Laura!!!

It's my birthday. Well technically it ended about 25 minutes ago, but I'm counting this as my birthday still because I haven't gone to sleep yet. It was a lame birthday. I didn't do anything fun. I had to study and do homework. dumb. Oh well, it's almost Thanksgiving!!!! I love Thanksgiving. :)

I was harassed by a friend because i haven't updated my journal in forever. I guess it's time i update it... Today is election day. I voted, but not in the poll booths. I had an absentee ballot. Good for me! haha. It's the first election I've voted in because my birthday missed the last one by a few weeks. Oh well.

This past weekend was Halloween. It was a very good Halloween. I spent it at my boyfriend's house because his little sister's birthday is on Halloween and they had a party for her. It was a Clue-themed party and I dressed up as Mrs. Peacock. My costume was kind of lame, I found this dress on clearance from Kohl's that had a peacock-like print on it and I had a feather boa. It's alright though, cause nobody else there had a crazy costume, so if I would have gone all out with mine i would have felt overdressed.

A couple weekends ago was the Michigan vs. Michigan State football game. I attended it :) It was ok. The game was kind of upsetting because UofM lost and so all the fans were depressed and the after-parties were lame. Actually I didn't really go to any after-parties, but the house I did go to didn't have anything going on. It was still a nice weekend spent with my boy :)

In school news, I signed up for my classes for Spring semester! It's going to be an awesome schedule. I finally got away with no Friday classes!! I haven't had that in a while so it's going to be nice. Also my earliest class is at 11:00am and that's only Tuesdays and Thursdays. Mondays and Wednesdays my earliest class is at 2. I have my first evening class ever at CMU, too. Tues/Thurs from 5-6:15. Shouldn't be bad. Overall I'm really happy with my schedule this time, except for the fact that I'm taking Composition 2 again since I got a C- in it at OCC and it didn't transfer. I'm hoping it won't be too bad cause I looked up my professor on Rate My Professor and she got really good comments.

In other school news, I joined a group! It's called ACM-W: Women in Computing and Technology. It's for women and to support them in the field of computing and technology. Men are free to join as well. It's nice to finally meet other girls that are in the same field as I am because it always seems that I'm the only girl in all of my computer classes and it can be a little intimidating. So far the group has been a lot of fun. We've had a workshop where we took apart hard drives and we're going to do more workshops where we take apart printers and laptops and other components of the computer. We're actually the first chapter at CMU for this group so we're like the founding members! It's pretty neat.

I'm really looking forward to the next couple months. Things just seem to be getting better in my life right now and I'm so happy because of it. :)

So I haven't updated this thing since the end of last school year. I guess I was just too lazy this summer to do it. This summer was a good one. Besides my job everything was great. I did a lot of fun stuff and learned some new stuff. Disc Golf became a new hobby of mine....well maybe more of an obsession haha. I improved my bowling also :). I still don't really know my average, but it's gotta be in the 130's, maybe a little more now... I got a boyfriend and I'm really happy to be with him :) I got another funky tan, but I think last summer's tan was crazier. I went to Toronto and New York to visit a friend for a weekend. That was a fun road trip.

I'm at school now and it's already been quite an interesting start to the year. I got into my first car accident yesterday. It was so scary. We were driving and there was a car coming toward us and apparently they didn't see us and they turned right in front of us. The two driver's sides impacted, so it was pretty much a head-on collision. We were going 45mph, so it was pretty bad. Everyone was ok, in both vehicles. We just have some bruises.

Today was the first day of classes and so far so good. Everything went smoothly in them so I'm hoping that I don't have too much trouble. I am sort of afraid that I overloaded myself this semester and might have to drop a class.... We shall see...

Anyway...that's about it I suppose. I won't make any promises about keeping this thing updated. I'm just too lazy...

I haven't updated this in a while with a real entry, so I thought that now would be a good time to do that. I feel like I've been accomplishing a lot at school lately. I just signed a minor in Spanish, I've signed up for my Fall classes, and tomorrow I have an appointment to do a degree audit so I know exactly where I stand. I have a feeling I still have a couple years left, but honestly I don't think I'm ready to leave and go out into the real world. I'm scared. I'm sure everyone gets like this when it comes time to graduate, but it's still really freaky. Right now I'm feeling really good with where I'm at, though. I'm very happy that I'm still enjoying my computer classes. I'm now very optimistic that I've chosen the right field, though I'm still not sure exactly what I want to do with it, yet. I'm going to try and get an internship next semester, we shall see how that turns out.

