The Mask

The picture isn't of the highest quality since it was taken with my phone, but I still think it says a thousand words. Some of those words being: H1N1, quarantine, and pneumonia.

Yes, there is a confirmed case of H1N1 in my home. I luckily don't have it. Dad suddenly got really sick Monday night and scared me pretty bad actually. Tuesday he didn't get much better and spent most of the day flat on his back. Mom was somehow able to convince him a doctor was necessary and to the doctor they went. The doctor confirmed it was H1N1, I was still holding out that it was a normal flu. Then yesterday the doctor called with the results of his x-ray and confirmed out fears, he has pneumonia. He is on perscriptions for both H1N1 and the pneumonia. Our hopes are that there are no further complications and we can keep him out of the hospital.

Also, in an effort to preserve my health, he has be quarantined to one room of the house and Mom kindly sanitizes the rest of the house every night before I get home. And, being the super prepared Mom she is, she has the super fancy masks you see above (not just your regular surgical masks) that she bought when this flu broke out in Asia a year ago. This mask is my new companion as long as I am in the house. Hopefully all of our work pays off for both Dad and I.

The Fabulous Five!

The Fantastic Four may be superheroes...but the Fabulous Five...we are legendary!

So I thought I would introduce you to the people I work with. That way you can put faces with the names from here on out! And yes, this is how we look every day! Ok that's a lie... This is how we looked at the Halloween Carnival we hosted for the students and their families. I was a bully of a boss and required costumes. I think my bullying paid off.

Starting in the back from left to right: The Queen of Hearts(Me), Victor from X-Men:Origins(Ches), Kitty Cat(Lisa), Friendly Witch(Grace), Vampire Bride(Cassie), Jack Skellington the Pumpkin King(Vince)

I was the demoted from the Queen of Wonderland to the Queen of Craftland...I don't how I feel about this. Just kidding, Grace and I had a blast!

An Ape escaped from the Boo at the Zoo and joined us for the carnival!

No animals were harmed in the making of this photo... but a few children may have been scared.

I'm that crazy person in the boots and hat... this is right after I got stabbed in the eye with a purple marker. It was an....interesting....set up night!

I had to show them how it was done at the nerf shooting station. I was a killer sharpshooter, soda cans everywhere better watch out!

Any of you that have seen Nightmare Before Christmas (wait you haven't? go watch it...k watched it now? back to our regular progamming...) will recognize Jack Skellington the Pumpkin King and his girlfriend Sally!

And to finish it off the most adorable little fairy was willing to take a picture with the Queen. Thanks fairy princess! Halloween 2009 was the best yet!

I partied with Grace later that night. She hosted an awesome party! We had spaghetti because the guy half of this host couple thought it would be creepy if we imagined it was brains. haha Then we played lots of games and drank lots of soda like young crazy college kids do. It was a blast! I can't wait for next year!

Sweet Dreams Are Made of This

Wow. It's been a month. Maybe I should update you on some of the excitement in my life!

School has been super crazy. I may only be taking fourteen credits. But when I'm taking a 4 credit Calculus and 4 credit Chemistry it is a lot harder than you expect. I'm keeping up though! I also found a super smart guy to tutor me when I start to get confused. I have swallowed my pride and I am no longer too good for tutoring. Keeping my 4.0 is worth it! It's midterms week and I've got all A's so I'm halfway there!

Working the Student Activities Board has been intense! I'm always running around like crazy trying to keep up and get ready for the next event. I am loving it though! It's also giving me great opportunities to network. One of them being last month. The state legislature took a tour of Southeast Idaho the third weekend in September. Monday morning they came to the CAES building (the Center for Advanced Energy Studies). While they were there ISU and UI were both to present to them on our campus here in Idaho Falls. Our campus VP was supposed to be the student representative that presented. Well, he couldn't be there. So my boss suggested that I be the student representative. That day came and I was Business Barbie in the flesh. I dazzled and charmed my way through the meet and greet and gave an awesome speech on my life as a student and how University Place is such a benefit to the community.

Two weeks ago the student senate held their weekly senate meeting in Idaho Falls. To show my awesomeness and get my people known I presented to them on what we have done up to this point and what we plan to do in the coming months. I once again nailed it and am happy to say I've networked once again higher in the university. By the time I move to Pocatello I am going to have all the hookups. Yay me!

My dating life has been pretty lame, but that's ok. I'm starting to realize more every day that I am not ready for marriage or that kind of commitment. I would like a relationship, but I don't want a marriage. It's all very conflicting. But for now I am going to enjoy being single.

