Dental Hygiene

So, I made the last picture my camera ever took the background on my desktop at work. Every once in a while I sneak a peek at it and I really want to go to the beach. All my life I’ve hated the beach, and now I find that I want to go there, even though it’s freezing outside and the beach in North Carolina is probably colder then it was the day we went.
I went to the dentist today, I hate the dentist, and I really do have a problem with people carrying on a conversation with me while scraping my teeth or putting gunky stuff all over them making it impossible for me to swallow without gagging. I really like the hygienist that works on my teeth though, I met her the first time in September when I went and she talked about her son so much I thought she was trying to sell him to me. But he’s super cute and my type so if she had actually offered I would have happily accepted. I have come to learn though that she just loves her son and thinks the world of him, nothing wrong with that. She also loves her dogs and thinks the world of them, so when I told her about my boxer she went on and on about how great boxers are, how smart they are and get this, how calm they are. I laughed, I let the smart comment pass with a smile, but the calm part got me going. I have yet to meet a calm boxer, and considering that my dog can open the back gate I’m content to believe that they may be someone bright animals, but calm? That’s an adjective I have never heard someone use to describe boxers. We’re talking about a dog that randomly jumps to your eye level if you stand still too long, or one that throws himself against the door if you aren’t paying enough attention to him. He’s so annoying. She asked me if I had a picture as though this were my children who gets school pictures so I have a wallet sized photo I can carry around. I had to admit that I don’t, but I don’t have any pictures in my purse so I don’t have to feel so bad. But then I realized that I don’t have pictures of my dog and me together past the time that he was 2 or 3 months old. I have lots of pictures of him obviously, but none of the mommy/son duo.
Wo, I just digressed. The thing is, this lady, she’s super nice, but she has these conversations with me while my mouth is wide open. She asks me questions. You can’t stick things in my mouth and then start asking me questions! So I would remember the answers and when we had a break and my mouth was free I would answer her questions. Or if I could get by with an “uh huh” or a “nuh huh” I would, turns out nodding and shaking your head are out of the question when someone’s scraping your teeth.
Oh, I have to get some work done now and my computer is moving slow so I’d better post this and move on.

Update

Tami reminded me that I didn't tell you guys how today went. It didn't. Stupid people never called to confirm the appointment. In the meantime I have found a house that has been repossessed. I also have done some more research and found that people take you more seriously if you've been preapproved for a loan. So I applied to be pre-approved. You home owners, any advice would be welcomed, I don't know what I'm doing and while I feel like my mom supports me in this, she's not handing out the advice like I would like. I e-mailed her to tell her that I applied to be pre-approved and she said, "cool". That's it.
I've also found out that there is a non-profit organization that helps cover the downpayment, because apparently they are just good natured like that, I was skeptical, but they can't demand a repayment, they said so themselves. They are allowed to do this if it is a gift, with no expectation of repayment. Yes, I'll take free money. Also the bank I applied to be pre approved through has a special first time home buyers loan where they cover the closing costs...they say I'd be saving about $5,000. Yes, I would like to save that. So a mortgage officer is supposed to be calling me. Now people have called today but no one leaves a message and we know how I feel about the phone. Relax, I was at work so I couldn't answer, I didn't just look at it and ignore it...today, I did do that yesterday. So hopefully tomorrow I'll learn more. If not, I'll update when I finally hear something.
P.S. I bought a camera, thank you Sarah for the New Egg reference. Yes, folks, my camera will be orange...kind of like my laptop is yellow, my phone is orange, I like to have a little color in life. Why fit in when you were born to stand out right?

Homeward Bound I Wish I Was Homeward Bound

My search for a new home still continues (as does my search for a new camera). As some of you know I've looked into buying, renting, and even considered for a brief moment moving back home...just a brief moment though. The other day I made a call to a rental house, it's perfect, three bedrooms, two full bathrooms, new carpet, new paint, large kitchen, blah, blah, blah. Only thing this house doesn't have is a pet-friendly attitude. As even more of you know, I have a dog. So for half an hour after I hung up the phone with a prospective landlord, I contemplated what I could do with my dog for a year so I could live in this house (which more than likely would have a contract since the guy I talked to is a lawyer). In a year I would be ready to buy my first home so if I could just get rid of the dog for a bit, like a puppy boarding school...people do it with their children.
I got annoyed, the rental house was a really good deal, I think that's made evident by the fact that I was willing to sacrifice time with my dog in some important growing up years, I mean he's almost to the teenager stage, don't want to give him ammo to use against me later. That's when I looked into buying again, there are options for first time home buyers, good options. Since I already have two roommates I already have financial assistance in making the mortgage payment. Anyway, needless to say I am trying to set up "viewings" tomorrow on two that I am interested in. The best deal is probably in the West-End Ghetto, which isn't as bad as the actual Ghetto, much safer, but still not a friendly environment, or maybe I'm just a snob. The other townhouse (by the way I've been looking at townhouses to start, I've thought this through) is in an area of town I'm more familiar with and it's close to the interstate so I can still get to work pretty well. I'll let you know if I actually get a chance to view these properties, I'd really like to speed this process along.

