walking on sunshine

So… I’m in Columbus. And “settled” in my apartment. I haven’t finished unpacking, which was half of my goal for Sunday, and I am disappointed I didn’t get to it. But, it’s not my fault.

You see… I landed on time in Columbus after hours of travel on 3 hours of sleep. In the airport, I found some chairs that no one was sitting on and laid down with my feet bent and tried to sleep. I think I got a half hour of rest. I was EXHAUSTED. I’m not used to this go, go, go of the past few weeks. I have to build up my stamina again.

Anyway, in Columbus I had to get a stupid trolley thing because I had 5 pieces of luggage (2 suitcases, 2 carry-ons and a box with my work computer). Got the rental car no problem – a cute teeny little gray Hyundai. Or is it grey? Gray. And hot. It’s very hot outside. Humid and gross. I drive to my “corporate” apartment (will explain later) and go up to the office to check in. They have been expecting me. Rebecca and Preston are hanging out to help me. This is a new experience for me: an apartment building having an OFFICE to run things. In boston, you’d be lucky if your landlord had an office.

So they make me RE-SIGN the documents I paid $8 to fax to them last week. That included a lease (fine – whatever) and about 5 addendums. One of the addendums annoyed me again. Background story: I agreed to rent this apartment a few weeks ago and they told me the cost was $1200 per month (with furniture) and that included everything (heat, water, etc). Then they send me the lease and a document that I have to sign (one of the addendums) saying that I agree to get renter’s insurance of up to $300,000. wtf. So I call State Farm in Ohio and get a policy. It costs me something like $11 / month. Stupid. So fine, I do it. Then I get to the rental office in Columbus and there are MORE papers to sign. There is a form to fill out if I want guests to have access to my place. There is a form releasing them of liability if packages from fed ex or ups are delivered to their office. Half the forms don’t make sense. For example, the Fed Ex form says, “you must have packages left at your door.” Then later it says “when packages are left in the office, we have no liability.” Well, you just said they had to be left at the door. Now you accept them? I sign a form agreeing to check the smoke detector once a week. It explains how to check that the batteries are working. I have to agree to the charges they are going to charge me when I move out - $35 for a carpet cleaning, $20 for a broken window, $40 for a broken window AND to repaint the frame, etc. I mean, the WHOLE page is full of charges. I was like, “seriously? I’m renting this place for a month. I have two whole suitcases. I don’t know anyone in town so I’m not going to be throwing rager parties. It’s not like I even have the MEANS to clean the place. I’m not going to go buy Lysol and toilet bowl cleaner and windex and pledge just for one month.” I thought this was a “corporate” apartment. Apparently not. It’s more of an apartment that’s furnished. Whatever. Cleaning fees. Stupid.

Then I start to ask about internet. They seem surprised that I want it. Who doesn’t want internet?? so they tell me the internet is free, but they hand me a sheet to sign on which I see other options such as upgrading. I ask about the upgrade and they say that it’s only $10. “Normal / free” internet is something like 250 / 125 download upload speed. I don’t know much about this sort of thing, but I KNOW that is not good. Especially since I am such a big podcast downloader. So, I ask for the $10/month upgrade which is like 1,000 download 750 upload or something like that. Or is it the other way around? While Rebecca is showing the building to some 20 year old college kid, Preston and I talk about the internet. I say, “I have a work laptop and a personal laptop. I can just use those both, right?” He says, “yeah, you just have to use the same login and password.” Password AND login? What is that for? I’m imagining a normal connection where I pick the network and type in a password. WELL, turns out that this is hotel-style and when I try to connect to the internet, a web page pops up and I have to log in with my distinct login and password, which I have to give to them to give to the company. Is that weird or what? So fine, what-ever. Rebecca comes back and sees I want internet. I didn’t check the box for a second user to log on. That’s just stupid. Why should I have to pay an extra $5 to have a 2nd computer online. Especially when I’ll only be using one at a time. So she says that there is a $15 fee to sign up for internet. I was like, “you said it was free.” She explained that everyone has to pay the $15 fee, that’s what the company charges them to set the connection up. It has nothing to do with the fact that I’m getting the upgraded internet. I said, “well, that’s misleading.” She tries to explain again that EVERYONE pays the $15 fee. I said, “I know, I realize that. I’m saying it’s misleading to tell people that Internet is free and not tell them they have to pay a $15 fee to sign up. Then it’s not free.” She says, “well, that’s how we do it here, I’m sorry if that wasn’t explained to you.” No, that was not explained to me. Nor was the slow connection rate. Nor was the fee for the insurance. This whole thing is starting to grate on me. So do you want to know the password I chose for my stupid upgraded internet? 5and10u. as in they are trying to nickel and dime me all the way to the bank. So they run my credit card AGAIN for that. THEN they give me this form to sign which is their internet policy. Wtf. An internet policy?? Yes, I have to agree to not download porn (ok, fine, but why is that their business??), not steal music or anything illegal like that, etc. I finally realized where I am. I’m in a fucking dorm. Yes, I am back in college. GREAT.

