I am in desparate need of a big huge cd case. I just counted, and I have approximately 83 cds. Not counting the ones at school. Or that I'm about to burn. I currently have 4 cd travel cases, with a maximum capacity of 68 cds. I'm a terrible person, and I have two cds shoved into some of the pockets in my one holder. But dannnnng. I hate those big "binder" type cd cases, but it looks like that's what I need. That, or a portable mini-jukebox. Geez. I keep trying to figure out a way to organize them, but that's hard to do with four different cases. I think when I finally get a stinkin' huge case, I'll do them alphabetically with albums in chronological order (by artist). Because I'm a geek like that.

Mmmm, so this is it. Tomorrow morning we're leaving (bright and early) for Pennsylvania and on Sunday we're going to Ocean City, Maryland. Finally! Beach! And loooots and lots of reading. I don't think I'm bringing my laptop, so don't expect any updates until next Monday or so--and even then, who knows. Things are going to get a little crazy with all the packing for school and stuff. But I'll try. If you care, that is. ;)

I had to go to the dentist today. So I worked another split shift--10:00 to 12:30, and 2:30-7:30. I seriously felt like I was at Pier One for my whole entire day. Not a fun thing. Of course, I did have that break for--what? The Dentist? Oh yeah. Lovely. Okay, so I can't really complain that much...it didn't hurt at all, I just got two of my bicuspids sealed (I really don't know much about it, except it prevents cavities). Woo.

Is it bad that we're leaving at 4 am and I have yet to begin packing? At all? Maybe I should work on that...I'm currently in the proccess of downloading pretty much every Death Cab for Cutie album and EP (except "You Can Play These Songs With Chords", cuz Caleb has that). I was only going to do "The Photo Album", but I accidentally got songs from other cds and then...well, it snowballed. So I'm sitting here cursing at my WinMX (literally, "Curse you WinMX! Be faster, be faster!") as I wait for my stupid 56k Cable modem to work.

I love the internet.

I wish I could make a painting of the way it felt, driving home tonight. Every so often, there are times when I drive at night where everything just gets...hazy. Listening to Mae, holding on to the steering wheel with one hand, I watched as the flourescent neon lights passed by me, bright splashes on an otherwise darkened canvas. I felt like I was halfway, in-between, not completely there. I still feel vaguely out-of-focus. I think everything is just starting to hit my mind, the realizations that summer truly is almost over. It's funny, because it's felt like such a long time, and yet I don't even have to close my eyes to feel the warm breeze of Branford, FL hitting the back of my neck as I stood outside, watching Eb and Caleb skateboard in the middle of the street after midnight. It all feels so clear to me, the beach and being touristy in Ripley's Believe It or Not, the little diner with amazing crepes, and the many mornings of spending way too much time in bed.

And yet, here I am, thousands of miles and hundreds of days away from where I started. I can't believe that this week is almost over, that I'm going to a different beach on Friday, that school is approaching as rapidly as a freight train. I feel as though I'm standing on the tracks, seeing it come towards me, but not realizing exaclty how close it is.

However, I'm realizing it enough to get lazy. These past few days have been terrible for me. Honestly, I just want to sit around and count the minutes till I'm gone. Or at least, watch tv. All of my drive and determination is quickly dissapearing. It's as though my mind says, 'Hey, there's no point--you're leaving soon, and when you get to Virginia, you'll be soooo busy. Just sit here and do nothing! Watch rerun after rerun of Trading Spaces and SNL's from four seasons ago. It won't hurt you!" Hah. Maybe not, but my energy is being sucked right out through my fingers and into the remote control. I really wanted to finish the layout for the "culture" section of the site, but I don't know if that will happen before Friday. I'm working most of tomorrow, and then I have to pack--seeing as how we're leaving the next morning and I haven't so much as thought about what I'm bringing with me.

If you've never eaten at California Pizza Kitchen, you need to. Their garlic chicken pizza is truly amazing. Words do not do it justice. Oh, and if your excuse is that you don't have a CPK near you, then go to your local grocer, my friend. They've got frozen versions that taste almost exactly like the original. I happen to know, since Courtney and I split one tonight. Yum. (Oh, and I really have no idea if grocery stores that aren't in Michigan carry them, seeing as how I live...in Michigan. But it never hurts to check!)

We rented Punk-Drunk Love tonight. With Adam Sandler. I can't say I'm a huge Adam Sandler fan in the first place, but...wow. The plot was just terrible. Horrible. It was honestly one of the strangest movies I've seen in a long, long time. The filming was beautiful, lots of great camera angles and unique long-shots and editing. And if it were just a so-so movie, that would make a difference. But this? Ugh. Terrible. Don't be a fool like me and waste three bucks on it. I wouldn't even watch it on Saturday Afternoon Movie Television.

Courtney got me a pound of Breakfast Blend ground coffee from Starbucks. She works there, so she gets free coffee now and then. I'm very excited, Jill (my roomate) is bringing a coffee-maker this semester, and I even bought vanilla syrup and caramel sauce to use on it. We are gonna be coffee heaven, oh yes.

Well, I have to go to work tomorrow at ten, so I think for once I'm going to bed before midnight. So enjoy your night/day/whatever, and buy some garlic chicken pizza. Your stomach will thank you.

