Pounding headache. Aaaagh!

Indecision

I either need to find a new apt here in Dodge (which would most likely require at LEAST a six month lease, or I need to quit my job and move back to my motherland. I finally got kind of excited about staying here since I was planning on taking classes next semester at the community college here, etc. But now my living situation is in need of immediate attention.

So here is my game plan. I will speak to my boss about getting out of work for about four hours a week to take a class that I really want to take. If she grants me my request, I will stay here and figure something out for living. If she denies me, I will give my two weeks notice and go on my merry way.

I have tried praying a lot about this. I can't seem to get an answer that way. I either am not praying hard enough or it may just be a decision I need to make on my own. I will continue praying about it, but I will study it out in my mind a tad more first. So here is a pro and con list of moving to Emporia versus staying in Dodge.

Pros of moving to Emporia

1. A rent-free living situation - only paying utilities.
2. Being around my sister and closer to other members of my family.
3. Getting away from some members of my family I don't get along with as well.
4. Being around a lot more people I know and love.
5. Trees.
6. Having my own furniture - not using someone else's or buying anything new.
7. Being around the beautiful cat Thumper in the twilight of his life.
8. Option to go back to ESU sooner than anticipated - I always planned on going back eventually.
9. Tap water that doesn't taste like rocks and chlorine.
10. The comfort of being in my home town.

Cons of moving back to Emporia

1. Necessity of quitting my job and trying to find a new one.
2. Going back on my promise to the Dodge community college professors that I would attend their classes and join their choirs.
3. Leaving my awesome Sunday school class which although unruly, I love to death.
4. A feeling of failure of having not completed something I began.
5. The social stigma resulting from having skipped town and apparently accomplishing nothing.
6. Admitting to myself and others openly that coming out here was a mistake.
7. Living in a run-down house that will probably require lots of work to maintain let alone fix.
8. Possibly have to accept an even lower paying job than I already have that I might hate.
9. Giving up the enjoyment of experiencing my raise in pay I will get in January.
10. Leaving all the people here that are nice enough to be acceptable.

This list isn't necessarily comprehensive. I also noticed that I had a harder time thinking of cons for moving back to Emporia, but the cons carried a lot more weight than the pros. So I am again at an impasse.

moving up in the world?

I'm getting a fifty cent raise! Considering I don't make crap anyway, this is good news. I took some proficiency test that I can use in place of a real education. I was pretty excited because I called down this morning and apparently I passed with 97%. Woot!

The Brave Little Toaster is amazing!

Oh gosh, there is cherry cheesecake on today's lunch menu. Maybe If I only eat one meal today . . .

I really hate my before/after school babysitting gig. It blows. If I didn't need the money so badly, I would totally quit. I must make sure I charge the full amount of minutes I worked though. I will counting those to the dot.

I stayed up Way Too Late last night and am consequently really tired. Why do I do this to myself?

I began tonight what will now become a long troublesome journey to get myself in shape. I jogged out in the freezing weather until I was drooling in exhaustion and did some various aerobic exercises in the living room. I'm also working my way out of debt slowly but surely and hopefully I will be totally free in a relatively short period of time. I read a totally awesome address that the late Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin gave about debt some four years ago. Back when if I would have heeded his counsel, I would be a lot happier and accomplished at this point in my life. My favorite quote from his talk is definitely this:

Remember this: debt is a form of bondage. It is a financial termite. When we make purchases on credit, they give us only an illusion of prosperity. We think we own things, but the reality is, our things own us.

I have been fooling myself into thinking that my only major fault is with over indulging in my eating and laziness habits. I stopped using my credit cards quite some time ago, but I have been stupidly dodging the responsibility of paying back the damages I amassed. The longer I waited and procrastinated the day of my repentance, the harder and more damaging the effects were with interest and whatnot.

I can't help but see the connection between my financial irresponsibility and not taking care of my body. Now that I am finally on the road to freedom money-wise, I am much more motivated in terms of getting control of my physical debilitation. Just like I kept on consuming when I wasn't paying off the damage with money, I have been consuming food without working off the damages with exercise. Unfortunately, this habit of overeating has basically been lifelong and will be much harder to overcome since I am addicted to eating. And harder yet still since I have to eat to live and must learn moderation.