So they hand me this folder with copies of all the documents I have just signed – all 30 of them. It also includes a list of cleaning products to use and not use in the apartment. For example, windex is ok, but Lysol is not. And one last paper. It’s one of those carbon-copy things with all the rooms listed on it. I have to go through the apartment and write down all the things that are wrong with it, so I don’t get charged. More proof that I’m in a really expensive dorm room.

By this time, I’m just sighing all of my annoyances away. I go to my apartment and lit-er-a-lly, it is NINETY DEGREES INSIDE. And the AC is on. Its clearly not working. The rest of the place is… ok. The carpet is stained. There are chips in the linoleum in the kitchen. There are cobwebs in the corners. The hallway (outside) smells like my grandma’s old apartment building. But the furniture is cute. Really cute. It’s modern and totally my style. One high point. I wait about 10 minutes to see if the AC just didn’t get started until that morning or what. It’s just getting hotter and I’m dripping with sweat. I head back to the office. By this time I’m hot and annoyed and sticky and tired. I’m very cranky. I walk in and tell them about the AC. They agree to call the maintenance guy and tell me he’ll head to my apartment. I start bringing my luggage into my place when I realize I can drive a lot closer. It’s so muggy out, I can barely bring my suitcases up the two flights of stairs. It’s not possible to attempt to bring both at one time. I sit in the hot room and just wait to cool down. No go. I try unpacking but it’s too hot. After a half hour, just as I’m about to leave to run errands so I can sit in an air conditioned car, he arrives. He agrees its hot, but he’s already sweaty and dirty. I don’t want to know where he’s been. So he opens up the AC unit and takes out the filter. It is completely black with two inches of gunk on it. “that’s why!” he exclaims. I’m so relieved. He says he has to go get something and he’ll be right back. I don’t want to wait, but I also don’t want him to be in my apartment alone and I want to make sure it gets fixed so I know if I have to go to a hotel to sleep the night. He comes back. We start chatting. He asks where I’m from and I have this great new tip to “attempt” to explain myself, “well, I worked in boston, but I’m originally from north Dakota.” “oh, so you know about hot then,” he says. ?? I’m trying to work this out in my head. Boston, although blazing hot in the summer, most people don’t think of it like that. And no one thinks north Dakota is hot, even though it does get ungodly hot for a few weeks. “yeah…” I reply. And then I ask, “are you from columus?” “Toledo, actually.” Ahhh, I’m thinking. No idea. Toledo, ohio? That sounds right. Must be in ohio. And then he says, “about the same parallel from north Dakota.” I’m frozen as I think about this. I’m pretty sure Toledo is in ohio. Then I realize, ooooohhhhh. He’s thinking north CAROLINA. Which is hot. I didn’t say anything. He was a really nice guy and he can do work I could never do. He just doesn’t know much about geography.

Despite promises a few times that he was almost done, it took him an hour to fix the AC thingie. By the end, it was like 88 degrees in the apartment, so I was pleased. Oh, I forgot to mention the part about the tv. So when I got to my apartment, before the maintenance guy showed up, I turned on the tv for some background noise. It doesn’t work. I check the cables and the channels and no go. I called the office and said, “hii preston, it’s too hot to walk back so I thought I would just call.” He laughs. I ask about the cable and he asks Rebecca who I hear in the background say, “it’s not included.” Are. You. Kidding. Me. I tell them that its weird to include a tv in a furnished place and not the cable. But then I remember I’m not in a corporate apartment, just a furnished dorm room. So I ask who I can get it with and he tells me time warner. Lovely. Oh, and also, “how come the internet isn’t working?” I ask innocently. He explains that the internet company is only open during the work week, so he can’t submit the password until then. Wtf. I say, “well, that’s not good because I’m supposed to be working from home before work tomorrow.” He says he’ll get back to me. He calls after the maintenance guy leaves and tells me that the internet won’t work today. He tells me borders books down the street has free internet. GREAT. THANKS.

