I was going to make a grumpy post, but things turned around!

Yesterday I was going to blog and complain about what terrible luck I have been having in my quest to find a job in Madison.

Well....

NOT ANYMORE!

I got a call this morning from a sports apparel company who are seeking a production artist to add to their team. Applicant must be able to handle a fast-paced environment, must be organized, must be self directed, and must be proficient in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. Yep, that describes me.

My interview is at 11am on Monday. It is going to be about a two hour drive there and a two hour drive back. More than likely I will have to work at 2 that day, so I'm not sure how this will work out. Oh well! New job is probably more important than old job. Hopefully the interview goes well. I get so nervous before interviews.

Friday we are planning on going to Madison to see a movie, so I may stop somewhere and try to get some more professional clothing. Also might want to get a new portfolio since my current one is covered in fur. It's not in great condition. I wonder if I can talk Ian into driving by the place so that I have an idea of where it is located. I'm nervous and excited. I have been very worried about my job situation and moving, and this would ease a little bit of my worries. I am going to tell them I could start within two weeks of the hire date so I could give my notice to my current employer and have some time to get up there. We are probably going to be staying with someone while we find a place to live. I am going to be positive that I'm going to get this job because that kind of attitude is good, I think. I am hoping that it is a first shift, Monday through Friday, decent-paying and with good benefits, but I really don't know any details at all. It could very well be 2nd shift and weekends. I'm hoping if that is the case that at least the pay and benefits are ok. I figure it has got to be better than other things because they were seeking someone with an associates degree. Ahhh I'm nervous and excited.

Well, I need to shower and get ready for work. Boo! I can't wait to have a new job!

Tomorrow.........

I have the day off of work!

But....I have to catch up on some house chores. Boo! Oh well, anything is better than spending eight unhappy hours at that store!

My Day Off

We woke up early. We went to a Brewers game. They lost. We cried.


We drove to Ian's father's house, he got his hair cut, we went to Madison and shopped, and then we drove home.

Probably about 6.5 hrs of driving today (or more).

I wish I had another day off.

Yucky.

I am feeling kind of yucky this morning.

Let's see, I need to recap:

Ian's birthday was last Friday, but we didn't do anything because he had to work. I went out to my parents' house instead to pick up his present and to visit the family. My dad, my brother, and I ended up going to my grandparents' house for a good portion of the night to visit with them. I went back to Dubuque around 10-11pm. Ian came home at about 12:30am and I gave him his present:

He loved it because it is green, even though I haven't seen him take many pictures with it. I think that is because we have only had one day off since last Friday.

Sunday we went to Ian's mom's house to celebrate his birthday with his family. It was nice seeing them. We ate cake and he opened presents. We spent the rest of the afternoon chatting, taking a walk, and riding bikes. It was a beautiful day.

So far this week, I have worked everyday. Monday something horrible happened. I logged on to my online bank website and noticed that twice in a row, a sum of $47.33 was taken out from match.com. I have never even been to that website, let alone paid them for anything. I e-mailed the bank and called the phone number of match.com that was listed next to the transaction and left a message. I'm supposed to go to the bank to fill out some dispute papers and turn my debit card off, but I have been so darn exhausted every night and every morning that I haven't been able to wake up at a reasonable time. Work has been doing that to me. I can't work 2nd shift much longer at a place that expects me to do such hard physical labor every night. So, yesterday I checked my account and match.com put $47.73 back into my account. I don't understand at all what is going on. I'm going to call match.com again today and explain exactly how much was taken out and put back in, and then I will have to wait a couple of days to get a hold of the bank because I work the rest of today and will be in Milwaukee attending a Brewers game from probably 8am until nighttime tomorrow. I am guessing that I will have to get a new debit card, and don't want to be without one all day tomorrow.

I applied for two jobs recently: one is at a sports logo embroidering company as a production artist and the other is at a dentist office as a receptionist. The first would be great for experience and I think it sounds fun, plus I'm qualified for it. I don't know how much it pays or what kind of benefits it would have. The second would have great benefits I'm sure, but I'm unsure of what the pay would be. The ad said it is a busy dentist office, but I think I could probably handle it. I am not sure they would hire me, though, based on the fact that I know very little about dentistry. Oh well, a job is a job. I'm hoping for a first shift, Monday through Friday job. Wouldn't that be spectacular? No more wasted days.

I need to start my "getting ready for work" routine. I'm definitely in a bit of a rut with this current job. When I worked 25 hours it wasn't so bad, but working 40 hours is killing my body. And I am getting paid crap wages. It's not even worth going sometimes.

I love my boyfriend.

Ian is so sweet...I got home from work tonight and checked my phone. I had a text message from Ian that read "You have a present waiting for you in the freezer." So, I open up the freezer and there is a Culver's Concrete Mixer in there! (It is a vanilla shake with candy bar pieces mixed into it, for those of you who don't know.) He always does little sweet things for me and I love him for it!