My plans for this summer are to go back to Brien's and do the same thing i did last summer. I'm hoping to get a raise there. If I don't get a raise I'm going to be disappointed, but I'll probably stay there because I still made good money.

So all in all, I'm looking forward to next semester. It's going to be a lot of work because all of my classes are for my major and minor and I go 5 days a week, but the actual class schedule isn't so bad. I think it's going to be the work load that gets to me, and if I do end up getting an internship, that's going to put even more pressure on me. I think that might be a good thing, though. I need a little something to get me motivated and work hard. :D


In other news, I am kinda obsessed with bowling. I've been going about once a week for almost the entire semester and a lot of last semester, too. I've been really improving my game. I had a bowling class a couple years ago when i was at OCC, and i left that class with a 108 average. I'm pretty sure that my average is now at least in the 120's. The past two weeks I've gone I haven't gotten below a 130. I think I've finally found my technique and it's working for me. I went today and got a new high score of 162. I forgot to mention in my summer plans that I want to join a bowling league. I hope that happens, because i'm obsessed!

Did you hear that MGM got a new mascot? Pretty cool!!




Icanhascheezeburger is my new favorite website. :D

Last night I was hanging out with Shia Labeouf. It was so much fun! .....but then my alarm went off. Stupid alarm clocks! I hate when i'm having an awesome dream and I get interrupted by something stupid, like an alarm, or the girl next door. Sometimes, dreams are a lot better than reality, which has been the case for me lately. It really sucks when your dreams kick ass, and then you wake up and realize it was all just a dream, and that things will never be that way in real life. How depressing...

Then there are some other dreams where it has people that you know well in them, and they do something out of the ordinary, but it's not a good thing. Those are the dreams where you wake up saying "what the fuck?", but then you think about it, and you're glad that it was just a dream. I've had a fair share of those, also.

One thing that I dream about often is being able to fly. I think these dreams go hand-in-hand with my desire to go sky-diving, or para-sailing. I think having the ability to fly would be the most exhilarating feeling ever. I think that's why I like roller coasters so much, just the feeling of weightlessness you get when you're going over a hill. Someday I will do one of those...para-sailing, sky-diving, or hang gliding. *sigh* I wish I could just fly away.

as if i haven't complained about this enough, but I am sick. :( I have a cold. It just figures that I haven't been sick at all this year and now I have to get sick the first day I get home from break. It really sucks. My throat hurts, i'm coughing, my nose is all stuffy, and my head feels congested. Hopefully it won't last too long... I only know that things will probably get worse before they get better. Boo! So, if anyone knows any home remedies for curing a cold, let me know! Along with being sick, i got some hours at the Bakery this week. That's good for a little extra money. I definitely need that for finishing my Christmas shopping. Also, on Friday i'm supposed to go to the Red Dog Saloon with an old friend who i haven't seen in a long time. It should be interesting because I've never been to the Red Dog. I hear they have really good burgers, so i will have to try one of those. Hopefully i'll be able to taste it, since my nose is so stuffy!

edit: It now feels like knives are slicing my throat every time i swallow. lovely.

So, this was my last day this semester! I'm quite happy that everything is done for a month. In a small celebration of the end of classes, i'll leave you with some fun quotes from my Assembly Language teacher. (Keep in mind all of these quotes were said with a straight face and a very monotonous voice...)

"How many of you had breakfast this morning? What was it? Burger? Quarter pounder...half pounder?"

"This function will separate the men from the boys."

"Have you ever seen an ostrich? It is able to run 50 mph, but when it sees a predator it sticks it's head in the ground. You can't see it, it can't see you, and life is good."

"If you are a barbarian you will have a hard time with this course."

"He was scared shit of stars and ampersands."

"Can you find people who don't like stars? They are so bright...in the night."

"A bug means the shit don't work!"

"Maybe your dog helps you out. 'bark bark bark!' Program runs and life is good."

"You see a big juicy burger from McDonalds. Take a big bite and walk through your code."

