Nothing to do, it's up to you

Now that I don't even have a job, I really don't have anything to do...
Which is why I texted my friend, Carla, yesterday, asking her to hang out. She had just woken up from a nap and was watching Animal Planet with her roommates. The show is called "Infested," I believe. It's about families whose homes are infested by some sort of nasty bug. There was one family, who lives in a town about 15 minutes south of our hometown, whose home was infested with bedbugs. Carla and I concurred that Senoia on tv doesn't look like Senoia in real life. Then there was this show about wardens in Maine. Wow. Why did anybody decide to make a show about that? Even so, watching boring shows with friends is better than being bored alone.

Then we went to our local thrift store for the heck of it. We had a great time finding interesting stuff to try on. I found a lovely pair of 80's slouch boots. They're dark navy blue, and genuine leather. Six dollars for barely worn, vintage boots? Yes, please!!!

Today, I almost died of boredom.

I decided to take my bike and go anywhere. I ended up at the mall on the south end of town. I haven't the foggiest idea why I went there, since I have no money. But wandering about a mall is better than sitting at home. At least I got some exercise, right? I eventually wandered over to J.C.Penney's. I found some Adidas tennis shoes for $20.Here's another part of my obsession with Germany. Adidas are German, and Nike is American. The Adidas I had before these last shoes lasted a lot longer than the dumb Nikes my mom bought for herself and then gave to me when she decided she didn't like them. Since my old tennis shoes were literally falling apart, I went for it. Maybe now I'll actually go running...? 

While we're on the subject of awesome shoes, I would like to mention my old converse. I got them six years ago, for my 14th birthday. They've been with me on all my road trips, taken me to Europe, and been through a lot of work hours. They're looking pretty miserable by now. I think it's time to part with them, especially since I only have so much room in my suitcases, both for going home next week, and moving to Germany in July.  

I also made cookies this evening. I'm not the only one in the apartment who needs to get rid of baking supplies within the next week or two. My roommate learned of my boredom and asked me to make cookies. For some unknown reason my roomies think I make the best cookies. I just found the recipe on the Betty Crocker website.... Whatever. Not like I had anything else to do. And thus I gained back all the calories I lost biking to the mall.

We are the champions, my friend

Saturday, I went up to the campus library in order to get something to read. What else do you go to the library for, especially during summer? I wanted to get Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and even checked online before to make sure they had it. Three copies. Yes. I found where the books were supposed to be, but, lo and behold, no Hitchhiker's Guide. Dumb. So then I texted my brother to see if he could recommend anything. They were out of that book too. Even more dumb. So, I wandered about and came across the Harry Potter books. Guess what? They have them in German. That's right. English, and German. Not even French! Ha! So I go to check out my book, and they kindly let me know that I have to turn it in on Monday because I'm not enrolled in Summer or Fall classes. Ok, fine, but why two weeks before Spring semester is over? First my job, now my books... Yes, I'm not going to class, but "you didn't have to cut me off!" (wow. i just quoted a pop song..) I did kinda want to sing that to them, rather loudly, but that may have been a bit awkward. So I made a goal for myself: finish the book before the library closes Monday.
I wasn't able to do a whole lot of reading right away, since I had plans with a friend of mine that I haven't seen for a couple weeks. We had dinner at her apartment, watched a dumb movie, and then came over to my apartment to have a mini dance party in my living room. Our best dancing was to Coldplay's Paradise. We did some really great interpretive dancing. And the best part is that the guys in the apartment across from mine saw us dancing and then started dancing in their apartment! Kudos to them. After Haley left, I read.
Sunday, I read and went to church. I read some more. Then a guy came over to tell us that they were having a cookie night in their apartment in about an hour. I decided I could make time to make some cookies and hang out with some friends. After hanging out for a while, I came back here and read. Around 2:30, just as I was deciding whether to read a few more pages or go to bed, my quite talkative roommate appeared. This video accurately describes how I was feeling.

