so we got power back on Thursday and the internet followed on Friday. We're still cleaning up everything and the landscape has change drastically, but everything is slowly coming together. There's not much else to be said really, beyond the fact that it's odd how a disaster can really bring out the best (and sometimes worst) in a community.

I'll post photos tomorrow. I started one but I am just too tired to finish resizing them and whatnot so I'll do it tomorrow.

thanks again for the comments and thoughts ♥

I feel rather accomplished. I made the appointment with the new doctor for the 3rd in the morning. I need to go to my Pediatrician office and sign some release form so they can send the last two years for free and, if need be, get money from mom so they can send my whole file if that's what my new doctor needs. For this appointment though, the last 2 years should be good.

I'm really pissed off at work right now. I swear, they're great but then they pull shit like this that makes me bash my face into the wall. I requested not to work on the 23rd because my friend, Emma, and her boy are going off to the Renaissance Festival. I do this every year (or have for the last few) and I love doing it. I check my work mail last night and, huzzah! My request has been approved. For good measure, I check the online schedule and promptly flip my shit.

Yeah, no, saying my request was approved does not mean you can schedule me for a 4.5 hour shift that day.

I'm going in around 2 since my manager will be in then to try and fix this. Like hell I'm changing my plans when they told me everything was a-ok. It's just really frustrating. Hopefully I can fix it and then go back to getting my costume together.

I haven't been too excited about a lot of things lately, but planning my outfit? I am like so happy. I have to fix some of the pieces I already have (take in the waist of the skirt, maybe bring the hem up a bit, get my shirt finished with mom's help) and I'm feeling crafty enough to try putting together a simple headpiece so my head doesn't feel so bare. Last year I bought a wreath of flowers but I don't feel like spending so much money on stuff this year, thus I'm trying to put everything together before I go. I'm allowing myself one big-ish item (last year it was my bodice) while there, otherwise my purse is gonna stay closed up.

My icon has absolutely nothing to do with this long post- I felt like a Lion King icon was needed :3 Off to eat, dress, and then fix things.

So my dad's been cleaning out the crawl space up in my parent's room. Last night he came down with a few things and I managed to save something for myself.

( Pic spam, oh yeah! )

I'm ridiculously excited. Unfortunately, it weighs a shit-ton so I need to store it somewhere and then get it for when I have my own place in the sometime-near-distant future. :D

I'm home again. It's nice to be back, save for the guilt trips about my weight from my mother. Whatever.

Went to Valleyfair yesterday and had a ton of fun going on the rides. Like Renegade, the new coaster that was built in the time I haven't been to the park. It was intense. I went on the Xtreme Swing like eight times-- you sat on a seat with people on either side (except on the ends) and it swings up and up until you get really freaking high. Wildthing had a far more intense drop than I remembered and SteelVenom was ridden about five times in a row. I got lucky and no one was really in line so I kept going until more people decided to ride it.

Teresa was here last night. I've missed that girl. She spent the night since she had a long drive and wouldn't have been able to do so. She left early since I had to be up early for mass. I was sad since I dunno when I'll be seeing my magnet again. :[ Hopefully she drives up again sometime soonish.

My room is a mess, I cannot move around it without nearly tripped over stuff. I've slowly been unpacking this evening.

I got a new camera for my birthday from my family. It rocks hardcore. Better than my old digital which was a few years old and just outdated.

Uh that's it. Going to see Prince Caspian tomorrow with mom. TTYL folks.

CRACK-DOWN TIME FOLKS!

Time to turn up my music (currently I have Incubus) and try to finish this project tonight. If I attempt to talk to anyone, please force me off to work again. I'm prone to chatting even when I have an away message up.

Thanks!

OH MY GOD.

DRIVING. BY MYSELF FOR THE FIRST TIME.

TOMORROW NIGHT.

EEEEEEEEEE!

Okay, done with my spazzing now.

