Nobody Likes a Dead Cat

I got my financial aid offer from PSU today! They offered me more money than I actually need to get through a year of school. They offered me enough money so that I wouldn’t have to work if I didn’t want to! I do want to work, though, so I’ll have enough money to get me through another year of school AND keep myself busy. Damn skippy! I just re-read this … it hardly makes any sense … but that’s how spastic I am right now!!!

Oh, and I have a question; do I have any artists who read my blog? If so, drop me an email … I have a request for you!

I had the most amazing time with Mr.E. at the beach. I will write about that in a bit, I want this post to be here, too, though.

Today I turn 25. At 1:50pm, 25 years ago, my mom (naturally) gave birth to me. Kinda scary to think about. Anyway, happy birthday to me … I’m officially 1/2-way to fifty.

My parents drove up to take me to dinner (and give me boxes and tape and a present!) and mom asked me at one point if I felt old … and I don’t, but I feel weird. “I’m 25 and divorced.” Neither of my parents had much to say about that … I think it made them uncomfortable, but we moved on shortly thereafter. This morning I woke up early and spent a little while thinking about the things that I’ve done in the past 25 years that have made me incredibly proud; I don’t have much material on my mind for REAL mental and emotional health, but concentrating on my OWN mental and emotional health, I thought I’d list some of the things I’m more proud of from the past 25 years.

~I learned to read at an exceptionally early age. I was barely 4 when I read books aloud to strangers. My dad took me to jobsites with him and I impressed teachers by “reading” to them. They assumed that I was going to make up the stories and then I actually read the book to them. I read all the time still; I love to read.

~I wrote a story that was published when I was in 3rd grade. It was a HORRIBLE story about a horse who had trouble walking. I named the horse Sarah. Psychologically there is probably something strange about that. “Readers dream, dreamers write.” I both dream and write … this is a pretty cool thing to me.

~I joined the Talented and Gifted program in 4th grade. I was a smart kid. I still feel like a smart kid most days. (I stayed in TAG until they disbanded it in 8th grade.)

~I started my own business in the 6th grade, selling and teaching about owl pellets. My friend Brandi and I made good money doing this. We collected the owl pellets from her grandpa’s barn, sold them for a dollar a piece (school science catalogs sold them for $4 a piece) and our elementary school principal drove us to other schools to give presentations and teach younger kids about owls and mice. It’s gross, but we made money and teachers thought we were super-cool.

~In 8th grade, I was the top English student in my “neighborhood.” Our grade was split into two neighborhoods (I was in the gold one, and the other was the blue one) and I got to be the top English student. I got a pretty plaque and my parents were invited to a ceremony and I won an award and all that stuff. I still have the plaque and am STILL proud of this.

~In 10th grade I was accepted into the GAPP (German-American Partnership Program) by my high school German teacher. My family hosted an exchange student (Britta) and then six months later I spent 5 weeks in Germany. I loved this time and learned much about myself. I was 16 (my gosh, this doesn’t feel like it was a DECADE ago!) and had an amazing time!

~I graduated high school. I was in the top 10.15%. I was ONE person off of being in the top 10% of my graduating class and actually felt awful having to sit with the “regular” people. That sounds horribly pretentious, but all my friends were in the first row … and I was way back with the H’s. : ( I survived and I know that it was only a numbers game, but still. I graduated high school!

~I got accepted to the only college I applied to; Oregon State University. Looking back I feel DUMB for only applying to ONE school since I was such a good student in high school (and very, very active!). Who knows where I could have gone if I had decided to be brave and GO somewhere!

~In college I was continually on the Dean’s List and honor roll. I was invited to join honor societies (and I think I joined one … LOL … I can’t really remember) even though I barely passed Chemistry. I got one B in my major (German) in four years and am incredibly proud of such a high college major GPA.

~After my divorce, I have survived and THRIVED. I am a happy, strong, capable woman, and I have learned more about myself in the past 11 months than I had in the previous 11 years. I am incredibly proud of myself for these things.

So, yeah, I’ve done plenty of things to be proud of in the past 25 years. I have no regrets and wouldn’t change a thing … otherwise I wouldn’t be who I am. As a birthday present to me; leave me a comment and tell me why you’re proud of yourself!

I just ate some chicken noodle soup. I wish it were homemade with vegetables and thick egg noodles, but it was just canned Albertson’s stuff.

I got my official acceptance letter from Portland State yesterday. I also was accepted at Oregon State (go Beavs!) but since I already have a degree from OSU, I’m sticking with Portland. School starts on September 24th and I’m already counting down. No, seriously. I’ve already been scanning stuff for studying abroad as well.