Guess what I spent all day today doing? Reading :) Gosh it feels good to read for hours on end without having to worry about what you should write the upcoming essay on the book about. I felt pretty beastly when I finished the book at 7:45. Ziel erreicht! Goal accomplished! It helps that these books aren't exactly college-level reading. I read this book, in English of course, in the fourth grade... But it definitely made me feel good about my German skills. I don't think I would've read it too much faster auf Englisch. 

But now what? I've got nothing to do... sort through my crap again? Start packing up? I'm going home on June 7th. Still plenty of time... 

Last call for hanging out.... I have nine days. 

Friends will be friends, right to the end

And I am certainly thankful for my friends. I have no job now, but... I have friends.

Wednesday I went to Carla's apartment. We then went to turn in my ugly uniforms. Although I was originally told I could work through next week, on Wednesday they emailed me, saying that I unfortunately had to be terminated (there's got to be a better word for that) that day. That's what I get for not being signed up for summer or fall classes. Then we had a celebratory lunch at Panda Express. She just quit an unpleasant job at a call center, and I was just saved the awkwardness of having to quit my job. Yay? I was going to give them my two-week notice like next week, anyways... After that, we just hung out and watched movies and stuff.

Thursday... I didn't do much at all, at least until around 4:30ish. I went to visit my friend Stephanie. I haven't seen her since her wedding reception. We talked for about two hours. Then her husband came home, and we had dinner. We played Banagrams afterwards. I highly recommend that game. I would buy it for myself, except I'm not willing to cough up the money necessary for the purchase. I am a super-lame college student-- I own no games, no dvds or blu-rays, and I spend the vast majority of my time doing not much of anything. Oh, wait a sec, I'm kinda not really a college student at the present moment. Hmmm....

Today I did... nothing. Surprise. That is, until around 7:30, when I went to a game night. We played Werewolf, which is basically Mafia with a couple extra characters. I'm not a huge fan. There's so much pointless contention. And then I went to my friend's apartment and watched a movie. I've seen Pirates of the Caribbean so many times that I have the script down well enough that I could practically be in the movie. OK, not really... I have no acting skills. But I do love those movies.

My plan for tomorrow: finish movie on Netflix, go to another game night hosted by my roomie from freshman year. I think I'll start sorting through all my crap again, since it all has to go home or be donated. Fun stuff, yeah?

I'm going back home on the 7th of June. Sometimes this whole "holy cow, I'm moving to Europe" kinda comes crashing down on me. Whoa. I don't know when I'm moving to Germany yet. It'll probably be closer to July.

Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day

Well, now that I'm going to Germany for real, I've decided to change my sleeping patterns. Otherwise, I'd be a nocturnal freak. And what good is a nocturnal nanny? Problem is, I woke up this morning at nine, and I have absolutely nothing to do. Luckily I saw my friends Carla at work last night (she works there too, but we don't often work the same shift), and we're going to hang out today. That is, whenever she wakes up. Then I'm off to work. The camp kids are here. It's the first week, so there aren't as many as there will be in the future, but there are still a lot. And tonight I'm working in the part that serves hamburgers and fries, so we'll be slammed. Yay high-schoolers. But all this is ok, since I am only allowed to work next week. I'll miss all the crazy shifts. I'll also miss all the money I would've made. Oh well. What's meant to be, will be. I also have to figure out when to go home for a few weeks before heading off to Germany. Do I want to stay here and finish my housing contract? Do I want to spend a month at home? I don't know! It depends on when the German family wants me to come. Either way, I'll have a lot of dull days to fill between now and my arrival in Deutschland.

