I ran down to security and was told we were all packing into the fire hall. I shut down my store and started corralling fellow mall employees and mall shoppers into the hall.

By the time we got everyone in the hall you could hear this deafening roar of wind. Then the clatter of hail began. The lightning was striking so fast outside the skylights in the food court that it looked like a strobe light. It was breath-taking. We spent a better part of 25 minutes in that hall waiting out the storm. Finally, we were released and free to leave.

But by the time I made it back to my store, I had two massive flood puddles to dry up and stick buckets under...

The best part of the whole experience was the adrenaline. I missed summer storms and how fierce and scary they can be! Not only that but it was nice having everyone listen to me. It was good for my naturally bossy nature to have dozens of shoppers and employees listening to me for information and orders. I call that my second guilty pleasure of the week...

Guilty Pleasure

As of right now I am watching Speed. Despite this being one of the worst movies ever (can we say improbable?) it always gets me. Keanu Reeves is hot and Sandra is whiny. It's epic. Who can escape a speeding bus, bomb, train all in one day? The kung-fu master, that's who!

Best line ever..... "Pop quiz, asshole. You have a hair trigger aimed at your heart. What do you do? Turn around!"

Blocked Mental Breakdown

Right now, I have close to 1,900$ in my account. As of tomorrow, my school will cash my check to them and 2 months of saving will become 270$. By this weekend it will be around 200$. Then I pay rent. It will be 15$ until the 1st of April when I get paid. I could cry but I won't. It feels like someone has torn my heart out of my chest. I hate working so hard for something only to no longer have it. It sucks even more because I still have 900$ to pay on my bill. So no matter how much I save I won't have a good amount of money to rely on until....

If I continued with this I would have a breakdown. So I'm avoiding thinking about it and just writing the checks like usual, pretending that I have thousands in the bank. I hate my life.

New Pets

I got 3 pet rats a few weeks back. They live in their cage under the desk and are hilarious to watch. The black and white one is May: She's the kindest one and loves being pet. Today, she actually ran out of her cage and came right up to me :) One white one is rather laid-back and semi-tame. She's slowly coming out of her shell. Today, she followed May out of the cage to see me. I call her June. July is the last one and she wants nothing to do with me unless it concerns food.

May coming to see me while the other two eat broccoli. I take little pieces off and hide them around their cage for a little entertainment, mental stimulation, and snack.

May and June leaving the cage to come see me.

While a lot of people are disgusted by rats, they're sweet and wonderful pets. As soon as I walk in they run to the door and beg me to let them out. They love cuddling on my lap, following me around, or running around my room whenever I give them time to play.

Crazy, Crazy Week

This last week or so has been insanely busy. I don't even remember what's happened but I know it's been packed full of events, work, and lesson plans. I keep wanting to write blogs about things that dwell on my mind for days, weeks, months, etc. However, as the usual routine, I get home and have no time or energy for blogging every night.

Instead, here's an assortment of random topics I want to address one day in the future. By the time the summer arrives I can just look back on this post and expound upon them.

- Being poor, living in a poverty-stricken city and having to spend time around people who live well and lavishly compared to it. It's such a struggle for me to accept that others can have more money and still have issues!
- The presence of technology in every moment these days. Want to spend time with your family? Want to have a birthday party? Want to spend a couple hours out at dinner with a friend or family member? Time to spend talking and hanging out? That doesn't happen without an iPod/Phone, text, call, etc. Back in my day we were taught not to answer calls or do anything but be involved with that person. Talk about archaic manners.
- I think co-sleeping is ridiculous and that some parents are totally stupid. They're either too strict or too lenient and rarely is there a good medium. They should listen to the advice of people who have more experience or have an idea of how it affects their kids later.
- Budgeting as a college kid is difficult but a learning process. I've learned a lot about money and how to save and use it wisely.
- The meals I want to try cooking this summer when I have time and money.

As an aside, March is nearing its midpoint and that means DST begins (Yay, more sunlight!!!!), spring arrives, and I can start watching Avatar and enjoying slightly warmer weather :)

I Love Inspirational Speeches

You’re giving your lives up for the Serpent but, more importantly, you’re giving them up for the chance at life and that’s the goal we have to focus on. We cannot allow the nation to suffer under the hand of a tyrant who refuses to hear our pleas. For too long we have suffered. For too long we have remained silent. For too long we have watched our mothers and fathers, husbands and wives, suffer while our children starve and our neighbors disappear. There’s a point where we have to do what’s best for our friends and family and, sometimes, doing what’s best is certainly not what’s easiest.

This is our chance to change the future. This is the one time where our country is in our power. We can either decide to turn our back on them or answer the call for war and I, for one, will answer readily. As citizens, we must make Bladis see that this is not his land. This is not his nation. This is not his kingdom. This is our farm, our mountain, our home. This is our country and we will not let him take it.