Last night some friends and I went to an arcade that served beer and lets bands play. The bands last night were AWFUL (think bad American Idol auditions) but playing Tetris, Ms. PacMan and Pole Position with a Black Butte Porter (and later a PBR) in hand was a blast. Serious fun. I stayed out much too late but had a good time and Mr.E even let me stomp in the puddles (soaking my pants and my super-cute shoes) on the way back to his car.

My friends and I have been watching this Will Ferrell video; The Landlord over and over lately. Every time I need to laugh about something, I pull up this video and just laugh my ass off at it. Seriously, I am going to teach my children to say things like Pearl does. HI-larious. No, really; I will teach my children to ask for their liquids with “I need to get my drink on!”

Rolling Stone’s Rock & Roll Daily blog was great today. I don’t normally read that blog, but today’s post with Top 25 Songs with a Secret listed was both amusing and informative. ““Lola” – The Kinks: Thought to be about a beautiful woman, actually inspired by an incident in which Kinks’ manager Robert Wace spent a drunken night dancing with a transvestite he mistook for a woman.”

Have you seen the latest Orbit commercial? That’s where my subject line is from; the way the woman says “lint licker” always makes me giggle. The commercial makes me smile and the raspberry mint flavored gum is pretty good, too. I found the video for those of you who have found me through searching FOR the video!

I figured out how to put up a site-meter yesterday. Now I can stalk all of you who read about me. I need a life sometimes … yeah, I think that’s about it for today.

I saw a Courtney Jones on Friday night at Borders and really enjoyed myself. She is a beautiful musician and I have been listening to both of her CDs essentially non-stop since Friday evening. I went alone and read photography magazines while I listened. I think, if you’re into Sarah McLachlan (or Norah Jones, Dido, Tori Amos, Fiona Apple, Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Peter Gabriel, or evevn U2), you’d like her music as well. Very introspective lyrics and calming music … I even got to meet her during the intermission of the show and she signed both of my CDs! If you want to check her out, she (like everybody and their grandmother’s dog) has a MySpace, too. (So do I if you are interested in being MySpace friends. : )

After the music I met Mr.E for Blades of Glory and we laughed. A. Lot. I am way into Will Ferrell and his stupid humor … and it was worth the hour & a half of sitting. Then he came back to the house and he, MissPee and I watched Borat (my gosh that’s an obnoxious movie) and stayed up until 5AM (AM!!!) talking. It was quite fun.

The rest of the day was be low-key and energy-saving since I had planned on spending today with my nanny-family. MomC, DadE, MrT (3) andMrArrr (1). We went to play at OMSI. MomC and I had a long conversation today about “why I seem flaky” (her words, not mine) and I understand a bit more what’s going on with their family. I asked her to just be open about her needs from me and I’d do the same with them; she was very receptive to my requests and I’m thankful for that.

The RTG (one of the places I interviewed on Tuesday) called me Friday to schedule my broker-interview for Tuesday. They also received my thank-you note that I mailed them the day after my interview. MissK (the younger interviewer) was very flattered that I took notice of how to spell her name and whatnot and Jodi (the older interviewer who is another big-wig in the company) even got on the phone to thank me for “keeping an thorough and kind tradition” going. She said that I was the only person who sent a thank-you-for-the-interview note. I was boggled! I thought it was standard, but twice now in life it’s set me apart from other candidates so I will continue to do so! They want me part-time and the family wants me for about 30 hours … so I will be working a job & a half this summer.

School starts for me at Portland State University September 24th and I’m already looking forward to that new/fresh start. I don’t even know exactly what classes I’ll be taking, but I’ll be back in school. I am excited beyond belief that I get to stay in the Pacific Northwest with my friends (and family, even though we’re not incredibly close).

I’m about to open this blog up to people I know in real life … well, just two of them … which will be interesting. MissBean and MissWeen and I have been close friends since I was a sophomore in high school. We lived together in college and then we all moved away from one another. MissBean lives in Corvallis (go Beavers!) and MissWeen lives in Roseburg where we were all raised and first met. We are having a girl-get-together in two weeks and I’m already excited to see them! They are some of the best friends that I could ask for.

Oh, and I wanted to do a small shout-out to my new readers! Hi!! I will add your blogs to my links list that I have and check out your blogs today!!

I got accepted to my #1 school choice!!!

I will be a PSU Viking in September!!!

I don’t have to leave my favorite city and I get to stay around my friends!

Yay!!!