And here I stand, in the strangest land, not knowing what to say or do

Well, yesterday was nice. I cleaned the kitchen. It needed it.
Last evening I went to FHE. FHE is normally a Monday night occurance. It means "family home evening" but since we college students don't really have families, we just do it with a bunch of people from the ward. I haven't gone before in this ward because of work, but I finally got to go last night. We had a game night, and it was a lot of fun. In fact, it was so much fun, that we couldn't stop! We played these really funny games where you're not allowed to show your teeth, even though you make obnoxious noises and almost die of laughing. We played Mario Kart on an Nintendo 64. It'd been yeeeeeeaaaaars since I'd done that. I sucked! But I had fun being awful. And then someone had the bright idea to go to a random apartment in the complex and ask if they wanted to play games with us in their apartment. We met some really nice people! They didn't mind the obnoxious game mentioned above. And then we played Mafia. I'm usually against this game, because people pretty much always kill me on the first round, so I'm stuck there watching for an eternity as people argue about who's guilty. But this time, I managed to stay alive for a whole round! Woohoo! More game nights to come.
I woke up this morning and checked my email. I got this really lovely one from work saying they'll have to terminate me, maybe next week, if I don't enroll in classes for summer or fall. What the crap. I didn't do anything wrong. Why can't they wait until spring semester is done in three weeks? I kinda realllllllllllllly need the money to buy a plane ticket to my beloved Germany. Poop. At least the rent has been paid. And I was just starting to get shifts, since all the camp kids are coming! Meh! Fortunately I have four more shifts this week: one today, one tomorrow, and two on Friday. I just think it would be dishonest to sign up for a couple of classes in the fall, with every intention of withdrawing from them before they even start, to keep my job for now. I hate money. A lot. Probably because I don't have a whole lot. I guess I'll just donate plasma for a living. I don't know why they say "donate," because they pay you for your plasma. Just a thought.
I don't know what to do with the rest of today. Or about my job. Or the rest of the week. My life's a little bit of a mess.

Here comes the sun

What a weekend! I'm finally getting shifts at work. The summer camps are starting up this week, so the Cannon Center needs their employees to work. I had a shift yesterday morning in the dish room. yay... Well, I got up early in order to go to work. That's fortunate, since my old roommate Kelsie asked if I wanted to go on a date with a friend of the guy she was going on a date with. Sure, why not? So I said yes. I've never met this guy before, but it was a group date, so it's all good.
Work was so much fun. Please note my sarcasm. The other person who was supposed to be in the dish room with me never showed up. Luckily it was pretty dang slow, so I was able to handle it. Some guys came and helped at the end, since cleanup is not exactly lightening fast, especially alone.
At six forty-four, my date picked me up to go four-wheeling. I've never been four-wheeling. I had a good time, though. We met four other couples and then proceeded to drive up a dirt road up the mountain. Some parts of the road reminded me of the scene in The Fellowship of the Ring where the hobbits are leaving the Shire and have to jump off the road to hide from the ringwraith. Other parts made me think of the poor pioneers who had to cross the Rockies without a trail. The ride kinda reminded me of a wagon or coach, except that it had a motor and stuff. Not that I've really ridden in one, but I've heard the ride was rather rough.
Last night, I stood on the top of a mountain. After the sun set, we went back down a bit to have a campfire. That was nice. I really like campfires and camping. I filled my hot dog quota for the next couple years. That makes me sound like a pig, but really it's just that I don't particularly enjoy eating carcinogens. Besides, they're only good when cooked over a fire, and you just can't do that every day. And that's not healthy anyways. The stars were absolutely glorious. I haven't seen that many stars in... years.
I'd consider my Saturday successfully filled.
Today I went to my friends' ward, since I had to go feed the freshmen at the Cannon Center during my own church. Then I fed the freshmen lunch. Luckily I got to work with another friend of mine.

Oh, and I found a German family to nanny for.
No big deal. It's only life-changing.
Making dreams come true is a great feeling, by the way.

