Hey, Ya'll... What's Up?

HAPPY NEW YEAR!
long time no see. not even going to bother laying blame. There you go. =]
So... new things...
Cassandra Clare MIGHT be inching her way up to, -gasp- my favorite author.
Garth Nix, step it up and get a new book out and we can still be friends. Sabriel can only go SO FAR.
but Miss Cassandra Clare and i are getting much closer. i love her easygoing style, her voice, her awesome characters... so far she seems to REALLY like female leads (but Garth Nix kind of does too...), but i don't mind. her guys are awesome. her ideas are spectacular. her Downworlders are fabulous. her Nephilim rock my socks. I CAN GO ON!
I lied. she's not inching up.
she is my favorite author.
-sigh- i feel like a traitor. it's like telling one of your children, "Sorry, you're awesome, but your sister is SO FREAKING MUCH COOLER!"
but Clary... Clary is... Clary is just plain awesome. Jace is tight. i'm already in love with Jem, from Clockwork Angel. (He better be the love interest. he's super sweet and cute and sickly, and Will is kind of like Jace, except all cocky and no super sweet center. RABBIT Hehe. cocky. sorry.)
Miss Maria V. Snyder has a chance. i just got Sea Glass and Spy Glass, which might be totally awesome. but i really miss Valek, and Opal isn't as awesome as Yelena.
Joelle, i'm pretty sure you're the only person who understood anything in that. Thanks.

So! interesting and exciting news.
remember how i told you i was moving into an apartment?
i did.
it's awesome.
and remember how i said i was getting a cat? (even though it's... illegal. in my apartment.)
i lied.
i got three cats.
-cringe-
now, i'll talk about that in a minute.
i'd show you my room, but there's two problems.
1) it's messy. i got home from work and just crashed. laundry not put away, cat played with stuff, all that jazz.
2) it's SO BARE. i hate it! i have four posters on my wall. i'd give anything for more posters. (Think they have a poster of Josh Shank? KIDDING! i'm not THAT much of a stalker. maybe. NO REALLY. hehe. seriously, though. (you don't have any idea what i mean now, do you? HAHA!)) but seriously. no posters. well, 4. an Avatar poster, from Cole. ie, i stole it from Cole. 2 Alice in Wonderland posters, one of Alice standing in the Keyhole, and another of the Cheshire Cat. (love him!) and a Hawk Nelson poster. then my door is so far partially covered with stuff from Godspell and Jesus Christ Superstar. i'd love more posters. or artwork! i would love artwork. the stuff i have is too heavy to hang up with tape. i've toyed with the idea of hanging up what i politely refer to as my embarrassing Joshua Shank autograph, but... i don't know. i don't want to put tape on it. haha. :D it holds good memories. who knew you could embarrass yourself THAT MUCH in only one weekend? Only me, kids. only me. :D
next. my cat.

Come on, who couldn't love that?
Her name is Gypsy. notice her cute purple collar. :D
So, a little while after we moved in, Paige went out and brought back two cats. Their names are Oryx and Pandora. she adopted them from a shelter. Oryx is grey with white feet and green eyes, and Pandora is... i don't know. She's fat. HAHAHA, no but seriously. they're both kittens. they were malnourished, but Pandora was big anyway, so Paige knew she would be fat.
i like them okay.
no, but seriously, i realized i'm REALLY a dog person. blech, cats, and all that.
but then, one day, i looked down as i carried in groceries to find this little calico meowing pitifully at me from the ground.
i melted.
she was beautiful.
she was sassy.
i loved her.
her ribs stuck out, her fur was in dire straits.
i wanted her.
Paige said, "We'll see if she's here tomorrow."
she wasn't.
i missed her, desperately.
which was weird. because, again, i'm a dog person.
but three weeks later, (October 28th), i got home to see a beautiful little calico pawing around in my front yard.
i did what any normal, sane person would do. i lured her inside, fed her, petted her, and refused to let Paige send her away.
it worked.
and now Gypsy is mine.
she is a MEGA BRAT. she is sassy and rude and full of personality. sometimes she jumps up on my lap and snuggles with me, other times she growls and snaps.
she's perfect.
she sleeps with me, she scratches her ears like her dog, she purrs like a motorboat, she wakes me up to play, she tries to steal my phone, or turn it off when she wants to sleep. that one is really cute. if the light comes on, she turns it over, or if i'm texting, she pushes it down so that you can't see it.
she's the best.
You may meet her, if you want. i'll trade her for artwork.
KIDDING.
i love my kitty.
and i recently got picture texting! so you might get cute pictures of my kitty cat.
did i mention she's cute?
sorry.
no i'm not. :D
other things... i love school. i work as a professional babysitter, and i LOVE that, too.
the most important thing--Ray. he's wonderful. he didn't freak over the cat, who i love. and he hates cats. he got me a diamond penguin necklace for Christmas. we went to a hockey game (WOOOO ICE! LOVE LOVE LOVE! SOMEBODY PUNCH SOMEBODY!) for New Years with my family, and i wore a giraffe coat and he STILL LOVES ME.
hehe.
he's the perfect boyfriend.
-sighs happily-
anyway, that's what's up. what's up with you?

