Sunday, March 27, 2011

Summer Job

Location: Brad's Couch
Listening to: Serendipity (the best movie in the world)
Currently Reading: The Sonnet Lover by Carol Goodman


Today is a good day. Brad is at work and I'm lounging around his apartment, using his TV and his internet because my roommate is petrified that someone is going to break into our room over breaks and locks the plug for the TV in her desk when she's going to be gone for an extended period of time. So, there really isn't anything to do in our room. Luckily, I have a wonderful boyfriend who lets me hang out in his place, even when he's not here.

To repay him for letting me lurk around his apartment, I cleaned just about everything I could find. And folded his laundry. And made his bed. :)

Anyway, I recently was home for spring break and spent a good deal of time looking for a job for the summer. I'm definitely going to need money this summer if I want to be able to visit Brad since I'm going home instead of staying in the town our college is in. I knew of a few places that were hiring, so I applied to them, and then started racking my brain for places that might have online applications. I had just been to Applebees with my friends a few days before (actually, when Brad came to visit), so I thought I might as well try it. I filled out the online application on a whim and sent it off, not even knowing if they were hiring. Then I went on to fill out about a billion more applications.

The next day, I was sitting around being lazy and talking to my mom about things when my phone started ringing. I didn't recognize the number, but I answered it anyway. It was someone from Applebees wondering if I'd be able to schedule an interview. I told them I was only going to be home for one more day, but, miraculously, they were able to fit me in half an hour before I was planning on leaving.

So yesterday, I packed up my car to head back to school and went into Applebees for my interview. I was there for literally ten minutes, and probably only half of that was spent in my interview. The manager came up to me, introduced himself, and went, "Alright, give me the two minute spiel on what makes Abbie 'Abbie'." So I rattled off some nonsense about how I'm at school to be a journalism major and I want to write for a magazine and I hang out with my friends and used to be really involved with theater. We chatted about a local theater venue for a bit, then he asked me what I'd want to do if I were hired. I told him I'd be willing to do anything. And then he went, "Sounds great. I think we definitely have a spot for you. Just give us a call a week or two before you can start and we'll set up your orientation."

And that is how I went from job-less to having a summer job in less than three days. I'm still kind of shocked that it only took that long. I was not expecting to get hired on the spot. I only applied there on a whim to begin with, but, looking back, that's how I got pretty much all of my jobs. Actually, I think that's how I got all of them.

I hope you are all having as lovely of a day as I am. :)

Allyson - I had a lot of fun showing him around my town. I think it'll be more fun if he can come up to visit in the summer when the parks are pretty and there are more things to do! I totally know what you mean, though, about wanting them to love it as much as you. I was trying really hard to show him all of my favorite places, but I couldn't fit them all in and it was frustrating.

Kal - Thanks for your support! It always puts a smile on my face.

Friday, March 25, 2011

Home Sweet Home

Location: Home
Listening to: An episode of Mythbusters
Currently Reading: The Sonnet Lover by Carol Goodman



This is what my spring break looks like. Yup, that's right, instead of spending my week off someplace sunny, I came home to a snowstorm. It's kind of typical, really. I spent all winter begging for snow and complaining when we didn't get it. Now that it's spring and I'm eager for rain and sun and warmth, we get dumped on.

Thanks, Mother Nature. I really enjoy your sense of humor.

Spring Break hasn't been a complete failure, though. Brad came up to visit and meet my parents and some of my friends. It was pretty exciting. He'd never been to my town before, so I got to give him the grand tour and show him everything. We wandered around and got cupcakes at this new bakery downtown. He'd met my mom before, but he met my dad and my friend Dillon. It was a pretty good time (even though I got really tired and cranky at one point).

The rest of break was spent doing some work for my mom and filling out job applications for the summer.

How've you guys been lately? Little Miss Michelle, I'm glad you like what you've read! I hope you come back soon! The rest of you, sorry for the lack of updates and kind of crappy posts! If you have any ideas for things you want to hear about from me, let me know.

Saturday, March 19, 2011

St. Patrick's Day

Location: Home!
Listening to: American Dad
Mood: Content


Spring break is finally here, and not a week too soon! I have been so stressed these past few weeks what with all of my people-related problems. The one thing that made the last few days before I could come home from campus (besides spending just about every free second with my lovely and amazing boyfriend) was experiencing St. Patrick's day on a college campus for the first time ever.

Honestly, Thursday was the first time my campus really seemed like a college campus to me. Probably because it was the first time it looked anything like the movies. My college is in a small town, so there really isn't much to do for most kids except go to the bars on the weekend. I'm one of the few who choose to stay sober, partially because I'm underage, partially because I don't see the need to get hammered all the time.

