I like packing. Not last minute harried packing, but packing for a big event that is begun at least a week and a half in advance. It is very orderly. I bought a box of garbage bags (not the super big ones, but kitchen size). When I pack, I make a pile of stuff on the bed, arrange into "take to school," "take to school (but don't pack it yet)", "leave at home", "give away", and "throw away". Then I throw away the garbage, add my "give away" stuff to a special box outside my room door that my family can root through, put my "leave at home" stuff in a temporary big box, put my "take to school (but don't pack it yet)" in a temporary big box, and pack my "take to school" stuff in a garbage bag (after putting it in a towel or pillowcase or otherwise soft cloth container so that the sharp edges of items don't rip the garbage bag. I also make two lists of every item in each garbage bag. One list goes into the bag itself, and one is on my computer. This way, if I don't know whether I have packed something, I can search for it on my MS Word document titled "PACK.doc". If I need something, I can easily check content lists in various bags until I find the right one.

Also, I don't make the bags so heavy that I wouldn't be able to easily carry one in each hand.

And, I plan to double up the bags to ensure they won't break.

Everyone should follow my example. It's the easiest way to pack if you don't actually have to fly/train anywhere and you don't have to be ultra concerned about space. Actually, it's really only a good system for returning-to-college students, I think. I should write a pamphlet on how to pack. Ooo!

Dream!

I was back at camp, counseling. I saw my two girls, Aimee and Lauren, and gave them hugs. I saw my Aunt Diane and said something like "Wow, it's already been a whole year? It seems like just a month ago that I was here!" I don't think I realized yet that it was a dream.

Then I was at Highlands Community Church in a room Aimee and Lauren and other people my age for a VBS program. We were actually at a resort somewhere by the beach, for an all day workshops type of thing. This meeting was a get-to-know-the-people-in-your-group type of thing. Anyway, the meeting ended and we had like ten minutes until our next meeting. I wandered around for a bit but when I came back into the room, another group was meeting ther and I didn't know where to go. I wandered some more, but couldn't find my group - only Madame Cherie from Phantom sitting in a chair. I told her my situation. She said, "I think they went down to the beach." So I went outside.

The resort was like my school on the beach. I looked at the water and it was the oddest beach I've ever seen - each individual wave of water was HUGE, and kind of solid, so it looked like huge blue triangles crashing on the beach. It looked kind of dangerous. I followed some other path for some reason, and suddenly I was carrying a huge glass table as I ran to catch my group. Eventually a truck drove past me and the two girls in it offered to drive me to the beach so I put my table in the back and got in the cab. These girls were nuts though. Actually I think there was a guy there too. I was trying to explain my situation, how I was trying to find my group and stuff, and then I was trying to explain who had told me that they were at the beach. I said, "You know, Jennifer Ellison's mom" and the guy just laughed at me. I was like, "Well, you know, not Jennifer Ellison herself, but in Phantom, when she's Meg, her mom." He still laughed. Then I remembered her name and blurted out "Madame Cherie!"

Suddenly, all the girls in my group were also in the truck with me. The girl who was driving was just nuts and she was like "I'll get you to the beach safely" and then she somehow twisted the wheel and we were hanging upside down. She was laughing maniacally as we left her vehicle. I threw up orange stuff. Then we went over to some kind of shelter, where we saw the guys in our group coming in a different vehicle towards us. They stopped, got out, and began conversing with the girls.

Then I woke up to my alarm. Half asleep, I hit snooze and went back to sleep.

I was just looking around and I saw two pints of milk on a little coffee stand side by side. One was brown and one was green/white - you know how milk cartons are colored, with the green/white ones having regular milk and the brown having chocolate? Well, I saw "chocolate" on both of these and I was trying to figure out why, and then I noticed an italicized "Mint" over the green/white one. So, one was mint chocolate milk, and the other was regular chocolate milk.

I realized this and then I woke up. It was time to get ready for church, so I came immediately downstairs and typed this. Good bye.

My dad just gave me a ream of paper for my new printer. He buys it in bulk. He handed it to me and said "this whole box cost me 21 dollars! Your ream costs about 2." I asked if he wanted me to pay him back and he said "No, I gave it to you because I love you" and then made kissing sounds and a kissy face. It was so funny.

