cold

So we're having a bit of a cold snap here in MN, and the furnace broke yesterday, and apparently the part to fix it cannot be obtained until tomorrow. It seems odd that a furnace can't be fixed on a Saturday, especially when it is as cold as it is. The landlord gave us a couple space heater, which, in our quite large apartment really doesn't warm up the place, I selfishly snatched one for my room last night though and my room was pretty toasty, and tonight I'm going to steal, I mean borrow a couple from work.

Our party was a smashing success, tons of people made an appearance (but not too many), we had lots of yummy food, nifty decorations, everyone was cool except for our neighbor who turned out to be creepy, people dressed up appropriately for the theme, Betsy and Kathleen arranged a sweet mix. Frankly I'm not confident that it can be topped, but I'm sure we'll try.

My affection for Lance continues to grow as I get to know him, he is super nice and very willing to help out which I very much appreciate, he's a good man.

sharing my random thoughts/irritations on nothing per usual

Perhaps I'd be better off living alone...our house looks nice though, we decorated for the party so almost everything of Lance's is put away. I will try to stop complaining/judging his aesthtic taste, I'm sure he thinks it neat and off-the-wall funky or whatever, and why wouldn't others like it? Olivia never liked my style when we lived together, so well, I guess it works all ways.
I have decided that post me hosting book club in a couple weeks, I'm going to stop cleaning common areas. Apparently it is thought by some in our home that Betsy and I are messier then some other's in our home so we deserve to clean more, hmmm, I rarely cook at home, if I do it is mac and cheese which doesn't require much mess-making, I always wash my own dishes, and often those of others, wipe down kitchen surfaces even if I didn't dirty them, even if I wiped them the night before, came home the next day without laying a finger on nary an item in the kitchen, and found the stove/counter to be dirty again I will -again- wipe it clean. I will stop sweeping, mopping and cleaning the bathrooms, etc. Sorry, I'm a bit pissed and venting, and I need to live by myself I think, ahhh, but it is so much cheaper to live with a roommate, with generally more space and amenities. I truly love my roommates, well, I don't quite know Lance well enough to feel very affectionate towards him at this point, but I do feel somewhat unappreciated at this very moment.

But I'm also MN nice so hell if I'll ever confront anybody...I mean it did take me a couple weeks to get up the nerve to be straight with Lance about not liking his masks. I do often prefer to go the passive aggressive route, hence instead of saying "I feel hurt/unnappreciated/exhausted when you say I should clean more than you even if my dead skin cells don't contribute to the dust/grime in the house any more than yours do, and I spend much of my limited spare time cleaning common areas while you sit on your duff" I will passively agressively stop cleaning any mess that I did not contribute to.

My instructor at school looked at my wedding cake ideas (we have to do a three tier wedding cake for our final project) and asked me if I'm a "dark" person. I'm not sure why, perhaps because in our lottery of cake shapes I chose heart shape and was sad until he offered up a hexagon shape which I eagerly grabbed, or because I want to use dark colors and patterns instead of something flowery. Who knows, I will say though that I feel most comfortable with this instructor more so than with any other teacher/professor, which is weird because the guy seems like he'd be super critical and is really hard to read because he doesn't have much for facial expression. Anyways, just thought I'd share I guess.

slowly but surely

We've been successfully eliminating Lance's decor from our walls, and with each piece that comes off the wall I feel a bit lighter. First, the shower curtain over the bathroom window, then the beach towel in the dining room, last night I asked if we could take down the craft fair masks, and he's like "oh sure, I just bought them at the dollar store, no big deal" (like just about everything else he buys) well, then why, for all that is good and right do you keep hanging this ahem, crap on the wall as if hanging random crap is in good taste. Although I feel much better then I did yesterday about the state of our home there is still issues to be addressed, like the weird cartooney/computer drawn animal calendar that he hung in the living room the other night, then asked Betsy and I "did you see that I hung a calendar" to which he received a probably look of distaste from me and a non-enthused "yeah" from Betsy. I wanted to scream, "Please, just stop, I can't take anymore of this, please" until I'm reduced to lying on the floor crying and whimpering my soft, tired pleas. The kicker is that he told Betsy that he wants to be an interior designer. I mean, not to say we don't want to incorporate some of his things, but he went to town filling our walls, so we are merely trying to reclaim a sense of our home, one that includes Lance but is not overtaken by him.

