Cupcakes, Christmas, and puppies!

It's been forever since I last posted! I've been sooo busy with my new job that I just plain haven't had time. But I've really missed it, so you better believe I'm taking a good little break from all the craziness to sit down and get my blog on.

Let's see. Quite a bit has happened since the last time I've posted (which was over a month ago)! I got my car all nice and fixed, thanks to my wonderful mom. So I've gotten back to driving, and I hope to start paying her back super soon. I love having my car and being able to go wherever I need to go whenever I'd like. I had completely forgotten how crappy it is to feel stuck and not be able to come and go as I please. It was awful! Oh, and trying to take groceries on a bus is ridiculous. So I'm so glad to be mobile again!

In work news, I'm absolutely loving my new job! I'm talking to little old ladies about games all day, and it's so cute. Oh, and I have tons of cute stuff on my desk, too! Here's everything I packed up to put on my desk the night before I decorated:


I had an awesome Christmas, even though I was away from family for the very first time. Matt and I went Goodwillin' on Christmas Eve and saw The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. And then on Christmas Day we went to my favorite sushi place and saw Sherlock Holmes. And I had my very first real Christmas tree! My mom and I have always had fake ones, so I was really excited. And it made the house smell soooo good! I had so much fun decorating the tree, and I wanted it to be super colorful.



Oh, and by the way, I got a puppy! She's a 1.5 year old Staffordshire Terrier and Lab mix named Peaches, and she is the sweetest darn thing ever. And I'm so glad I rescued her! I drove an hour and a half to pick her up after finding her on Craigslist. Once I got her home, I realized that she was covered in fleas and had never even been to the vet; she hadn't even had her rabies shot. And after spending a little time with her, it was obvious that she had been mistreated and ignored for a really long time. She didn't use the potty for the first 2 days she was at the house. And anytime we went outside, she would climb up my leg, grab me around my waist, and bury her head in my belly as if she were begging me not to leave her out there. D: How sad is that? I don't know how anyone could not fall in love with her. She's such a big baby! She needs so much attention and love, and I just can't imaging being able to resist this:



And now with a puppy in the house, I've been trying to keep things picked up. So I've been trying to get the house nice and organized. I try to do a bunch on the weekends since I have to be up so early and need to have everything ready to go each morning. I need to do get more stuff put away, but here's the awesome progress I've made getting all of my clothes, jewelry, knick-knacks, and other bedroom related stuff under control.




Today, I went to Goodwill to grab a few things before the monthly potluck that our neighbors have every 2nd Saturday, and look at this cute stuff I found!


And here's what I made to take! Yellow applesauce cupcakes with dark chocolate icing. Everyone really liked 'em!

Super sad wreck post. :(

Sooo much stuff has been going on since my last post. There's been some good stuff, but for now, I need to get the yucky stuff out in the open and out of my brain. So let's start with that and get the negativity out of the way first.

I stayed home from work last Wednesday since I wasn't feeling too well. I was leaving my house to run an errand and was sitting at the intersection to leave my subdivision. It was dark and raining, which already makes me uncomfy to drive in, and traffic was kind of bad. A line of cars had stopped, and the lady in the furthest lane from me left a gap and waved me out. So I checked to make sure no one was coming in the other lanes, and as I pulled out, someone ran right into my side. :( I guess the other lane driver came up around the curve and didn't know that traffic was stopped and someone had let me out, and the girl got me right in the driver's side, crushing my car door closed. I immediately freaked out, pulled off the road, and tried not to cry. She got out, and we made sure neither one of us was hurt and exchanged info. And thankfully, she had no damage on her car at all. But mine was pretty rough looking. So I got home and called my mom, bawling my eyes out. I love my little car. My granny bought me my car right before she passed away because she was proud of me for moving back home and starting college. It's a reminder of how lucky and blessed I am/was for having such an amazing granny, and seeing it all crushed on the side honestly made my tummy hurt.

