I feel guilty for living in Florida quite often. Doesn't that stink? The other night I left work around 1 am and thought, "I'm 6 or 7 miles from the beach right now. I should go and listen to the waves." But you know what I would rather do at that time of night? I would rather go home to my sleeping husband, eat a sandwich and watch Netflix until I settle down. That sucks! So many people go their whole lives never seeing the ocean, never smelling the salt and letting the sand burn their toes. I love the beach with all that is in me, but by the time I have packed my bags, driven there, set up my towel and sun-blocked myself, I feel like I could have done a million other more important things. I promise myself that when school is over (in 2 weeks) I will go to the beach on my days off from work. Two whole days each week to spend doing things like taking pictures with my graduation present (a nikon D3000) and tanning and cleaning and reading my bible and praising God with my guitar.
If someone came running up to me today and said, "It's terrible that you live this close to the beach and don't go every weekend!" I would throw my arms up and say, "I know!" But on the other hand I know that feeling guilty about this is silly because it's not like I sit around looking for something to fill up my time. I sit around filling my time wishing I could empty it a little bit. So, there you have it. My location guilt. Now back to writing a critical comparison/contrast essay on a common theme represented in African American literature.
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
manager in training
Ever since Kyle decided not to join the army, I have been in full-out work mode. Good thing for me, I have God on my side and he put all the pieces together to have my boss offer me a full-time salary position at my current restauraunt job just a few days after Kyle dropped the bomb about dropping out of his pre-committment to the army.
Today was my first day of manager training, and I'm pretty sure that my favorite part about today was not having to wear my bowtie and apron. I wore a nice purple tailored shirt and black dress slacks. And all my work friends called me "Manager Cara" and laughed at me. I'm so excited to finally be changing and moving up. The benefits and all the positive aspects of this job are really in the forefront of my mind right now, so I'm very optomisitic about the future of this job. This weekend Kyle and I are moving into our new TWO BEDROOM apartment, which will be a nice change from our NO BEDROOM studio apartment that we are living in now. Work at 8 in the morning and once again I didn't get my homework done tonight. What's new? Six more weeks and I will be a degree-holding, restaurant-running, awesome apartment-renting woman!
Goodnight!!
Today was my first day of manager training, and I'm pretty sure that my favorite part about today was not having to wear my bowtie and apron. I wore a nice purple tailored shirt and black dress slacks. And all my work friends called me "Manager Cara" and laughed at me. I'm so excited to finally be changing and moving up. The benefits and all the positive aspects of this job are really in the forefront of my mind right now, so I'm very optomisitic about the future of this job. This weekend Kyle and I are moving into our new TWO BEDROOM apartment, which will be a nice change from our NO BEDROOM studio apartment that we are living in now. Work at 8 in the morning and once again I didn't get my homework done tonight. What's new? Six more weeks and I will be a degree-holding, restaurant-running, awesome apartment-renting woman!
Goodnight!!
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
A Year
Yesterday was mine and Kyle's 1-year anniversary. We spent the entire weekend celebrating, though. Here is how our weekend transpired.
