best week ever

so guess who's having the best week ever? that would most definitely be me!

this week:
sun: christmas!! (that one's pretty self-explanatory)
mon: i went on a date with an extremely nice guy (that's right folks, a date.. i'm particularly happy about this)
tue: pretty laid back, nothing exciting there
wed: went out to dinner in wilkes-barre with my ENTIRE family.. all 6 of us (which is quite an entertaining experience).. then out for coffee with my sisters
thursday: probably not much today, packing mostly because...
friday: i'm leaving for tennessee!!!!!!! a 10 hour drive.. yessss!!!
saturday: my ass is going to be somewhere in the middle of the smoky mountains with jenna and the rest of the night in knoxville. i can't think of a better way to end the year!

thank you 2005.. you were a good one

happy easter!

so christmas is going wonderfully! i'm loving my new ipod, everyone's enjoying their gifts, lots of movies have been watched in the living room.. all 6 of us together.. it's nice. tonight's steak and twice baked potatoes, earlier we had clam chowder.. it was delicious, yesterday was nik's bday.. overall a lovely weekend.

after talking to bryan the other day i was contemplating going to lancaster for some reunion thingy, but i think i'm just going to chill at home. my dad's leaving in a couple weeks, and with me being gone for new years, i think we're doing more family togetherness stuff. plus i've got a ton of errands and stuff that i've been putting off.. like an oil change among other things, seeing as how i won't have another day off at home for awhile.

so that's about it.. my dad wants to show me how to grill a perfect steak.

later

it's official

i officially have off 12/30-1/2.. at which time i will be in TENNESSEE visiting jenna!!

i'm quite excited! :-D

clients (think they) know best

i HATE when clients think they're designers...

'hmm.. i think we need some more drop shadows, and maybe some different glow effects on the text, and make it look kind of embossed, with some gradients or something.. but keep it clean and simple'

riiiiiiiight...

*sigh*

i love massachusetts. someday i will live there.

this weekend was SO quick! it makes me realize how much i miss my grandparents. the weekend was a bit overly dramatic, due to various issues and relations, but the drive was worth it.

i think i love driving almost as much as i love massachusetts.

EDIT: also, nikki (my youngest sister) has mono and viral hepatitis and is in pretty bad shape. really really weak, just super sick. so if any of you guys pray at all, if you could say a few for her, that'd be kinda nice. her bday is xmas eve and she's going to be sick through her bday and christmas and probably new years so we're just trying to keep her cheered up and trying to keep her comfy. i gave her her presents early and she was too weak to even open the box. poor nik-the-nak. :-( she's my little buddy.

Attaché

if anyone's interested, you can see the two ads i made in this month's issue of Attaché for USAirways.

go here and download the PDF. My ads are on page three. i really wish they would have placed the wilkes-barre ad underneath the hazleton ad, but oh well.. i'm just excited it was printed!

that's it for now

you are over 18, aren't you?

conversation with the grouchy old cashier at walmart as i was purchasing cold medicine (which included 1 bottle of day-quil, 1 box of advil cold & sinus, and cough drops)

me: coughing
grouchy lady: (stops mid-scan and stares at me) you are over 18, aren't you?
me: (a little surprised) uh, yeah, do you need my id?
grouchy lady: yes. (very short and rude-like)
me: cough some more, hand her my id
grouchy lady: (peers over glasses, studies my id, peers over glasses again) that's an awful lot of cold medicine
me: (cough again) yeah, i have a cold
grouchy lady: i would say so!

