This was me after work.

Why?

Because today was my last day.

Now I'm done stressing over someone else's budget and money, and can worry about my own (and worry, I do).

The pictures that need to be hidden.

What's funny, is if I remember correctly, this picture was more or less my concept.

You can see Kate is having much less fun than Shae and I, with that moose.

I miss those two.

Something I love.

Among living in the exact definition of an inner city project, there are many joys in my life.

The joy of the moment?

Everyone shooting off fireworks in the parking lot.

Have to looooove relaxed firework laws, eh?

Home stretch.

Lucky me.

I work every single day until I move.

Well, I have next Saturday off, but I'm on call the whole day, so it doesn't really count.

And I've been closing every shift for the past month and a half, and all the sudden work all mornings, because I'm the only Staff in my restaurant this week.

So that's not going well.

I'm already pretty late today, and haven't even showered yet.

*EDIT*6/21 22:55*EDIT*

So I've been pretty worried on the job front, moving back to Michigan. My Area Supervisor here in Indianapolis keeps trying to get me to go back to Michigan, telling me I can probably keep my same job (Michigan is far more competitive than here, because we have pretty much no Staff down here, and people wait a really long time to move up there), more than anything, not wanting me to lose my time with the company. I do understand that, because when I decide to go back, I'll have to start over, with my vacations/sabbatical time/years of service, however, my old Area Supervisor really disliked me, and it'll be extremely hard for me to stay away from him, as the community is much closer in Michigan than it is here (our Market is really spread out, between several cities, that are very far apart). So I told her no. A few times. I'm sure I'll be asked again on the conference call Monday morning.

Anyway. I've been pretty stressed out about getting a job, so today I made a phone call to the Hot Topic I used to work at, and it turns out, they're looking for some people. I was pretty well-liked there, so I think I stand a good chance of getting that job back. Plus, I enjoy selling things, and I was pretty good at it, once I got the hang of it. It's not a ton of hours, really. The standard is around 10 a week, but I may be able to stretch that, by picking up other shifts (I used to do that a lot at Target and Hot Topic). What's really nice about Hot Topic is they don't make you wear their clothes, since I like very little of what they have. They just want you to look good, so I can do that. And their appearance guidelines are pretty relaxed, and after four years of McDonald's, it'll be a bit nice, I think, to not have to worry about my hair being too long, forgetting to take out my nose ring (which I've been doing a ton lately, for lack of sleep, I think), or keeping my tattoos covered.

All in all, good news for me. It'll ease a lot of stress I'm feeling once I know for sure. I have to call back Monday, and talk to the Assistant Manager (who hired me the first time).

*EDIT* 6/21 22:55*EDIT*

By the way, I just noticed I did that edit on a 24 hour clock.

Both my computer and cell phone also run on a 24 hour clock.

John should understand why.

He's probably the only one who will.

Father's Day

So I wanted to post this before I left for work today, but didn't have the time, unfortunately, because I take after a great man, and enjoy my sleep.

That being said.

A father's day tribute.

My dad and I haven't always seen eye to eye on things in the past. In fact, very rarely, do we agree on much.

We share a similar sense of humor, but would never admit it.

I could only wish to match wits with that man.

The older I'm getting, the more I see my dad in how I look. People used to always tell me I look like my mom. More and more I hear I look like my dad.

How many people can support (or even feign support) when your child tells you they don't want to go to college? Though that changed, both my parents have been nothing but supportive through the almost three year break I took between high school and college.

Seriously, he's just plain witty. There's no way around it.

I do dress better, but I'll give credit where credit is due. My mom picks out some nice clothes for him.

He's even learning to assemble them into outfits now, and mixing and matching.

After almost 9 years in the same hobby (4H), again, nothing but support when I decided to quit halfway through a project to pursue another hobby I've always loved - theatre.

Who else could see me dressed up as a nun, and hardly utter a word (it may have had something to do with the fact we were all dressed as nuns)?

The older I get, the more I appreciate each of my parents, but my dad is a very special person to me. He's helped me make a lot of decisions, and helped me grow into someone I hope he's proud of. Though I've made some bad (and just plain stupid) decisions in the past, he's still been there to share with me the good ones, too.