I just played Settlers of Catan with my family and I won, but I think Mom would have won the next turn. I really only won because of a freak random drawing of a victory point, which I hadn't even been planning on drawing (because I had rolled a seven while holding eight cards, and the development card was the only remotely useful thing I could do with what I had left, even though I was saving for a city), and I had longest road. And, everyone ganged up on Mom at the start because she was so close to winning. So I won.

Wow. I love game nights so much. We call them "game nights", and people usually do play games, but what I like most about them is the music. Last night we had (I think) four guitars, two basses, a piano, a cello, an irish whistle, and something that you blow into and it produces a slightly flatted bass A. I realized how much I missed becca, not having seen her for about four days. It was so fun. The great part about what we do is how we start singing songs and we lose track of time. Nobody knows whether we've been at it for an hour or four. We just sing and sing. I think it must have been around four hours that we sang and played music. The last two game nights, we've also had a "acapella rounds" time, where we get everyone divided into three or four groups and sing acapella rounds like "Freedom is coming" and "I Shall Arise". And other rounds like "All in All," "Hiding Place," and "Jesus my Lord". Ah. It was so fun.

Then I got a really bad nosebleed for no reason. I hate those so much. It makes me mad in the same way a migraine makes me mad - I had my own agenda for the day, and now I have to stop and take care of myself. Might be God's way of sometimes saying "Stop." I definitely constantly operate by a "plan it on paper, then do it" system.

Thanks, everybody who came to the game night. I'm leaving for school on Tuesday, and not looking forward to leaving everybody behind again. But, last night made me feel better about it. I love you all!

There. Now, in order to comment, you must type a series of odd letters into a box. Hopefully that will stop our comment spammers. It's been a silent battle, but a vicious one. I think if it were a dramatized journal entry, the story would look like this:

The Enemy has been here again. Once again, their pathetic links and fake "I like your blog" comments strike!!! What a stupid ploy for more website hits. At least they're not links to porn sites or anything. In rage I disabled "anonymous" comments - that ought to show them! Smug, I checked comments hourly. Ha! Still no spammers. I had fooled them with a click of a mouse. Yesterday, however, they struck again. My eyes widened in shock and surprise, then narrowed in hate and deliberation. I would kill them if it meant killing my precious blog along with them! I searched Blogger's normally very helpful site for information about comments, but I could find none regarding spam. I guess I assumed it had a more sophisticated name than that. I emailed them. They emailed me back an automated email with specific links to their help section that were generated based on certain key words in my email. One involved comment spammers!

Yet another click of the mouse...yet another setting changed. Yet no more spammers shall remain here while I do.

That was pathetic. Sorry.

(added later...)

Let me share with you three things about my day.

1. Today I received my laser printer. It's very cute and I'm so happy. The extreme hassle of printing papers at school last year was really irritating.

2. I hiked all day today. It was fun! I took a lot of photos. I'll put them up sometime soon.

3. I just drank of cup of very relaxing tea, and I think I'll have another before bed. You probably already know that I like tea, but right now I'm just overflowing with love for it. So I'll just say that you cannot possibly imagine how happy and grateful and smiley inside I am because of the cup of tea I just had, and how I really, really think it's one of the best things in the world, and I quite literally thank God for it.

becca's last post was the 200th post on this successful joint blog. Go us! I think somewhere around December, when it will have been a year since we started, I will once again make a backup Word document of the whole thing and do a wordcount. As some of you may recall, I did this several months ago, and we had (if I recall correctly) around 80,000 words total.

I bought some lavender tea. Actually it's like lavender, vanilla, mint, and a lot of other things, just by looking at the ingredients. Smelled kind of good, looked interesting. If lavender tastes good as a tea (which I have a feeling it won't) it would fun to add milk and maybe some coffee and make a "Lavender Latte" or something like that.

well.

I think from my posts lately, there's been a lack of meaning in them. Just telling about events that take place but not showing what happens - there of, because of, and what is expected of - doesn't make for a very interesting story. Not that flowering a story up with choice words and polished adjectives are needed to make something interesting or 'more real,' but when even raw feeling and thought processes are missing, it just seems pointless.

And now I've placed pressure on myself to write something very meaningful, insightful, and terribly interesting to all who read. Well. That probably won't happen, although, I don't have the slightest idea as of what I'm going to write about now. That's what journaling is to me though. Just recording thoughts as I have them. Maybe some of them I've had before and so they're a little more sharpened than others, but they're still coming to me at the moment.