...hmm. maybe i should've told her about the meth-lab down in my basement..

no cookies this week

i'm sick this week, coming down with some cough-sinus thing. which means cookie making is going to be delayed til next week, early next week though, but they'll get sent out, i promise.

hieee

my favorite phone call of the day:

*phone rings*

me: good afternoon, precision design

girl: hiee, i'm like, graduation soon like, from the college of misrecordia? (<-- indicates raise in vocal intonation) and like, i was wondering? will you guys be hiring soon?

me: not that i'm aware of, what position are you looking for?

girl: well, like, i'm looking for something in like, marketing or advertising?

me: well, i really don't think we're hiring right now, but if you'd like i can give your information to my boss and if we are he'll let you know.

girl: really? that would be great!

me: ok, thank you, have a nice day.

i think it was the 'hieeee' that did me in.

life in the left lane is so much better

so... this weekend my dad and i are going to massachusetts for a night!!

we're leaving early saturday morning and coming home sunday afternoon. i won't have time to go into the city or anything, we're just going up to see my grandparents and aunts and uncles, i guess for a christmas get-together. i'm REALLY excited! especially since i don't get to see my dad much, it'll be fun taking a road trip with him!

also, i'm going to be visiting jenna in tennessee for new years. hopefully anyway, i have to talk to my boss to try and get the friday before off and i have that monday off, so i can drive up friday, be there for the weekend and come home monday.

yay! i LOVE LOVE LOVE travelling!!!

SNOW DAY

My boss just called, said the roads around hazleton are a mess and to just stay home. maybe stay an hour or two late here and there to make it up. which means...

i get to stay home and play in the snow ALL day and get PAID for it!!

this is WAY better than any school snow day. WAY better!

!SNOW!

It's going to snow tonight! i've heard everything from 2-4" to 6-12". According to Helen's arthritis we should be getting a decent amount. I'm hoping for 8". That sounds like a good round number. I'm hoping it will be enough that I won't have to go in to work, or at the very least go in late. I'll have to see the roads in the morning and call Dave. I'm thinking if it's less than 5" I'll be going in, maybe a little late. Either way, i'm thinking there's going to be some serious sledding!! Even if I have to wait til after work to do so!

i love snow

merry christmas charlie brown

It's that time of year again!

Time for Christmas specials on TV. Here's the lineup of my favorites: (some of the titles may not be exact. my apologies)

Tonight (8pm): Merry Christmas Charlie Brown; ABC
Wednesday 12/7 (7pm): Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer; ABC Family
Saturday 12/10 (8:30): Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas (animated version); ABC
Saturday 12/10 (8pm): It's a Wonderful Life; (NBC) -It think i'll be watching the grinch instead though
Monday 12/19 (6pm): Santa Clause is Coming to Town; ABC Family

Now it's time for hot chocolate with sprinkles and a candy cane. all i need is a gingerbread man and i'd be all set!

les bouteilles

i thought this was a neat site, i wish i had known about it at kutztown, i think i could have had fun with that

15 minutes of fame

i guess last night on WBRE there was a news spot about Attaché magazine and how it featured Northeast PA this month. In this segment they zoomed in on the cover then taped one spread of the magazine.. which happened to be the spread that had my two ads on it!! (which was the only spread they taped i guess.. yay!) :-D Dave called them and is getting copies made and i'm trying to get a hold of the actual magazine itself. this makes me very excited!

also.. i convinced mike and dave to take the time to reformat my computer.. seeing as how my computer's been freezing and crashing and all of my microsoft programs pretty much died, and every time i pdf something none of my clients can open it.. also, it doesn't help that for some reason my computer is missing all the system fonts.. hmm.. (my boss was like 'oh, well you don't need those to design so it's ok' mm.. no, the system actually NEEDS those fonts to run the programs.. hence they're the system fonts which is probably why everything's crashing and burning -as in my microsoft stuff, my web browsers, my calendar, etc. etc. so after much persistence i got my way! and now i'm going to have OSX Tiger! (i had OSX10.2 before)

