Cinnabon? Cinnagone.

Mom and I were at Sea Tac Mall yesterday -- excuse me. The Commons. She pointed out that Cinnabon had closed. *gasp* It's so sad. I have memories of being a little kid, standing on the ramp ('cause I was too short, of course) and watching the people behind the counter make those delicious Cinnabons. Mmmmm. Roll the dough, spread the butter, sprinkle the cinnamon, roll, measure, discard the ends, slice, stick 'em in the pans, bake. :) Add frosting.

We walked by the closed stand, and I noticed a plaque. I never knew it was the first Cinnabon stand ever. Wow, Federal Way is famous for something, yet the place is closed! Well, I guess FW isn't famous because Cinnabon opened four years before FW became a city. Anyway, it's true. That Cinnabon stand at the mall that was formerly known as Sea Tac was the first ever.

Man, now I really just want a Cinnabon. :) The center is the best part. Hehehe.

Couldn't be happier

Wow, less than 24 hours ago I was sitting 12 rows away from the stage at Josh Groban's concert. Got to reunite with many great Grobies, including Megan, the Erins, Kathi, Trish, Kelly, Carol, Nancy, Nancy (yes, two different Nancys), Janeen, and others.

It was an amazing, amazing concert, I can't even fully describe how ecstatic I was to see him perform live again. Highlights? So many. I spent maybe a good 20 to 30 minutes typing out the details since they are still fresh in my mind. But surely you don't want to read four pages worth of notes. :)

Here's the set list plus condensed highlights (or at least an attempt at condensed highlights):
Oceano: incredible beginning, brought back memories of Seattle and Portland
Per Te: signaled a new set list, love this song
To Where You Are: Josh nailed it
Mi Mancherai: Lucia's performance was awesome, loved how Josh sang the word "mancherai" *swoon*
Mi Morena: still *swooning*, brought back memories of Portland, Josh was really into this song
Alejate: caliente
Canto Alla Vita: Loved everything about this song, including Josh playing the DRUMS!
[Lucia's solo] Nocturne/Bohemian Rhapsody: She and the band (so it's not really a solo solo) played a version similar to the one on her CD. Lucia poured so much emotion into her playing, and she completely deserved the standing ovation that we gave her. :)
Alla Luce Del Sole: The band was rockin' on this song
My December: Awesome, awesome, awesome
Caruso: Again, brought back memories of Seattle and Portland. I'm glad Josh felt the need to record this song to "get it out of his system." It's a beautiful song.
Remember When It Rained: Josh and the piano -- no better combination than that
Vincent: I sighed when he said that he used to listen to this song when he was younger and didn't understand what it meant but he does now. *sigh* See?
Remember: Surprise of the night. He sang Remember from Troy! :)
You Raise Me Up: Great way to "end" the concert, lucky choir members were from Chief Sealth High School, we waved our pen lights
[Encore 1] America: I had been waiting for this song for months now. Wow. It was just Josh and the piano. No band. No orchestra. No flashy lights. No screen images. Just Josh and the piano. Again, there's no better combination than that. Wow, it was such a beautiful, emotional cover of Simon & Garfunkel's song.
[Encore 2] Never Let Go: My favorite line from the song is "hold onto what brought you here." Believe me, I will.

Thanks Josh and Co. for another incredible concert. :) Not just the music but also the laughs. For example, Josh said, "There' s nothing going on in the tour bus. We can stay here all night!" And when we cheered like crazy, Josh had to take back his words, softly speaking into the microphone, "I lied." LOL!

Closer

The Josh concert is TOMORROW! Ahhhhh! Finally! :) Yes, I wore my Closer t-shirt today, and it's friggin' huge. If we were living in the early '90s again, it'd be a great t-shirt. Heh!

I've been compiling a list of where many of the oldies-but-goodies PNW Grobanites are sitting at White River Amph. Hopefully we can say hi to each other since most of us are in the first five sections (gotta love the FoJG presale).

