Tumbleweed

Heartless Grocery

2006-09-08T14:47:00.000-07:00

I had a terrible experience at my Safeway today. I was stoping by during my lunch break to deposite my paycheck & get some soup. As I was getting out of my car I saw the prettiest puppies playing in the parking lot. They were both pits or pit mixes and they must have been about a year old if that. Needless to say I was terrified for their safty. We are practically in down town Seattle & it's a very busy street. They were darting around, wrestling, almost getting hit by cars. I called them over to me & asked them where their Mommy was. (I got lots of kisses & tail wags but no straight answer.) I saw a car with the door open around where they had been and decided that they probably belonged to that car but there were no people around. I went into Safeway & asked one of the employees if he could put out an anouncment on the speakers about the dogs & car. I went back out to the parking lot & the dogs had chased a couple walking their puppy down the street. I called on the good will of that couple who kindly walked their dog back to the car with the open door. We investigated & discovered doggy slobber on the windows & leashes in the car so we put the dogs back in & closed the door. I went back into Safeway & asked the employee if he had put out the anouncement. He replied it was not Safeways responsibility. It was peoples buisness what they did with their dogs & their cars and if they were stupid enough to leave their car door open than blah blah blah. I told him he was heartless. Good lord, it would have taken 2 minuets out of his day. I waited with the dogs until their mommy came out of the store & all was well. Still, in protest & frustration, I will not be shopping at Safeway for sometime. I am so glad I met the nice couple walking their dog or else I would have lost all faith in humanity!

Bills & Money

2006-06-30T15:43:00.000-07:00

My biggest problem with money is that it doesn't come to you based on how hard or how long you work. I am not saying that people who make a lot of money don't work hard, I am sure most successful people work very hard. But there are a lot of people who make almost no money at all who work just a hard. I work moderately hard but I don't think that my work ethic is reflected in my lifestyle. Bills are draining the life out of me. I am tired of being broke. I just sometime feel like there is no way out of debt. I think I would rather live on a self sustaining farm & reap the benefits of my labor directly. This modern world is just no place for me. I don't understand the currency.
I am also tired of being in the Army. I didn't go to AT. Any of you out there who are in the reserves are aghast I am sure. I am just so scattered & tired that I am living one moment to the next. I didn't even realize until someone at my unit called me that I should be at AT right now and of course it's too late to take time off of work. I am in trouble with THE MAN. I was under the mistaken impression I was too pregnant to go to AT, after all I don't have a uniform that fits. What would I have worn? I am a gigantic nervous breakdown. (And I really don't think it's all hormones.) Gigantic. Huge. Luckily I am in counseling. How long does that take to kick in???, I wonder.
It will all be ok. Tonight I am going to watch more lost with Erin! And my brother wrote to me! And I ate 1 1/2 chocolate donuts today! Take that cruel world.

Blah

2006-06-09T15:39:00.000-07:00

Today is one of those days. You know, the miserable kind. I am not sure why it is SOO miserable, but it is. At least the sky is grey. Seattle knows. It makes eyerthing so much worse to have one of those days when it's sunny outside. I am at work right now, which is usually very busy but today everyone seems to be laying low so I have too much time.
One of the nurses at work took some time out of her day to doppler my belly. A babys heartbeat is so relaxing. She couldn't find it at first & I got all nervous, then there it was. It may be one of the nicest sounds in the world. My miserable day wasn't totally cured but it did seem to relieve most of the anxiety. The world does go on.
I made my first baby blanket with my mom last weekend. It was beautiful. The top half is teal brocade & the bottom half is some kind of gold sliky something. The texture is devine, that's the only word for it. The brocade has this multi-jewel-tone-colored design of these persian warriors & horses. It may sound a little violent but I like to think of it as an adventure blanket. Plus later on it will make a great cape. Gold side for supper hero, brocade side for royalty.
I feel better just thinking about that blanket. (I am proud of it, although Mom did do most of the actual sewing.) Besides soon Erin & I will have another Almost Hank Wednesday so things are bound to look up. Shari's is the cure to all ills.