Saturday morning we left bright and early for Walmart where we got gas and a tire gauge to make sure my tires were ready for a 2.5 hour trip. When we got to Tampa around 10 am, we went straight to Busch Gardens and bought our tickets. They have a deal where you buy a one-day pass for $77 and you come back free for the rest of the year. We rode ride after ride and ate our smuggled sandwiches (because we would rather eat normal-priced food on dates and pass up $15 chicken fingers and corn dogs). The check-in time for our lovely Sheraton Suites hotel room was at 3pm, so that's when we left the park with plans to return the next day. We unloaded our baggage, showered, jumped on the amazingly soft bed, explored the hotel which had rivers and water-falls flowing through its spacious lobby, then we decided to find a place for dinner. Here's where we made a mistake. We used the Yellow Pages App on my iPhone to find good Mexican Restaurants in our area, when it turned out that Yellow Pages sucks because certain restaurants aren't appropriately labeled "In the Ghetto" when they truly are in the Ghetto. So we drove fifteen minutes through the wrong side of town to find that the plaza where Yellow Pages suggested we eat was a scary area and the restaurant had been closed down long ago because there was no sign of it. We drove back to the hotel, our blood sugar dropping by the second, and tried driving in the other direction without the help of Yellow Pages. After passing a few strip clubs I saw a Dillards off in the distance...a Mall!! "People like me shop there!" is what I shouted as I sped through its parking lot to see a Macy's and all the other normal department stores that a mall has to offer. When we got through the mall there was even a Tiffany & co! I have never seen such beautiful rings, except the one on my left hand. Our GPS told us that this mall had a Cheesecake Factory in it, and sure enough there was a whole out-door dining city outside the foodcourt complete with a pub, a trendy music restaurant with a hip-hop performer, a Champps Bar and Grille, which is where we ate that first night, and a few other adorable restaurants. We decided to save Cheesecake Factory for the next night when we were actually gonna exchange our anniversary cards and get all dressed up. So the next day was a typical day at a theme park. We slept in and didn't reach the park until around noon and left around 5 to go on our fancy date to where I got Chipotle Spicy Chicken Pasta and Kyle had Shrimp and Chicken Gumbo and we ordered a slice of Adam's Peanutbutter Cup Cheesecake, which also included Butterfinger pieces and caramel in the center. Yum! Each night was capped off with lying bed watching cable on our giant flat-screen tv. We have a new fave show--parking wars. We watched like, 3 hours of it that night after hanging out in the hotel lounge for a hour. By the third day, we checked out of our hotel around 8 and got to Busch Gardens just as it opened. We were able to ride 4 rides without any lines, and then we left for Orlando where we went shopping and had lunch and Kyle even surprised me by taking me to my favorite diner where I ordered my peanut butter and chocolate shake ane he ordered his vanilla malt. It was a perfect weekend filled with fun and a ton of sleep. I knew it would all go by so fast and that I would be sad when it was over. That's why I took pictures!
This picture was taken just before we left for the scary Mexican restuarant that didn't exist.
Kyle and I before our special date where he made me cry with the love-note he wrote me.
Our Cheesecake
Our delicious milkshakes
Saturday morning we left bright and early for Walmart where we got gas and a tire gauge to make sure my tires were ready for a 2.5 hour trip. When we got to Tampa around 10 am, we went straight to Busch Gardens and bought our tickets. They have a deal where you buy a one-day pass for $77 and you come back free for the rest of the year. We rode ride after ride and ate our smuggled sandwiches (because we would rather eat normal-priced food on dates and pass up $15 chicken fingers and corn dogs). The check-in time for our lovely Sheraton Suites hotel room was at 3pm, so that's when we left the park with plans to return the next day. We unloaded our baggage, showered, jumped on the amazingly soft bed, explored the hotel which had rivers and water-falls flowing through its spacious lobby, then we decided to find a place for dinner. Here's where we made a mistake. We used the Yellow Pages App on my iPhone to find good Mexican Restaurants in our area, when it turned out that Yellow Pages sucks because certain restaurants aren't appropriately labeled "In the Ghetto" when they truly are in the Ghetto. So we drove fifteen minutes through the wrong side of town to find that the plaza where Yellow Pages suggested we eat was a scary area and the restaurant had been closed down long ago because there was no sign of it. We drove back to the hotel, our blood sugar dropping by the second, and tried driving in the other direction without the help of Yellow Pages. After passing a few strip clubs I saw a Dillards off in the distance...a Mall!! "People like me shop there!" is what I shouted as I sped through its parking lot to see a Macy's and all the other normal department stores that a mall has to offer. When we got through the mall there was even a Tiffany & co! I have never seen such beautiful rings, except the one on my left hand. Our GPS told us that this mall had a Cheesecake Factory in it, and sure enough there was a whole out-door dining city outside the foodcourt complete with a pub, a trendy music restaurant with a hip-hop performer, a Champps Bar and Grille, which is where we ate that first night, and a few other adorable restaurants. We decided to save Cheesecake Factory for the next night when we were actually gonna exchange our anniversary cards and get all dressed up. So the next day was a typical day at a theme park. We slept in and didn't reach the park until around noon and left around 5 to go on our fancy date to where I got Chipotle Spicy Chicken Pasta and Kyle had Shrimp and Chicken Gumbo and we ordered a slice of Adam's Peanutbutter Cup Cheesecake, which also included Butterfinger pieces and caramel in the center. Yum! Each night was capped off with lying bed watching cable on our giant flat-screen tv. We have a new fave show--parking wars. We watched like, 3 hours of it that night after hanging out in the hotel lounge for a hour. By the third day, we checked out of our hotel around 8 and got to Busch Gardens just as it opened. We were able to ride 4 rides without any lines, and then we left for Orlando where we went shopping and had lunch and Kyle even surprised me by taking me to my favorite diner where I ordered my peanut butter and chocolate shake ane he ordered his vanilla malt. It was a perfect weekend filled with fun and a ton of sleep. I knew it would all go by so fast and that I would be sad when it was over. That's why I took pictures!
