OK people, today I have to walk around blindfolded for three hours for a project in school, and be out in public for at least some of the time. My friend Andrew has kindly agreed to lead me around, and I am sure he has some SEMI-mean stuff up his sleeve, but as long as he doesn't leave me alone, I trust him. Just pray that I don't trip and fall on my face or anything humiliating like that.

OK! You all win! Here I am! *holds out hands*  Ready, aim, fire! I know it's been forever. But I am not DEAD, so please hold all funeral, last rites, and flowers riff raff. (*cough Scott cough*)

Let's see, what to blog about...I guess an update is in order. Life is going well, but BUSY, to say the least. I am still working at St Vincent, 30 hours a week, sometimes more. I've also started classes at Marylhurst, so there are a couple days when I leave at 7:30a.m. and don't get back until almost bedtime. Ick. But I am enjoying myself and can't complain too much. As for living situations...this weekend, I officially moved out of my apartment in Beaverton and back home, for two reasons. The first reason, the MAIN reason, and the one that I am telling most people, is because once I start going to school full time in the fall, I will not be able to afford the rent that I was paying in that apartment. I will still be working some hours so I can keep my benefits, but it won't be enough for that particular apartment, so I am back here until I can save some money and find a cheaper arrangement. I sort of have one in the works for this summer possibly...me and two other girls are looking into an apartment or townhouse... but we'll see.

Now the other reason...the reason I tend to keep to myself more...is because my roommate and I are honestly just in different places in life. She now has a serious boyfriend (they will probably be engaged by this summer) who she is seriously with ALL THE TIME. I kid you not, when they are not at work or sleeping, they are together. Which put him (you guessed it) over at our place ALL THE TIME. Totally and completely obnoxious. He may as well have pitched in for rent and saved us some money. It definitely went over the top when I found his laundry (including underwear) folded on top of our dryer. SO needless to say...I love my ex roomie, but if we had lived together any longer, I seriously think our friendship would be damaged (either by me blowing up at her, or beating up her boyfriend) So I am honestly relieved to be back in an environment where I know I am comfortable and can live sanely. So we shall see what the future holds.

Well, that's basically the scoop on me now. I am kind of in shock that it's been a year since we graduated, and I am taking in the new music therapy stuff one day at a time, but am pretty excited to keep moving forward with it. I'll be sure to keep you all posted.  But for now, I'd better get back to unpacking. Ciao!!!

These are some family pictures from Christmas Eve and our beach trip after Christmas. Enjoy!:)



Me and my cousin Andrew, playing piano




My dad with my cousin's baby, Brielle



Singing Christmas Carols:)



Ocean at Cannon Beach



Isaiah and Brielle



Me and Isaiah

[FIRSTS]

First best friend: Erin Lass

 First break-up: Derek Ellerbrook

 First screen name: nutmeg0705

 First self purchased album: Trisha Yearwood:Trisha Yearwood

 First funeral: The last I can remember is my grandpa's when I was 8

First credit card: Blue US Bank one

First true love: Ice cream:-P

First enemy: homework

First road trip: through California with Monica (first w/o parents)

 [LASTS]

Last cigarette: Yeah right

Last car ride: From the grocery store home

Last library book checked out: yikes, can't even remember. Not a student since April:)

Last movie seen: Napolean Dynamite:)

Last beverage drank: glass of milk

Last food consumed: chocolate chip cookie

Last phone call: Audra Imus

Last time showered: at about 12:30 today

Last shoes worn: Tower East Sides

Last item bought: Dryer Sheets

Last time wanting to die: when I had the flu a couple weeks ago

Last time scolded: one of my coworkers telling me to wear a coat or something:-P

[RELATIONSHIPS]

 01. Who are your best friends? (in no particular order) Amy, Julie, Audra, Dookie, Steve, Jason, Levi, Andrew

02. do you have a boyfriend/girlfriend? nope

 [FASHION STUFF.]

01. where is your favorite place to shop? Sur la Table

02. any tattoos or piercings? two in each ear, used to have a belly button, but it's gone now

 [SPECIFICS]

01. do you do drugs?  currenlty taking cough syrup with codeine:)

02. what kind of shampoo do you use? Redken All Soft

03. what are you most scared of?  tornados

04. what are you listening to right now? i was listening to music on iTunes, but I just realized it stopped

05. where do you want to get married? hopefully in our new church sanctuary. My dad is project manager for the building project. Go Dad!

 06. how many buddies are online right now? wow, looks like Steve and I are the only ones up:)

 07. what would you change about yourself? I would have either curly hair or straight, instead of the wavy chaotic mess that my head produces

 [FAVORITE]

01. color: red

02. food: ice cream

03. subjects in school:  besides music and drama...English

04. animals: horses, dogs, pandas

05. sports: baseball and basketball

06. perfume: Ralph Lauren

07. cologne: i like many kinds, as long as they don't put too much on

[HAVEYOUEVER]

01. given anyone a bath?: yeah, different babies I babysat:)

02. smoked? a few cigars, no cigarettes

03. bungee jumped? no

04. made yourself throw up? no

05. skinny dipped? no

06: ever been in love? no 

07. made yourself cry to get out of trouble?  no, it never worked with my mom anyway

08. pictured your crush naked? no

09. actually seen your crush naked? NO:)

10. cried when someone died?  yes 

11. lied? Don't ask don't tell

12. fallen for your best friend?  no

13. been rejected? yes, who hasn't?