I really don't know where to begin. Yesterday was a good day. Today--very bad. So what do you want? Good or bad? Well, unfortunately, this entry is not interactive, so you're stuck reading whatever I decide on. And I decide...well, we might as well go in chronological order (and hey, if you really feel the need to see how bad today was, you can just scroll down and read the second part first).

So yesterday was fine. I found out that I got an A in my Boring History Class. Yay! I also discovered that it's going to transfer real quickly, so I don't even have to worry about not getting the Junior meal plan and stuff. I also got to go to this cool little thrift store called "Karma" with my friend Dave. We ate at this teeny tiny little diner on the corner of 10 Mile, with cheesburgers almost as good as the Texas Inn (but not quite). Later, Kate and I went to the mall and wandered around for a while...not much there. Honestly, malls just don't give me much of a thrill anymore. Not to be all "Woo, I'm in college, I'm above your high school mall games" or anything. But dang. These stores are just way too overpriced. Anyways, my night wasn't all that exciting, I ended up going to bed fairly early. Caleb is on vacation this week, which stinks becuase I feel as though my motivation for going online has split in half. No "door opening" sound of him signing onto IM for a while. And so I went to sleep.

Today. Not so good. The day as a whole wasn't even that bad, but it was funnelled into and out of with two not so great things: me being pulled over. Yes, twice. It all started with the bad decision to drop off my transcript-request form before work. Well, I get to MCC and the line is fifty million people long (okay, six). And only one lady working. So I wait, and I wait, and finally I get to the front of the line. In order to simply hand her the form, hear her say, "Thank you" and leave. Yeah, they definitely need to work on getting a drop box.

So that's all well and good, except that I now only have ten minutes to get to work, which is twenty minutes away. Great. So I pull out of the MCC driveway, turn left, stop at the stop sign, and then begin heading down a very short road that leads to a light. I start putting the pedal to the metal, trying to make it to the light and its green left turn arrow. I look down, realize that I'm going 65 mph, and two things happen at once.

I think to myself, "Gee, it would stink if I got pulled over right now."

I look back up to see a white motorcycle cop pull out behind me and turn his lights on.

Beautiful.

I'll spare you the details in order to say that I got a ticket for going 20 over. And he let me off easy, because I was going wayyy faster than that. Luckily it's only a "civil infraction," but I think I still get points (and of course there's the lovely ticket that we really can't afford to pay right now).

Because of all that, I ended up being 20 minutes late to work, which I hate. Recently they've been doing tons of construction all around me and I have to leave extra early to even get close to being on time. My manager hasn't made a big deal out of it, but I still hate being late.

So I get to work and end up having what seems like a zillion customers from the Bad Place. They want rugs. That are underneath all the other rugs. For the sale price. When the sale ended two days ago.

Finally I got out of there to get my hair cut. That was one of the few pleasant experiences of my day. I was kinda scared, seeing as how I sorta got bangs, and I'd never really had bangs before...but it all turned out well. Expensive, but well. I'm happy with my hair, it looks exactly the way I wanted it, so yay for that.

I went back to work after the appointment and got the lovely opportunity to re-arrange the front window. Lovely, that is, if you enjoy holding thirty pound mirrors above your head in full focus of the sun's beaming heat.

Finally, I came home. Thankfully my parents weren't too angry about the ticket, just dissapointed that it's more money that we have to pay. I watched some tv, ate some pizza, and all was well.

Until Phil came home and we decided to drive to the highway so I could try out my new camera tripod. I drove to the end of our street, stopped, and turned onto 11 mile road. I'm driving along at a nice normal pace, not speeding, being a good girl--when suddenly I see lights behind me.

"He's not pulling me over, is he?!" I exclaim to Phil. "Maybe it's an ambulance." Thinking that, I pull off to the side. And hear a loud speaker saying, "Please turn on to a side street." Okayyy...I turn onto the side street, all the while shaking my head and saying, "He's not pulling me over. I was not speeding. How can he pull me over when I wasn't even speeding?! I can't believe this is happening to me...."

The officer comes over to the window and asks for my license and registration. I give it to him, saying meekly, "I"m sorry officer, but I dn't believe I was speeding."

"Speeding? What about that stop sign you blew by turning onto eleven mile?" I rack my brain...no, I stopped at the stop sign! I know I did! I will swear on my dead great-aunt's poor grave that, darn it, I stopped at that stop sign!

Well, he takes the liberty of asking if I have a good record.
"Yes sir," I squeak out.
"No tickets?" he asks.
"Only one..." smacking myself on the forehead in my mind.
"How recently?" he inquires.
"Um, earlier...." I pause, "today." He nods and is off back to the squad car.

I sit behind the wheel, pleading with God not to give me another ticket. I've learned my lesson! I wasn't even speeding! And for goodness sake, I stopped at that stop sign!

He returns, and give me my license back. "I want you to drive safely, okay? Make sure you stop at those stop signs. We don't want you getting run over."
"Yes sir, officer, thank you." I stutter out.

And he leaves.

Thank you Lord!!! I can't even imagine how angry my parents would have been if I got two tickets in one day. I shudder at the thought.

Well, after that encounter, you can bet Phil and I weren't getting anywhere near the highway to take pictures. We drove home, and now here I am. Heh, I'm surprised I'm not in the Detroit Jail at this point. Thank the Lord.

