work = CRAZY
~43 hrs in 3 days...im nuts!!!!~
on top of that..add being sick
totally disappointing people on swapbot..bums me out
looking forward to vegas..only 8 days now
brain not working too well..shall write more later

mood: disappointed..in me

eargasm: big and rich

wants: to be in vegas

needs: a walk in closet:)

So it seems as if everyone in my house is sick, and I think I may have gotten to the point where I couldn't avoid it any longer.
I feel blah.
Work has been getting a tad crazier, but not at all to the point of insanity that i had expected :)
Which is a good thing.
Black Friday was actually kinda blah, and not enough to keep me yawning from boredom because most shoppers were not shopping for engraveable gifts.
I work tonight, and i have friday off, and then i work all week until thursday. Blah.
Hopefully there will be more to do and more customers in the coming week, otherwise I will continue to be bored.
The semester is almost over, thank god!!!
All the studying is really getting to me, and I just want it to be break already.
I feel like I am prepared for my tests, I just don't have them sitting in front of me yet.
In other news, I was invited to the disneyland cast xmas party, which i am excited about.
It should be a lot of fun, especially since I am going with Katie, and we are crazy disney gals!
I am also looking forward to having all of friday off, even though I have to get up at 8 for spring registration.
I get to spend the rest of my day working on the rest of my december swaps so they will be mailed early :)
Well, I guess I should get back to the grind of cleaning the house (chaz wants to get me a puppy for xmas ...squeak ).
But the house must be puppy ready for that to happen!!!
Tata for now!!

i am already having to decide what to take next semester
luckily everything i need basically fell right into place this time
woohoo for luck :) boo for 5 days a week of school
but anything will be better than the two days of 8am-6pm
mostly because i didnt have any break until 2:30
my own fault really, darn me for being ambitious :)

normally it takes someone 6 months to reach that point.
and i took the test, and passed it.
i can officially engrave on anything brought it.
not that i am totally confident with everything yet :)
but its nice to know that the head haucho in engraving world thinks i am capable.
i am so excited that i have tues thru sunday off (6 days..weee)
yay for time to clean, be crafty and get ready for vegas.
i am so excited, it will be nice to relax before the craziness of xmas.

till Vegas. 
Till the strip, stephen lynch and the transiberian orchestra.
Whose a happy girl? Oh yeah, that would be me.
I havent been since, June, haha.
Really I am looking forward to the transiberian orchestra the most.
It being in Vegas is just a major plus factor.
And the fact that I get to go outlet shopping, purely a bonus :)
I cant wait to see Chaz's parents again, I love them so.
I am glad they decided to see the concert with us.
Not looking forward to driving back home after the concert though.
That part, will suck, but we will probably switch off.
And by switch off I mean, I start, we stop for food. 
Chazs turn starts and doesnt end till we get home.
Due mostly to the fact that I will be out cold once getting back into the car.
It happened on the way home from coachella, and it will happen again :) 

I had to work.
I still had a fever, was throwing up, and felt faint.
Why the fuck did I have to work?
Well, because no one would come in for me.
No one within a 25 mile radius!
Why? Because its HALLOWEEN!!!
So who feels sorry for me, no one, i know.
Sucks to be me, sucks to be the opener tomorrow more.
But when I was told not to worry about engraving and to just relax.
I did, mostly till I got bored, and sitting made me feel worse.
But at least i got to see a lot of cute trick or treaters.
Didnt get near them.
Didnt want to get them sick.
But from what I saw, they were adorable.
Ahh, to bed with me, I have a bio quiz in the am.

Being sick really sucks.
I hate feeling like I have no control over my body.
I was up basically all night.
Either from feeling like utter crap..or feeling like I was in a igloo and then feeling like I was in a fire.
Feeling like any move I made after I had gotten comfortable, would make me throw up again.
Ugh, I had to leave work after being there for only a hour and a half.
I hate doing that, I usually work through being sick, no matter how bad I feel.
But yesterday, I could barely stand without feeling faint.
I am considering calling work and telling them they may need to find a shift coverage for me tomorrow.
But I think I may wait till late afternoon to make that decision.
So, I think I may go back to laying down, i am starting to feel a bit woozy.