"You ask 'where is my file?', and it says 'Here it is, my Lord'"

"How many of you brought a gun to shoot me down? No one? Good news for me."

"How many of you will take me out to dinner in 5 years? Nobody? Well you won't have a job anyway because you went to Central."

"I'll let you break it up into 4-bit patterns. Can you do that? Probably not."

"You go to church on Sunday. When you are in trouble you get down on your knees and say 'Lord can you help me?'"

"...and the bits fall over the edge and go through the earth, killing cows and animals on the other side..."


Yes, he actually said all of these, and I really don't think he was meaning to be funny.... He was a very cranky, mean old man. The only reason i'll miss going to that class is for all of these quotes.

So i've been sucked back into watching Disney Channel. I really haven't watched DC since Lizzy McGuire was popular. So what show have i been watching? Hannah Montana! haha It's just so addicting! And Miley is so cute! And it's really funny to watch Billy Ray Cyrus try to act. haha. So yeah, it just goes to prove that you're never too old for Disney and cheesy TV shows!

Well kids, you can check another thing off my list of things to happen before i die. I got my first flat tire today. It was scary! I was driving home from school, and i was on I-96 westbound just after the Kensington road exit. I hit something and was like "That didn't sound good, hope it didn't do anything!" Then 20 seconds later i heard a noise and it got louder and louder, i was like, oooooooh crap! TIRE! So i pulled over really quick before it got out of hand. It was frightening to be on the side of the expressway with traffic going past you at 70-80 MPH. I got out of my car by climbing over to my passenger side to check out what tire it was, it was my front passenger. It was destroyed. The sides had totally split and shred. I've never changed a tire before, so i wasn't really sure what to do. I called my dad because there was no one else around who could come and help me. He got out of work and came to the rescue. I probably could have done it, because the owner's manual has step-by-step instructions, but my dad didn't really want me to try it since i hadn't done it before. So he came and put on the temporary and we drove over to the discount tire store and bought a new one. So everything is good now! But yeah, it was kinda scary because it could have turned out waaay worse. It could have deflated faster and i could have lost control. There was a lot of traffic, so that would have been bad. It's a good thing i got over as fast as i did. Sooooo next time (hopefully there won't be one!) i will know what to do. Now i must go to bed because i gotsta wake up at 8 for work.... boooooooo!

Sunday night was the Jimmy Eat World concert! It was awesome. 4th row center, baby! It was my second time seeing them in concert, the first time was when they opened for Green Day a couple years ago. They were good then, but since they were headlining this tour they rocked! The opening band wasn't too bad, either. It was a girl and a guy, the guy on drums and the girl on guitar. Watching the girl play guitar sorta made me want to pick my guitar up again. I miss practicing. The only problem is that I've been growing out my nails and you can't really play the guitar with long fingernails. Oh well, back to the concert. At the end of the show they threw out some guitar picks. I was SOOOO CLOSE to getting one, but my friend Brad got it instead! He was sitting next to me. I was kinda upset that I didn't get it. Then my other friend, Josh, who was sitting on the other side of Brad found one on the floor! Apparently the guy threw out 2 picks in one toss, so Brad and Josh both got one! I was really angry then! J.E.W. is one of my favorite bands, and has been for a long time. Oh well... It's not that big of a deal. Also, the drummer actually came out into the crowd at the end and gave this girl his drumsticks! I had watched this girl throughout the concert and she knew EVERY song they played, including the songs they played from their older album from before they broke into the mainstream. (I knew the songs, too, but I hadn't listened to the album enough to know the words to the songs) The girl was rocking out and singing along the entire time. It was pretty cool for the drummer to do that. I love when bands do things like that. It just shows how much they appreciate their fans. :)

This is quite possibly one of the coolest things made out of Legos.... EVER! haha Take a gander!