This week has been disgustingly long so far, but not that bad. Tomorrow, however, things will change because the manager who I have problems with is closing, therefore he will be there for my full eight hour shift, and will probably make me stay late because that is what happens every time...Even though at some point I will have to go home, though, unless they want to give me overtime. I hate that they make us stay later than we are scheduled...it is so illegal. It was worse for me when I was in school and had to get up in the mornings.

I have Friday off this week. I will probably spend the whole day cleaning because my apartment needs to be cleaned quite badly. I just want to open up the windows all day and let the place air out. Between Ian's stinky shoes and the people below us who smoke, I can hardly breathe in here anymore. I really want to take some bleach and a brush and hardcore scrub the ceiling and shower and get all of the mold spots, mildew, and lime scale taken care of. I haven't been wearing my contacts in the shower lately because it's been so bad.

Saturday I have to work from 1pm to 9:30pm. It is going to be awful. On Sunday Ian and I are going up to his mom's house for his birthday party and they are grilling out. I am very excited to see them and eat good food, but not so excited for the drive. I wish someone would invent a teleportation device. It would be helpful to my mind and to my pocket.

I am going to shower and get out of my stinky work clothes now. I have to go grocery shopping tonight when Ian is off of work. I hate grocery shopping. At least when we go, there is no one there so we can get our business done and get out of there.

It's-a-me...MARIO!

This is pretty cool:

http://www.break.com/index/mario-theme-played-with-rc-car-and-bottles.html

The Great Gatsby

I decided to order The Great Gatsby from Netflix the other day. I wanted to relive the novel, which I haven't read since high school. The movie seemed to live up to the book, as far as I can remember it. I thought the acting was decent and the characters looked similar to what I remember imagining when I read the book. The story was good as well, but I knew that before I watched the movie. Also, Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston) from Law and Order starred as the narrator Nick Carraway. That was a big plus for me! I recommend seeing this film and definitely reading the book (read the book before watching the film if possible).

Blah-de-blah

Sorry I haven't updated in awhile. Kids in the Hall was AMAZING. I wanted to take pictures and video, but there were no cameras allowed. Apparently the rule wasn't enforced though and I was kicking myself for not being a rule-breaker. I got a couple pictures on my cellphone, but they didn't turn out. I was going to make a re-cap video of myself doing some of the skits, but never found the time. I'm sure they would have been priceless. The hotel we stayed in that night was HORRIBLE. There was mold in the shower, a hole in the wall, and the toilet broke halfway through the night. I was afraid to sleep under the covers, even though there was no visible gross-ness. We gladly woke up early and got the heck out of there. We roamed around a couple of stores and the mall and ate at Rocky Rococo's. Finally, we headed to the IMAX to see Shine a Light. I thought it was amazing! I felt like I was front row at a Stones concert. We were the youngest people there. After we left, I spent the rest of the day strutting around like Mick Jagger.

The rest of the week sucked quite a lot because I had to work five days in a row. Friday was the worst because of two reasons: Ian left at 5am to go to Arkansas for five days and at work it was the first day of a two day sale plus the first day of LPS. It was crazy and they only had me in for a five hour shift! Needless to say, I didn't get anything done. I was glad to have Saturday and Sunday off. I went to my parents house so that I wasn't so lonely. I had a good time just hanging out. My aunt, uncle, and their three children came out to visit. We went to church and stopped by my grandparents' house. That night I relaxed and researched some cameras that I was considering getting Ian for his birthday. Sunday I woke up fairly early. My mom and I did laundry. I cleaned the inside of my car and my brother washed the outside. I bought a camera for Ian (it's perfect!). It was nice being lazy at home. I wish I could go out there for a few days in a row again soon, but it's not likely to happen because I rarely have two days off of work in a row.

Sunday night I stopped at work and got some 300 count bed sheets for only 26 bucks! Plus I had a 15% discount! I picked my mom up a set as well. I hate going in on my days off, but these were more than 50% off their original price. The rest of the night was spent laying around watching television. I didn't fall asleep until 1:30am.

Today I didn't wake up until 12:30pm. I know, I got too much sleep...Work was horrible, as usual. Well, I take that back, it could have been worse. TOMORROW will be horrible. Ian is coming home tonight :) :) :) but probably not for a couple more hours. I really should clean the bathroom before he gets home, but my legs are worn out. There is some lime scale and mold spots on the ceiling and I didn't notice it was so bad until I wore my contacts in the shower one night. It's gross and I will need to brush and bleach it one of these days. I might wait until my day off, though, because my legs are always so tired from work and standing with my arms above my head scrubbing for long periods of time doesn't sound so comfortable.

I am going to go make some juice. More later. :)

Tonight is the night!

It can't get any better than this!

Heartwrecker, heartwrecker, make me delight.

I am thinking about tackling my blog layout. I have some background in web design, but it has been awhile. Ian is leaving for about five days starting next Thursday, so I should have a bunch of free time to play with it. I am also planning on doing some painting and charcoal drawing. Even though it will be nice to have the free time, I am very sad about him leaving. Five days is a long time and we haven't really been apart for that long before. Plus, I will be doing a lot of hard work (which, by the way, my whole body is in very painful knots from my job). Oh well, I am going to focus on the fun we will have this weekend instead of dreading next week.