I know he's not always understood the changes I've gone through, or how different I am than he was at my age, but he's let it go, very quietly.

Dad, I know you have a blog account, and I'm sure you read these, and I do hope you read this. I know I don't tell you enough, but I truly appreciate all you've done for me. You were my financial backer through all those 4H years, and I know that couldn't have been easy. You've watched me be rather idle these past few years, as far as my schooling goes, and just encouraged me, anyway. You couldn't have been more supportive in high school when I came to you, and told you I wanted to be a manager at work, and you understood how I was so completely bored in my job.

You helped me move to Canada.

I came to you late Christmas Eve, and told you I wanted to drop out of college. You understood, and helped me move back to the States.

You helped me move to Indianapolis.

You're again, helping me move back to your house.

I strive to be like you, because I know I probably never will be quite as successful.

Happy father's day, sir. I'll be seeing you.

Before this gets ugly.

Okay, okay, you all win.

Shaelynn posted a comment regarding this (though we specifically spoke about my hesitation regarding the issue) and then five minutes into a phone call from my mother, it was brought up again.

Obviously, with Mallary and myself being in different states, it'd be hard for you to meet her.

Actually, though, you all stand a better chance of seeing her right now, as Tawas, where she is from and staying this summer, is much closer to you all (well, okay, except Aunt Carrie and Uncle Chris), than Indianapolis, where I currently am.

Either way, here is a picture of us.



It's as good as it gets for the time being, folks.

Live with it.

And yes, I find it as disgusting as you should she's not wearing shoes. I kept telling her to put them back on. She's stubborn, a trait you should all relate to.

What disappointment.

So, as many of you know, I recently bought a Mac. I love it. It's cool, it works well, I can produce music, and videos on it. It's awesome.

So today, I went on the Apple site, and immediately, my face turned to this.



Why, you may ask.

Because not even two weeks after I purchased my beautiful iMac, Apple started giving away free iPods (your choice, anything from the Nano to the Touch) with purchases of Macs, for college.

And yes, my purchase was for school, as I knew my laptop wasn't going to make it through four more years (since it crashed before I even started school, and crashed last time I was in college).

I do have an iPod, yes. A Nano, and I love it. Unfortunately, when my laptop crashed, my music went along with it, leaving me with only a few CDs (I don't really own CDs anymore), and an iPod that can no longer be adjusted, because it's configured for Windows, and not a Mac (if anyone knows the way around this, please, help me with that).

The irony in my life is simply too much.

However, onto other things, I am dating someone. Someone who speaks english, no less (sorry, Joni, but your secret is still safe with me, for now)! More on that later. But she's fun, I enjoy her. Yes, mom, her name starts with an M, but it's far too early for that to matter. I have a couple pictures of us, but not any that I really like.

My day started normal.

So I had a couple friends visiting me this weekend, and we were all sort of waking up mid (okay, late) morning yesterday, talking a bit (I don't talk much in the morning), just kind of trying to wake up, and figure out what to do with our day.

I started talking to my friend Alicia online, and she asked when I was moving back, and casually mentioned I'd be back in time to head to Cornerstone Festival with her and a friend.

I immediately got excited. Cornerstone Festival is, in my opinion, probably the best mix of bands ever, all together for one week every year, with a great message. Not all the bands are Christian bands, but the venue and nature of the festival is. It's been something I've wanted to participate in badly the last four or five years. It looks as though I'm finally going to have my chance.

We quickly worked out the rest, how much it is (I've never bothered to look, because I always knew I couldn't go), how we're getting there (we're meeting her friend downstate Michigan, and driving to Indiana from there), and how to get a tent (everyone camps, mostly because we can't afford motel rooms).

The first week of July I'll be more or less unreachable (I'm not taking a phone charger, so phone calls/text messages will be scarce, but I do plan on calling my parents every couple days, just so they know I'm fine) experiencing what I feel like may be a once in a lifetime deal for me. I'll be spending six days at Cornerstone Farm with tons of other music lovers, living out of a tent, camping in a field, simply going from band to band. My friend Alicia is an incredibly talented photographer (www.myspace.com/viewfromherephotography) and she covers Cornerstone every year, and many bands look to her for action shots during their shows (and she captures them beautifully).