14. rejected someone? yes:(

15. used someone? hopefully not

16. done something you regret? sure, who hasn't?

 [CURRENT]

clothes: jeans, black button down shirt

favorite artists: too mant to name

[LAST PERSON]

you touched: can't remember, probably my roommate

you IMed: IMing with Steve now:)

you kissed:  Isaiah (see picture below) decided to plant one on my lips Christmas Eve:-)

[ARE YOU ]

understanding: I always try to be

open-minded: to a certain point, yeah

arrogant: hopefully not, but we all have our moments, I'm sure:)

insecure: sometimes, yeah

interesting: more like bizarre, probably

hungry: not at the moment

smart: depends on who you're comparing me to:)

moody: I'm a girl. nuff said

 hardworking: when I need to be

organized:  sometimes, when it is necessary

healthy: generally

bored easily: nah, i'm pretty easily entertained

responsible: yes

obsessed: no

angry: not very often

sad: not now, no

disappointed: sometimes

hyper: just give me caffeine

trusting: yes

talkative: sometimes, yeah

[RANDOM]

in the morning i am: depends on how much sleep I've gotten

all i need is: Jesus!:)

 I dream about:  finding my true love

who makes you smile: my parents and friends do very often

who gives you a funny feeling when you see them: a nausea funny or crush funny? 

[DO YOU EVER]

sit on the internet all night waiting for that someone to IM you: how 'bout no!

wish you were a member of the opposite sex:  I am good thanks

wish you were younger: nah.

[NUMBER]

of times i have had my heart broken: probably twice

 # of tight friends: see list above

of cds i own:  ugh, too lazy to count right now

of scars on body: about five I think. just little ones, nothing major.

Well, Christmas has officially kicked my butt. I'm honestly not too surprised. This last week, I had so much going on (mostly involving singing and working) and it was just go, go, go, straight into Christmas Eve. It was fun, yes, but exhausting. After performing in our Christmas Eve service, I was noticing that I was having trouble clearing my throat. By Christmas morning, my voice was completely gone. By this morning, I was unable to do anything but lie on the couch and surrender to my mom's insistance that I load up on vitamin C. Seriously...I felt like I'd been run over by a truck. Every inch of my body hurt, and moving just took too much effort. I am finally feeling a little better now, and I guess all in all, it wasn't a horrible day. Yeah, I was confined to the couch, but I got to watch many episodes of Smallville Season 2, a show that I have grown to love almost as much as Buffy:) I also took many naps and got a lot of sympathy from my parents, which is never really a bad thing. And I guess I can be thankful that my health was spared until after all my Christmas singing stuff was done, and that it hit me while I was home for the holidays and not in my apartment all alone or something. Hopefully if I just keep chillin for a couple days, it'll go away.

I hope you all had a fabulous Christmas! I'm looking forward to hearing about favorite presents and everything. That's always fun:) Until next time...

Y'know what really frosts my cookies...climbing into my warm bed and getting perfectly comfortable and then realizing that I left my cell phone-my only alarm clock-in my car. And after throwing on my jacket and forcing myself into the cold, realizing that my contacts are not in. And with it being dark and hardly any outside lights...not being able to see a blasted thing and therefore stumbling to my car like a drunken spazz. And with that...I am off to bed.

Hi guys! I apologize for the delay. Some sort of nasty virus decided to attack me last Wednesday, and I am still getting over it. And that actually leads me to the point of this little before-bed post.

I was feeling really frustrated yesterday, because I got what I thought was just a normal cold last week, but it turned out to be this stupid...I dunno, something-bug that was just NOT going away. I had a lot of cold-like symptoms, but they were just really severe and plus, I had this nasty cough that was keeping me up at night. So by yesterday, I was frankly just annoyed.

Now many of you remember Dewey Bertolini.  He used to go on and on about garlic, and how wonderful it was. He took garlic pills every day, and swore that he never got sick. Then he finally got mono, and everyone teased him. It was really funny. Anyway, I knew that garlic IS pretty good for your immune system, but never really gave it much thought.

So last night, my friend Julie and I went out for dinner at Romano's Macaroni Grill. (which I HIGHLY recommend, by the way. Come visit me in Portland, and I'll take you there:-) Anyway, we both happen to order dishes with TONS of garlic in them. It was definitely a lot more than I was used to, but if you've ever watched Emeril and all the "gahhhlic" he uses (*cheers and applause*), I'm sure it was nothing. Anyway, not only was I filling my body with garlic, but at one point, I was reaching over to try some of Julie's pasta, and because of the lighting, I couldn't tell that I had picked up a WHOLE CLOVE of garlic, and promptly proceeded to chew and swallow it. Seriously, I was SO surprised that I did not offend the whole Portland area last night, because I am sure that the garlic was seeping out my pores like none other. I even spent all day at work today popping gum and mints, just to be sure.