My movie-watching streak continues. Today I watched The Prince & Me. The prince was cute at times. The accent helped, even though he had a British accent (he was the prince of Denmark). Yup, the accents could have used some work... as in, uniformity. I think the actress playing the queen did the best job, but then she stood out for not speaking in a British accent. I give it 3 stars out of 4. And while I liked that the prince quoted Shakespeare, did he have to quote Juliet? Of all the quotes, he picked Juliet. Didn't seem like a very good way of apologizing, but whatever. 'Cause see, if Julia Stiles' character knew... what'shername... oh yeah, Paige. If Paige knew Shakespeare, she would have known that was Juliet talking to her father, only *pretending* to mean what she said. Not the same thing as apologizing for being a pig. A drunken pig. Turns out Paige didn't know squat about R&J, so the apology meant nothing. Either way, it would have backfired. Worked out for the plot, I guess. Oh, and the Othello analysis leading into self-reflection was very cheesy. Can't imagine my sophomore English teacher letting us get away with that. Heh! Nitpicks aside, I liked it well enough even when it got sappy (in some parts) and predictable.

Hmmm... I can't seem to find my RENT songbook anywhere. Where is it??? I've been attached to my guitar all week despite the fact that I can't really sing due to my throat irritation. I want to memorize "One Song Glory." Had a nice musical session on the piano. Since I couldn't find RENT, I went through several of my musical piano books and started playing some of my favorite songs. Then I realized, "Hey, I can play that on the guitar!" Well, I'm working on it. It's really a relief to know that G, C, A, D, E, D/F# and some of those minor chords are frequently used. It's just a matter of coming up with fresh melodies if I ever get around to writing new material.

Did I ever mention that my tape deck is awesome? It's a gigantic box, but it dubs pretty quickly. Am pleased. Alexa, you were right. :)

If I just breathe

I am stuffed up. This is really annoying! I don't know what's and/or who's to blame. The weather? The air quality? Polluters? Smokers? Mold? Mildew? Trees? As far as I know, I'm not allergic to trees. Nice trees. But jeez, this is really irritating. Literally, irritating.

I watched Mystic River today. I finally know what Dad was talking about with his play on the title. I didn't exactly like how it ended, but it was still a very good movie. Two thumbs up for the performances by Tim Robbins, Sean Penn and Marcia Gay Harden. And I'm impressed that Mr. Eastwood had a music credit. I kept thinking that the music was very haunting and appropriately thematic.

TWO DAYS, baby, YEAH! :) Simply cannot wait for the concert. I have no idea what I'm going to wear, but I know it'll be casual and comfortable. And I'll bring along a jacket or sweatshirt, since the concert starts at 8 p.m. *staring at closet* Maybe I'll wear my Josh t-shirt tomorrow at work. Er, that is, one of my Josh t-shirts. :D

The best of both worlds

Woohoo! I crossed my fingers, and everything turned out just fine. If you popped in yesterday or earlier today, then you noticed I was having a debate on whether to use Blogger comments or Haloscan comments. I weighed the pros and cons of each system, but now it looks like the pros of both are working together: 1) comment link lines up with my name and posting time, 2) all readers are welcome to post without membership/anonymity issues and 3) all previous comments have been restored. Phew! Thanks Haloscan! Thanks Blogger! :)

Just one o' dem days

"that a girl goes through, when I'm angry inside..." LOL! I just wanted to use the first line, but I could help continuing. I was never really into that song (don't take it personal, Monica!), but I have to admit: it's pretty catchy. ;)

Three days 'til the Josh Concert. THREE. Wow. My big Josh poster from Barnes & Noble currently is in the living room while I do some irregularly scheduled room maintenance. I just have no idea where to put everything, so all my stuff (hey, not all of it is junk!) is receiving the Allison shuffle. From the floor to the desk. From the desk to the floor. From the floor to the bed. From the desk to the bed. The permutations go to infinity. Sorry to offend any mathematicians out there reading this. :) I may have taken calculus and I may have studied -- oops, what's that topic called now? -- number theory! But I just liked the words and not necessarily the correct usage of them in pure mathematical sense. :)

Where was I? Oh yeah, it's just one of those days... went to the dentist, went to the library, checked out Public Relations Writing (yeah, NOW it comes in after my class is over) and A People's History of the United States (one time I tried having a meaningful conversation [um, OK flirtatious conversation {LOL, I can't believe I'm divulging this for all to see}]) about this book without having read the entire thing so here's my chance to read it), found no good DVDs to borrow (yeah, I *almost* borrowed Seven Brides for Seven Brothers but just couldn't do it [ugh, I think that's a worse admission than above! yes I considered borrowing that movie]) , came home, and watched Memento (whoa there) and Dirty Dancing 2: Havana Nights (what a combo, huh?). Did you all follow that? I wasn't trying to pull a Marcel Proust. I didn't even come close, but I realize the list of a sentence -- or sentence of a list? -- became rather long (due to my parenthetical tangents, which I'm fond of at the moment [replacing my fondness for ellipses]).

