I Love Ebay

When I was in the desert in Morocco and at the Malagueta beach in Spain I collected water bottles full of sand and then took a picture of them in their natural habitat. I jokingly thought I could try to sell them on Ebay. I finally got around to listing them this week, and they sold. The great part is how much they sold for. Take a guess. Guess how much I got for a plastic bottle full of sand?

Bah ha hah ha, I got $49.99 a piece not including shipping and handling. I made a hundred bucks off of sand. I love capitalism. I love Ebay. Take that all those who doubted my crazy antics while I was filling those bottles up and lugging them around in my suitcase. They paid off! I rule the world. (evil laughter)

The Shift Key Incident

I shall call this Jenn's shift key story. You know that when you work in Photoshop you can resize images by clicking your mouse in a corner to enlarge or shrink your image, BUT sometimes when you do this the images can become distorted. If you go too far in one direction and not the other Uncle Bob looks extra fat or Aunt Sally looks like a pencil head. Well, the way to solve this problem is to push the shift key while you are resizing the image and it will remain in its original proportions. I was doing just this while I was working at Camp Fire. My boss, Laura, was approving a brochure that I had designed and she said that the Camp Fire USA logo looked a little distorted and that I should push the shift key to prevent it from changing dimensions. I proceeded to show her on the computer how I pushed the shift button while resizing the logo, but it started growing out of proportion despite my efforts. Very quickly I blurted out in a loud voice,

"SHIFT!"

Heads Turned. Silence...

"I mean I pushed the shift key." My brain worked too fast for my mouth and I inadvertently offended the entire office. I saw my internship flash before my eyes, I imagine that blatant swearing in the workplace is frowned upon. One syllable sentences at a raised voice that have similar phonologies to 4-letter words are generally misunderstood. After I started laughing and assured Laura I didn't just swear in frustration she cracked a smile and we both laughed about it. I was so embarrassed. Always think before you yell "SHIFT."

Fall Classes Begin

Classes started. Blah. I'll never have time to complete personal goals anymore, just a swamp of professor's expectations that don't exactly accomplish what you really want to in life. Of course without the regularity and certain mental stimulation along with the pretty degree the work eventually will earn you, life would begin to suck anyway. I have a love hate relationship with school. I'm just depressed that reading books for pleasure and walking outside in the sun have been ousted to a new life of reading assigned texts and barely seeing the light of day inside yucky buildings. Perhaps this is an overflow of my hatred for any other season than summer too. Days are starting to get shorter. The weather isn't as hot. Is my dislike of winter a socially instituted evolutionary response to the fact that school (which equals more work) is in this season as well? Do I have an aversion to 'unlaziness' that I substantiate with a dread of the cold and snow and dark gloomy days? But anyway, back to what I was saying before, my goals are always changing whether it be from what I'm experiencing at the time, new revelations, forgotten ambitions, and who know why else. Maybe if I didn't have a scheduled life, be it school or work, I'd never accomplish those goals anyway. I think the idea that I have the time to take on new passions, start, complete, and thrive at any fancy of mine is a comforting thought even if practically I could never do it. Like writing a book. I really want to write a book, and I've tried before but it always gets pushed to the backburner, job, classes, or nothing but a boring rainy day. I am a starter, and a bad finisher. When was the last time I actually satisfactorily completed something unless it was being dictated by someone else? Freedom is a beautiful thought, but not so practical.

The Lion King

When we were in Philly we went to see the LION KING Broadway tour at the Academy of Music. It was soooooooo awesome, even if we had nosebleed seats in the amphitheater. The costumes were by far the best part. The giraffes of course were my favorite. The people came out on four stilts, the front two higher than the back two, imagine coordinating that! The lines were taken almost directly from the Disney animated movie. Oh, how good it was. A work of art in motion. The music was exceptional as well. Especially the Circle of Life song and awww little Simba had such a good voice. He's a natural little star. I just wanted to pinch his cheeks.

Pile of Tomatoes

Today we had BLT's with tomatoes from my Pappy's garden. When I came out to the kitchen for supper, my mom had sliced up a mound of tomatoes. Even while she was praying I couldn't help giggle at the massive pile of tomato redness on the table. Geez, only three people were eating, not a giant army of tomato hungry elephants. I wish I had gotten a picture, but I do have a picture of one growing on the vine or stock or whatever the plant's appendage's are called.

