+ Sleeping in.

+ Bye Bye Birdie, presented by the Orland Park Theatre Troupe. I'm not the biggest fan of the music, in fact, I disliked some of it. And it wasn't just because lovely00lia said she hates it. Some of it was annoying. Like that stupid jingle. "We love you Conrad, and will be true" I never want to hear that again. Plus, one of the girls kept trying for high notes she can't hit. But I liked the story & I liked the character of Rosie a lot. She had gumption. I like gumption.
--> Also, I just need to write a short paper along these lines to get extra credit

+ After the play I showed Kayla around Trinity (where I'm going in the fall) because we were only 5 minutes away. She said it seems so big in comparison to Olivet, which I do not believe because Trinity is miniscule and Olivet has many more students than we do. Whatever. I couldn't go in most of the buildings because they were closed, being 1600 on a Sunday. I wish I could have gone in the library! It's so pretty in there. But yeah, I love Trinity so much. It's beautiful.

+ McDonald's after that. Who else loves that they brought back the $1 large drink? Because I know I do.

+ Quiet house, for about an hour. Doesn't happen to often. I'll take what I can get.

+ Talking to lovely00lia & roryappletarts about Wrock, Jonas Brothers, & other awesome things.

+ Talking to roryappletarts about love, Love or Something Like It (Jordyn's going to send you the book so far!! Eee!), and a lot of other stuff. Thanks Hil.
--> And her getting me to download the new Ministry of Magic cd! And me getting her to download their Triwizard LP which has my 2 favorite songs on it.

+ Talking to girljordyn about Love or Something Like It (LOLSI). And then her asking for my input on where I would like to see the story go. And her hinting that my new ship *might* happen soon.

+ Talking to rose_sparrow about...well, everything. How we're both going crazy & all the crazy stuff that happens to us. Love. Love (or something like it), school, not sleeping, friends, facebook, twitter, books, etc etc etc. Case, I've missed you so much lately. Like, I think you may have been tied with that other person I've been missing we talked about. I'm glad you're back.

+ Seeing that the exams on iCampus are mostly fixed now. Which helps with the stress levels.

+ I has tortilla chips

+ Hey look, I'm making a real entry today. You all should like that. I haven't gotten the best feedback on all my really short obscure (sometimes morbid) posts lately. Well, y'know what? Deal with it. They're not going away completely. I like them better than me just rambling on like this. Because yes, I do ramble. And I know you guys don't care about all of this. And most of you don't even read this far, do you? Plus, talking about my life makes me feel really self-centered and I hate that. So I'm going to keep posting those, because I like them, I think they have more meaning that this kind of post, and they help with my novel sometimes.

+ It's nice enough out right now that I had no qualms about going outside to get to the garage to get a Gatorade out of my car. Also, I'm drinking one a day now, at first to stave off dehydration & keep my electrolytes high enough (they get low really easy), but I also think that maybe now I'm addicted. Haha.

Things to have open when writing
+ TextEdit: main manuscript
+ TextEdit: outline/notes/ideas
+ WordCount (to show me how my "progress" really isn't much & therefore I should keep going)
+ Safari - research purposes ONLY. When search is over, CLOSE IMMEDIATELY

Things to NOT have open when writing
+ Safari: Email
+ Safari: Twitter
+ Tweetie
+ Safari: Facebook
+ Dailybooth
+ Livejournal: Update
+ Livejournal: Friends Page
+ iTunes: playlists
+ any movies
+ any tv show
+ Solitaire
+ MSN (any at all)
+ ANYTHING other than listed in first list

(I did my real blogging here today)

I made myself a deal earlier: if I wrote a full chapter of CT, I could read the rest of The Higher Power of Lucky...buuuuut I kept opening tweetie, email, LJ, etc. And now I'm watching Castle. After this I have to work on my bio for Italian class. I'm very close to writing a chapter's worth (I bent the rule, I didn't write a new chapter, I finished two that weren't done), only about 400 words off, but even if I finish that tonight (which I better), I won't have time to finish the entire book. I learned my lesson today...but I'll probably do the same thing again tomorrow.

Today instead of rambling in an LJ post, I decided to ramble in a vlog instead. So here ya go.

For a less rambly post, go here.

+ Could NOT get out of bed this morning. I think I reset my alarm 3 times and managed to get up at the last second possible. And I was braindead all through Italian. Second half was better because I had caffeine, but still, it was bad. Also no Lupe.