Seasons change, feelings change

Every so often, I like to do a tribute to the music of the '80s. Just kidding! As some of you already know, though I was born in the '80s, I'm certainly not a child of the '80s. I'm a child of the late '90s. This has nothing to do with VH1's I Love the '80s and I Love the '90s (although I did see episodes from the latter series recently... very funny).

ANYway, what I'm really getting at is change. Thanks to Jason, I found out that Blogger now supports its own comments. This was not the case when I joined just months ago. So I think I'm going to phase out the old comments. I'm kind of sad about it, but it's going to look dorky to have two places to comment. Not only dorky but confusing.

In other news, I am sick and I don't really know why. I'd prefer to deny it, but I feel rather crappy at the moment. Had a runny nose yesterday, sore throat this morning, and now a headache (probably 'cause of the sinus pressure or whatnot). The weird thing is that one of my supervisors asked me yesterday if my allergies had been acting up lately. I happily told her no and that I hadn't taken Claritin for a couple months now. I don't know what's going on. Maybe I was so busy this summer that my body wouldn't allow me to be sick, but now that I can ease up a little, I'm sick. That makes no sense and perfect sense at the same time. Bleh.

Mmmm... mango peach milkshakes from Yunnie's are very good. :) I had one yesterday, and it was my freebie. Buy 9, get the 10th drink free. :)

Last but not least, this week's blog entries are not complete without a Josh countdown. *drum roll please* (hehehe) FOUR DAYS! OMJ. Wow. I saw a commercial for his concert while watching I Love the '90s, and today "Evening Magazine" gave away free tickets. You had to answer the question -- but I object to its vagueness -- "Name the show where Josh made his big break." Um, duh, Ally McBeal, but trust me: to a Grobanite, that question is vague!!! I was wondering if they really wanted something more specific like 20/20 (huge impact in CD sales) or Oprah (again, huge impact) or The Opening Ceremony of the 2002 Winter Olympics (huge exposure... can we say billions worldwide?). Anyway, I got mad at the busy signal, but I know that I shouldn't worry 'cause we have awesome seats! And even if it rains, we still have awesome, covered seats!

That's it for now... for those of you so inclined, please start commenting by clicking on the line next to my name. :)

If I were a rich woman...

yeh duh yeh duh yeh duh yeh duh yeh duh yeh duh dum. :)

If only the Hollywood Stock Exchange were real... Did you guys ever join this starting around, oh, four to five years ago? I remember Rosie O'Donnell promoted the Hollywood Stock Exchange on her show. http://www.hsx.com. Anyway, it's like owning a piece of the celebrities and movies. You can buy starbonds and movie stocks plus you can purchase movie options for movie openings as well as blockbuster warrants (although I think these are a bust). This is the extent of my knowledge about stock markets. :)

Well, you start off with $2 million. Wish that were so in real life. I stopped "playing" for a few years, but my account has been active all this time. A few months ago, I picked up where I left off. Now I have $3.6 million!!! Thanks so much to the following actor and actresses over the years (I don't own the same stocks any more, but still: need to give credit where credit is due): Robbie Coltrane, Leelee Sobieski, Jennifer Garner, Renee Zellweger, Natalie Portman and Julia Stiles. RC and JG are still the big moneymakers for me. Ever since the Harry Potter franchise began, I've been rolling in the dough thanks to Mr. Coltrane. My starbonds for JG increased in value after Daredevil, and it helped to buy a lot while the price was relatively low. It hasn't plummeted at all yet. I *have* invested in some busts over the years. Oh well. Can't believe I've made $1.6 million. If only Hollywood $$$ were real... :)

"No, you're not hardcore...

...unless you live hardcore. And the legend of the rent was so hardcore!"

LOL! Now I feel like watching School of Rock. Anyway, I finished my scrapbook! I can't believe it. Took me half a year (including the time I couldn't work on it all during spring quarter), but I did it. :) Now y'all are free to take a look. Big thanks to Josh & Co. once again for *everything*. Those were amazing concerts in January, and I won't forget them. Ever.