Mix it up!

I would like to say that at some point the rest of my summer adventures will be recorded on here...but I'm starting to think the chances are slim. School and work have got me busier than ever. As of right now, I spend an average of 11 hours on campus Monday through Friday either at work or in class.

So I think I'll be retooling my blog for the rest of the school year. I'm not sure yet how it's going to work and what I'll be posting. Which leads me to the question of, what do you want to read about? I'll try to keep chronicling my adventures, but how do you want it done? Only large stories or just funny little events as they happen? My goal is to keep you all informed on my life, so please, tell me how you want it done. Now, on to today's post!


"There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered."

I read this quote this morning and was blown away by it's awesomeness (which I know is not a word). It made me think of Elizabeth's post about the whiteboard calendar. It was her benchmark for when all the change began and what she felt like was two different lives. Truth is, it's one wonderful life that is filled with change and that whiteboard was there to remind her of how different things are now.

The previous quote is from Nelson Mandela's book A Long Walk to Freedom. That man has seen and facilitated more change in his life than I probably ever will. I believe that change is empowering and growth is my goal for this next year. I hope this blog will be my place I can look back and she how much I've altered. This may not be New Years when goals are normally set, but I usually don't do things the normal way.

I like to be a little weird.

Rainbows

Okay, back to regular programming after last weeks brief interruption.

The Rainbow Lady.

So, I had driven to Elizabeth's house on that Thursday afternoon before I went to Spokane. I wanted to have a few hours in the evening to hang out with them of course! Right as I walk in the door and I am setting down my bag Elizabeth tells me "So someone is coming to do some presentation, but I get a $100 gas card if I watch their presentation." I thought, no big, they'll spend 30 minutes trying to sell her on some product and we'll go back to life as normal with a $100 of gas paid for. I proceeded into the kitchen to get a glass of water and looked out the window and saw whoever it was that was coming to do the presentation was arriving. The luck! Of course she got there right after I walked in the door. Also, Tory had just put the pizza in the oven. I hoped she wouldn't be there any more than 30 minutes or we would be eating cold pizza.

So the lady came in and started setting up. I had no idea what the heck she was presenting. It looked like a fishbowl/humidifier/coffee pot. No joke.

Here is a picture of it that I found online. So I assumed she would be spending her 30 minutes on selling them on this humidifier. Well, she spent about an hour-ish trying to sell them on this. At this point I was getting thoroughly annoyed, the pizza was cold. I mentioned at the 1 hour mark that the pizza was waiting and she said "Oh your dinner is ready? Go ahead and eat! Don't mind me!" Well who the heck are you going to present to while we go eat our dinner? I was positive she was done after finishing with the little air purifier/humidifier. But then she pulled out this monstrosity.

The way the house is laid out I was mostly around a corner from her and couldn't see it. I was trying to entertain Ryker and myself and pretend she wasn't there. All I heard is "This will just sound like a vacuum" And suddenly a very loud vacuum comes on. Oh, did I mention Michelle was taking a nap in the living room when this lady arrived? She was. But she wasn't now. The dumb lady, knowing Michelle was asleep, still pushed forward with her presentation and woke Michelle up. Now I had lost all patience with this lady. So I set Ryker loose and he went straight for her binder of notes. He flustered her before Elizabeth intervened. Dang Elizabeth. Ryker and I had had a plan to get rid of this lady. Also Michelle's nurse arrived during this time and the lady said "Well you have one interesting little family" Family? Ummm...I'm the aunt....she's the nurse. They have a perfectly normal family, thank you.

Next She showed how fancy her vacuum was compared to all others. She tried to show how we would never go back. Tory told her "Yes I would." That really confused and flustered her. Then she asked Elizabeth for a high to reach place that was hard to dust. Elizabeth looked around and said "The ceiling fan." ....tehehehehe....Their ceiling arches and that fan is probably above 10 feet. She just looked around and said "Well I can't reach that...So I'll do the walls." And she vacuumed the wall.

....ummm....huh? If this was a demo on replacing dusting...why was she vacuuming the walls? I don't dust walls....