Luckily, I have not been affected as much as some people I know. But still, the air is all icky and you can feel the heat all the time. When I got outta the car to walk through the mall to work yesterday, I took a deep breath and just felt my asthma coming on. Alot of people at school today were talking about how much it was affecting them to, but I have to say that I am lucky that its just the air I have to deal with, and not having to deal with my house being close to the fire. Some friends have been evaced, a fire got within 100 yards of their house. Another friend, had the fire 15-20 yards from their house and the FD told them to be prepared to lose everything. Can you imagine? I am so thankful that we have such great firefighters here, I can not imagine how much worse it would be without them. Hopefully the weather will start to be on their side. Unfortunately it has been so hot and the wind has been consistent to helping the fires increase, the most contained fire is still only at 20%. Eek. I really hope they can get a upperhand on them soon.



(all were taken by my friend of the fire that was 100 yards from here house)
In other news, the bridal expo was a complete blast. Loads of fun, and we met some truly awesome people. Both brides, families and vendors alike. I have never seen a room of such giggly girls and uninterested grooms before. haha. But I am taking my level 5 engraving test on Saturday morning in Montebello. Eek. I am so nervous, Alex says I shouldn't worry, that I will do great, but still I don't wanna be the loser that couldn't pass the test. It seems like I have been working there for awhile, but really it has only been a lil over a month. I can't wait till the Christmas rush starts, I love being busy, and yesterdays slowness, sucked. Especially since I was all alone after M sliced her finger with a sushi knife someone brought in to engrave.
I am going out to dinner tonight for the last of my birthday events. My nana was in New York during my birthday and so we are going out tonight to celebrate. I love that my birthday can sometimes last a month. This year, it lasted 19 days, and I was still getting presents up until sunday, always fun.
But now, the "presents" I look forward to are my swapbot packages. I love getting snail mail from friends, old and new alike, so swapbot is my new favorite addiction.

So it looks like I am going to be picking up even more hours at work. This past week I picked up 15.5 hours, go me! And this Sunday, I am going to be working at the Bridesworld Expo in Costa Mesa.
It should be a lot of fun, especially since I am not going by myself, M is going to be my partner in crime for the day. What fun we shall have! Hopefully we will get a lot of orders and I can make up my sales for the past week, haha! And plus, A, my store manager said that you can get samples of what the other vendors are doing to compare and come up with better ideas and what not, so that should be fun too!

So yesterday, I finally learned how to engrave glass and things that are round like mugs and champagne flutes. Not as scary as I thought it was going to be, but still made me a little nervous. Luckily, the items were mine, so if I messed up, I was the one who was going to be stuck with it. But thankfully, they turned out beautifully and I love them. So, go me!! The only things left now are items that are beveled and things that require the text to be mirrored. EEK! But I am sure that it is much simpler than the mugs and champagne flutes, because those things are weird. haha.
In other news, I can't believe that the semester is already half over. I mean, I am happy that it is, but it seems like it has gone by so fast. I had two tests last week, a test tomorrow, and a midterm that was pushed back a week that will be taken in a week. The test tomorrow, I am not too worried about, it is my rock history test, and last time I got a B, one point away from an A. So i think as long as I take some time to look over the information again today and tomorrow morning, I shall do just as good, maybe even earn that extra point for the A.