Other than that, and his taking over the spare room to watch movies nonstop (seriously he's in there every night for hours, forget about the rest of us watching a movie, tv or reading for that matter), he's been, all things considered, a good roomate, he seems at ease with us, easy to talk to, but also keeps to himself plenty, clean, willing to share, not extremely annoying, etc.

Despite my best efforts to give the annoying girl in class the cold shoulder, I ended up giving in to a bit of a chat, not altoghether unfriendly, in the locker room after class yesterday. Since she talks constantly during class and therefore shared an anecdote about her friend's ugly wedding cake (with fiberoptics, which I though sounded pretty cool actually), well, she had some photos of it to show us gals, and after seeing the photos I still thought the fiberoptics were kinda neat (it was a poor quality photo so I didn't really see the actual cake. Anyways, I'm probably mostly acting childish, I mean, I still don't particularly like her and I think she was extremely rude to me, but it's also this element of my instructor going on and on about her being an artist, and I kinda want to stamp my foot and be like, but I can draw and paint good too. Then I realize I don't actually want to do that, since I would put more pressure on myself then I already do, and feel like people are judging me more harshly as well, and since I'm not feeling super confident in this class so far, I'll keep my tantrum/envy to myself.

Aren't I just a ray of sunshine and judgement lately, I need sleep/rest/relaxation.

not sure that hate is too strong a word

Yesterday I had a pretty bad day at school, I screwed up, was near tears, then was given constructive criticism on my piping skills, which almost made the tears start flowing (even though my instructor wasn't being harsh at all, I was just frustrated and stressed), then I screwed up again after already being very far behind, then the tears came and I had to just wash dishes. I'm not usually one for breakdowns or public tears, so I was somewhat embarrassed, plus this is the first time I've had this teacher and only the 2nd week of class, I hope he doesn't think I'm a crybaby, I must say he was very understanding and encouraging.

Remember when I mentioned the know-it-all artist girl in my class? Well, she again was babbling on during lecture about her friend's wedding cake and how it was ugly because it had fiberoptics (I was thinking cool, if I get married I would seriously consider having fiberoptics on my cake, totally retro). Anywho, so that was irritating, but she really earned a spot in my bitch book when I was sweeping the floor, granted, I'm not exactly speedy at just about anything I do, I prefer a more relaxed pace, but I was using what little muscle I had to really try to bring up the caked up stuff stuck to the floor, and trying to be thorough. Well, she comes over, snatches the broom from me (at this point I'm just about done sweeping), and says, "Sorry sweetie, this just isn't cutting it for me" I should have grabbed the broom back and broomed her in the ass, but instead I stood there appalled that anyone would behave in such a manner towards me. Then she proceeds to "power broom" which apparently consists of her flailing the broom about, most likely sending dirt everywhere, it was just completely ridiculous. Myself and a few classmates stayed after to finish up various things, she being one of them and she's chatting with the Chef about how she thinks she's not good at cake decorating and how that's why she dropped out of Art school. Ha! she couldn't hack art school, it made me chuckle to myself, thinking about how much praise I got from my profs. Okay, I'm being petty now, but I don't care, I'm tired.

at it again

I come home yesterday to find that Lance has hung a towel in our dining room. I had a piece of decorative fabric, mostly to just take up wall space I wasn't to attached to it being there or anything, but apparently Lance thought it "ugly" and in it's stead, put up a beach towel with a moon and sun, an, in my opinion, ugly beach towel at that. Plus, it's an f-ing towel! I don't understand this man and his love for unnattractive things, and also his lack of understanding that some, probably most people don't like his "style", I mean, it's pretty eclectic to say the least. He's a very nice person, and I feel like I've gotten to know him better the past couple days, but I do have beef with him throwing all this random shit on our walls without consulting us first. He also used a shower curtain as a regular curtain in the bathroom. Need I say more.

goal accomplished (almost)

I have nearly accomplished painting my room, it is yellow, I'm not quite sure I love the color, but it is nice and warm and makes me happy, roommate Kathleen put a damper on my mood though by saying she thought it didn't look good with my already brown wall. I however, must remember that she chose a lavendar bathmat for our bathroom which consists of the colors green, brown, and a kinda mustardy color I think, so I shouldn't take too much stock in her opinion on color.