This picture was taken just before we left for the scary Mexican restuarant that didn't exist.
Kyle and I before our special date where he made me cry with the love-note he wrote me.
Our Cheesecake
Our delicious milkshakes
Monday, April 18, 2011
Posterity
I like to blog every now and then for my own sake. To go back in time and read about a time where I felt like the mole hill before me was a mountain and realize that it really was a mole hill is, well, fun.
Today I had my last advising appointment. I read the three little words I have been working toward for four years. They were in type-writer font at the top of my degree audit and they were: "ALL REQUIREMENTS MET."
That means I have either taken, am taking, or have signed up to take everything I need to graduate. And it feels good. But not too good. Now is the time to panic. I have to put together two portfolios of the work I have done this semester. One nonfiction, one fiction. I have to create a "published" book from the short story that mom wrote, and I have to ace my Spanish final. Tonight I watched Tangled and got nothing done. So, I guess tomorrow is the time to panic!
But on a non-school note, we got our lease extended until November so there is no question as to where we will be living after August arrives. Even though things are changing all around me, I feel like I'm watching it all from the sidelines and haven't been swept up into the madness yet.
Here I come, madness.
Today I had my last advising appointment. I read the three little words I have been working toward for four years. They were in type-writer font at the top of my degree audit and they were: "ALL REQUIREMENTS MET."
That means I have either taken, am taking, or have signed up to take everything I need to graduate. And it feels good. But not too good. Now is the time to panic. I have to put together two portfolios of the work I have done this semester. One nonfiction, one fiction. I have to create a "published" book from the short story that mom wrote, and I have to ace my Spanish final. Tonight I watched Tangled and got nothing done. So, I guess tomorrow is the time to panic!
But on a non-school note, we got our lease extended until November so there is no question as to where we will be living after August arrives. Even though things are changing all around me, I feel like I'm watching it all from the sidelines and haven't been swept up into the madness yet.
Here I come, madness.
Friday, April 15, 2011
It's Official
One weeek ago, Kyle joined the United States Army. It all happened so fast, that other than the fact that he talks incessently about the Army, it doesn't quite feel real yet. Today he drove 3 hours north to Georgia to get a free dental check-up from his step-grandpa who own his own practice up there, rather than pay $200 for a check up from the local dentist. Everything is in preparation for boot camp these days. I can't believe it's still 7 months away.
In a couple of weeks school will be over and we'll start summer classes. Kyle will finish his associates after taking biology and an elective and I will have my B.A. The living situation is giving me a headache lately. We lose our lease in August and Kyle doesn't leave until November. What to do? We're going to ask our landlord if he will extend the lease until the end of the year, then I will just stay with Mom and Dad until boot camp is over. But if the landlord says no, which I suspect he will, then we will be looking for a short-term option. "Live with your parents!" is what everyone tells me. But I feel that we would be imposing on their burdenless existence by sluffing all of out belongings in and invading their space, not to mention that Kyle and I aren't used to abiding by anyone's schedule except our own, and it's quite a strange schedule. We stay up late watching movies and eat dinner at 9 o'clock at night. I work until the wee hours of the morning on weekends and he wakes up at the wee hours of the morning all week. We would drive my early-to-bed-early-to-rise parents bananas. Eh, I give up for now.
It's official. Life is about to get difficult.