I mean, how cool is that?? I love M.C. Escher. He is one of my favorite artists. :)

So I've discovered something about myself. I've sorta known about it for a while, but it really became clear last week when i was walking to my car in the parking lot. A car drove by me looking for a spot, and they had their windows down and hip-hop music blasting. When the sound hit my ears a surge of hatred ran through me. It was like..... a surge of adrenaline... but it made me angry. I've always disliked rap/hip-hop/R&B music, but this pretty much solidified my downright hatred for the stuff. So tonight I went out with my roomies to a party, it was this girl we know through a friend, and I was perfectly fine with staying at her place for the night and just having fun, but my roomies wanted to go to our friend's frat house. So we go there and i was ok for a bit. I'm not really into the whole big party scene (especially frat parties), but I can handle it for a little while. So at this frat house they have this room in the basement that's a dance room. We went down there, and of course the music they're playing is the music that i despise. I got sooooo angry! The roomies were dancing and stuff while i was standing behind them almost in the corner just watching everyone. The adrenaline was surging with the horrible music pumping out of the speakers and into my ears. The mixture of the frat party scene, along with the club scene with people dancing, and the rap playing, it just made me sooo....ugh, i don't even know the words to describe it. One of my roomies asked why i wasnt dancing, I said "I HATE this music! I cannot dance to it!" Which is the truth. I love techno music. If they played techno i could dance to that all night long, but rap just kills me! I can't STAND it. I had one of my roomies drive me back to our apartment because i just couldn't take it anymore. Turned out that when we got back to the apartment the cops had broken up the party and everyone had to leave, so I left at the right time. I apologized to my roomie for being a party pooper, but i can't really help it.....
Aaaaanyways, If the situation had been different at the frat house i might have been able to handle it, like.... if i were drunk.... or if they were playing techno.... THEN i might, MIGHT, have been alright. So yeah.... that's my discovery about myself.
So just a word of advice: If we're hanging out, DO NOT play rap, it'll make me angry. :)

Apparently today is Talk Like A Pirate Day, soooo..... yarrrr matey, shiver me timbers, and uh.... i dunno. Whew, glad i got that outta my system!

I have to say that I'm extremely excited because Fall is fast approaching. Fall is my favorite season, and October is my favorite month, which is also right around the corner. With October comes Halloween!!! Halloween has to be my favorite holiday, too. haha. I just love everything about the Fall.... The smells, the colors, the atmosphere, the weather, the scary shows. Gah! It just makes me feel sooo good inside. Everything seems to be perfect in the Fall. Also my birthday is in the fall. I don't think that has anything to do with me loving it so much, but it is a nice perk!

I'm still enjoying my time in the apartment, even though there's been a bump here and there, but I don't think it's anything to be concerned about. It's a true test of friendship. I'm sure things will be fine in the end.

I got a haircut the other day, and I like it lots. One thing I hate though, is when you can't get your hair to do the same thing the stylist did when you first get it done. I can never get it to look the same.

Well, I'm back up in the Mt. P. This year i'm living in a townhouse with some friends, no more dorms!!! Today was the first day of classes, and I must say a BIG pro to living in the dorms is not having to worry about parking in the damn commuter lot. That lot is a BITCH! It was really hard to find a spot at 2:00 when i had my later class. I have to say that I wouldn't trade living in my townhouse just for that reason, because I really love having my own bedroom. My apartment is super nice. The living room is spacious, and there are 2 full bathrooms, so we don't have 4 people fighting over getting in the shower. The closets in our bedrooms are HUGE! I love it, there is so much room for all my stuff i can't put anywhere else. I wish i could take the closet home with me, but sadly that's kind of impossible. Another thing I love is my schedule.

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday
Calculus I 10-10:50	Calculus I 10-10:50	Calculus I 10-10:50	Calculus I 10-10:50
	Assembly Language & Comp Org 11-12:15		Assembly Language & Comp Org 11-12:15
African American Lit 2-3:15	Int. Spanish (Conversation & Comp) 2-3:15	African American Lit 2-3:15	Int. Spanish (Conversation & Comp) 2-3:15

I looooove how easy my schedule is. 3 hour break between classes on Monday and Wednesday, and an hour and a half on Tuesday and Thursday. I think Tues/Thurs I will stay on campus the whole day and have lunch there cause I have a meal plan. I can just bring my NEW LAPTOP to keep me entertained if i get bored! That's right, folks. I FINALLY got a laptop. My parents gave in and got me one cause my dad read an article that said how important it is for a college student to have one. I'm so glad I finally got a laptop, i feel more like a college student. haha It was a pretty solid deal, 2GB RAM, 160 GB Harddrive, and an AMD Turion 64 processor, only $700. Along with my new apartment, I had to get an animal to keep me company. I got myself a hamster! His name is Bob (or Bobby, or Gordie, or Justin Bobby, or Jim Bob, or any other crazy name that my friends have come up with for him). To me he's Bob or Bobby, and nothing else. He's adorable, he's gray and white.

isn't he cute?! Well anyway, I best be going, it's getting late and I have homework to do.