Wow, Long Time No See...

hi guys. i'd like to begin this post by laying blame. there's a darn good reason as to why i've been mysteriously absent. (oh the horror!)
First, i'd like to blame Jesus Christ Superstar. it went so well, guys. really. i was so proud. for those of you that saw it, or were in it, you know what i'm talking about, yo. due to my costume, our poor mic guy had a hard time finding a place for my mic and, more importantly, a place that didn't make weird noises every time i moved. (i have hips, ladies and gentleman, and unfortunately they hit my mic antenna, which was suspended upside down from my waist.) but David, who is the techie god of Brownsburg, no lies, managed to fix it, and the last night i had absolutely no static! (night two i had static every time i moved for the entire first act. David was really, really upset, poor guy, but there was nothing he could have done. and he fixed the whole thing, proving once and for all that he is the coolest guy i know.) on the last day, one of the Roman guards stepped on my skirt and then pushed me away from Jesus during the flogging scene. Unfortunate. my skirt slid down, but i was wearing a slip and, fortunately, a shawl, which i immediately wrapped around my body. i don't think people really noticed. Joey didn't mean to or anything, it just happened. Joey, by the way, was freaking amazing. he scared the crap out of me the whole time he was a soldier. it was all epic glares and slightly sadistic things, and i was frightened. (he shoved me. i was scared. he's amazing. =]) anyway, if you didn't see it, you're a big loser, sucks to be you. just teasing. i still love you. but it is a bummer, because we were amazing. (i miss everyone. D:)
secondly, i'd like to blame Kansas. no, not the band, the state. my best friend in the whole wide world, that's Joelle for those of you who missed it, she invited me to go with her and her mommy to see her aunt Jodi in St. George, that's right outside Manhattan, Kansas, and then to Wichita to see her cousin, Jodi's daughter, and then to Tulsa, Oklahoma to see Alison's other sister. it was super fun! lots of driving. they drove back, a ten hour trip, in one day so that i could see my family on my birthday. they're really, really amazing, huh? it was so nice of them. we went out to eat and played with adorable children, and i had so much fun. i love them. although... this conversation happened. Joelle doesn't remember it at all. now, keep in mind that she is THE LEAST racist person i have ever met. that's why this is hilarious. we were almost asleep, and she was like...
Jo: Taitie...
Me: Yeah, Dodo?
Jo: Taitie, don't ever get an afro.
Me: Uhm... kay... i can do that.
Jo: But i'd still love you if you were black. -rolls over-
Me: Good to know, Jo.
Jo: -rolls back over, intensely serious look- but not if you were Asian.
Me: O_O
i laughed. a lot. a whole lot. and then i told everyone.
(Side note. she calls me Taitie and i call her Dodo because that's what small children call us. small children like to ignore the C in my name, and Joelle made the unfortunate mistake of telling children they can call her Jojo. oh boy. but Joelle and Caitlin are hard to say, so i understand why.)

lastly, i would like to blame my apartment. Yes, my apartment. I'M MOVING OUT, GUYS! Paige Marie and i are getting a cat, moving into an apartment near Marion College, and spending our first year at college, at least, in a cute little two bedroom townhouse. with a cat. YAY CAT! i've never had a cat, guys! anyway, i've been ignoring my computer in favor of packing. unless i'm playing Frogger 2: Swampy's Revenge or watching Bones with Ray. or Buffy. i'm recently on a Buffy kick. (love Angel.)

