LTNB (Long Time No Blog)

Well, well, well... we meet again.  After 6 months of not posting anything...  So here's a little recap on my life:

On the school front, I finished CSN in the spring and took 4 summer classes at UNLV.  Now I'm on track in the Business Marketing degree at UNLV, currently taking Interpersonal Communications 102, Finance 301, Accounting 202, Business Writing 407A and French 113.  I just took two midterms today: accounting and french and I think they both went really well.

On the apartment front, I'm living with a new roommate Kendra.  She is from California, but transferred from a school in Colorado to play volleyball here at UNLV.  Because of that, she's not home a lot.  But we get along great.  We're living in a two-bedroom apartment right across the street from school.

On the work front, I've been working at the MGM Grand pool as a receptionist.  I sell and rent cabanas and tubes for the guests.  It's super fun (bleh).  Perks for working at a giant company are pretty awesome though.  During orientation I got two complimentary tickets for KA and then later I got two complimentary admissions to the MGM buffet.  So this Friday me and Kyler are having a little date night.  And how are we going to get there?

...I bought a moped!!  She's a brand new yellow 2010 scooter, bought her with 2 miles on her.  Hehe, and of course I named her after JD's scooter, Sasha.  I don't need a license or registration (or even legally a helmet). She can only go a max of 40mph.  It's a lot better than biking around to get places.  My poor bike looks so sad locked up to the stair rail every time I see her when I leave my apartment.  I should ride her every now and then, so she knows I still love her too, haha.

Somewhere Only We Know

“The Tao Te Ching says, When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be. When I let go of what I have, I receive what I need. Have you ever struggled to find work or love, only to find them after you have given up? This is the paradox of letting go. Let go, in order to achieve.” – Mary Manin Morrissey


In my seemingly never ending insomnia these days, I've been quote searching for the past 20 minutes.  I stumbled across this one and it really resonated within me.  Proof can be seen when I'd been job searching since January and in March I became so incredibly frustrated.  Subconsciously I suppose I "gave up" for awhile, and as soon as I did, the job I have now came through.  Same thing with Kyler: back in December of last year (probably even before) I was outwardly frustrated with boys and decided to just concentrate on school and do me for a little bit.  And then he came along and completely rearranged my life for the better.  For the best!  I'm still trying to figure out how to apply this quote to schoolwork though... If I start letting homework assignments and papers "go," will I then get straight A's?  Somehow I think my logic is not completely accurate this late at night.

In light of recent events that have taken place with my roommate, I can truly say how much I appreciate my life and everyone in it.  After the numerous birthday wishes from friends and family I felt so loved.  I spent the entire morning and afternoon with Carly at Red Rock.  We went hiking and took some fantastic pictures, singing "Solo" the entire time.  We went out for a late lunch at Chili's where... dun dun dun... I had my FIRST drink.  It was a fruity margarita something-er-rather, so it tasted delicious.  But there wasn't enough alcohol for me to even feel anything.  Then we came home and we were both so pooped and I laid in my bed and took a little nap.  Then I met up with Kyler and we spent the rest of the day together, but didn't do any drinking.  In one way I think I'm glad that I didn't have a typical 21st and drink just for the sake of drinking.  That's just not me.  Maybe one day I'll be into the drinking scene, but not right now at this point in my life.  Ashley and Gordon got me a bottle of whiskey that is just sitting on my desk, unopened.  I think a part of me doesn't want to start drinking because then I will like it too much and will want to do it all the time, resulting in suffering grades and such.  I'm just so concentrated on finishing school on time that drinking doesn't even phase me I guess.  One day I'll jump on the wagon.

SHUUUSHI

I got a job! Yay!  Well it actually happened last week, but I'm finally getting around to posting this now.  So I've been applying to multiple ads on craigslist for random jobs.  I found one that wanted a videographer for a wedding chapel (and I had to re-learn how to spell that word this week).  The guy who wrote the ad, Mike (my current boss), responded to me and asked when I could come in.  I went in the next day and checked the place out.  Now whenever I would think about people "getting married in Vegas" I always retreat to the image portrayed in movies and on tv, with Elvis as the witness, souvenir t-shirts and drive-thru vows.  But this place is actually really nice.  I got the grand tour, meeting photographers, limo drivers, wedding planners and ministers.  Then this past Saturday I had my first official day of training.  I did two videos and got paid $10 for each.  At first I stand in front, next to the minister and capture the bride walking down the aisle, the vow and the candle ceremony.  Then I have to get around them and capture the couple walking out of the venue, so I have to walk backwards.  I have this plastic contraption that lets the camera rest on my shoulder.  So now all that "roll your feet!" from marching band has come back into play, so that the camera doesn't shake while I'm walking.  After the ceremony, I'm supposed to ask the couple to give a testimonial.  I haven't done this yet, but I will now because I'm done with training.  I basically have to have the couple tell who they are, where they're from and about their experience at our chapel.  Then, I get paid $5 for each testimonial.  Now that I'm done training, I get paid $25 for each video I capture, which lasts between 8 and 15 minutes each.  Only in Vegas I guess...!  So I don't get paid per hour, just for however many weddings I do per day... which is awesome!  There's a lot of down time, so I just read my book (currently The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks*) or work on homework.  It's definitely an interesting job, and business is currently pretty slow.  But wedding season is picking up in May.  Currently Mike is taking all the videos home and editing them, but we're getting in a new computer so that he can teach me how to edit the videos too.  I'm just so ecstatic that I finally got a job and that I don't have to work in retail or clean up throw up (knock on wood).

