man, ive been terrible about this...ive just been so goddamned busy!
been workin a lot...not a lot to tell..
early mornings, and no end until wednesday...ugh!
6 day work week comin up...lookin at about 46 hours...


tonight we're goin to get a tree (as chris etheracide mentioned) and decorate some! holidayish shoot tomorrow! thats it! pictures to come!

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Where to start!
Ok, Thursday we woke up and started preparations for Thanksgiving, watched the Macy's parade, and waited for Chris' mom to come over. Several hours, lots of dirty pots and pans, a little improvisation, and an oven fire later we finally got to eat! It was a really good dinner, albeit a little late, which means we have quite a bit of dessert sitting around. Our apartment looked splendid, and nothing says "happy holidays!" like a John Waters film. However, because we were so late eating, by the time dinner was finished and Chris' mom opened her birthday presents it was getting after 11pm, so I tried to go to bed. I ended up not being able to sleep until Chris was in bed, which wasn't until 1am or so. Now, this wouldn't have been a problem had we not planned on getting up at 2:45am to head out for some Black Friday craziness.

2:45 the alarm went off. 3am we headed to Best Buy with the intention of getting a camcorder for $132. 3:45am I lost feeling in my hands. 4am they started handing out vouchers to get the deeply discounted items. 4:45am we left because we didn't get a voucher. 5am we headed back home because I realized I'd left my wallet at home. 5:45 am we got in line at Target. 6am we finally got to enter a retail business establishment! We got our camcorder for a little more than it was at Best Buy, but still nicely discounted. I also got my stained glass snowman light! I say one of my managers in line at Target, which was pretty neat. From Target we headed to the mall where we got McBreakfast, and I got at least 80% of my list taken care of, and I even got my jewelry box! (Maybe Chris will get me something nice and shiny to put in it? hah) When the box started to cut off circulation to my fingers we lugged it out to the car, and Chris came home to sleep because the lucky bastard had yesterday off.

Then it was time for work. Running on an hour or so of sleep, at 9am I walked into the studio for what would be a long day. It was chaotic, it was long, and the mall must have been 90degrees because everyone was overheated and sweating (even customers), but it still wasn't too bad. I was surprisingly alert and awake for having been up and running for so long. In fact, I was too awake to crash and sleep as I'd planned when I got home, so we headed BACK to Best Buy to get another item I wanted but hadn't felt like fighting the 5am crowd for. Chris looked at MP3 players, but he didn't get one, so we headed over to Walmart to see if they had any on sale. They didn't, but we did end up getting some nice Christmas stuff to decorate with! We also found the ornaments and lights we want for our tree and balcony, but we'll have to get those next week. As it stands, I've got about $4 in my account. yesterday was payday, so I've got another 2 weeks to be close to penniless. It was probably not the best idea to spend my ENTIRE paycheck on presents and a much needed new cd/dvd drive for my computer, but if I hadn't done it yesterday I would've never been able to afford a gift for everyone on my list. As it is, I've only got four people left! But I digress...We left Walmart, headed to Best Buy for the third time that day, and finally got Chris his MP3 player!

About that time we were both cold and broke. Chris had slept all day so he was about as tired as he would've normally been, but I was seriously starting to crash. I had reached delerious about the time we got to Best Buy, so it was time to come home...and I slept until I had to get up for work this morning.

Today didn't have to be stressful or frustrating. Were we busy? Yes. Were we running all day? Yes, but I can handle all that. I thrive on that. I focus better when there's chaos. It brings my head together. What I didn't need was to be lectured by my manager when there was absolutely nothing else I could've done to make the sitting better. I did my best, I worked my ass off, and the parents were not only realistic about what they would get but also highly impressed that I DID managed to get what I did. I don't even mind criticism, but calling me sloppy, interrupting me when I tried to explain, and talking to me like I either did it on purpose with lots of other options or like I don't know how to do my job was infuriating. I was really close to just walking out. Luckily, I like what I do for the most part, and I need a job. So I had my mini breakdown in the bathroom, sucked it up, and went on with my day. That particular family complimented me to the girl who showed the pictures, so that made me feel a little better, too. The rest of the day went pretty well, so I was able to refocus and eventually I was in a pretty good mood.

Tomorrows my day off. We talked about going to visit Chris' grandparents, who I have yet to meet, but I'm not sure what we're doing. Tonight we're putting up the Christmas stuff we have. I think we're going to try the butter toffee hot chocolate we bought the other night, too!

So, anyone who's still reading this gets a blue star for the evening...sorry for the novel. Heh. Have a good Saturday night all!

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I didn't even have time to post about my interveiew before I found out I did not get the job. They didn't like the way I answered one question, and said the slit in my skirt was too high. Three people saw me in this skirt, and no one mentioned to me that it might be inappropriate. I guess I should have seen it. It is, however, the same skirt I wore to the LUV at First Bite Luncheon where I met Colleen...and she never mentioned it being too short. In fact, I do remember her saying to me (I was sitting at her table and met her a few times) how we (being the people in the group standing around the table with her) looked nice, and how great it was to see us all dressed up and looking professional. So...inflight has higher standards than Colleen...check!