On St. Patrick's Day, the bars opened at 6 a.m. and a surprising number of kids were there right away. By the time I was walking to my first class at 9:30 a.m., people were already being loud. A car drove down the main road through campus blasting music and someone was blowing a vuvuzela out the window at passers-by. In class, one guy was already obnoxiously drunk. He was also misguidedly wearing a kilt. I hope someone pointed out to him that kilts are Scottish, not Irish.

In my second class of the day, we usually take a 3 question quiz at the end of every lecture. That day, though, our professor was so proud of us for even showing up, he just had us sign a sheet of paper and gave us the points just for being there.

At work, someone forgot to lock the doors into the theater lobby, so a herd of guys meandered in at one point. They just kind of strolled around, and eventually strolled right back out. After they left, the following conversation ensued:

My Boss: Abbie! ABBIE!!!
Me: Yeah?
My Boss: Those guys were totally pickled! There was, like, a cloud of beer around them. It smelled disgusting.
Me: Oh man. That's gross.
My Boss: I think one of them puked in the mens' bathroom. I think he made it to the toilet, though. I don't even care. It just reeks.
Me: Ewwwww.

Cop cars were patrolling all day. Noisy parties were everywhere - you definitely would not have had to work to find one. Loud, obnoxious, drunk people were more or less the only people you saw.

It was amusing.

I hope you all had a pleasant St. Patty's day. And, for those of you also still in school, I hope you all have great spring breaks!

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Why I Should Give Up On Dorm Life And Get An Apartment

Location: Dorm
Listening to: The end of My Girl 2
Mood: Exasperated




I do not know of any dorms that are that cool looking. I mean, our desks only have 3 drawers and 1 shelf and our room is not nearly large enough to house that much comfy-looking furniture. I want that dorm!

Recently, I've been having a lot of issues with my housing plans for next year. And I don't think I've ranted about it yet, so I'm going to do that now.

Next year, my current roommate is living in the suites on campus, which are more expensive, which is why I didn't move there with her. My one close friend will be living in a sorority house. So I am stuck with the option of living with a stranger. I'm totally ok with that. In fact, living with a stranger is on my bucket list. I think it could be a cool experience and maybe help me make some good friends.

The way we sign up for housing is as follows: you fill out your housing contract, and on a certain date (in this case, last Monday), a website opens where you can select the building and floor you'd like to live on. Then, there is a list of open rooms on that floor of that building, and you click on one and it shows you if anyone else has selected it and you can decide you want to live there or not live there.

I totally lucked out and found a room open on the first floor of the building I currently live in, which made me really happy, because I love this building. So I e-mailed the girl who had already signed up for it and introduced myself. She e-mailed me back later that night and informed me that there had been a mistake. Her friend was supposed to room with her, but had been having technological problems and ended up not being able to sign up before I did. So, she asked me if I would consider moving to a different building.

By the time she e-mailed me, all of the rooms on the side of campus I lived on this year and want to remain on next year were booked. All of them. So my only option would have been to move to the other side of campus. Which I really didn't want to do. So I told her I'd keep my eye open for something to open up on the side of campus I live on, but it might be easier for her and her friend to pick a double that was still open on the other side of campus.

The next day, I got an e-mail from her friend saying that the two of them had gone to talk to the Residence Life people and came up with a plan to find me a different room on this side of campus so they could live together in that room. This kind of frustrated me, because they didn't even tell me that they were going to go make a plan about something that so heavily involves me. So I replied saying I would still try to find something open on this side of campus, and reminded them that it might be easier for them to just pick one of the many quickly-filling doubles on the other side of campus.

A few days later I got another e-mail from the friend. She informed me that they checked and all of the open doubles had at least one person living in them now, and that they only way they could live together would be for me to move to the other side of campus. So I told them I'd think about it.

And I did. I thought about it for the past three days. And I decided it would be best for me to stay in my current building. You all know about the anxiety I get. No matter what I'm going to have to live with a stranger next year. But the building I currently live in is the same building all of my friends are going to be living in next year and it's really close to Brad's apartment. I feel like having to adjust to living with a stranger on a side of campus I'm not familiar with in a building I've never been in far away from my friends and boyfriend would give me anxiety. Really badly.

So today I e-mailed them and told them all of that. And the friend e-mailed me back saying she understands, but it just sucks for them because they picked that room first and it's not her fault she couldn't sign up before me.

