aubkabob

I have this wonderful, dear heart on my friends list. In the many years that I have known her, I have seen her grow so very much as a human being. I've had the blessing of knowing her through the good and the bad, the ups and the downs. I'm a better person today for having her in my life..

In the last year, I have been witness to an incredible journey of health improvement. She has shown me on so very many levels that anything IS possible, if I'm just willing.

She's about to embark on yet another fabulous endeavor. Rather than blather on, I give you a letter from her:

In the past year I have taken drastic measures to improve my health.  It occurred to me while doing this that I am able to change my health for the better on my own, but there are many people who do not have that same ability due to illness.  That is why I have decided while pursuing my goal of good health that I would like to help others who cannot help themselves.  On September 20^th, 2009 I will be participating in the ING Philadelphia Distance Run in Philadelphia, PA.  At this event I will be representing The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society through their Team in Training.

      The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society strives to find cures for blood cancers including: leukemia, lymphoma (Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin), and myeloma, while providing support, services, and information to patients and their families.  It is estimated that currently there are 894,543 Americans living with leukemia, lymphoma, and myeloma.

      Funding provided from the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and its supporters to research has resulted in an increase of 5 year survival rate for leukemia from 14 percent in 1960 to 51 percent in 2005.  The survival rate of children with acute lymphocytic leukemia has increased to 86 percent from only 3 percent in 1964.

      For these reasons I am asking my family, friends, neighbors, and the businesses* in my local community to contribute what you can to the fight to find a cure.  If you are unable to donate at this time I want to thank you for allowing me to share with you my journey and goals.  Please also feel free to share this letter with your family, friends, neighbors, and local businesses. 

      Donations can be made using  my secure website http://pages.teamintraining.org/cpa/phildist09/spriniski. Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions.  Without the support and involvement of people such as you The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society could not succeed.

 

I left for work early today so that I would have enough time to swing by Target and get some allergy pills. My usual work shoes have worn down to the point that the bottoms are broken in half, my feet hurt horridly an hour into my shift, and I end up with gigantic holes in my socks by the end of the day. Because of this, I decided to try to wear the Dr. Martens I bought (new) for $10 back in Phoenix.

Part way into my walk to work, I remembered - painfully - that my feet have grown over the years. I ran out of room very swiftly. By the time I reached work, it felt as if my pinky toes were shredded to pieces and I was finding it difficult to walk. Well, crap. Money is tight and I didn't really want to invest in a new pair of shoes, especially since I know that I HAVE to buy new work pants before next payday, too.

I hate shopping. I HAAAATE SHOPPING. The only places I ever LIKE to shopping to are used book stores. Other than that, I abhor grocery shopping and absolutely refuse to to clothes shopping unless I'm completely out of lucrative options. I have a severe hatred for spending MONEY on such things. I don't know if it was my welfare upbringing (because my brother's the same way), but I cannot stand to pay more than $25 for a pair of shoes, or $20 for a pair of pants.

I get to Payless and - HUH? I get to buy $70 worth of shoes for $18? Two pair, both of which I can wear as work shoes (one absolutely so ugly and awkward looking that I just feel in love with them and both in men's shoes) that are normally $34.99 each. Both are on sale for $12, and the have a BOGO 1/2 off of ANYTHING.

I leave in a good mood and head to Target. What I snagged for a quick lunch (brat + soda) is usually $2.50 before tax, but it's on sale for half off! Yay! I drag my feet to pants and.. what is this? A pair that would work perfectly and amazingly in my size for $10?!!? I need allergy pills, which I believe are $6. .... only FOUR?!? ROCK!!! I look up and see a neti pot. I had been wanting to buy one, you see, but didn't want to invest the $35+ that I had been hearing they run for. Target sells one (albeit plastic, not porcelain) for $14? And it has a $2 off coupon attached to it?

WIN.

So, instead of only getting a pair of pants and a pair of shoes for about $60 as I had planned, I scored two pairs of shoes, a pair of pants, a lunch, food for work for three days, a box of meal bars, a neti pot, a bottle of pretend Benedryl, and coffee for a month for the same price.

Now I see how shopping for bargains can be addicting.

Not to mention the sheer joy of taking my cramped, shredded feet out of my old shoes and sticking them into spacious, comfy new ones? HEAVEN.

Yanno that episode of Family Guy where Peter gets three wishes from a genie and his second one involves his own theme song? Where the music gets all happy as he's skipping down the sidewalk, gaily swinging shopping bags back and forth? That was so me.

I had planned on posting it here for you to see, but it seems impossible to find a clip on the nets.