All I have to say is, I am now obeying every traffic law to the letter. Heck, I doubt I'll even be making turns on red when it's legal or crossing more than one lane at once. Hellooooo granny drivin'. And thank goodness I'll be outta here in T-minus two weeks.

Phew.

Michigan weather is very strange. It's been threatening to storm for the past two days and now it's just hot. Nasty, sticky, humid hot. At least I'll be spending most of my afternoon inside the a/c. It was actually funny, yesterday the sky was so gray and it was so cold inside work, that looking outside it practically seemed like it would snow. Now that would've been an interesting night.

Work was really draining yesterday, for some reason. That reason probably being that I stayed up late watching Death to Smoochy the night before. Which, I must say, was terribly twisted and cruel...and hilarious. Edward Norton is great, and Robin Williams--well, what really needs to be said there? It's Robin Williams. Anyway, I had to work at ten, so I ended up not getting much sleep. Which is sad, because I had seven hours (of sleep). That's what I normally get while I'm at school--or less--and I'm never that drained. I've been spoiling myself with typical night's sleep of nine or ten hours. Good for my body, bad for when I get back to school.

Church was really good this morning. I went to Lakeside Bible Chapel with my friend Kate. Her brother Bob leads worship and it was just plain good. Simple, with just a guitar and a piano, but sometimes it's nice to get back to simple things. He'd read a passage of scripture between songs, tying them all together and leading right to the message. He really has a heart for God, and it's encouraging to think that he has another job and didn't even go to school for that. I guess it's just a testimony to me showing how well God can use us even if we don't feel as adequate as others.

I'm about to eat my hand off--lunch is almost ready, and we're having cheese bread, italian-marinated grilled chicken breasts, and mashed potatos. I might just die happy. If only I could take some of this good food back to LU with me. :)

Wow. I have definitely been sitting at this computer for way too long. My neck hurts, eyes are fuzzed over, my head is a pile of mush...and yet here I remain. Mainly because I wanted to post before I watch the movie I got (Death to Smoochy). Cuz I know once the movie is over, I'm going to have one thing on my mind: sleep.

So I finished my links page. And now I'm actually feeling a bit depressed and inadequate. After sifting through tons of design and photography and band sites that I like to visit, I realize (once again) how far I have to go. Now I'm thinking about what design classes I can take next semester, how I can learn flash and java and blah blah blah. This is a never-ending cycle. I guess I wouldn't feel so depressed if:

a) I had a better computer + software
b) this was June, not three weeks before I go back to school and things get crazy.

But that's life.

I got to go home from work early today. Well, I guess "got to go" wouldn't be the most apt way of putting it--more like, "sent home because we were extremely slow." I give my self a weak sense of optimism by emphasizing how glad I was to leave and have extra time. Let's not talk about the fact that I only have 19 hours of work this week anyway...

Last night I got to talk to Caleb for two hours. I killed the battery on my dad's cell phone, to say the least. Ah, but thank heaven for unlimited night and weekend minutes--even if it means I get to bed at three am. Caleb is leaving for vacation with his family on Monday, which is perfect timing since I'm leaving for vacation...Friday. Yeah. (Sarcasm should be noted.) Ah well, at least they're only going to St. Augustine, so he can call me now and then. I just keep tiding myself over with the fact that once I get back from Ocean City, I'll only have four more days till I'm back at school.

School. I miss it, a lot. More than I ever thought I would. I've been talking to my friend beaNie a lot lately--Caleb is gonna be on his hall next semester, and plus beaNie is just fun to talk to. Anyhow, the more we converse, the more I realize how much I miss LU. And people. I'm so darn anti-social this summer! I can't even help it, all my friends live too far away, or are working, or have boyfriends that take up their time. It's sad, really. I was saying the other day that when I finally do get back to school, I won't even know what to do with myself. I'll be overwhelmed by the amount of people in such close vicinity.

I watched Funny Face last night--Audrey Hepburn and Fred Astaire. Honestly, I don't think I will ever cease to be amazed by the amount of time spent on the choreography and costume design in that movie. I would give my new messenger bag to go on the set for just a day. And my bag is pretty darn cool, I must say.

Alright, I'd best be going. I'm in the middle of downloading quicktime so I can watch a movie that I downloaded from mis-one dot com. Gee, I love my slow internet connection...

p.s.
Can I just say, I know there has to be at least one person reading this journal. Just one. So please, for the love of all that is good in the world, leave me a comment. Or sign my guestbook. Or something! Just please, let me know that I am not alone in this cold, cruel world of html.

Tonight at work I realized exactly how pathetic my life sometimes is. Allow me to expound:

We have this stuff called "Soft Scrub" that we use for cleaning counters and such. It's kind of a liquidy-pastey bleach-type substance. Exciting, right? Well, as I was cleaning the counters, I looked down and caught a glipse of my shoes. My navy Converse All-stars used to be a nice pretty white on the toe part, but now (thanks to Virginia's lovely red soil) they're a mangy grayish red tint. So I thought to myself, "Hmmm...bleach...." And tried some on the tip of my shoe. Amazing! It immediately started to turn white. Well, I then spent the rest of the evening looking forward to when we closed so I could whiten up my shoes.

When the highlight of your evening is bleaching your shoes, you know there's something wrong with you.

