just my month

...

2006-11-17T16:48:00.000-05:00

it's been so long, i've forgotten my thought process when posting in the first place.

i'll try to be better; the fall is a busy time at the museum and i'm still letting my boyfriend use my computer at his apartment (which means i still don't have internet access in mine) .

thought i would give the site a makeover since the seasons have changed. the dark background really makes all of the colors pop out which is making me smile. so yay for that. hopefully it will keep me coming back.

'til next time (fingers crossed) ...

drugstore cowgirl

2006-09-19T15:32:00.000-05:00

i was in walgreen's today purchasing ammonia (which i don't believe i have ever purchased before and i felt like the cashier thought i would try to wash some pills down with it cause it seemed like such a goth thing to buy straight up chemicals but i needed to get some because apparently ammonia is the only thing that will clean a stain off of an iron and i just happen to have a boyfriend who doesn't like it when their girlfriend messes up their household appliances... oops) and i came across something that i haven't had in like 10 years. in hawaii, they sold mauna loa macadamia nuts in many different flavors. my favorite was the kona coffee. and i didn't even like nuts or coffee at the time. they were that heavenly. since moving away from there, i have occasionally remembered how much i liked them and wished i could find some. i also miss see's candies. ahh, the joys of the west coast.

so, while carrying my bottle of ammonia (and a bottle of orange juice to try to cancel the creepiness of the ammonia out), i stumble upon the candy isle. and what do i find but mauna loa kona coffee macadamia nuts. even in the same can from 1996. i literally lunged at the shelf and grabbed 5 cans before getting the air back to my lungs.

i ended up leaving the store with only one can, but that one 4 oz. can has totally made my week.

soup in an oversized mug

2006-08-31T15:35:00.000-05:00

last night, i made a new flavor of ramen - "lime shrimp". the smell of it reminded me of the sort of orange spice tea you would drink at christmastime.

an awkward association, but nonetheless the perfect combination of emotions aroused for a rainytime meal.

cowabunga, dudes!

2006-08-01T15:36:00.000-05:00

i finally have a valid excuse for the short lapse of posting. i just got back from a 5-day weekend. don't worry... there wasn't a holiday you missed out on, so you don't have to look for some random austrailian celebration on that calendar of yours. i decided to take a couple of days off since summer is almost over and work has been slow.

i naturally spent my warm-weather time off at the beach. the closest beach to charlotte is charleston and it is one of my favorite places to visit. i find myself bcoming very southern once i step foot downtown. i'm not much of a seafood person and i did not grow up on lowcountry cuisine, but i cannot stop myself from ordering she crab soup wherever i eat. i always end up picking whatever sounds the most southern on the menu cause i feel like it's the most appropriate thing to do while i'm in town. the best place for this is hyman's. i feel bad for not trying some other restaraunt, but why do that when i can sit at the same table that billy joel dined on? on the bill this time: boiled peanuts, crab dip, lobster bisque, fried green tomatoes and a baked sweet potato. well kiss my grits!, i do declare that's a lineup fit for scarlett o'hara.

as much as i like going to charleston for the food, that was not the main reason i went there this time. i decided to treat my boyfriend and i to surfing lessons. this is something i've wanted to do for a long time and he just recently bought some quicksilver trunks and needed a reason to show them off in style. i was quite nervous about this because surfing has always looked very hard to me. that and my boyfriend and i can be very stubborn with each other when learning new things. last time we were in charleston, we went kayaking and i'm surprised we didn't try to drown each other. although, my boyfriend did think it was an opportune time to test if his paddle could float while we were out in the middle of the ocean and almost lost it. so i guess that could qualify as a drowning attempt.

i thought that having an instructor with us during this adventure would help qwell our aggrivations and it did just that. our instructor took turns in taking us out so we were never close enough to each other for verbal abuse. think of the most stereotypical surfing guy and that would describe our instructor. his name was kai and when we met him, he was taking longboards out of his big purple astro van. he made a comment about how if we messed up, we'd be "eating board for breakfast" and he had long curly hair. my boyfriend later told me that he swore he saw kai turn into a merman.

i wasn't sure how good we would be at catching on. my boyfriend has never attempted this before but, although i have never tried this either, i am quite adept with my boogie-boarding skills. i lived in hawaii for 4 years, so i was able to gain a bit of experience with bigger waves and i'd like to say i'm pretty decent at judging the ocean. i thought that having this in my back pocket would make me a little bit better, but i think it was exactly this that made it worse for me.