In other good news, my loan should finally be getting here this week or next.  It's been such a constant source of stress for me these past 3 months that I really hope that it comes sooner rather than later.

Well, my 21st is creeping up on me pretty fast here.  My roommate Carly is going to take me out during the day while Kyler is in class.  *We're going to see The Last Song, so I hope I finish the book before then.  We don't have any set alcohol plans, and I think I'm just going to see how I feel about it when the day comes.  Then I have plans to hang out with Kyler all night, and then go get all you can eat sushi with Chase, Tamara, Ashley and Gordon on Friday afternoon.  Because we <3 sushi!!  I'm very excited for the day all in all.  Just one more class to go tomorrow and I'm home free...

I'm an Old Lady

I haven't posted in a while and I feel like I should.

I went shopping today and got new curtains for my window.  It's actually kind of horrible because there is always some kind of light shining through.  In the day it's the sun and at night it's the super tall street light outside of my 4th story apartment.  So I got black curtains to try to block out most of the light.  [Begin side story] In the summer, I noticed that my eyes were getting really dry.  So at my eye doctor appointment I told the doctor and his first "medical" solution was to tell me to wear an eye mask at night.  His second was to prescribe me Restasis, yes the eye drops targeted at old ladies in the commercials on TV.  Since the summer I've been wearing the eye mask my mom bought for me.  I usually end up waking up with it on the floor or under my pillow or something though.  I guess I move around a lot in my sleep?  But whenever I think about eye masks I always think of the scene in Matilda where she is sneaking into her parents bedroom in the morning and her mom sits up in bed and has an eye mask with eyes on the fabric.  [End sidestory]  I, like a lot of people, can sleep a lot better if the room is completely dark.  I can only hope that these curtains can keep the light out and the sleep in.

Faithbook

You know, I hate to admit it, but whenever I log onto facebook after a long day and see that I have multiple notifications, it never ceases to make me happy.  Ugh, what has social networking done to me??

Rail Road X-ing

As I was stopped waiting for the train on my way home, 

I snapped this picture of the train and the Stratosphere.

List of Things

No pattern, no association, no point.  Here is my list of things:

1. Phone Covers.  Now I've had my fair share of cases for my phones over the years.  My first case was one of those clear silicone cases for my enV.  Part of the case actually went over the keyboard on the inside.  Why?  I don't care about protecting the inside keyboard, that's what the top part of the phone is for.  Then with the flipping open action, the case would slip and slide all over because it wasn't taught anymore.  Let's see, after I realized that case was a flop, I got two hard plastic cases, one black and one clear, that I bought on Ebay for super cheap since the enV2 was out by then.  I'd dropped my phone a few times and it had some bumps and bruises already.  So I figured I'd get the case to prevent any further damage.  I really liked having a case on it because it decreased the intensity of the "rumble" (from Jacob).  After having the clear case on for a few months, I decided to put the black one on, just for the sake of change.  I maybe should have realized that dirt and dust got stuck under the case.  When I took the case off all of the debris had been mashed into the body of the phone and had put hundreds of little scratches all over.  Why did I bother with the case in the first place?  Sigh.  Well I'm on to my next phone now, the enV Touch.  Since the front is a touch screen, I decided it would be a good idea to get a screen protector.  In my cheap-o Amazon search (free shipping with Amazon Prime) I found a screen protector, hard black plastic case and car charger for less than $3.  With good reviews, how could I resist?  So now I'm back to, hmm... square two?  Right now I have the screen protector and case on.  But I'm very tempted to take the case off because of what happened with my last case.  I don't understand my phone companies can't make phones that are scratch resistant.  I mean my $30 glasses are, why can't my (retail value) $400 phone?