Here's my silly drawing to show what happened:


I've never been in a wreck in my own car before or alone, for that matter, so I was terrified. The only wreck I've ever been in was one that totaled my ex-best friend's car a few years ago. I was taken to the e.r. to make sure stuff was okay because my neck was really sore after impact, and my back's been all crazy ever since that one. But thankfully this one was super minor, and I wasn't hurt or anything, just scared to death and worried about my insurance situation. I just recently had my car switched over to my name, and my mom and I both were under the impression that my car/I would continue to be covered under the insurance that we've been using. But my mom's insurance person doesn't think I'll be covered. So I immediately went and signed up for my own with Geico as soon as the wreck happened, just to be safe. From what her insurance person told her, Mom's pretty positive I won't be covered, but we seriously both thought I'd continue to be covered under her insurance since it was on the same car. :/

So yesterday I went to get a few estimates, and it was waaay more than I expected. The first place quoted me almost $5,000, and then two more were right around $4,000. I was devastated, because my mom and I both didn't expect it to be near that much. Apparently they have to not only replace a door, but the entire side panel as well, which has to be welded and all kinds of stuff involving lots of labor hours. So I called her to tell her how outrageous it was going to be, and had honestly just planned on not getting it fixed. I can't open my driver's side door since it's crushed shut, so I have to climb over the seats and crawl out of the other side. But I didn't think it was a huge deal. But my mom ended up telling me to stay at Maaco, leave my car there, and that she was going to cover the entire thing for me. I never, ever expected that at all. I know she really can't afford to do that since she's paying for bills and a house note at both her house and my granny's house that we were living in after the flood.

I know she's really not in any position to be doing anything so expensive. She's already helped me so much. So as soon as I start getting checks from my new job, I plan on sending her a big chunk every two weeks until I pay her back. I feel like the worst kid ever for having such awful luck, because I know she feels obligated to help me out. I mean, usually, things go decently well for me, but it never lasts too long! I just have some crappy luck at times, and inevitable things happen over which I have no control. I keep my chin up and try my best not to let things affect me very much. But every once in awhile, something stressful happens that I just don't quite know how to handle. (Especially those that involve super large sums of money!) So I am super, suuuper fortunate that my mom continues to help me out, even as an adult. <3

I got a new job again!

Yessiree! I've officially accepted a new job! I'll be starting on November 28th. Yayayay!

As much as I've loved my almost two months at the gallery, I'm super excited to take this new opportunity. And my boss doesn't really have the foot traffic to need me there as much as we'd both like, so it wasn't a big ol' sad deal for me to leave. She asked me to stay on as a freelancer and keep doing the inventory and updating/redoing the site for her, so I'll still kind of be working there (but from home).

The new job is a contract position (that can lead to full on employment after 3 months) as a customer support rep at a big gaming company. My interview was on Tuesday, and it went amazingly, and it was sooo much fun! They did it speed dating style and had about 7 or 8 potential employees in a room, and we rotated through different higher-ups in the company. Each interviewer spent 10 minutes with each person, and then we'd move on to the next. I loooved every person who interviewed me. They all had such awesome attitudes and seemed to really enjoy their jobs there. I ended up laughing and cutting up with every one of them, and once I left I was honestly afraid they might think I was too goofy for the position.

Buuuut the main recruiting lady called me back Thursday morning and told me that they all loved me and kept going on about how they wished they could clone me and how excited they were to have me on the team. Super incredible fancy magical ego boost of the century, guys. Seriously! I was sooo worried that I wasn't going to make the cut because every other interviewee had on a white button up and black slacks, and they had briefcases or folders or other important looking accessories. And then I was in there laughing and talking to these people like they were my buddies, because that's just what comes naturally. So I left thinking I wasn't professional enough. But considering that they ended up giving me the job, I guess I was wrong! Phew.