Finished editing the projects for SPT. When I did that, I didn't look at my professor's notes in my portfolio, but I'm pretty sure I covered everything she suggested. Will look it over later, but I can relax now.

Oh wait. My room's still a ruddy mess. (*grin* Yes, I've been reading Harry Potter again.)

Allison's tip o' the day: Do not leave your green-tea bag in your mug long after the tea has steeped. Bitterness galore. :[ LOL! I meant to type :p, but :[ will do!

Allison's plug o' the day: Reading my favorite quotes is a good way to feel better when things aren't going smoothly. http://www.geocities.com/hullo_kitten/quotes.html

Allison's excitement o' the hour: JOSH in ONE WEEK! OMJ! YAY! :D

Allison's music o' the moment: "Tuesday Morning" by Michelle Branch

Allison's descriptions o' her room at the moment: disaster, dirty, dreadful

I'm going to Disneyland!

No, not really, but I already used up Genie's "I'm free" line when spring quarter ended. WOW, that quarter seems like ages ago. Summer school is o-vah! YAY! I already received my writing portfolio back, too! Let's just say, forget about the grade (although, *grin*)... I'm just in a state of blah right now. Good blah. My professor... she... should I say it? I don't want to jinx it, but it's there in writing on a post-it. OK. If you want to know, you're going to have to ask me in person! Ha! Or e-mail. Or phone. That's "in person" enough. :)

Now I need to give my projects to SPT, but before I do, I want to make some changes. I received some good suggestions on how to improve the little things. :)

My presentation for PR and Society was good. I stumbled over a few words (typical Allison for ya), but I said everything I wanted to say, and I also got to play a clip from Avenue Q that the class seemed to enjoy. :)

Doo da doo, what else... does anybody know how to use Adobe GoLive CS? Teach me! Please? :) I installed it on my PC at work so I can help update our department web site. It seems really confusing. I guess UW has a really good deal with Adobe, so we didn't get Dreamweaver.

Can't wait to go home and just... relax. I'm a fan of ellipses today... if you couldn't tell. ;)

Home stretch

One more day of school, and then it's summer vacation time, baby! Okay, summer break II. But summer break I was not long enough even though I had a blast in California.

We presented our portfolios today. I went last. Last but not least. And in the process, I was able to explain to everyone how Cabellon is pronounced. Nope, I didn't use the AP format. I said, "If you need to remember how to say my name... (pregnant pause) rebellion." And then I heard, "ohhs." So it worked! :) Well, let's hope it works. :)

Due to my work for Seattle Public and my paper on theater PR, my professor now knows just how much I love theater. :) She used me as an example for doing what you love to do in your job; otherwise you won't enjoy working. I find that comforting and inspiring. It also makes me think that I should really consider going to the PRSSA conference in NYC this October. Yes, I'd miss a few days of school, but maybe a visit to the NY agencies will really help me get my foot in the door. At least a big toe? Preferably the entire foot. You know what I mean. :) (Here I go with my wordiness again. It's something I need to work on for my PR pieces, especially the news release. I guess I just love to ramble.) Anyway, I should look into the agencies that we're allowed to visit. I found some good ones during my research on Broadway and PR.

Am really excited about New York in September. Vacation! Seeing Janice! Seeing Broadway shows! Seeing Regis and Kelly. Yup, our letter of admittance arrived in the mail today. Hehehe. I guess the people who process the postcards really do read what you write because I asked them to send us tickets ASAP. Last year, we received the letter, but it arrived AFTER Mom and I left for the Big Apple.

Josh at White River in TEN DAYS!

Ooh, I felt musically inspired last night. I didn't write any new material, but I re-recorded my song, "More to Me." My window was open when I recorded the song, and a car alarm went off! Argh! But I didn't stop. Luckily, my tape recorder didn't pick up the car alarm, and I'm very happy with how the new version turned out. That's really saying something considering how many times I've *tried* recording the song -- only to stop in frustration. That's one thing about not having a recording studio. Heh! It's fun to play a song live, but when you're recording for posterity and whatnot, live recordings can be a pain. For this new version, I improved my guitar playing, that's for sure. However, if I could do it again, there'd be two spots on guitar that I would fix, but that's not bad at all! I love how the chorus the second time around turned out as well as how the bridge came across. I have to dig down emotionally to sing the bridge with meaning, and honestly I don't always do that. I don't know if I could just 'cause it's pretty powerful. I hope I can tap into that musical inspiration again in the coming days. My mind has been wrapped around other things, of course, but I'm hoping to come up with new stuff soon.