I'm listening to this song by The Music called "Take the long road and walk it." It's got a very spacey sort of techno beat with u2-like vocals. Interesting, that's for sure. I like the title though. :)

Wow. I really don't have anything to say tonight. Yes, scarce for me, but I'm sitting here at 10:43 thinking that if there isn't a decent movie on TV, I'm probably just going to bed.

Welcome to Crystal's exciting life. Just try and hold on...

I love scarves. This is something I've discovered in the past few weeks. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I keep finding all of these cool ones at Goodwill. Maybe it's how versitile they are--I've been wearing them around my neck, holding my hair back, as a belt...they're just fun. I decided I want a scarf for every color of the rainbow. So far I have red, yellow, and green (plus a few patterned ones). People are going to start thinking I'm strange, wearing these scarves all the time, but then again this comes from a person who wishes she lived in the days where women wore hats and gloves every day. So strange might just be appropriate.

I just pulled in the driveway after dropping off my friends Kate and Julie at their house. We went to see "How to Deal" (yes, the Mandy Moore movie). I've been looking forward to seeing it for two reasons:

1. It's based on two books by one of my favorite authors (Sarah Dessen).
2. I want to cut my hair like Mandy Moore (yes, very pretentious reason to see a movie, I know...)

And you know what? It was good. Nothing life-changing, but then that wasn't exactly to be expected. It was entertaining, and it gave me some new decorating ideas (really! she had the coolest room!). It was just one of those movies that ended and I smiled. It made me want to draw a little more, to finish some of the projects I'm working on...yeah yeah, embrace life and all that good stuff. I'll probably end up buying it sometime if it goes on sale at Walmart. Heh.

I went to see Alien Ant Farm last night. They were real good; they played "Movies" and "Attitude" so I was happy enough with that alone. I liked their newer stuff too, which made the night even better. The frontman cracks me up, he had one of those winter hats with a little bill on it and funky glasses and he does these little hip swaying dances that are hilarious. The lead guitarist kicks his legs in the air randomly and the bass player is one of those big mellow guys that smiles a lot. The bands mantra was apparently, "Be nice to each other!" At least, that's what the lead singer kept repeating once in a while between sets. And we were, Detroit's scene isn't extremely brutal (at least not for shows like that). I had to deal with an extremely annoying shirtless drunk guy standing in front of me, but luckily he didn't elbow me in the face (I'm actually suprised he didn't, he was acting like a lunatic).

The first opening band wasn't bad, but the second one...wow. They called themselves "Die Trying" and darned if I wish they had. They were one of those bands that were cocky as all get out with nothing to back it up. They also felt the need to insert explitives between every other word--the more they talked, the less I liked them. Not necessary. It didn't help that they had three "number one fans" standing right in front of us. We're talking three chunky thirteen-year-olds who screamed (not yelled, screamed) at the top of their ear-splitting lungs every chance they got. Definitley didn't help the band's cause (hah, if they even had one).

All the same, I had a good time--and I got home early enough to rent a Mae West movie. Which I didn't end up watching because I talked to Caleb until 1:40am. But that wasn't exactly much of a sacrifice. :)

Only one more Boring History Class after tonight. I'm excited, I know you are! I still have an hour, so I think I'm going to try to work finishing up some things in my room. Hasta!

We've got heat lightning like crazy right now. Hopefully my computer won't blow a fuse as I'm typing this, but we'll see.

So I did it. I went to Chicago--didn't get robbed, didn't lose anything, didn't get lost (well, much), didn't even get SARS. Pretty impressive if I do say so myself. Courtney came over around nine on Thursday night, and we got to bed as soon as possible. Which ended up being eleven. And of course, I could barely sleep because I knew I had to get up the next day at five. So I drove about three house Friday morning (Cork did the last hour or so of the trip) on four hours of sleep. Luckliy I was pretty awake, so it wasn't bad. We had originally intended on using the subway and parking outside the city on the first day, then driving on saturday when we went to the museums. Heh. Didn't do that.

We had nice mapquest maps to and from my house to the subway station, the station to my relative's, their house to the Museums, etc.....and we ended up using none of them--at least not in the way they were intended. Since we didn't go to any of the places in the order we'd meant to. Which made for a bit of extra driving and some turning around, but for the most part, we figured things out on our own. And honestly, that was pretty darn fulfilling.

The first place we went on Friday was Wicker Town--one of the minor divisions of Chicago. It's basically the vintage/artsy district. I got three awesome scarves from "Una Mae's Feak Boutique" (yeah. I know.) and went into what seemed like a million different thrift stores and vintage places. It was great for inspiration, but I've discovered more and more that apparently no one my size lived before the eighties. Because I simply cannot find vintage clothing that fits me worth beans. You'd think they'd at least have some small people back then. But no. I get stuck going through accessories because there's nothing else that works. I did find a pretty nifty old California license plate for a dollar, though--very exciting.

We drove further downtown after awhile, only to discover that parking only existed in sixteen-dollar-a-day lots and garages. After driving around for about half an hour on a search for legal parking spaces, we gave in and split one of the forementioned lots. After leaving the car, we did a ton of walking to plaes like Bloomingdales, Water Tower Place Mall, Anthroplogie, Urban Outfitters, and the Magnificent Mile (which really is a dumb name for a road). I got two cool shirts, yay me. We also came to the realization that there is a Starbucks on every single block in Chicago. Sadly, I am barely kidding. It's insane. We ate lunch at a little outdoor italian cafe--I had overpriced grilled shrimp and some bread, not too bad but not all that great either. Our feet gave out after a while, so we took solace in the familiarity of Barnes and Nobles. Mmmm, how good it felt to rest in a nice comfortable armchair for a bit.