So even though I had a gain of .8 lbs last week due to all the birthday stuff (and me letting my self slide a lil), I kicked my butt into gear, and lost 1.2 lbs this week. Wish it could have been more, since I exercised a lot, but I think my body is still punishing me for mistreating it last week. But I am glad that I lost what I had gained and am now back on track:) Now my goal is to get through today, I am saving most of my points for tonight, because I will be at the Go Country Go Fest and I know that there will be many temptations. But I luckily don’t really like drinking beer, and I wont pay $18 for a hurricane, so I should be fine drinking water and what not. But the food will be tempting, I am hoping to stay at corn and maybe a hot dog. Wish me luck!
In other news, work is going really well, I love it there, and I love the people there. I even picked up 4.5 hours this week, so yeah, more money for me! And we worked on a totally new visual set yesterday, and the store is going to look so awesome for Christmas, so I am really excited to see that. Also, I love the crafty site I found swapbot, I can already see myself getting majorly addicted. I sent out my first one yesterday and I am really hoping that my partner will like it. I love doing crafts, so I am glad that I have found a site to share my craftiness with people around the world! My first partner lives in Maryland, and my next two are from Florida and Australia! I love snail mail (that isn't bills, haha) so i love that I can look forward to having crafty mail now!

I got keys to the store. Yay me! I am not a great engraver, but I am getting there with practice and I got to practice a lot on simple things today. As for friday, it is time to learn how to do glass, mugs and things that slant/bevel. EEK!

with dvr(the time warner cable version of TIVO). I mean seriously, what did I do before dvr? I must have just missed everything in the new fall line ups and then went to the video rental store down the street to rent the series when it finally came out on dvd so I didn't feel like such a loser for not knowing what the rest of America was watching. But now, I miss nothing. I love it so much. And for only 10 bucks more a month, why didn't I give into this device sooner? I can go to work and not be all bummed out because I am missing Grey's Anatomy or whatever. I can even work on homework more efficiently knowing that its taping and I am going to watch it as soon as its down recording just so I can fast forward through all the commercials and stuff I don't really want to watch, but would otherwise be forced to see if I didn't have dvr. Basically, I love dvr, that is all :)

get sick. Everyone seems to be sniffling, sneezing and having runny noses lately. So I really hope I don’t catch it, though I think I may have already caught it, especially since M is sick and I worked with her last night. Darnit. I really need not to be sick this week. I have a human bio and math test on thursday. And I have a rock history test on tuesday. Blah, I don’t want to be sniffling and blowing my nose every few minutes, I hate taking tests when I feel like complete shit. On the plus side, I did get to come home early today due to a class being canceled, so that is a good thing. Get some rest and start feeling better before I have to go back for math, yippee.

It was my birthday Thursday. I tried to be good about not overindulging, but I am not going to lie, I did have some drinks. And ended up breaking my camera due to dropping it, I am hoping that when I call Canon it wont cost too much to fix, otherwise it looks like my birthday money will be spent getting a new one, unless I wait till Christmas. Blah. I really like my camera, but now that I have started into looking at new ones, I have found some ones that will be suitable replacements. But I have been trying to keep up with the exercise, even just doing a little bit a day. And I have been feeling good, but yesterday was bad. I didn’t feel like I had any control. First off, we went to a birthday brunch for my dad’s 50th, so that was a lot of REALLY good food, because its one of those buffet brunches, but I really tried to choose healthy things and smaller portions of everything. I even started everything off with a salad while everyone else chowed down on mashed potatoes, bacon, sausage, eggs and waffles. AHH. haha.I just hope that yesterday wasn’t a total foreshadowing for the rest of the week. I want to keep sticking with this diet, even though I gained this week. .8lbs, but still, its a gain (which I know is bound to happen) and at least I know why it happened, I caused it big time. But hopefully this week will be better and I will continue to work on my exercise goal!!
current obsessions: looking at potential new camera options / swapbot ..randomly finding crafty sites on the net makes my day, especially since this one is a craft trading site

a tattle tale. So I didn't call, I hope this decision doesn't come back to bite me in the ass. Worst come to worst we will have a discussion tomorrow about it, blahness. I hate feeling like I don't know what is saying too much and what is saying too little. I am glad that english class was canceled today at least I got 3 hours to go home and just relax before I have to go back for math, joy of joys. So on to relax I go.