It's a very good thing to feel better. I'm not so incredibly crazy as I felt last week, although I'm still on antibiotics. I think just getting back into the routine of life - going to bed ontime, going to work, church, normal things - put my head back on straight.

This morning, I decided to read the book of Daniel. I don't think I've ever read the whole book in one sitting. I didn't have any deep or new insight on the text, but I decided to break out the big books and read about the Exile of the Jews in Babylon. It was especially interesting because I had just read Ezra, Nehemiah, and parts of Zechariah and Habbakkuk not long ago. It was neat to fill in the gaps and see how things happened and what happened first. History has always been a favorite subject of mine, and I'm making it more of a subject of study this year. I plan on going through the main wars and reading a few books on each and spending much more time learning about the history we learn from the bible - there is so much I don't understand! But that really motivates me to learn more! I wonder if I'll be able to make it a whole year just studying on my own though. Maybe I'll have to go off to school in winter after all.

I have to leave for work soon. I went back to work yesterday at the ballet boutique. I don't especially enjoy this job. It's retail. It's boring. It's easy. And my boss is difficult to please. I decided I'm going to start looking for another job now though, as irritiaing as it is to change from job to job to job within such a short timeframe. But, it just seems right.

I need to go change the laundry out and take a shower.

I'm sure I'll have more to say later. I have to go to the doctors a FOURTH time too. I'm not too happy about that. More Co-Pays.

-becca

Well, my cd from Deep Discount CD came, against all odds. A little late, but oh well. I still wish I hadn't taken the chance, though I am really excited that I now have my EXTENDED PHANTOM OF THE OPERA SOUNDTRACK! I'm listening to it right now, actually. My mug came on the same day. It's a nice mug. I haven't drank out of it yet because it has not been cool enough for tea, and also because Melody drank out of it and didn't wash it. =)

becca was supposed to call me a LONG time ago. At this rate, I won't be getting to her house at all! -_-

I should continue cleaning my room...bye.

It's 2:36 AM - probably the latest I've stayed up this whole year. I took a nap earlier because I got a migraine. I don't really know why I'm typing...I'm bored. I'm also hungry and tired. Hm. I think I'll eat something and go to bed. I hope my dreams are interesting...because I'm bored... During my nap I had some interesting dreams.

Okay, it seems like every dream this summer has involved a certain stretch of Petrovitsky Road, and me driving up and down it. There are always slight variations - sometimes I'm in a parade, other times I'm practicing driving, other times I'm dropping various people off, picking them up, exploring little side roads - but the majority of my dreams involve this. And I am having increasing difficulty remembering the exact happenings of my dreams. I used to remember so much more clearly - usually not right away, but ten minutes later, in the shower, I'd remember. Or later on in the day someone would do something and I'd be like "woah that was like in my dream."

Who cares. Bedtime!

haha, kaitie and I just sang through "can you feel the love tonight" really loudly. Just so you know, if you're ever sick, you should have kaitie come over. She's so good at taking care of sick or injured people. Why? Because. She gives sympathy but she doesn't take any of your whiney stuff. She does what you ask her, but if you complain she just rolls her eyes and leaves. It's good. I have other people to give me the emotional comfort. She makes me laugh too. We sing a lot of songs together when I'm sick.


alright! I'm posting!

Because! I'm not dying. I'm not really in that much pain anymore either. Of course, I'm on two different kinds of pain killers and some other kind of med, but I'm good. I feel a lot better. I still have a bit of a fever and feel a bit sick to my stomach, but that's not really related and it's nothing in comparison and I'm okay. The worst is over - yesterday during the day and last night during the doctors was definitely the worst. My mini-operation hurt. Hardly any anisthetic for the whole half hour. I won't go into any detail though, thank you. But I'm not allowed to take a shower for two days.

I'm just glad I'm better. REALLY. You have no idea how much better my day is going! I feel way less stressed out and like I can just relax and get better, rather than sit around hoping I don't get any worse. Of course I'll be bored out of my mind because I'm still feeling sick and sore and like lying around the house. And groggy from the medicine. I almost never take any kind of drugs beyond tyenol (and only when it really hurts), so I feel kind of weird.

But amber is coming over and we're going to watch a movie and stuff.

And I don't have to go into work until monday. But, I'm not terribly happy about that. I wanted to work this week - it's what I was hired for. And it's a lot less boring than sitting around here all day. I'm getting pretty tired of playing tetris. But, it's really actually nice to have like four days off. I'll be so sick of being home by monday, work will be great.