I can hardly get up I’ve been beaten down so much by the day. But I need toilet paper and shampoo and conditioner for the next day. I head out to find CVS and Trader Joe’s. going to Trader Joe’s put me in better spirits. I got some bubbly (cava) for me to celebrate my arrival in CMH, but by the time I got home and ate a bit, I was too tired. I couldn’t drink it. The apartment was normal, so that’s good. I went to bed around 9:30 hoping to get 8 hours of sleep before work. I didn’t unpack and hardly put away my new purchases. I was too tired. Of course, I don’t end up sleeping all night – I woke up at 3am and couldn’t fall back asleep. Stupid body and stupid sleep schedule.

Ok, this is incredibly long, but I wanted to detail all the frustrations with my new place so you understand why I am now looking for a sublet in Columbus for the last three months of my stay. If you’ve got any tips, let me know.

i love to move in here

fatigue is trying to overcome me. will. not. let. it. get. me.

i’m in chicago’s o’hare airport. or is it o’hair? o say can you see... i am on my way to columbus to be a productive member of society (read: work and pay taxes) and have a 3+ hour layover. this is after my 5:55am flight out of fargo. happily, its a short flight to cmh from chi. less than an hour. then i have to get my rental car, check into my apartment, unpack, get groceries, go to target, figure out how to get to work, etc. i love being busy. but not while i’m tired. i might have to take a nap or maybe the crisp columbus air will propel me forward! let’s hope.

so let’s just chat quickly about chicago. and chicago’s pizza to be specific. when i moved to boston, there was an Uno’s restaurant practically on campus and people liked going there to eat. i hated it. i avoided it whenever possible. why? because i was traumatized by chicago pizza in high school. when i was hmmm... either a junior or a senior, i went on a school trip to chicago for the national fbla convention (future business leaders of america). i won 1st place in the interview category at the state competition in minot, nd -- that was senior year i’m pretty sure -- and thus was allowed to go to the national convention held in chicago. it was my first time in chicago and i had a great time. i was with the north dakota delegation and we went to the aquarium and the boardwalk and shopping downtown. and one night we set out on foot from our hotel to find a place to eat. we ended up at the original pizzeria uno restaurant and i ordered a chicago-style pesto pizza. it sounded delicious. i had no idea what chicago-style pizza was, but it was pizza. could it be so bad? the answer is yes. it can be horrible. the pizza came and as soon as i lifted one slice out of the TRAY it came in, a puddle of water or oil or SOMETHING formed at the bottom. it soaked the crust of the rest of the pizza. and there was so much cheese and crust, it made me ill. it ruined pizza for me for a while. and almost permanently ruined chicago-style pizza and uno’s. i have not had deep-dish pizza since.

so today while i’m in the airport, i was looking for food. i had a delicious fruit smoothie when i woke up at 4am and when i landed i had half an auntie anne’s pretzel. i was lokoing for something more substantial but know to stay away from chicago-style pizza. i found a food court but they were mostly serving greek salads or cinnabons, neither of which i am fond of. there was one place that had no people in line - it was a pizza place with cute little pizzas. it said “famous butter crust.” i had no idea what a butter crust was, and the pizzas didn’t look greasy or super-deep dish, so i thought i’d try it. could it be so bad? the answer, again, is yes. i assumed butter crust meant they brushed butter on the crust after it was baked. no. this is not a butter crust. a butter crust seems to be made, in my opinion, by taking a stick of butter, flattening it, putting it between two pieces of crust and cooking it. it was nasty. i took one bite and thought, “what the hell did i get myself into?” the cheese wasn’t great, the sauce was uninteresting. i was sorely disappointed. i nibbled some of the cheese off the crust and stayed away. word to the wise: butter crust pizza is BAD. now i know why there was no one in line at this place. i hate wasting food. but i hate eating food i don’t like even more.