So Long Old Friend

I just got back from a weekend in North Carolina. First, I have to note that my cold/sinus whatever thingy went away while I was there and I've decided it's one of two things, first could be that I don't get enough sleep at home or the second could be that the house I live in needs a new air filter (there's always dust in my room even when I just cleaned it). Of course there's a third option, I'm allegeric to Virginia.
While I was in North Carolina we went to the beach, but not just any beach, the Marine beach. I got to see at least two short, tattoed covered marines running along the beach, didn't hear the theme music from Chariots of Fire, but that would have been really cool. Even though it's not really even spring weather here (or in North Carolina) meaning it was windy and the weather was cold, my nephew was all about being in the water, so that meant, being the good aunt who was worried he might wash away, I was in the water quite a bit too. I was having a pretty good time until I was running from a wave and my camera fell out of my pocket. My nephew saw it a few seconds before me with an, "Oh no" and I quickly picked it up. I would like to say that the picture of the sand is the last picture is took because it comes across as much more dramatic, but the last picture would be the one with my nephew staring out into the ocean, it's a cute picture, just doesn't have that same feeling of despair. You may ask yourself how I got the pictures if the camera is no longer working, luckily for me, my laptop has a direct "port" for my memory card and though the camera didn't make it, the memory card survived.
Now I am currently in the market for a new camera. I've had the camera for a while, so I guess that's okay...right? It will be missed though. Have fun at the beach though, that doesn't normally happen.
OKay, I'm going to bed.

If the moon had to run away and all the stars didn't wanna play

Yesterday I had a Michael Jackson medley...anyone catch it? Anyone read this?
I went to Target last night only because I had a dinner appointment at 6 and it got pushed back to 6:45 when I was already en route so I just turned into Target. I figured that I needed windshield wiper fluid anyway. While I was there I actually looked at the shoes. I normally don't look at the shoes, I'm not a shoe kind of girl, but when I was in California I picked up a new pair of shoes at the Target there, the right size and color, may not be my all time favorites, but I found some that were my size and didn't have heels. That's something I don't understand about people who makes shoes. How tall are these people, they are all about heels and I've got to tell you if someone has to buy a pair of size 11 shoes chances are they are tall enough without two inch heels. It just bothered me because I wanted a nice pair of shoes, but I don't want to be any taller, 5'11" is tall enough for me I don't have to pass the 6ft mark. I perused 3 aisles of shiny black, brown, red, and silver, even some gold shoes, I scanned for the "11" and then went from there. Almost every pair had big heels on them, and if there were no heels they were just plain ugly. I don't need (nor want) shoes with zebra print, gold sparkles, or hold the potential to kill me if I attempt to walk across the room.
This is why I'm not a shoe girl.

You see a sight that almost stops your heart, just beat it, beat it, keep on going with full force don't stop; the kid is not my son.

I had to put my plant down today. When I went to California I forgot to tell someone to water it, so when I came back to work last Tuesday it was looking pretty ragged. But I began to water it right away and by Friday is was looking pretty good, and then for some reason today it was missing a million leaves and looking worse (though not browner) then when I first got back from California. I just don’t get it, it was recovering just fine and then…kaput, dead. I figured I could save it this time, but not with the pretty leaves gone, if I tried it would be Chrissie (said with a lisp) all over again, when I fostered a stick…hoping one day it would be the pretty plant it once was. My roommates and I called her Chrissie (said with a lisp) and I tried to revive her, talked to her, watered her, my roommates were jerks and gave her milk and skittles, we even sat outside once listening to Michael Jackson and sunbathing. Nothing worked, once Chrissie was a stick she couldn’t come back. I couldn’t bear to watch that happen again.
So she’s in my trashcan this morning when my boss comes in, she first notices that it’s not on my desk and then she looks at the trash and says, “Good, because Christmas is over.” Oh, did I not mention it was a poinsettia? A plant’s a plant; if you can keep it alive I say go with it. Then for a split second I could picture my boss coming into work that morning half and hour earlier and ripping off the leaves so I would think the plant was sick. She’s been waiting for the plant to go, and I felt like saying, “Well tell me how you really feel”. So now my desk seems so bare and empty without my little piece of outside, and who is going to help me finish off my cup of water at the end of the day? Maybe I should go plant shopping tonight.

Flight 7634: Nonstop to discomfort

People wonder why I prefer to drive when traveling rather than to fly. Just to help prove my point I took some notes when I was flying last week. First things first I suppose I was in the airport a lot last week, running from connection to connection. I stood in a security line 4 times for a trip that was just here to there. As you stand at security most airports have a television screen prompting you to prepare yourself to go through the line. They've got it down to a three step process - though I can't remember exactly what they are, but I remember the little animations. Take out your laptops and video camera (in the x-ray they look like little bombs), take off your shoes and belts, and wait until your stuff has gone through the machine before you walk through, make sure to have your boarding pass with you too. I have to admit that the walking through the machine is the hardest part for me, I am determined to follow the rules once set in place and yet they have a security guard calling me through when my stuff hasn't gone through! I can't go before my stuff does the animation told me so! So I finally walk through, don't even beep, and then go down to get dressed again for my flight. They get to do all of this stuff and I'm still not allowed to joke about a bomb. Which I almost did but luckily right before I did I saw a long sign prohibiting me from just that kind of entertainment.