so yeah. that's about caught up. i got a car. a cute little purple '01 PT Cruiser (Limited Edition!) it's great. that was my birthday present. then Joelle gave me fake flowers that match the colors Paige and i chose for our living room, and fake flowers that match my room colors. i got a pillow that says "Someone At Purdue Loves Me" from David. it's going on my bed. =] and flowers from my wonderful boyfriend. (And chocolate!) he's pretty awesome. =] and then, today, with my birthday money from my grandparents, i bought books. (YAY BOOKS!) and Slumdog Millionaire. super exciting. going to the movies today, pretty pumped to see Despicable Me. yay! later, gators! gotta go find food.

Jesus Christ Superstar

is amazing amazing amazing. we're doing so well.
A certain alto decided to sing tenor and threw the rest of us, me and two band kids who are AMAZING, but quiet, and a middle school girl who is adorable and knows all the notes but is also super quiet, under a bus. (just saying. -mildly irritated-)
anyway.
JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR TICKETS ARE NOW ON SAAAAAAAAAAAAAALE! YAAAAAAAAAY!
buy them. come see me. do it.
please?
i'm really excited.
really
really
really
really
really
really
really
really
really excited!
we sound really good, guys. we really, really do.
we're all working really hard.
Bryce is amazing.
the soul girls... mm, girl, have they got soul. -realizes she's been spending too much time with Alison, who is also working her tail off.
Logan... i just... he's just... GAAAAAAAAAAAAH!
anyway. tickets are $7. and you know you want one. i'll have them at church this Sunday, or you can give me the money and i'll get you one, or you can get it through Calvary. JUST COME!

Me
(P.S. today, Micah told me that i should respect him because he is bigger than me and could hurt me. thinking immediately of what Ray, Dad, Josh, and Joelle would do if the boy so much as laid a finger on me, i laughed in his face. he pushed me into a wall, but it was totally. worth. it. i kind of almost hope he does hit me. i don't think he'd ever recover from the beating he'd get, but he would never threaten me again. =])

Do You Always Have To Critique Me?

I'm in a rather bad mood today. and it's... 8:33 in the morning.
Gah, i hate that.
But Mom does this thing where she constantly critiques me. CONSTANTLY. and it's driving me crazy.
she hates my hair, she hates the way i stand, she hates the way i look, the way i eat, does she like anything at all about me?
i'm sorry i'm not a model.
but it's really, really, really hard to even try to have good self esteem when the person in my life who should be the most proud of me, the most supportive, the one who should tell me i'm beautiful and all that instead tells me i look fat, or she hates the color i have to dye my hair, or i shouldn't slouch because it makes me look fat, or i shouldn't roll my shoulders forward, or i shouldn't dress like that because i'm showing too much skin. (You guys have met me. you know how i dress. do i look like a whore to you?)
anyway, i'm really rather upset. i'm not even really mad, i'm just... upset. it makes me feel sick to my stomach when she does this all the time. and then, if i look in the mirror, i immediately start judging myself too.
"You're not even good enough for your own mother."
that's all i hear when she starts in like that.
and it really, really hurts my feelings.
especially since i felt pretty today.
well, so much for that.
sorry this is depressing. but, seriously, if i don't talk about it, i'll explode. no, i won't. but i will cry, or tell someone who will tell mom. (I know you guys won't.)
well, i'm late to VBS. later, kids. i'll blog something happy tonight. i just really, really needed to get this off my chest, because i finally feel like i'm not going to burst into tears. (even if you guys aren't really listening. =])
later, gators.