Last night my mom asked me if I wanted anything from the store and I didn't really, I just wanted to go to sleep. But she brought me home gummi bears. haha. My mom knows me. Here's a random fact about me: I don't like green gummi bears. At all. I pick around them. But Matt likes them, so I just give them to him.
I really hardly eat any candy at all - amber could tell you that - but gummi bears are my favorite candy. They're so chewy and gummi and cute.

ha.

Amber, remember at Girls Of Grace, when I was fasting from chocolate or candy or something for Lent, but it didn't make any sense because I don't really have any trouble not eating candy at all, I just thought I'd try fasting from something or I don't remember, but then you were eating those little hershey bars and couldn't get the wrapper off, so I got it off for you, and you were saying, "Ooh, I'm sorry becca, I didn't mean to tempt you.." or something. It was funny because I didn't even think about it at all. But it was more funny just because all weekend you kept forgetting and saying "is it okay if I eat this candy in front of you?"

I don't think I explained that very well. I just remember how it felt when we were in the bus opening the candy and laughing. The story isn't that good though. Just another moment we shared.

Ha, you probably don't even remember it. hehe.

I'm in the silliest mood ever today. I'm just happy! It seems like these past two weeks have just been really hard - things just kept building up, one thing after another and everything hurt - and now everything seems better.

I haven't posted anything this long in a while.

And I think now I'm done! Because this doesn't seem very interesting. You know what though! I don't care!! At all! soooooooooooooooooooo! there!

-becca

Random fact: I have very strong reactions to other people's physical pain. Hearing or reading about some particular instance of torture in a history book can make me cry for days. I refuse to even try to watch it in movies, because it destroys the rest of the movie and I can't think about anything else for the rest of the day. Whenever a large amount of pain happens to people I love, it makes me ill. I wish it didn't happen. I wish I could be strong, because it's not like my illness is helping anyone. But without telling you about the incident that caused this to happen recently, let me just say that last night and this morning has been one big sobbing mess, I can't eat, and my stomach is cramped up so bad it's hard to stand up straight.

Sigh.

Poor becca....

=(

Okay. I have officially changed our settings so that only registered users may comment. That should stop the slough of anonymous comment spammers with the "I like your blog. Here's my website" obsessions.

I'm back home. It's nice; I went shopping for a few stuff, and mostly I'm just packing, unpacking, and organizing stuff. I'm buying a printer. Well, I will be as soon as my dad finishes researching printers. He knows so much about computer stuff, it boggles my mind. I'll find a cheap one on ebay and I'll read him the model number and he'll be like "oh yeah, that model was discontinued five years ago." How does he know all this stuff? Some guys are like that with cars - they look at a car, and they know the model and what year it was made and all these obscure facts about it. Anyway.

anne of green gables always makes me cry.

I've been listening to it on tape, crocheting, and lying on a heating pad.

I'm going to go see a doctor tonight.

I'm so bored though.

Well, kind of bored. I mean, listening to a book on tape is a nice way to pass the time, but still, there are other things I wish I could get done but I can't really walk around very well, and I'm not supposed to anyway. Lying in bed all day is sort of wearing. I have a feeling I'm going to be prescribed bed rest for a few days anyway though.

bleh.

aah, anne of green gables really is the perfect thing to listen to right now.

-becca

For the record:

Never buy anything from Deep Discount CD.

http://www.deepdiscountcd.com/ is their website.

They also sell stuff on amazon (deepdiscountcd). I bought stuff from them. Now that I read all the negative feedback about them both on amazon.com and the web, I strongly advise you not to purchase from them. I doubt I'll get my cd in the next two weeks. I ordered it on August 9. Amazon tells me it still has not been shipped. I email deep discount cd and they say they shipped it on the 11th. Do I believe them? Not a chance. Do I think my boss also runs a scammy cd store on amazon in addition to his slimy sub shop? It's quite possible. I'll update you in the coming weeks as I continue to not receive my cd, and then I'll write a webpage of how much I hate them and try to destroy their business....unless the cd comes REALLY soon, in which case I would be shocked, retract this statement, and buy something else from them.

I just tried the "recover post" button on blogger because yesterday as I was typing an entry my laptop overheated and shut down. For the record, it didn't work. That's okay; I hadn't typed much and it wasn't really interesting or important anyway.

