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Archive for August, 2004

Somebody Stop the Bus (including Champaign Visit v5.0)

     I have been so busy I think I wore out. Here’s a recap of this weekend and this week so far.

     [Saturday] I went grocery shopping with Alan and then we went to see The Manchurian Candidate at Beverly. (See forum tomorrow) Alan made Jumbalaya for dinner, and I baked some cookies. The stuff in the fridge was pretty much free range since Will had already moved out of Alan’s apartment and Josh’s stuff was pretty easy to tell (he moved out on Sunday). There was cookie dough in the fridge (must have been Will’s) so I baked it. At 9pm we went to Arun’s apartment (where Suketu et al were) with Lexi and played Karaoke Revolution and Karaoke Revolution 2 on his PS2. It was awesome, I loved it. The game rates your singing based on pitch and timing (not on words or tone quality), so it was funny to see some of them sing. Arun sucks because he was on the phone with Nancy all night instead of playing or watching. We went home around 1am.

     [Sunday] Alan and I went to the mall so I could take advantage of Clinique’s Bonus Time at Famous Barr. I got some of their “Take the Day off Eye Makeup Remover” and some lipstick. The bonus pack was different than usual, but I liked it. After that we wandered into Spencers and Hot Topic but left shortly after. We saw The Bourne Supremacy, because Alan had wanted to see it since two weeks ago, and I was finally in a good enough mood for an action movie. You really can’t enjoy an action movie if you’re not in the mood for one. (Again, see forum tomorrow) We made some Chicken Alfredo that was in the freezer and watched Taken episode 10 (the last episode). It was okay, I liked episode 9 better than 10 because of the pacing. The whole series was pretty decent, and I would recommend watching it if you have a free opportunity. I left for home at 8:30pm.

     [Monday] The elliptical is FIXED! I tried it out today and it works even better than I can ever remember. It’s practically silent! Huzzah to my uncle Mark and his welding skillz. I had a group interview with AFLAC to be an independent consultant salesperson. I know, I know, it doesn’t sound that great. It means no benefits, making cold calls, and well, being in sales. However, it kept my interest and I signed up for a second interview on Wednesday. After that, I went over to Renee’s to try to fix her computer. It was in terrible shape. Not only does she not know what “defragging” means – or that programs that run at startup make her load time longer, but she also doesn’t know anything about virus software and thus installed Norton ON TOP OF McAffee. I don’t know if you understand how many problems that can cause. Those two programs FIGHT each other. It’s awful. It’s a giant mess and I think the only solution is formatting. It was in such bad shape that I was there so late I slept over.

     [Tuesday] Renee could not explain adequately why she had her parents wake her up (and woke me up) at 8 AM. All I got from her was “I wanted to do something this early. But I’m not going to. So let’s go to IHOP.” After breakfast, she did nothing at my house for a while then left for Naperville (after trying to convince me to go with by only saying “Come with me” in response to “Why? What are you going to do?” I decided to work out again but just as I was jumping on the elliptical, Jen called me and told me she quit her job today. We arranged lunch and I was late, of course, since everyone decided to call me and I don’t shower as quickly as I used to. We ate at Garibaldi’s, which I hadn’t been to before. Then we went to the mall and I bought her some Harry Potter socks for her birthday (her party is pending) and a business reference book ($10 for 2k pages) for me. Then we went to Jewel for our classic binge fest (we used to do this in high school when we were depressed about boys) – coloring books and junk food. We made pumpkin pie and chocolate mousse. We watched Minority Report and Down with Love (neither of which had I seen before), and played Mario Kart Double Dash. That game rocks. I almost need to buy a Game Cube just for that game. I didn’t sleep over almost primarily because of my second interview with AFLAC the following day.

     [Wednesday] I was supposed to meet with the head of the division for my second interview. Instead I met with Krissy, the woman who called me originally. Apparently Chad had possibly forgotten and decided not to come in. In any event, after talking with Krissy I felt much better about working at AFLAC. I know what you’re thinking. This is a sales job. Well, I’m unemployed and it would be a source of income. Secondly, many people who are looking for marketers see those who have sales experience as more valuable. In addition, Krissy is either extremely good at selling/lying (in spite of only having 6 months of experience in sales) or genuinely caring. In the case of either, I would probably benefit in working with her.

     I talked to Alan on the phone today (as I had the past two days). I was really stressed out from everything. Apparently he’s going to continue working for the professor some during the fall semester (while he’s TAing, taking graduate school classes, and working for Fred part time). I couldn’t handle that, because I thought he would still be working 20 hours a week for the professor (he’s not). I yelled at him. Yelling (in general, not because it was at Alan) felt good, but I soon realized that we had a miscommunication, so I felt really bad for yelling at him so loudly. I apologized and ate some mousse. That helped.

     There’s so much going on, I just want to get off the bus and sleep on the bench. Finding work and interviewing is very taxing. It completely messes with your head.