Unemployed

2006-02-15T13:37:00.000-08:00

I am unemplyed again. It is wonderful except that my bills keep pilling up and at some point I am going to run out of food. If it wasn't for these two things I could be happy forever.
I quit my job is anger. This is the first time I have ever done that. I just felt really taken advantage of and so I lost it an quit. I didn't even give notice.
What happened was that the family I worked for moved. (About twice as far away, I might add.) When they moved they moved into a parking complex with no visitor parking. So I got there and the mom told me to park in the fire lane, and everyone else was parking there, and that the management knew about it and it was ok. And indeed there were several cars parked there so I parked. And ofcourse my car got towed. It cost me a lot of money to get my car back and no one seemed to be willing to help me out at all, not the family or the nursing agency. So basically I had worked for about a week for nothing. Plus they wouldn't give me a raise and the pay rate was rediculously low. So I quit. It was tremendously dramatic for me. But now I at least feel relaxed and the best part of all is that I am getting sleep. Sweet sleep! Those who have not worked a night job may not understand how great sleep is, but as soon as you don't get it you know. Sleep is heaven.

Long Time No Blog

2005-12-08T20:37:00.000-08:00

Well it's been awhile. I am feeling pretty constantly sedated or exhausted and perhaps a bit stressed. As is my habit, these feelings have sent me into a personal exile. I don't call, don't blog, don't email, don't leave the house and spend much too much time with the TV. In this state of things I have forced myself to ponder the meaning of such a pointless, self pitying existance. And I have come to the decision that there is no point so I had better stop wasting my time with it. Not with life, just with my lifestyle. Now we will see if the decision sticks. Keep reading to find out. If I stop blogging again and you haven't heard from me in a few weeks you'll know I fell of the wagon of productivity again. If you need to contact me I will be at home in my apartement eating in front of the television. But I probably won't answer my phone and I don't have a doorbell so you might have to coordinate with my roommate if you actually want to get in.

nuthin much to say but i'll say it anyway

2005-09-28T19:19:00.000-07:00

Today I went to school. It was great. I really like school. If that makes me a nerd so be it. I love nerds! (The people and the candy.) I am taking anatomy and physiology for the third time! No, I do not like ANP that much, but the nursing program won't accept the year of anatomy I took at Southern because it is too old, and they won't accept the month I took of it in LPN school because it's too short. I am going to be a subject matter expert soon.
Also I have a job interview. It isn't that most exciting job but it looks like it's going to be very flexible and pays well. (Erin, just shut up... I know exactly what you're thinking.)
Erin and I had Almost Hank Wednesday last night and it was very good. I ate the left-overs of my garlic mushroom burger for breakfast. Mmmm.... Shari's. We also went to Target and got hats!!! Pink hats!!! I am sure that when Erin and I are done decorating them we will take pictures.
Toby is doing well. He is staying with his Dad at this moment. He is very happy and says "S'up".
Ok ok.... I'm going to stop rambling. Peace.

Happy Birthday to Me

2005-09-21T19:19:00.000-07:00

Well - I am now officially 24 years old. How did that happen? My birthday was very nice. I met my mom and my brother at Olympia and we looked at the capitol building and ate breakfast even though it was lunch time and played cards for hours at some local cafes. It was nice. I also had a fun family party earlier in the month. It was a joint party for my aunt and my grandma and I. And on top of all that birthday bliss Erin made me a cake. (Which I think she put pictures of on her blog.) I ate the last piece of it today for a midmorning snack. It was fabulous!
To top off my feeling of oldness my baby brother is now, as you read this, a freshman at college. How can this be?
I think this is hitting me a harder than I expected. Last night I had a dream that I gave birth! To a baby!!! And it didn't hurt!!!!!! This is some weird biological LIE that my body has come up with. Things just need to slow down. SLOW DOWN. SSLLLOOOOWWWWW DOWWWNNNNNNNN. Did that work? Ugh. Nice. Ugh.

Apologies to my Many Fans

2005-09-16T16:00:00.000-07:00

Hey all! Sorry it's been so long since my last blog. I have not abandoned it but I am having computer trouble. Things are good in the World of Amber. I am just getting better after being sick. There is nothing like being sick to make you appreciate being healthy. I'm almost ecstatic today over feeling well. It's amazing.
I'm afraid that I don't have any important news to relay. Ohhh wait! Yes I do. I finally got my nursing license in the mail. Miracles do happen. It took them over a month and a half to get it to me but it's here. Shame on you Washington State Departement of Health. Shame.
So next week I am off job hunting and the week after that school starts. My life is terribly busy and fabulous.
Toby is sleeping under Erin's piano bench while she's practicing. It's pretty darn adorable. That reminds me that I should post a cute picture of Toby and I. (Trust me he isn't always this sweet.)