Why, oh why, must I be sick again? For serious, I feel like I've been hit by the eighteen-wheeler of all colds. It hurts to breathe because when I do (at least when I try to take a deep breath) I have to cough and it hurts right in the middle of my chest. I can't breathe through my nose and I keep hacking up mucus. I'm pretty sure I also have a sinus infection along with this cold that keeps coming back.

I got to watch Blood Diamond yesterday and loved it. Good lord, Leonardo DiCaprio has grown up from his days as Jack in Titanic. I melted every single time he spoke with the South African accent his character had. Mmmmm. I also dyed my hair yesterday. When I stop feeling like shit, I'll get pictures up. It's kinda nice having a different color-- it's called 'apricot' so now I'm no longer dark blond but rather this light reddish coloring. Me gusta mucho.

I'm home. I could cry, I'm so happy to be here. I spent yesterday traveling and then, after dropping by the house to see my cats, promptly raced off to spend the evening with my best friend and her boyfriend. While I often feel like a third wheel, I've given up on trying to spend any real quality time with her for the time. Said boyfriend is moving out to Boston at the beginning of January, so I figure she deserves as much time with him as she can get. We all went running around the U campus while they sold books, got bagels, etc. Then we hopped a bus and went to our high school to see the music concert, which was fabulous. I was blown away by most of the acts and it was nice to just sit in a place I was familiar with and just listen.

Then my dad picked me up and we got late night chinese food because I hadn't eaten dinner. Then I fell into bed and didn't get up until 11 this morning. I've spent most of my morning lying around, playing with my cats, watching Dreamgirls, doing laundry, and trying to pick things up around the house. My mom's been stressed out of her mind, so it's the least I can do when she has so much on her plate.

Think I'm going to spend most of today cleaning and lying around some more. I might write a bit if I feel the urge to do so.

God, it feels good to be home. Even if I have to wear two layers of socks so my feet don't freeze, I'm home.

This weekend was made of so much win. I got to go home and, while it's slightly amusing that I went this weekend and I'm going back home in two days, it was awesome. I got to sleep in my own bed at least one night (the other I shared it with Emma who is a bed hog) and I got to cuddle with my babies and see a play at school. I realized that, when I came to school, that I had missed it more than I thought. It smelled like Perpich and the Black Box (which had once scared me shitless) was a comforting thing. Seeing that people who were seniors this year remembered me made me feel happy.

I've been debating about going to the U in the cities for a while now. I like Duluth but, as nice as Duluth is, it's not Minneapolis. It's smaller and, yes small is good, but I feel like I need more. They still only have an English program instead of a Creative Writing one, but I could continue to make due with it. I miss the vibe of the city, miss the art connection we had there, and miss my friends. I'm making friends here but I don't seem to be making the same, meaningful connections with as many people. I don't feel involved and, while I know I should try to get involved in stuff, it scares me to try something new on my own.

Why yes, Ladies and Gentlemen, I have issues trying to do something new on my own. It's why it took me about an hour to call Health Services to see about my back, it's why I can't do a whole lot of things on my own, and why I get scared going to banks I don't know. I like familiarity and not having it makes me so uncomfortable.

Emma and I had long discussions about our good and bad parts of life right now, and then brought up the whole me coming back to go to school at the U. I could share space with her in this apartment she's gonna have next year with people. And then she brought up the fact that she's going to move out to Boston after college to live with Joel, her boyfriend, and said if I wanted to, his condo he's going to probably have has an extra room.

In other words, she wants me to come out to Boston.

There are a lot of different roads through life and this might be one. It's too far ahead in the future to think seriously about yet. I keep having to tell myself "One step at a time, Kristen, one step at a time."

I want to go on a semi-hiatus in my non-Aude games for a while. I'm seriously afraid that my friend, who mods one of the games I'm in, with get bitchy about it because I've been less than active lately. But their voices for the characters I have are gone. I'm trying to find them and seriously don't have the hart to tell her that. She got really upset last time before when I hadn't posted in a while and I'm just afraid she'll take it personally.