I Got Toilet Papered

Yesterday when I woke up I had an interesting surprise waiting for me in the driveway. My dad was shocked. I was shocked. My neighbors were shocked. My car was COVERED in toiletpaper and saran wrap. I was impressed at how well it was wrapped around the bottom, almost like a present...
But yeah, the dew must have set and then the sun dried it, so now there are little specks of toilet paper all over my car like it had a bad shave job in the morning.
At first I wasn't sure who to be mad at. But then I thought who else would do this than Emily, especially since she had mentioned something of the likes of this to do someone else a few weeks ago? She fessed up after many accusations. Her and Neil at 3 in the morning. Those little boogers.

Philadelphia

This weekend Tami, Emily, Nicole and I went to Philly. Wahoooo. We had fun.
I may have hopelessly driven over the Benjamin Franklin bridge into New Jersey but eventually we got there.
We saw the Liberty Bell that is a tourist must-see, but a little disappointing since its kept indoors and roped off.
We toured the rest of the historic part of the city.
We got our picture taken with a mean colonial man.
We (at least Emily and I) ate Philly Cheese steaks at the infamous Pats.
We visited the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
We took a cab ride with a creepy driver that obviously had a mental deficiency so we requested to get out before even getting back to our hostel and lucky me got to ride in the front.
We met Dr. Fiorini at the Pink Rose on South Street for dessert (mmmm white chocolate raspberry mousse cake).
We drove through maddening streets looking for legal parking spaces.
We walked into an extraordinary expensive restaurant at 12:30 AM, realized we couldn't afford it and left there for another chic restaurant that was very nice, but in which I ordered a paté that I now know is mystery (most likely lamb) meat spread.
We starved Tami on Friday night.
We went to see the Lion King (a post to follow)
We sat outside my car while waiting for a security guard to jump my car (luckily in a safe part of the city)

I Heart Benji

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
Benji won!
Benji won So You Think You Can Dance!
I have been cheering for him since the beginning of the show.

This past week I've been at my Grandma's house so I didn't get to see the show on Wednesday but my mom taped it and I just watched it. I think I screamed when I found out who won.

A: I love Benji, He's so sweet, down to earth, a good dancer, funny, and incredibly entertaining.
B: My favorite show of the summer was So You Think You Can Dance. I just can't describe how much I loved it. And my favorite dancer won. How often does that happen? Maybe the 18 times I called in to vote last week actually helped...

Sometimes I feel like I have nowhere to express my happiness. No one really shares my enthusiasm about this. At least I have a meager blog to share my reality television obsession with, even if cyber space doesn't care so much either, at least I FEEL like someone is high-fiving me and dancing on the tabletops that Benji won too. I mean come on, somebody has to care.

Camp Fire USA

This summer I interned at Camp Fire USA Lone Star Council as a public image cooridinator. I absolutely loved it there. My sister agreed to let me live with her in Dallas and I found this internship online with Exxonmobile summer jobs program so I applied for it while I was still in Spain.
The people at Camp Fire are all so cool, I miss them. The atmosphere was very inviting and fun. I liked the marketing part of my job so much that I am seriously considering changing my major...again. I translated a bunch of stuff into Spanish for them and made some brochures, made some surveys, brushed up their website that you can take a peek at here (note the fire banner), and other stuff too. Awww, now I am sad. I couldn't have had a better internship experience, I wanna go back to Texas. Boo hoo.

If nothing else, I learned the keyboard shortcuts for all the Spanish accented letters. I hate not having a Spanish keyboard. That is very frustrating. You could never compose long papers without a specified keyboard. Just when I got used to finding the @ button or the upside down question mark, I had to leave it behind. bah humbug

Jenn's House of Ants

Hey everybody! This is Emily typing...yay! So, we're just chillin at Jenn's house and we were walking around outside and we stumbled upon these stinkin gross ants! Blah! The thing is, everytime I'm here, the ants are there and we keep killing them and they keep coming back! They won't die. So, being the kind hearted people we are, we got out the ant spray and ended their sad, pathetic lives.

