my new job

Written yesterday…

So, I started work as a pet sitter/dog walker on Sunday. My first job is pretty simple, and even fun – taking care of a dog (pointer mix) and cat (calico…ish?) for a week. They live in a very big house in a very fancy town, and I visit them twice a day to feed, water, clean the litter box, and take Jack on walks. Jack is a super sweet puppy who is happy and hyper and loves attention. I had a scary encounter when two angry dogs charged Jack and me and Jack slipped his collar; I chased him for a half hour before I could convince him (with help from a nice dog-walker-guy) to get back on leash. (I was pretty pissed at the guy who let the aggressive dogs off leash in the first place… but, the nice guy helped make up for it.)

Here are some cute pictures of Jack:

ohhai!

We played tug-of-war; Jack won

Cuddles!

And here is Lexy-kitty:

In the driveway

She likes to cuddle the wall

Today I’m adding another job, with a third addition tomorrow. My job today is with a bulldog named Oliver, and tomorrow I’m taking care of a kitty cat. I have six hours to kill before I give Jack his evening walk and visit Oliver for the first time. Unfortunately since it’s Thanksgiving, absolutely nothing is open! I’m hanging out in Peet’s right now, but they close early and my laptop is dying anyway… Borders is closed, and so is Target, so my options are extremely limited in this town.

And now today…

I had an interesting Thanksgiving. I got a cute breakfast, then I took Jack for a morning walk and saw all the dogs ever (three Golden Retrievers, two huskies, two pointers, a giant poodle, a pug, and a big furry black thing of unknown origin.) Then I went to Peet’s and wrote the mini-entry above this. When my computer finally ran out of batteries I thought I’d see if I could find somewhere else to hang out that was open, but I failed miserably. I ended up at Walmart and bought more Random Things (why does that always happen when I’m at Walmart, hm? I ended up with a spaghetti strap undershirt, a bra, chocolate syrup, and Diet Coke for the road.) I finally struck the jackpot and found a whole plaza of open stores: Safeway, Panda Express, Jamba Juice and Starbucks. I ate my Thanksgiving dinner, read in the parking lot, got more coffee, and went to meet Oliver the bulldog.

Here’s Oliver:

He's saying, "give me the treat that I KNOW you have!"

He’s a funny puppy who doesn’t seem to care about most doggish things, but does love to eat. I’ve never really been around bulldogs before, and his little snorts and funny sounds crack me up; it reminds me of a guinea pig (or, for that matter, a regular pig!) The little wrinkle in his forehead makes him look like he’s always worried, and one of his ears flops backwords, which is too cute. =)

Right now I’m in Borders, watching TV until my laptop battery runs out. Then I’m going to get lunch, do my first lunchtime visit for a kittycat, and then find something else to do until 5pm when I can do my evening visits with the puppos (and Lexy.) Then I have to get home fast, because my parents are bringing Dan back from his mom’s house, and I have to clean the house before TOMORROW when the entire family (all 4 sisters, Pat the foreign exchange student from Thailand, and my grandparents). It’s going to be crazy, especially in our teeny tiny apartment… maybe I’ll stuff things in the closet to make room. =P

Oh, and one more thing: my cell phone isn’t working! It’s not the battery this time (it shouldn’t be; I just bought a new one…) I have an old school Chocolate, and the touch-sensitive buttons on the front are no longer working – sometimes they vibrate at random, and sometimes they don’t work at all. That means that I can still make calls, but I can’t text, take pictures, send pictures, save contacts, change settings, etc etc… so, no good. Maybe on Sunday I can go to Verizon and see if they’ll do anything for me? (Like this weekend isn’t going to busy enough?)

i’m thankful for:

• My silly, quirky, hilarious, and all-around awesome husband who loves me no matter what!
• My loving and supportive family, who is willing to sacrifice in order to make our lives better
• My adorable pets, who amuse me, annoy me, relax me, stress me out, but always make me =D
• A job that 1) exists (I’ve been without one for far too long!) , and 2) I enjoy (yay animals!)
• Finally having a purpose in life, and a goal to aspire to
• Coffee! Which I’m drinking right now!

Happy Thanksgiving!

to add insult to injury, it’s raining

Things are all stressy and it smells like spray paint.

Stress #1: Money!

So, money is extremely tight. Without going into extreme detail (and no one needs extreme detail when it comes to money problems, yes?) it’s extra frustrating because there is money out there, but we can’t access it. Even more frustrating, we requested access over a week ago and despite us bugging the Money Peoples, we’re still stuck trying to live off the same $30.

Stress #2: Family! + Work!