This epiphany I have had will in turn affect my spiritual life, and already has, since all things are spiritual. Working off the debt of my finances, the debt of my gut, and the debt of my pride will be the best journey of my life as yet. It's too bad I have to learn a lot of things the hard way, but in time I am determined that these weaknesses of mine will become my strengths; instead of being a burden to the Lord I can be an asset to building His kingdom.

I decided to take up crocheting. My first creation: a purple fetus. My next goal is a scarf.

We got a new back door on our apartment! Downsides: we must make new copies of a key to a new lock, and the guy had the door open for like an hour letting the freezing air in while I was attempting to very calmly play some video games in a chilly living room. Plus side: we now have a door that you don't have to kick to get open or wrestle with the handle for thirty seconds.

I'm pretty excited about Thanksgiving. Despite the fact that I am totally broke now after some unexpected expenses, I am planning on getting the fixin's for some totally awesome traditional Smith food. Including: company potatoes, seven layer salad, pumpkin bars, the works. I'm really hoping that I get my paycheck before Thanksgiving so I can get some black friday Christmas shopping done. If not, oh well. I will figure out some other gift options. I never have really been a big gift giver, mostly because I never have money. But I think this year will be a fairly generous one, since I'm working full time for the first time in my life not counting summer jobs.

I can't write too long of posts anymore because instead of working I am dilly dallying around on the interweb thing.

"Leave me alone! I'm in the depths of despair!"

Anne of Green Gables knew a few things.

I need to refill my spirituality meter. I have been trying to declare the word without seeking it first.

I lost 20 pounds. Woot.

Big Fish in a Small Pond

I joined the local community choir. They sound pretty awful, but singing with a choir again is a form of respite in my whirlwind of a life. And actually they sound better than the local community college choir (they are awful and a half). It's kind of like a guilt ridden pride fest out here. Since there are slim pickins on awesome people out here (more specifically, people with musical talent) most people seem to rant and rave about how great I am. Not only with music and junk, but more important things too. I think this is all fine and dandy, but it eats away at my conscience, because I know I never should have moved here in the first place. It wasn't necessarily a bad decision, but it certainly wasn't the best.

At least I can sometimes sort of enjoy myself out here, and I have met a small handful of cool people. Most of which are over the age of 50. My Sunday School class is awful. I teach the 12-13 year olds, and so far, I only have six of the rowdiest boys to teach the gospel. No girls. Maybe if there were some girls, the boys would be a little more eager to impress them by being respectful, rather than trying to impress eachother by being total brats. I feel totally inadequate, because I know hardly anything about teaching. I went to a teacher's development course for like an hour and a half after church today (yikes). I'm thinking I am going to need a lot more of those.

So as I put myself through the refiner's fire, maybe I can pick up some valuable skills and connections on the way. Otherwise, my sojourn out in the wilderness is an entire waste of time.

Dodge isn't terrible. Let me rephrase that. Dodge is a disgusting, sorry excuse for a town, but I like my job here. I have been facing a dilemma that I must solve quickly. It is akin to the dilemma I have faced ever since I graduated high school. I must decide what I want to do with my life, and when. I know I need to go back to school. Emporia would be a good choice. It would be possible to stay here in Dodge and go to the community college here, but I sort of hate Dodge City. But I do have a job here that endures through May. I REALLY don't want to quit my job. But I also really want to be continuing my education. I think there should be a test out for college. Someone can study up in a library or something, read a bunch of stuff about a subject, then take a test to get a bachelor's degree. It's a perfect solution, right? Well, at least certain subjects should be able to be tested out of. Like everything except things that have practical aspects, such as musical performance etc. Like a history class? Who the heck wants to sit through a semester of boring lectures straight from a book when you can read it on your own at home? Seriously. College costs a ridiculous amount. Which discourages losers like me from going back to school, by giving me something to gripe about.

I just babysat the most awesome kid in the universe. He is a foster kid, and a lady I know just got him, but needed a babysitter who has had a KBI background check. That means I get the job!

He is thirteen years old, but thinks and acts like a six year old. He is so totally obedient for the most gentle persuading, and you want to give him whatever he wants, because when he gets something he wants, he is SO happy. I just think to myself how great it would be if I got my job tranferred to the other school to be his para instead of the kids I work with now. Man, if I was that kid's foster mom, I would adopt him in a heart beat.

Oh, AND I get to be his sunday school teacher. Score!