Justin, Matt's best friend, just starting working there, and he showed me around the building after the interview was over. It's a really fun place with lots of people and is super, super relaxed. Everyone was wearing jeans and hoodies and such, and people had toys all over their desks, and some people were riding around on razor scooters through the office. And there was a room for the 2nd floor people that had a bunch of game systems and a big ol' tv. I think it's going to be sooo much fun. I can't wait!

And since I haven't had the time to update as frequently as I'd like, now it's super instagram photo dump time!

This was my Halloween pumpkin! It's a fancy gentleman monster with a top hat, moustache, and fangs.


I had to work on Halloween, but I decided to semi-dress up so I could enjoy it. I was a Nashvillian! :P


I got an awesome package from my mom the next day that proved that she knows me way too well. It contained a little cupcake apron, peeps (my favorite candy/sweets ever!), grape twizzlers (my second favorite!), and coupons for cereal, fruit roll ups, and hot sauce!


My bus was late yesterday, and I had never played with the tilt shift instagram function, so I tried it out and loveeed the way this picture turned out.


I've been excited about the sides of my hair finally starting to get longer, so I've been trying out different ways to wear my hair. So here's a bunch of little gpoy's as well. Click 'em if you wanna see 'em bigger!


Hopefully I can post again before half a month goes by! Pffffft!

Ultimate Bus Adventures!

Welp, all of my friends get super excited when I post about the hilarious, ridiculous, almost downright unreal stories from my bus rides. So I decided to compile some of the best ones (so far) in a post!

• One of my first days riding, I got on the bus and walked right into the middle of a huuuuge yelling match between two gentlemen. They were sitting up front on the sideways bench seats facing one another. I'd say they were both in their late 50's, early 60's. I got on the bus in the middle of it, so I'm not sure what the ordeal was, but one man was mumbling angrily under his breath, I guess to the other man about what had been going on, and he progressively got a little louder. And then the other guy hollered at him "Look, no one wants to hear you. Stop talking." The other one shot back "Listen up, punk! I don't like you, Jack!" And this yelling continued for a few minutes. And one finally said "Driver, this man is harassing me! What are you going to do about it?" And the driver said "You both need to shut up!" And they just continued arguing. Eventually one got off the bus, and it all stopped. Everyone was just dead silent watching the whole thing. It was seriously just like two little kids fighting on a school bus!

• That same bus ride, a little bit later, while stopped and letting people get on, there was a lady leaned up against a sign beside the bus. She was in plain view of every single person on the bus, and there were tons of people walking to and from on the sidewalk around her. And she starts just digging in her nose like crazy. Just going for the gold like no one was around. And a bunch of people from the back started mumbling about it and going on about how gross it was and such. And theeeen, she ate it. And all hell broke loose! Everyone started yelling and ewww-ing And some guy yelled "Are you serious? She just ate it!" And I couldn't control myself because I have what my mom calls gigglebox syndrome, and I busted out laughing and couldn't stop. And that leads to my next story.

• Me laughing apparently freaked out a little old Asian fellow sitting in front of me, because he turned around, looked me dead in the eye, and got up and moved to the seat a row behind me and on the other side. I don't think he knew what was going on or why I laughed. So I thought he hated my guts or thought I was rude or something. Which made me feel so bad, but I just couldn't help it. Everyone was acting like little kids and ewww-ing, and I lost it. So I felt really bad, thinking I had made him mad or he thought I was a jerk. But within a few minutes he randomly leaned up to me as I was standing up to get off the bus and said "You have nice tattoo. How long you make it? One hundred dollar?" And he had a huuuge grin on his face. Ha! So I was just really polite and said yes and smiled at him and told him to have a good day. That was all during one stinkin' bus ride!

• One day something super cute happened before I even got to the bus! I pass a church on my way to my stop, and they have a daycare. And on nice days, the kids are out in the little fenced in playground right by the sidewalk. Well, as I'm walking, I hear this little girl yell "Hiiii!" really loud and see her waving like crazy. So I yelled "Hiiii!" back at her and waved a bunch too. And then she yelled it again, so I yelled it back. And again, and again! And we did that the entire time I walked by. And then she yelled "Byeeeee!", and I yelled "Byeeeee!" And we did that back and forth and waved until we couldn't hear each other anymore. It put me in the best mood.