*edit* nothing was said to me, im not sure if M said anything, but I am not going to bring it up :)

I don't want to feel like one, but I am also not going to let people talk to the store manager about me before I talk to him, especially when I know about. Here is the thing. A customer who happens to be a acquaintance of mine came into the store and asked for an application. As i was getting her one, she was asking what everyone who is wanting a job asks. "How much do you get paid?" And I said, well it usually depends on the person and the experience that they have working with retail and such. But California state law is that you have to get paid at least $7.50/hour and that is going to be going up to $8.00/hour in January so I am sure that you most people coming in will fit into that category, especially since you know that I have worked in retail for almost two years and was an asst manager for 6 months and i get $7.75. At that point the person I was working with, M, turned around from the engraver, apparently she has been listening to my conversation and said, "WHAT?!?!?!" You get paid how much?, Thats ridiculous I have been working here longer than you and have way more experience and you are getting paid more than me, WTF?!? And all I could say was, maybe its because I had a managerial experience before working here, and she wasn't going to hear it. So she said she was going to talk to the store manager about it, and now I am really worried about it because I wasn't trying to shove it in her face or anything, a friend of mine was asking an honest question, and I gave an honest answer. And the worst thing is that now she is going around the store asking people is they know what I make. I mean come on now, you are 8 years older than me, be mature please. And another thing, she asked one of my best friends, who works there as well, if she knew what I made, and she said no I hadn't told her, and she proceeded to tell her what I made, and how she should be mad too because my friend has worked there longer than me as well. Seeing as I just started 2 weeks ago, and she has been there for about 6 months, and M has been there close to 1.5years. But I don't know what to do. My friend says that I should call the store manager tomorrow during one of my breaks from school before M gets there and I sound like the bad person. But I don't know, I am really really worried that this is going to look bad on my part, but I don't think that I did anything wrong. Especially since most of the workers there are highly unimpressed with the progress she has made while shes been there. It took her forever to learn how to engrave, and shes not even a level 5, and she is getting tested for it at the same time as me. Are you frickin kidding me, she has been there like 1 year and 5months longer than me, maybe they aren't paying her as much as me because they don't feel that she is worth it, since she doesn't know much more than me. But I would never ever say that to anyone, including her, besides this blog, because I am not that type of person. But I mean, the one thing I do feel sorta bad about is my friend, but she understands that I didn't ask to make more than her, I asked for minimum wage. So what does that tell you, and its not just me making more than M and my friend, its the other new girl too, she hired in a week before me, so maybe everyone is in for a lil raise and they just don't know it yet, otherwise I don't know why I get paid more, I just do. And I don't think I should have to apologize for that. It's really making me stressed out, so hopefully, everything will turn out for the best, and I will have just over stressed. Gosh I hope so. 

a gym rat. yes, yes I do. I find that once I go, I get into a lot more. But its the going that first time in awhile that always seems to trip me up. The good thing is that my mom is willing to go with me again. My mom has a lot of issues with self image, must be where I get it, and it is really hard for her to go to the gym. So I am hoping that together, we will do it. Plus, I found out today that she, as of now, weighs 6 lbs less than me. Not a lot, I know, but still, she has always been bigger than me, and it saddens me that I let myself pass her. Sigh, at least she will be a constant reminder of what I need to lose, right? So i made an exercise goal for myself for this month of 780 minutes. Not all of this has to be at the gym, but they have to be completed or the leftover will be added onto next months goal. I cant wait to go to the gym on Tuesday, too bad I work such a mid shift tomorrow, otherwise I would go tomorrow, but Tuesday is good. At least I have the plan and this time, I am sticking to it :)

So its been 4 weeks so far since I started "getting serious" about my weight, and I have now lost 7.2 lbs. I feel like I am on track to keep making progress, which is a really good feeling. My family has decided to take a cruise next summer, and I am both really excited and terrified at the same time. I love vacations, but I hate being seen in my swimsuit by anyone that doesn't already know that I am fat and don't need to be in a swimsuit. Sigh. So I have made a big goal for myself. I want to lose at least one pound every week until the cruise. There is 37 weeks until the cruise, just 15 weeks shy of an entire year, and i think that i can at least lose 37 more pounds, but really I want to lose more. But 37 pounds in 37 weeks is a good goal for me, and I intend to make that goal, if not smother it :)