I had read AGES ago that my beloved OK Go were coming out with a new album in Spring of 2009. I've been trying like mad to find additional information on it, hoping greatly that it would live up to my love of the other two; so many times I wait on baited breath for a new album from a beloved band and am completely let down by the results. (*cough*SloanPrettyTogether*ahem*NickelCreekWhyShouldTheFireDie?*hoof*)

Finally, I find that it is currently set to drop in September (/cry) 2009, and is titled The Influence of the Blue Ray of the Sunlight and of the Blue Color of the Sky. The title is much longer than their other two releases (OK Go and Oh No).

I bring you, once again, OK Go in the backyard dancing and OK Go on treadmills. If you would rather see the band singing and playing instruments, you can watch them blow up things.

It all makes for great walking to work music.

I also love them for turning one of their rocksy songs into this. (Be warned - awesome hand bells but annoying girly screams.) If you would like to hear what the original song sounds like, go here and click "What to Do" and lissen. LISSEN.

Instead of going to bed at a reasonable time, I have been dinking online, composing this pointless post, and wasting time. My alarm goes off in less than six hours, woo! Yay, freight day!

What a sleepy Saturday.

We've been lazing around all morning - Daniel in the dining room watching old movies, Jess on the livingroom floor playing Final Fantasy Viii, me dinking on my baby priest Paperclip in WoW. There were things I had planned to do today, but all I want to do now is sleep.

I shall watch Wristcutters: A Love Story instead. This is my third attempt at watching the movie - the first time was when I received a message that Mom was in the ICU again (she was released back to the special care facility yesterday) so I was preoccupied, the second friends came over to purchase my brother's WiiNES. (I love calling it a WiiNES.)

I wish I would have remembered to toss some beans in first thing this morning to soak. I could be having beans und rice for din din.

I find it funny that my cat lets stale pumpkin smelling farts.

I love the tangle of kitty paws and that it looks like there is no way it could possibly be comfortable... but she's been like that on my lap for about 20 minutes without budging.

I have one mondo caffeine headache.

I woke up naturally at just after 6 am. Upon looking at the clock, I said, "Oh, HELLLL, no" out loud, rolled over, and forced myself to go back to sleep. Dreamed that I had a husband and a daughter that I loved fiercely. I was dying and knew it, but sent my husband and daughter out on some trite errand so that they wouldn't be there to watch me take my final breaths, as I knew they would be painful and I didn't want to put them through that.

Will be taking Roommate Daniel out for lunch today, as it is his birthday. The boys returned from Hawaii last night, one with a sliced open foot (Dan) and one with one helluva farmer's tan/burn (Jess).

Received a notice of entry from the apartment complex, insisting that they are painting our front door today. We must leave the front door open until it dries, you see, so I foresee a future of Bacci in the upstairs bathroom. I also think that it's silly that they insist on painting our front door before they've painted the building. They stopped the painting process halfway through the building next door about two weeks ago, so it's green on its top half. I've also seen what the doors look like after they finish painting the building, which would certainly require yet another painting... maybe it's a mistake. I just don't want them to do this when no one is home, as I don't want to come home to a missing cat and empty shelves where all of our electronics used to be.

I shall end this entry, then, as my headache is making it difficult to string together related sentences.

Home from the dentist. I worked REALLY REALLY HARD the last year in order to get my mouth from a horrid peridontitis issue to what it is today. Almost zero bleedy gums with all the implaments of torture thrown at it. I would say that out of the last 365 days, I've flossed for at least 350 of them. About the only thing that could have made my cleaning be any easier is if I actually used toothpicks. My lady was quite happy and pleasantly surprised.

However.

I apparently have a new cavity (dangit!) and have a fractured tooth (eek!) which need to be fixed. One filling and a crown will cost $765 - AFTER insurance. They asked if I wanted to set up a payment plan - I told them I would get back with them.

Did my brother a favor and picked up his check and deposited it for him. (Reminder: the roommates are in Hawaii at the moment.) He couldn't figure out why it wasn't showing, so I called them... to discover they had put it into someone else's account. Apparently typing in "Jesse Harrington" vs. "Jessie Herrington" will cause this to happen. It's now fixed.

So very thankful that I have a solid two days off after my 6 am shift tomorrow.

Have a weird craving for Lackey's Talia books.

Heat wave coming this weekend, but today was almost perfect... until it hit 70 degrees. I hath discovered that my time away from Phoenix hath caused my heat quota to be in the mid 60s.

I'm such a weather weenie.