HankWednesday

2005-09-01T10:26:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Erin and I went to Shari's. It was awesome. I started out with a side salad. Then I had the trio sample which includes fried zucchini, mozzarella sticks and onion rings. After that since I was still sooooo hungry Erin and I split a piece of smore pie. (I also helped Erin out with her nacho's.)
I have to say that the fried zucchini was the best. Dipped in ranch dressing. Mmmmm.

P.S. I have started reading The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway and it's lovely.

Brassed Off

2005-08-30T19:54:00.000-07:00

Today was an ok day. I participated in a research study this morning. It was kind of a whirlwind but I got paid and am helping to further science! Than I came home and had a great rest of the day wasting my time. Erin and I walked to the store and back which is always nice. Walking is a very underrated experience. It's always so relaxing.
I had a pretty nice weekend and spent too much time watching movies. Hello... my name is Amber and I am addicted to movies.
I watched the director's cut of Donnie Darko (Love Drew Barrymore) and Finding Forrester. While browsing the special features of Finding Forrester we saw some info about Anna Paquin saying she got an Oscar when she was 11 for her work in the Piano. So it was off to BlockBuster for The Piano and while we were there we picked up The Jacket and Brassed Off. We watched The Jacket first which I really enjoyed. If you haven't seen if you should consider it. It stars Andrien Brody, Keira Knightley, Kris Kristofferson and Jennifer Jason Leigh. Brody is a vet sent to a hospital for the criminally insane. While there he undergoes treatment that allows him to travel forward in time(or cements his mental illness for you if you're a cynic). After that it was The Piano. (Anna Paquin was very impressive.) I can't really talk about The Piano at this time I am still recovering. If you've seen it you know what I mean, if you haven't only watch it if you are prepared to feel disturbed for a while afterwards. Well I had to follow that up with something happy so we decided to watch Brassed Off.
The cover of Brassed Off read: "This delightful entertaining comedy treat..." "...story about two old friends, ex-lovers, whose surprise reunion turns their lives, and the lives of everyone else in the town, hilariously upside down!" "...don't miss the fun of the laugh-filled comedy that entertained and captivated audiences everywhere!". (Okay, okay... I should never have rented a movie that had that written on it but it stared Ewan McGregor!) The movie was about a group of men that played in the brass band associated with the coal mine that they worked at. The coal mine is in the process of being shut down. It's hard to say what part was the most hilarious, knowing that the much beloved band conductor was going to die or perhaps it was when his son tried to commit suicide after losing his wife and children, the contents of his home, his job and soon his father. Or maybe it was when at the end of the movie you realize that despite wining the band competition the whole of the band has lost their jobs and lively-hoods for good and that it wasn't just a movie but in fact many men did lose their jobs in just the same fashion in real life. God Lord. I don't think the people who write the back of movie covers actualy have to watch the movie.

Art Show

2005-08-24T23:30:00.000-07:00

Lately Erin and I have been having some cleansing art nights where we color and paint and glue and in general relieve our inner creative selves. It is beautiful and I thought that it would be nice to share some of my art with the world. Erin has decided to keep most of her art to herself as it is so beautiful it is blinding. But she painted a picture of Eeyore that was too precious not to share so he is her cameo in my art show. Enjoy!

Toby-Baby

2005-08-22T22:08:00.000-07:00

Toby is living with Erin and I now. I really really like it. He is the sweetest puppy in the whole world. Let me tell you a little bit about him. Tobias Zeus Dickerson-Edgington-Moore is a border collie retriever mix according to the pound. He has the coloring of the border collie but the size of the retriever. He is beautiful and has white and black polka dotted feet and is one year old. His hobbies include swimming, chasing, pulling and chewing. Toby does not enjoy his gentle leader or being left alone. Chaucer Peabody, a one year old border collie lab mix, is his best friend and he occasionally hob nobs with Digo Dickerson, a grouchy six year old blue healer. He knows how to sit, lay down and most importantly how to shake hands. And he loves to kiss people. Unfortunately he is a very slobery dog so most people don't enjoy it as much as Adam and I do. Adam is Toby's Daddy and he is going to take Toby back in November. (Sniff sniff.) But until than he will be our roommate.
When I first met Toby's Daddy he told me about a theory he had about dogs and bears. He said that one day while watching a nature show on bears he realized that bears were just big dogs. Apparently this theory has been hard for some people to agree with but I will let you make up your own mind after you look at the picture Erin took of Toby and I this evening.

(Isn't he just the best looking dog you have ever seen!!!!)