This is a lovely combination of stereotypical stressors. (The internet tells me this isn’t a word, but we’re going to pretend otherwise.) I’m very grateful to have a job, but unfortunately I have to work on holidays (it’s just the nature of the job; that’s when people are gone and their pets need looked after.) And that includes Thanksgiving, when not only I have to work but I have to be all by myself all day, on the most family-est of holidays. I understand why Dan feels like he has to go but I’m not at all happy about it. (In fact, I’ve had my share of meltdowns about it. It’s a really shitty situation.)

On the other hand, this whole situation makes me realize (yet again) just how awesome my family is. Even after I told them they didn’t have to, my parents insisted on coming down after Thanksgiving to see me and have a mini post-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving. My mom also volunteered to meet me halfway so Dan doesn’t have to ride a bus for 5-6 hours  (I have to use the car for work, and Dan’s family… simply isn’t volunteering to drive him. And there are a lot more angry words I could say on that subject, but, I won’t.)

Stress #3: Itchy!! (Enough said.)

Well, there’s more, but I’m done with numbers. I have a headache, a horribly messy house, a whole bunch of homework to do, and I feel like curling up into a sad, itchy, weepy ball. So, um… Happy Thanksgiving?

playing with puppos for profit

There is a cute guy with a Southern accent next to me and I am trying not to stare. I also met a woman with a beautiful French accent – what is with us stupid Californians and our stupid bland voices?

Ahem, so, anyway. I’m currently at Borders in Pleasanton (a city whose name I cannot spell for the life of me) after my ride-along ‘interview’ this morning. A nice retired guy graciously agreed to take me with him to his morning/afternoon appointments, and it actually was a lot of fun. We had a morning appointment taking care of a whole houseful of birds – three cockatiels, two parakeets, and two larger birds (I think they were parrotlets) – plus two goldfish. Then we had a break so he showed me the computer system, which is how customers book appointments and how the pet sitters get their schedule and all the important info. It’s a pretty nifty system; I like the high-tech-ness. =) In the afternoon we had two dog-walking jobs: two super-lovey cocker spaniels at the first house, and a sweetheart yellow lab at the second. Basically, it didn’t feel like work at all, and if I wasn’t busy I would happily give the dogs longer walks than their owners paid for – because *I* enjoyed it. Although the drive is a bit long, I think the beforementioned observation will make it worth it (assuming I get the job of course, but I’m hopeful!)

Class doesn’t start for a few hours, and I brought homework but I haven’t brought myself to do it yet. =P Instead I’m wasting my computer battery and getting incredibly sleepy despite the restorative powers of my delicious iced mocha from Seattle’s Best (that’s what I get for staying up all night. Not that I meant to; I was literally lying in bed chewing my fingernails in boredom. Stupid me, having insomnia like that.) I think I might just have to take a quick car nap in the lovely sun, then maybe take a fun little trip over to Walmart (right across the parking lot from Borders! It’s like they built this shopping complex for me!) before doing some hard core homework. The mall that my school is located in actually has wireless, according to the internet, so I could always do more computer stuff later… assuming I find a plug, that is, because I’ve already wasted half my battery.

*sleepies*

i’m laughing until i’m crying right now

I should be sleeping, since I have to wake up in a few hours… but then I never would have seen this episode of Who’s Line, which included such gems as “act out this scene as if you had really big butts!” and a song about pants-a.

Ryan was just singing about how he can’t control his bowels when there suddenly was a test of the emergency broadcast system… mysterious!

spermatazoa!

This is what I did in school today:

Squirm, squirm! I'm a sperm!

That gorgeous piece of artwork is a sperm cell, and my group made it in Biology class. It’s a piece of foam with clay and really fuzzy pipe cleaners, oh and some paint and pushpins too. It’s not completely anatomically accurate, but considering we carved the dang thing with a plastic butter knife it was the best we could do!

Oh, and I got my progress report today (art class *and* a progress report – it’s like fifth grade all over again!) I got A’s in everything but lab, where I got a B. I was surprised since I’ve probably tried the hardest in lab, but I’m not going to complain too loudly over a B, heh. Of course, that’s not taking into account my lack of an English grade, but we just won’t go there… =S Anyway, I have two tests tomorrow and I should probably study for them. (One is a spelling test! See; fifth grade!)

issues

Things that have been stressing me out lately:

