Still no dentist! :( But I was a good girl and didn't take any vicodin today. I toughed it out. After the sun went down and some of the relentless heat passed away, I went for a walk. It was neat the way I could still feel the heat from the pavement radiating up my legs. It was like walking in hot water but the top half of me was cool. Odd. Even though he had dialysis today, my dad was pretty cognizant when I visited him. That was a good change, usually dialysis days are bad days for him.

So there is the bride-to-be! It was her bridal shower today and it was very good. Just one silly game-how well do you know Jamie-and lots of food. shrimp cocktails, lots of different kinds of wraps, crab balls, cake, cookies, fruit, vegetables, brownies, nuts, m and m's, and lemon bars! I am probably forgetting something! She got lots of goodies. And she did one of the coolest, sweetest things I have ever seen. As she opened each gift, she wished that person something. Like as she opened my present, she wished me good luck at my new branch. For another girl, she wished her horse would stay sound for the upcoming show season. That was great and I want to steal that idea. Of course after all the food, my tooth was killing me. Back on the vicodin. I hope the dentist calls tomorrow!
Jamie's bridal shower

Clerks 2 was freaking hilarious! Genius! I loved it! I think Jay doing his silence of the lambs impression was my favorite. Or else Pillowpants. Ha ha ha! Man, Kevin Smith is genius, his dialogue is so fast, so witty. And I love Arbys for dinner, beef and cheddar. Plus some anime and my tooth didn't hurt so bad today! Yeah for Saturday with no work!

Sweet relief! Ah blessed narcotics to ease my pain. After a pain-filled day at work with no openings at the dentist, my doctor called in some vicodin for me. For the first time in ages, I was able to leave work at 4pm! That was great too. Went home, took some drugs and turned into a vegetable until about 8pm when it was time to go over Pete's and watch SG-1. And it was a good episode, finally the crossover episode to Atlantis. Then for unknown reasons, we watched Atlantis thinking the crossover would continue but unfortunately not. The only good part is the main guy is kinda cute ; )

Got some things accomplished at work today. Piece counted the vault, always a pain in the ass. I had to work late in the drive-thru and man it is obnoxiously boring. I am going to have to remember to bring something to do on those nights! My tooth hurts really bad. I finally gave in and called the dentist. I am scared because of everything that happened last year. But I won't give in to the fear! I have started watching a reality show and I am hooked. First one for me. I have always stayed away from these reality shows, I think they are stupid. But nevertheless, I am sucked in to Project Runway. I think it is because I like to see the clothes that they create at the end because it is something I could not do. It is impressive to me the stuff they come up with and create in like 24 hours. I wish I could do that!

Another decent day at work, this is kinda nice. Hope it doesn't spoil me! Watched the first half of a new Jet Li movie, that I won't reveal the title of because we may have been breaking some rules by watching it. It was really good. I couldn't stay for the end, I was too exhausted. But I can't wait to watch the rest of it! I really enjoy Jet Li's movies, for the most part. There are some one that aren't that good but the ones like Hero and Once Upon a Time in China, and the one we were watching last night, just plain old rock. I can't help but wonder if he is really any good in real life with his martial arts in a real fight. I know a long time ago he was martial arts champion of China, like when he was in his teens. Ah, well. I like Jet Li!

Today I had to go to the teller in charge meeting instead of working in the branch. I love these meetings! Well, maybe that is being a little too enthusiastic! But I really enjoy getting out of the branch for a while and talking to my peers about mutual problems. And learning new things that will help me out at work. Then after the meeting I went to Target and spent too much money! New shoes and stuff. The only thing I needed was to pick up my prescription! Oh well, I know when I go there I am doomed to spend some money. I love Target!

My first day as the teller supervisor at the Bay Hills branch. I survived it! I'm not sure how impressed my senior teller was because I played it really mellow. I didn't want to go in there and start screwing with all their stuff right away. I wanted to see how they do stuff. And I was not impressed. Alot of work for me to do. But I don't really mind. I like getting in there and working on stuff. And I am not afraid of some yelling! And these tellers need some discipline, sweet zombie jesus, do they need some discipline. So I will bring it! Soon the gloves will come off and I fear I might lose some tellers but if they aren't going to play by the rules and work by the rules, then by Buddha, they gotta go! Overall, it was a good first day and very eye opening.

Bethlehem Steel

Peep-Mobile!

I left class early tonight. I was just to exhausted. Why does sitting in a car for a few hours totally wear you out? Strange. Good day though. Pete and I came home from visiting Nathan and Jessica. As we were leaving their house, we saw the coolest thing! A Peep-Mobile! Wow that sounds dirty, like a peep-show on wheels. No perverts! The marshmallow Peeps! My favorite zombie day candy! And now they are out for every holiday including the most holy of holies Halloween. And weird ones like 4th of July. Anyway, the Peep-Mobile was super cool, as you can see from the pics. Plus we drove by the old Bethlehem Steel plant in Bethlemen and it was just amazing. The pics don't do it justice. And one more very cool thing, the sky today was just splendid. Since the front came through and cleared out all the humidity, we could see awesome distances. It was a beautiful drive home.