We left the city around nine, and drove the hour and a half that it took to get to my aunt's parent's house. They live in the middle of nowhere, and it's a good thing "Children of the Corn" didn't come to my mind until we drove back to Chicago the next day. It was so deserted out there, and we were dead tired by the time we arrived.

Saturday was spent more on walking and trying to get to the right place than anything else, but I'll spare you all the details. All you really need to know is:

The Metra train (which we parked at and rode into town) is different than the subway (which we had to take to the museum).

You have to pay for each separately.

The Chicago subways stink, and the people at the "information" counters are extremely ignorant.

Just because a building is called "Old Dearborn Station" on a map doesn't mean it's actually a train station and not a shopping center.

Yeah. Our feet hurt, we got sick of the subway fiasco...nevertheless, the Museum of Contemporary Art was amazing, and the Museum of Contemporary Photography had the coolest exhibit of sixties photos. We left the city around eight and got back at midnight. I was able to talk to Caleb until two, which was nice, and then I finally dragged myself into bed.

So Chicago in a nutshell--lots of cool stores, lots of expensive stores, dumb subways (at least compared to Paris, DC, and NYC), and lots of pretty little places tucked along the way (like churches and parks). I had a great time and it was really nice spending two days with Cork. I'm always so happy with the way we can get together no matter where we are and things are exactly the same, despite all the growing and changing we've done. Solid friendships like that are hard to find, and I'm so glad I've got one.

Just wanted to let you all know....

I'M GOING TO CHICAGO TOMORROW!

Two days. Me and my best friend. Awww yeah.
It's Road Trip time!

So. Watched "Children of the Corn" last night. I don't really know what I was expecting, but...not that. I tihink I figured it would be a little scarier than it was. Although I must admit, some of the cult children...sheesh. I would NOT want to be stuck in a dark room with them.

It was fun, though. My friends Andy and Jay came over, we haven't done anything in a really long time. We got pizza and spent fifteen minutes trying to decide on a horror movie to get. We only got "...Corn" cuz it was one of the few that none of us had seen. We're opting for "The Evil Dead" or "The Exorcist" next time.

I skipped out of my Boring History Class early yesterday. I know, I know, I'm terrible. But I'd turned my report in, we watched a boring video, and then after the break we were supposed to cover the American Revolution. I'm sorry, but I just couldn't take it anymore. My eyes were going to be welded shut by sleep. So when we took our break--bam, i was out of there.

I haven't really talked to Caleb since Saturday. Isn't that sad? We keep missing each other on AIM or one of us will be gone...yeah. Quite sad. But he got my package today (yay!) and he's gonna call me tonight, so it's all good.

This is short, I know, but I need to stop at the post office and Micheal's before I go to work at 1:30. So hasta luego for now!

I love having connections. Example:

I have 47 college credits. At Liberty, you need 48 to be considered a Junior. I'm taking the previously mentioned Boring History Class this summer--3 more credits. 47+3=50 (yes, folks, I am a math genius). Which means I'll be a Junior in the Fall, and be eligible for the Junior Meal Plan (cheaper and more convenient). Except the online deadline for meal plan registration is at the and of July. My class ends on the 24th and the transcripts won't be sent for another few weeks. Hence my dilemma. How can I register for a Junior Meal plan if I'm not technically a Junior yet?

Well. This is where those nice connections pay off. My friend Peter works at Sodexho (our cafetria catering company), and he got me the hook-up (pardon my ghetto-ness). He talked to his manager and all I have to do is go in there and register in person when I get to school in mid-August. So yay for my awesome friend Peter, yay for cheap meal plans, and yay for the fact that I'll be a Junior after only one year of school! ::big cheesy grin::

We went Garage Sale-ing on Saturday morning. And dang, I found a ton of stuff. Not only did I get a nice merino wool sweater from Banana Republic for only five dollars, but I also found a record player (nice Technics turntable that we just hooked up to speakers I already have) for a DOLLAR! Annnnnd I got the following albums on vinyl (and they were only a quarter each):

Meet the Beatles - The Beatles

The Beatles VI - The Beatles

Hard Day's Night - The Beatles

Rubber Soul - The Beatles

Magical Mystery Tour - The Beatles

Revolver - The Beatles (Caleb is insanely jealous of this one, mwhahaha)

Help! - The Beatles

The White Album - The Beatles

Special Demo Album by Smashing Pumpkins

Yeah. I was pretty darn excited. I also got a really nifty little table to put it all on, for only 2.50. I am the queen of good deals! ::cough:: Ok, done now...

I sent Caleb a package today. I'm pretty darn proud of it, to be honest. Our computer and my laptop were both being done last night, and it took me practically five hours to get the Copeland cd burnt for him (I had to download new burning software, re-install my external burner, blah blah blah). So there was much time spent waiting for my computer to finish doing things, and I took that time to put some cool random things in the package. He's probably gonna think I'm crazy, sending him all this stuff, but honestly I was just getting bored. Plus I love sending people things, so the more the better. I'd go into more detail concerning what's in there, but he hasn't actualy gotten it yet, so I'd prefer for him to be suprised.