I think, that by this time next week, I won’t be employed at this place anymore. It sounds pessimistic, but I have a sneaking suspicion, and women’s intuition that things aren’t going so well. Long story short; since I got divorced my manager hasn’t been treating me well, and she has been going through the union protocols to get someone ousted from a job. I have started applying for jobs at other local hospitals and wrote a killer email to a potential nannying job (I worked my way through college as a nanny) as well. We’ll see what happens. Either way I have to keep my chin up and just move forward.

SUNY Albany called me yesterday about my school application. They have some questions for me … and I have to wait another hour to call them back because of the time change and the random hours they’re in the office. I am nervous and excited and wigged out. School letters are supposed to be coming out any time now and I haven’t heard from any of them yet. This is a sad fact! I want to go back to school! Gar!

Okay, I must find some more jobs to apply to - whee! What fun!

10 Random Facts about MizGee

1. I love The Last Kiss soundtrack. I listen to it at least once a day all the way through. My favorite song on it is Paperweight by Schuyler Fisk & Joshua Radin. Zach Braff has amazing taste in music and I am constantly impressed by his musical choices.

2. I participate in National Novel Writing Month every year. I have three novel(las) written. None of them have seen the light of day since I wrote them, but they are out there for me. It’s March now … I have more than six months to get novel #4 mentally planned.

3. I speak three languages; English, German and Russian. I have a degree in German, and to earn that degree I had to take two years of another language … I can’t go for the easy ones so I chose Russian. I pick up foreign languages really easily and am looking forward to getting back into school (September) to pick up another language while I’m there.

4. I am obsessed with LOST. No, really. I have seen every single episode at least once, and many of them two or three times. I am normally very easily distracted, unless LOST is on my TV. My first real celebrity crush was Matthew Fox, and now it’s Josh Holloway, on top of a great show, the LOST boys make a great show for me!

5. I am 24 and divorced. Yes, four & twenty years old. I married my high school sweetheart after dating him for 6 years. It wasn’t right for us and we had an amicable divorce. He was my best friend but we’re growing apart as we’re growing up without one another now. I am proud of who I am becoming. I am getting back on the dating scene and will probably mention MrE every once in a while. He’s the guy that I’ve been seeing quite a bit of lately. I like him.

6. Back to music … I have a very wide variety of music that I frequently listen to. I just set up my iTunes to do the “Party Shuffle” with the “Top 25 Most Played” songs to show you what I mean. Get ready for a giggle.
- Today: Joshua Radin
- Rose of My Heart: Johnny Cash (my favorite JC song)
- Bad Day: Daniel Powter
- Black Horse & the Cherry Tree: KT Tunstall
- Paperweight: Shuyler Fisk & Joshua Radin
- Come Sail Away: Styx
- It Ain’t Me Babe: Joaquin Phoenix & Reese Witherspoon (from the Walk the Line soundtrack)
- The Beauty in Ugly (Ugly Betty Version): Jason Mraz
- I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles): The Proclaimers
I will listen to anything once and there are very few musicians that I don’t like (The Gorillaz … the first one that popped into my head) and there are very few types of music I don’t like (screaming metal garbage). I grew up listening to classic rock and Fleetwood Mac is my favorite band of all time. My favorite song of all time is Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen.

7. I ran when I was younger, then ran in junior high, then in high school, but once I got to college I stopped. I don’t really know why, but I did. I have recently gotten back into it and am realizing how badly I’ve missed running. As a Pacific North Westerner I have always run in the rain and so it doesn’t scare me to even start during one of the rainiest months we’ve had this year! I am hoping to get into shape enough to run my first 5- or 10k this summer sometime. I’ll probably use journaling as a way to keep track of how (and what) I’m doing.

8. I love college football and basketball; especially my Pac-10 teams. I went to a Pac-10 school for my undergrad studies and they taught me that college football is FUN! This year was the second year that I played with the NCAA brackets for basketball finals, and while I’m not very good (because I’ve just recently gotten into basketball) I had fun picking & choosing. I’m all for Ohio State winning the National Championship this coming Sunday! O! H!

9. My toenails are always painted. ALWAYS. I think they look ugly without polish on them so I always have color on them. Normally it’s a bright pink or a dark plum color. They are never naked. Along this same line, I hate socks, so I wear flip flops almost year round. If my feet wouldn’t hurt, I would run in flip flops! Even in the rain I will wear my flips!

10. If I had to live the rest of my life on one type of food, it would be soup. I could easily feed myself for life with the variety of soups that are available to us. I love soup. I work with a woman who doesn’t like soup and I am utterly confused by that fact. I eat soup almost every day for lunch, and she has a salad (which I’m not a huge fan of) almost every day. We are quite the pair. My favorite soup is my Grandpa K’s bean soup. He gave me the recipe for it but mine still won’t turn out as good as his does! Maybe one day!