Two days until I'm home again. Thank Goodness.

It's been a whole year since I wrote in this. Well, a year and then some months. Regardless, I'd forgotten about this until I decided to check on something here.

I have two idiots sitting just behind me in the Library and I'm pretty sure they're discussing the fact that I'm typing with two fingers. I never learned how to properly type so I use my pointer-fingers. It's gotten to the point where it's a hell of a lot easier to do this than try learning how to properly type. I probably will eventually, but this works out just fine for now.

Libba Bray's new book is coming out on December 26th. This made me ridiculously happy. I know what I'm going to be doing over my holidays. I'm going to preorder it from Barnes and Noble later and get it sent to my house so I can curl up with a mug of tea in my quilt with my cats and just read. I also plan on finally being done with NaNo and potentially doing some editing of stuff. I want to finish and, if I keep going, I will. I have to simply keep telling myself that.

God I'm tired of Composition. It's all review. I really hate my classification paper too.

Tigger was taken away today. I don't know when they'll put him down but to me, in this moment, he's dead and gone. It hurts like hell, knowing my cat that I've had for six years, had to be taken away by Animal Control instead of going to a new family. He was dangerous and could have landed someone else into the hospital. I have to keep telling myself that. But it hurts so much!

I remember when he was a little kitten. We found him on our garage roof. He sort of adopted our backyard and so we decided to adopt him into our family. He was so small with these huge ears. We later found that big ears meant a bigger cat. He was so cute but not long after we realized he had an issue with being a little violent. We took it until now, since he hadn't done any real damage.

Now it feels empty here. I miss him already. I don't want him to think I didn't love him or that we wanted to give him up. Because me, my sister, and my mom were all crying after the Animal Control car drove away from our house.

We are going to get new kitties. I'm not sure when though.

Tigger
April 2000-July 17th, 2006

So I decided not to do a massive update, since that would take forever and I don't have the patience at the moment. Thus I'll outline how life's been.

-Camp = LOVE! It was the best session I've done. I'm so proud of myself, for one thing, and all the girls I worked with.
-Travis. Yeah, that's what I'm starting to call him, since that's what his family calls him and all that jazz. We went on a date just last night and it was wonderful.
-Tigger has been horrid. He bit mom after freaking out when he saw Julian. It wasn't a regular bite. No, this one went almost an inch into her skin. She tried to do the Red Ribbon Ride but then her hand got so swollen and painful she had to go to the ER again (she went the night she got bit). Then she came home and the next day went to the ER. She's been in the hospital since Friday and the effing doctor is being horrid and hasen't seen her yet. I'm complaining to that Hospital when she gets out.
-Bad news is, Tigger might not be able to stay with us anymore because of this.
-Writing...um, not so much.
-I ended up burning myself on a pan and almost cutting my thumb off at work. Joy oh joy...

That's about it.

He called last night! I was feeling like shit all day yesterday and then finally the phone rings and it was him. I felt really nervous because I did send the letter and I didn't know if he wanted to talk to me. But we did talk for a long time, almost two hours. He's going to call today too. I love him. Sorry, I'm just so giddy about this I can't contain myself!

*sigh*

My music is happier today at least. I put The Lion King and The Lion King II soundtracks on my iTunes. I love the song 'Can You Feel The Love Tonight?'. I've decided that when I do get married, I'm going to dance to this song. Or Emmylou Harris' 'A Love That Will Never Grow Old'.

I'm still sick though. I have to go back to work tomorrow. I hate and love the fact I have a job. I mean, the cafe is okay, but I hate how I always feel like I'm doing something wrong sometimes. I'll get used to it, yah?

Now I'm going to go watch another crazy movie I rented from Hollywood Video. I can't remember the title, but Patrick Stewart's in it.

Happy fourth of July loves!