i just realized i think i’m at the wrong gate. crap.

dream apartment - 1

just a quick note. i've decided to make an on-going post of things i desire in my dream apartment. here is the first pot filler faucet. AWESOME. yeah, i don't really cook, but it still seems to be something incredibly handy and fancy and just necessary.

insane in the membrane

exciting day!

two posts today because today ended up being so fun and full of surprises. i can't remember the last time i was this busy and doing so many things that i enjoyed. woo hoo.

i thought today was going to be horrible because it was something like 85 degrees - my boiling point is at least ten degrees less. bleh. my cousins sara and kayla picked me up for lunch. we then picked up kayla's sister, kelsey, who just happens to also be my cousin - funny how that works, eh? and went to the drunken noodle in downtown fargo. what a cute place! i definitely recommend it if anyone is stopping by the area. pretty much every kind of noodle that you could want is there. actually, i don't know because i only know like 3 kinds of noodles, but they were all there. they have mac and cheese (gross), pastas (yuck), and then WONDERLUF asian noodles - drunken noodles, pad thai, and others. when i hear "drunken noodles" i assume asian noodles, of course. i was shocked to see the other types of noodles there. at first i thought i wouldn't eat anything until i saw the last and best section: asian noodles. anyway, i was about to tell my cousins about the ONE food that makes me naseous - fettucini alfredo - when i thought better of it. i did that once right before my brother ordered it and he got upset because then he didn't want to eat it. of course, two of my cousins ordered the dreaded dish. for some reason, alfredo sauce makes me throw up a little in my mouth every time i smell it. i didn't say anything and i'm glad i didn't. i couldn't smell it when they brought it to our table, so i was happy. the pad thai was DELISH.

anyway, then i got dropped off at babb's coffee shop to wait for homie's gf. she and i spent a good few hours shopping and catching up. i had a good time and bought a ton of jewelry and a few cards that i am going to send out - zaz. if i were to win a million dollars, i think i would definitely buy some art at some of the galleries we stopped in today. there are a ton of CUTE shops in downtown fargo. bravo, fargo!

lindsay dropped me off at home because she had to work. i finished a french movie in my room since no one else was home. it was difficult for me to watch. i ripped it on to my computer and clicked to add english subtitles because sometimes i miss a word or two in french and i like to have the backup. well, i must've screwed up or something because i ripped the subtitles AND english voices. which totally ruined the movie for me - i HATE watching dubbed movies. although, jean reno was in the movie and i'm pretty sure he did his own english speaking, so kudos to him.

my mom and i were sitting around watching tv later when the deck door opened. we assumed it was my dad and didn't say anything. i was thinking, "weird how no one is talking." usually when my dad walks in he calls out hello. all of a sudden, my littlest brother, who lives in bismarck and is working in grand forks this week, walks into the living room. !! we were shocked. his boss was coming to fargo for a few hours to hang out with his kids, so player hitched a ride to come hang out with us. what a great surprise.

so player and i ate grilled cheese sandwiches that mom made - i haven't had one of those in YEARS and then played battleship (i won). we were hanging out when my dad called player to tell him about his great golf game - he shot a 70! - on his way home from the golf course. they talked for ten minutes or so and then hung up when my dad pulled into the garage. player said, "he'll be walking in the door in two seconds" and then right after that, "crap! my shoes are at the door." if it had been me, i would not have noticed another pair of size 14 shoes, but as soon as my dad walked in, we could hear him, "whose shoes are these?" from the other room, i called out, "hi dad!" and he asked again, "who's here? whose shoes are these? did jon stop by?" i replied, "no, jon's not here." my dad didn't bother coming in to the living room - i can just imagine him staring at the shoes trying to figure out whose they were. finally, he walks in and he sees my brothers feet before he sees my brother, "oh, jon is here." and then stops because it's not jon, its the other brother! it was a fun surprise. since we were waiting for my brother's boss to come get him to head back to grand forks, the three of us sat around and watched wipeout. i love watching comedies with my brother because he laughs really hard and enjoys comedy.

so he left and my dad went to bed. i'm up with a perfect end to the day - food network. who will be the next to be chopped??