Me

Busy To The Extreme

Want to know what i've been up to lately?
i'll give you a hint.
it starts with Jesus, and ends with Christ Superstar.
If you said Jesus Christ Superstar, or thought it, i don't know how many of you talk back to me, then you're RIGHT ON THE MONEY! (good for you!)
yeah. i've either been at JCS practice, or listening to the music, or looking at the music, or something (talking about it, thinking about it, that stuff.).
it's. consuming. my. life.
(i love it. =])
interesting things lately.
Logan went to London. do you know how freaking jealous i am? REALLY FREAKING JEALOUS. yeah. i wish i could go to London. but, before he left, we went and bought those... silly bands? i don't know. they're, like, rubber bands, but... shaped like animals? yeah, you totally know what i'm talking about. anyway, i've made lots of friends with them. granted, all these friends are under the age of nine, but i've immediately gone up in coolness points in the eyes of Mike and Max. (i babysit for them and their little sister, Macie, and they're my favorite kids. we have lightsaber fights and play football and baseball and video games and eat chicken nuggets and soon we're GOING TO THE ZOO OMG THE ZOO I FREAKING LOVE THE ZOOOOOO! i'm calm.) also, he took a journal, and he's been writing in it. (that's important to me! i can't wait to read it!)
he's coming back late tonight, so i'll get to see him tomorrow. also coming back are two of my altos for JCS. which is good.
see, currently there are four of us. (and one of them is singing the part of Simon. so she constantly decides that she'd rather go sing with the tenors. P.S. her boyfriend is in the tenor section. so every time she goes to sing with the tenors, really she's sitting by her boyfriend. but, just saying, WE NEED HER! i'm the loudest alto. it's not that the other altos are bad, they're wonderful! they're just quiet. so we NEED ALTOS. and there are lots of tenors. and ONE OF THEM IS JUDAS! AND ONE OF THEM IS HEROD! (he played Jesus last year, too, so he's OBVIOUSLY good (and loud)!) so we need her. end tangent. =])
other things that are up.
uhm....
hanging out with Ray a lot.
started watching Bones.
VBS this week.
DID I MENTION THAT I'M GOING TO THE ZOO? yeah, i am.
Cleaning lots of stuff.
you know, the usual.
writing. things like that.

and with all the happy stuff out of the way...
Primrose died yesterday. she'd been sick for a while, so i expected it. but i'm still sad. and Cat is sad too. you can tell with animals. and she's sad, and that makes me sad, too. my room is depressing now.

so yeah. now i feel like i should say something humorous, because now my blog is depressing! stars, my blog can't be depressing!
oh, i'll think of something.
OH SNAP! i watched The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, and it was so freaking awesome. i love Heath Ledger. (WHY?! WHY DID YOU DO IT? it's not fair. Totally horrible. i miss you. -cries-(BTW, Ray has decided that -cries- is not strong enough. he apparently prefers -has a conniption fit- i just think he doesn't understand how AMAZING Heath Ledger was. -sobs-)) Cole and Danielle watched it before we did, and they were all like, "OMG WE DON'T UNDERSTAAAAAAAAAAAAND" and apparently hated it. and Ray and i watched it, and we were like "OMG THAT'S SO AAAAAAAAAAWESOME!"
it's pretty intense. a mi me gusta. =]

well, later, gators. go watch The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. and if you don't like it, i understand. (just don't ever speak to me again.) KIDDING! i'll still love you. (but you'll be dead.) just teasing. later, kids.
wish me luck at VBS. (8 kids tomorrow, under the age of two. one is a tiny, tiny infant who still takes a bottle and needs her head supported. two. workers. (OH STARS!))

Do You Know What's Really Annoying?

