It's amazing how much of my life has been determined by a quarter inch piece of plastic

~garden state.

um, I kind of forgot to wear my retainer last night. my retainer that I've only been wearing for two weeks anyway, but it means I don't take a muscle relaxer at night anymore...and now I know why it's extra super important that I not forget to wear it.

because if I don't, my jaw is gonna be all kinds of painful.

like it is right now. guess that little (very expensive) quarter inch of plastic is pretty important, hmm?

I have started to think about my upcoming trips--making sure I have the recipes for the sweet potatoes and the pumpkin pie, wondering if I need to bring a hostess gift for thanksgiving in addition to the eats, thinking about what to get matt for his birthday and christmas, as well as what to get my person for the Fry family secret santa thingie, and what clothes I will need to get for our ski trip. I'm thinking about getting this jacket 'cause it's $30, so if it gets ruined it's going to be okay (unlike my pretty green one, which was way more than that, and which would make me pout if it got ruined). I am trying to decide between black or pink.

You see, I am quite aware of my potential for ruining pretty much anything I wear while going skiing, as I am totally clumsy. And if I don't ruin it falling down I'm likely to ruin it with sunblock--for I learned the hard way that I burn extremely easily on the slopes--far more than you would think, even accounting for the wind and the cold and the sun reflecting and the sweating, etc.

As a matter of fact (ick story about to be told) when I was in high school I went skiing with my youth group. We had a wonderful time. And by the end of the second day, despite wearing 45 sunblock and re-applying every single time we got on the lift, my face was covered with little blisters. I was burned so badly my face looked brown--well, at least in the places my hat and goggles hadn't been. On the third day I skied in true bank-robber fashion, with a red bandanna tied across my face.

It. Was. Hot.

and don't even get me started about the way the blisters popped during our 18 hour drive back to Tulsa, or how long it took for my skin to be okay again. I'll tell you my nickname in a minute.

Oh and. On this trip another person got a nickname too. There were three of us on the lift, and I was in the middle. Somehow, while I managed to ski straight off and stop a reasonable distance from the lift and out of the way, the other two collided and got tangled up together, and the girl on my left ended up hitting her head on the point of the ski belonging to the girl on my right.

And boy, did it leave a mark.

From that day forth, she was known as Bumpy and I as Rudolph. Names coined by the preacher's sons. Yikes.

anyway, that's what I think of when I think of skiing. well, one of 'em anyway. and tonight? tonight I will be wearing my retainer, you can bet money on that one.

i've got an answer, peanut butter, do they match?

~originally said by d. henze, now said by people I know everywhere. and by me.

I feel like I have a lot of questions right now...like:

who do I call to ask about north carolina tax laws?

if I have this bedding (that I got new last year) but my pillowcases got ruined by some bleach, should I replace them with the blue ones since the grey ones are no longer available, anywhere? should I buy a whole new set? should I try to make matching-in-color pillowcases? should I remove some of the fabric from the underside of the duvet and make pillowcases out of it?

how do I know if a job is *right* for me? and why can't I decide if the next step is grad school or a job?

do I make the sullivans a pumpkin pie as a thanks-for-being-awesome-to-me gift? will they think that's weird?

how do I decide what activities are important to me? do I have to pick between youth and girl scouts? if I do, which one do I pick? and when do I need to have decided?

why are the people at american eagle all idiots? how come they couldn't understand that 30% off a $50 purchase is better than $10 off--and that 30% off is even more valuable when you're spending more than $50?

and which are better--ski bibs or ski pants?

riddle me this, batman. riddle. me. this.

so, is this when logical carrie steps in? because I'm waiting for that part.