Now I like traveling; I just don’t like all the options for traveling. If I had my choice I would drive everywhere, somehow I’d have a magical car that never runs out of gas and eyelids that never grow heavy. Another thing I don't like about flying and this is probably the most important one is that I never get to sit by someone cute. I see cute guys waiting for the same plane and I think to myself, “Maybe this time I’ll get to sit by one of those.” But even before I board the plane I know I won’t be because they were already called to a boarding “Zone” before my number 5 was called. I don’t see that advantage from loading a plane from front to back, that’s annoying. Let the people who have to sit all the way in the back go first, biblical in a sense, because the first shall be last and the last first, but apparently whoever decided on how to organize the zone’s isn’t a bible enthusiast. So I have to get to 17e (that’s right, a middle seat) and I’m stuck behind some lady with an oversized carryon, trying to put it in the overhead compartment and she’s standing in front of row 8. Really? What zone is she in? Finally, after bumping a couple people in the head with my carry on bag I get to 17e, all the arm rests are up and a generously proportioned, yet somewhat friendly woman is sitting by the window. I sit next to her, but not wanting to seem rude I hold off on pulling down the armrest. When it looks as though everyone is on the plane and the seat next to me is still vacant I politely inform the lady that I’m going to scoot over. While I’m there a man comes on the plane and makes his way directly to my row, but is on the other side. As he tries to get ready to take his seat I am placed in the uncomfortable position of being eye level with his butt cheeks. I try to look out the window but just knowing what is right there makes me uncomfortable. Then, when everyone should have already been on the plane one last passenger gets in, I’m wondering to myself what kind of clout he’s got because I’ve never been able to get on a plane this late in the game, and I just feel as though he should have been able to. So he comes and as it turns out, I’m in his seat. I scoot back over to sit by the lady who is having trouble reaching her pad of paper on the ground so I reach down and get it for her. I politely put down the arm rest and wait for take off. I hate middle seats. As I am sitting there staring out the window, making the woman next to me feel as though I am staring at her I hear some cheerful conversation between strangers, it’s on of the cute guys several rows up, and aisle and middle seat having a casual conversation on how much they have in common. I repeat, I never get to sit by the cute guys.
Another thing I don’t like is that the penny crunching airlines have been doing since I was 18 years old has officially left me without anything to eat. The first time I flew I was giving a little gourmet Lunchable. On this first leg of my journey I was given a pack of crackers, which at first repulsed me, I read the packaging, Cream Cheese and Chive did not sound appealing to me, but being hungry I took my chances. I actually really liked them. Luckily for me the uncomfortable middle seat flight was a short one and for my four hour flight I would be lucky to be by the window, my favorite spot on a plane. I got another chance to eat the Cream Cheese and Chive crackers because they had those on this flight as well. A four hour flight with six crackers in the stomach and six about to join them; This is all I had eaten that day. They passed around menus for overpriced lunch items and aisle seat man ordered an $8 sandwich. I preferred to keep my money because what’s the point in paying $8 for a sandwich which I am going to go through and remove all the anti-pleasantries that people assume others would like to have on their sandwich and therefore reducing an $8 sandwich to a $2 sandwich that wouldn’t be $8 worth of hunger satisfaction. Still beats the flight home where I traveled for 10 hours and was not once offered any food, not only that but the one time they brought around the beverage cart I had momentarily passed out from exhaustion and woke up as the cart was at my aisle and the attendants were on either side of it, serving the aisle in front and the aisle behind and I couldn’t tell if they had already come to me because everyone on my row was asleep, then as I was about to risk waking up the gaseous woman curled up next to me and try to get some liquid refreshment they quietly consulted each other and put the beverage cart away, never to be seen again until they were collecting trash at the beginning of our initial descent.

After all of this they still have the audacity to leave my luggage somewhere else! On the way to Sacramento they left it in LA (which I hate by the way) and then on the way back they left my luggage in Las Vegas....I just don't get it, I had to walk a mile to the Gate D security check point, stand in line for who knows how long, take my shoes and belt off, get redressed, ride a little Amtrak like device to the actual Gate D terminal, find my gate, sit and watch people mindlessly waste time and money on the slot machines in the middle of the terminal (Wheel of Fortune slot machines...seriously?), finally board the plane, and wait for take-off and my luggage couldn't make it to my plane in the hour and half?

Yeah, cars are the superior method of travel. You can take as many liquids as you want, you can't lose your luggage unless you're an idiot, if you neighbor smells you can open the window, you can stop when you need to go to the bathroom and you'll actually be able to move around in it, there's no limit on how much stuff you can take, you don't have to hear the cries of stranger babies, and when you get to your destitnation you don't have to wait for the other 40 passengers to deboard before you can even stand up. Oh and you know what else? You can joke all you want about bombs in your own car.