People being mad at you, when you have no idea what you've done. (same person as always hates my guts with a firey burning passion for no glaring or apparent reason except that my personality is grating? who knew... =] whatevs. actually, that sentence isn't about me.) Micah is mad at Garrett but won't tell him why. and i was just thinking... "That's incredibly annoying."
see, if you legitimately don't know what you've done, you totally can't fix it. which is why i make a point of telling people EXACTLY why they're pissing me off and should leave me alone for a while. in the long run, it's nicer.
Graduation. yay, you're a graduate! sit through 2+ hours of people droning ooon and oooooooooooooon and ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooon about how, GOOD JOB! YOU'VE SURVIVED! (What? no way. news to me!) even worse, graduation practice. i kid you not, this was said."All right. then, we'll say, will the graduating seniors please stand. and that's when you all should stand."-slaps forehead- duh uuuh. we should, uh, stand? duuuuuhh..... i don't know if i can do that...
there was something else, the thing i ACTUALLY started my blog being annoyed about, but... i forget. =]
i was distracted by Cat and Prim. (Schrodinger's Cat and Primrose are my guinea pigs.) Prim was lying down, totally still. i was like, oh no... she's sick... and then Cat tiptoed over to her, and stretch out next to her, kind of at a right angle. and then Cat stuck her nose out, really close to Prim's side. it was really sweet, reminded me a little bit of me and Joelle (yeah, whatever.). and then Cat pulled her nose back, scooted a little closer, and inched her nose forward juuuuuuuuuust enough to touch the veeeeeeeeery side of Prim...who promptly jumped at her, scaring Kitty half to death, before prancing happily around the cage to the other side, where she laid down again. it. was. hilarious.oh, i remember the thing that was annoying me. FLOPPY DISKS. i was cleaning out my closet, and i found a floppy disk. A FLOPPY DISK. now, i'm a packrat, but... but... a floppy disk? what could i have POSSIBLY thought was important enough to keep even though it was on a floppy disk? i... i... i don't even know, and it's SUPER annoying. just saying.
oh, hey! i bought this cute little... cabinet? i don't know. it wasn't cute, actually. it was wooden, painted white but worn out and chipped and yet... i liked it. it's... okay. i'll start from the middle. three shelves in a glass front box thing. on either side of that are three shelves, level with the ones inside the box. top and bottom extend over the front and the sides. two knobs that look kind of like... bishop hats... on the top, as well as one that looks like a pawn in chess (except that one was really, really, really chipped.) two decorative pieces on the front that look kind of like badly drawn waves, going towards the pawn. on the bottom, four more bishops hats. (the bishops hats and the pawn held the whole thing together, i found. inventive.)
anyway, i saw it at my cousin's garage sale. bought it for, like, $1. totally thought it was, while dirty and worn and in bad shape and obviously hadn't been used for quite a while, a piece that would have some sort of... potential.so i bought it, took it home. (hello, new project.)
i took it apart. sanded it down. painted everything that was OUTSIDE the glass front box white. nobs, shelves, little wave things, black. sanded the pawn down so the back was flat, painted that black, too. then i painted a big tiger lily on the top... it was actually... really good. not trying to be narcissistic. i mean, i'm a terrible, terrible artist, but i'm pretty proud of how the tiger lily turned out. i used a weird green, kind of dark and greyish, to swirl out leaves, added a few tiger lily buds here and there. painted the backs of the shelves, the ones outside the glass front box, the same green as the top. the inside of the box i left the original, and might i add, gorgeous, wood. i put it all back together, and initialed on the back of the pawn. (in silver sharpie, woot woot!)
pictures, you ask? happy to oblige.

and the kicker... (in my opinion)
sorry, but i'm really, really, reaaaaaaaaaaaally proud of myself.
now. problems with it.
as you can see in the above picture, the handle is tilted. i tried to make it close better, the pull handle thing, but it broke a little bit. it doesn't seem to be totally, entirely broken. i mean, it works. it's just cockeyed. it bothers me.
the "thingy that looks like a wave." the one on the right, as you're looking at the picture above. the peg that held it in place was broken. (there are two, the one closest to the pawn was the one that was broken.) i pushed it in as well as i could, but it can move. gotta fix that.
the person who painted it white before left the inside the wood. i loved it, so i left it. but if you look closely, you realize they did a bad job of painting the outside--some of the white paint got on the inside. it bothers me.

so, that's my little cabinet. it think it's perty.
-giggles- yeah, i really love that tiger lily. i'm... pretty proud of myself. =]

okay... anything else before i go...
i need a new project.