Notes from the Underground

2005-08-14T13:22:00.000-07:00

So I finally finished Madame Bovary. I was so glad to finish that book. It was beautifully written but the main character! She was such a shallow flighty creature. I read the introduction to the book first and it said a little bit about the author and his personal life and lets just say that Flaubert did not have the best opinion of women. The whole time I was reading it I was interpreting Madame Bovary as his view of women and it made me so angry. I could almost see the shadows of the real women she must have be based on behind all the nonsense and theatrics he embodied Madame Bovary with. And than in the end of the book she commits suicide. Suicide isn't something I usually associate with shallow flighty nonsense and theatrics. It is an act of true pain. It was a hard book for me to read and I was glad to get to the last page.
So then I went to the library to pick up the another book from my list. It's kind of a small library so I took the first book on the list that they had available and that was Dostoevsky's Notes from the Underground. I read the introduction in this book first and it was the worst kind of intellectualized babble. I know that in some circles the introduction would have been very clear and would have given a lot of information and probably fueled an intense dialogue. But I am not a part of that circle! Reading it made me feel stupid and I am not stupid. I am just not educated to that degree. I think when writing an introduction for a book for the general public that the intro should be written with that populace in mind. Otherwise it is condescending and that is rude and in bad taste, in my opinion.
Anyhow after that introduction I was afraid of the book. But I started reading anyhow and it is great. Dostoevsky has a sense of humor and is sarcastic in a way that pleases my own sarcasm. The moral of this rant is don't judge a book by it's introduction.

Movie Binge

2005-08-11T11:59:00.000-07:00

I'm back in Seattle! It is good to be home. Its strange how some places feel like home isn't it? I've spent hardly any time at all in Seattle and in this little apartment but it feels like home. It's such a sweet little homey place. I love it!!!!
While I was away I went on a movie binge. I watched War of the Worlds, The Island, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, The Machinist, Devil's Playground, Hitch, The Pacifier, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Finding Neverland, and Wedding Crashers.
War of the Worlds was fairly good. I give it a C+.The little girl (Dakota Chaning?) carried so many of the scenes that I forgave it for having Tom Cruise as the main character. I think the ending was weak.
I really liked The Island. I recommend it. Definitely an A. It was really interesting. The story was about human clones who don't know they are clones. Than one of them figures it out and the story goes from there. It was very good. I won't go into detail because I think you should watch this movie.
Can you believe that I have never seen Will Wonka and the Chocolate Factory? It was great, a classic. I wish I had seen it when I was a kid. I rented it before going out the see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Big mistake! It really got in the way of my enjoyment of the new movie. And I love Johnny Depp but I hated that movie. I just couldn't get past the original. I read the book right before I saw it too. If you are going to see a movie that was adapted from a book I don't believe you should go out and read the book right before you see the movie. The book is better. The book is ALWAYS better. So just go and enjoy the movie than come back and enjoy the story even more through the book. A lesson I tragically learned sacrificing Johnny Depp and Tim Burton. Ahh... it hurts me.
The Machinist was a strange movie. I don't know if I thought it was really good or one of those off the wall movies that you call good because it was original. The lead was played by an anorexic Christian Bale. We're talking concentration camp here people. Skinny! The mood of the movie was Memento-esque kind of. Not as good but gritty. I was riveted the entire movie. You just can't take your eyes off Christian Bale. He's truly a walking skeleton. I think it was worth seeing. I give it a P. (P is for pass)
Devil's Playground was a documentary I found at the local BlockBuster in Milwaukie about Amish teenagers. The Amish cleaved off the mass of Christianity by stating that they believed a person had to be of age to commit their lives to God. And so they do not baptize their children but wait until they are adults and can really make up their own minds. This makes sense to me. So anyhow when an Amish child turns 16 he or she get to experiment living like the "english". (I think anyone who isn't Amish falls into the english category.) Of course they are not really living like the english but are basically going wild with parties, drugs and electronics. The kids were really fascinating. The religious angst they were experiencing was intense. I give it a B.
Hitch was funny. It really was. Romantic comedy about a jaded date doctor and an equally jaded gossip columnist. Love that Will Smith. I give it a B
The Pacifier and also Are We There Yet (which I did not list because I had to turn it off in the first 20 minutes because it sucked so much) were truly terrible. F- Why God, why?
I love Finding Neverland. Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet. It was touching but not overly sentimental. It was just a really beautifully done movie. (If you don't know it is a story about the writing of Peter Pan.) Absolutely an A.
Wedding Crashers was hilarious. I was laughing out loud in the theater through the whole thing. If you know me you know how strange that is. (I usually laugh on the inside or snicker quietly.) Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson with a Will Ferral cameo. It was awesome! Whew! I'm still laughing. Please go see this movie. A.
So all in all I'd say it was a good movie binge. It had it's dark moments but don't they all? Now I am going to have to get back to reading. My brain won't know what to do.
P.S. Please forgive my terrible spelling and for butchering any names. Thank you.