getting up on the board is not as hard as it may seem. it's the anticipation of knowing when to hop up that kills you, or at least me anyway. i would paddle out and wait for merman kai to say "go for it" and then try to hop up as quick as i could. the minute you get up, you feel unstable and are supposed to adjust yourself. i, instead, would think to myself, "i am just going to fall off since i am unstable now, so i will jump off while i still have control on the way i land when i fall." so basically, i technically only got up and stayed on once. but that's better than never. my boyfriend, on the other hand, got up pretty much every time i looked over. if you knew what it was like to somersault on the ocean floor three times in a row while a wave is on top of you, you would probably jump off, too. he was spared of that experience and was much more courageous than me.

the thing that was actually the hardest about these lessons was getting out in the ocean with your board. it was really choppy the day we went and it made it so hard to get out far enough without a wave crashing the board into your guts. by the end of the day, i had a gash on my knee (which was bleeding the entire time and made for a nice tracking device for the sharks) and a bruise across my ribs. and i had lost my contact. my boyfriend stepped out of the ocean with no scars at all. but he also has no souveniers from the trip and i do. yay for battlewounds!

we got some surfing shirts to make us feel a little more accomplished and legit. it's a comfort to know pac-sun is just around the corner when we're feeling a little nostalgic. that and my boyfriend has suddenly felt the need to burst out "surfing u.s.a." at random.

all in all, the trip was nice. i took a 4 hour nap when i got back from the beach and then treated myself to some prailines.

oh... and i watched a little shark week on discovery channel. how appropriate.

growing pains

2006-07-27T15:26:00.000-05:00

so i guess it's been over a month since i last posted. oopsie.
i blame it completely on my birthday.

i turned 22 exactly one month ago and i feel older ever since. not really... but people always say things like that once they hit their 20s. i remember when i approached 20, i was very nervous. i requested a pinata for a b-b-q so that i wouldn't feel old. i'm starting to find that your 20s are a transition period. still considered "young", but thrown into responsibility. they say you become an adult at 18, but i really think that change occurs when you enter the third decade of your life. (yes... i surprisingly did my math correctly, so should you.)

i've also found that, once you pass 21, the birthdays after that just sort of go by without a big need to make a fuss. and i should know... i'm an expert after having one birthday since the 2-1.
i'm not saying that my birthday was not a good and eventful one, but it just sort of lost its luster from years past. and i am a very festive person. although, i think my mom beats me in this category... that woman has window lights and cookie cutters for st. patrick's day, for pete's sake.

so... my mom came up for the occasion, to bring some of her holiday spirit and some homeade cake. my mom had not missed any one of my birthdays and she didn't want to start now. a.k.a. only-child syndrome. it was an older person's birthday, the kind where you go out to eat and then blow out your candles at home... no boozing it up on the streets of uptown. a.k.a. my birthday fell on a tuesday.

i had to do something to spice up my birthday somehow. i was fine with relaxing and staying in, but i haven't lost all of my festivness, yet. so i did what any normal person would do to add a little adventure in their day. i got a tattoo.

my boyfriend has started a trend lately of getting me gadgets for my birthdays. two years ago, he got me a gamecube (to help me feel young again since 20 was ancient) and last year he got me an iPod mini (to help me feel hip cause 21 is oh-so-cool). well... i guess he thought i was getting old again cause he got me another gaming system. this time, he got me a nintendo ds (so that way i can feel young on-the-go). i have been enjoying it and i recently purchased the big brain academy game for it where you can basically test your i.q. and see how you think. so far, the game has labeled me as a museum curator (which is weird cause i actually work in a museum), a fashion stylist (which is weird cause i am a devoted reader of lucky magazine), michaelangelo (which is weird cause i was an art & design minor), and an economist (which is very weird because i know nothing of finances and that was actually my boyfriend's major).

as much as this game is fun and is a mental exercise, it makes you feel very stupid because their grading system is really screwed up. that, or my boyfriend and i are retarded. there, i said it. we both took the test to determine how big your brain is and we both got a D+. excuse me? i did not accumulate college debt to acquire a below average brain, thank you very much. so, i kept taking the test over and over to see if i could do better. i eventually got up to a C+ , but could not move up from there. until... last night, i take the test and it screams back at me like i'm a genius. let's see if my boyfriend can beat a B next time he plays. who's the retard, now?

my dad has this saying that seems appropriate right about now. it's a very simple, straight-forward question: "are you stupid?" (that or the famous "i'm working with the handicapped")
after taking that test the first time, i could just hear his voice echoing that phrase in my ears. during this transition period in my life, i ask myself a variation of that daily. how do i do this?, how can i do this? i get intimidated quite easily, but i find myself getting through each day with just a little more experience. sometimes i feel misplaced, but it's so exciting to actually feel yourself growing inside.