-ja(h)b, commenting on the how-i-decided-to-go-to-augusta-for-christmas story.

so, I wanted to show you these things. because I like them, you see.

this is a magnet my granny gave me for my birthday. I have loved it since I was a little girl. It's not amazing or beautiful or anything, but I've a penchant for green and white (go edison, edison and kappa delta) and I've just always loved this. I don't think I ever really told her, either. she just knew.

and then here are my shelves in the corner by the stairs, top to bottom:

a picture of the oklahoma sun, the black bear statue my pledge sister and wonderful friend syd gave me 'cause it made her think of the bear my big gave me, a bear I got since it has white roses on it, and the green bear with the shamrock given to me by maria. :)

next up, pictures--matt and me on the beach in atlantic city when I went on vacay with his family, the last picture of my granddaddy and me (which he insisted on taking, and he was kind of embarrassed to ask, and he didn't realize that I might have a camera in my purse because my mom always uses her camera phone so he thought I'd take it with that...) and then those wooden roses are from woolaroc, and I bought them when I went there with harvo and his friends. and mary alise brought me that egg from hawaii.

then a picture of me and sjg in la last december, just about a year ago. that and a picture of my mom, granny, granddad and me from when I was awarded top ten freshman. that award was a HUGE turning point in my life. HUGE. I am so glad a good friend of mine encouraged me to apply. I bought my grandlittle and myself that forget-me-not box (it's our thing) and I made that pinwheel at vbs. and that cheshire cat? oh, the memories. man, I need to show y'all a picture of my alice in wonderland costume. um, and a picture I like of my guitar. which reminds me, I need to play it. oopsie.

the next shelf is one of my faves-- okay, that's a lie, they all are. that painting is my first "tape painting," and I stained that frame and put it together myself. not a huge feat, but I felt accomplished. also on this shelf, an elephant from tonya. it was my birthday present theme--because thinking of me makes her think of seeing lucy the elephant. that picture of jess and me is from when we visited KD National Headquarters on the way moving here, and that picture of matt and me is one of the very best--i look so tan!--it's from our five month-iversary. this saturday is eight!

next is a picture--nay, an award winning picture--of jessica, renee and me from mayfest when harvo's band played. and then that snow globe is from my granny--she gave one to both anna and me for our birthday this year. incase you can't tell, it's for new york city. I honestly wish it had the twin towers, because the one time we went to new york with my granny (one of the three times I've been there) those towers were still standing.

and finally, my pile o' books--I haven't read 'em all, but I will eventually! Two are from Del, one from Katie, one from Jeremy (which I'll get to break out soon--look out for the bad christmas puns, people!) and then there are some I took from Ariel and Chris when they moved. Amongst others. It reminds me I need to spend more time reading! And I need to sell some of my books. (anyone want a copy of Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister or Green Grass Grace? I enjoyed them both, but I don't plan to re-read them, so I want to give them away/sell them)

anyway, I love this shelf. I bought it in college. well, them--there are two. and since it's only big enough to hold decorative things it gave me an excuse to use that space for frames and such rather than the loads of books and school stuff I have. I'm thinking about painting it green though--because now things in my living room are dark wood. we shall see...

shine like stars.

wow. what a weekend. I really feel like I have my work cut out for me--but at least I can see it. You know how sometimes it seems pretty clear that if you just did this, this and this then this other thing would happen/be fixed/whatever? Well, that's how I feel about my youth group. And I already feel like I've made a difference for one youth in particular, just by being nice to him.

and I gotta admit, it feels kinda good to know that I can make an impact. also, here's the group. that's middle and high school.

the weekend was really fun though, and the speaker was hilarious! the comedian was too. and over the course of 16 hours I was told that I had the best laugh ever by one person and the worst laugh ever by another. yeesh.

oh AND. I now understand why Matt doesn't talk about his personal life with students. The freshmen girls wanted to see a picture of him, and for the rest of the weekend would say "he's hot" whenever the name Matt was said. And then they started saying over and over "Matt and Carrie F*y, Matt and Carrie F*y" in a sing-song voice. yeesh. At least the sophomores asked questions instead of taunting! (ps, gotta delete the name so his students can't google and find him!)

