My car, she is deceased. Sort of.

Today has been a NOT good day. And yet, at the same time, it has been an extremely lucky day.

I had lots of trouble waking up this morning and had a late start on my gigantic list of errands to run, partly because I forgot to put the clothes in the dryer when I finally did get up. I decided to pay my car taxes over the phone to save time, but I couldn't because all my info has changed, so I had to go in anyway. This normally would have saved me a two dollar processing fee, but since I forgot to bring my registration in to the clerk's office thingie, I had a two dollar charge anyway. Whatevs.
So then I kept running my errands, and originally I had planned on treating myself to lunch, since I finally cashed a birthday check today. I was going to go to my mom's and pick some up some stuff, then stop at McAlister's on the way home. Oh, do I love McAlister's. But I was getting hungry and didn't want to do the extra driving, so I called in an order to Applebee's. They said it would be ten or fifteen minutes, so I headed down there after like, fourteen minutes. My apartment complex is basically a parking lot over from this restaurant. On the way down there, my engine died FOUR TIMES. I finally made it to a parking spot, and the engine stayed on the whole time I was waiting.I ended up waiting for a total of 30 minutes for a simple order of chicken. When I went to back out of my spot, the car died again. And it would not come back. I had to go inside and ask for help pushing my car into a parking spot. Did I mention it was really hot outside today? Because it was.
After getting my car safely out of the way, I walked home. When I got home, I was sweaty and winded (sorry, gross, but it's true.) Then I opened up my food, and the order was all wrong. I asked for honey mustard, because I cannot eat their salty, over-seasoned fries with anything else, and there was no honey mustard. They didn't put any sauce or cheese on my chicken, so basically I paid $10.39 for a dry piece of chicken. I couldn't eat the side- I tried, though. But still. And yet, I didn't feel comfortable calling to complain because of the help I'd received with my car.
Being out in the heat for a while made me feel a little sick, and then for some reason my blood sugar like, skyrocketed, so for a few minutes there I kind of felt like I was dying a little. I am so dramatic. But it got to be ok.
Pappaw and Brian went to look at my car, and they did get it home (Pappaw said it died several times on the way.) Brian thinks he knows what's wrong with it but it may be out of commission for a few days. That should be ok, because Brandon can take me to work and pick me up tomorrow, and Mom can take me to work Thursday, and if it's not fixed by Friday, Brandon's off so he can take me to work again. It'll be fine.
When I told Brandon what happened, he said "the moral of the story is, don't go to Applebee's" (he wasn't that happy I was buying myself lunch.) But I said the moral of the story is, ALWAYS go to Applebee's. It would have been really bad if I had gone somewhere else and my car had died out on Bardstown Road- where I couldn't have walked home without dying from heat exhaustion. Like I said, today was pretty bad, and yet at the same time, it worked out. Hopefully my car will be working again soon and it won't be too difficult or expensive to fix.

ACHOO.

I am sickly.
Some kind of creeping crud has been making its way around the library lately, and this morning I woke up with it. Fever (ish), headache, earache, sore throat...it's gross. You're not supposed to get colds when it's almost June. And I feel like it's particularly unfair since I have been having major problems with my stomach this week- I had to come home for a little bit on Wednesday.

So after much drama this morning trying to call out from work, I have spent the last six hours or so slipping in and out of consciousness and reading a book. And drinking two and a half Capri Suns. I am like, obsessed with them right now.

I needed to get online and check some stuff (on my way to get another Capri Sun) and I decided to get Quincy and Monster out while I was at it. Just for a minute. So Monster is hanging out on my shoulder eating a bite of a mini Hershey bar (at least she is not asleep in my shirt this time) and Quincy is running a circuit, from my hands on the keyboard to the mouse to behind the monitor and back to the keyboard. She really enjoys running around on the desk. She's kind of weird, I guess. Very hyper and all.

And now I am going to head back to bed, I think. The girls will just have to cope with about five minutes of playtime today...maybe Brandon will get them out later. I don't think he'll admit it, but he really likes playing with the rats.

Congratulations, Jess and Erik!

Everyone has some complaint about their job, but hopefully everyone also has something that makes their job more bearable. For me, that "thing" is my friend Jess. She started working at my branch not long after I did, and I actually look forward to going to work when we work together. She is one of the nicest people I've ever met, and she's lots of fun. Yesterday she got married! I only took about three pictures, and none of them turned out so well, but she looked beautiful. The wedding was at Nunnlea House, which is a historic home in Louisville. Thankfully the rain held off until well after the wedding was over. There was a reception with yummy food (little sandwiches!) and I got to see some library people that I hadn't seen in a while. Many of the guests were library employees. Jess started working at the J-Town branch, where she met her new husband Erik. They started dating a little bit before she moved to Fern Creek. Erik used to work at Middletown, and now he works at Newburg. Coincidentally, our manager was the one who hired him into the system, and he and our new children's librarian went to library school together. So there were all kinds of library people there. That was pretty neat.
Jess will be gone for almost two weeks on her honeymoon, and I will miss her while she's gone. I told her if she decided to come back to work early, I wouldn't mind so much.