Betsy made this sweet ass poster type thing on photoshop for our party, it is so sweet, she should do this for a living, check it out. That's me on the left dressed as a rocker, don't I look cool and tough? She also added voice balloons with funny brit slang, such as "it's the dog's bollocks" but I'm afraid someone will come and kill us since it has our address on it, y'all get the jist.

musings on irritation and rejection

There is this really annoying girl in my class, for my program I'm basically with the same students for the whole year, but there is a new girl. She's an artist, so my instructor pointed this out and talked about how he too, likes to draw and scupt. Well, he starts demonstrating how to mix colors, and art girl gets all know-it-all about color theory. I found it to be distracting and not helpful (more confusing) unless we were getting a lecture on color theory, which we were not.

Anywho, I got to see the dude who rejected me last night that I kinda like, who was on the same bill as my roommate's band last night. Ok, technically he didn't right out reject me, I wasn't like "I really like you, you know, in that way" and he said well, I think you suck, it was more like I asked him to do something over the holidays, he said he'd like to but he was busy, I said well let me know when you aren't busy, then he just didn't respond. So I took that as a rejection, whether purposeful, or indifference, doesn't really matter. He seemed pleased to see me last night, so I guess I'll take his rejection as indifference rather than purposeful, which I guess is good, sorta.

We are officially hosting our Mods v Rockers party 2 weeks from tomorrow, should be an excellent time.

if that's what you really want

We have been sans internet access for a couple days now. When Sarah left, she took the internet with her, but no worries, we thought, we can just steal it from our neighbors upstairs. After a couple weeks of feeling bad, I asked my housemates if they would be opposed to offering to split the cost with them, actually, I knew that they knew we were using their internet, and I didn't want them to get pissed and password protect it, and of course it seemed the right thing to do. So after knocking, I left them a friendly note offering to pay, this was prior to Christmas. We heard nothing, so we figured perhaps they didn't care that we were stealing their internet and went on our merry way. Then the other night we find that the internet requires a password, hmmm. Then I come home to find a note taped to our door, probably at least 3 weeks after I left them the original note (which was on the other side of the paper). The note explains how they had to put a password on because their internet was crashing a lot due to overusage (I don't know if just us or other surrounding neighbors). Anyways, it went on to say that they would let us in on it and split the cost, after writing "we (underlined 3 times) did pay for the router and modem". I was slightly put off by the tone of the note, especially since we confessed to using their internet, offered to pay, and they could have easily password protected it from the start, or after they knew we were using it. I show the note to Betsy and Kathleen, Kat flips the note over (which has my orginal note) and written along the top is "go to hell". I mean, did we really deserve such harshness? Do we deserve eternal damnation for using their internet for a couple weeks before offering to chip in for the cost? So the three of us sit there and stew over their passive aggressive note, how they could have easily approached us and said no, we don't want you to use it or password protected it, responded to us in any way actually instead of ignoring our note for a good three weeks and then being pissed about it. We came to the conclusion that they just think we are lame, they all go to art school, and we aren't hipster, arty, or poser enough for their taste, we are just plain too geeky to be embraced into their coolness. In the end though, we gave them money for last month and this month, mostly because we don't want to buy a router, plus Mpls is supposedly going wireless in the next few months.

Betsy and I also discussed that we need to approach Lance soon about his decor. We agree that our home makes us depressed and that we'd be embarrassed to have friends over. Lance is so nice though, I don't want to hurt his feelings. We also discussed how nobody cleans our house except for us and how frustrating it is. It's frustrating when I'm cleaning the mess they've left in the kitchen, or washing the "unclaimed" dishes and they're sleeping until 2 or 3 in the afternoon, then leisurely laying around internet surfing, then cooking and making another mess in the kitchen that doesn't get cleaned. Betsy and I are on the same page at least.