I slept about five hours a night, laughed a lot, got mooned by one of the youth in my room, and ate at two of my least favorite restaurants in one day--red robin and mcdonald's. at least I had lunch at Chili's. And it was so neat to be the "cool" adult--I def liked that. Oh, and at Chili's (while monitoring the game, go State!) we played "tongues"--a card game like spoons, but instead you stick out your tongue. It was too funny.

red robin was pretty hilarious--our group was GIGANTIC. I wore a balloon as a ring. We had them sing Happy Birthday to Chris, whose birthday isn't until next month, and Amos and I were terribly amused by the "grr yum" on the gift cards. We also made a house of coasters and I played my straw-lemon-slide-whistle, see?

all in all there were over 5800 youth in attendance at the weekend, with something like 288 churches and all twelve districts represented. so very very cool. it was amazing how many people were there!!!

the topics covered that I thought were pretty cool...

1. some pigs are gonna die. it was about legion, and the speaker said he thought this was the weirdest passage in the whole bible. i think I might agree. anyway, jesus cast the demons from the man into a herd of pigs, and the pigs drowned themselves. the whole point of the story was that the pigs represented how if jesus is going to be a part of your life, then some pigs--some bad things, some things keeping you from being a good christian/person--are gonna have to die.

2. about the woman who was accused of adultery, and how jesus told them that the one of them whole was blameless should cast the first stone. and then he talked about that zipper ride at the fair (I still can't believe I ever rode one of those) and about a girl who was riding that, but who
had eaten two corndogs, a fried snicker and a funnel cake beforehand, and who ended up getting sick all over the place. and how when she came out everyone backed away, since she was covered in puke. but how a lady broke through the circle of onlookers, and came and cradled the girl and started to hold her and wipe her clean because she wasn't just a girl, this was her baby girl. and how that's how jesus feels about us.. no matter what situation we're in, we're still his.

3. my favorite one. i'm going to remember this for a long time. it was about zacchaeus climbing up the sycamore tree so that he could see jesus better, and how jesus was going to stay at his house. of course there was the whole thing about how jesus was going to associate with an outcast everyone is important. but the most profound part for me was a role that no one ever talks about--the role of the tree. this tree had been growing for years. many years. god had made it grow just so that it would be there so that one day a tax collector could sit in it, so that the messiah could come and fetch him out of it. and it made me think about how thought it's really important to act and do, it's also crucial that sometimes we're just the facilitators, the backdrop that makes things possible.

and yesterday, after the closing session with the banners and once everyone was gone I went home and took a nice long nap. and then matt and I ate at Vincent's (yum!) and he let me watch last Thursday's Grey's even though he kinda hates the show.

and um, you know how sometimes people's animals sometimes look like them? well, gobi doesn't look like me, but he sure does take after his momma! I had some of my yummmmy birthday bluebell icecream (thanks again, nick!) and gobi would not leave me alone--he simply doesn't ever stand on my lap for that long, nor does he ever try so hard to get my food. he really wanted that icecream!!! I had to give him a little bite, and of course matt had to take a picture of gobi and his efforts. :) oh, and--last night I slept like a log. honk-shoo! thank goodness for sleep! like real, actual, not-waking-up-ten-times sleep!

two other things I forgot:
a) shine like stars--I ended up telling the girls in my room about my tattoo. and one of the middle school leaders, too. about how it's for philippians 2:14-15. "do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe..." and about how I used to put star-shaped beads on the used-for-a-loopie part of my tennis shoes, so that when I saw it I would remember that I might be the only Christ anyone ever saw. I realized I'd never told y'all why I got the star tattoo. and now you know. and knowing is half the battle.

b) kaydee--I made a point of wearing one of my KD shirts while we were there. it's not the first time I've done it. a few of the girls noticed, and one said "cool!" and another said "so, you regret ever doing that, huh?" It was nice to get to tell her of the common misconceptions about being greek (though admittedly there are some chapters of all sororities that really are the bad, fat-circling kind) and of how being greek is one of the very best decisions I ever made in my whole entire life. Since I'm not the stereotypical sorority girl, it's refreshing to re-cast that mold a little, you know? :)

i gave her my heart, she gave me a pen.

~ say anything

Matt and I watched Say Anything last night. The same Say Anything that Sterling and Christina mimicked, except I was still drying my hair so I didn't hear. It had been a looooong time.