So I was looking at my calendar while at work today, and I jumped ahead to check out what day of the week my birthday would be next year (you know you have done it too). I saw that it was on a Friday, and automatically thought - freaking awesome! My 21st birthday will be on a Friday, which means that I can . . . but then I realized I wasn't even sure where I would be living on my 21st birthday. Talk about being slapped in the face by that scratchy brown glove soaked in ice water, which is reality. Or something to that effect.

On an unrelated note, I really despise ambiguity and confusion in writing, such as the bastard metaphor I just wrote.

So, I really want to get things figured out of what I will be doing at least for the next year, because I absolutely hate not having a general idea of where my life is going. I feel like I have put my life on hold for the time being, so the least I could do is use this time to plan spending the rest of my life doing something more productive. Gotta go to the store

"What are men to rocks and mountains?"

I went to Colorado with my brother and his roommate this weekend instead of going to some last-minute-planned, extended family get together on Labor Day, of all days.

It was pretty cool. I had never been to Colorado, nor seen a mountain except from far off through a car window. It was pretty satisfying to go up to some high altitude location and stare at giant rocks.

I kind of wanted to climb a mountain with my brother, but he was going up some untrailed place that he had to hop a barbed wire fence to get to, and I probably wouldn't have been able to do it very quickly if at all. So I got to stay at the base of the mountain by the car and pick up rocks. One hour turned into three, and I hadn't eaten all day, so I decided I would drive the ten miles or so into town to get some lunch, assuming I would most likely be back by the time they got down from the mountain, or if I wasn't, they would be ok waiting fifteen minutes or so. I drove into town and eventually figured out how to get onto the streets parallel to the main drag which had all the restaurants open. I had originally planned to go to McDonalds, which was the closest restaurant to me by the time I got onto the side streets, but when I got into the parking lot, the line of the drive thru was almost reaching the entrance to the parking lot. Looked like I was going to find another restaurant. I saw Burger King a couple of blocks down, so I decided to condescend. The line was much shorter, but still about 5 cars long, and the line was moving very slow, but I decided to just stick it out. It probably took me about half an hour to get my whopper jr., the line was so slow. The wait in between when the cars would move were so long, I started just turning off the engine as soon as a moved forward a carlong. At least the whopper jr. tasted pretty good.

I drove back to the mountain site as quickly as I was comfortable, to find my companions walking on the side of the highway. Turns out my brother called the cops because he thought this guy abducted me.

Much to his chagrin, I had only had the hankerin' for a whopper jr. Oh well.

We drove home shortly after that, following another stop on the skyline drive, where we saw some dinosaur tracks in the mountain things.

Long story short, it was quite a long ways and quite an expensive trip to go look at and semi-climb some mountains. At least now I can say I have hung out on some mountains and that I've been to Colorado. I must say I wouldn't mind someday living in Colorado. When we were driving through, everyone gave us "the nod." They were just all so happy to see their fellow men. What a nice place.

Moral of the story: Dont drive ten miles and wait thirty minutes in line just to get a mediocre whopper jr. And don't get raped.

Work is going pretty good. Despite me getting kind of ticked off at a parent. I wish I could go into details, but that would probably breach some confidentiality laws and such - and I signed an oath of loyalty. Muah ha ha! A girl at work invited me to go out to the lake with her and her friends this weekend. I'm not sure whether I want to go because although I'm pretty eager to make some new friends, they are probably just going to go get smashed. Maybe I'll stick to hanging out with my relatives. Lame.

I go to the second counselor in our bishopric's house tonight to go get acquainted with him and his wife. And I'm guessing to probably get a new calling too. Who knows? Maybe I should brush my teeth and put on some extra deodorant before hand.

Time to go cut my mom's toenails.

New job, new horizons

Today I accepted a job as an instructional paraeducator for the local intermediate school here in Dodge. A slight pay decrease from the job I was working before, but a much better environment and looks good on my resume. I am also looking around for a part time evening job since I don't think 35 hours a week is going to really cut it. My favorite that I have applied for so far is Blockbuster, which is only two blocks away from where I am living. However, I don't know if they even have space to hire someone else, I merely walked in hoping they would hire me anyway. I suppose Wendy's would do, which is one block away from where I live, but they took down their Now Hiring sign a few days ago. We shall see.