In a couple of weeks school will be over and we'll start summer classes. Kyle will finish his associates after taking biology and an elective and I will have my B.A. The living situation is giving me a headache lately. We lose our lease in August and Kyle doesn't leave until November. What to do? We're going to ask our landlord if he will extend the lease until the end of the year, then I will just stay with Mom and Dad until boot camp is over. But if the landlord says no, which I suspect he will, then we will be looking for a short-term option. "Live with your parents!" is what everyone tells me. But I feel that we would be imposing on their burdenless existence by sluffing all of out belongings in and invading their space, not to mention that Kyle and I aren't used to abiding by anyone's schedule except our own, and it's quite a strange schedule. We stay up late watching movies and eat dinner at 9 o'clock at night. I work until the wee hours of the morning on weekends and he wakes up at the wee hours of the morning all week. We would drive my early-to-bed-early-to-rise parents bananas. Eh, I give up for now.
It's official. Life is about to get difficult.
Monday, March 28, 2011
I had already poured the milk...
Today was one of those Mondays that make people hate Mondays. Maybe if every Monday was sunny yet cool and everyone got a paid vactaion from work and babies didn't cry and keys didn't disappear at the worst possible moment, maybe then Mondays wouldn't get such a bad rap.
But today was a Monday you hope to live to tell about.
This weekend we house-sat for mom and dad while they were on a youth retreat. Sunday night at 10 o'clock I checked my school email to find a brand new email sent 20 minutes prior from the professor of my Monday morning class. It said, "Be sure to do the reading, we may have a quiz." (That means there will be a quiz without a doubt). Realizing that I had left the necessary book at my apartment, I resolved to wake up half and hour early and go to my apartment to get it, do the reading and be on time to ace my quiz. But Monday had other plans. I stayed up too late because I was wired from the weekend. Kyle woke me up at 7:30 and again at 8:30 to chat, and I was an angry monster when I woke up. I couldn't find a shirt to wear amidst the mess of our poor packing skills. And it was raining. I got into my car to go to my apartment. When I pulled into my apartment and pulled out my keys, I noticed my key ring was broken and one of my house keys had fallen off. I emptied my purse hoping it had fallen off in there. No such luck. Thankfully Kyle showed up 20 minutes later to get his truck so he could load up all of the clean laundry and food we had left at mom and dad's. But now I had no time to do the reading. When I got into the apartment, the book was nowhere to be found. We searched everywhere and I cried out of frustration.
"This is the worst Monday ever!" I cried into Kyle's shoulder.
"Sh*t happens, Boo," he said, lovingly. "Your teacher will understand that you had a rough morning and can't take the quiz."
"I don't want her to think I'm a bad student. The quiz is only worth 5 points but it's the principle."
So, I drove to school and about 10 minutes out of town I got a call from Kyle.
"Hey, I found your book. It's here on your dad's desk."
Great. It was at my parents' house the whole time. Wow. Hello, Monday.
School went decently. Oh, except that I walked in flipflops through the puddles and spent 20 minutes meandering through the parking garage trying to remember where I parked. I got 3/5 points on the quiz, which isn't terrible considering I am an A student otherwise. But when I got home from school is when the crap started again.
"The building manager said we've been having power surges and there's nothing they can do to stop them. That's why our milk went bad early last week and my alarm clock keeps unsetting itself," Kyle told me as I walked in the door, soaking wet from having forgotten my umbrella.
I tried to make a grilled-cheese sandwich, but the stove was having so many surges, that it took 20 minutes of grilling it on high to get the bread slightly browned. And another gallon of milk had gone bad over the weekend. Thankfully it was only partially filled. Oh, and I bought yogurt on the way home. Yummy. That'll rot in a few hours.
"Oh, and the internet is down do to the surges, so you can't do any homework," Kyle says.
Wow. I called mom and dad to ask if we could stay at their house until the power was back on but it came back on after a little while and I was appeased.
I guess the day rounded itself out when I fell asleep and missed the delicious salmon Kyle made so I resorted to the last bowl of Golden Grahams. As I poured the milk, I reached into the drawer for a spoon. No spoons. By the time I wash a spoon, the cereal will be soggy. Then there will be no more Grahams and I will have to eat generic cheerios (Honey spooners).