I liked it though. And now In Your Eyes is stuck in my head. And Matt and I got a kick out of the part where they're having sex in the car--I can't remember what the line was, but we both looked at each other and started cracking up. And later, when he was leaving, I mimicked the awkward hug.

clearly, this is a very mimickable movie. clearly.

so, this kid is on my desk. It's so much fun. you can't see it all, but there's a cactus shaped pencil, a pinwheel, a sunflower pin, my hot little man, two pink elephants that tonya gave me for my birthday, my clippy with eyes and who knows what else. the thing that matters is that I like it. and that it's on my desk to cheer me up!

okay, well I'm about to leave now. I finished my work (well, most of it) and now I leave to go pack my things for the youth pilgrimage. It should be fun, but I'm sure I'll be more excited about it once we're actually in the vans. right now it's still kind of stressing me out. and I slept terrrrrribly, so I'm not looking forward to the sleeping-in-a-hotel part of this. but it should be fun. it should, it should.

I must admit though, I'm already looking forward to sunday...and then sushi on tuesday with marla...it will be my first sushi since the 26th, I had to take a sushi break!

with the moon shinin' all-a, boats a-floatin' all-a. boys swimmin' all around

OH YEAH!
~from just a boy and a girl in a little canoe.

I taught that song to the girls last night. They liked it. And they giggled. and if you don't know this song I'll be happy to teach it to you--with hand motions!

um, and this is why I'm hot. yowza! that's me in all my lab-coated, catalyst besmirched, bespectacled glory. feast your eyes, friends. Feast. Your. Eyes. Don't you wish your coworker was (hot like) me? Yeah, that's what I thought...and enough with the lame song references already, I know, I know.

oh and. so, my prolific tomatoes? it was time to harvest them and *attempt* to ripen them indoors. I need to buy some bananas to help, but now they're in a box. I left the harder greener ones on the vine, and maybe when it gets a skosh warmer next week they'll start to ripen. Even with all of these off I still have dozens--and that's not counting all of the cherry tomatoes. apparently next year I need to pinch off the buds in late august to encourage the tomatoes to ripen.

and I seriously loooooove freerice.com, and I hate hate hate insurance. especially in light of my likely sinus surgery. my old job's insurance paid for every last dime of the actual surgery. I'll have to pay 10%. :( oh well. we'll worry about it when we get there, eh?

things the grandchildren should know.

~the eels.

okay, some things you might should know about.

freerice- I get to learn new words (or verify that I already know other ones) and in exchange this nice organization sends rices to hungry people. I'm pretty sure we all win.

recycle, recycle, recycle. it's EASY. and important. that aluminum can you used at lunch? it can be recycled indefinitely, a can made with recycled aluminum emits 95% less than a new can. and the energy saved by recycling that one can could power a TV for three hours. Or it's like not using half a gallon of gasoline.

you can recycle the aluminum foil on hershey's kisses.

one third to forty percent of the water used in most homes is flushed down the toilet. for reals people, if all you did was pee, consider waiting to flush until next time. I *still* can't believe that this hasn't been mentioned despite our being in a drought. heck, my grandparents used to wait until the end of the day to flush the toilet just to save water and therefore money, when they were just starting out.

the average american spends eight full months of his/her life opening junk mail.

every time you open your over door while cooking you lose 25 degrees or more.

every year we make enough plastic wrap to shrink-wrap the state of texas!

styrofoam is not recyclable! and every year americans throw away 25,000,000,000 styrofoam cups--that's enough to circle the earth 436 times.

use goodsearch. you earn money for a charity/org just by doing something you're already doing anyway.

um, yeah. so I felt like sharing this stuff. 'coz you prolly need to know. and this way my post didn't involve pouting, although I must admit I feel much better. :)

and, lyrics to my new fave song 'coz it's so cute--it's called "i love you, you imbecile." by pelle carlberg. from my paste cd. i think I especially love it because it talks about living with someone's puns. and, um, I kinda think Matt (and anyone else who spends time with me or hell even reads this blog) might have to put up with those a lot! :)

I love the way you talk
I love the way you stalk
me with your mobile phone
I love the way you smile
The way you're juvenile
I love the way you moan

I can live with vanity and puns
and the morning temper runs
I can live with all your downsides
I can live with you

All I want, all I need
All I want is you
I can live with all the stupid things you do.