financially, i'm a mess.. i've even played around with the idea of a part time job on the weekends. i guess mike's not quitting now, so i don't know if i'll be able to get a raise or not. i'm going to ask in january though, and be very persistent come spring. i really need to make more money, i don't even have enough for rent (and i'm living at home, so i don't even pay rent, but at some point, preferrably sooner than later, i WOULD like to move out). i've taken on most of his work load anyway, since we were all expecting him to leave. i have a 32 page book in the works, a 12 page newsletter, an e-mail newsletter, an 80-page book (that i haven't gotten a chance to really work on yet) as well as about 40 ads that go in it, a promotional mailer, and designing a web page from scratch (which aside from interactive I i haven't had to really do that.. at least not as in-depth as this will be)-all of this due sometime in january, (though i think the 80-pager won't be done til feb/early march, and i'm printing about 175 each of 27 maps to be bound into map-booklets, as well as oodles of map updates and little maintenance-type stuff. i'm not complaining, i love the work and being busy, i couldn't ask for a better job, it's a great experience, i just wish i were getting paid a bit more for it. so i guess that is complaining a bit. sorry. that's what journals are for i guess, so i'm over it.

so anyway, cookies will be made for christmas, i'm thinking i will be baking this weekend and mailing cookies out this week sometime? i might wind up cutting it close to christmas, baking the 17th/18th and mailing them out that monday, but there will be cookies to people by christmas.. so if some people will be home, i'll need home addresses. if not, i will send them to current addresses, they last a couple weeks, so they should be fine. we'll see.

i just spent the last hour having a mini breakdown about my bills, so now it's time to relax, make some hot chocolate, and read. i've been watching WAY too much tv lately.

also, i ran 2 miles today! yay.

a little drive'll do ya

i'm back from DE. i am so beat. the drive tonight was good, but it sure did wipe me out. i'm ready for bed and it's only 7. i could really go for pjs, some knitting, and tv.. maybe something from the discovery channel, or a cooking show, something basic. relaxation. sounds sooooo good.

i enjoy the way the colors stand out on this background.

d-d-d-dela-where?

i'm headed out to visit my good 'ol buddy john seyler. a friend from freshman year who was obsessed with jade (my roomate at the time) and used to drive me INSANE! he did everything he could to annoy me, from smushing a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in my sheets because i was too busy pulling a late night working on a project for rhonda to pay attention to him, to stealing my deoderant, to wrecking my art projects. he was seriously the only person in the whole 4 years at KU who i was ever genuinely angry with, yet i'm still friends with him. i'm a sucker. what can i say. i am excited though, it will be a weekend with no sisters, no hormonal fits, no upset boyfriends.. i can't wait!

i think i'm looking more forward to the drive than the actual visit though.
mmmm. i love driving. that's 3 hours of driving tomorrow morning (probalby more cus i'm sure i'll get lost) then another 3 hours back on sunday.. i best get burnin' some CDs!!

yay.

you can just call me The Mediator

so thinks are ok. not good, but ok (well, i'm good, i'm mostly speaking for the rest of my fam, or some of them)

talked to my sis and her ex last night. things are ok. the storm has settled. the storm was really mostly with my mom, that has yet to be dealt with, but at least the other two are good.

so that's starting my day off on a less stressful note.

also, i lost 2 pounds. yay!

time to get ready for work

beeswax. people need to mind their own.

WARNING this is a venting post

so, as per usual, it's drama central at the schena household. i guess that's inevitable when you live with three other women (4 when morgan's home).

as previously mentioned, relationship dramas abound. unfortunately, my mother likes to take small things and twist them around into very large insane dramatic tragedies. my sister and i told my mother about the guys we met when we were out drinking last week (because, as is accustomed when drinking, members of the opposite sex like to flirt, purchase drinks, etc. it makes for fun times) and one guy in particular took a shine to my sister (who tried to hook him up with me, which failed of course) and he bought us some drinks, schmoozed, nothing unusual. my sister was a bit ecstatic about the attention. it happens regularly at the bar, but i guess when out with girlfriends, these things are more fun and celebrated. this past weekend my sister also happened to break up with her bf of 3 years.. due to MANY reasons.. mainly the fact that she's graduating, not sure where her life is going, and is not ready for marriage and the like.. she just wants a break.. fully understandable. of course my mom makes it out like she wants this guy from the bar and is sex crazed or something he's sex crazed or something along those lines (which if you knew my sister, you'd know that's not true) and is somehow convinced that my sister broke up with her bf of 3 years.. who she still deeply cares about, to specifically go out with this guy she doesn't even know.