• Money woes! Need I say more?
• I lost my wallet on Thursday and ended up missing class as a result. My BART card still isn’t working (that’s another stress-bullet-point in itself) and without my wallet, I couldn’t buy another ticket and decided not to drive to San Leandro without a driver’s license because we *so* cannot afford a ticket right now. I’m sure this won’t completely destroy me as a student but I feel disgusted and frustrated with myself.
• I got the bill for some verrrry overdue library books/DVDs from Vallejo… and it’s a crazy amount! Luckily I found all the overdue items and can bring them back, and hopefully that will bring the fee down. Like, a lot down, because otherwise we may have to declare bankruptcy over library books! (Not really, but isn’t that a silly thought?)
• Messy house! Why won’t it just clean itself??
• I found out this weekend that my transfer credits didn’t go through in time and I’m going to have to take an English class. Problem is, this class has already been going on for four weeks and I don’t know how I’m going to catch up! =S I’m beyond the frustration point that I have to take English 101 when I have a whole fricking English major under my belt; now I’m just worried that I’m going to drown in backwork.
• I know this isn’t immediate, but the upcoming holidays are NOT something I’m looking forward to. Which is sad, because usually I love holidays and will take any chance to celebrate, but there are so many Family Issues that I kind of just want to stay home and shut the world out. I’m just going to have to get through it somehow I guess, and I’ll try to put it out of my head until I absolutely can’t anymore! =P

But, it’s a new week and I’m going to try to tackle things as best I can. I’ve figured out how to login to my online class, now I just need to start the actual work part. I can try to fix my BART card today and return those library books this week (I have to drive to Vallejo, meh) and… I don’t know. I’ll get it done somehow.

On a completely note, Dan and I can NOT STOP singing this. It is probably the best thing that happened to me all week.

(Oh, except that Kaeli stayed with us last night after dropping her friend off at the Oakland airport, and we had a mini Target shopping spree! It resulted in penguin socks and the cutest peacoat ever! Also groceries, but that wasn’t quite as exciting.)

new things

I was having an “eff the world” day but rather than ranting all over the internet, I decided to make pages about two things that make me very happy: music and my pets.

I may rant later, but right now I’m cuddling the bunlet!

times when I grit my teeth and speak in !?!

I sat across from a couple on BART who were talking about music they liked.

Boy: Don’t you like rap?
Girl: Yeah but I’m also into really hard stuff. Like Evanescence and Nirvana.
Me: …
Boy: You’re so hardcore!!
Me: !!!
Boy: What’s your favorite song by them?
Girl: Tears Don’t Fall (starts to sing it)
Me: ???

… : I like Nirvana and have as much of a crush on Amy Lee as the next guy, but “really hard” they are not.
!!! : He wasn’t sarcastic either.
??? : And, that’s a Bullet For My Valentine song. And no, you’re not “hardcore” for listening to them either.

halloween 09

Well, it’s only 8:46 on Halloween night, but I’m at home with my laptop, meaning that I’m obviously not going to have a wild night. =) But, it’s still been fun.

Comcast has a bunch of Halloween films on demand and some of them are free, so we’ve been watching a bunch of bad movies, lol! In the past two days we’ve watched The Burning (which I actually thought was scarier than Friday the 13th, even though they’re very similar), Catacombs (Shannyn Sossamon and Pink playing sisters, interestingly enough), Unrest (a bad story with surprisingly good acting, but FYI, chanting does not a scary movie make!), and Night of the Demons (so horribly bad, it was awesome! Best line: “go eat a bowl of fuck!” It was all in the delivery; you’d have to see it to get the full impact. There was also tons of gratiutious nudity and really bad 80’s hair, if you’re into that kind of thing.) We also had one free rental so we got The Exorcist (had to sneak a classic in there), which neither of us had seen before. And, we just started Fear No Evil (the devil goes to high school?)h, so I’m hoping for more 80’s horror goodness! =)

Even though we didn’t go anywhere special, I still dressed up in my kitty costume:

I'm Molly the kitty! (Wearing the dog's old tag, lol)

Now with kitty paw action!

Ratties and kitties can be friends! =)

I had a tail too (which I made from a sock + wire + shopping bags), but I didn’t wear it because it just got in the way when I sat down… plus, I couldn’t find a practical way to wear it with the sweater dress I wanted to wear. So I was a tailless cat I guess! =P

Other than watching bad horror movies and eating sugary things, we saw Dan’s cousin who was visiting a friend in the area, went to Barnes and Noble (where I managed to spill not only my water cup, but my iced mocha all over the floor – what can I say, I’m talented), and got dinner at Macaroni Grill (where the following works of art were created!)

First Nyx...

then Gaia...

...and finally Hina and Pele!

Dan drew the goldfish too, but I didn’t get a picture of them.

As long as I’m overloading this page with photos, here are more Halloween things inside our house…

Decorations (that smell yummy!)

More decorations - love the tiny white pumpkins!

…And, outside:

The front door

Dan's Dracula pumpkin (he made the pattern himself; he's crazy like that)

My spider-and-web pumpkin, next to the stereotypical candy-collecting pumpkin

Now I am drinking decaf coffee with cinnamon vanilla creamer, and it is ever so festive and delicious!

Oh, I almost forgot to post this:

The vacuum dressed up as a witch this year - and yes, it has a broom lol!

Happy Halloween!