+ When I got home I got right into the van as my mother & Renee & I were all helping The Witch move today! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYY We had taken out most of the seats in the van, leaving only room for the four of us, and we fit as much in there as possible. So we drove the 90 minutes there and went to the landlady's house to get the keys. Then we drove to the apartment building and started unloading everything! Btw her apartment building is this beautiful old victorian house built in the 1880s. And omg there are so many stairs it is ridiculous. I think my grandma will end up planning big trips where she does everything at once because otherwise she'd have to go up & down all day.
We then went to Culver's for dinner. Yummy butter burgers :D Sara, my cousin, met us there too because she wanted to help with the move. She's awesome like that. After we finish eating we go to my Aunt Sally's house to return the garage door opener we accidentally kept after last weekend. She was very surprised to see me at the front door, haha.
A trip to the storage centre and we filled up the van a second time, and also Sara's car! I ended up riding with Sara to the apartment while my mom dropped off The Witch at her sister's house. I had to hold this really big fake bronze urn thingy that is about half my size. We kinda wanted someone to give us weird looks or ask us about it so we could say "It's our grandmother, she was a very big woman. We chose this urn with the spout because she wants to be dumped in the river and we thought it would be easier this way" but alas, no one noticed. Silly Rockfordians.
We loaded all that into the apartment & since The Witch wasn't with us, and her landlord would be over to look at the radiator in the morning...we decided that some of her really weird things needed to be put out for him to see. Like the collection of fake antiques (of which the urn was a part of, even though it still had a price tag), some stuffed raccoons, a neon light-up Route 66 clock, a gigantic portrait of Jesus, and a Christmas wreath. She's an odd one, my grandmother.
Then we drove home and made really good time but it felt like twice as long as usual. I have no idea why.

+ I finished The Boy Next Door and I will review it soon & talk about it next Tuesday on nerdsomewriters :D

+ What is this, show off your baby pictures week? Maureen did on her show, Lauren did in her video, & Mike did earlier tonight. There's someone else, but I forget who. Not that I mind though, they were all very cute children. I don't have any secret baby photos. My sister already uploaded them all to facebook so there's really nothing new to show you, haha.

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE. I hope it was splendiferous!

+ I saw the Hannah Montana movie with Sara & my sisters last night. It was pretty good! Don't give me that look. I love HM okay? And the music was great, you can be sure that I will be downloading the soundtrack very soon. Also: Sara & I are determined to learn the dance. I kind of already wanted to, but now I MUST. The cowboy was very cute and I loved him. I like cowboys & I really have no idea why. I blame Sam, honestly. (Don't get me wrong though, I'm not obsessed. I love guitarists far more) And even though the plot could be shaky at times & I think Miley is kind of a bad friend to Lilly in it (and to Trevor) at some points, the music was fabulous. Overall I liked it. Sara & I walked out of there dancing, so that's pretty good.

+ I love my family. I even got to see Grandma* at the end! She couldn't make the actual party because she was going to spend the holiday with her daughter (who no longer comes to our parties ever, how sad) and we didn't expect her at all. But after some had left, in comes Grandma! yaaaay! She gave me her email now, so I can message her sometimes. :D It was also great to see my cousins again!

+ Go here for my sad post. I'm not like completely torn up about this or anything, but I don't think it'll ever stop bothering me. I may forget from time to time, but then all of a sudden I'll be like "I miss Ash." The worst part is, I think I could still get ahold of her if I really tried to, but I feel like it's too late.

+ I miss helping out my friends. I just think that you all found better people to share your problems with. I KNOW this is the case for some of you, so don't lie to me. No one tells me anything anymore and no one asks for help. I'm really glad that one of my friends did tonight & I feel like I helped some too. I hope so at least.

+ I need to work on my self-portrait assignment for psychology tomorrow. Also: TOMORROW LIA WRITES US A POEM. YAY THEME WEEKS.

Wedding countdown: 5 days. Wondering if I can get out of wearing makeup...

*My mom's stepmom. Not to be confused with That Witch What Lives Downstairs.

^ My fave dedication evah. See Jordyn for more info.

Blog is up here! I talk about dedications, acknowledgement pages, & my opportunity to do some copyedit work.

I worked for a long time today, right up til close pretty much. Picked up 2 Naruto & the new Battle for the Cowl. And dudes, my canon is screwed up and it's all Mike's fault. He got me to start watching Tim Wayne on Twitter. And then Damian Wayne. And then Superboy...Nightwing...Todd...etc etc. And that fanon has replaced canon in my head. I was reading Battle for the Cowl just now & I mixed them up in my head. ...kinda don't mind, haha. It's not my fault these twitterer people are so great at this thing. I want to meet at least one of them & tell them this.