The whole situation is kind of a mess. The girls who want to room together have been being nice, considering the circumstances, but kind of immature at the same time. It's not my fault I picked their room. I didn't know they wanted to room together. I didn't know I'd be screwing stuff up for them and for myself. There were a lot of other options for them to live together if they had considered them right away when they noticed this whole situation happened, but they wanted to live in that room because it's next door to one of their guy friends.

I guess if something else doesn't open up for me, they've talked to a girl who will switch with the girl who had signed up for my room before me, so I won't have to live with either of them. Which would be nice, I think, because I wouldn't want to have any bad feelings between me and my roommate before we even move in together.

At this point, I don't even care if I stay in the same building I lived in this year. I would be happy with anything on this side of campus. And I really don't want to screw up these girls' plans so badly. I just keep thinking about how bad it would suck if I were in their position. I'm sure they don't like trying to convince me to move,  either, and knowing that whether or not you get to live with your friend depends on a stranger's decision must suck.

I just want this mess to be fixed and over with. Ugghghghghghghg.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Too Much Food

Location: Brad's couch
Listening to: Brad play Call of Duty
Mood: Very, very full

That's not an ad. Well, it is. But I'm not advertising the McDonalds 50 nugget meal. There just wasn't a good picture to illustrate just exactly how much food that really is.

Tonight, Brad and I were hanging out when a commercial for McD's came on, and we decided the best idea in the world would be to go and purchase the 50 nugget meal to split. We misguidedly believed it came with the 50 nuggets, two medium fries, and two medium drinks.

Everything was large. Really large. So large that my stomach now feels like it's trying to give birth to a second stomach just to handle all of the food I'm forcing it to digest.

I'm not a very large person. I'm actually pretty average-sized. I managed to pack away 20 nuggets and two thirds of my large fry, plus drink half of my large soda. Collectively, just what is left of my fries and 5 nuggets remain.

I still can't believe I ate that much.

I am so full.

And so, so happy.

What's the most you've ever eaten? I'm pretty sure this is my record. I don't remember the last time I felt this full. I'm curious about you guys. I'm also kind of hoping it will make me feel better about the gross amount of food I just ate. So, leave your stories in the comments for me. K? K. :)

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Second Chances

Location: Bed
Listening to: An episode of Fraiser
Followers: 23??



Well, I lost a follower. How sad. Whatever, though. I'll tough it out and carry on.

Last Wednesday in the midst of my busy, busy day, I made the two block trek to the elementary school where my Lunch Buddy goes. Her name is Ashley and she's in 5th grade. I was just watching something on TV and it reminded me that when I go to visit her, I am constantly bewildered by how cranky and callus elementary school teachers seem to have gotten.

When I was in 5th grade, I absolutely adored my teachers. They were my heroes and role models and best friends. I was an avid learner and would have done anything to try and impress them or win their praise. They were tough but fair and managed to be friendly and still keep us all in line.

Maybe it's because little kids nowadays are totally engrossed in technology. Maybe it's that all of the youngsters are obsessed with the newest version of Nintendo DS or the cell phone they keep to call their parents after school or the internet. But the teachers I've encountered seem like they don't care whether or not their students can relate to them or if their rules are fair or if they can keep their pupils under control.

Ashley was in a music group that met during recess. They were learning African drums and she loved it. But the one day she just blanked and forgot it was a Wednesday and she was supposed to go to drumming and I blanked and forgot to remind her, so we went outside for recess instead and she was kicked out of the group for missing that one time on accident. It's not like she chose something over it. She just didn't remember she was supposed to go. No second chances, no explanations. You miss one, you're done.

To make matters worse, kids from the drumming group kept coming up to her after recess and going, "Ashley, you're kicked out of drumming." And it totally broke my heart because she was visibly upset and frustrated that these kids kept reminding her of something she was unhappy about and they just kept coming up and reminding her. I'm sure they all thought they were helping or that no one else had told her, but that wasn't the case.

We tried to go the next week, anyway, and I was appalled at the teacher's behavior. She called Ashley out in front of the entire class and told her how she missed the last one, so she couldn't be there. She pretty much said that Ashley didn't deserve to be there and that she was a bad kid for missing the one time and still thinking she could get a second chance. How humiliating is that?! To get belittled in front of your friends and peers for thinking that maybe you could get a second chance at something.

I understand that the teacher was probably trying to bestow a lesson in responsibility and that's why the rules were so harsh. But they're 5th graders. They're probably not any older than ten. They're so busy learning and making friends and being kids that it's kind of inevitable that some of them will just forget things every once in a while. I don't understand why giving a sweet kid who made a simple mistake a second chance is such a big deal.

Sometimes people frustrate me.

Not you guys, though. You rock. Thanks for not sucking. :)