Stressing...

I have no idea what I'm doing for living come the fall. All my friends have graduated therefore I have no one to live with. I have never had good luck with the unknown roommate situation so I am highly against finding a random roommate to live with (Fang Chen aka 'Cathy' circa freshman year who disappeared for 72 hours and spoke about 10 words of English and dropped out a couple weeks later only for me to get a replacement roommate who smelled something awful and barely spoke). I live about an hour away from campus so I could possibly commute but that would be really inconvenient given that if I need to get to campus for something, it'll be a 2-hour round-trip. And, I tried to make a condensed schedule but of course most of my classes are only offered once and I didn't have a choice and have classes 5x a week. AND have I mentioned the rapidly rising gas-prices which are kicking me in the ass right about now. I have problems with not knowing things like this. I'm a planner so for me to attempt to put this on hold until maybe something pans out, I stress and think about it constantly. I have no idea what to do. So, please, someone help me. Sincerely yours

Mom forced to live in car with dogs

SANTA BARBARA, California (CNN) -- Barbara Harvey climbs into the back of her small Honda sport utility vehicle and snuggles with her two golden retrievers, her head nestled on a pillow propped against the driver's seat.

A former loan processor, the 67-year-old mother of three grown children said she never thought she'd spend her golden years sleeping in her car in a parking lot.

"This is my bed, my dogs," she said. "This is my life in this car right now."

Is it wrong that I feel worse for the beautiful dogs than I do for the woman?

(Almost) 12 weeks old

Little Shaymus is growing up so fast! He is definitely a spoiled little shit but that's only because I love him to pieces... Just recently we started teaching him how to 'sit' and he's doing great with it (although he only does sits on the first try when there's food involved). Today is the first day he hasn't had an accident in the apartment and I am such a proud momma. He makes me so sad when I leave because he just cries and cries and cries. He hates to be left alone. Maybe he'll learn that it actually gives him an opportunity to get into trouble! No one around to yell NO at him. I think he's getting a little better though... he can be left outside by himself without crying now so I'm happy to see he's becoming a little bit more independent. He is extremely friendly though and definitely a people-person. He loves to make new friends! He runs over to complete strangers and plops down in front of them, rolls onto his back, and demands belly rubs. He is certainly keeping my life busy! Here are some newer pictures of the pup:

The newest addition to my life

Everyone, meet Shaymus :)

This was after we gave him a bath... he wasn't too happy

Playing outside

Catching some zzzzz's together

A Success!

For the past month I have been lying to my boyfriend, hiding information from him, going around behind his back... all for the important night of March 29th. With some help from his friends, I stealthily pulled off a surprise party for his 30th birthday! He's claiming he "knew something was up" but I don't believe him for a second. He's in general very good at figuring things out but he'll let you know if he has. In this case, I did not hear one peep out of him about what he thought was meeting up with 2 recently wedded friends. So, I won :) His friends were great and chipped in to buy him a Nintendo Wii, which was amazing! The look on his face was priceless when he realized he was unwrapping a Wii (he's really been wanting one). He was really trying to keep his birthday quiet, but leave it to his girlfriend to change that one around! He's been saying for a couple of months now he would be going into hiding for the couple of weeks surrounding his 30th. We successfully worked around those plans of his and had such a fun time with everyone! Here are some pictures from the night:

This was after I had to push him through the door -
he failed to escape

so happy!

Playing his Wii

Thanks to everyone for their help! Couldn't have asked for things to come together more perfectly :)

Catching Up

last moments with my 1996 mazda protege... had 231,000 miles on it and she still wasn't giving up! Had it since my junior year of high school... RIP















kissing mazda goodbye!!










My first picture of my new car! It's a 2001 Ford Focus (and it has air conditioning! can't wait for the summer) Such an unexpected spring break present!

Focus!

I got a new car!! More details to follow...

Watch it

Meet Dr. Randy Pausch. He gives a great lecture that I think everyone should take the 10 minutes to watch... it really gives you a positive perspective on living, facing obstacles, and making the most of life.

The Last Lecture

why is he following me?!

soo I swing by cvs on my way home from classes today - have to pick up some more ink for my printer. I go up to pay and who turns around at the register next to me but CREEPY MAN!! am I going to start seeing him everywhere now?!

gulp. help.

whyyy

Awkward moment of the day GOES TO: creepy man

So I'm walking out of the local rinky dink grocery store and I go to start my car before loading the grocery bags in so that it might be just a degree warmer when I finish. As I go to my grocery basket to grab some bags the creepy scrawny old man parked next to me has rolled his window down and shouts "goin' to the game tonight?!"

Me: "Noo"
Creepster: "No?"
Me (trying still to be somewhat nice): "No - I don't have tickets"
Creepster (as I pick up speed packing my car): "A celebrity like me can't even get tickets!"

...Now. if he was a celebrity, why would he a) be talking to me, and b) driving that beat up 1980 oldsmobile...

Me: "heh"
Creepster: "I'm a musician you know"
Me: "Oh yeah? good!"
Creepster: "My name is Miller by the way"
brief awkward silence
Me: "that's good."

I then run to put my cart away, get back in my car as he says to me "take care now" and rolls up his window.

I then peel out checking my rear view mirror every 5 seconds to ensure that he is not following me.