OH!
so, i've been watching Dead Like Me. (love.)
first, they introduced a character named Ray, and he was a total douche. it made me chuckle. and then he tried to kill Daisy (who is already dead, she's a Reaper), and it stopped being funny, i just hated him.
anyway, after that i watched the series finale. (just finished it, it was TOTALLY awesome. i wish they'd made another season. but the only one after season 2 doesn't have Rube in it. no good. and it's not instant on Netflix, so it's not gonna happen.)
BACKGROUND!!!
okay, so, i associate certain things with people. (sometimes specific, like tigers with Joelle, or vague, like red hair with anyone named Garrett. which is silly--the Garretts i've known the longest don't have red hair...)
well, i associate white Chucks with Ray, okay? so i see people wearing white Chucks, and i'm like, RAY!
well, i was watching the series finale, and they showed JUST THE FEET (just the feet! (sinks into Strongbad lapse) of this person. (FOR THE WHOLE FINALE! like, you never saw his face at all. it wasn't like, THIS IS A MURDER MYSTERY! it was... like... you just need to know that it's a guy who's murdering people, you don't even need to know who it is, it's not important. what is important is that these people are going to die--they're lives are ending. it was a really cool move.) anyway, he was wearing white Chucks. and i was like OOH YAY PERSON WITH WHITE CHUCKS LIKE RAY!
until he started murdering everyone. and then i was like, wow, that sucks. first Ray's just a douche, and then his shoes are killing everyone! which made me laugh, which broke the mood, until the White Chucks murderer killed a little boy. he couldn't go trick-or-treating because he had a cold, and his daddy had just left to get him cold medicine. so he was home alone, wearing Devil costume. and it BROKE MY LITTLE HEART. i cried. not as much as when the cute little girl who was Mary in Kingdom Hospital died, but a lot.

uhm...
OH! Matt decided that i looked like this person, so he sent me her music video.
and that, my dear children, is how i discovered La Roux.
he doesn't like her, but i find myself strangely drawn to her. (can't even say why, i just like it.) but i've been listening to her A LOT. a lot a lot.
a mi me gusta. i'm going to go buy her CD so that i can stop playing her Youtube videos 80 bajillion times. =]

gotta go eat so i can graduate. later, kids!

Jack's A Moron (But I Still Love Him)

Oh boy, kids.

so, i was downstairs, happily texting Joelle and loading the dishwasher when...
Micah walks in.
holding Jack. (for those of you that don't know, that's one of my Jack Russell Terriers. The other one is Ruffi An. Jack, i know. i wanted to name him Captain, for the record. Dad wanted Jack. we settled for Captain Jack. that was when i was 11, so don't get any ideas about my mega crush on Johnny Depp. which i may or may not have. -shifty eyes- anyway...
that's Jack. yes, i take Christmas pictures of my dogs. ISN'T HE CUTE?!)
so, he walks in holding Jack, and Jackie is BLEEDING FROM THE SIDE.
you have to understand, my dogs are my babies. i take them outside, i play with them, i give them treats, i train them, i wash them, i cuddle them. when i'm sick, they curl up with me and give me kisses and are generally my bestest friends. i love my dogs.
so the fact that Jack was BLEEDING FROM THE SIDE set me a little on edge.
Me: WHAT HAPPENED?
Micah: Jack ran away.
Me: yeah, i knew he ran away, i knew you guys were out looking for him, but what did you DO?!
Micah: Jack got attacked by a Rottweiler.
Me: WHAT?
Micah: either go get a towel or hold him.
Me: -takes dog and cuddles-so i took him into the living room, and Micah brought me a washcloth, so i wiped him off. he had three cuts, one on the top of his butt, on on his lower side, and one right under his eye. so i washed them all of. now, the one under his eye looked fine. the one on his side was bleeding (all over me, thank you very much), but it looked okay, but the one on his butt looked bad... and wasn't bleeding.
so i called my Daddy.
and he was like, "i'm not sure. go bathe him, and be careful, he might bite."
so i took him upstairs and got him in the tub and washed him and soaped him up really good. now, normally, Jack is all over the place when he has to take a bath. (i have to wear a bathing suit.) but he was really quiet and subdued, which worried me. anyway, i toweled him off and took him to Dad, who was like, "Yeah, this one got down into the fatty tissue. so... keep it clean." and i was like, CAN DO!my poor puppy!
AH!
poor little guy. i love him bunches.
anyway, he got upset when Daddy was checking him over. and Mom was like,
"It's your own stupid fault, you moron! that Rottweiler was right where he belonged, in his own yard. TAKE NOTE!"
he's an idiot. dumb dog, worries me to death.
-sigh-
here's a picture of Ruffi An, because she's adorable. =]


yes, i take Halloween pictures of my dogs, too. i'm a sick, sick person. BUTTHEY'READORABLE LOOK AT HER SHE'S A LADYBUG! :D