Sunday, November 26, 2006 

Thanksgiving came a day early for the few of us that went to Jon's to have a "family" thanksgiving while his parents were out of town. Wednesday Dan got out of work early and we went to Jon's, where he, Matt, and Gavin had pretty much started preparing a feast - a turkey, a roast, corn, peas, homemade mashed potatoes, rolls, peach pie, brownies, a homemade mud pie, and probably a few other things I can't remember now. Dan and I brought brats, chicken, and mini steaks to add, along with a couple more pies (pumpkin and a chocolate pie). By the end of the day there was quite a dent in all of it, put there by about 15 people (including Jeff later on that evening, yay!).

My actual Thanksgiving, I woke up with a bit of an upset stomach, which was unfortunately only exacerbated when I ate at Dan's grandparents' house. I don't know if it was from the uncooked batter of the mud pie that Jon, Matt, and Gavin tried to make (they never did claim to know what they were doing) or an early present from Ryan, who had the flu a week before. But we ended up coming home from the grandparents' a little early, where I spent the remainder of the day in bed, willing myself every now and again not to throw up (for those who care, I was successful; it all eventually came out the other end).

Friday I had the alarm set for 530am in hopes of getting to the mall early enough to get one of the $10 gift cards they were giving out; once it went off though, I decided against getting up and we made it out of bed around 7am instead. I was feeling better (though perhaps a bit feverish) while we wandered the mall, where I took advantage of all the sales to buy stuff for...me. I'll probably return some of it though, as I really need to get with the shopping for my family. We came back home around noon and I went and laid in bed til I had to get ready for work. Which was slightly miserable. Some of the customers I talked to that night mentioned how they'd been up since like 330 that morning; I don't know how they did it.

I seem to be recovered from my illness now though, aside from perhaps a slight impairment in appetite. And being a little more tired than usual.

Posted by Rachel at 10:34 AM |

Saturday, November 18, 2006 

Dan and I make too much money to live in that complex I was talking about before. I was so disappointed; the townhomes were so nice. Now I've decided I want a townhouse, so my new goal is to find one that's $650 a month or less that doesn't suck. It's turning out that a lot of the apartment complexes have income limits of about $26,000 for two people; Dan makes more than that on his own. Lucky for us Waterside's limit is $40,000, so if all else fails we can go back there (because I'd rather do that then stay in this basement).

Uh...what else. I got my oil changed today, woo. And I only have one day of class next week which is pretty cool too.

Posted by Rachel at 6:04 PM |

Monday, November 13, 2006 

Today I skipped my watercolor class in favor of doing other homework and apartment shopping. And I'm quite excited to say that I think I've found our next apartment. It's the complex across from Waterside (where I lived before here) and they're running a special where they have a certain number of their townhomes available for $449 a month - that's $35 less than we're paying here, and for a nicer, bigger place. At first the lady I talked to when I called told me they were all full, but then she called me back this afternoon and said they had a couple applicants fall through so we could apply for one. I'm really excited; I got the application today and Dan and I have it mostly filled out already so we can bring it back tomorrow.

In other news, when I got up this morning my misting fountain was shattered all over the floor. :( I'm not sure if kitty knocked it over or if it was just unstable in its crappy stand. I thought I heard a crash in the middle of the night, but I wasn't sure if I was dreaming or not. Turns out I wasn't. I have this idea though that I might make some sort of abstract art out of the glass shards. We'll see; right now the shards are in a box on the couch. I thought about gluing them all back together to see if I could make the fountain work again, but I think that's a project I don't have the patience to undertake anytime soon.

Posted by Rachel at 11:40 PM |

Sunday, November 12, 2006 

This is the third day in a row that I've gotten a headache.

My life isn't even particularly stressful, at least not any moreso than usual. I even had today off from work (and school, obviously). Maybe it's all my staring at the computer screen.

Thanksgiving break the week after next, and I CANNOT WAIT. Two days off from class and at least one off from both jobs. Black Friday will probably suck because I'll probably have to work, but I'll live. I think I'm gonna sell some stuff on eBay to try and raise a little money for Christmas presents. Plus end of the semester is coming, which means I can sell my school books soon too (granted, I'll just have to buy more for next semester, but I'll deal with that later).

I have this project for my graphic design class that I'm actually really enjoying. I have to put together a book (very simple, with 8 pages of my own material plus a cover and all the other elements that make up a book) and I get to design everything. Between Adobe Photoshop and Pagemaker, I'm right at home and actually seriously considering using Pagemaker to make photo albums instead of all the scrapbooking stuff I've bought.

I also think I'm going to minor in graphic design instead of art. Though if I do that, a lot of my art credits that I took will be wasted...either way, I'm gonna have to take 12 credits in either spring or summer if I want to graduate in 4 years. Yuck.

Posted by Rachel at 9:41 PM |

Saturday, November 11, 2006 

I got this great idea from Liz D., whose birthday is the day before mine.

I want to go back to Chicago for the weekend of my birthday.

Would anyone be interested in going with me? We'd leave early Friday the 19th (maybe shack up at my mom's and have her take us to the train station) and leave Sunday the 21st at 3pm and make it back to MI by like 9pm. Saturday is my birthday; we could sightsee and then go the the Excalibur night club that night in honor of my 21st. It's right down the street from the Red Roof Inn, the hotel I'd pick.

So who'd be interested? Come on, it's CHICAGO! You can't tell me we wouldn't have a blast.

UPDATE

I reserved a hotel room at the Red Roof Inn this morning. Ryan agreed to go, so I've got room for one more (unless we get enough people to reserve another hotel room). Total cost would be $120 for round trip amtrak ticket and two nights in the hotel.

Posted by Rachel at 3:57 PM |