Oh yeah, since nobody I know has cassette-dubbing equipment, I went ahead and ordered a dual cassette deck from bestbuy.com. It should arrive in a few days. Took a chunk out of my paycheck, but it'll be worth it. I still owe my English instructor a copy of my song, and it'll come in handy for when I'm ready to share my music with the world (read: family and friends). :) Maybe, ONE day the world...

OK! I need to work on my theater presentation.

As much as I love Josh...

... I think I'll pass. (Thank gawd for amazing Grobanites who share links for our viewing pleasure. :) )

"JOSH GROBAN's BROADBAND ROCKS CONCERT Josh Groban’s Broadband Rocks™ concert was recently broadcast live from Los Angeles for AOL® for Broadband members. On August 27th, participating Wal-Mart stores will air this concert for shoppers. AOL® for Broadband and Wal-Mart invite you and your family to see this event at a participating Wal-Mart location near you." -latest news at joshgroban.com

The wrath of Alli

That's it. I wrote a letter to customer service. I was extremely frustrated by my experience printing today. On the one hand, the printed color copies look terrific, but it was not worth my wasted time and money. ARRRRRGH! I need to do a primal scream or something.

I need a color printer

Wow, it's way too expensive to print color copies at Kinko's! The stupid color printer in the computer lab section wouldn't work, so the guy told me to send my print jobs to a different printer. Now I have to wait for them, and I'm wasting time (getting charged) here at a computer until I know I get all my printed copies!

Argh. It's enough to make me want to write to customer service. I just might.

Otherwise, we desperately need a color printer at home (and for school).

need... more... sleep...

*yawn* Well, I'm operating on less than four hours of sleep. Good morning, world. Rise 'n' shine. Yeah, as you know, I went to Brittany's house, and we scrapbooked for a couple hours. Then we both had enough (although we both made good progress, I'd say). We ended up talking, and then I think it was after midnight when we tried writing a song. :) Still workin' on it. I'm pretty sure I'm not jinxing it by mentioning it in its early stages.

Gotta go to work!

Sweet deal

We had two class presentations today, and then my professor let us out an hour early. Yay! Time to relax for a little bit. Today is going smoothly. I don't have to prepare my Power Point slides today as I originally thought. Now I get more time to think of how to be creative. I wonder if I should play any music or show part of the Tony Awards? Hehehe.

Anyway, I have plans with Brittany tonight. We're scrapbooking. LOL! It sounds cheesy, but I'm looking forward to it. Her mom has a lot of supplies that Janice and I don't have. Now I get to make oval picutres without any fuss. LOL! It really does sound cheesy, huh? But whatever.

My supervisor mentioned that I only had a week of school left, and I said, "I know! It's crazy!" I know *I* mentioned that in my last entry, but I can't get over the fact that school's winding up. It really didn't feel like "regular" school. I liked the relaxed atmospheres of both classes, even when I did worry at times. :) It's all good.

Ahhhh, I feel the weekend upon me. Yay! Well, I do have to do another car wash, but now I know: bigger hat (if I can find one that's not dorky), more sunscreen applications, more water inside a cooler and not the hot car), and maybe a run inside the grocery for ice cream afterward. :) Sounds like a plan.

I have a lot on my mind at the moment, so I'm just going to ramble:

Finally looked up the song "Accidentally in Love." I have heard it on an independent radio station on occasion. It's probably my "new" favorite song, even though it's been out for a while now. It's catchy, and whenever I find it on the radio, I *always* listen to it (another song I do that for even though it's overplayed: "The Reason" by Hoobastank. Love saying that. Hoobastank!) . Anyway, I didn't realize "Accidentally in Love" was played in Shrek 2! I might have to get the Shrek 2 soundtrack or something. In my online research, I came across a message-board post that had the guitar chords. Apparently it's pretty easy to play. Gs and Cs and Ds. I think I saw As and Ems. Cool!