The news is asking where I was when St. Helens erupted. Lessee, I was five, living in a tiny town in Iowa.. and completely oblivious. I can see St. Helens quite clearly from where I live in its beautiful whiteness.

Work, work, work.

Yesterday and today was filled with needy people. Not just every customer needing babysitting to pick out their stuff, but also managerial needy. So stinking many calls...

I need a gift card!
I need a price override!
A person on the phone hasn't gotten their furniture and is angry!
This person got the wrong thing delivered and is angry!
There's a delivery at the back door!
Call for MOD on line one!
Customer at ImPress is angry!

I was supposed to leave at 3 pm and have already worked more than I was supposed to this week (which wouldn't be a problem if overtime was allowed), but was able to leave until almost 4. I wonder what kind of mileage I put in, especially as each and every call seemed to come when I was in the furthest possible place to be in the store and still be in the building.

It occurred to me the other day that HOLY CRAP, there's only three months left until my walk to the coast for the American Cancer Society. I really really REALLY should be utilizing that gym membership I've been paying for every month, and SOON.

89 words

Typingtest

1st try.

Boo.

Yah.

Second consecutive day off... maybe I'll accomplish something today? WoW servers are down, so I won't be messing with that for a few more hours at least. I still feel weird, unfocused, restless, and... something intangible today.

Maybe more coffee will help.

Bacci is still driving me NUTS as far as her suddenly weird demands. She gets super duper clingy and unhelpful for a bit (i.e. stomping on my keyboard, blocking half my keyboard, etc.) and then will disappear for a few hours as she heads upstairs to sleep on my bed.

I thought there was a car alarm incessantly going off outside. I poked my head out the door to see where it's coming from and see two people across the way standing out front looking to their left at a person who is sitting in a car laying on the horn. Umm.... stop plz thx nao.

HA! Tiny trust.


see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Okay, so I saw Star Trek on Friday.

ZOMG.

Shall we discuss?

Let's discuss.

The roommates are in Hawaii for the week. I'm finding myself wishing that I had the entire week off of work, to do whatever I please. Alas, I have 40 hours of work and a dentist appointment in the mix.

What are your guilty pleasures?

I find that I'm stupidly in love with Biggest Loser and America's Next Top Model. I occasionally listen to Fall Out Boy. I adored the movie Doom. I DID read the Twilight books, and did get a sappy enjoyment from it (though not an all-out obsession). I occasionally crave a scrambled egg and peanut butter sammich on toast.

I feel sort of sporadic and unfocused today.

Tried to hook up the dvd player that Roommate Daniel loaned to me, but I can't seem to find the cables. Poo.

Would you like to get to know me better?

I am thusly opening a Q and A session.

Ask me whatever you wish, and I shall answer as honestly as possible.

Whaa? First Wave never made it to DVD? At least, nothing I can rent from Netflix? Bastids. Some of my favoritest memories in Phoenix was waking up on the weekend on my day off and watching the little SciFi fest of Farscape, Sliders, First Wave, and.... wasn't there a fourth?

Only reading good reviews about Star Trek. Even Wil Wheaton squee'd greatly about it, complete with photo of said squeeing. Hopefully, by this time tomorrow, I will have seen. Or, actually, this time tomorrow, I may be in the process OF seeing.

My bottom lip itches.

Been soooooooo freaking tired all day, though I had a solidish eight hours last night. It feels as if someone's licked my eyeballs.

Went from hating even the idea of meat to wanting to gnaw into a raw buffalo. Maybe my iron's low? That would 'splain the exhaustion.

Getting completely screwed on scheduling this weekend at work. I'm just sayin'. I won't be able to see Mom on Mommy's Day as I'm working open to close, but at this point I'm thankful to HAVE a Mom for Mom's Day. Tomorrow will be two months since the day she went into the hospital.

Can't decide if I'm hungry or not.

I get my cable fixed tomorrow. I'll finally get ABC, NBC, Fox, Channel 3, 5, and SciFi in again.

BACCI'S BEING CREEPY!!!!

She's hiding behind the ottoman, making weird scratchy noises, then staring at me with only one eyeball showing around the bookcase. Anytime I move, she jerks her body so that she can continue to stare at me with only one eyeball. NO BLINKING ALLOWED.

Saw thee most adorable thing on the way to work today. There were two ducks, you see, a boy and a girl ducky, walking up the sidewalk towards me. The sidewalk lines a busy street, and I never see any wildlife ON the sidewalk. These two were walking side by side up the entire length of the sidewalk, as if they were out for a stroll together.



It's darkish because it's 630 am.