Love, don't leave me lonely

So, my mom came to visit me this week. We've had such a great time! Even though we really didn't do a whole lot, that's just fine. We did a lot of walking. I only have one bike... but that's ok. Walking is a great way to kill time, and you can also talk while walking. That's a little harder while biking... We also did a good deal of window shopping. I really don't need to spend any more money or buy any more stuff that I'll just have to haul across the country and then the Atlantic. But most importantly, we were just together. Thank goodness my brother works for Delta, so my parents can fly for free. We got to eat out for dinner tonight. I never, ever thought I would say the following: we ate at Panda Express and I enjoyed it. I didn't even like rice until about eight months ago, so this is huge progress for a picky person like myself. And then, as we walked back to my apartment, we ran into some of my friends. What a coincidence! Except I don't really believe in coincidence. Everything happens for a reason. We also visited my friend from back home. For some reason, a lot of my friends think my parents are super awesome and that they're like a second set of parents. I also think my parents are super awesome. So we just talked. Sadly, though, all things must come to an end. Mom's leaving in the morning. Boo. I'm really not a fan of being left. Alone. I really love my family and I can't wait to see them again, hopefully in a few weeks. We'll see.
I stay up later than my mom (I somehow got my own room- there's five girls in a six-bed apt). So I surf the web. I found this shirt on threadless, and I really wish I could have it. I think the song is fantastic and stuff.
 
So if anybody is feeling generous, or that they want to make my world a happier place, they can buy this $9.99 shirt for me. Come on, it's not even ten dollars! Until you pay for shipping, that is...  Oh, you need the link? Why here it is! http://www.threadless.com/product/1589/Friday_I_m_In_Love/tab,girls/style,shirt. This poor college student will love you forever!

...or Thursday watch the walls instead

Guys, my life has been pretty dull the past three days.
I went to the library on campus, and got Grimms Märchen aka fairy tales. I've been reading that a bit. It takes longer, since German isn't exactly my native language. There's some crazy stuff in those stories. Maybe it's a good thing we don't tell our kids those stories anymore. Oh wait, I think I'd rather read them to my future children than let them watch the crap that's on tv these days...
So, due to the book, I haven't really been going on adventures. And the internet's been jacked up. But, the good news is that my mom's visiting next week! Heck yes! I love my mom! I have no idea what we're going to do to entertain ourselves, but at least we can do nothing together. Doing nothing with somebody else is much preferred to doing nothing alone, especially when that's all you do all summer.
Ummm... I made cookies last night... wasted some time... I volunteered at the MTC again today... I watched the movie "Help!" by the Beatles" last night... wasted more time... One could say I've been watching walls. Especially since the internet connection was lying to me about just how connected it really was... It would act like it was loading something, then practically tell me: "hahaha, FOOL! I'm not really gonna load this page!!! muahahaha!!!!! please try again later, SUCKA!!!" Fortunately, the wired connection is working today, as opposed to the past two days... Well, I think I'm going to read some more crazy fairy tales now.... why not?

Let It Be

What a day! Not all Mondays suck. Evidence: Today, and all it's glory.
Early this morning, I got an email from someone in Germany. Two Thursdays ago, I sent letters to all the stake presidents in Germany. For you not-mormons out there, our church is organized geographically into stakes, which are split up into wards. I want to be a nanny/au pair in Germany, so I wrote letters asking if the leaders or the members in their wards knew anybody who needs or wants one. I was so excited to hear back, that I could not sleep for a while, notwithstanding the fact that I had a job interview in the morning. So, as you can very well see, Monday wasn't off to a bad start. The interview was pretty standard, although I don't think it's worth it any more. Nobody is going to want to hire me for just the summer... and the time is ever lessening. After that, I went decided to take a detour to Target. When you're in a car, it's not that far away from where I had my interview, which was about four miles from my apartment. Turns out that Target's about two more miles away. But that's no big deal when you have a bike as awesome as mine. I wasted a sufficient amount of time wandering about the store, and found a shirt that has the Shelby Cobra logo on it. I pretty much had to buy it.
I still had some time to kill after I'd looked at everything in the whole store, so I proceeded to the Mall, which is on the way home. I wandered about like a waif. Malls are great time-murderers. If you're not careful, they will also gleefully murder your bank account. But I refuse to let that happen. I have a plane ticket to buy.
I rode my bike home, and found more good news. I had another email from a bishop of a ward saying he would look for a family for me! And to top it off, my dear little sister sent me a letter snail mail. There's nothing like getting snail mail in this digital world. So I wrote her back. This evening, my old roommate and I volunteered at the Missionary Training Center. That was a really great experience, and I'd recommend it to anyone who has the opportunity.
Sometimes you have to let it all go in order for it all to fall together.
And, as a parting comment: I love the Beatles. Always have, always will.