The assistant prinicipal at Comanche (the school I will be working at) gave me the choice between two jobs he is trying to fill. One is working with children with learning disabilities, and the other is the high needs class which just so happens to have only autistic children in it this year. I chose the high needs class, which I think made him really happy, after explaining that I have a brother with autism and also the more one-on-one work with students was more appealing to me than working with a large group. The assistant principal (Mr. Pyle was his name . . . Anne of Green Gables anyone?) seemed to like me a whole lot. He thought it was great that I was in college for two years as an education major etc etc. Plus they were really desperate for help. Good times. I'm fairly excited for this job. I can't start until later next week because I have to attend an orientation class next week in a neighboring city (the one in Dodge is already over) plus I need to get a TB test. It's all good.

Next step . . . as soon as I can get a second job secured, I will look with more earnest for an apartment of my own.

The coolest part about my new job - I had to take an oath of loyalty! How freaking awesome is that? It was notarized and everything.

Woes of Working

Today was my first day actually cutting meat at Cargill. It really sucked.

I can now appreaciate how much effort people who work in factories put into their work. People who look down on the real working class now disgust me. Not just because I actually work there, but because the amount of dedication it takes to do work like this astounds me. It is just so physically painful, I have thoughts of quitting despite the amount of money I will be getting. It seriously hurts alot. Mostly in my feet from standing in one position for 9 hours wearing boots that I haven't broken in yet, also my back from said standing, and my hands for getting so incredibly cold and stiff inside a chainmail glove in a 40 degree room. Plus cutting meat for 9 hours is strenuous. It hurt so badly that as soon as I sat down at the steering wheel to go home, I put my face down and cried for a couple of minutes. Then I sucked it up, drove home, changed into some pajamas, laid on the couch, and cried for about 5 more minutes.

I really thought that it wouldn't be that bad. I thought maybe my hands might ache a little bit, but nothing like having your entire body ache so badly you want curl up in some hole in the ground. The worst part of it, was the higher ups forgot to send me on my last break. I had no idea what time it was since there are no clocks and you aren't allowed to wear watches, so I figured I was just having a really tough time making it to my next break. I actually thought that they were sending me to my last break when they were actually sending me home. I hung up my 15 pounds of protective gear, walked all the way down to the cafeteria, and sat down until I saw the clock and realized it was 11:55. I was like, what the crap? Why did they send me to break at the end of the shift? Then my confusion quickly turned to anger. The kind of anger you get when you have been treated unjustly. Tomorrow I shall be sure to tell my supervisor just how pissed of I was and how much I missed having that break. I honestly thought I was going to start crying from the pain while I was on the line. Plus they still havent given me my own locker, at least another girl who started with me is sharing with me. It's really difficult to fit all that protective gear crap into a locker already filled half way.

I think I'm going to start looking around at what other kinds of jobs are available here just in case. I really want to stick this one out for a while though. Because of the money of course. And because I don't want to succumb to quitting after hardly any time at all. But if after a couple of weeks it doesn't get any better, I think another job, even if much lower wages, is the way to go.

"Get the hell outta Dodge"

Hmm, I'm actually doing the opposite of that. I was planning on working at the mall as a retail clerk or something similar, but when I went in to apply, I totally felt like I was going to hate working there for only about 8 bucks an hour. I say if I'm going to move to some crappy town away from my friends and homeland, then I should make it worth my while. So I decided on Cargill.







Truth be told that Cargill is probably not a very desirable place to work, but I am most influenced in this decision by the money. I will be working at least 40 hours a week starting at $12.30 an hour until I get trained, then it will be upwards of $14.00 an hour. I also get an attractive bonus for having my father refer me to the company. Plus, since I am female, they are giving me one of the least strenuous jobs of cutting the fat and skin off of the "clod" meat. In other words, it is some of the lowest quality meat, most used by public schools to make their lasagna. I had my physical and drug test yesterday afternoon. I passed the physical so now I wait for the drug test and background check to go through. As soon as that happens, HR will be calling me to tell me when I start orientation. My guess is I will be starting on Monday since they didn't call me yet today and tomorrow is the end of the week.







It kind of bites that I am waiting for a phone call stuck in the apartment all day since the parents don't have any sort of answering machine and I no longer have a cell phone. I should have brought my land line phone from Emporia with me since it has an answering machine and I wouldn't feel so bad about missing the call.







I think I have probably eaten more meat in the last week than I have in the last couple of months. The parents have a crapload of meat since Daddy gets it at a reduced rate from Cargill. Plus, when I was living in Emporia, the closest thing to meat in my diet was beef flavored ramen noodles. Yeah, meat is expensive.