and i think i can say that the B i earned is just a little proof of that.
and that's the best birthday present i could've asked for.

my showers may not bring flowers

2006-06-24T18:04:00.000-05:00

so it looks like the hit counter has made it pass the single digit mark. i suppose that's enough motivation to write another post.

as much as this blog has become one of my hobbies (although, i'm sure it doesn't seem like it with my lack of posting lately), i have still been looking for things to do in charlotte. it shouldn't seem like much of a feat since it is a major city, but it can be a little overwhelming sometimes. so i have been looking through the independent newspaper for clubs and orginizations and so on. i found this post for spaces available to plant flowers, etc. i always liked the idea of gardening but have never had the opportunity due to living in an apartment. so i guess charlotte's park and recreations has plots available just for people like me. i have entertained the idea of going to home depot and picking up some seeds, but am not sure if this will just be another venture where i waste my money.

the problem is... i have good reason to believe that i have what people would call a "black thumb". my mom loves the idea of houseplants, but she has some difficulty keeping them alive. whenever she would walk in the door with another one, i would pull the plant aside and tell it to enjoy its last few moments on earth. there are maybe two that she has been successful with, but i think they only keep one of them around for the cats to chew on. in any case, if the black thumb disease (BTD) is genetic, then i have lost all hope of ever making flowers bloom.

i will give my mom credit for one thing, though. as much as she has had to resort to the fake variety of indoor vegetation, she has done a surprisingly good job of keeping her outdoor flowers up and at 'em. every summer i come home, she has a new assortment of flora and i stand there in amazement. i have to lean in for a closer look to make sure they're not the silk ones from michael's. so maybe there are different stages to BTD. if so, then my mom must have BTD type 1, which means i still have some hope left after all.

so i guess i have a trip to a nursery ahead of me... i'll never know if i don't try.

daffodils, daisies, and lilies... here i come!

the loneliest number

2006-06-15T13:28:00.000-05:00

well... the hit counter is now officially on. it's at the very bottom of the page. yes... it says 1. and yes, that person is me. so basically, i am typing this to myself.

hello, myself.

i am tempted to leave it at that, but i still feel obligated to write a little more. so i guess this blog is purely for my own self-enjoyment. and for my parents to check in on me every now and then to make sure i haven't joined a cult or got a dog or anything.

i can't make any promises about the dog issue.

i'm a nurturer... i need a pet around so i can have something to smother and spoil. but, with an apartment and having no one around during the day to take care of it and keep it company, i would feel a little guilty. besides, i've never had a dog. i've grown up with cats. but everytime i go to the park and see someone walking (or these days carrying) their little mutt, i'm ready to go out and buy some beggin' strips.

it's taken a lot of will-power not to make a trip to the animal shelter. the thing that keeps me from going is common sense. i start to think about the pet deposit fee for the apartment, and the vaccinations, and the toys and the food and then i remember that i don't even get the food network on my t.v.

so, for now... i'm petless.

i guess this is why i feel the need to write more. this is what i must nurture for now. so i will. i will sit in front of this computer and keep typing until its tail starts to wag.

no dog?... get a blog!

hit me!

2006-06-14T14:04:00.000-05:00

as a reward to myself for posting 2 days in a row now, i am going to get a little tech-savvy and add a hit counter to my blog.

i am a little nervous to do this, though, because i'm not even sure if anyone is reading this (my parents do not count). so i'm just gonna put a little warning out there and say that, yes, i know the single digit outcome is pathetic, but i'm a newbie, so give me a break. and hey, if someone is reading this, then give my self-esteem an energy drink by clicking on my blog over and over again so that the numbers go up. i know you probably stumbled upon this through a link from your google search for pocket calendars, but you can spare me a couple of minutes.

for an update, i did go to the knitting group last night. i learned how to make a cable knit so hooray for yarn knowledge. that and i picked up some cotton yarn so it won't feel like i have cat hair sticking to my sweaty hands while i knit during this hot weather.

although, it has not been very hot these past couple of days. it has been raining non-stop for 4 days. and it stormed for 2, so there have been trees in the roads and power outages.

now, you can ask anyone who knows me and they'll tell you i enjoy sitting inside and listening to a good rainstorm. but when it ruins your outdoor plans 2 weeks in a row, it gets a little annoying. kind of like that song that never ends, the one that goes on and on, my friend; some people started singing it not knowing what it was, but oh boy, they'll go on singing it forever just because it's the song that never ends. (the one that goes on and on my friend)

well... hopefully this blog will go on and on and on and on. we'll see what the hit counter says.

but even if it displays .56... i'll still keep it up just for the sake of me.