I'm still sad that Janice moved away. Hi, Janice!!! :) Thanks for the e-mails!

Had a good day in class. In the first part of the class, we rewrote our mock news release, and my professor came around to see the revised releases. When she read mine, she didn't find anything wrong with it! I'm pleased. :) She really wants us to be good writers and always finds something to improve. Instead she suggested that I could put it in my portfolio. Well, yay! I'm getting the hang of it! Am happy about that in case you couldn't tell. ;) Am not so happy that I forgot my extra project at home and had to reprint it again but what can you do? Can't believe that this quarter is almost over. I learned a LOT in just 8 weeks.

Now have to think about my other class, PR and Society. Hmmmm... what should I present? I don't really want to think about it now, but I guess my group's going to create a Power Point presentation tomorrow. (Told ya I'm rambling.)

I like attending UW in the summer. There are a lot less people, so I always have access to a computer. That's definitely not the case during the school year. It also helps that we didn't have any midterms and have NO finals!!! Down side(s)? Lack of variety/places to eat on campus. Lots of places are closed and those that are open aren't very appealing after you've had them week in and week out (that is, for the past year). The heat. Ah, yes, the heat. Yuck. Oh yes, this has been my busiest summer... ever. Of course, I'd've loved extra time to rest, compose music and work on my scrapbook, but I'll have more time on my hands in less than two weeks.

Ticketmaster sent me an e-mail saying that the Wicked tickets have been printed. Woohoo! Now I'll be on the lookout for a white, unmarked envelope. Then again, I don't get the mail, so Dad, I'll leave that for you. It'll have your name on it anyway. Hehehe! Thanks again!!!

The bus was late this evening, but surprisingly we still arrived in FW in less than an hour. Woohoo! On I-5, I think a car cut off our bus, so our driver had to hit the brakes really quickly. I flew forward and out of my seat and my knee hit the seat in front of me. My backpack moved all the way to the seat in front of me. It would've gone farther had there not been a pole-type-thingie to block it. At least we're OK.

Had a dream that I could play the violin the very first time I picked it up. Heh! In your dreams. Exactly!

"Why you want to leave me?"

And that's my My Big Fat Greek Wedding tribute to Janice. Good luck, Jan! Have fun in New York. I'm jealous, but jealous in a good way. :)

Good grief, I need to write a two-page paper, but there's no way I can narrow down my topic: theater public relations. Then it's like, what to write about? I keep finding interesting things that don't flow together.

Had a weird day at work. Let's just say I'm not fond of answering phones. I mean, I never have been, but yeah, today is one good example of why I don't like to do it when I don't know who's calling. Hmmm... other than that, work was pretty good. Pay day tomorrow! Woohoo!

Oh right. I better get back to the paper I already detest. Sigh.

T-minus 3 weeks

'til Josh sings at White River Amphitheater in Auburn! Woohoo! :) I'm so excited, can'tcha tell?!?

Whoa, I just got carried away with my amazon.com wish list. :) I admit, it was pretty fun updating it. *hint hint* *wink wink* ;) What I'd *really* like is a new guitar. And a violin. :) Can't really put those on amazon.com, huh?

Was listening to Lucia Micarelli earlier. Now am listening to Avenue Q. Hehehe.

Oh yeah! Have I talked about Kurt Elling's Man in the Air? Am too lazy to open up a new browser and check my past few entries. Anyway, it's a really great album. Kurt Elling has an amazing jazz voice -- just an awesome voice in general. I love "Never My Love" and "Higher Vibe."

Brittany and I went to the Seattle Art Museum yesterday. We saw the special exhibit "From van Gogh to Mondrian" on loan from a museum in the Netherlands. We must've looked at Cafe Terrace at Night for at least 10 minutes (in two sessions). You definitely can't beat seeing a painting in person. Reproductions can't capture the texture and bright glow of van Gogh's masterpiece. Brittany and I both had a laughing fit in the museum. I laughed because a man had absolutely no museum etiquette, and Brittany laughed when I imitated her little cousin: "Sor-ry!" LOL! Like I said yesterday, "Who says you can't have fun in a museum?" :)

Ten bucks is ten bucks is ten bucks!