My mom lost my little brother's ID and he will be working at On-line Communications pretty soon, but he can't until he has an ID. Super. That means I get to spend all my spare time searching her apartment up and down for it. Hooray.







So I'm pretty sure that Cargill will pay for my schooling after a few months or something, so I'm going to see if I can take the nursing program. Yeah, you can be an RN in two years. Pretty rockin. I figure I can do that whilst going to school for a bachelor's degree, thus making lots of moolah while getting learned.







Oh yeah, two nanners died last week. First our dog Annie (or as we so affectionately called her, "Beest") which we had since I was in fifth grade or so. Also my poor kitty Peaches that we have had since I was about six years old. No bueno. It made me sad cause Peachy was an awesome kitty. Very snuggly. She would very happily become a fur accessory for you to carry around on your shoulders or arms. Akin to a parrot, actually. Accept she was draped rather than perched.

Yeah, she is quite the gorgeous kitty. I always think when I see this picture, "Just a couple of kittens." (A quote from The Office after Angela's cat Sprinkles dies).

So fare thee well, Giant Peach and One-eyed Annie. I'm sure you're happier now than you were ere while.










*Update*
A lady from Cargill just called me to say that I need to be at the plant at 7:45 tomorrow morning to start orientation. Awesome! I wasn't really expecting her to call at 9:45 pm, but it's all good. The sooner I start, the better. HOORAY!

Twenty years old, eh? Strange spy. I sang a song last semester that was about being twenty years old. It goes:

Loveliest of trees, the cherry now

Is hung with bloom along the bough.

And stands about the woodland ride

Wearing white for Eastertide.

Now of my three score years and ten,

Twenty will not come again.

And take from seventy springs a score,

It only leaves me fifty more!

And since to look at things in bloom,

Fifty springs is little room,

About the woodland I will go

To see the cherry hung with snow.

This is my best contemplative face. Or at least it's all you're getting.

I guess it is taken the day before I turn twenty, but I guess that works with the lyrics just as well.

That reminds me, I should probably keep up on my singing. Letting my voice go to rot over summer probably wouldn't be very wise.

Sucky thing is, I don't want to get old. Wrinkles bite.

An awesome thing that happened for my birthday is that I got the replacement ac adaptor for my laptop. Pretty awesome how it came on my birthday. I wasn't expecting it for a week or so.

rennovations, reading, and ridiculously horrble wheat rolls

The hideous orange and brown floral wallpaper that previously occupied the Smith's living room is totally history! The walls are now a cheery beige/cream color. I think the paint was called "barley" but when I think barley I think of a darker color than what it really is. The walls now match the cat Peaches' fur after she has been bathed. Speaking of which, I think it is high time to give the creature a sponge bath because she has been hanging out in the rafters of the shed.

I have renewed my love for reading books this summer. I kind of stopped reading real books for a while this past year or so. But I signed up to host the relief society book club this last time so I was forced to pick a book and read it. We did Anne of Green Gables mostly because it was kind of a short easy read. But I must say I am quite fond of books. I started reading Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass last night. It's weird, but entertaining.

So, we are feeding the missionaries tonight and Rachel invited the lady she works for and her husband over. So I, feeling quite ambitious, decided to make some whole wheat rolls from the freshly ground flour we had sitting around. I think that they would have turned out quite well if the blasted yeast weren't so old. Or maybe I used too hot of water whilst letting it fester. I shall have to try again another day. We are having noodles as part of our meal so my would-be delicious rolls won't be needed. They actually didn't taste half bad, they were just dense and kind of crumbly. Probably because I left them out for so long trying to get them to rise just a little bit. Oh well, I can crumble them up and make some pretty good cereal. Hmm, perhaps some granola is in order to be cooked. Time to go prepare for guests.

I leave tomorrow for NYC. I am procrastinating finishing packing. Every time I think about how much money I have spent on the trip, I keep on thinking of how much more money I would have if I weren't going. Plus I could go meet Rachel at the airport if I weren't going. Dumb.

I'm very excited. I am so nervous that I am going to forget something or that something will go wrong with my luggage at the airport. I really wish that airplanes weren't so strict. It makes me not want to fly. If I could drive to NYC and it were feasible I would sooner do that.

Today has just kind of been a bit blah. I spent some time getting my room ready for when rachel gets home this week. I'm thinking I might not sleep tonight because I will be too worried about new york. How silly am I?