"There are no spoons?" I asked.
"Not if you didn't do the dishes."
"Why is it only me who can do dishes?"
"It's not. It's just, you didn't wash any, so there are no spoons."
Thankfully Kyle bought me a slice of Pizza at our fave pizza place then we snuck it into a movie that was very funny. (Paul, the one about the alien) Now Kyle's sleeping, I'm doing homework that I put off because the day was so horrible I didn't want to make it worse by having to think, and I am very glad that today is over.
Oh, and the printer is out of ink so I can't print out my assignment that makes up 75% of my final grade. Yippeeee!!!
But today was a Monday you hope to live to tell about.
This weekend we house-sat for mom and dad while they were on a youth retreat. Sunday night at 10 o'clock I checked my school email to find a brand new email sent 20 minutes prior from the professor of my Monday morning class. It said, "Be sure to do the reading, we may have a quiz." (That means there will be a quiz without a doubt). Realizing that I had left the necessary book at my apartment, I resolved to wake up half and hour early and go to my apartment to get it, do the reading and be on time to ace my quiz. But Monday had other plans. I stayed up too late because I was wired from the weekend. Kyle woke me up at 7:30 and again at 8:30 to chat, and I was an angry monster when I woke up. I couldn't find a shirt to wear amidst the mess of our poor packing skills. And it was raining. I got into my car to go to my apartment. When I pulled into my apartment and pulled out my keys, I noticed my key ring was broken and one of my house keys had fallen off. I emptied my purse hoping it had fallen off in there. No such luck. Thankfully Kyle showed up 20 minutes later to get his truck so he could load up all of the clean laundry and food we had left at mom and dad's. But now I had no time to do the reading. When I got into the apartment, the book was nowhere to be found. We searched everywhere and I cried out of frustration.
"This is the worst Monday ever!" I cried into Kyle's shoulder.
"Sh*t happens, Boo," he said, lovingly. "Your teacher will understand that you had a rough morning and can't take the quiz."
"I don't want her to think I'm a bad student. The quiz is only worth 5 points but it's the principle."
So, I drove to school and about 10 minutes out of town I got a call from Kyle.
"Hey, I found your book. It's here on your dad's desk."
Great. It was at my parents' house the whole time. Wow. Hello, Monday.
School went decently. Oh, except that I walked in flipflops through the puddles and spent 20 minutes meandering through the parking garage trying to remember where I parked. I got 3/5 points on the quiz, which isn't terrible considering I am an A student otherwise. But when I got home from school is when the crap started again.
"The building manager said we've been having power surges and there's nothing they can do to stop them. That's why our milk went bad early last week and my alarm clock keeps unsetting itself," Kyle told me as I walked in the door, soaking wet from having forgotten my umbrella.
I tried to make a grilled-cheese sandwich, but the stove was having so many surges, that it took 20 minutes of grilling it on high to get the bread slightly browned. And another gallon of milk had gone bad over the weekend. Thankfully it was only partially filled. Oh, and I bought yogurt on the way home. Yummy. That'll rot in a few hours.
"Oh, and the internet is down do to the surges, so you can't do any homework," Kyle says.
Wow. I called mom and dad to ask if we could stay at their house until the power was back on but it came back on after a little while and I was appeased.
I guess the day rounded itself out when I fell asleep and missed the delicious salmon Kyle made so I resorted to the last bowl of Golden Grahams. As I poured the milk, I reached into the drawer for a spoon. No spoons. By the time I wash a spoon, the cereal will be soggy. Then there will be no more Grahams and I will have to eat generic cheerios (Honey spooners).
"There are no spoons?" I asked.
"Not if you didn't do the dishes."
"Why is it only me who can do dishes?"
"It's not. It's just, you didn't wash any, so there are no spoons."
Thankfully Kyle bought me a slice of Pizza at our fave pizza place then we snuck it into a movie that was very funny. (Paul, the one about the alien) Now Kyle's sleeping, I'm doing homework that I put off because the day was so horrible I didn't want to make it worse by having to think, and I am very glad that today is over.
Oh, and the printer is out of ink so I can't print out my assignment that makes up 75% of my final grade. Yippeeee!!!
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