• Another day, a little old lady got on the bus and sat down up front. And within a few minutes, she started randomly talking to everyone in the front area. Not to the people specifically, but just out loud. And I couldn't really understand her too well, but I am almost positive half of it was in English and half of it was in Japanese. And I heard her say "Bill Clinton" at least three times. She continued to ramble and yell to the whole front of the bus, nonstop. No one was responding or talking back to her or anything. She just went on and on for at least 15 to 20 minutes. No one knew what was going on, so they would all just kind of look at each other like whaaaat. When she finally got off the bus, a bunch of people were like "What in the woooorld? Did you know her? Was she talking to you?" But no one knew what the deal was, and everyone just started laughing so hard.

• There's a couple that is always on the bus in the mornings, and they have a baby. And the poor husband is always having to hold the baby, and wrestle with the big stroller, and hold all of the bags and stuff they carry. And the woman is seriously always, alwaaaays passed out. And not just like still sleepy from just waking up kinda drowsy. It's 10:30am, and she is OUT. Well, they weren't able to sit together because the bus was so crowded, so he had everything in his arms, baby, stroller, and bags, and she was knocked out on the bench across from him. He was sitting next to a lady who normally has her baby with her too, but she was alone that day. Well they were kind of talking and laughing back and forth, and I guess this didn't make the wife across from him all that happy (when she would wake up and take notice here and there). So whenever the person next to her got off the bus, she immediately snapped at him that he should move over there with her. So he lugged everything over to her seat, and she passed back out. Well he couldn't hold everything this time, and the baby started slipping, so he asked her to hold something. And she woke up, grabbed the baby, and then started nodding back off. Shortly after that, everything fell over, and I helped him pick up some of the stuff that fell out of his bag and set it upright. And when the bus got near their stop, the wife did the I-just-fell-asleep-and-jerked-back-awake jump and almost dropped the dang baby! Then she angrily stood up and made him carry everything off the bus. I felt so bad for the guy for having to deal with all that mess. Geez Louise!

• A few days ago, the bus was super crazy crowded, and it took a few stops for there to be any seats. So once a few seats became available, I sat down on a front bench seat, right next to the little partition that separates them from the regular seats. There wasn't really enough room for another person, but the person on the other side of me had a bunch of bags and stuff, so she took up a little more room. Well, a man got on the bus, and bless his heart, he didn't have enough shirt to cover his belly. So the whole bottom of his stomach was completely exposed, and once he turned around, I could see that his whole bottom was falling out of his sweatpants. And he decided there was enough room for him between me and that partition, and there clearly was not. So he squeezed in between me and the wall, and his nekkid belly just kinda rested on my arm. And then I got a big ol' whiff of him. And it was very, very... not good. I didn't say a word. I am way too polite to eeeever make someone uncomfy. But I know anyone else in that situation would have been super not happy or would have been rude, so it's a good thing he sat beside me instead of someone else. I just made light of it and pretended to be really into words with friends. Then we he got up to get off of the bus, he grabbed the rail to pull himself up, and his whole butt was just right smack in my face. It was just unreal how funny the whole situation was.