this is the end...

they say that it takes 21 days for something to become a habit. clearly i am not able to ramble consistently enough for anything to become a habit. here is another [futile] effort...

so. monday. monday monday. so good to me. monday monday. it was all i hoped it would be... or... just another manic monday. wo o-oh. wish it were sunday. cause that's my fun day. actually, it's not. i'm not a sunday fan. is it possible to think of the word "monday" without singing? i don't know.

weekend was ok. last full weekend in fargo. i thought i was going to be helping homie move, but he never called. and i never called him. so i ended up finding player an apartment in bismarck, going for a bike ride, watching a movie and playing settlers of catan with my parents. on saturday, i waited around for a laptop to be delivered and watched the movie jarhead. didn't like. don't like war or fighting. but don't get me started. i almost couldn't remember what else i did. went to this restaurant called ... crap. what's it called? sidestreet? blackstreet? spitfire. yes. spitfire in fargo, nodak. its a good place. good service, although, i am making a vow right now to never go to a BAR to have dinner. i don't like it. it puts me in a bad mood. i didn't realize, at the time, why i was so annoyed, but now i've figured it out. don't coax me to go out under the guise of leaving soon and then take me to a loud place with lots of tvs. if i'm going out for dinner, i want to sit in a restaurant. and i don't want people watching tv. i've only now just realized that is why i don't like half the bar in fargo. they're all sports bars. sports bars are not my thing. which is funny that i am just now realizing this. when my dad visited me in sacramento, some 3 years ago or something, he wanted to go to a sports bar and i was like, "i have NO IDEA where a sports bar is." and i couldn't find one. then when my brother came out to visit me, he really wanted to watch the vikings at a sports bar, so i had to look them up online and we had to drive to a suburb 20 miles away to find one. there are probably others around, but i couldn't find them. funny.

so yes, leaving. today is my last monday in fargo, too, because next sunday i am going to columbus, ohio for 4 months to do some consulting work for my old company. it should be good. i'm planning on not allowing myself to get stressed, go swimming every day (the place i'm staying has a pool!) and take it easy while working and earning some money. i'm most looking forward to using my brain for something other than blog writing and decoding dementia-speak. it shouldn't be too difficult since i've done this at least two other times before (california, new zealand). so that is why i was waiting for a laptop last weekend - my company sent me one to use while i am in ohio. and that is also why my week is so busy this week. like, crazy busy. it's like - i've been here for months and not seen half the people i should, so now i have to cram in all those bonding sessions into one week. this always happens to me. i'm so silly.

today i am (hopefully) having lunch with my cousins. if someone would text me to tell me the plan, that would be wonderluf. or wonderful. or just wonderluf. then i am meeting homie's girlfriend, lindsay, for some shopping and a snack. then i hope to clean my room and start packing tonight. tomorrow i am having lunch with my dear old friend, kj. i also plan on working (read: donating plasma) in the morning and taking my grandma to get her hair done. on wednesday i have to start working from home to get up to speed on the ohio account before i head out there. that will be wed-fri each day. it will be weird having to set an alarm again. in the meantime, i have to get my own hair cut and decide if i want to go get a north dakota drivers license. i also need to try on all these clothes i ordered online and send back the ones i dont want. friday night, player comes to town so i hope to hang out with him a bit and then saturday my mom and i were going to do something at the lake. i forget what. oh, i also have dinner on thursday night with my aunt at the hodo. woo hoo. more packing and trip planning and whatnot. eek!

what did i do on friday night? ugh. je ne sais pas.

i thought i was going to have to get a new license this week - last week, i went to homie's work to make a copy of my license and then fax that copy to the apartment i am renting in ohio. well, the next day i go to the store and can't find my license, which is a california license. [side note: can you believe i lived in boston on-and-off for 9 years and never had a mass license??] i never switched to massachusetts and since coming here a year ago, never switched to north dakota. mostly i don't like to part with IDs. so i am putting it off. i hope they punch a hole in it like they did in california to my nodak license, but i am afraid they are just going to take it from me and then i will have no proof that i was ever in ca. or something. anyway, i LOST my license. and i was worried that i would have to go to the nd dmv and ask for a license and since my nd license expired 2 years ago, they would make me take the driving test again, which you have to make an appointment for months in advance. so i was worried about that. and i was worried that they would take my actual nd license which is expired (because before i got my ca license, i wrote to nodak and got a duplicate copy of my nd license (only $8!) since i told them i lost my license. so when i went to get my ca license, they punched a hole in one and i still had the other. genius!). so now i don't have to because homie found it at his work. or so he says. that would be a sick joke if he didn't really find it. if he did, at least that saves me some time out of my week. but the question remains: do i get an nd license?