Feeling: Terribly overworked

Listening to: I have no time to listen to music

2 comments August 11, 2004

Week ends

     The stuff for the computer I’m building should all be here on Monday, except for the case. Go figure, huh. Also, on Monday I’m supposed to have some sort of orientation with AFLAC, the insurance duck company. They called me since they saw my resume on Career Builder. They were interested in the fact that I could speak Spanish and German. The job is probably sales, but a lot of people who hire marketers look for ones who have had sales experience.

     On Thursday I went over to Renee’s. We went to Steak & Shake with her parents and her grandma to get shakes. They all tried the “side by side” shakes, but I got a plain strawberry one. It was still good. After that Renee rented 13 Going On 30, which I regretfully watched. It was exactly the kind of movie Renee would like, especially since she’d seen it before.

     I still haven’t gotten the corset I ordered from Frederick’s yet, but it shipped on the 3rd, so I’m expecting it on Wednesday. I’m also waiting for the Norton Internet Security 2004 I ordered. Oh, and on top of that, I ordered another one of the strapless bras I liked from Frederick’s. Make that a total of six packages I’m waiting on.

     I’m at Alan’s now. I left at 3pm and I got there at 7:15. Sigh. Here I was thinking that if I left at 3 I wouldn’t hit traffic. I guess next time it’ll be two, and the time after that it’ll be one… When I got here we went to Bennigans. I liked it, but I started feeling sick, so we left in a bit of a hurry. After we got back, we took a nap and then watched episode 9 of Taken. Tomorrow we’re supposed to go karaoke with Lexi and Arun, since his friends peer pressured him into buying some karaoke stuff.

Feeling: “Don’t fear the fiber”

Listening to: Nine Inch Nails – The Perfect Drug (my mom’s car doesn’t have a CD player, so I whipped out some old mix tapes.)

August 6, 2004

Cousin’s Computer, Other Activities

     On Monday, Renee came over and hung out for a while. We went to Famous Dave’s for dinner, then we saw the Notebook at Marcus (for $1 cuz Huttel hooked us up; he said he still felt bad about making me go see Saved!. I liked the Notebook. It was most definitely a chick flick, but I enjoyed the story and the acting. It didn’t make me feel as warm and squishy as most of the people there (the audience was all bawling, aside from Renee and me), possibly because I know what it feels like to be between two boys. It’s not as glamorous or cut-and-dry as the movies make it seem. It’s movies like that which make me happy I’m with Alan and not in the whole dating scene.

     Yesterday, Amy gave me the go ahead on building a computer for her and her family. It’s not the fastest or most up-to-date computer I could build, but it is one of the cheapest. I managed to get all of this stuff for $460. Huzzah to newegg and to her parents for finally agreeing that their 166mhz computer needs to be replaced.

     Last night I talked to Alan on the phone, but I wanted to destress from everything so we didn’t talk long. I got myself a book, my bunny, a candle, and read for about an hour. It was nice. Right now, I’m going to try to finish all the books that I haven’t finished but I have purchased. The current book is “The Catcher in the Rye.” After that, it will probably be “American Psycho” and “The Lovely Bones.” I’ve got way too many unfinished books in my queue.

     Today is still young. I haven’t even showered yet. I got my surge protector in the mail. I kind of wish I had it yesterday, though, because it was pouring and lightning all night. Oh well, it’s not like my computer got surged during a storm anyway.

Feeling: Sturdy

Listening to: Taking Back Sunday – A Decade Under the Influence

August 4, 2004

Really Busy Weekend

     Saturday was Katy’s party. We played volleyball, swam, played water dodge ball badmintoned, and smored. It was a lot of fun. She has the cutest dog, apparently it’s a Tibetan Spaniel.

It has joined my list of dogs I want. Then I had to go… but before I left, I took these pictures of Alex, Mel & Katy, respectively.

     I had to go because I was meeting Nicole, Arun, Suketu, Wang, Matt, Pete and some other Indian guy at TGI Fridays for karaoke. Except, apparently karaoke was cancelled. I don’t know if there will be karaoke anymore, Sean the bartender seemed to think that last Saturday was the last karaoke.

     The boys had just gotten back from seeing Harold & Kumar go to White Castle, apparently. Suketu and some others apparently had never been there, so we went. Yeah, it was ghetto and a half. Nobody who hadn’t White Castle before was pleasantly surprised. At least we got to watch a motorcyclist fail a sobriety test across the street.

     So then, I got home and I continued doing work for Rebecca. Apparently they accepted my raise, which is great. I was up until 4am. I put four hours in on Saturday.

     I got woken up this morning by Jen calling and calling me a lazy bum at 11am. We went to Pizzeria Uno (very very good!) at four and saw The Village at 6pm. I was not impressed. See my opinions on the forum.

     I haven’t heard from Alan since Thursday. I’m pretty upset about it today, because he hasn’t even IMed me. He’s at hockey now, so I’m waiting for them to shut the lights off (at 11:30pm). He really needs to stop working two part time jobs while going to school, but he won’t listen to me.