la biblioteca

2006-06-13T15:28:00.000-05:00

yeah... another hiatus. oops.

i went to post another entry last week, but blogger was having technical difficulties. oh no!... whatever was i to do? well... i thought i would wait it out a week and then see if the internet still existed when i got back.

it's hard to post everyday when i don't have the internet in my apartment. oh, the joys of trying to figure out how much bills will be each month. i'm on a budget, you know... i can't just sell my soul to time warner so that i can post in the comfort of my own home.

i went to the public library to see if i could find a little bit of peace and quiet to collect my thoughts and write about something. because it takes quite a while to think random thoughts, just so you know. however, i guess the library is not a haven of silence anymore. well... that and i couldn't find a computer with internet access in the first place.

as much as some public libraries are still very archaic, i could never not have a library card. i don't know why... i just like the idea of browsing through the stacks and checking out 10-yr-old movies for free. that and i'm still looking for the one featured in beauty and the beast. (don't even lie... you all know good and well that the library scene is the awesomest sketch in disney history)

i was very hopeful that charlotte's public libraries would be the cream of the crop in n.c. i figured, biggest city in the state, they've got to be. maybe it was just the branch i went to, but i swear i almost saw a card catalouge file instead of a computer database. i guess libraries just sort of got pushed to the wayside ever since the emergence of the internet.

of course, right before i leave raleigh, the wake county public library next to me gets a huge makeover. the kind that leaves ty pennington's bullhorn voice ringing in your ear. i had a month or two to soak it up and, let me tell you, that is a library i could sit in for hours. it's too bad most people only do that now if their internet is down or they have no where else to sleep in between classes. oh... and i hear from all the cool kids that libraries are also good places to have cell phone chats, too. yay for modern day public space etiquette!

in any case, i carry my public library card proudly. there's nothing like seeing a mom with her two kids carry out 3 plastic bags worth of children's books and free willy.

so thank you judy blume and shamu... if it wasn't for you, i'd have an extra space on my keychain for another harris teeter vic card.

p.s.... i am using this rant to excuse me for my leave of absence... so there.

because she's a knit-twit!

2006-06-06T15:52:00.000-05:00

so... i figured the arrival of a new month constitutes a little break. only 3 posts in and i am already slacking off. i always hate it myself when people aren't more up-to-date with spilling their beans, but now i know what it feels like to just not want to write for once for crying out loud.

i guess this is kind of a reflection of how i operate. i find a new hobby that's really fun at first, then it just sort of fades away. for example, i picked up knitting before christmas and i found it quite relaxing. between then and not too long ago, i had knitted and destroyed and re-knitted a "sampler scarf" (code for "it looks like a 5-yr.-old did this"). i was recently re-knitting it for the third time and it was going along beautifully. needless to say, i haven't touched the needles in a month (ooh, look!... needless and needles in the same sentence?... what a card!).

but i have good reason for the lapse this time... during the move, i have somehow misplaced my scarf and my needles and my yarn. how discouraging is that? i had joined a knitting group here before moving so that when i got here, i would have people to meet and something to do, but i haven't gone yet just cause i think i would come off as a crazie when i showed up knitting with imaginary needles - "my mittens are looking exquisite, i swear, can't you see them?"

so... i am wondering if i should just go out and buy new materials (which i'm sure i will, no big deal), but i am really upset about my first piece just floating around unfinished somewhere without a claim as to who created this magnificent creature on just the third take. i guess this is why they invented those "especially made by ______" t-shirt type tags that you can sew on yarn goods.

another reason why it's tempting to quit now is because it is june and who in their right mind wants to sit out on a hot porch messing with wool? i do, that's who.

so the next knitting meeting is a week from now and i have already told myself that i am going. if i actually do i another issue.

but... then again, it's a new month, so anything could happen. hello, june...

emerald city

2006-05-31T14:41:00.000-05:00

the end of may is here and, taking a cue from the title of my blog, i figured i would do a sort of "evaluation" of this month. maybe make it a monthly thing. look at me... only my third post and already such lofty aspirations.

this month (as i say every month) flew right by. i don't think it helped that i had quite a bit going on: graduating from college, starting a job, moving to a new city, making sure i used my free coupon for blockbuster before the month ends, etc.