Anyway, the POINT of all this is....today I woke up feeling almost 100% better, I'm not even joking. I pretty much went from a 40% to a 96% in how I felt. GO GARLIC! I should write Dewey and tell him, and maybe he will revive his faith in garlic. I should write Emeril too, maybe he'll let me on his show! (heh, fat chance)

Anyway, in closing....if you're battling the sickies, you know what to do now!:)

The Incredibles=SO good, loved it

The Grudge=retarded, don't waste your time

I thought I'd share with you a little story from work. Now granted, it won't be nearly as exciting, funny or crazy as some of Leah's work stories, but it definitely tops my charts of "most eventful day at work". As most of you know, I work at St. Vincent Hospital. I love my job and the people I work with, even though it's a huge hospital and is just plain crazy at times. So that's the background. 

Now I'll move on to doctors. I'll admit that when I first got there, I had the mindset that the majority of the doctors at that place were bascially spoiled brats. I'd see so many of them come in, talk to other workers disrespectfully, and get upset when things didn't go exactly how they wanted them to. But now that I've been there longer and have gotten to know more people, I have actually become buddies with several doctors who are just...really cool people. I guess I always thought of doctors as orbiting on their own planet or something, but I've now found that many of them are just normal people who happen to be really good at saving lives. It's quite cool, actually. BUT...that doesn't mean that there aren't still a few out there who are...uh...how do I say this nicely...pee drinking crap faces. And now that I have worked there for about 6 months, I thought I'd pretty much seen all of the bad behavior these people could dish out. Ha. Hahahahahahahahaha.

Monday morning seemed like the beginning of any normal day. We were all in pretty good spirits, especially since we'd gotten an extra hour of sleep. Then surgery called and told us they were missing some films on a person that was part of their morning batch. (we send a bunch of films to surgery every morning) So we start looking for these films. Nina, our boss, left to look for them in another area. About 5 minutes later, a surgeon comes storming into the room, demanding to know where the films are. We tell him we are looking for them as best as we can, and if worst comes to worst, we can reprint them. He then goes off about how the patient is asleep and they need the films NOW, and how this process is unacceptable. He's demanding to know where our supervisor is, as we're frantically trying to page her. And then when he found out that it would take about 10 minutes for MRI to reprint the films, he proceeded to throw the biggest fit I had ever seen a grown-up person throw in my life. He was literally screaming at us and stamping his foot, saying that someone was going to lose their job over this. In the meantime, the phone is ringing off the hook, so I'm trying to take other calls while he is standing about 2 feet away from me, yelling at all of us,
"Whatever you are doing could not possibly be as important as what is happening in my OR."
And despite everyone telling him that we were doing the best we could, he had completely and totally flipped out. I found out later that they almost called security. And this is a neurosuregon, by the way. Someone who operates on our brains. Can you SEE the irony? Not that I'm stereotyping all surgeons, because there happens to be another neurosurgeon that makes me discover the true meaning of "weak in the knees" every time he comes in there.

Anyway, Dr. Freak Out finally goes storming off to MRI after about 5 more minutes of screaming. I'm shaking and my heart is pounding, because I'm a wimp. Most everyone else is hopping mad. Our boss comes back from downstairs, still without the films. Then surgery calls. Oops, they had the films the whole time. They were "hiding behind another file". All of that drama because whoever works over in surgery is inept. And this is seriously an ongoing joke about surgery. They are so disorganized and lose stuff all the time, but it's never their fault, always someone elses'. Well, this was just the biggest example ever of how they are. And of course, the surgeon never came back to apologize. We never expected that.

Now, I'm going to try and give this guy the benefit of the doubt. It could be that his patient was dying and needed surgery right away. I don't know the whole story there. And I overheard someone saying that he was one of our best doctors. And I am sure he's very good at what he does, but I am still in shock over how much he lost it. And I am also fairly certain that he'll never be back to bother us again, unless he's absoutely positive that HIS crew has their act together. Muahahahaha. Oh, and go Bush!!!!!

Hi ! I don't have a whole lot of time because we're leaving for church soon, but I just wanted to say Happy Halloween to everyone and that I hope you've all had a fun weekend! I went to a corn maze last night with some buddies, and it was SO fun, and SO dirty:) There was mud everywhere when we got back, it was hilarious. I also went to the Old Spaghetti factory before that, one of my favorite restaurants EVER, and proceeded to eat my ENTIRE plate of piled up pasta, as well as bread, salad, and spumoni (sp?) ice cream. Usually I eat about half the pasta, so I have no idea why the whole plate somehow ended up in my stomach, but it was pretty embarassing considering the rest of my party had their little to-go boxes, and all I had was a bunch of empty plates. Can we say OINK????? Anyway, all in all, it was a very fun night, and I kinda feel like I already had my Halloween, but that's ok.  Anyway, I hope you all have a fabulous day and and that you are enjoying your extra hour of sleep!!!:)