And I wish I was back in 1981

Well, my friends, I actually managed to stay busy this weekend. And by busy, I mean mildly entertained. 
I woke up at a decent hour yesterday. I promptly (a.k.a. lazily) got my stuff together to make an expedition to the grocery store. My cupboard and fridge spot were beginning to look like a famine hit. So I grabbed my backpack and rode my bike to the store. Well, I intended to go to the store. But I went to the thrift store across the street first. I really had no business being there. It does make a rather excellent time-killer though. I like to go through the store, finding all the old vintage clothes I can and then trying on the ones that might fit, no matter how hideous. DI is rather picked-over by all these silly hipsters, though. Wait, what am I saying, I'm half a hipster myself... oh dear... So I tried on all these hideous dresses from the 80s and stuff. And then I found this superb striped polo... and I had to buy it. The colors of the lovely vertical stripes remind me vaguely of Easter eggs. I showed it to my parents today on Skype, and they were totally disgusted. They can't imagine why anybody would want to buy clothes from the 70s. My mom said I have the most unique style. I guess that's what I'm going for, so that's fine by me.
After that little detour, I crossed the street to the grocery store. There were more people there than... at Walmart on Black Friday. OK, not even close, but there aren't normally that many people there. Shopping Accomplished. Then I biked home, feeling rather like a camel with this huge backpack full of food on my back. I had enough time to cook a frozen pizza that I bought on sale before my shift. Yay food! Work wasn't so bad. I even learned how to clean the part of the fryers that comes out and get washed every night. After I got home, I finished my book and then watched the third Star Wars auf Deutsch. Thank goodness for YouTube, although a few parts were missing.
And today I went to church and Skyped with my family. I found out that my sister can make the best Pterodactyl noises. Ever. I pretty much died laughing. And now I'm going to go visit my old roommate. Life's good.

Soon I'm gonna be a Jedi...

And may the fourth be with you. Ok, so technically it's the fifth now, but I'm writing about the fourth...
Today was pretty nice, despite the fact that I woke up waaaay too late. I didn't miss anything, fortunately. I just woke up about an hour and a half later than I intended, that's all.
I hung out with my friend Carla today. We go way back- all the way to my first day of high school after my family moved to Georgia in 2007. We had first period Geometry together with this crazy teacher. We won't go there... Anyway...We walked to the grocery store. I compulsively bought chocolate peanut butter ice cream. I NEVER buy ice cream. That's not to say I don't like it. I like it too much, and it's expensive, and not exactly something that helps you lose weight. Therefore, I just don't buy it. I also bought a one-dollar Star Wars cup that's probably meant for five-year-olds. It is May the Fourth, after all...
I had a shift at work, too. I got to shovel half-eaten food off plates. So. Much. Fun.
After I got home, I took a shower. Working in the dish room makes you feel kinda nasty. Ok, so today wasn't bad at all. The real reason was that I wanted to wear my Star Wars shirt. And then I watched some Star Wars on YouTube auf Deutsch. That was pretty awesome. Yes, I admit to being a dork. I think last week I had a dream about podracing. It was pretty intense. I think it was somewhat based on a game my brother once had (or probably still has) for his Nintendo 64. I have to blame my brother for the whole Star Wars thing. He was pretty obsessed with it as a child. I remember many nights when we had to watch them. I confess, I didn't like it then, but I do now! It's funny how tastes change.
Crap, I didn't mean to be up this late again. I even paused the movie so I would go to bed earlier. Oh well. Why do I feel so awake at this hour???
Oh, and all that Job Hunting has maybe paid off a little. I have an interview at Joann's on Monday. I think the economy must be picking up, since that's the second interview in two weeks. Compared to all the other job hunts I've been on in the past five years, this is really great. But... interviews are one thing, and getting hired is another thing entirely.