if i had it my way, i would graduate from college for a living. talk about the best way to clean the slate. new job, new city, new apartment, new car, new haircut. maybe i just got lucky and am skilled in the graduation dept., but i guess that extra year in preschool does pay off after all.
even though graduation comes with a lot of benefits, it is quite a hectic event. i had family in town from kansas and friends that i had to say goodbye to and all of these things pulling me in every direction that it was kind of hard to just soak it in. n.c. state did it's best to give me ample amount of time to enjoy my graduation by making the morning ceremony a mere 3 hours long, but i guess i was a little distracted with having to sit on an ice rink for that duration. (that's what happens when your b-ball team shares an arena w. a NHL team)

i thought i would test my limits a little more and start work the very next day after graduation. and i also found this out/decided this only 2 weeks before. and i was moving to a new city 2 1/2 hours away. and i hate packing. i designated one weekend to the task of finding a place to live and i found my apartment after a 7 hour scavenger hunt. let's just say i did not take the scenic route during "real world 101".

with all of that happening during this past month, i barely had time to breathe. but i enjoyed the fast pace of may. i count my blessings because if i didn't have all of this ruckus going on, i would be sitting on my parents couch in a small town, watching t.v. and waiting for them to feed me my dinner. wait a minute... i don't have cable and just found the grocery store the other day. is it too late to consider my options?

i found it rather fitting that this month ended with a 3-day weekend. i myself needed it more than i ever have and i can now truly appreciate the value of it.

i appropriately celebrated it with having someone cook me dinner.

here's to you, may... see you next year.

nail polish does not equal automotive paint

2006-05-30T14:43:00.000-05:00

one of the grossest commercials i've ever seen is that lamisil one. you know which one i'm talking about... the foot fungus commercial with the little creature that lifts the toenail like the hood of a car. ugh... gives me the shudders just thinking about it. for one thing, i'm one of those people that has a foot phobia. i know, i know, but i have good reason... my father has the worst feet known to man. i promise. the kind where a toenail does not exist, but merely a crusted, mangled... thing. i once broke an heirloom candy dish cause i freaked out when my dad brushed his foot against my leg and, as a result, i kicked over the whole coffee table (in a very "incredible hulk" fashion, might i add). so i'm sure you're assuming i got no dessert that night. wrong. my mom blamed it on my dad for having horrible feet. they are that bad.

so, with that on the table, that makes the lamisil commercial disgusting enough as it it. but it doesn't stop there. i also have a particular phobia of having any sort of nails being ripped off. (did i also mention i sleep with the lights on??) that stems from this movie that i saw as a young child. some melodramatic "i want to have an affair with my best friend's husband" movie was on, of course, lifetime and there was this one scene where the jealous friend is in front of a mirror and her jealousy compels her so to slowly rip every single one of her red-painted fingernails off one at a time. lovely vision for a 5 yr. old, no? this sort of unattended television viewing is what also sparked my fear of freddy krueger. (thanks a lot, mom)

therefore, i have plenty of reason to cringe whenever i see the lamisil logo. and, although i have not seen the commercial air in what seems forever, what is the ad du jour on msn's homepage today (which is what always pops up when i need to go on the internet at work)?

i'm not even going to give the foot fungus the pleasure.

on the bandwagon

2006-05-28T21:37:00.000-05:00

i used to hate the internet.

i like licking stamps and checking my mailbox. i'm a communications major, what can i say. so when this new-fangled thing called the internet came around, i was a little suspicious. i was afraid to order anything off of e-bay, cause how can you really trust that the circa-90's muppets cd-rom you have your eye on is still in working condition? you can't. and that's a crying shame. i also thought that e-mail was the "fast-food" method of correspondence and why settle for fries when you can have filet mignon? so i was one of the last few among my friends who would go to the mall to shop or use the library for research or still have a crisp pack of stationary.

but... i came around eventually. (although i still keep my fountain pen handy)

i found out that the internet actually - gasp - made things so much more easier. but that wasn't what surprised me about the internet. anyone can tell you that the internet makes things easier. what i really enjoyed learning about our good ol' friend the information superhighway was that it was actually fun to just surf the web. i never thought i could be one of those people to go looking on the internet without a purpose. how do find anything?!, i would exclaim. but those links will kill you. they suck you in and the next thing you know you're promising the web your firstborn just so that you can find another cool site.

so... i'm one of those people now. with that in mind, it was only a matter of time before i would create my own blog.

i have to say that blogs are the #1 thing that will make you all of sudden waste 3 hours of your day. you start reading one and then you find another and another and another. i figure if i'm spending so much time reading about everyone else's life, i should spend just as much time reading about my own. and quite frankly, you should, too. (duh)

i guess that is what i'll consider my introduction to the blogging world. so there you have it. i feel like i'm in a sunday school classroom sipping cold coffee and getting up out of my folding chair to say "my name is april and i'm a new blogger". but i guess that's a good feeling.

a bad feeling?... phoenix is losing to dallas right now and that is not making me happy.