I work up super sore today. Stupid workout. Skipped first class to soak in a hot shower. In my defense it was review day.

Okay...boys are stupid. I'll just keep reminding you all of this. If I told you about The Guy With the Arms, you'll know he's just someone I like to stare at (gosh I'm so freaking shallow) & don't really have feelings for, so know that this isn't anger or whatever. But okay, I'm there, I think he's a good guy and who does he talk to? Trisha. Trisha, the lady who is about 10 years older than him, has a boyfriend (or finacee? I'm not sure), and has children. He surely must have heard her telling me about her Easter plans with her kids! I know this boy, he is not mature enough for something like that! And he's all shy & cute when he's talking to her. It's just not fair or logical! I don't want to date him...but uh...um...I'm just going to stop typing before I say something stupid. He has sexy arms, is immature, and picks the wrong girls. Let's just leave it there.
On that note, I love my love. He may not have those arms, but he sure has more going for him.

I wanted an alliteration.

+ School. School was fun, we talked about all different kinds of Italian foods. I can now say "I am allergic to..." many different things in Italian. Like "Io sono allergico a mento" is "I am allergic to mint."

+ Shopping. My mom got one of those scratch-off Kohl's coupons right? And hers was for 30%, so off to Kohl's we go! Kayla & I that is. I had to get a strapless bra for the wedding and then I decided to get a new swimsuit then too because I should really take advantage of the discount while it's around. I also got a really cute punk rock-esque vest. It is pinstriped & will match my fedora. I'm weird, I know, deal with it. Anyway, swimsuit shopping is a nightmare, as is bra shopping (when they're strapless anyway), and you can refer to my BEDA post here about the swimsuit part at least.

+ I talked to Hilary on the phone today! It was awesome. :D We share a brain, btw. And we both are thinking about buying Spectacular! on DVD sometime. I'm going to first try to convince my mother to buy it for me for Easter instead of razors & candy & whatever weird small stuff she finds this year. I'd much rather have Nolan Gerard Funk.
--> Also, I sent Gaby the link to Spectacular! online and she & her friend AJ are going to watch it together over break, so I look forward to welcoming her to our group of addicts. I mean fans....no, I really meant addicts.

+ FM Static's CD is amazing. I'm not sure yet, but I may like it better than Critically Ashamed. All of the songs are fabulous. I really like "Man Watcha Doin?" because it's so catchy. And the fact that Tricia Brock sings the female part on "The Voyage of Beliefs" is extra awesome. Also, it sounds amazing, she has such a nice voice & it lends itself to this song very well.


EDIT: I started making Spectacular! icons. This is the first of those, there will be more, don't worry.

Go read my blog on why it is a bad idea to meet someone at the gym here or here. Same blog, two locations. Blame BEDA. I will warn you, it is a bit long, but it's also funny and you can read all the crazy things I wonder about & observe while I work out. Like Freckle Boy who may or may not have it his genes to be an athletic trainer. I like his great-great aunt, I think I'll call her Gladys, except that's not a very good fake Irish name.

MY FM STATIC "DEAR DIARY" CD SHOWED UP TODAY. EXCITING! It actually doesn't go on sale until tomorrow, but I got mine today! I am listening to it right now and it's weird because I know some of these songs already because of their MySpace. The neat thing about this cd is 1) It is a concept album and tells a clear story. 2) It comes with a free notebook (so cool!) and 3) the main character of the story has his own blog and all of the entries & pictures relate to the album. It's sort of like an interactive thing. It is a fabulous use of the internet, that's what it is. It was especially cool watching Aero's story unfold through his blog & tweets (yeah, he has a twitter too) in the weeks prior to release. It was an enticing sneak peek at what the album was going to be about. It was really fun at the very beginning when the guys of FM Static (who also tweet) started linking to the blog referring to "their friend Aero" & me trying to figure out if this was a real person or not. Real or fictional, I like him. The album is fabulous too. It's kind of funny how I only found this band about a year ago thanks to Last.FM and I immediately fell in love with them and HAD to find their album Critically Ashamed online somewhere and shortly after proclaimed them my favorite band. Which they are, by the way. ♥

Other great music I'm addicted to today is the Spectacular! soundtrack. I have discovered this is probably the best album to listen to while working out. I used to swear by LazyTown (no, seriously), but Spectacular! is by far the best. And I CANNOT stop singing/listening to "Break My Heart." It is my favorite song from the soundtrack this week. I freaking love that movie, so glad I found it online!! Even gladder that I got Hilary to finally watch it, because now she's just as crazy about it as I am and it's nice to share a love like that.