Scotty's gone.

We have a pretty amazing zoo here in Louisville, and one of its most popular residents was Scotty the elephant. Scotty was born three years ago, and was not only the first elephant born in the Louisville Zoo, but was also the first elephant born in our state. He was even featured in an issue of People magazine a while back! Since his birth, the community has celebrated Scotty's birthday with a party at the zoo, where hundreds of families would make a trip to see him enjoy his birthday cake.

Last night we got some sad news. Scotty had to be put down last night after a very brief illness. Apparently he was having some tummy troubles, then got colic, and the zoo staff determined he wouldn't make it and they put him to sleep. The whole city is in mourning today as we remember possibly the cutest elephant ever to exist on the planet, who brought smiles to the faces of everyone who ever saw him.

The girls are home!

Quincy and Monster are home! And they are awesome. They are very small still- so small that when I put them in their cage, they crawled right back out through the bars. They spent a large part of yesterday in a Rubbermaid tote (with bedding, water, food, and a baby hat to snuggle in) so they could not escape while we figured out what to do with their tiny selves. My wonderful grandfather and equally amazing uncle spent "like, three hours" attaching some mesh wire to the girls' cage, and covering up the parts where they ran out of wire, making their cage completely escape free- though it does look a bit like a tiny maximum security prison now. Quincy and Monster do not seem to mind, though, because it makes it easier for their tiny feet to climb around the cage (Quincy is the climber- Monster pretty much just runs around looking at everything with her face twitching, like she's some kind of addict.)

They are both very cute and sweet. Monster is mostly hairless right now, though- apparently because of some genetics, all her hair fell out. It should grow back in, and it will either stay forever, like her sister's, or it will fall out every once in a while throughout her life. Amanda asked if I still wanted to take her home because she is baldy. I said of course, I would not reject her just because she's a bit of a weirdo. She now fits her name in a different way, though. I mean, there's a mostly hairless, twitchy, red eyed baby rat running around in that cage. She kind of looks like a little baby monster. Quincy, on the other hand, has a lovely coat and is not a freak at all. She is more cuddly than her sister- completely content to sit on your lap and snuggle. Monster would rather explore. She's not unfriendly, just different. And they are both in a puppy-like nibbling stage, constantly biting fingers, trying to figure out if they're food. It doesn't hurt, though- I can barely feel it. Anyway, here are some pictures!

You say it was my birthday? Well, happy birthday to me. Yesterday.

So, yesterday was by birthday, and it was pretty fun.

We were going to go to the zoo, but it was rainy and windy when we woke up, and stayed windy and gray throughout the day, so we decided to stay home and hang out. We watched several episodes of House and had Burger King for lunch, which gave us each a stomach ache. But it was okay. I spent the afternoon cleaning the apartment, and Kelli came over later. We watched a movie and all three of us had Applebee's for dinner (Brandon spent the evening studying for his actuarial exam, reading a Star Wars book, and playing with Guinea Pig.) Before she went home for the evening, Kelli and I watched last week's episode of Glee (she won't watch it if I don't make her.) She also got me some really awesome birthday presents, including the Glee: Power of Madonna cd, and a gift card so I can go buy more hairbows from Claire's. So that's what I'm going to do this morning. I'm going to do some shopping, courtesy of my birthday gift cards. First it's Target, to buy some sandals and a Hello Kitty backpack (backpacks are very handy and the one I was using for school fell apart, so I had to throw it away.) Then I have to go to PetSmart and get some lab blocks for the rats, because Quincy and Monster are coming home this afternoon! I'm so excited! And after I get their food, I'll head to the mall, do a little shopping, and probably get myself Chik-Fil-A for lunch, because you can't go wrong with Chik-Fil-A. Really. It's so delicious.

I'm looking forward to another good day today- hopefully it will live up to my expectations. It's just sad that I can't stay home from work tonight to play with my new pets. Oh well. At least I'll only be gone for 4.5 hours.

Happy Mother's Day!

Today is Mother's Day. Have I told you how much I love and appreciate my mom? Well, I do. I have been acutely aware of this especially over the past six months. She has been helpful and been there every time I needed her as I've been dealing with moving out and getting married. I miss her lots. She is an amazing mom and I hope she has a great day- even though her back still hurts!