2. Opposite Temperature Foods.  Iced coffee.  Grilled pineapple.  Frozen yogurt.  Cold pizza.

3. Turn Signals.  This may be one of my biggest pet peeves.  But Jill, you don't have a car, why are you so annoyed?  Ah, a good point.  But I do bike to and from school, a total of 15 miles everyday.  According to The Nevada Bicycle Advisory Board, we're supposed to Share the Road.  This means that bikes are legally allowed to ride on all roads and are not supposed to ride on sidewalks.  So I ride on the right side of the road.  When cars are also all the way in the right lane and want to turn right, they will just speed past me, slam on the brakes and swerve around the right-hand turn.  If they had their blinker on, I could have slowed down a lot sooner.  C'mon Las Vegas drivers: blinker before brakes.

4. Finding the Right One.  This is probably one of the best feelings in the world.  There is no formula or warning.  But when it happens, you know.  You just know.  Like when I was looking for my bike helmet, or my prom dress or a pair of jeans.  I tried on dozens of helmets, but it wasn't until I put my purple one on and it fit perfectly that I knew it was the one.  It's like the people at the helmet making place came to my apartment, measured my head and made a helmet to fit me perfectly.

5. Ke$ha.  She is one of my new favorite artists.  It's provocative, stuck in your head, come dance with me, jump around, scream the lyrics with the car windows rolled down, set as your ringtone kind of music.  I tend to go through musical phases, so this is probably just one of them.  I first saw her perform Tik-Tok on Jimmy Fallon, and it was a just okay performance.  Then I found out that she actually did the remix of "Right 'Round" with Flo Rida in the summer.  Music like this was definitely a staple at Six Flags. Then I downloaded the rest of her stuff and I couldn't stop listening to it.  Plus, she did a remix with 3oh!3... that's got to be automatic awesomeness.  It's Disgusting.

If You Steal My Sunshine

This is just a post to share a lovely picture I just found.  I feel semi-inspired to 

do some photography of my own now...

Set Fire to the Third Bar

As much as I say I'm not, I really am a sucker for a good romance movie. When I came home over winter break I read Dear John by Nicholas Sparks.  So when I saw the first preview for the movie I was ecstatic.  I think what gets me most is the song "Set Fire to the Third Bar" by Snow Patrol.  And by now it has been playing on repeat on youtube for days at a time.  But since money is tight right now, I probably won't be able to get to see it in theaters.  I'm really hoping that once I do get to see it, that I'm not dissapointed.  Usually books-to-movies are not as great as the original works themselves.  This is probably because I can imagine and create how the story flows in my own head.  I can imagine what the houses look like and even the faces of the characters.  While I'm not going to complain about having to watch Channing Tatum on the screen for 90 minutes, I certainly would not have chosen him as the actor to play John.  I was thinking more someone like a younger Matt Damon.  And whenever I see Amanda Seyfried I can't help but think of the girl from the Amanda Show in The Girls Room that always said, "I like eggs...".  As fas as IMDB is concerned, that wasn't her so I don't know why I keep thinking that.  But she was in Mean Girls and played a stupid girl.  Going to this serious role is quite a change for her so I guess that's why I'm commenting on it.  If any of you have seen it or read the book, let me know!

"He Just Ran Two Miles for You"

I think that it's probably one of the best feelings ever when you need to talk to someone about something and you finally do.  It makes me feel so much closer to people when I'm able to do this.  Last night, after a little tiff with Kyler, we had a great talk. We had lunch/breakfast at the LDE and then, in my attempt to get us "out of the desert", we took a bike ride to Sunset Park.  I rode my bike and Kyler rode Steve's bike.  A little issue with Steve's bike is that the seat tends to rock back and forth a bit.  It's a simple fix with a wrench, but we didn't have one with us at the time.  So as we were almost there we switched bikes, mostly because Steve's bike seemed a little too short for him.  I was pretty impressed that Kyler could make it the whole way since he said he hadn't really gone on a bike ride in years.  When we got there we locked up both of our bikes and my helmet with my one lock.  We saw people playing frisbee golf.  I made a mental note to put that on my list of things to learn how to do.  We walked past some baseball fields and saw a playground with swings.  We swung for a bit and then we saw this rope pyramid.  I've never seen anything like this at a playground before and we both wished that we'd had something like this on our playgrounds back at school.  Then there was a curved rock wall and an actual rock that we climbed up.  After indulging our inner child, we walked over to the lake.  We sat at a table and just watched all of the birds in the lake.  There were white geese, canadian geese, mallards, ducks and a whole bunch of other birds that we didn't know.  It was so calming just sitting there enjoying the company, the scenery and the weather.  We took a walk around the whole lake and as we started to feel raindrops, we decided it was probably time to head back.  Kyler rode my bike and I rode Steve's bike.  It wasn't too bad of a ride back since it was mostly downhill.  We decided that we were going to then walk to Target, because it was raining, to get some pasta to make at my place.  After buying some food at Target we decided to go to Albertson's, the grocery store across the street.  On our way there Kyler realized he was on duty at 7.  It was 6:10.  So we hurried in Albertson's and then decided that I would catch the Rebel Place bus at the Student Union and then he could just get back to Dayton.  But as we were walking there we saw the bus go by us and decided to run to catch it.  I couldn't run anymore and I took Kyler's bag as he ran on ahead to catch it.  Come to find out, the bus wasn't going to leave for another 10 minutes or so.  So we both ran for nothing.  But I was so thankful that Kyler was willing to do that for me. :D  