I just bought this. In fact, by the way, I have an amazon.com wish list now! If you know either my full name or my most commonly used email address, you can search for it and BUY ME STUFF. Actually, my main reason for putting it up was so that I can buy them for myself as rewards for accomplishing goals or tasks. For example, today I needed to clean the whole house. I did, and as my predetermined reward I am buying myself that mug. (I want to have two eventually.) Why do I not put a link to my wish list here? Duh, it has my shipping address and EVERYTHING! And stuff! Okay, stalkers?

Supposedly my dad is on his way down here so I can sign some tax forms. I think, however, he forgot that the Edgars now live in a different house, and I'm not so sure he knows where the new house is. He doesn't have a cell phone. I have to go in to work in half an hour to go over some stuff with my boss. Hm.

So, my boss. Ha. Okay, so on Saturday I found the discrepancy in my paycheck and decided that Tuesday would be my last day. I called him right away and told him I needed to talk with him. He said Sunday he would come in while I was working. I said fine. But he didn't come in Sunday. So I called and left a message on his voicemail, which he failed to respond to, so I called him again today. No, he hadn't gotten my voicemail, but he would be available to talk at noon today. So today, I'm going to tell him that I'm quitting tomorrow.

Is that fair? Well, I asked the same question of becca, and she said, "Well, is it fair that you never got the hours you've been promised every week since you worked there? Is it fair that you're not getting paid for all your work?" She's so smart. And besides, he's used to people up-and-quitting on him. So, I'm really curious to see his reaction.

Okay. I'm done.

Edit: I did it. I quit. He told me not even to bother coming in tomorrow, OR today. I am officially DONE. YIPPEE!! Oh, and because of his WEIRD, INCONSISTENT way of paying his employees, he was actually RIGHT about my paycheck. DARN. He told me it was unfair of me. I told him about all his unfairness. He would do this irritating thing where he'd start to deny it, then say "oh, never mind, I don't care, you're quitting anyway." He was like, "I gave you more hours!" I said, "But they weren't the hours you promised me EVER SINCE I STARTED WORKING HERE!" He said, "The other employees complained that you were too slow." I was like, "Yeah, except now I'm the fastest person you've got." He didn't deny it.

Now, here's how much I hate to see things undone at my workplace. When I got there, I sat down to wait for my boss to no longer be busy, and I got myself a cup of water, and I noticed that there were hardly any straws left in the thing, and I KNEW that no one would notice until customers complained, because I'm the only one who ever fills the straws, so...I filled them. It was a small, simple thing, but I almost felt guilty for it. While I was waiting for my boss in a meeting in which I would inform him that I quit, I filled the straws. Haha.

Okay, this time I really mean it. I was going to wait to quit until just before school started, but I am now quitting on Tuesday. I've scheduled a meeting with my boss so I can tell him. And, by the way, for any other job I'd give more notice, but the way this job works, nobody cares. Here's why.

1. My boss has a routine. Because recently he's had an employee quitting every week, he simply calls the person who's most recently handed in the application and informs them that they now have a job with Subway, and to please come in on Xday at X:30 (which will inevitably be whatever shift the person that has quit would have gotten.) Problem solved.

2. I'm working to the end of the written schedule, which is Tuesday. He makes the new schedules on Tuesdays. Therefore, he doesn't have to deal with changing any already scheduled hours for me.

I got my paycheck. I cried. He underpaid me. At first I thought he had underpaid me by like 300 dollars but then I realized it was only by like 50 ish. However, I am almost certain that my paycheck prior to this should have been much more. Tomorrow I am meeting with him to discuss it, and to look at the schedules so I can see the hours I worked and make sure he got everything right. And as soon as he admits that he added my hours wrong (I don't think it was accidental or anything), I'm going to say "so, I've been thinking, and I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to quit a bit sooner than I thought I would." He won't be shocked or surprised.

There's a sweet lady that comes in every day and orders the exact same thing. Today I told her I was quitting. She said, "What? You and Jassi are the only people who really know how to run things around here. All the good people here have quit and all the new people aren't any good." I was like, Yeah, know why? Because if you're a hard worker, you don't get paid more, you don't get more hours, you don't get more privileges, you get nothing more than the people who don't work at all. I'll miss her. I'll also miss most of my coworkers, except now there are several that I don't like very much. There's the people that don't do any work unless you tell them EXACTLy what to do, and they're kind of annoying, but then there's the people who don't do any work and when you tell them what to do they d on't do it, and lie about it, so you have to be constantly inspecting people's work and making sure they did it. Which you don't have time to do. I worked with two of those today.