and of course my mom went on and on to my sister's now ex about this 'situation' she's created which made me mad (it's no one's business but my sister's.. she should not be butting in, it's one thing to console him and listen but another to make shit up and exaggerate (which my mom happens to be an expert at) so i said as much and called my sister to giver her a head's up that her now ex is going to probably call and probably be severely upset.. and of course.. drama crying and craziness ensue and i am left to mediate. oh fun. i think i really got myself into a mess on this one.

glad i'm off to delaware this weekend! if i'm still alive that is..


also. i am off to giant to purchase healthy foods such as vegetables and fruits. i'm trying to make myself healthier and more physically fit. i'm thinking maybe if i start my new year's resolution before new year's i might keep it up a little better?? maybe? we'll see. i also have a $10 off purchase coupon for giant. i love coupons.

feliz navidad.. and all that jazz

happy holidays everyone! unfortunately, quite a few people are having unhappy holidays. i find a lot of people are breaking up this time of year. it’s rather distressing. being ridiculously single, i’ve never experienced a breakup, but from all the crying i’ve witnessed, i’m sure they’re no picnic. these are the times i'm glad i don’t have a significant other. makes life SO much simpler!

so obviously, i’ve jumped the blogspot bandwagon. i actually joined back in october, but never actually got around to putting anything substantial in here (hence the last post). i more than likely will not put anything substantial in here. maybe i’ll just vent. or tell lame jokes. or recount pointless observations. who knows.

anywho. so far i am thoroughly enjoying the christmas season! my dad is home and sunday we all went to get the tree.. all 6 of us. it was quite the adventure! then i helped my dad get the lights around it. that was a sight. i’d have to say this year's tree is perfection. maybe i’ll get a picture of it and put it on. it's the best smelling tree we’ve ever had. yesterday i helped my dad wrap gifts for my mom. it’s cute. he gets so excited about the gifts he buys. this year he bought her a whole bunch of smaller gifts.. one gift was a regular bottle of oil of olay lotion you’d get at the grocery store. he was SO excited about it. he thought it was the coolest thing ever. it made me chuckle. then he went to get a box to wrap it in and brought out this beat up nasty box that had holes in it and was all chewed up. i tried to explain that that wouldn’t work. he was stubborn, but in the end and made him go find a shoebox. it was cute.

my parents are getting along SOOO well! usually by this time they’re at each other’s throats, but this year they’re getting along so wonderfully! every so often they’ll just randomly hug each other, like while they’re in the middle of talking about bills. again, it’s cute.

my dad will be going to nebraska to work for a year starting in january. my boss already approved me taking a week off this summer to visit him. he’ll be in omaha, so i may be swinging by kansas city to say hi. my dad says it’s not all that far away.

i'm going to go read for a bit, or draw, or knit, make some hot chocolate with a candycane… who knows

it’s raining outside and it sounds wonderful.

BOO! did i scare you?

I don’t know what it is about scary movies that I love so much. I never find them that scary. I may jump at points, but when it’s all said and done, I'm not scared. Yet I just love scary movies. Not so much the newer generations of scary movies, but the old school variety. Omen I and II, Rosemary’s Baby, Night of the Living Dead, the Birds among others. I like cheesy/semi-gory movies too. The original Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Freddy Krueger, Sleepaway Camp, Child’s Play, Children of the Corn. They’re all good. It’s like my cheap thrill, my guilty pleasure. Reading trashy horror fiction is just as satisfying. Dean Koontz, John Saul, Stephen King, Poppy Brite. It’s my addiction. That and travelling. Give me a scary movie and a full tank of gas and I’ll be your best friend forever.