I am in rapid prep for the coming of the Monday. Figured out a snappy organizational technique for the resume and everything. And I'm learning how to apply make-up, so I don't look like a 16-year-old, thus ruining any chance of a nice person hiring me at some future and hypothetical interview.

Today I figured out what city I'm moving to when I move out. Kirkland. Yes, that is the home of Ray from 06. Today we when to the Original Pancake House in Kirkland (one of only two in Washington) and it has the cutest little downtown that I never noticed before. We got totally turned around and had to ask for directions and everything, which I think is the mark of a good traditional and little downtown. It's funny because we drive through Kirkland sometimes to avoid traffic on 405, but I've never noticed its coolness before. The next little town over, Juanita, has the coolest apartments above a little grouping of shops. I've always wanted to live over a shop. So, if the Kirkland thing doesn't work out, I'll move there, though the town of Juanita is not nearly as interesting as Kirkland.

So now that that's settled, let's see about a carreer!!

Oh yeah, and Sammi, it would be AN official Monday. And you'll have to look in the archives for the post regarding the longest weekend ever.

Yesterday was my dad's 50th birthday. I suppose I should get him a present.

I think I will declare this coming Monday as my official Monday and everything that comes with it. Good luck to me.

Siobhan sent me a bunch of random pictures of me. This is by far the coolest one. I guess I should email her back to thank her. Oh the energy it takes!! And hurrah for the picture uploading. I hope it works better than than dumb Picasa did!

I bought $100 chair yesterday. Lime green sure is in lately.

I need a job.

I added 2500 miles to the rental in 4 days...and I barely drove for two of those days.

So we only made it 100 miles or so north of L.A. before we had to sleep, but I made us wake up way early and we rolled into Portland before 8:00pm! Just in time to be fed dinner by the Ellie's Mom Style Parental Unit. So I left and made it home by midnight. No accidents or nothing, just some quickly aborted attempts at rain.

Number of copper statues along the I-5 corridor: 3. Three spiky tower things in southern Washington, a dragon in northern CA, and a bull in slightly more southern CA.

States with evil drivers: Idaho, Illinois

State with considerate drivers: Nevada

Interesting sight: a Corvette pulling one of those tent trailer things. When you come up behind, it looks like it's driving itself. We passed in somewhere in NorCal, and then I passed it again in SoWash.

Random thought for you: wouldn't it be cool if I was really a new species of person! Maybe my innards are all different from normal humans and I am the beginning of the next generation of people. Oooo, maybe a balanced meal for the new people is a fast food meal!! Then I remembered that although I've never had a full body scan proving that I'm regular, I have had my appendix out, and I think they might have noticed something amiss at that point.

Tomorrow I will drive 1,000 miles. Goody. Renting a car costs lots of money!

School's over, and we can't get the good stuff back. But the evilness can follow us still. I went to a fiftieth birthday party yesterday. I was thinking, wow, all of her birthdays lined up in a row would be nigh on two months straight!

Oh motivation, where art thou (notice that I didn't write "wherefore art thou" because that would mean "why are you Romeo." I suppose then my question should really be "wherefore art thou not motivated." Hey, at least I remember something from Shakespeare class.

Sweet vindication!!!! The doctor guy on the tv told a pregnant woman that she had a parasite!! Take that you foul detractors!

This is the longest weekend of my life!!! And I don't mean the last two days. Every time I say that I'll do something, I mean that I'll do it on Monday, but there is no Monday. With no obligations, no job, there is nothing to anchor the week, so I feel like it's Groundhog's Day. Except it's a Saturday instead of a silly holiday, so I can't even kidnap a rodent and drive into a gravel pit in a crazy attempt to end the madness. (Morbid tidbit, my mom wanted to kill herself by driving into a gravel pit, but she couldn't find one. I think there was one right off the highway, but she wasn't in her right mind you know. Morbid question, how do I know this?)

Things I have accomplished...
Had a job interview today, decided I can't deal with a stupid nothing job, gonna keep looking.
Made an appointment to get a tattoo on Thursday, Squishy from Nemo.
My nails have been a different color every day this week.
My hair has washout highlights, first time I've colored it in any way, ever.
It's STRAWBERRY season in Washington!! (okay I didn't accomplish that, but it's still pretty cool)

I eat out at least once a day now, if not more. It's reeking havoc on my attempt to eat balancedly. Oh yeah, and I gotta find a car for California!!!!!!!! Evilness lurks.

Surprise surprise, nothing new to report. I have spent the last two day watching hours and hours of television programs on DVD. I have completed the first seasons of Charmed and Wonderfalls. If you're looking for a new show, I would say a big N-O to Charmed, but Wonderfalls is cute. Too bad I didn't discover it until after it was cancelled. It's about this funky girl who gets ordered around by inanimate animal heads. They get her into trouble and she often doesn't understand what their cryptic instructions mean, but it always turns out in the end.

Okay, I'm way scared that I just wrote a paragraph about a t.v. show...