I love the way you dress
the way you make a mess
and that you're always late
I love the way you smell
and I can always tell
when you exaggerate

I can live with vanity and puns
and the morning temper runs
I can live with all your downsides
I can live with you...

All I want, all I need
All I want, all I need
All I want, all I need

All I want is you
I can live with all the stupid things you do.

i am not a wreck. i am not a wreck. i am not a wreck.

(because sterling says so) kinda like "there's no place like home." but, um not. and I'm going to say that while clicking my heels and wearing silver shoes like in the book, not the red sparkle ones from the movie. specifically, these.

I might cop to being drained. or a mess. or frustrated. or worn out. but I am not a wreck.

tonight I go to dinner with my friend Collin to celebrate being Octoberians. And can you guess where I'm going? Here's a hint--I'm going to order off the menu.

and I think that after I do a few things I need to do (fill out some stuff, look at benefit options for work, put away my clean dishes and clothes and wash some dirty ones, etc) I might break out the ol' paints and do some de-stressing in the best way I know how. any suggestions of what to paint?

oh and. pictures from the weekend--here are some assorted ones. it was quite funny to me that the other girls were just "how do you have cute hair in the morning? hell, how do you look cute in the morning at all?!? can you teach us how? that is so unfair!" I found that quite amusing. And I told them they might should get glasses. Also, the low that night was 39. Which isn't freezing, but it ain't warm either, certainly not in a tent. And, the one picture shows you how bad the drought is--see the roots on that tree? and matt was pretty proud of that shadow picture. silly. oh AND. we totally got made fun of for our sweatshirts--gray, hooded, related to our houses. :)

and here are some pictures Matt took. he gets more picture savvy every time we take pictures together. and the one at an angle he totally took for me--because he knew I'd like the angles. :) aw.

and did I mention I have a minor obsession with mailboxes? we drove by these, and matt said "you want me to turn around so you can go photograph those, huh?" he knows me rather well, methinks.

did you read about the guy on jackie's blog? some people have all the luck.

anything but that.

~rent

I think I'm in serious need of some glue. Like, glue for the emotions and glue for the soul. And while we're at it, for the body. Because I *think* I'm falling apart in a very literal sense, y'see.

I went to the sinus doctor today, and amongst other things he let me know why it is that I've been insisting that my left side of my nose is skinnier than my right--that's because, friends, my septum has re-deviated. again. Like, to the point where it's just about touching the outer wall of my nose. and know what this means? I likely will need to have sinus surgery. again. And since I am young and have only fur-children, now is the right time to do it if I need it. but for reals, this is so not cool. so. not.

and to top it all of, I almost yelled at one of my project directors, yet again. I am really going to lose it one of these days. And scream. But for now, since he is partially deaf, I will mutter. And call him Richard--y'know, short for Dick? Matt suggested that one. :)

and did anyone else see Heroes? I kind of think this is the first episode all season that's worth talking about...but the other ones were def necessary. Well done, methinks. Well done indeed.

anyway, it's bedtime. I really do have more camping pictures to show you, so hopefully tomorrow. but for now I will read for a little bit and then crash. and tomorrow will be a better day---Matt and I both had annoying ones, so we agreed that Tuesday will be much better pre-eight pm than today was. That's my plan anyway--wish me luck!

"i feel like i've spent the entire weekend being cold."