I'm going to take a nap now. Goodnight.

Word of advice: Do not use rice milk as a substitute for 2% milk in your english breakfast tea. It tastes (and smells) terrible.

I hurt myself at work tonight - about two hours ago - I didn't do anything about it though, I just kept working, and now...it hurts. I'm sitting here with an icepack for a little while before I go to bed.

ouch.


uh.

I'm tired and don't feel like saying anything, I just wanted something to distract me while I iced, because I don't want to swell up.

woo, I'm going to be sore tomorrow.

-becca

Yep, becca pretty much described it. I think we'll get along just fine in an apartment. If I can get along super well with a roommate I've known for only a few months in a living space smaller than my bedroom, I can get along with my best friend in a nice apartment. Especially with tea and breakfast options, and a piano...and ahhh....why can't we just rent the Edgar's house?...

I wish "anonymous" would stop advertising their websites on our comments section. I wonder if there's a new program that does that - spams people's comments automatically.

I'm hungry. I'm really bad at eating when food isn't provided for me; I'm starting to find that out. I should work on that. My mom's coming to pick me up in an hour or so though; I'll get her to stop at McDonald's or something. if my stomach doesn't collapse first.

I thought it was Thursday I needed off work for this family thing, so I asked for Thursday off and got it, only to find o ut I actually needed Friday off. My boss was nice enough to arrange for Friday though. I offered to work today but he didn't call me so I didn't. Basically all I've done today is played piano, read, showered, soaked my feet (they have hurt lately), and dinked around on the computer.

Oh! And my future roommate called! She sounds awfully nice. It'll be fun.

Yet more links...

http://flashface.ctapt.de/ - make your own face! At least half an hour of fun.

http://j-walk.com/other/index.html - extremely funny joke sites, all by the same genius. Warning: some material not appropriate for children! That means you, becca! You're not 18 yet! Bwahaha!

aah. I like mornings. A lot.

This is how amber and I have spent our mornings since we've been staying here.

One of us wakes up around thirty minutes before the other, starts a pot of water, and sits around looking tired until the other wakes up. Tea is made and the piano is played. Someone makes breakfast and we sit around switching off between getting ready for work and playing piano. We both sing. We both dance around the house. Quite simply put, it's just nice.

And I would write much more, but I need to leave for work!

-becca

http://www.spectropolis.com/speedspray/

Another "don't believe it" site. Pretty funny though.

5:48 pm - I spent a lot of my day reviewing Hebrews, and I just quoted it straight through! Now, I know I know it, and as long as I keep quoting it about once a week, I should have it down forever. As a reward, and as I promised myself, I will now buy the extended Phantom of the Opera soundtrack.

AND I cleaned the whole downstairs today. Which might not seem like such a huge accomplishment, and it's probably not, but it sure looks great now! Everything's done except laundry and cleaning the laundry room.

I feel so accomplished.

Later in the day....

I don't know what's with my current fascination of directing people to websites other than my own, but here's a helpful link:

http://www.flashcardmachine.com/

I've always been a flash card person, and I know I go through hundreds of index cards every year for verses, school stuff, music notes, etc. I'm going to save a lot of trees this next school year. Plus, you can make your flash cards available to other users. I think it'd be cooler if you could make them available to non users, but oh well. I'm using it currently for Bible chapters, so I can review them.

Amber is STILL in bed! I think everyday I've spent here, I've woken up before her. But, it's okay today, because it's her day off, and she has all day to do what she wants.

Tomorrow is my day off. woo.

I'm hungry. I didn't have dinner last night, and now I've been awake for a couple of hours. I'm going to go eat something.

So, the other day, I was playing hymns on the piano, and amber was sitting here, and we started talking about recording music and writing songs...so while she was playing with new music programs on her computer, I wrote another phantom parody. Ha. I can't believe I was actually putting time and thought into this. It didn't take that long though, so I guess I can justify it. It's easier when you already have a tune and words to go off of - you already have a rhyming scheme to follow and everything. Easy.


The Sandwich Of The Opera

Christine:
At noon he came to me,
my stomach growled
The meat which calls to me
put there by Raoul
And do I eat again? For if I munch,
The Sandwich of the opera is there
inside my lunch.