• Not only are there always silly people on the bus, but I also have really crappy bus luck, too! One day I got to the stop to go home. My bus normally comes right around 6:05 every day. And it was running on time according to the little bus app I checked right before I went downstairs into the tunnel. After a good 20 to 25 minutes of waiting, my bus still hadn't shown up. I even got there early, so I knew I hadn't missed it. I can't get reception down in the tunnel, so I was a little paranoid that maybe I wasn't paying attention and it had already come and gone, and Matt was possibly trying to text me to find out where I was. So I ran upstairs, still within eyeshot of the bus (I thought) to call him. He told me it still hadn't come for him either, so I hadn't missed it. So I ran back downstairs and waited for another good 10 minutes and got a little nervous again. He had told me before that I could hop on a different bus and ride it to his stop and we could wait together. So I figured that might be a better idea so I wouldn't be alone. So I rode a different bus to his stop, hopped off, walked around, and I didn't see him anywhere. And since I wasn't in the tunnel anymore, my phone buzzed to let me know I had gotten a text at some point during my ride. It was from Matt and it said "You missed the bus when you were calling me!" Are you stinkin' kidding me? So I ran back to the bus right before the doors closed and jumped back on. He told me to just stay on that one since our bus wouldn't be coming again. So I had to ride it to the mall, walk to the mall, and wait for him to get home, pick up the car, and come pick me up. It was the so ridiculous! In the less than a minute that I ran upstairs, that's when the dumb bus came. Hrmph.

• Another day, I hopped on that same bus to go ahead and ride up to Matt's stop, which I've been doing pretty regularly now. (It's just better to wait with him instead of waiting alone. And I don't ever have to worry that I might get left again!) Well, the buses have been packed pretty tightly lately with the viaduct being knocked down and more people using them, so some busses fill up and can't take on more people at stops. But the drivers at least stop and let the people know that there's another one however many blocks behind them or another time that one comes. Well, apparently this driver either didn't know to do that or didn't care to. When the bus got to Matt's stop, myself and a few other people stood up at the door, waiting for it to open. The driver stops the bus. We wait for the door to open so we can hop off. The door never opens, and he drives off! A lot of people started yelling, and he just kept going and hopped on the interstate. So I ended up having to ride it to the dumb mall again! No idea what his deal was, but he apparently was like "Ehh, well, peace guys! Vroom vroom."

I know some people hate riding the bus, and I thought I would be one of them, but I seriously love all the silliness that happens. My life has become one big, silly sitcom these days.

Workin' girl (not the hookery kind).

Phew! I feel like I haven't stopped moving since the last time I posted. And besides sleepin', I honestly haven't! Having a job for the first time since February has worn me out. But I was used to having two jobs and going to school, so I know I can do it. I just hafta get back into the swing of things. I work Monday through Friday, and I worked this past Sunday as well. But I do really enjoy it.

A typical day is usually very slow and quiet, which I love. We don't do much business, and I haven't sold anything yet, but my boss told me business has been really slow for awhile now and she hasn't really made many either lately. And I can imagine not everyone wants to drop two or three grand on art right now with the economy the way it is. So I try not to get too discouraged. I normally just greet everyone and answer any questions they have and try to make a sale or at least get some info from them so my boss can get in touch with them.

Since it is so slow, I can get quite a bit of work done on the computer. I update the inventory online when we get new artwork, and I'm currently working on redoing the inventory system to get it more organized. And sometime soon, I want to completely redesign the website. I also make promo stuff for the gallery, like postcards for the Art Walks.

Here was my very first one for a Dale Nally show!


It got really, really stressful the day of that particular Art Walk (which was my very first) because nothing was ready and the artist whose work was being featured didn't fly in to help. So I busted my butt helping my boss get everything done. We hung huge paintings that are taller than me and completely redid the whole front room. Considering that I had never ever set up anything before and she didn't have time to really teach me, I had to just do my best. And I thought a few times that she was frustrated with me, so I got super upset and nervous and stressed out. But I just kept cool and didn't let it show and tried to keep up. By the end of the day, I was dripping with sweat and barefoot because my feet hurt so bad. And the next day, my back was so stiff that I could barely move. But it all got done and it looked really good. And she thanked me for my hard work and told me she was just really stressed all day. Which I definitely knew was the case, but I just wear my heart on my sleeve and get my feelings hurt really easily.

Here's my favorite Dale Nally piece and a gorgeous floral arrangement that a local Ikebana lady brought to display.