So next she tried the "Bring out your vacuum so we can compare how much better my vacuum is to yours" act. Elizabeth refused to bring out her vacuum. The demo lady didn't know where to go from here. And she actually said that "Well I don't know what to do if you don't bring out your vacuum." Too bad for you. At this point I had had enough so I got up and went to go outside, I go to put on my Tevas, and what the heck? She had put all her stuff on top of them. Who places their supplies on top of a persons shoes in a house they don't know? Really. I stormed out barefoot. Elizabeth tells me at this point she mentioned I was her sister and from out of town and she wanted to spend time with me. Well the lady didn't get the clue that what she meant was "Leave!"

But finally at the two hour mark she was closing up her presentation. She then asked "Can I borrow your phone to call my office?" And this was actually the third time she had. Can we say tacky? She then talked and talked to her boss about how we wouldn't budge on the buy. Then she handed the phone to Elizabeth. Elizabeth honestly thought she was done, so she hung up the phone. The lady stared "Umm...my boss wanted to talk to you...can we call her back?" Elizabeth for some crazy reason let her call back. So then the boss yammered at Elizabeth for a while. Elizabeth passed the phone back, and then the sales lady talked to her boss again for a while. Finally she was done. She then took 30 minutes to clean up this ridiculous mess she had made with all of her supplies. And she actually had the nerve to disinfect it in front of us. What message are you trying to send lady? We all just sat back and watched instead of helping. Really I was just doing everything I could not to give her a rude gesture at this point.

After being in the house from 6 pm to 8:30 pm she finally left. Oh, and the best part? No gas card.

Cool.

I will never let a sales person into my home as long as I remember the Rainbow Lady. 2 1/2 hours through dinner and bedtime. What levels of distasteful was she trying to achieve?

The Ugly Truth

I'm not even sure how to tell this story, or if it's a story that should be told. But here goes, I'll let you decide.

So you all remember the infamous Mike I went on a few dates with? No? Remember the anchovy incident? Yeah, that's him Well after three dates I applied Buh's three date law and made the command decision that he was not getting more dates. He was a loser. I didn't need another guy buddy, and I didn't much like him anyway. So I just slowly quit talking to him. It wasn't too hard either, he went out of town for a weekend, and after that we didn't really talk much. He Facebooked me once, maybe twice and I just didn't respond. I hadn't given him a "talk" that I was done with him. But I didn't feel I needed to after only "hanging out" three times. I thought I handled it nicely enough, because if I had given him a talk I would have had to explain I felt he was a loser and not even worth the effort of a friendship.

(I will insert here that Megan, Mom, and Dad all agreed he was a loser and that I should cut him out)

It's now been about two months since we "hung out" or talked. I didn't think I would ever have to see him again. I was wrong. He scheduled a placement test for another college through our offices. He apparently did not comprehend that my school's Counseling, Testing, and Career Services office was the same office he came to for career services when I first met him. Do not ask me how he did not connect the dots on his own. Especially when I answer the phone "Counseling, Testing, and Career Services. This is Christine." But he didn't. I knew who it was as soon as he began to talk and my stomach sunk. But I still scheduled his test and told myself I could be indifferent and treat him like any other customer easily.

So when he came for his test I treated him like any other person that came in for a test, no special treatment, but no harsh treatment either. I had considered options of how I could make myself too busy to talk to him after he finished his test so that he couldn't try to ask me out again or just plain talk to me. I decided against my disaster plans thinking it wasn't going to be that bad.




It was worse.


When he finished I luckily had two other people registering and starting tests that I was helping. I was sure that he would just leave. He didn't. He waited through all of it and then comes up to my desk and says "I've just got to ask. What's your deal? What did I ever do to you?"


....uuummm.....what?.....