Sandwich:
Eat once again of me,
Our strange di-et
My low fat content count
grows lower yet
And though you close your mouth
just to spite
the Sandwich of the opera is there
so take a bite

Christine:
Those who have tasted you
draw back in haste
their money they soon waste

Sandwich:
it's me they taste

Together:
Your olives and your cheese (My olives and my cheese)
Falling south
The Sandwich of the opera is there
inside my mouth (Inside your mouth)

Christine:
He's there, the sandwich of the opera
Beware, the sandwich of the opera

Sandwich:
In all of your lunch breaks,
you always knew
that subway sandwiches
are best for you

Together:
And in this storefront
where time goes on
the Sandwich of the opera is here
but will soon be gone


Sing, My Angel Of Deli!

Thanks for the SONG, becca! Man, isn't she great? She's written me lots of songs. Let's see...

The original "Amber" song, recorded on a tape somewhere, ten minutes long.

The "Amber graduation" song, recorded on another tape somewhere.

The "Amber with a scraped up hand" song, written after I badly scraped up my hand.

The new "Amber Subway" song.

All I've written is the driving test song. I am on a mission to get that recorded and put it online, though, so soon you should be able to hear it.

Now I am sitting in pajamas, drinking tea on a Monday morning, listening to becca playing piano lovely-ly. She's playing mostly hymns. It sounds nice. It feels like either Sunday or Tuesday - Sunday, because I'm drinking tea and listening to church music played by becca (though, if it were Sunday, we'd be an hour late by now!) Tuesday, because yesterday seemed really long.

A paradox: Becca and I had the same amount of sleep Saturday night (roughly). We both went to church at the same time. We both played music and sat through a sermon. We both went home. She went to work for an hour and came home and took a nap and was exhausted for the rest of the day. I worked for eight hours and came home and was ready to watch a movie - I wasn't even terribly tired. We didn't watch a movie, we just talked and played piano and drank hot chocolate and stuff.

Bah. I have an hour before I have to start getting ready for work.

Amber is playing piano right now. The tea kettle is on. I am comfy.

I took a short nap when I got home from work. I went home early, because someone had to go home and I was the one who cared the least about the extra hours.

It's a beautiful night. Truly. There are so many good things to think about and smile about and be thankful about. haha.

I'm going to spend the rest of my night reading.

-becca

okay, this is really...really pretty stupid. I was playing phantom of the opera songs and got inspired to write a parody of All I Ask Of You. This is for amber. hhahaha. Even if NO ONE else appreciates this, I know she will.



All I Ask Of Subway

Raoul:
no more talk of patties,
forget the ketchup too
I'm through
I'm done with fast food
I want some new fresh food

Subway is my freedom
the fragrance of my lunch
like a bunch
of sweet-smelling lettuce
pickles, olives, tomatoes for us


Christine:
All I ask is every piece of turkey
gently fold inside my soft white bread
Say your condiments are fresh and ready
promise me it's worth what I paid
that's how I like my sandwich made.


Raoul:
Let me be your server,
your sandwich I will make
I'll putwhatever you want on
just tell me what you've decided on

Christine:
All I want is turkey,
and a little bit of cheese
cheddar please, if you have it
and toast it for a minute

Raoul:
And would you like any mayonnaise or mustard?
how about some nice crispy bacon?
say the word and I'll put it on there
although, there is a small charge if I do
tell me, is it worth it to you?

Christine:
All I ask for is one lunch, one sandwich
then you never need to talk to me again

Together:
Share this moment with me, of fresh deli
Chrstine: Say my lunch is done - Raoul: it's time to pay
Together: now that's how I like my sandwich made

It's 8:10am. The tea kettle is on the stove. I just woke up. Well, actually, I woke up around 7:00, but didn't get out of bed until just now.

I can't figure out how to turn the dryer on. I didn't try very hard though, I just decided it wasn't all that important right now.

So far, I've spent two nights at the Edgar's house with amber. It has been so nice and so fun. Being in such a big house - we can be as quiet as we want and as loud as we want. So nice. The beautiful piano helps a lot too, but I haven't played it that much yet.

Amber's still asleep.

At least, she's still in her room.

I don't have that much to say. I've been getting such good sleep here. I don't know why. I'm sleeping on a comfy couch with a nice thick quilt - they have air conditioning, it gets cold at night.

haha. I feel so awake! I only got 6ish hours of sleep, but the sleep is so good, I just feel like laughing.

Or maybe it's just the change in pace. It seems easier to sit down and read or do something like that here.