Getting back into the swing of things as far as school goes. I have hope for the future, if I turn out to be any good at cake decorating, I can make pretty decent money. I was feeling discouraged for a while that I would be done with school and take a major pay cut. That's if I'm good at cake decorating, after decorating our cakes yesterday I wasn't so sure, but I had a good time trying. I'm very pleased with my teammates, we rocked on Monday, we kicked out those genoise with ease and finesse (it's a tempermental batter). I embarrassed myself by sending out a cloud of powdered sugar when making cake icing by putting the mixer on too high of a speed, there was powdered sugar everywhere, my instructor chuckled at me.

disaster

I made an attempt at accomplishing my goal, which failed miserably, almost made me cry and has left me with a headache. To try and be budget concious, Betsy and I trekked to the paintstore to check out their mis-tints, I found a couple colors, decided to try mixing them, ended up with crayola flesh color, and though I didn't get very far before deciding that I abhorred the color I still felt like I wasted my entire Saturday. I'm not deterred however, I'm ready to try again next weekend, and triumph. Our home still looks like a badly decorated college dorm room, I'm not sure how to tactfully tell Lance that we think his things are ugly without hurting his feelings, I'm not good at such things.

I was just thinking last week, I'm sure glad that as old and shitty as my car is, at least it doesn't have exhaust issues, which is embarrassing, and expensive, especially if you get a ticket. Anyways, of course this week I notice my car is a bit louder then usual. Supposedly I have some sort of warranty for my muffler, but my guess is that the shop will somehow absolve themselves of responsibility for that. In any case...I'm trying to decide whether it'd be more worth it to purchase another beater, one that has all windows intact and working door handles instead of investing more money into my beater, of which I'm quite fond, but it may be time to part ways.

Start school again tomorrow, blech, I'm dissapointed at the amount of homework I have doing this culinary thing, I was expecting little to none, not that any of it is difficult really, just time consuming.

pics potpourri cont...

I look especially dorkalicious in this photo

Jenni and Sal dance with gusto

We are supposed to look like turtles

Getting our booze on per usual

Let's assess...

Sallow and unfortunate complexion, lack of eyebrow grooming (and lets be honest, hair in general), limp, lackluster hair/coon eyes due to sweatiness, embarrassing behavior both whilst drunk and sober....

I guess my hope will have lie in my decent rack.

pic potpourri cont...

Some tender moments while celebrating the new year......

Jenni and Todd

MS flava and Sally

Todd and Michael

Cassie and me..

picture potpourri

First, the fam..

There's me, my nephew the Tedmeister, and niece Clara (she's a cutie, ain't she). After further reflection, I've concluded that Teddy is in fact, a genius (takes after his auntie S'dizzle I think), note the faroff gaze, the intense train chewing, sure signs of an advanced mind, or a "special" mind, not sure at this point.

Tedmeister reaching for some bubbles, special bubbles you can hold in your hand. Quite fun actually, but they leave an unpleasant residue.

My sister Romaine and Clara. Romaine absolutely abhors having her pic taken, so I felt lucky to snap this, and be able to post it.

There's my mother and baby Noah, he's a chunky one, a bit jowly.

And my sister Noelle with her baby boy, he's a cutie ain't he.

queer and here pt. 2

Okay, so apparently Kathleen told Lance to just hang stuff up and we'd figure it out later..so he didn't just start hanging stuff willy nilly without our input.