Woohoo! Score one for participating in an educational study. I totally forgot that I'd be receiving a $10 gift certificate to University Bookstore. Yay! Hmm... when to spend it and what to spend it on... maybe a map of Seattle. I don't own one, and I think it'd be helpful. Then maybe a magazine. And there's the $10 for ya. :)

Ohhh, the burning continues. Remind me to never feel this way again. Owwwwww.

My tickets to Kristin Chenoweth's concert arrived in the mail today! I love mail. :)

Ooh, and I also received a driver license renewal notice. Cool. Hopefully they'll take a new picture of me.

ch

Yes, that's an extension from yesterday. Owwwwch. Ouch. My back muscles are recovering quite nicely, thank you very much, but my face feels like it's still burning. Don't get me wrong. I felt just fine on Sunday and even yesterday, too. But today, my upper left cheek and the area to the right of my nose got super red, itchy, and taut. The skin sensation is icky. Argh, and I wore a hat (guess I should be glad my forehead isn't suffering), but my cheeks are feeling the burn. A rant for too much sun exposure.

Today at work, I was the only person manning the office for about an hour and a half. It was a little strange and way too quiet.

Hey, Jason's home! He told a funny story, but what made it funny was that mom could not stop laughing. My stomach and throat ended up hurting from laughing too hard.

Luckily I worked on my portfolio yesterday. Now I've got to finish up one more project and call it a day. Yes, yes, in the back of my mind I know I need to work on my 444 paper, but I can't help it. There's always the weekend.

Owwww

Pain, horrible horrible back pain. Ah, to not have to walk around would be nice. To not have to bend down and pick things up would be nice. To not have to move until my back feels better would be nice. Kinda makes you think twice about doing a car wash for five hours.

Well, I had a great two-hour nap. Started out reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in paperback. Then I set my alarm for forty-five minutes later. Then an hour more. So now I feel well-rested. And reading HP always puts me in the mood to drink tea. I am probably doing it all wrong. I added sugar (fine) and milk (that is, our nonfat milk that is far from condensed as you can possibly get). We didn't have any cream. But mmm.... tea. :) Jolly good.

I'm working on my portfolio now. I need to get it done before Wednesday's in-class critiques. In other writing news, the article turned out really well. I'm pleased, and the staff of SPT seemed to like it, too. I'm glad! They're really awesome people to work with.

Long Day

It's August 1st. Can you believe it? Sunday the first. I just flipped my calendar to the brand new month. Ron has a really funny face in Prof. Flitwick's class. Yes, I have a mini-Harry Potter wall calendar posted on my bulletin board. :)

I woke up early this morning -- well, early for a Sunday morning. 7:45 a.m. or thereabouts. Had to get ready for the car wash at Burgermaster. Man oh man, we raised a lot of money for PRSSA! Well, it's to send people to the national conference in New York. I don't know that I'm going, but it does sound great. One of the speakers will be Donald Trump. Anyway, we made a lot of money, and by we, I mean, four of our officers. We could have used more help because the cars just kept coming! My back is probably going to be sore tomorrow, but I got a nice workout lifting the buckets to and fro. Annnnnd, my car looks really nice now! :)

I'm trying to relax and unwind. I sat outside for a while, reading The Seattle Times. It was nice, but then a pair of bees came to taunt me. They flew dangerously close to my legs but didn't sting me. My heart was pounding as they wouldn't go away. I drew in my knees and kept moving but was cornered pretty much -- if not doomed especially if I made the wrong move. They kept hovering, so then I made a run for the door. Leave the papers behind! Leave the papers behind! I've never been stung by a bee. I wish to continue life that way. :) Well if it happens, it happens, but I just hope somebody's around to take me to the hospital in the event that I'm allergic to bee stings. Let's hope not! Hmmm...

Anyway, I saved the papers 10 minutes later.

Relax and unwind, eh? I guess Mom had cut up some watermelon before she, Dad and Janice left for Seattle. Mmmmm. Good stuff. So were the nachos. Hehehehe.

I *finally* watched Big Fish in its entirety. In San Diego, I saw most of it, but I fell asleep before the ending. A few days ago, I started it again, but I was too tired to watch. So today, I finally got to see the ending. Good movie. Maybe a little confusing at times, but I liked the stories, especially the romantic one involving Edward's wooing of Sandra. Oh yeah, that movie made me really thirsty, so I'm going to get some water...