~said by yours truly. because I kinda did.

honestly I'm far far too tired to go through all 130 of my pictures from this weekend, and I probably shoulda just gone to sleep instead of blogging. I mean, I'm in my bed right now typing this! but anyway...

we did end up going camping. yes, there was a burn ban. but we did have a fire, of sorts. more specifically of the charcoal sort. I must admit that it's odd to have all of my clothes smell like charcoal (instead of like a campfire) and a charcoal fire really really isn't the same, but still. pretty awesome.

friday night was superfun too. matt, betsy, mark and I had dinner at brixx (seriously, we are SO going to earn our party before the end of the year--only fourteen more beers to go) and then the four of us met up with his friend shane at the bowling alley. (shane, by the way, almost inadvertently caused the demise of matt's and my relationship from the get-go--long story short, his presence caused matt to repeatedly change his plans and almost ruined our date, and this was the same night that he got really non-alcohol sick and I had to drive us home and force him to sleep at my house--and really, I'da done the same to any of you. but moving on) I must admit I was a skosh embarrassed by my behavior that evening, mostly because I played wingman of sorts and one of the girls in the next lane and I schemed so that shane and her friend who were talking could continue to do so. that's not like me. I mean, unless you're erik welf.

saturday I was tired tired tired when I woke up. I'm pretty sure we would've slept until 100 easy--but instead we got up to get breakfast and look for lanterns. I'll have to take a picture of the ones we got. After Matt picked one he left for his soccer game, and I decided to do some follow-up shopping at walmart, where I bought four lanterns, four flashlights, a mug I forgot and left at home and something like 32 batteries.

like the true nerds we are, at the campsite we evaluated the relative light output of our lantern options and ended up choosing the pair I'd purchased--together they were $10 more than the one he got, but the were only slightly less bright, run on 3 C batteries (a piece) instead of 8 D and last waaaaaaaaay longer. like, easily ten times. so it'll be cheaper in the long run. and they're smaller, too. I'm pretty happy with our purchase, and I know we'll use them again!

the six of us drank beer (shhhhhh don't tell the ranger!), ate burgers and hot dogs and chips, played apples to apples, wore a whole whole lot of layers and had a whole lot of laughs. matt and I stayed up the latest, per usual, and got to see some amazing stars. I am really looking forward to looking at stars again over thanksgiving. but that whole sleeping part? c.o.l.d. while we were up I'd worn two pairs of socks, mens longjohns that matt brought (and seriously, they have a lot of extra fabric! who even fills that up?!? I mean not to be dirty, but really?!), my jeans, two long sleeved shirts, one short sleeved shirt, a hooded KD sweatshirt and a slicker pullover thing of matt's over that. and gloves and a hat.

but while sleeping, even though we had like, what, seven blankets? still so cold! at one point I woke up and discovered I'd been breathing through my mouth, and seriously expected to find icicles in there! it was even cold in the morning! and after we got everything packed up matt and I went to look at jordan lake. it was sad to see how low the water was!

after that, three things happened 1)I took pictures of mailboxes, 2)we took pictures of a pretty pond, 3)I stepped on an ant pile and they poured out of it and crawled all on my legs. matt kindly pointed out to me that I was standing on one, and we spent like three minutes knocking them all off. thankfully, none of them came home with me--that I know of!

and the rest of today? yeesh. collected my car, went to brunch at brig's in durham (where I had to put on my sweatshirt again), came to my place and showered and left to go to marla and justin's engagement party which was wonderful but outdoors! cold again! thankfully I had my green puffy coat. It was awesome to meet their parents, especially marla's mom and dad who I've heard a lot about, and the food was yum! bbq and peach cobbler and wine and cider and beer? A perfect fall menu! Strangely, though, I took a grand total of three pictures. I think I was worn out! surprise, surprise. My main conversations were about going camping, engineering and being from The One And Only Tulsa, Oklahoma. Quite a few of the people there had been to Tulsa, and we spoke of it warmly. Which helpful on the cold night. (buh-dum, ching. and groan.)

anyhoo, it's bedtime. I'll post most pictures tomorrow. these are just a few teasers! :)

why I am not allowed to have glow sticks

so, because it's friday, and because I've got to blog all quick like, you get the story. my mom HATES this though, so should you ever meet her/talk to her, you don't know anything, k? I'm taking your continued reading as your solemn promise not to remind my mom of this tale of woe.

and it's not that awesome of a story, so sorry in advance if you're disappointed.

and thanks for your continued support. er, um, whatever.