And it proceeded on to a 20 minute tirade of him essentially yelling at me. Wanting to know why I had just quit talking to him and treated him like a stranger when he came in to take his test, he just let into me with questions and accusations. I wish I could have taped the thing, because now it's all just a jumbled mess because of the shock I am in over what happened. Part way into the conversation(not really a conversation, more like him letting into me), he kept pushing and wanting to know why I didn't think I needed him as a friend and I finally said "Honestly, you're 23, living at home, going from one seasonal job to the next, you're friends are high school girls, and you have no prospects of going anywhere." He didn't like that much and spent the next ten minutes arguing why he is so cool and none of those things were true and that I had totally gotten the wrong impression of him. I'm pretty sure I got the exact right impression of him. He told me at another point "You're all about ultimatums, it's one way or the other, nothing else." I said "Yes I am, I give people 3 chances, 3 dates to impress me and tell me who they are, if after that they're not up to expectations I'm done with them." I was told I was a horrible person and that I needed to love all people and all this other Bob Marley type cliche lines. I will jump to the end here. (if you want to know more of what happened in the middle, feel free to text or call me and I'll provide whatever else I can remember) He was trying to brag that he owned his own business(a sno shack) and that he was so cool and that none of my friends are as "achieved" as him (oh that's because I told him I prefer having achieving, goal driven, forward moving friends). I just said "well do you plan to live off of sno shack's for the rest of your life?" He then asserted that he supposedly makes something like $15,000 in a summer doing it. He has a friend who owns four and earns "like $70,000 and never has to work another day in his life." False, I assert that his friend obviously is unmarried and childless and not making mortgage/rent payments, insurance payments, car payments, and all other debts. Because a family could not live off of that and have him "not work another day in his life," and be sitting pretty. I had finally had enough and after multiple times of telling him that I was trying to be an office professional and treating him like any other client and that we had hung out on three times, and that did not merit a deep friendship or me owing him an explanation. I also told him that he was harassing me in the workplace. I told him he needed to leave, and he kept going and bashing and then said "Well if a nurse anesthetist (he is just starting college this fall, so that's 6 or so years away), and a wildfire firefighter(summer seasonal job), and blah blah(I started tuning him out at this point) aren't going anywhere or good enough than whatever. What are you doing with your life?" I responded "You have insulted me, and you need to leave" He started to walk out and then said "Well final words, I hope you do good, I just hope you do good." I again responded "You need to leave." And he just looked at me and left.

Finally! I immediately got on Facebook and deleted him as a friend so as to not have him harassing me on there later. I thought the ordeal was over when I got this text "christine-since i kno u wont answer my call... remember yer also 22, still living at home, working as a secretary makin what 8.50 hr.- christine-your biggest downfall is being too judgemental- good luck finding mr right with that. also work on not being so negative- stop being so cynical and negative be more positive and one last thing- i new after hanging out with u once i didn't want to date u. -and i think thats what offended u the most-sorry"

Let's go over this text from the beginning. First, the grammar and spelling is atrocious. I don't care if it's text, at least use proper grammar and spelling for words like"knew". Next, I'm 22?...enough said. And yes, I am judgemental but how the heck am I supposed to find Mr. Right if I am not judgemental? I could end up with 23 year old guys who act like 14 year old girls in a professional office like he did. And yes I am cynical; when needed. And he didn't want to date me after the first time? Well then why did we do something 2 more times that week and why did he invite me over to Sunday dinner with his family that week? (which I turned down) Since not wanting to date me was not the signals I was getting, I couldn't have been offended over him not wanting to date me. But oh well. Don't worry, I didn't answer the text, and I never plan to.

I will close with these remarks. His actions and his words did not add up. He said he didn't care and he had lots of better friends and that he wasn't trying to prove himself to me. But yet he stood in my office for twenty minutes wanting explanations of why I didn't talk to him and defending his supposed coolness. And then he sent a desperate and spiteful text. For some reason I think he is used to being the one to tell girls they're not good enough, and for the first time a girl told him. I feel bad I had to, I tried not to have to, but he left me no choice.

...some people's children...*shakes head*

With A Cherry On Top

So I'm sure you're all dying for me to recount the tales of my trip to Spokane. But let me start here, I read Pioneer Woman's website and watch her Tweets on Twitter. A tweet one day stated, "I'm certain I'll laugh about it someday. When I'm 87." She was referring to the fact that her dog had stolen the lens to her Nkon and then ditched it (read: ruined) in the yard. That's how I feel about this last weekend.

I'm certain I'll laugh about this someday. When I'm 87.

It all started out good. We drove over to Boise on Thursday afternoon and spent the evening there. That's when I had the encounter with the "Rainbow Lady" as I now call her. I am going to forego that story for today and save that for another post. Friday we had a lazy morning and didn't end up hitting the road until 2 in the afternoon. I wasn't too worried about leaving that late; we had two of us to drive if either got tired. Hitting the road and cranking up the stereo, we were the epitome of college girls on a roadtrip. We were jamming out and revelling in the glory of our awesome roadtrip. I must make a sidenote here: For the last couple of years the cruise crontol has been flaky in this car. That one thing you must remember, or nothing that follows will seem wondrous... Ok not wondrous...more like not out of the ordinary...