Les Misérables

I read Les Miz that I bought at Half Price Books this summer and then Michelle and Tony took me to see it on the broadway tour in Dallas. I loved it! The book was good and the play even better. They had a revolving stage that added a new element to the show that I've never experienced before. The whole show was dimly lit in sync with the mood. I kept on pointing out all the differences between the book and the broadway show and getting really excited about it. Eponine was much more a central character in the play while in the book she was only glanced over. She was much less idealized as on stage. And then the similartities too, made me happy. Jean ValJean's yellow passport and the scene where he is carrying Marius through the Parisian sewers. Oh, and when Cosette sang the Castle on a Cloud song I about flipped. I remember singing that in Chorus in like 8th grade and I had no idea that is was from Les Misérables. M and T bought the 50 dollar sound track at the theater because Tony like the chain song. I say why not wait a few minutes and download it online for a fraction of the price? Nevertheless a very good show, and I hear it is coming back to broadway in NYC too.

Pirates of the Caribbean II

<--A giant bill board we jumped in front of in NYC.

Pirates of the Caribbean II: The Dead Man's Chest: my new favorite movie. We went to see the midnight showing on the opening day in Dallas. Actually, we had just finished watching a Midsummer Night's Dream at Shakespeare in the Park and then decided to race to a theater in hopes that we could get tickets. We got lucky and were part of the biggest opening weekend for a movie in history. Sigh Johnny Depp. Who could ever imagine a guy could look so hot in black mascara? My favorite part of the movie by far, was the scene where the pirates were all in the giant balls made of bones hanging over the cliff. Then when they reached out their hands to grab the roots on the other side, my sides hurt from uncontrollable laughter. I'm telling you, the movie is genius. Smart, adventurous, humorous, good cast, intriguing choreography and special effects, plot twists, and of course, Captain Jack Sparrow.

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

On Tuesday we went to the big apple, NYC, for some television tapings, but we didn't leave early enough to use the Good Morning America tickets we had. We did however make it to Who wants to be a Millionaire starring Meredith Veira. The atmosphere was very cool with the blue lights, fog machines, and dah dah music. We all tried out to be a contestant but none of us passed the test. Unfortunately about 2.5 hours into the drive on the way there I got violently ill all of the sudden. I was puking into a plastic bag in the car and we had to roll down the windows on the middle of the highway. I had to stop in a hotel to recoup and encouraged everyone else just to leave me there but luckily I got better very quickly. Not helping, we did pick to go to New York City on the freaking hottest day of the summer during a stupid heat wave. Are we crazy? Yes. Even still, it was fun. I love the city life. I'm afraid I'm tuning into a city girl.

Satanic Squirrels

I hate squirrels.
They are litte satanic rodents.
They are rats with fluffy tails that deceive the masses into thinking they are cute and cuddly.
My family swam and had a cookout at Caledonia on Friday and look at this evil little creature. It's eyes are red, and I all I can say is that I knew it: They are the devil incarnate. I was feeding them a bunch of potato chips. Maybe they their digestive systems can't handle food from a bag and he'll explode. Hahahahha. Eeeee, shiver.

This is what we did with the squirrels after we caught them, barbequed them. Ha, ha ha, no just kidding. I wouldn't eat them even if they tasted like thanksgiving turkey.

Roll'n in the dough...kinda

Bah ha ha hah, I made away with a nice big check from the Shippensburg fair from the jewelry and photos (and angel food cake) I entered. Actually the cost of the prints, frames, mats, beads, wire and such didn't even break me even, but oh well. That can't be why you make stuff. You gotta do it for the love. All for the love.

The photo on the left is from Cadiz. It reminds me of Halloween. My favorite artistic-y one that I took in Spain. Then the one on the right is from Morocco. It only got second place but I think it's my best that I took in the whole year. Come on, he has missing teeth and is guiding his camel across the sweltering desert, what more could you ask for?

Shakira

I've decided that Shakira is my new favorite music artist. I just love all her sounds. They are so unique and have that Latin flair. She only needs to work on matching her outfits in some of her videos. Shakira, Shakira!

Chewing Gum + Hair = Bad

Tony bought DANCE DANCE REVOLUTION for us to play at home. How fun. Only my feet haven't memorized the position of the arrows yet. I keep on missing them, and then the game boo's at me. Not helping my self esteem...

Yesterday I was so tired that I fell asleep on the couch while chewing gum. Big mistake. I had a gum wad tangled beyond belief in my hair when I woke up. I begged my mom to cut my hair, but she more or less chopped it off. I am a scarey sight. No one saw it though because I went swimming today and pulled it back into a ponytail. I may do that for awhile. Some things in life I can't help but laugh at. I'm glad I'm a happy person, or else life might suck.