anyway. so I'm ten or eleven or something like that. My little brainiac self and my curious mind are running wild and I fancy myself a scientist (item one:the mind of a kid who loves science). I don't remember where, but Anna and I are given glow sticks--the long skinny kind you can make into bracelets and necklaces. We put a few of them in the freezer since they'll keep glowing for longer that way, and set to figuring out what's inside.

we cut off the end (item two:the scissors) of a few of them and check out this glowing liquid and realize it's actually more exciting inside the tube than it is out, plus we're a leeetle worried that it's going to stain something. so, we seal them back up (item three:the lighter)

we play with them for a while--wearing them, making long strings of lights, and the ones we "tested" are always on the end since they don't quite line up right. and then we decide to play "helicopter" in the kitchen, which happens to be where my mother is standing. we each hold on to the end of our respective lines-o'-glow and spin them above our heads.

well, the ends? not sealed so well. and the glow stuff? kinda flew into the air in little droplets. and my mom's eyeball (item four: mom's eyball) kinda caught some of the little droplets.

and then? then I was banished from having a glow stick ever, ever again. there has only been one other time since, and I didn't wear it, and adam couldn't tell my mom I even had it.

my mom went to the doctor immediately, and anna and I hung out with her until our stepdad got off of work and came to pick us up. I don't know all the details, but based on my mom's description:

-she was strapped to a table
-something resembling a small ugly metal hand was used to hold each of her eyes open (they treated both just incase)
-the drops were of various colors (I remember there were red, blue, yellow and green mentioned) and some of them stained her hair as she cried them out down the sides of her face
-the drops also caused various levels of stinging, pain, burning, itching and made her want to hold her eyes shut, which she was unable to do as she was strapped to a table and the ugly metal hands were holding her eyes open
-she cried until she had no more tears, and that's really unpleasant when you can't even shut your eyes

uh yeah, awful. like double awful with a side of awful sauce. hence my banishment from all sticks glow-ee.

sometimes I was an insolent child. or rude or hateful or mean or a know-it-all or snotty or bossy or difficult or picky. (and sometimes I'm told I was downright angelic, lest you think I was a complete hellian) but this? this is hands down, no contest, the worst thing I ever did to my mother. and she reminds me of it on occasion. and at twenty seven I'm still afraid she'll catch me with one and unleash her fury--which she has a surprisingly large amount of when she wants to--and if you've ever met my mother, you'd be surprised as well, as she is an easy-going, artsy, checker-pattern-loving, hair-down-past-her-butt, "far out" saying mystic/hippie.

anyhoo. there's the story.

oh and camping? maybe not. they put a burn ban into effect on the 25th, so camping without a campfire? not so awesome. especially since one of the girls has never been camping before, so that kind of ruins the whole experience.

we shall see. we shall see...but if we go? expect pictures. hell, expect them even if we don't go--we'll still hang out and have fun. :)

so much for...

~telling you the reasons I love october on the last day of the month
~listing out a bunch of scary words in honor of halloween (ensorcell, phantasmagoria, calculus)
~letting you know how excited I was about going to the white's house to eat pizza and pass out candy and watch scary movies
~sleeping
~keeping it together.

work? work has me crazy. how do these people expect me to do all this in a day? I know I'm superwoman and everything, but for real! There are a limited number of hours, people! And time is kinda like money--you only get to spend it once! I feel like they want me to work three times as fast, but thing is, *I* don't even control how fast these things go, they just take however long they take!!! I have worked extra every day this week--and today will be no different. Thankfully, I get to count every single hour because our work is primarily funded by the government, but who knows when it'll slow down enough for me to use them, and really I could totally use a massage and a nap. And maybe a maid.

and then yesterday, after a fun fun evening watching 28 Weeks Later and having yummy beer, and after getting to wear a glow-in-the-dark necklace that matt bought me at the grocery store, (which is kind of a big deal because I haven't been allowed in the general vicinity of any glow thing of the snap-and-it-lights-up variety since I was like ten because of an incident involving scissors, a lighter, the mind of a kid who loves science and my mother's eyeball) I completely lost it. :( I think I'm stressed out. And I don't like it.

okay, carrie--good things, good things.
~it is thursday.
~this weekend there will be camping. and maybe just maybe hobo dinners.
~tonight is grey's.
~there is still one piece of apple pie waiting for you to eat it.
~thanksgiving is in three weeks!