My last day at Parole, and of course it was a pain. After I got out of work, Pete and I went up to Bethlehem Penn. to visit Nathan and Jessica. It was a beautiful drive, once we got past Harrisburg. I love mountains! Pete and I had a good laugh at their butter yellow house. We went to dinner at a japanese steakhouse but we didn't eat at the hibatchi, we ate at the sushi bar. They had bento boxes and all sorts of neat food that most hibatchi places don't have. It was funny when we got flipped off by a 5 year old boy. Long story, he wasn't actually flipping us off, but it was funny! Then off for ice cream, which due to digestive issues I do not eat except on very rare special occasions and when I am near a toilet. While we were at the ice cream place, eating outside, there was a gorgeous sunset going on. It was past sunset, where the descent of night is almost complete. At the horizon, and just above, were lovely clouds in all shades of mauve, pink and dusty rose. We were up a little ways on a small mountain/big hill and the twinkling lights of the city (Allentown or Bethlehem) were offset by the beautiful sky. I stood there for a few moments just enjoying the cool evening and sunset. I think maybe everyone else thought something was wrong, but really I was content looking at the sky while they ate their ice creams. Back at the house, later that night, I got the big air mattress and a smashing super shiny purple bedspread! Plus one of the dogs slept with me all night, that was nice. Good day!

Another glorious day off from work! I woke up at a decent hour, 9am, which was late enough to let me feel like I slept in and earlier enough to still get stuff done. I went to record and tape traders and I bought the new Keane cd, NIN-Things Falling Apart and James-Laid. The James cd is a replacement of the one my brother pawned years ago. After I got out of there without spending any more money-which I wanted to-I called Willow and we met up and did more shopping! Then lunch at a nice cafe, then back to his apartment just to chill and hang out. He taught me a cool mantra-the seven line immutable prayer-and showed me all the cool stuff he bought. We bought his plane ticket for Denver-yay!-and I left around 5:30. I got home and ate a nice salad for dinner and watched SG-1, then over to Pete's to watch anime! Yay!

Visited my dad today in the hospital since I didn't make it to see him this weekend. But I came when he had just gotten out of dialysis, so he was really out of it and sleepy. My mom was there too. We had some really good timing though. She went out and asked the nurse for the phone number for my dad's neurologist. It is always such an ordeal to get a hold of one of the doctors in the hospital, forget about seeing one. How these people can treat someone correctly when they only see them once or twice a week and only stay for 5 minutes is beyond me. My opinion of hospitals and everyone who works in them has really suffered from our experiences with Baltimore Washington Medical Center, formally known as North Arundel Hospital. Continuing that will only lead to an angry blog, so let's move on to the good part of my day. Well, my mom asks for his phone number and the nurse asks if she would like to speak with him, he is seeing another patient right now but he is available. My mom was like Hell yeah, I want to talk to him! Actually no, that was my response but it would have been funny if my mom said that! We waited around and I began to think he wasn't going to come. Not only did he show up, he listened to us and our concerns! Amazing! He actually examined my dad! He changed his medicine at my suggestion! Holy shit! I spoke up about a medicine I had heard about for diabetes nerve pain management and Dr. Miller said, that is a good idea, I will do that! Awesome! I am so glad that I mentioned it and I really hope it helps relieve the severe pain my dad is in.

Worked again at the Wheel today. Today was my normal day to work. But having already been there twice this week, ugh, it was a long day. Slow too. But I got my favorite snowball, spearmint with marshmallow, after work. Yummy! Class was really good, meditation. I needed it because I had been in the dumps all day. We did this one mudra-which is a type of yoga with the hands-I think it was called the buddha something or other. Wow! I really liked that one! Whatever it was, it really helped get me back into a normal mood. I am going to have to remember that one!

I had a really good time tonight. Pete and Jess went to cirque du soleil, but some of us are poor and can't afford $100 tickets so we did not go to that. And Shawn never called to say he wanted to do something, like I told him to, so I went out with my sister and my mom. We went to Outback for dinner-yay! It had been ages since I have been there. And then off to see Pirates of the Caribbean, which was very funny and action packed. I stopped at the grocery store afterwards and picked up some Ben and Jerry's halfbaked too. A very nice evening spent with the family!

Woo hoo! Season premiere fo Stargate SG-1! That always makes me happy. Plus it was actually a good episode. Everyone was in a bad place/position from the season finale, so it was about getting everyone through their tight spot and getting the group back together at the end. It was good, I enjoyed it. And just the thought all day that I had a new SG-1 to watch that night was enough to get me through a very long day at work.

Picked up some extra hours at the Wheel today. It was good, I need the extra money badly for Otakon and Denver! And it was really nice because we were busy and made lots of money! Tony was so excited!