This time tomorrow I will be in Colorado!! My flight leaves in about 12 hours from now!! WEE!!! I'll be gone for a week, and I highly doubt i'll have internet access while there, sooooo I won't have any communication with anyone until i come home!! haha I'm very excited to go if you couldn't tell. It's sure to be a good time! Sooo, until next week, SEEEEEE YA!

I got my hairs cut! ch-ch-check it out!

the back is super short. I didn't really want it that short, but I like it now! Hopefully i'll be able to style it without messing it up. haha

So I haven't updated in a while, it's not really on account of my laziness (although i'm sure that has something to do with it), it's more the fault of my working all the time now. I work every day 8-4. It's actually not bad at all, i've got an interesting tan going on now, check out this sweet tan line from the gloves i wear...

Yep, then the tan on my arm goes up to a little past my elbow where my sleeve covers my arm. It's not terribly noticeable there. I also have a patch of tan on my chest where my shirt is open on top, it's quite fun!!

So i've been thinking and i'm not sure what's worse, having a crush on someone that you know you'll never have, or not having a crush at all. I'm actually in the latter situation myself, and it sucks. There are a ton of cute guys at my work, but I think they're all older than me. Nothing wrong with an older man, i just don't know how much older than me they are. I have to be one of the youngest people there, i know that much. I wish i had the guts to actually talk to some of the guys there, i always smile and say hi but nothing more than that. I feel gross at work though, because i'm all dirty and not wearing cute clothes haha. That's especially true at the end of the day. I came home today and looked in the mirror and i had dirt all over my face, i was like "Oh God, all the guys saw me like this?!?!" It was pretty bad! But yeah, i need some guts, or an excuse to talk to one of them... any ideas?

So other than guy things at work I think i've mentioned this, but I do the watering of the flowers in the downtown area. If you know that i do that, then you probably know that i drive this little Bobcat truck thingy. If you knew about that, then I probably told you about all the problems i've had with it, but for those of you that don't know the story i shall share it here!! So I drive the Bobcat around and recently it's been sort of "breaking down" on me. It will give me an error message and just stop suddenly. The engine doesn't shut off or anything, it just won't move. I think it's just a precaution type thing. Anyway, i kept telling my boss and eventually the thing almost broke down in the middle of an intersection so he decided to take action. He ordered a whole new brake pedal kit (which is what the error message kept telling me the problem was in). Our mechanic at the shop replaced it and now the Bobcat runs fine!! At least i'm hoping. The last time i drove it i didn't have any problems, hopefully it stays like that!

Guess what......... in 2 weeks I'll be in Colorado!!! YAY!! I'm so excited to go this year, I feel like I missed out last summer since i didn't go. I still had fun at home by myself, but I did miss out. I'll be staying with my brother Chris in his house out there, so it should be fun! weee!!

So... I've been at the new job for 3 days. What do i have to say about it? well.... it's a tough one, that's for sure!! The first 2 days were probably the hottest days of the summer so far (and it's not even summer yet!). They were well into the 80's, probably hitting 90's at some point, and I was outside for it allllll day. I get to be on the weeding crew where we go to different job sites and weed their gardens, and at some we do edging on the sidewalks. I think it was tough for me because I haven't done anything since I've gotten out of school, and then all of a sudden i'm thrown into a full 8 hour work day, outside, in the blazing sun. I have also been appointed the position of water-girl where I get to drive this Bobcat truck thingy to downtown Milford and water all the hanging pots in town. I did it yesterday for the first time, and it took about 3 hours on it's own. That should be fun and good for getting some extra hours in. The only downside to that is that I have to get up extra early to get it done and then meet the weeding crew at wherever they are. Should be an interesting summer!! Hopefully I'll get a tan and lose some weight while i'm at it. haha