I did another search for jobs in or around the Madison area. I found one for a "web populator". The company is an audio/video retailer and they are looking for someone to upload product images, descriptions, and specs to their website. The position would also require one to research products and edit copy to make it coherent and cohesive. And it sounds like there is some side-work of catalog copy writing. I don't think this would be a bad job. It is $10 an hour, 40 hours a week and it seems like they have decent perks (insurance, training, paid vacation and holidays). It is located in Middleton, which is where we were looking at living. I think the experience would be good as well because I am looking at getting more into web design. I'm going to touch up my resume today (I am going to just make it black and white and much simpler) and send it to them. AND I'm going to actually mention this time in the cover letter that I plan on moving to the area soon. I'm ready for a new, less physical job. I come home feeling completely exhausted and sore from the current job every single night. I'm always mentally drained. Every day when I go to work the lame manager is always putting me down even though I try very hard and everyone else tells me I do good work. I feel really lame for letting such a stupid job get to me. I'm not getting paid very much and put a lot more effort than a lot of people who make similar wages. I really shouldn't care so much.

I am getting so excited about seeing The Kids in the Hall tomorrow night. This is something that I never dreamed possible. Ian and I watch the show all the time (he has every season on dvd). We think it is one of the funniest things ever to grace our eyes. When we were at Disney World, everytime one of their voices was featured at a ride or attraction we had to laugh. I wish we were seated a little closer to the stage, but I'm not too worried about it. As long as I can see I will be fine. I would love to know if I can bring my camera to the venue. I should call ahead. If not, my phone has camera and video function, but I'm weary about using it for this because I doubt we will be close enough for the picture to turn out and the audio would probably not be very good.

We have Netflix and can get three movies at a time. Usually, Ian picks two and I pick one and he pays 2/3 of the monthly fee. Since Ian will be gone next week, he let me pick two this time. I am getting sick of new movies. Most of them have really lame stories with really lame actors/actresses. They sacrifice quality for sex and unfunny humor. I am going to start watching more older movies because they always seem to impress me more. It seems the stories are a lot of times better put together and the actors/actresses are actually talented and not chosen based solely on looks and zero emphasis on acting ability. I'm not bashing all new movies, because I do enjoy some...maybe only five a year, though, that I would actually consider good. Anyway, I am going to relive some books we read in high school and watch the movies The Great Gatsby and Sun Also Rises. I would rather read the books, but sadly am usually not able to read for extended periods of time and (also sadly) would rather have movies delivered to my mailbox than drive down to the library and sign up for a card.

I need to go lay down on a heating pad. My body aches.

The work for the happy finger method must go on.

The other night I watched the movie The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T. I thought it was very interesting. I decided to watch it because we recently went to the movie Horton Hears a Who and it somewhat rekindled my fond feelings for Dr. Suess stories. This particular story was about a boy who was unhappy having to practice the piano. He fell asleep and dreamed about being stuck in a school-type situation where Dr T. (his real-life piano instructor) was in charge and about to start a program where he would be treating 150 children as slaves. He had a giant piano and wanted to force children to practice playing from the time they awoke to the time they went to sleep. Anyway, Bart (the main boy) befriends the sink plumber, they rescue his mom (who was in Dr. T's trance and about to marry him), and eventually destroy the giant piano.

The movie was very noticeably from the 1950s. I sort-of liked that aspect because I like old movies. I enjoyed the movie, even though it was very much a children's movie.

April 3rd = ...Snow?

Yes, it was indeed snowing today. I walked outside to my car on my break and there were huge, wet balls of snow dropping from the sky. It was incredibly icky. Work blew today, big surprise there. Too much stuff to do, not enough time...as usual. My body aches. I think I may lay down in a few to rest my bones. They hurt.

The Crew didn't sweep the Cups as I had hoped, but two out of three isn't bad. I didn't expect much from Bush anyway. Villanueva pitches tomorrow and we play the Giants. I wish I could watch it on tv, but we are not able to here. That is part of the reason why we are moving!

Tomorrow should be alright. And then the wonderful weekend will begin! There is a small chance we will be getting free tickets to a Brewers game on Saturday (very small chance). Saturday night Ian, Eric, and I will be attending a KIDS IN THE HALL show!!!! I am so very excited for this. After the show we are driving back to Madison and Ian and I are going to stay in a cheap hotel. Then the next day Ian is taking me to see Shine a Light (the Stones movie by Scorsese). Ian is leaving for a five day trip next week and I'm really glad we have a couple of days of together before he goes. I'm really going to be quite sad and lonely while he is gone. I don't have anyone to hang out with and I will probably be working everyday. Pretty lame, but you know.

I really need a hot shower.

Brewers Rule, Cubs Drool

I am so, COMPLETELY glad that the Brewers defeated the Cubs in the first two games of the series. I am hoping for a sweep!