and i still can't remember what i did friday night. am i getting old? early-onset dementia? it does run in the family. d'oh! i remember! i went to o'kellys with homie. that was good. i had sushi but i thought i would be creative and get the regular tempura shrimp roll instead of the SPICY tempura shrimp roll and save a buck. well, turns out the buck is worth a lot. 1) the roll substituted spice for EEL sauce, which i don't love and 2) the spicy crab with wasabi makes me want to rip my mouth off, which is a sensation i LOVE. so next time: spicy tempura shrimp roll all the way. then i convinced homie to come over to our house and play settlers of catan with me and my mom. it was a death-fight to the end. between me and mom. homie just couldn't swing it. he was never in the game. too bad. we should play again just so he can prove to me that he can actually play.

and with that, i am going to get ready for my busy day.

twitter - HELP!

thanks to my friend, hr, for helping me figure out how to code twitter from so long ago. original message:

follow me on twitter
@spaceygrl

or better yet, tell me how to put some sort of link here so people can just click on it and then be following me on twitter... i have no idea what i'm doing...

now can someone tell me how to make it a cool box like on this site http://garyvaynerchuk.com/??

don't stop 'til you get enough

i'm kind of annoyed at my neighbors right now. the house to the north of us is only like 8 feet away from ours and they ALWAYS KEEP THEIR BLINDS CLOSED. wtf! i wish they would just leave them open once in a while so i could look in. to see whats going on. preferably at night. with the lights on. while mine are not. i am not a stalker, just curious. i like to look into how people decorate their homes. i swear! i know they're up - their lights are on. just crack the blinds a bit, please!

until i have found something to look at, i shall say one word: success! i was able to play a proper game of settler's of catan! wait. proper? i think my game last night was proper, but i mean to say that i played with other, real people! i convinced my brother to stop by after work and while my dad was golfing (sad face), my brother and mother and i played settlers. i totally thought i was going to win at the beginning, but the die just didn't roll my way. homie won, which is ok. i don't have to win, i just like to play. mom and i thought we would thwart his ability to win, but he triumphed. then homie and i played a few games of mancala, which i beat him 4-2. i know you usually play odd numbers of games, but when i had won 3-2 he wanted to play again - i think he thought he would beat me. and he could leave with a tie. and he didn't. he he. so now i just need to figure out when i can play settlers for the next time... hint, hint.

so every now and then i read some fun articles online and i thought to round out today's rambling, i would give a few personal comments on things in the news and social media recently:
1) news just released that texting while driving is more dangerous than talking on the phone. no shit, sherlock. i could've told you that years ago before texting came out. this is interesting because a few weeks ago, i was going through one of my boxes in the basement and i found this spiral-bound book i made in high school of all the speeches i had ever given (in speech, debate, student congress). in 10th grade, my radio commentary speech was titled "cellular phones: a risky habit or a lucky lifesaver?" this would've been in something like 1996 when cell phones were new and novel. here are the first few paragraphs of my speech:

Remember the time you were driving down the freeway and all of a sudden, out of no where, a car is swerving in front of you? You slam on the brakes just as the driver swerves into the ditch. Sound familiar?
Chances are, that swerving driver was on his cell phone. According to a study published last month in the New England Jounral of Medicine, driving while you're on the phone quadruples your odds of getting into a car accident.
The study is quick to point out that driving while yaking to your best friend is as risky as driving with the lowest legal limit of alcohol in your system.
The problem seems obvious. If your cell phone is in use, you are a 4.3% higher risk of becoming the next swerving driver, driver in a ditch, or even casulaty in a fatal accident. When you are talking on the phone with someone, you are not paying very much attention to the road. Your driving becomes haphazard and you put not only yourself but other people in danger....

When I found this, I thought it was funny because cell phones are such a huge use in every day life these days.