X-posted to The Maureen Johnson Ning & Typeset World

If you follow me on LiveJournal or Twitter (heck, I even ranted about this on my Triad of Dysfunction video), you'll know that today was supposed to be my day off of work. You'll also know that it wasn't, because I had to cover for one of the other girls. On top of this, it was possibly the worst day I've worked in a long time. However, I try my best not to dwell on the bad things in life and right now I'm doing pretty good. Earlier I was doing spectacular ;D

So, here is a list of things that can turn my day around:
+ Pizza. There is a great little pizza place near where I work that serves slices of pizza that are honestly bigger than my head and about an inch thick without having too much cheese. I'm lactose intolerant, but this was fine and the taste would have been worth the stomach ache anyway.

+ Good Movies with Good Music.
When I got home I had only planned on watching a few minutes of TV while I finished my lunch, and to my surprise, Spectacular! was on! This is one of my favorite movies with some of my favorite songs, so I was really happy. I don't know what it is about this movie, but I just can't be in a bad mood while watching it! Sadly, it was the end of the movie.
However...after a bit of searching, I was able to find the full movie online! This was doubly awesome because awhile back I had send the soundtrack to my friend (and fellow Nerdwriter) Hilary Apollo and got her hooked on the music. And now I was able to get her to watch the movie too! There were four of us Nerdwriters on at the same time, so we were all talking on MSN and for most of that time Hilary & I were watching Spectacular! and talking about it. It was so much fun!

Now I'm just finishing up watching Hairspray which is another great movie with great music! I've been dancing along. I really love Amanda Bynes in this movie, she's so darn cute and spunky!

My mother called me from the grocery store earlier and asked me what I wanted for dinner. I told her that I was fine with Kraft mac & cheese, but I wanted the shape kind because they taste better. I didn't tell her this, but she picked me out the Spider-Man kind, so that was pretty cool. My mother knows me so well, hehe. :)

So, in conclusions, things to make a bad day better:
+ Good Food
+ Good Friends
+ Good Films


Now I'm going to watch Bolt!

I seriously just made it in on time with this. I was watching the seconds tick down and saying "load load load load load!!"

So...I have work in the morning, my hair is in a towel on top of my head, and my sister is downstairs with her friend watching a movie. Y'know, downstairs, where I sleep. This will not work. And it's now midnight. So...I'm going to make this quick and go sleep in my mom's room.

Why my sisters fail at being considerate:
+ Playing movie in room where I sleep
+ Using me as a chauffeur service
+ Eating my pasta
+ Taking my shampoo to dad's house (how rude!)
+ This isn't today, but eating the ravioli I bought only moments before for myself!! grrr

You can read my blog here where I talk about how great modern communication is.

And also:

Go here & read my blog on Seventeen Magazine's age-appropriate sex articles

Yeah, this didn't get up when it was supposed to on LJ. Everywhere else though. Weird. Yaaaay backdate!

Gonna make this quick because I need to take a shower still.

+ BEDA. Go here and read me talk about how copyeditors are the bomb. And why you need us. I HAVE LASTED TWO WHOLE DAYS ZOMG.

+ Dentist. Okay, so the doctor wasn't in but as far as we all know, my teeth are prefect. Except for the one spot we've been watching for about 7 or 8 years now. It never gets bigger either. So, happy about that! My teeth are all clean now, but feel weird. And I love my hygienist, she's the best. I think I could easily get along with her outside of the office.

+ Chiropractor after work. I've been in a lot of pain lately and man did I take a beating tonight. That was the most work he'd ever done on me & all these different things. I think I had more wires connected to me than when I got an EKG! It was ridiculous, but whatev, so long as it helps in the long run. My problems this week are chostochodritis, intercostal neuritis, and some problems with my sciatic nerve. And arthritis stuff too. Oh, it's great to be me. Except not always.
Being me did however get me the award of "Most health problems of anyone that Lia knows" and "More health issues than Toni" so...I can feel accomplished? idk. Toni did make an awesome Spider-Man NerdNote for me, so I feel special.

+ School & work tomorrow, funeral to follow. Eh, I might survive tomorrow. Until Sunday night though? Doubtful. I think if I started writing now, I could maybe be one of the few people in history to write their own eulogy without it being a suicide note. Go me?