I do realize that I'm probably the only person in our family that is overly excited about this. I immediately called mom, to make sure they didn't have plans that week, that they would need a sitter for Katie for, to make sure I'd be able to go. I then started just getting really excited and every few minutes exclaiming, "I get to go to Cornerstone this year!"

Of course, this does mean I have to buy and wear copious amounts of sunscreen, as I'm chalk-pale. Need some different shoes (shower shoes being the most important). I need to figure out the best way to have and keep water, since the recommended thing to do is drink at least half a gallon a day.

This is my world's Woodstock, if that makes this any clearer. This is for the hardcore music junkies (I don't mean hardcore as in the type of music, either) of my day/genre. I am friends with a couple of the bands that will be there, and probably the best band I've ever seen live, Showbread, will be performing, and you can bet I'll be there for the entire show.

This is a very big, and nice, dream come true.

The video: Showbread "Mouth Like a Magazine"

Times I miss Joni.

I miss her when I find pictures like this, I forgot I had.

Ha ha.

What a fun night.



(To clear up any assumptions as to what is taking place here: I believe we were putting to practice the various techniques that have been learned from Tyra Banks on America's Next Top Model. I, myself, am not a fan of the show, but once dated a girl for a few months who was mildly obsessed, so I often watched simply to mock. Anyway...this resulted, in an unplanned trip to Joni's once. I was practicing my fierceness, I believe.)

The storm.

So, in case you didn't hear there was a really bad storm in Indy last week. So bad, in fact, we completely lost power for about 24 hours. My internet for about three days (I may pirate a wireless signal...).

That was part of the reason I was MIA for so long. And this is the magnificent post I have planned for you.

Because we have pictures.



The green you see (I know it's hard, it was difficult getting closer to get a picture of it) is electricity. It's about midnight, and we have no idea what's really going on, except our building (which houses about 12 apartments) has no power, and other buildings are flashing like crazy, and a couple across the parking lot have partial power (yes, I live in a project, by definition, we looked it up). My roommates and I kept trying to get better pictures with our phones, or whatever, but it was difficult, since we were so far away. Every once in awhile the green would go away, and we'd see the enormous fire. We knew people were trying to get on the bridge to get a better look at what was going on (that picture was taken from the back of my building, so it was pretty close), but the police were turning people away. When I finally went to bed, the storm had mostly stopped, but I was lying in bed, and all I could see were the flashes of lightning and only hear the claps of thunder, I can only assume were attracted by the electricity burning up 200 feet from my bedroom.

George (one of my roommates) and I woke up kind of early the next morning, I think simply out of restlessness, and decided to have a look at what was going on.



As you can see, a pole broke. If you look, you can see George standing amidst all the wires, and wood. So we decided to keep walking a bit further, and get on the bridge, to try to get a better look, and see what the river looked like.



Nice! Downed power lines IN THE RIVER! Also, the river is way higher than it normally is. The river normally doesn't have quite the rush it had that day. As George and I are standing on the bridge, he sees something else, and points it out to me. It takes me a second to see it, but then I do.



Something is still smoking! When we were standing in front of the pole before, we didn't see it, but standing on the river, sure enough, something is still smoking. So we started walking back to our apartment, and decided to get one last shot, to really show you want caused the green light, the night before.



If you look, you can see all three pieces of the pole, not to mention the various lines going everywhere (we were watching where we were walking, just in case, because there was plenty on the ground, also, around our feet).

The pictures really don't do this storm justice (especially the electricity, because that was incredible).

Anyway, I survived, all is well. It wasn't as bad here as it was in some parts of the city.

(I apologize for the way the pictures are posting. Photobucket and Apple are frustrating me. My camera doesn't work well with a Mac, apparently, but we're working on it, taking this relationship one day at a time.)

Hey, Blogspot, been awhile!

Hey, okay. Been awhile, guys.

I have a good post planned for a close future date. Just need to get everything worked out with my camera and my Mac. They're having trouble getting along (and I need to find my USB for my camera).

That aside.

Take this video for face value.

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