It's only teenage wasteland

I'm not a teenager anymore (thank goodness), but as I sit here on the walkway outside my apartment, I feel as though I am staring off into one. It's slightly chilly, here in this dumb desert, even though I think it should be warmer, seeing as it is finally, or maybe already, May. I gaze through the cold iron railing, up to the chill sky, down to the half-grassed yard, across to the old and boring buildings that surround my own. Apparently, when this wasteland is inhabited during the real school year, it is mostly people that are young and fresh- not to say that I'm old, because I most certainly am not, but because these people are younger than me. It's a strange feeling. The tenants tend to be people that just finished their first year of college, like my roommates, and therefore still teenagers, or are guys fresh off their missions. The guys would then be slightly older than me, but they still usually have only a year or less of college under their belt. All this makes me feel, well... I dunno. Like I'm sitting in a barren wasteland. Especially since most of the individual apartments are closed for the summer. I think there's only three open in our whole building.
And somebody else I know got engaged tonight. There must be at least one per week. Last week there were four.
I don't mean to be a downer, but could y'all slow down a bit?
When I was 13, I couldn't wait to be 14 so I could finally go to dances. Then I couldn't wait to be 16, so I could date. I'm not sure whom I was planning on dating, since going steady was out of the question. And then I wanted to be older, so I could have a boyfriend. I thought that, for sure, once I got out to college, I would find me a boyfriend. I've been out here since the end of August 2010, and haven't even had a second date. I guess I'll just have to be patient. I've waited 20 years, it won't kill me to wait a bit longer.
If anybody cares what I did today, it wasn't much. One more job app, one more shift at the lovely Cannon Center. Heck, I even splurged and got a movie from Redbox. It's pretty sad when a buck fifty for a blu-ray is a splurge. But such is life as a poor, lonely college student off for the summer. At least my computer plays blu-rays, or else I would've had to bike even farther. Ok, let's face it, I would've just gone home if they were out.
Any suggestions for how to entertain myself tomorrow? All that's on the calendar is doing something with my dear friend who's leaving for her home in Alaska for the summer. That'll be in the evening, though, so I've got a whole day of nothingness ahead of me. Oh wasteland...
Just sayin... I should not have to wear a hoodie and blanket in the Merry Month of May. Yay Desert.

And maybe someday we will find that it wasn't really wasted time

And today was even more boring than yesterday. I didn't even have a boring shift at work.
I did go on another Job Hunt. I think that may be my new hobby, in a sense. I have to get out of the apartment, or else I'll die of boredom. At least going on almost pointless searches all over town is something to do. Maybe it's become some sort of depressing game for me. Hmmm, I wonder how many applications I can fill out today before I feel like I need to go home to eat? I purposely only bring a little bit of food (of the variety that I know I won't want to eat) so that I'll go home eventually. Today I brought along some baby carrots, just in case. I biked probably another 10 miles today. On the bright side, the weather was perfect for biking. I even got a little bit sunburned! That's what happens when you are a redhead and you stay outside for more than five seconds.
When I got home, I did a whole lot of nothing, mainly because I didn't want to eat pasta again. Eventually I made biscuits. I'm so glad I grew up in the South. I love biscuits, especially whole wheat ones. I even talked to my roommates a bit. It's a shame they're all in classes/work all day.