I feel sort of proud, though that feeling is slowly vanishing. I got my ACT scores back. I got a 20, which is better than what I got on the PLAN test two years ago. Plus Jenny told me she got a 19 and still got into all her schools with what she did. I feel better about that one.

I'm also really close to finally finishing a book, or at least, my first draft. I've finally reached a point I've been planning in my mind for months now, ever since I started trying to figure out how the hell things were going to end in One Thousand Lights. I feel so great about that. I'm going to start my slow editing process and maybe I can get Teresa to help me, if she has time. I can trust her with my work.

The only damper on this? The bitter disappointment I feel, knowing that he didn't call me last night. I asked him to do it in the last letter I sent, since I'm home now. There could be a logical explination for it, like he might be out of town and didn't get it. Or something I'm not thinking of. I just can't make the painful feeling in my heart go away. I feel like I'm drifting from him and I hate it. I love him, I do, but how can I try to reach out when he won't reach back for me?

Life is fucked up with that.

My heart is hurting right now. I think I'll finish with that.

I'm back and alive from Camp. I survived (mostly) and things are (mostly) okay. Except for the fact I was on crutches for most of the session and I have a major cold now from catching it AT CAMP.

So we were playing British Bulldogs, which is like Ships Across the Ocean, only the people don't tag others to get them on their side. You have to pick them all the way up off the ground and yell "One, Two, Three, BRITISH BULLDOGS!" for them to be on the other side. I had gotten on the other team and was going to help Cotton and Scout get Otter when I slipped. My foot curled under me and I fell. So I got to spend the night at Nursies' in excrutiating pain and then got to make a trip to Urgent Care to get an X-Ray. My mom did drive the hour from the cities to take me there, since she wanted her questions answered too. I got a crazy gel splint and my foot smelled like hospital for days after. And then I didn't get to play in the mud during Capture the Flag. I did take cool pictures that turned up in the slideshow though.

The cold isn't so fun either. I started getting it on Monday and it's just gotten worse by the day. I'm glad I'm home, since I woke up with a temp of 100.5 this morning. So I've been in bed most of the day and will not unpack until tomorrow probably. Urgh. I hate this cough I have. It hurts my chest and throat and I want it to stop! Thank God for NyQuil...

Trav didn't write. So I wrote a hard-core, do you wanna be with me letter. He should call tomorrow. Maybe my voice will be back more by then. I got to this point of exhaustion the day after I sprained my foot where I cried about everything. The thing between me and Trav was one. I don't want to be crying about that.

I think I'll go take the miracle of NyQuil after a shower so I can actually get some sleep tonight. I bid anyone who actually reads this an adieu.

So, I'm sick. And I've decided not to make this my one-shots journal, since I already have one on GJ, thanx.

Naw, this'll be, like, my...SECRETLJOFDOOM!

That sounds like a cool name, neh?

Anyways, I'm working really hard to get all camp stuff put together so I can be ready for tomorrow. Can we say yay for staff training? Eh, we get to go camping, since, hey, guess what? Dave had to put Day Camp this week so we could have first session a little later and hopefully get more girls.

We didn't.

I think there are going to be 48 girls for first session. It makes me feel sad. Then again, there were so many of us LYCs my last year, I guess the numbers have dwindled down because of that.

I've totally eaten a whole stack of saltines today along with drinking almost two liters of ginger ale.

And I miss my boyfriend. Who I won't get to talk to until July because he got a job that makes him work from 3:30 pm until TWO IN THE MORNING! No, our paths won't cross for a while. I hate the fact we live so far from one another. URGHNESS!

I feel really unproductive. My muse has gone on vacation, which means One Thousand Lights isn't being updated. I'll bring a notebook to write in at camp, in case insperation suddenly runs into me. That'd be nice.

Well, I'm off folks. Well, actually, no one'll read this, so I guess I'm saying my farewell to thin air. *waves*