2) this article i read about freezing your credit cards has a video about destroying credit cards that was mildly funny, but reminded me more about my brother's video from high school as seen here


3) my birthday-mate, chad, alerted me to this article on the economy in bismarck, nd. its a cute little read and for all my unemployed friends out there - come to north daktoa!

4) and speaking of lack of- or less than average recession, this article shows happiness in states around the country. nodak is one of the highest! what state do you live in? and how happy are people around you?
maybe if my neighbors would leave their blinds open, we could bump the happiness in north dakota even more!

5) and finally, for your enjoyment or more likely bewilderment, watch this video. actually, can you tell me if this is just a weird video or is it hopelessly wrong? (which is what i'm leaning towards - seen on boing boing)

wanted: dead or alive

it is now clear to me that i need a hobby. i have just finished playing a board game. by myself...

i recently bought my favorite board game: the settlers of catan. i convinced my parents to play with me last saturday night and instead didn't go to a movie with my brother and his girlfriend (when have you ever heard of me not going to a movie when given the chance??). and today i discovered a new game on my ipod: mancala. it's a perfect game for just 2 people, and since its usually just my mom and i in board-game-playing-mode, i figured i would get it. so, after dinner tonight, i went to target and bought it (it was less than $10). and i got my dad to play with me, so that was cool. but once he went to bed, and my mom was already long in bed, and my brother sent out this tweet at about 8pm tonight: Goodnight ladies and gentlenean, i was left alone. i watched some food network which was all fine and dandy and then i was bored again. i read everything i could stand to online and decided to play settlers of catan.

the game box says 3-4 players must play at a time. last night, i hung out with my youngest brother who was in town for one night for work and we played settlers just the two of us. it was def not as fun (although still an awesome game!) without an extra person, so tonight i took out 3 sets of pieces and set it up. i even played the real way and rolled to see which player would go first and then gave her the best position first. i played the whole game and didn't cheat once! well, i made my own rules, so i didn't cheat according to those rules. only one rule really benefitted me and it wasn't that huge of a deal. luckily, i won. that would have really sucked if i had not won and i was the only player.

so yeah, boredom. or rather hobbies. i see it this way: there are 24 hours in the day. i sleep about 9 hours. that means 13 hours left to fill. say i spend an hour doing "upkeep" - shower, brushing teeth, getting dressed, getting ready for bed, etc. and i am usually online for at least 2 hours. that leaves 10 hours. today i went on a bike ride for 1.5 hours. and listened to podcasts the whole time. that's multi-tasking, so it's like 3 hours of work in half the time! anyway, say i watch 3 hours of tv. and i spend an hour eating. i've lost count, but i think that's something like 4 or 5 hours of boredom a day. and its not like i'm not bored doing some of the other things, as well. so i clearly need a hobby. i like to read and watch movies and organize things, but right now... i just dont seem to want to do any of that. i think i'm afraid that once i do it, i won't have anything left to do and that will be WORSE.

ok, i'm going to go make a plan for tomorrow because i have NOTHING planned. ugh.

peaches and cream

[spoiler alert]

i love it when bizarre things make you remember things from SO LONG ago - things you haven't thought of in YEARS. like, when an old high school friend brings up a name that you haven't thought of in 10 years. or when you smell something and it makes you think of your grandparents house before they moved to fargo. or, as in what happened just now for me, you see a movie online and remember 3rd grade...

just a few minutes ago i was flipping through the channels when i noticed turner and hooch was on tbs. its been years since i've seen the movie so i turned the channel. as soon as i saw it, memories came flooding back. i remember very distinctly being at my friend's house for her birthday. i haven't thought of her in years. she only lived in fargo for one year and we became quick friends. her name was andrea and she had very dark hair and very brown eyes. her younger sister was asthmatic and i remember being enthralled by the sister's inhaler. for her birthday, we rented turner and hooch and i could draw out the layout of her house and where i was sitting when we watched the movie. i had a cabage patch kids sleeping bag and long tshirt to sleep in. everyone loved the movie except me. there are two things that have stayed with me since then:
1) big dogs are gross and slobbery. i have ALWAYS thought hooch was disgusting and
2) you could die from a high heeled shoe. i was 9 years old when i first saw this movie and i have always been secretly afraid of showing up with a hole in my forehead that no one could figure out where it came from and my spirit would be saying, "high heel!" "high heel!"