... so, a new Karate Kid with Will Smith's kid and Jackie Chan?
A new Romancing the Stone?
A new The Big Chill?

Apparently, all new ideas have leaked out of the giant holes in Hollywood's head... or something.

Have I mentioned that I hate split days off? I get Sunday/Friday this week, Monday/Friday last week. Bleck.

I also wish my leg muscle would quit twitching, already. Day three!

I got Mr. Wiggles in game last night, as well as became Pencilcup the Noble.

I woke up with this song parading repeatedly through my head:


Must also remember to pay rent today.

Still need to clean the desk.

I hate caffeine headaches.

Nobody wants to interview Bones, just Kirk and Spock. Elitism.

Bored now.

more animals

So very sleepy.

Corporate visit didn't happen, maybe tomorrow.

Still fill like poo - even more poo-like than before starting antibiotics. Maybe sleep will help tonight.

Got to dig a sliver out of my index finger with a needle. The prospect of this used to scare the bejeebers out of me. As a small child, whenever I had a splinter, my would have to wait until I was asleep to try to remove it.

Came home from work to find ALL THE FREAKING TREES in the center of the complex are now FIREWOOD. Fuckers. I almost cried. No idea what on earth would possess the new owners to cut down all of our beautiful trees. We also came home to two new toilets (!!), random stuff on the dining room floor, mud everywhere, a ripped open shower, and a nervous cat. We also have a lovely hole in the upstairs bathroom wall. We had a gay ol' time taking pictures of each other through it - me in the bathroom, my brother in his bedroom closet. My brother and I tried to contact the new apartment manager first on foot (no answer at door) and then on the phone (number disconnected, wtf?!?) with no success.

I took many pictures and plan on eventually posting a picture story about the whole ordeal.

Brother just came in from talking to the neighbors outside. One, who used to be the assistant manager of the complex, brought him into his home and allowed him to witness the larger townhome layout for the first time. (He is now insisting we move into one right this instant.) She stated that the plumbers did her apartment a couple of weeks ago and she still has a giant gaping hole in one wall. Our next door neighbor's big complaint about the whole ordeal was "Did you SEE how tiny those toilet seats are?!?!? Where the hell am I supposed to sit my big black ass? As soon as this is all over, I'm running out and buying myself two giant ass toilet seats." They also apparently shattered her bathroom window while replacing the siding. So... dead trees, demolished apartments, and almost zero grass - my roommates' garden was completely trampled into mud, our lawn has tire tracks through it from the stupid wood chipper, and almost every other place with ground has been dug into quite deep.

Makes me proud of my home, it does. :|

As much as I SO don't feel like it, I have a dr's appointment tomorrow morning at 935 for my dizziness. It's twice as bad today as it was yesterday, so I figured that I might as well make an appointment, just in case it gets progressively worse. I don't think I can handle doing all the physical stuff that a severe freight day entails on Saturday feeling like this. I just hope that my employers don't think that I'm making it up to go on vacation a day or two early.

I felt almost ready to pass out a few times today and went to WinCo to get some healthy low carbish non sugary food for my lunch to see if it might be blood sugar related. I made myself a VERY delicious sammich with turkey and roast beef and provalone and lettuce and sauce, and while I felt a million times more human after eating it, I didn't feel UN dizzy. Either way, it would behoove me greatly to eat like I'm already a raging diabetic, in order to help thwart the disease that I have been guaranteed to get sometime in my lifetime.

Holy crap, am I freezing.

I found a pet brush and have been using it on Bacci. She can't quite decide if she LOVES it or HATES it, as she'll bite it angrily, but then rub her face into it lovingly. She stays put when I brush her and even lays down, though her tail goes insane and she looks over her shoulder at it all squinty and angry eyed.

Coworker Lori owns just about every movie ever made, give or take, plus a zillion and one seasons of stuff. She said that as a gift for me when I'm on vacation, that she will give me a ton of them to watch. Going off her list, I made a GIANT list of stuff I would like to eventually see, i.e. all the seasons of Buffy, Angel, Smallville, CSI: Everywhere, and Roswell, as well as all of the Ocean's movies, Bourne's, Pirates'eses, etc.

Boy, will THAT clear a ton of stuff off of my Netflix queue :)

Again, if'n you're on Netflix and would like to add me as a friend: aubrey.mcsaurus at gmail.com. Same email if you want to add me to GoodReads.

Now? I'm thinking peanut butter and toast and HOT FREAKING TEA.

And a heater, plx.