When I was at Kyler's place earlier, he gave me a big bandaid to put on the scratch on my elbow.  I just tried to take it off and it hurt so badly.  I hate taking off bandaids and have yet to find the best way to remove them.  I could peel it off and get the pain over with early.  I could put it under water to counter act the stickiness.  But for now I will peel it back in small parts.  ...  Ok so I got frustrated after slowly peeling half of it off and I quickly ripped it off the rest of the way.  Now I have a square patch on my elbow without any hair on it.  OUCH.  Ok, enough surgical talk... I'm about to watch Jimmy Fallon and try to fall asleep.

Best Friends Means Forever

It's a little hard to imagine that 3 years ago we were all stressing out about AP tests and getting in enough hours for Honor Society and skipping band class to hide out in the outcove.  Our friendship, our three-way bond has gone through thick and thin.  We may anger each other or make silly mistakes, but whenever I need them, they're always there for me.  We've made it through puberty, boys, high school, marching band, marching band boys, road trips into lakes, happy cake, boys, college, college boys, drama, wii boxing, beach days, Bud's underwear, roller coasters, sunburns, illnesses, flamingo stealings, snowstorms and new year's celebrations.  I can only hope that when you are feeling down you can reread this little blip and see how much fun we've had with each other over the years.  I love you two beautiful girls.

 

Eating Pavement

So today on my bike ride home from school I totally wiped out.  I was riding on the side of the street (where bikes are supposed to ride).  Whenever I get to an intersection where the light is red I like to get on the sidewalk so I don't make people mad who want to turn right.  I was on my way to turn up on the sidewalk where the curb dips down at someone's driveway.  But there was a lip on the driveway entrance and the pavement was wet from someone's sprinklers.  All of these circumstances led to me wiping out, scraping up my elbow and knees and getting bruises on my shins from the pedals.  Not cool man, not cool.  I'd like to blame it on the fact that my bike doesn't have hand brakes, it has back pedal brakes.  I didn't know this when my mom bought it for me, so when it arrived I was a little saddened and now I know why.  Pictures to come.  Meh.

"You can be the best!"

Well I've finally been inspired by Brooke to start blogging, so here it goes...

Today I'm celebrating my 1 year anniversary with Kyler. I can't believe how fast the time has gone. We're celebrating tomorrow after classes by going to get all-you-can-eat sushi for an early dinner. He's going with the EED kids to see Le Reve at 7, so our time together is going to be cut a little short. But he gets to go for free so it's completely worth it.

I'm usually really bad with starting new paragraphs when I change subjects, so here's to changing that. I suppose if you and I haven't talked in awhile, there have been some drastic changes in my recent past. Back in October or so, I decided that Entertainment Engineering wasn't for me anymore. Also, if I didn't find that specific program out here, I wouldn't have gone into engineering at all. Maybe that should have been my first clue to tell me that I wouldn't be happy in the long run, but I guess I had to learn the hard way. I probably would have gone into business, specifically marketing. Since I decided to change majors, it put me a year behind on my graduation schedule. The bulk of my college bill is the out-of-state tuition. So the easiest solution was to move off campus. But, I wasn't allowed to break my housing contract because it was the middle of the school year. The only way I could break it was to not attend any classes at UNLV in the spring. So right now I'm living in an apartment off campus (in Rebel Place) and "experimenting" with classes at the College of Southern Nevada. Then in the summer I will return to UNLV for summer classes. I'm saving a LOT of money this way so I can only hope that in the long run I've made the right decision.

Yesterday I got my new bike in the mail. I'd been using Steve's bike for the past 2 weeks to get to school, so having my own (a women's bike) will be great. I think Steve said he's going to get a new lock for his bike and keep that at Dayton for him and Kyler to use. So I'm storing Steve's bike at my place for now. I don't know why I felt the need to type that out, but I just keep looking at it next to me and I was thinking about what to write next.

Well I think I slept in too late this morning because I'm not tired yet and it's past midnight. I've got my stats class and computer class tomorrow... and sushi after! I'm so excited to spend that time with Kyler tomorrow.

Those are all my thoughts, for now...