I think I'll probably go home today for a few hours though and get some stuff done there.


This is SO uninteresting, but guess what! I don't care!!! HA.

I just used my last black tea bag. And it's not even english black, it's peach black or something.

I'm going to go make another attempt at the dryer.

I have no blogging skillz.

-becca

For the next ten days, I have a 4,008 square foot house to myself.

Actually, since becca's staying with me, I should say that becca and I have a 4,008 square foot house to ourselves.

Somebody mentioned that it'll be good for us to live together for a few days just to see if we'd get along if we ever get an apartment together or something.

However, considering that the house is, once again, 4,008 square feet, I don't think it's really any comparison to an apartment.

It's pathetic, but we plan out the time we spend together. We hung out this morning, then she left for two hours, and came back and we hung out for an hour. Tonight when she gets off work, we're watching a movie. Tomorrow morning, we will hang out in the morning until 12 when she works, and then from 3 to 5 when I work, and then from 9:30 onward when I get off. We were kind of bummed that we didn't work at the same time (so we could have more time together) but at least this way, she can drive me to work!

We also typed "becca" into ebay to see what would show up. It was all bikinis and makeup. When we typed "amber" into ebay, it was all jewelry and beer. Four things related to our names, and each of them is so unlike us! haha.

I have polished up my Subway tutorial to make it fit for coworker consumption.

http://www.ladybugsnameisnotpaige.com/subway.html

(insert break of half an hour)

Woah, a weird thing just happened. See, about an hour ago, when becca was driving here, she noticed that all the garbage cans were in the street. Standing upright. It was odd. We have two garbage cans, and one had been pulled out three feet from the sidewalk (as had the neighbor's across the street), and the other had been left on the sidewalk. We decided it was some kind of prank.

Then I happened to look out fifteen minutes ago and noticed strange piles of fine gravel dumped beside almost every garbage can! I shook my head, wondering what weird weird kind of prank this was. I can just see it - "Haha! Let's go pull everyone's garbage cans into the street! And then pour gravel beside them! This will be the best practical joke ever!"

On further inspection, I noticed a black trail on the road, following every garbage can and pile of gravel. In fact, it was almost like the garbage cans and the gravel had been placed on top of that trail. I wondered if I was part of some sinister alien plot to take over the world, starting with our neighborhood. Strange markings on the roads, piles of gravel, oddly behaving garbage cans - hey, you never know.

I decided to get the mail. As I was walking to the mailbox, a truck drove by slowly, with a guy sitting in the open back. Sure enough, the truck soon stopped beside one of the few remaining ungravelled garbage cans, and the man jumped out and dumped a pile of gravel beside it. I yelled, "What are you doing!" and he said "cleaning up oil. One of the garbage trucks had a leak."
Well, that solves that...I guess. Except, I still don't understand it. Why were they only dumping gravel beside the garbage cans?

Actually, now that I think of it, further up the street (near the neighborhood entrance), the trail of oil is completely covered with gravel. Maybe they didn't have enough for the whole thing.

But why were the garbage cans pulled out into the street, over the trail of oil?

I took them into the garage. Maybe I wasn't supposed to.

Or maybe...my house will be the only one that escapes alien demolition.


(insert break of twenty minutes)


Okay, they came by with their truck, sweeping up the mess they made, and I snuck a picture from upstairs.


You can see the black lines of oil, and the smudged looking mess on the street? That's where the gravel was but then they swept it up. That garbage can used to be right next to it.

I was going to show you the big muscled man with a broom, but I was too late with the camera. A skinny guy was sweeping up the stuff, and then a big man with lots of arm muscle came out and tried to take the broom away from him. Some short dialogue went on, and then the big guy took the broom and swept. I wonder if he was saying something like "Look at my arm muscles! I can sweep so much better than you. Give me that broom." Or something like that.

Are you hot for God? http://datetosave.com/

Also, the most unique online dating service I've ever seen: http://www.flirttoconvert.com/

I could have a lot to say about this kind of thing, and angry, flabbergasted opinions have been running through my head ever since I checked out the ideas behind those sites. However, I won't share them with you because I'm guessing you probably have the same opinion of these things as I do. If there's anyone who sees this and thinks it's a good idea, leave me a comment and I will share my GRRR HOW COULD ANYONE BE THIS STUPID! HOW DECEPTIVE AND NON CHRISTIAN THIS IS! I WISH THIS WERE A JOKE!

ahem, sorry.