Today I got an emergency call into the Wheel to work. Apparently the regular girl no called/no showed two days in a row. Being the helpful, good person that I am, I went in about 4:30 and worked until close. The best part was, I had a really busy evening and took in a good amount of money for a Wednesday evening. Tony was so pleased with how much I made and the fact that I came in and worked when he thought that the store was going to be closed, that he let me pick out a piece of jewelry for free! I chose a pretty garnet ring. That was so nice of him!

Visited my dad in the hospital today. I think he is developing mad psychic skills while he is there. It is probably because of all the meds and narcotics and dialysis and just plain old being in the hospital for so long. That by itself is disorienting. But he was telling me about the dreams he keeps having and they are nuts! Definitely some work going on with his guides. He dreamt he was in a class and being taught about all kinds of stuff-god, sex, religion. Cool. Also, a couple of weeks ago, he told me how he kept seeing things in the room. Bug like things that would be there and then suddenly disappear. He said they were like an episode of Stargate Sg-1, I remember which episode he was talking about. When I got home that night, that episode of SG1 was on! Creepy! But the really good news is the hospital is talking about sending him to rehab soon, like a week. It is just a matter of sorting stuff out with the insurance-which has been a nightmare, my mom had to get a lawyer. But that is not for today's blog.

What was good about today? After another late night at a concert, I wasn't due in to work until 10am. That was really nice. The funny thing is, if I had asked for it, it would never have happened. She would have made up some sort of excuse. But it worked out for the best. I got to sleep in! Work has still been busy and stressful but I am starting to deal with it better. I think it is knowing that I am leaving this branch soon. So I don't care so much about what goes wrong here anymore. Kinda bad, I know.

Hi Hi Puffy Amiyumi concert! Woo hoo! Had a pretty good time tonight at the puffy show. There were a couple of incidents that were less than pleasant, but overall I had a good time. The opening band was called TallyHall and they were like a mix of Weezer, Barenaked Ladies and a little bit of Ben Folds thrown in. They were a lot of fun, very entertaining. The rest of my Sunday was pretty good, even though the Thai food from the night before was playing havoc with me. I went shopping at Target and spent too much money, as usual. I got a small blue bin type thing that I am using as a shelf on my dresser. I am in my summer bedroom which is tiny so I am trying to clean up and make a little room so it doesn't look like a complete disaster area all the time. I do wish I had gotten more done before I left for the show but it felt real good to sleep in until 11:30am!

Hey Saturday! Worked this morning then came home and napped for 3 hours. I was so tired after the concert last night, it was so hard to get up and go to work. I am an old fart! Can't even stay out for a concert and go to work the next day, anymore! Then Saturday evening, Pete, Shawn, Jess and I went out to dinner at Bangkok Oriental. And I got something new! Boxing ring chicken. Boy was that tasty! But the best thing was, there was some compromise going on there on this dinner trip. And I really appreciate my friends understanding and sacrifice so that I could go out to dinner with them!

Angels and Airways/Taking Back Sunday concert tonight! I had a good time. Meriweather sucks for sound, it was rather distorted, but it was good despite that. Great weather, nice and cool. General Admission tickets but we got in the pavilion anyway. Then Tom, formerly of Blink 182, caming running around the stadium and stood 10 feet away. The surge of humanity around us as a space that formerly held 1 person (me in my seat) now held 4-now that was annoying. Especially the screaming in my ear by silly girls. Other than that, Angels and Airways were great and so was Taking Back Sunday. I took a pic on my cell phone of Tom close by but I'll add that later! And, since it was Meriweather, I was home by a little after 11pm! Woo hoo!

Angels and Airwaves

Today was a take care of the car day. I was off from work. So I got an oil change, brakes flushed, emissions tested and car washed. It felt very productive! Plus, I finally ( a month late) mailed Mary her NIN t-shirt. I like taking care of my car like that. I wish I could spend more money on it, not tricking it out or anything like that. Just getting normal scheduled matainence that I can never seem to afford. Like all those 25000 mile, 50000 mile check up type tune up things. I want to take care of my car and help it run for as long as possible. Today it felt good to do what I could for my car!

I was in a poopy, indecisive mood today for having the day off from work. But it was good to sit with my dad at the hospital for a few hours today. We watched the space shuttle launch and that is always excellent! I love it! Wish oh man do I wish I could do that! Out of all the things in this world, that's the one thing I would love to do. I can't adequately express it, without sounding like an idiot or saying stupid things. But the shuttle launch was certainly my idea of watching the rockets red glare on the 4th of July!

It was crazy at work today. Madness! Problem after major problem after annoying problem. But I survived. I did more than survive. I fixed all the problems. I handled them smoothly without getting too mad. As I was going through each of these problems, it dawned on me that this was excellent experience for the near future when I will be teller supervisor. And instead of freaking out and getting angry and frustrated like I was doing last week, I settled down, smiled a little, laughed a little and got to work. And when I left I felt like a champ! I felt real good about the job I did today despite a lot of adversity. Hmm, we are back to that sense of accomplishment again. So is that my key to happiness and having a good day? Getting stuff done and feeling accomplished?