So anyway, I was driving along and the cruise control disengages. No big surprise there. I pushed down the pedal, but I didn't getting any real response when I did. I was watching the speedometer and suddenly the needle was flicking between 45 and 95. I was pushing the pedal and still getting nothing. I suddenly turned off the stereo and turned to Megan and uttered my final words, "...My car just died..." I had shut off the stereo to see if I could hear the engine, and there was no engine. My worst fears were confirmed. I looked down and the car was registering 0 RPM's. Megan's response "Well, we better pull over." I agreed, but I didn't really like that idea at the moment. Currently I had no idea where we were on the highway and I didn't want to have to 19 year old girls sitting on the side of the interstate like a turkey dinner for any weirdos that might stop to "help". I'll admit it, watching the movie Taken has me terrified of being a young girl going anywhere or talking to any strangers. So I decided to turn on the hazards and see how far I could coast hoping for an exit, and there it was! The Fruitland exit! So I coasted up the Fruitland exit and had decided I was going to run the stop sign regardless of traffic laws, because once I stopped I wasn't getting going again. Well the car in front of me not knowing my plight came to a complete stop and sat for a while.

We were now sitting at the top of an offramp with a dead car. I tried starting it and it was a sad and painful moment for that poor car. It gratingly turned over and then sounded and acted like death was imminent before losing power and turning off again. I did this a few times with the same result each time.

Luckily I have a loving sister and brother-in-law who will come to my rescue at the drop of a hat. I called her and that was that, The Incredibles (as some have dubbed them) jumped into their car and rushed to my rescue!

I still wasn't loving the position we were in though. Our rescue car was about an hour away and we were very alone until then. At this point, many cars were getting confused and grumpy with me just sitting at the stop sign, so I turned on my hazards and popped my hood so that they all got the idea. Problem was that really drew attention to us and I was still pretty nervous about being two 19 year old girls alone and getting "help". So even though the temperature was rising in the car, we kepts the windows up and the doors locked.

As I was sitting trying to figure out what to do next, I looked in my mirror and for most likely what will be the one and only time in the history of man, I was happy to see flashing lights in my rear view mirror. Happy isn't descriptive enough. I was relieved, overjoyed, elated, reassured...you get the point. Mr. Cop walked up to my car, smiled and said "You know you can't park here." And under the strain it may not have come out as jokingly as I intended, but I responded "Well I can't really move either." He smiled and told me we were going to move it to the gas station down the road. He explained (as any good father type would, and he looked like he might have teen daughters) that I no longer had power steering or brakes and all the details I would need to know for us to get it down the hill and to the gas station. Well, Megan got out of the car assuming he was pushing it and she was going to help. False! Those intimidating bars on the front of cop cars; those are push bars. Apparently meant for situations where they need to...push things? So he got me down the hill and into the gas station, but I lost all momentum before getting to a parking space, and then started to roll backward. Without power brakes there wasn't much I could do. The cop was creeping up behind me and then suddenly an Innocent Bystander was doing all he could to signal to me I was about to hit a cop behind me. Well, we bumped into each other. Innocent Bystander just stared at me at this point (poor man was really confused) The cop came up and we planned where to push me from there and got going again. I'm sure Innocent Bystander was very confused as to all that he just watched. I mean, I technically hit a cop car, then had a jovial talk with him, and he started pushing me with his car. Poor Innocent Bystander.

After we were parked, the cop came up in his car and his parting words were "Well now you're not allowed to say 'Where's a cop when you need one?'" Then he drove off. I didn't get his name or anything so that I could thank him. That's what being a cop is about. Not just pulling people over, but protecting the people and helping them when they need it, and not taking praise or credit for what they do. To me, he is the real deal. An officer of law, a gentleman, a cowboy(maybe), and a dad(most likely). I will be forever grateful.

So while we waited for our rescuers, Megan and I noticed a fruit stand behind the gas station. ...Well, we were in Fruitland. When in Rome, right? So we bought a bag of cherries. They were delicious. How's the saying go? When life gives you a broken car...eat cherries? So we ate cherries.

Our rescuers came, never making fun of me or the situation I had put us in. Thank you Buh and Tory! The ride home in their car was an adventure and a half since there were 5 seats for 6 people. I got to ride in the cargo area.

Laughing and teasing all the way back to Buh and Tory's home I realized how blessed I really am. Hey, they may have been using the two sunroofs on the car to see if a cherry pit could go out one, in the other and hit me in the face....But you know what? Things could have been a lot worse. Regardless of my car's current situation, I was safe, I was with my family and my best friend, and things couldn't have been better. It was the cherry on top of one funky sundae. Literally...(at least the cherry part)