Forever 21

One of my friends and I recently took a trip (on my 28th birthday) to the new Forever 21 at the Tacoma Mall. It literally blew my mind. Not sure if it was in a good way, or what. The store is a ginormous 106,000 square feet and occupies what used to be the old Nordstrom's. Not sure how they managed to fill 106,000 square feet with sweat shop goods, but the store was chock full of clothes and accessories. I think we spent a grand total of 15 minutes in the place and only managed to peruse the accessories area. I remember when Forever 21 was brand new and all the rage. We'd have to make an extra special trip all the way to Lynnwood to go to it. Now they seem to be everywhere. Some of their stuff is cute, and some you'd probably only see on a cracked out hooker. We did spy some ladies in there who should be shopping at Forever 61, not 21. I guess one things for sure, the place makes for some good people watching. Funny how things change when you grow up. But it did seem like yesterday that Jenn and I were there picking out my outfit for my 21 run. Oh the memories!

I giant bedazzled heart Coffee!!!

Somedays, like today especially, life is crazy. Life in general, and especially work. But now I have a Peppermint Mocha from Starbucks, and I am HAPPY. Well, honestly I will be much happier when I get to go home at 2am. But for not the mocha, and cracking jokes about Char's mom will tide me over!

Technologically Challenged

I finally had to break down and get a new cell phone. My old phone had "bit the bullet". Probably had nothing to do with the fact that I talk on it a lot, drop it often and leave it on the charger for too long. Anyways I picked out a phone that the sales guy said would work well for all the things I used my phone for, and considering the "usage" (I took that to mean he thinks I talk alot...He may be right)

The phone looked pretty nifty. I brought it home, read the users manual- which normally I don't do because I just like to figure it out on my own. However, since I couldn't even figure out how to open it to use the "qwerty" keyboard I figured I might want to do some instructional reading. So I read, and then proceeded to try and download some ring tones on my phone. I was already lost. I even called the Verizon help number and the lady there couldn't help me either. I muddled through and wound up figuring it out. I thought I was good to go. I downloaded some ring tones and set them to my contacts. Things were looking up! That is, until it came to actually using the phone to make phone calls....

The "Glyde" is one of those touch screen phones, which seems like it would be easy enough. But, the problem is when you are talking to someone if you hold it between your ear and your shoulder you wind up unlocking the touch screen which results either in a) hanging up on your caller, b) dialing other people's numbers unkowingly while on your original call or c) both a & b combined.

I figured I would give myself a few days to get accustomed to it. But yea, not so much. Today while I was talking to Mark I hung up on him (oh, probably for the 10th time since I have had the phone). But since he was working directing traffic at an intersection at the Puyallup Fair I thought "Oh, he probably had to stop someone, so he hung up on me." I didn't think anything of it until I got to work, and the first message he sends me says "get a new phone"....

I think he may be on to something. I'm not sure this girl is ready for the fancy touch screen phone. So tomorrow, I will shame-facedly go and return it for a less challenging phone. I bet the guys at the Verizon store will make fun of me after I leave, cause I'm pretty sure there are a bunch of pre-teens out there who can operate that bad boy like a champ....But maybe, just maybe there are others out there who are as technologically challenged as myself....A girl can only hope!

I'm officially a pushover

I am a huge animal fan. Not so much a cat fan however, until today. I already have a Pug named Tiny, who is pretty much all I can handle. She is an attention-monger, a complete ball/toy obsessed, shedding fur child, and I love her to death! I never thought I would get another pet since working all the hours I have been working lately don't really give me a lot of time to devote attention to my little pet....

Well, that is until today. Mark rescued a little kitten during an arrest on his shift. He called me and said "I'm bringing you a cute, cuddly, furry friend" and I was like, "No way buddy! Tiny is all I can handle!" At least that's what I kept telling myself before I came into work and saw the little furball.

I have been going back and forth in my mind all night at work, "I don't have time, I don't want to clean a litterbox, my condo is nice and new- where on earth would I stick the litterbox" etc etc. At one point the "No way buddy!" mentality that I had started out with was SO winning. Well, then one of my co-workers (who used to be a janitor for the city) said, "You know they kill off cats at the city animal shelter. I saw all the frozen ones they kept in the freezer". Yea, apparently they freeze them until there are enough to take to be cremated. And, for as much as I don't really adore cats, don't want to clean a litterbox, and don't want a litterbox cluttering up my cute little condo....I absolutely cannot let this little girl go to the animal shelter and risk being frozen/cremated.

Plus, I think we have already bonded, maybe just a little bit. Currently the kitty is sleeping in a box at my work station. I have been playing with it and feeding it pieces of kitten food...Mark says he is coming over tomorrow with a litterbox and cat food...

Guess I need to find it a name and hope that Tiny can adapt to being a big sister instead of an only child.

Ahhhh sleep!!

I have been working a lot of hours as of late- usually five 12 hour shifts which really leaves very little time during the rest of your day to get anything productive done. Most people, when strapped for time, cut back on their hours of sleep. However, I have a *slight* issue with cutting back on my sleep hours. While I am not usually a grumpy person, and in fact, growing up, I was always told how cheerful and smiley I was. This trait has carried on into my adult life as well and most of the time you will find me with a smile on my face and a sort of "Pollyanna" attitude. That is, unless you have deprived me of my sleep...............

I think by now my good friends and my family all know that if I haven't slept enough, please don't bombard me with questions or be too super cheerful around me when I first wake up. Not that I am gonna bite anyone's head off or have daggers shoot out of my eyes- no, nothing crazy like that. Its just that when I first wake up I kind of want to be left alone.

This whole "left alone" thing is kind of a problem now that I sleep until it is time to get up, get ready and head back to work for another 12 hours. This method leaves little adjustment period for me to really fully wake up and shake off "the grumpies". Especially when you have to come to work and answer phone calls from crazy people. Like the one guy today, I picked up the phone and right away he called me a b-i-t-c-h. Whoa there buddy!

So, not gonna lie, this picture of Homer makes me a bit jealous of the glorious sleep he seems to be getting. However, should I ever start looking like Homer- please, you have the right to withhold food and force me to use my gym membership.