so i'm watching this movie that i haven't seen in almost 20 years (the dog grossed me out so much i haven't re-watched it since i first saw it) and i have a few thoughts. the first, it seems wrong to see tom hanks in his boxers. of any actor i adore, tom hanks is one who is not a sex symbol for me. put on some clothes! secondly, now that i am watching this in my (gasp!) almost-30s, i am thinking, "no WAY is this appropriate for 9 year olds!" but now that i think about it, i'm sure i didn't know what was going on back then... finally, is there any role in which tom hanks has not yelled? if he were my dad and yelled at me with that almost-high voice, i think i would just laugh.

oh gross. the dog is slobbering. bleh.

so i just looked on facebook for my old friend, andrea. she is not listed. i wonder what happened to her. after the year in fargo, her family moved to rochester, mn and i remember two times, my parents drove me a few hours into minnesota and we would meet her family so that she and i could hang out. i wonder if she came to fargo or i went there or we just stayed in the middle. i don't remember exactly but i do remember once being in a hotel room and it was raining, so we went to the store and got board games to play. i think that was on a trip to see her.

i KNEW it was craig t. nelson! from the first 30 seconds i changed the channel, and i swear that i haven't seen this movie in 20 years. i have some sort of bizarre memory to remember weird movie facts. i didn't even remember that he was in this movie. wow. i am so impressed with myself right now.

ok i think thats enough for now. i'm super tired. peach out. i mean peace out.

backpfeifengesicht

so today is august first and its kind of half-way through the year (a little more than, i realize) and it made me re-think about new years resolutions - mostly because i was going through old drafts of ramblings and discovered this one which i never finished which was supposed to be about resolutions. i never made any, which is why i never finished the rambling. in any case, i thought it might be interesting to take a moment and read these articles and think back to how i thought this year would go.

• Article about ringing in the new year in a new way
• End the year with the year in mind
  

i think my original goal was for me to re-read those articles a few days after new years and then come up with some resolutions. that never happened.

but back to the beginning of 2009. i honestly thought i would be going to africa. that whole kiva-fiasco ended with a loud wimper. then while i planned my next move - i was going to go to asia to volunteer or build houses in new orleans - the region was hit with a massive flood - taking up almost 6 weeks of worry and sandbagging. that was a big distraction and then was my extravagant may vacation heading all over the world. i got back in june and *started* looking for a job and getting things back in order and now its august. and today marks the day that i have been without "real" employment for a year. crazy how time has passed and i don't feel as if i have been doing nothing. although i predict that august will be a relatively boring month because both daisy of love and charm school ended on vhone. i was really bumed last sunday when daisy of love ended - i can't believe she picked london! i mean, i get the whole "dangerous rocker" vibe, but flex was HOT and almost sweet. i guess that's ok, too. now flex is available for when i bump into him at a grocery store in chicago...

so back to resolutions or goals or something. i don't exactly know what i want to do - a little bit of everything. i think, eventually, i'd like to go back to germany for a bit. they have cool words like backpfeifengesicht which is the word for a face badly in need of a fist. how many faces do you see like that every day?? and i'm not a violent person - i believe in the lack of violence. but sometimes you just want to hit someone. or at least make them stub their toe.

but i also really want to find a real job. i want to have an apartment to decorate and live in and have time to myself and be alone. or have friends over for a dinner party (most likely catered) and have wine delivered that i can drink each night and not have people give me sideways glances for enjoying some red. and to decorate, i'd have to put up this new painting i bought at the fargo street fair a few weeks ago - isn't it awesome?? i love it. can't wait to properly display it.
and i never really did get any of the "spend a few months volunteering" out of my system. i would really love to go to new orleans and build houses. not right now, though. i'd probably die of some overheating-a-pale-white-north-dakotan thing. so maybe i'll wait to do that in winter when its not so likely that i will pass out in weather greater than 80 degrees.

no, come to think of it... the main thing i would like to do is get a challenging job. i have to use my mind more or i'll end up with alzheimers. and not be so bored all the time. yes, that is my new this year's resolution... find a job. any suggestions?