Getting On With My Life

So, I am not going to Lawrence for the summer. At least not longer than a week or so. There are a great number of reasons why I have come to this conclusion. One reason is that I have some church obligations here that I shouldn't turn my back on. Another is my sister Rachel is coming home from her mission in Texas next week, and I am anxious to spend time with her. Also, the main reason I was leaving anyway was to get away from all the dramatic problems of Emporia.

About these dramatic problems. And man oh man, are they dramatic. I used to have this uncontrollable anger everytime I saw talked to or thought about my ex-roommate. She hurt me pretty badly when I found out that what I thought was our friendship was a big web of lies on her part. More details can be found in this post at my old blog site that I only wrote in to rant about people I couldn't stand. Keep in mind that I was still a very angry person when I wrote this. http://my.opera.com/nannergirl/blog/

Now that I am not in close proximity to her very often, my anger has dissapated. I no longer have violent thoughts everytime something reminds me of her. I would like to think that I have pretty much forgiven her for all the crap she put me through. Of course, that doesn't mean I want to be friends with her. I still think she's ridiculous. Even more so now that she is acting in a totally fake manner whenever she is around people. A wise girl once said that she chooses her friends because she sees a good quality in them that she admires and would like to aspire to. I'm pretty sure that's a good philosophy. My ex-roommate has no apparent qualities that I admire. When I see her, all I can see is someone with way more problems with me, and the only reason I would want to associate with her is out of politeness. Or perhaps out of pity, but that ship has long since sailed. I don't have much compassion left for her. She sucked it all out of me. I spent too many nights staying up with her letting her cry on my shoulder and then finding out it was all rubbish for me to feel compassion for her. I sometimes feel sort of bad for her because I think she may have Borderline Personality Disorder. But then again, I'm a firm believer that many people use mental illnesses as an excuse for ridiculous behavior. Not all people with these illnesses for sure, but many. I also feel bad for her in the sense that sometimes I think certain people are using her, and I don't think she's socially adept enough to figure it out.

Now, I am sure that this roommate business has long since been an old annoying one, but I had to write about it again just for closure. I'm getting it out of my system so I can move on with my life better. Plus, I had opened my old blog and realized that the only post on there was one from when I was totally rage filled. I had to add another that rectified that matter.

Peace out.

I am at an indecision of what to do for the summer. For the past few weeks I have been planning on going to Lawrence and staying with my sister and brother in law while working some place temporarily to earn some moolah. Now that it is coming closer to the time that I am supposed to be leaving, it makes much more sense for me to just stay in Emporia with my parents and prepare for the rest of my schooling etc. It makes me sick to my stomach thinking about how important the decisions I make are and how much they will affect the rest of my life. Why must I have so much responsibility on my shoulders? They don't affect only me, but everyone who I come in contact with. Sometimes I just wish I didn't have to worry about any of this.

School needs to die.

I am so nervous about going to new york. Geesh. It's scary. Also, if I wouldn't be going to new york right now, I wold have so much more money. It's sad. I suppose it will be a good experience and all that crap. And seeing a show on broadway will be awesome.

Just beeing a music major is expensive. Around $100 a semester for an accompanist, books are way expensive, there are all kinds of fees, blah blah blah. Plus, I'm not really sure I want to be a music major anymore. I love it and everything, but it takes so long plus it takes a lot of time out of your everyday life. There are all kinds of concerts you have to go to, etc. Sometimes I just want to switch my major to something that requires you to go to class, spend a little while on homework, then you are done. Not music. Music is like a skill you have to keep practicing and devote so much time to. Crimeny.

Man, I need to go shower before I go to class. Hygiene is so overrated.

Home Again

I moved back to the suadre's house last night. Not an ideal situation. But it is close to free. And it is with people who aren't psychotic.

I'm pretty much super excited for New York. It will be my first time travelling by commercial airplane. Plus, I'm very much looking forward to seeing The Lion King on Broadway. Plus, choir has been super duper fun lately. Yes, super duper.

I'm afraid I have a slight obsession with The Office. Did I say slight? I meant extreme. I have watched almost every single episode ever created. Not all, but most. Also I am obsessed with Queen and Enya. I downloaded every single song they ever recorded.

My little brother just said "I'm enchanting my new shoulders." That is my cue to get off the computer and slap him on the face.