To Ann: I'm ashamed of you for forgetting your nickname on my site. And I think 253-332-4961 is the number you're looking for. And you can't comment on my blog because I messed with the skin all those many moons ago. Mean to fix it, but I'm scared of losing my links and stuffs.

Today was a good day, though not exactly one to help the future.

One of the happitizing items is the return of my cell phone. I am now available to the world. Same number.

I picked up an application for Ben Franklin today. I was thinking that I wanted to jump straight into a career-type job...but I guess it would be cool to have a mindless job until I can find something really cool.

No word on the UAE thing yet. Gotta talk to the father to see if he would fund such a trip...but first things first, he can only handle one thing at a time...if he can even handle the one.

Got some leads on the salsa thing. Seattle is not completely devoid of Cuban salsa as I had feared.

Posting posting...

Today was supposed to be the big push that started me off in the right direction...yeah. I woke up at 7:00, went to breakfast with my grandparents at 8:00, picked up a bunch of people and celebrated a friend's birthday for lunch, did some errands and then took a nap. Then we went back out, went back to my grandparents went to the grocery store, ate dinner, and then watched tv for a couple hours.

I tell you. Whoever says that this is not a different time zone was crazy. I went from going to bed at midnight at the very earliest and waking up at 10 or so, to going to bed at 11 at the very latest and waking up between 7 and 9. My body is not used to this and it's definitely taking some time to adjust.

On the plus side, my resume is slightly more developed and I have spent about 5 minutes looking for jobs online. My dad gave me some names...you know, it's possible it could help...maybe. I guess he's just worried about me finding a job. Who knows, I never talk to the man.

Oh yeah, and sorry if I'm boring you with all the inane details of my totally boring life right now. If you hadn't noticed, I spend a lot of time with my family up here. If you're tired of the whole thing, I'd check back in in a few weeks, hopefully I'll have something interesting to report then.

I can feel the rut beginning to etch its way into my soul. I noticed that I'm not as interested in reading the news obsessively now that it's not a form of procrastination. Tomorrow I will be as productive as I can and hope its not too late.

Today I went to lunch with my grandparents at the stupid, totally low-class "restaurant" they go to every Friday. He says he likes the waitresses and that they like him. All he is to them is a tip, and not a fabulous one at that. They live by their regulars.

My grandfather introduced me to Tiffany, forgetting, like he does every time I come home, that I've met her a million times and not realizing that I couldn't care less about her. This time he got to include the little gem about the recent graduation that we're all aware of.

She says, "Congratulations, you must have a lot of patience. After I graduated from high school I just couldn't wait to get a job and move out of the house. And, no offense or anything, but I get paid as much or more than you're going to. People ask me when I'm going to get a real job, but I tell them that I make more money working here than they do working with computers or whatever."

Oh, by the way, this is the girl that spent the entire time complaining how she can't eat anything because she got some wisdom teeth pulled. Not because the teeth are sore, mind you, they're mostly healed. But she has spent so much time compensating with the front part of her jaw that it's tired now too. And she needs to go back for more cleaning, but she doesn't have the money upfront, so she has to wait for a few more months. See, she doesn't have health insurance. But still college is a waste of time and she has no need for a career or anything.

I wanted to say something snooty about how college is about betting yourself and not just about how much money you get paid. But I realized, there's no point. And I realized, even if I do only get paid the same amount as that annoying girl, at least I know something about something, when all she seems to do all day is suck up to people so they'll give her a nice tip so she can get her teeth cleaned.

Day 2: Today I...

*was unable to sleep past 6:30 because I went to sleep at 11 last night
*ate an unhealthy breakfast out with my aunt and great-aunt
*visited my other great-aunt and talked about how I don't know what I'm doing
*went antiquing and found lots of things I can't buy because I have no house and no money
*ate really good strawberry-rhubarb pie with ice cream
*tried to get a new, working cell phone but had to wait until Tuesday when my dad pays the bill
*visited my grandparents and talked about how I don't know what I'm doing
*seriously considered the possibilities of going to the UAE for a while
*made the goal to fix up my resume as soon as possible
*am thinking about changing my blog skin to one with titles

Anyone wanna hear something kinda depressing?

Last night when the plane started to take off, it hit me even more. As we were going down the runway, one of the worst times for me anyway, I was thinking, maybe the plane will crash and I'll die. I can't see what going to happen from now anyway, maybe I've fulfulled my mission in life. That would certainly make me feel a lot better. I was slightly disappointed when we got up all right.

When we got above the clouds, there was a second sunset. It was pretty cool, but instead of making me feel inspired, it made me more depressed. I think I feel like a failure because I wasn't able to come up with a masterplan for my life and how I am going to contribute to saving the world.

My aunt tried to convince me to spend some time in the Middle East before finding a permanent job here. It's starting to sound pretty good, and the arguments I had against it don't seem to be standing up so well. Don't be surprised if I end up in the UAE for 6 months or so.

If my posts had titles, this one would be: My First Blog as a Graduate/Alumnus/Alumness

And if it had an emotion indicator, it would be about a 57. I haven't worked out the imaginary scales yet.

I'm going to pack now and see if everything will fit.

My dad forgot the cello. We're going to have to come back for it.