confessions

i just got back from a mid-day run to target. it's humbling - i had to ask my dad to use his car since my mom took the other car to work. luckily, my dad comes home for lunch so i could use it. you know you're cool when you have to ask your parents to use their car.

anyway, i wonder if there is some sort of study or statistic to show when the majority of people are born. one might think around this time of year because valentine's day is more or less 9 months ago. but i don't think so. or if that is the case (btw, i have always felt bad for people who are born around the holidays. parents, if you are doing some family planning, try to avoid this - no kid wants to share birthday presents with christmas / hanakah presents. of course, if it just happens, it just happens) then target doesn't know it. i went to target with the sole purpose of buying a box of birthday cards. i am drearily behind in my birthday card writing (if you usually get one from me and you haven't and your birthday is in nov or dec, i am sorry - hopefully its coming. if your birthday is in sept or oct, you should've gotten a card because i wrote all those before i left for europe and asked my mom to send them while i was gone). well, it turns out, target is not selling boxes of birthday cards at this moment. hundreds of boxes of christmas and other holiday cards, but no birthday cards. do they think that birthdays stop because of the holidays? i should hope not! jesus's birthday is dec 24, in fact. way to piss off the big guy, target! (apologies for being christian-sentric to my dear readers who are not. most people in the midwest are, so most things around here are "merry christmas" instead of "happy holidays.")

so then i got to thinkin' (i be smart like that), and realized that i could MAKE my own birthday cards! i've got enough time on my hands. so, i bought some fun stickers and blank cards and am going to do some fun crafting over the next few days. speaking of crafting, i went to the hobby lobby last week to find my mom a christmas stocking to make. apparently people don't sew christmas stockings anymore - you just buy them pre-made. oh, wait. excuse me. STITCH. not sew. i was at hobby lobby and i asked a woman for the christmas stockings that you sew and she looks at me with disgust written all over her face, "you mean STITCH?" "umm, yes?" i humbly replied. who knew there was a difference between stitching and sewing?? well they didn't have any patterns, but i got nostalgic walking around the STITCHing aisles - growing up i STITCHed a cute pattern for the bathroom. crap. now i can't remember what it was. it had a blue bathtub and i think an elephant in it or something like that. i should find that. i never hung it because you're supposed to wash the pattern after you finish so the fabric stretches or something like that and i was always afraid i would ruin it. i'll look for it and hopefully take a picture. but i digress. so card-making and STITCHing are how i shall spend my days since i have so much free time on my hands...

and speaking of time on my hands... it's not as if i left my job to come home and do nothing. i kind of have always had a plan but haven't really told a lot of people about it because i'm not sure if it will work out. so far things are moving along. i had an interview last night for this opportunity, which is good. so there i was at 5:30pm putting on make up to (attempt to) look pretty for my skype interview. so she calls me via skype and then - shock of all horrors! we didn't even use the video function! it was just TALKING. gasp! i was somewhat pleased, but somewhat disappointed, as well. know what i'm sayin'? pickin' up what i'm layin' down? is the cheese spread too thin? ok, i don't know where that one came from. things seem to be moving along for now. i'll keep you posted...

today, on my way home from target, i passed a scholastic book truck. scholastic books! instantly, i was brought back to elementary school days when you'd get those two flimsy, but colorful pages of books that you could buy.you'd take the flyer home and then bring it back with a check from your parents. then, a few weeks later, your books would arrive! as a childhood bookworm, scholastic books were the BEST. i've just spent a few minutes looking on their website and i kept saying, "oooohhhh!!" at every button i clicked. so apparently they only make books for K-Grade 7. wtf?? grade 7! i want some scholastic books! i could still learn new vocabulary and look at pretty pictures! they should totally make books for people in my grade - grade 18. it's like when i was in 4th grade, i went to this after-school program and on the first day, i went up to the "teacher" or "organizer" or whatever a glorified babysitter is called and i was like, "what grade are you in?" kind of all hoity-toity. he was really nice, treating me like the kid i was, "well, i'm in college." "yeah, so what grade is that?" i replied like i was real smart. "well, i guess i would be in 15th grade." his name was troy and i think i had a crush on him. back then, i had a crush on EVERYONE. including some of my cousins. i even have a polaroid picture of troy. speaking of which, polaroid is going to stop making the instant developing film. so sad! i LOVED that camera so much! anyway, back to scholastic books. i felt a little guilty when i saw the scholastic book truck. you see, i don't consider myself a BAD person, but i'm not really sure that i'm GOOD either. i guess i don't know a lot of GOOD people. what have i done to help humanity? what is my long-lasting effect on the world? or maybe i am a bad person. you see, i have done some bad things. when i was in mrs. treiglaff's 2nd grade class at washington elementary school, i did something bad. we had just received the books from the scholastic book club and mrs. trieglaff called each one of us up to her desk and gave us the books along with our little receipt where we had checked off which books we wanted. i got my books and was so excited. i was sitting at my desk when she said "there's a book left. did i forget to give anyone the oak tree book?" no one raised their hand, so i took out a pencil and wrote a "1" next to the oak tree book on my slip. i went up to her desk, "mrs. trieglaff, i think you forgot to give me a book." she looked it over and "realized her mistake" and then gave me the book. i forgot the book's actual name, it had a tree on the cover, was thin, and i think it won some award so it had a bronze medal on it or something. i just went downstairs to our plastic bins where we are keeping all the children's books and looked for it. it wasn't there. but whenever i did see it, i would think about how i had stolen it. the stolen book.