I've just been so ... "meh".. when it comes to online journaling anymore. It generally comes and goes, but it seems as if it has been gone for oh so much longer than it had ever been previously.

I hope all of you are surviving and send you many hugs and stuff.

An extra hug to red. Humans disgust me so much at times. Generally, though, when I have totally lost faith in the human race, SOMEthing happens to turn me around completely. I'm quite disgusted right now, so I'm certain it will happen soon.

There's places to go and things to do today. I'm not sure how much I really want to participate in any of the extras besides the brief foray to mom's house. I'm not feeling particularly social (as if I ever do anymore) and since I have to work tonight at 2 a.m., I'm thinking I should try to get a nap in somewhere.

Happy holidays to you, no matter which you celebrate.

Jacob was the bass player that filled in for my old band (was Electric Doormat, now Mercury Tree) while James was away for awhile. Such a sweet person, and only 17.

Click on the flyer for details.

I would really like to go to this, so if anyone in my neighborhood is interested, I can pay for your tickets, should you provide me with a ride.

Much love,

Me.

Bacci likes the giant comforter that was balled up haphazardly and dumped on the couch.

...

Sorry I haven't been around, I've been very antisocial - even moreso than usual, if that can be believed. Frustrated with things here and there, like the fact that I get scolded for not delegating things to others, but over 80% of the time I DO, I have to redo it myself, anyway, with more work than I would have had to do if I would have done it myself the first time. Will be working at midnight for the next two weeks, at least.

Am in love with The Fratellis.
Am reading By the Sword by Mercedes Lackey.
Am wondering why the hell my stinking Avon order hasn't gotten here yet.
Am noticing an alarming amount of hair turning white.
Am needing to go to bed NOW, but if I stay up an extra ten minutes, I can see how this episode of Law & Order ends.
Am missing Phoenix for the first time, though I've lived away from there for 4 1/2 years now.

We were discussing how much freight we had at work and how it seemed hopeless to get it done by the end of the week.

Ted: suggestions?
Me: how about we slit our wrists and crawl into a corner to quietly bleed to death?
Liz: Oh my Gawd!
Ted: How dark! Though the darkness of it all was sort of ruined by the fact that you're sipping coffee from a Christmas mug with puppies on it.
Me: *elaborately* Life is PAIN! Anyone who tells you differently is selling something. *sticks pinky finger up and slurps loudly from her puppy cup*

Dreamed of a contest between my brother and I. We had to kill mice and then come back later and collect the bodies. Who collected the most, won. I felt a bit sad for killing mice, but there were so many! I sat on the hallway floor and dug through the closet, finding stuff from my ex coworker Jason, some Reese's Pieces that I really wanted to eat, but hesistated only because one of my dead mice were next to the bag. But the bag was closed, and the mouse couldn't have been dead THAT long... could it?

I've been up for a half hour, and already I want to viciously stab the day with a dull knife.

I wake up super late, having only ten minutes to get outside to wait for my ride. I race in the bahtroom and wash my hair (we're throwing freight today, anyway, so I'll be sweaty stanky before i get home, so I bathe afterwards). I come downstairs and see the envelope on my chair that I used to turn in the rent checks, opened. I find a post it note attached to the checks saying that they cannot take two checks, that it has to be in one check or two money orders. Well, I remember when Andrea lived here, we had to do it that way, but my brother and I have been paying with seperate checks for the TWO YEARS he's lived here, and this was the first complaint. I also notice that it looks like she TAPED OUR FUCKING CHECKS TO THE FRONT DOOR in the open envelope. I'm glad we freaking got the things back.

I write a new check for the full amount and insert a note that says, "Sorry for the two checks. We've paid rent this way for over two years, with no problem. Paying with one check is EXTREMELY inconvenient for us, as our closest banks are quite far away and we are both pedestrians. We have automatic deposit for our checks because of this."

I stuff my feet in shoes and grab a muffin stolen from one of the roommates (I also woke up with a gigantic headache and so HUNGRY that I feel nauseated.) and go outside to drop the new rent check in the drop box and to wait for my ride. I stand outside in the freezing cold for ten minutes, muffin in hand, wondering where Ted is (as he's generally here by fifteen til, and I hadn't even gone outside until ten til) and check my phone. Three messages - one from Manager Jason saying that they're giving me the day off because the truck will be a day late, one from Ted stating the same and that he'll be here to pick me up at 345 Saturday morning, and one from my friend Joe in Texas. (Which helped, as I hadn't heard from him in forever.)

So, yeah. Some day off this is starting to be. Impromptu days off are supposed to be good, yes?