I watched an old Frank Sinatra movie last night: The Man with the Golden Arm. I can't say I was very impressed...I mean, I love old movies, love Frank Sinatra...but it just wasn't all that great. The other actors were pretty bad and the plot just wasn't all that entertaining. It's basiclly about a dealer who's trying to overcome a heroin addiction; pretty edgy for that day and age, but now--well, just not all that risque. So I can't say I recommend it.

It decided to get hot today. It's been in the mid-seventies for the past few days, which I can't complain about since we don't have A/C and I don't have the need to go swimming or anything really "summer" ish like that. However, today the nice city of Detroit realized, "Dang, it's summer! I need some heat!" And then proceeded to make itself a nice 86 degrees. Yes, I know, it's really not that hot compared to other places in the US right now. But sheeez, when I have to wear pants to work and drive for fifteen minutes in a hot, non-air-conditioned car to get there...well, that's just not very fun. But oh well. Have your glory, stupid summer weather. I'll be thankful enough for you in a few weeks, when I'm actually at the beach. Then you'll see.

Oh, one last thing--I have some things up at one more minute. Including this journal. Unfortunatly, it's irritating me to no end because for some reason, it won't let me style the scrollbars under the "journal" part of the frame. Everything else is fine and when I preview this page in Blogger, the scroll bars are fine. I even made it so this window opens separately. But noooo--still has to have the nasty ugly gray ones. If anyone knows how to fix this, pleaseeeee let me know. Until then, sorry--you'll have to deal with a bit of nastiness on my otherwise nice (though minimalistic) page.

I just want to say that I hate CSS and scrollbars sometimes. I can't fix these ugly gray ones on my journal page! Augh!!!

More to come....

Today was extremely long. And I only did three things:

Painted a deck and porch.

Worked out.

Went to my boring History class.

Have I mentioned the Boring History Class as of yet? I don't think so. Allow me to expound...
I am currently one credit short of being a Junior this fall. So I thought to myself, "Hmm, why don't I take a class over the summer, get three more credits, see if I can't get out of college a bit sooner?" And I am. Well, taking a class, who knows about the whole-getting-done-early thing. So I enrolled in European History 202 at the community college a few miles away.
And it. is. boooooring.

I am not kidding, this is the dullest class I've ever taken in my life. It's taught by an old guy who also works part-time as a librarian (yeah, that says a lot right there), and his whole point of the class is to teach "concepts" instead of "meaningless facts." So I'm sitting here in my "college" class, learning fifth grade definitions of Imperialism, Capitalism, Society, etc. ad nauseum. Thankfully, the fact that it's easy is convenient since it is, well, SUMMER. And we also get out early, which is nice. So I suppose I can't really complain too much, but dang--if this were a class that was part of my major, I would not be a happy camper.

So, as a reward for my hard work at staying awake in class tonight, I rented "O", with Julia Stiles and Mekhi Phiefer. I've yet to watch it, but hopefully it will be good. I mean, c'mon, it's based on Shakespeare's "Othello" and it has Julia Stiles. Has to have some merit.

I also made forty bucks today, which was a plus. I painted some of this house that gets rented out by the guy my dad works for. Yeah, try saying that five times fast. And what did I buy with some of my hard-earned money?

::drumroll please::
A domain name!
Woo-hoo!

That's right, as of right now, www.onemoreminute.net is officially registered to me. There's nothing there yet, because I have to wait till I recieve a confirmation notice to start using it (and have to transfer my files). But yay me! Big step in my whole website-goal. Yay me!

My brother just called me. He's helping out at a Christian camp in Connecticut for Russian/American kids. Now if that's not random, this is--it's directed by a guy who taught at the school I graduated from and also used to live in the basement of a house we rented when we first moved to Michigan. Crazy, ay? Anyhow, he's having incredible amounts of fun, which is good--although I was a little taken aback to hear that he snuck out with a bunch of kids the first night and went swimming. In his underwear. These are not things I need to know about my good little brother! Hehe. He's sixteen though, kids will be kids. ::cough::

Only thirty five more days until I see Caleb!
(yes)
(I am pathetic)
(and darn happy)

Wow. Well, that certainly was a quick weekend. I guess partly due to the fact that I worked Saturday night (leaving little time for fun diversions) and partly becuase I spent the rest of it...on the computer. Ok, well, that isn't entirely true. I did make it out to go downtown. I love shopping downtown, and the fact that I live in the Metro Detroit Area means I have plenty of "downtowns" to choose from.

I visited one on the west side this time, in order to go to a nice little place called "Record Time." My order of business? Buying two tickets to see Alien Ant Farm at the Shelter later this month. I'm quite excited, I'm not really a huge Alien Ant Farm fan or anything, but Caleb and I discovered their merits this past semester after downloading songs like "Attitude" and "Movies." Can't say I really enjoyed the "Smooth Criminal" remake, but otherwise they're pretty cool. And sheesh, it was only ten bucks--at the Shelter. The Shelter is a very, very small venue. Actually, it was in the movie 8 Mile (Yes, the Eminem one. Yes, I live only a few miles from that very road. No, I do NOT like him. Not one bit. And no, I haven't seen the movie). I'm sure everyone has seen the scene (either from the music video or trailers) where Eminem is rapping in front of a "huge" crowd during his first big preformance. Well, it's from the Shelter, and there's no way the crowd was as large as it seemed, because this place is quite tiny.