Also, he offered to let us watch his gay porn... ahem, I mean extensive movie collection anytime we want to.

he's queer and he's here

I arrived home from work yesterday to find that Lance had "decorated" and my first thought was sweet jesus. He doesn't quite posess the stereotypical "queer eye" so to speak, his style would be more eclectic and well, haphazard pretty much, basically take any strange/cheesy/random looking object and stick it on the wall. The weird thing is that he just went to town while we were all at work yesterday, I mean, we don't have much for wall decor so I appreciate additions, but perhaps he could consult the other's who live there first. For example, instead of arranging your five or six party masks (kinda like the one's you'd make in elementary school, with feathers and beads and stuff) on the wall directly across my room so that they are the first thing to shock me from my slumber each morning, perhaps they could be hung in our ugly spare room which could handle some kitsch and use some color. He does have a couple of cool items, but some things I'm sorry, they are well, not attractive in my opinion. Some of his own art which is nice, but isn't framed so it's just a painting tacked to the wall. It's all very collegey I guess, and being 27, soon to be 28, I'd like a little more put together apartment, but whatever, what's important is that we all just get along, and that the ugly masks are moved elsewhere. The plastic sun (with a matching moon) was close to hideous til we discovered that with a push of a button it sings "I can see clearly now" or whatever that song is called, the moon is broken unfortunately.

fine then

Okay, my poll was a flop as expected. I conceded to the friday evening party.

Can't help it. . .must bitch about work. Basically I hate nurses, I hate how they don't do what is required of them, then we (myself and other support staff) have to fix their mistakes, and how they continue to make the same mistakes overandoverandoverandoverandover again without repurcussion and despite me asking them overandoverandover again to please not make that mistake anymore. Meanwhile if we support staff make a mistake, we are expected to stop continuing to make the same mistake or face this thing called a consequence.

Our roommate Lance moved in this weekend. He may be a bit more flaming then he admitted to, but other than that he's super friendly and seems to be pretty laid back. We on Pleasant Ave. believe firmly that being laid back is the absolute most desireable quality of a roommate. He has books with dirty pictures of naked men and wants to bring us gals to all the gay hotspots, and Jake too I suppose, though Jake would probably decline. He's going to teach us how and where to club, I can't wait.

Hmmm, despite wanting to lay about doing absolutely nothing last night in recovery from the weekend, I went to my mom's to have a short visit with my sister Romaine, Phil, Teddy and Clara, since they had to change their Christmas plans due to weather. Teddy is a little behind developmentally, but at the age of four? (or is he five?), he's almost making complete sentences, still in diapers though. Clara liked me, she wanted to kiss me. It's funny to see my parents with their grandkids, hugging and kissing, I'm like, since when did you people enjoy showing physical affection? I felt weird hugging my cabbage patch because I'm not sure I even knew what a hug was at the age of 7/8ish.

Just don't think kids are in the cards for me, I fear a saggier rack then I already have, and my rack may very well be my one beauty (other then my magnetic personality, ha! as if that gets me real far), I don't even really have a magnetic personality, although it says so when I read about my zodiac. Although every once in a while I think it might be fun to try my hand at rearing a person, but that's veeery theoretical.

a poll and a goal

First, the poll....I realize that myself and like 2 or 3 other people read this here blog, but if anyone who may happen upon it by googling partylite sucks or marky mark wants to add there 2 cents, I'd appreciate it. My question...Is it better to host a party on Friday or Saturday evening? I'm of the opinion that Saturday is the more ideal day, one has the whole day to prepare, most people have Sat. off so they are more rested and rarin' to go, I personally often enjoy an evening in Friday night after a long week, but Sat. I can muster the energy for funhaving. My roommates, specifically Betsy and Kathleen, are in the Friday camp, Betsy claims that she gets excited to go out on Fridays and likes to keep her Saturdays more low-key, and they feel more people make an appearance on friday. I'm not buying it, and I don't want our place to look like a dump because nobody's taken the time during the week to clean or prepare. Plus we are having a theme and that gives folks an entire afternoon to dress appropriately. Anyways, I'm sure to be outvoted unless someone backs me up here, though I want honest opinions, however, I expect zero response anyways.

My goal is to paint my room on Saturday. This has been a long-standing goal, and the more time that passes, the stupider it seems to paint a room that will have to be repainted in 6 months. So, if I do not accomplish this goal by January 31st, I will deem myself a failure and my room will be white and bland.

I have sore and stiff legs as a result of making a fool out of myself on New Years Eve. Besides my embarrassment the following morning, I had a wonderful time per usual in the windy city, got the royal treatment from hosts MS flava and Sally, smoked a little, drank a little, ya know how I roll. Pics to be posted soon hopefully.