Here comes the rain again...

Today was long and uneventful. Brandon and I were going to go to the zoo, but for some reason I thought it was going to rain, so we decided to go ahead and do some of my birthday shopping today (financially sponsored by myself, as Brandon doesn't get paid until a few days after my birthday, anyway). Of course, Quincy and Monster are my birthday presents, so we headed to PetSmart to get stuff for them. We got some treats and wood chews, a water bottle, a carrier, and one of those clear plastic balls that you can put your pet in so they can safely roam around the house. They didn't have everything we needed at PetSmart, so we stopped at Feeder's Supply on the way home (we live right behind it, so it wasn't much of a trip). There we got a plastic exercise wheel and a food bowl- and a brush for Guinea Pig. I'm not so sure why a guinea pig needs her own hairbrush- especially one that is shaped and painted like a guinea pig. But she seems to enjoy it, and Brandon kind of wanted to get it, so it's okay.

Brandon was going to his parents' for dinner so he could play video games with his brother and cousin, so I headed to mom and dad's for dinner. There were no leftovers, sadly, but it was good nonetheless. We also watched a movie (The Proposal, more enjoyable than I thought it was going to be but not Oscar-worthy, either...) And now I am back home, hanging out by myself, waiting for my crops to be ready on FarmVille. Oh yeah. Fun times. I really miss cable television sometimes...though when I do have access to it, I usually find that there's nothing on worth watching, that I haven't already watched online. Hmm.

Tomorrow is work (ew) and Sunday is Mother's Day-slash-birthday dinner. I am positive I will have more to say then.

Introducing.........

Monster, and....

Quincy!

Sorry their debut is so blurry. Hopefully next week they will be a little less camera shy. Amanda the Rat Girl says that they should be able to come home in about two weeks, if not a little sooner (depending on how well they take to solid food, which they start this week)!

Not so immediate care.

Today has been interesting, for lack of a better word.

My poor mom hurt her back a few weeks ago, and it has been getting worse over the last few days, for some reason. So I had to take her to the doctor today. Except the doctor would not answer the phone for like an hour, and when someone finally did, they put mom on hold for ten minutes and hung up on her. So we wound up going to immediate care, but as soon as we were getting ready to leave, all the meds my mom's taken for her back decided to greatly upset her tummy. And then it took a very long time at the doctor's office, and while they did give her pain meds and something for her tummy (and a note saying she doesn't have to go to work for a few days), they never told her what was wrong.

We ended up coming back to the apartment for a little while, since I live right behind the immediate care (really- I can look out my bedroom window and watch the ambulances who pull up the back of the building. Like they did this morning) and her tummy was still upset. And I just took her home.

This day has been quite a bit different than the one I imagined. I was going to do housework all day, and go to work at 4:30. I still have to work, but I just loaded the dishwasher and called it a day. I'm off tomorrow so I will clean house then.

A very merry unbirthday to me

Today was Derby day, which basically meant we had dinner at Mammaw's and I got presents. That was pretty cool. It was nice to have a dinner that didn't come from a box in the freezer, and I really like my presents. Of course I got the stuff Mammaw took me to pick out last week- a very pretty dress and new shoes, and a purse from uncle Brian (which I also picked out.) I plan on wearing the dress to basically every wedding I have to go to this summer (there are five of them). And my aunt, cousin, and her husband got me some nice smelling bath stuff and LADY GAGA LIPSTICK. ^_^ I'm ecstatic. See, there's a makeup company called MAC, which is really cool. They have a special line of lipsticks that they name after celebrities (who appear in the ad campaigns) and 100% of the proceeds from these lipsticks go to AIDS research and helping people who have been diagnosed with the disease. Recently, they came out with a shade that they named after Lady Gaga, who is one of my favorite people in the world. It's a really sweet pink color and I'm proud to wear it with my giant hairbows and awesome sunglasses (I draw the line at bleaching my hair platinum blonde). As soon as I got home, I put some on. I'm excited about it. I'm even saving the box because it has a really cool sparkly laser printing of Lady Gaga's signature on it.

Sorry I just wrote a paragraph about lipstick.

Anyway, a cool jockey won the Derby, and one of my horses I picked at work came in second place, so that means on Monday I get three bucks. Not too bad. All in all it's been a pretty good weekend so far- I've been off since Thursday, there hasn't been too much housework to do, and I think Brandon and I are gonna stay home and watch movies after church tomorrow, which sounds cool. I haven't heard from Amanda the rat-seller in the past few days, so I sadly do not have any pics to post of my babies yet, but if I don't hear from her tomorrow, I will email her on Monday.