All this to say that the Shelter is small, and I'll be seeing Alien Ant Farm very very close-up for a measly ten bucks. So how could I refuse? I mean, really. The sad thing is, my brother will still be out of town (he's currently in Connecticut, helping out at a Christian Russian camp) and he's the one I go to concerts with when I'm home. Seeing as how basiclly no one that I know here likes the harder types of music that I enjoy (yes, yes, I know--Alien Ant Farm isn't exactly akin to Evergreen Terrace, Winter Solstice, or mewithoutyou. But when even AAF is considered "hard" to my friends--well, you see my problem). I didn't really want to go to the concert alone, and I remembered that one of the guys in my graduating class liked Alien Ant Farm. So I gave him a call and--viola!--instant concert partner. It's kinda funny, I had the biggest crush on this guy when I was in seventh and eighth grade. He probably knew, but I'm not really sure. It was one of those lovely unrequited sorts of things that fueled many poems and wishful journal entries. He also dated my best friend for approximately three years--so yeah, got over that one pretty fast. We've gone in two very different directions since then, so while he's a fun guy and all, definitely nothing left where that came from. Heh, especially since my heart is completely occupied by other (read: c-a-l-e-b) things.

I must apologize if this entry isn't one of my best, but it's past 1:30 and I'm getting rather fuzzy. I wanted to post something, though, becuase it's been a few days and I need to stay on track.

Back to this weekend--
I bought a new cd! Record Time has a great selection of used and indie cds, so I finally bought the new Copeland cd, "Beneath Medicine Tree."

Wow.

It is soooo good, and the liner notes are fantastic. I love vallum paper, really I do. Anyhow, listening to this cd made me realize how unemotional I've been as of late. You're probably groaning, but really! The lead singer, Rusty, is just so earnest and passionate that it really struck a chord with me. I've been so focused on all these little things I feel I need to "achieve" this summer, working so hard at keeping my mind off my feelings for Caleb. Oh, don't get me wrong, I think about him all the time and savor the happy feelings as much as possible. But I've been shoving the bad ones way down deep, the ones that make me really realize how much I miss him and how long it's been since I've felt his hand on my shoulder or his eyes watching me smile. And it has been long--which I realize even more listening to lyrics like:

"it was your "hello" that kept me hanging on every word and your "good-bye" that keeps me listening for your voice around each corner. i'll sing songs to help me stay up all night. i don't want to go to sleep...in the distance you can find the lips from which was sung a melody."

Well, the feelings started to creep up and for once I let them, becuase honestly, distracting myself and not fully realizing how much I miss him--that's not fair. To me or to him.

So final thought: Beneath Medicine Tree=very good cd. Pretty, nice arrangements, thoughtful lyrics, lots of earnest (yet not whiny) vocals...all in all just a great cd. Go buy it.

I need to go to sleep before I fall off the computer chair, but watch for a future post concerning the late night motivations and inadaquacy that I experienced yesterday evening. G'night!

I went strawberry pickin' today. No, not "picking." Pickin'. There must be an apostrophe, or it just is not the same pickin' experience. It was actually more fun than I thought it would be. Especially since it was just me and my parents...and I had to get up at nine. Ok, granted, nine am isn't exactly the crack of dawn. But I didn't fall asleep until three or four last night. Why? Power surges.

I got home from work at 8:00 last night. And let me be the first to say, it's bad enough working on a holiday. But when every single person who calls to ask if you're open is shocked, and expresses their pity for you...well, it doesn't exactly make one excited to be there. Luckily, the day went by fairly quickly and I wasn't even all that tired when I arrived home. After a little more "Advanced CSS" tutorial-ing, we got in the car and headed a few streets over to where the city fireworks were being held.

Every year, the city north of us has a huge fireworks display at their outdoor concert venue. This year, for some reason, they decided not to do it, so my nice city decided to grab it. Which meant all the people that normally go to the other fireworks, along with thousands more that live in our area, were all within a five mile vicinity surrounding my house.

Yeah. Lots of traffic.

We actually managed to get a decent parking spot in one of the business lots near the Tech Center (where they were launching them) and just sat outside our car. It was nice not to have to walk anywhere. So we put down the beach mat, set up a lawn chair, and waited. And...waited. As ten o'clock drew closer, the sky darkened with clouds and we could see lightning flicker in the corners of the sky. Eventually it came closer to the center, and God gave us some fireworks of his own. It was heat lightening, and it shot down from the sky in different configurations. As cool as the lightning was, people began to get antsy. It was 10:13, and the fireworks were supposed to start promptly at 10:00.

Finally, one of the security guards that was circling the parking lot on rollerblades (and let me tell you, ya haven't lived until you've seen a security guard on rollerblades) informed us that the show was deylayed until 10:30. So my parents and I sat back and waited some more. I read a little of Atlas Shrugged and drank more root beer. Minor problem--drinking lots of root beer and sitting in one place for a long time leads to a need for, well, a restroom. Which is sad, because when the fireworks finally did start at 10:30, my thoughts were along the lines of:

Ooooh! Cool! Ok, really have to go to the bathroom....wow! Neat! Gotta go to the bathromm, gotta go to the...nifty! Need a restroom, need a restroom...