Driving at Night

2005-07-29T22:25:00.000-07:00

So I was planning on going back to Gladstone tomorrow to help my Adam move but now I think I will go tonight. The best time to drive a long trip is at night I think. The roads are clear and there is this dangerous feeling about it that is hard to describe. Something about being by yourself at night when God knows who else is on the road with you. I love it. (Ofcourse I carry around my mace when I get out of the car for gas and my car doors are always locked. As if going 75 on the freeway still isn't a big enough deterrent.)
I am going to stick around for a week visiting my Grandma, brother and Dad. And OFCOURSE I have drill. I feel like I have spent as much time away from Seattle as living in it since I moved up. I need to get all my stuff sorted out. Perhaps I am hiding from my life a little. One of these days I am going to have to get down to business and do some serious living!
Well I must go pack. I probably will have to abandon my blog for a week but if I get the chance I will check in on it. Tootles all.

World Classic Reading List

2005-07-28T10:03:00.000-07:00

In an atempt to lure my run away brin back home I have comprised a summer reading list of 60 World Classics. (Aided by the Seattle Library) I do not believe I will actually finish the remaining 55 books that I have left to read by the end of the Summer so this may become my reading list for the year. The books in bold are the books I have already read and I am currently reading Madame Bovary. Erin has just informed me that the correct way to write the title of a book is to underline it. Unfortunatly I can't figure out how to do that so forgive me. Here goes:

The Woman in the Dunes by Kobe Abe
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin
Cousin Bette by Honore de Balzac
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
A Clockwork Orange by Athony Burgess
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
The Stanger by Alber Camus

Don Quixote by Miguel Saazedra de Cervantes
The Awakening by Kate Chopin
The Claudine Novels by Colette
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
The Fifth Buisness by Robertson Davies
Seven Gothic Tales by Isak Dinesen
The Brothers Karamzov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Notes from the Underground by Fydor Dostoyevsky
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin
The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johan Wolfgang von Goethe
Dead Souls by Nikolai Vasilevich Gogol
The Tin Drum by Gunter Grass
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
Siddhartha by Herman Hesse
The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo
Daisy Miller by Henry James
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
A Thousand Cranes by Yasunari Kawabata

The Last Temptation of Christ by Nikos Kazantzakis
Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz
Death in Venice by Thomas Mann
The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann
The Member of the Wedding by Caron McCullers
Billy Budd by Herman Melville
Spring Snow by Yukio Michima
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Animal Farm by George Orwell
Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton

Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak
Swann's Way by Marcel Proust
The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon
Anthem by Ayn Rand
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
The Red and the Black by Stendhal

The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
The Death of Ivan Ilych by Leo Tolstoy
Pudd'nhead Wilson by Mark Twain
Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset
Candide, or Optimism by Voltaire
Night by Elie Weisel
The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
The Bridge of San Luis Ray by Thornton Wilder

My First EVER blog Posting

2005-07-26T23:37:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my first blog. I am remarkably, or perhaps unremarkably, without a thing to say. My brain is on vacation. The rest of me is too seeing as I am unemployed. Don't judge me! I'm not lazy just slightly disorganized. Okay... maybe I'm a little lazy. :-)
I am freshly back from Ft McCoy, Wisconsin. If you've been there than you can appreciate my gratitude at finding myself back in civilization. Ft McCoy is in the middle of nowhere. It was a terrible trip. I was there doing my duty for the Army Reserves. One weekend a month, two weeks a year. Hoa.
Now I am back in the real world trying to figure out what to do with my life. The illusion that being in your twenties is fun and carefree is, in my opinion, greatly exaggerated. It is terrifying. I have no idea what I am doing with my life and I have a sneaking suspicion that I should be trying to figure that out. Unfortunately as I stated before my brain is on vacation. A long vacation. It left a few years ago and I haven't heard from it since. I tried to send out a search party but so far it hasn't worked. If you see my brain please call 1-567-822-7246 or 1- lost-a-brain to collect your reward. (Reward has been greatly decreased do to my unemployment. Sorry.) Any leads can be posted on my blog and will be reviewed by the proper authorities. Your nation thanks you.