Chicago itself was great, aside from Nicky having a case of the Mondays. I got in on time and made it to Cat's with no event. As soon as I walked in Nicky exclaimed to me, "I'm potty trained!" several times. Thirty minutes later he wet himself on our walk to the grocery store. Don't count those chickens yet, Nicky. He's also started to build giant monoliths out of big, tiny-hand sized "leggos"...so we're working on the words "Washington Monument". In any case, we went to get food for dinner, and in t hat time Nicky managed to step un a puddle, wet himself, fall flat on his face, find a balloon, and pop said balloon. Like I said...case of the Mondays. Once we got home he ate, played for a bit, bathed, and read a few stories with us before bedtime. Cat and I hung around catching up, and eventually Erich came for the baby and the three of us sat around talking for a while.

The interview was almost successful. I thought it went really well. I got back to MDW just in time for the earlier flight home and slept all the way. Ryan and I got dinner at Johnny Rocket's before heading home to get some cleaning done. We did that for a couple days since I had off work until today. His mom came over yesterday for a couple hours, so we took her to Potbelly's.

I'm working a double today, and tomorrow we head out for a weekend in DC...if we can find a place to stay..hah.

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Last night turned into a good night. We didn't get a damned thing cleaned or put away, but we had a nice cozy night. Ryan got home from his interview and I was fast asleep, so he woke me up with cuddles and a turtle he'd found in the middle of the road! It was a pretty big turtle, but apparently either a figment of both our imaginations, magical, or the speediest turtle on the planet, bcause Ryan put him out in the backyard for five minutes and he vanished. We searched all over for that thing, and he was nowhere to be found! I was pretty sure Mowgli was going to find it and get his nose snapped off. We watched a little TV (TMNT movie), made dinner (mmm pork chops), and cuddled down with some tea. I've been having trouble sleeping and my back has been killing me, so Ryan made me tea with a Valerian, Chammomile, Catnip mix. Holy cow! It worked wonders. Unfortunatey, in the time it took the tea to take effect we had gotten a little more than cozy...if you've never had sex on muscle relaxers and sedatives it's an interesting experience...hah. I did, however, wake up feeling better than I have in weeks. I also woke up with less sleep than we'd originally anticipated. Had I been able to go to bed two hours earlier as we had planned, the tea would've had sufficient time to wear out of my system, but I hadn't...so I woke up slightly groggy. Somehow the alarm got set to the "radio" setting so I woke up at 4am to Marylin Manson being infuriatingly appropriate singing "Sweet dreams are made of this..who am I to disagree...." You bastard! Ryan sent me to work with a mug full of Yerba Mate and the remnants of the bag to squeeze a mug from on my break. Maybe by then I'll be awake. No WOP'ing today, but I've got the next 2 off before another superdouble on Saturday and (hopefully) getting the baby Sunday! Then we start all over again!

Flight boarding...back to work...

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I sit and stare at a pack of passengers stalking the baggage carousel waiting to pounce the moment their bags come out from hiding in the tunnel below the terminal. They've followed them here, 300 miles to wait for them some more. Families huddle together as if stranded on the tundra. Businessmen loom like lone wolves, and gaggles of girls in their late teens to early twenties swarm like high pitched killer bees. One by one bags emerge like cranes in a swooping parade only to be picked off, one by one, by their hungry predators. This is my day. Eight hours of the hunt. Now I know how research scientists feel.

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I woke up this morning after a rather tumultuous night of half sleeping. I tend to grumble and poke at Chris when I sleep like this, because there's always a way he COULDVE woke me up....but how do I know he doesn't always sleep like this, and I'm just witnessing it then because I'm awake to do so? Anywho, so I woke up vaguely aware that my blood sugar was low, but not really in the mood to do anything about it. I woke Chris up (because he'd asked me to! I'm not that mean!), and told him I was considering calling out because my migraine hadn't dissipated in my sleep as I'd planned, and if I didn't get rid of it today I'd be taking it to work next week. We relaxed for a few minutes, somewhat reluctant to get out of bed. We don't get to do that very often, just lie together, so I wasn't gonna make it stop yet. Eventually the blood sugar issue had to be addressed, so he got me some OJ and I polished off the carton before my phone rang. Oddly enough, it was work calling me out. Heh. I guess it was an on-call shift and I didn't realize it, but I was told I wouldn't be needed and to enjoy my day off! Ahh, sweet serendipity. SO, I didn't have to be penalized for calling out, and I still get a day off to relax and figure out how I'm going to buy film for tomorrow. My head still hurts a bit, but the other migraine symptoms are easing up, so I may be working into a blinding headache instead, which I can handle. I'm trying to figure out how to make some extra cash, which probably involves selling some stuff. I'm adding a "framed pieces for sale" section to my website soon, too.

Anywho, we've got frozen waffles and not that I'm no longer nauseated....I'm starving! Have a good Saturday all!

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