And so forth. After a half hour (I told you, these are city fireworks. Big fireworks), they were over and it was all I could do to make it the short ride home.

I spent the rest of the evening on the computer, until around 1:30 when the heat lightning came around again. And the power surged. And the computer died.

I left it off and decided that it might be a good time to go to bed. Hah. Nice try, brain. After taking out my contacts and finally settling in, the power came back on. And off. And on. And continued to surge back and forth for another two hours. Now, this wouldn't typically be a problem. However, I have an electric window-unit air conditioner in my room. Which meant every time the power surged, it would turn off (heh, duh) and then turn back on. And it became really, really loud.

So yes, that is why I am running on six hours of sleep and a Tim Horton's French Vanilla Cappuccino.

The night is closing in on me as Diana Krall's "Look of Love" plays through my headphones. If I close my eyes, I could probably imagine some semblance of a romantic situation. Add a few candles, a little more breeze and...oh? What was that? A boy?!

Yeah, that would help.

The Boy, however, is currently in St. Augustine, FL. He's going to enjoy this fourth of July weekend with his Pap-pap and some good friends. On the beach. Don't worry, I only hate him a little. ::grins:: Re-reading that, it seems like he's just gone for the weekend or something. Hah. If only that were the case. No, he's seventeen hours away from me in his hometown outside of Jacksonville, FL for the summer. I won't see him until August--which, thankfully, is drawing near every second.

I'm listening to this band called The Velvet Teen right now. I really like them, lots of high vocals and drums; good tempos too. Download "Radiapathy" first, it's my favorite one. And I'm now laughing because I just realized how random my plalist is. Want to see?

Testing the Strong Ones ~ Copeland

Bullet to Binary ~ mewithoutyou

The Look of Love ~ Diana Krall

Cry Me a River [yes, the real one] ~ Diana Krall

Naked Girl ~ The Velvet Teen

Want You Back ~ The Jackson Five

Sign of the Times ~ Petula Clark

Radiapathy ~ The Velvet Teen

Counting Backwards ~ The Velvet Teen

Bringing a Knife to a Gunfight ~ Winter Solstice

The Boy From Ipanema ~ Peggy Lee

Love Song ~ The Cure (I really like the cover by Anberlin, which inspired me to download this.)

Beautiful Garbage (The Complete Album) ~ Garbage

Yeah. I'm wierd. We'll just leave it at that.

So I've won a small victory--frames! Yes, that's right--I, Crystal, can now design a web page using frames. Granted, I don't actually have one yet, but I have a test page that I made, and it uses the frames, and it works! Yay for me! I found this amazing site called CodePunk that is just wonderful. Tutorials galore. Now, on to style sheets....::shudders::

I'm listening to Mae and wishing that I had something good to eat. My mom and brother just got back from Target, carrying tell-tale Taco Bell drink cups. Which prompts my stomach to growl even louder. All that's in the fridge is frozen Mac and Cheese (ok, so there's a few other things...ok, a lot of other things, but nothing very fulifilling). I think we're having something of the grilled catagory tonight, though, so it's all good. If only I could scrounge up some cheese....

I just realized, 'Wow, what a great introductory paragraph! I will go down forever as having the opening part of my first post the narrative of a hungry, whiny girl.' Excuse me while I take a bow.

I suppose I should actually write a little "hey I'm so-and-so and this is what my site is about" type of thing, but isn't that what the whole "about" link is for? Granted, I don't actually have one of those yet, but I will, and by the time you read this I'm sure it will be up. Especially since no one will even know about this website until a few hundred posts from now. No, I'm not being falsely modest, I just know that it's going to take me a while to get this whole thing put together and hosted and yada yada yada.

So for now, maybe a little story on what got me all ambitious to start a website? Well here you are:

::cue inspirational music::

[narrator] Summer was almost at its midpoint. The lukewarm June days (Michigan, people, Michigan) were slowly but surely melting into relatively hot ones. As many excited individuals planned their trips up north or to the lake for the Fourth of July, one girl sat swiveling back and forth in her family's padded office chair and wished that she actually had something interesting to do...

::camera pans over rows of houses, centering in on a one and a half story dwelling with light blue siding and zooms through the doors and walls to show a nineteen-year-old girl with bare feet and short messy hair::

[narrator] She was only working 24 hours a week, at the most, and while she'd been doing a fairly good job distracting herself with some necessary reading and lots of random craftiness, she knew that she needed a project--something that would be productive and serve her well in the years to come. Since she was currently pursuing a degree in Graphic Design and getting more and more interested in photography, websites such as Autumn Rushes On and The Paper Brigade had inspired her. Knowing that it would be years (if ever) before she attained such a level of greatness, she realized that it all had to start somewhere. So, gathering up what little discipline and work ethic she had, she set out to carve out her own place in this tangled web (haha, WEB! Get it? ahem...) of pious intellectuals, musical elitists and drivelling fools--all the while taking care to avoid falling into those catagories at all costs.

::camera again shows the girl, this time draped lazily over the couch and grasping a vanilla coke. A remote control rests cautiously on her stomach::

[narrator] Will cheap entertainment ploys and must-see movies tear her from her original intent? Can she actually follow the complicated commands of styles sheets, frames, and java? Will she manage successfully without her dearly-loved (and extremely expensive) graphics programs like Photoshop and Illustrator that were left behind at the university computer labs?

Only time will tell.