I will come up with more positive things, I swear. but in the meantime I'm not so thrilled. oh, and I'm getting sick. yeehaw.

"this is the first time we've ever seen matt with a girl"

~gary, the husband of one of matt's teacher friends

believe me, that sentence was met with lots of laughter. lots and lots. this was on saturday night when I met a bunch of 8th grade teachers from his middle school. it was fun but certainly a tinge awkward, as they all digressed into talking about their students and there wasn't anything I could say. but by the end of the night all was well, and I even said yes when one of the other teachers asked if I could maybe come talk to her class about science. we shall see...

so, friday was fun--well, except for the part where the hostess at waraji was a total beeotch and said--and I quote "since you're not using all of these seats we're going to take this table so people can sit at it." they totally stole the table. no apology, no reluctance, nada. I'm glad Beth thought to grab her drink. but other than that, good times. :) Kevin sang Happy Birthday to me (he has an awesome and strong voice) and I drank lots and lots of beer and we went bowling. here are some pictures from that night--and I feel kinda bad 'cause matt isn't in the group picture--but I didn't realize he was getting beer! so he gets two close ups.

oh, and, I got ALL SORTS of hilarious or yummy or wonderful birthday things. I may take pictures of some of them, or maybe just of some of the funny cards--music, a fuzzy koozie, blue bell icecream, sushi, coffee from costa rica, liquor, pink elephants (yes, really)--my friends rule. gifts were not necessary, and y'all are far too kind!

saturday AM was the youth sunday practice and I was a leeeetle not together for that one. I did make a point of wearing a kaydee shirt though--I feel like maybe I can break a stereotype or two for our highschoolers. we shall see. anyhoodle, after that was The Shower!

the strata was a huge hit, and there were pies and yummy cheese and fresh fruit (oh strawberries-mmm!) and exquisite company. and the mom-to-be, patty, was fabulous, per usual. it was a little awkward when she asked who was having kids next and I felt like people expected me to answer first, since, you know, I was the only non-married there! I really felt like we all learned a lot!

after an unsuccessful attempt at a nap Matt and I went to his place to make cheesy meatballs and little smokies in bbq sauce for his teacher shindig. and then we went.

and sunday, that was youth sunday itself. I was at church at 8am. That's before I usually get to work, people. fortunately I got a nice long nap that afternoon--and since my sinuses have been going bonkers, it was a very good thing, a very good thing indeed.

other updates since then:
lost in translation--the teacher who wants me to come talk to her class was talking to matt yesterday, and he said that would be great except don't ask me why I'm a Chemical Engineer, since the sum up is that I made straight A's 'cause my mom told me I could go anywhere I wanted for college if I did, and that I picked Chemical Engineering because it's the hardest thing you can do. This? not entirely true. The straight A's part is accurate, but I loved science ever since Mrs. Vincent taught me, and I wanted to be a scientist since 4th grade. (And yes, I've thanked her. repeatedly!) In high school I was told I was the best Chemistry student my teacher had ever had, and my physics teacher asked me if I'd heard of Chemical Engineering, and since I hadn't, I checked it out. It was still science-ee but had many more job opportunities and paid better, so I tried it. later I found out it's the hardest degree to get. this story is a little better, methinks.

pies-matt has already eaten 3/4 of the apple pie, and has somewhat changed his mind about not liking pumpkin pies. he'll still pick apple over pumpkin, but he "kinda likes" the pumpkin pie.

waraji-I called and told the manager of our poor service. she apologized, said she'd talk to the hosting staff, made a note of my name and told me to say hello to her the next time I came in.

monday-I was at work until 740 pm!!! thank goodness for beer, brixx pizza and heroes. matt and I earned our shirts yesterday. this means we're halfway to getting to have a party!

teachers-apparently the non-ongoing-joke is that when I snap matt comes-a-running. they make these jokes about another guy's wife. I guess I've been let into the club. :)

just incase there was any doubt...

today is totally a Monday.

I started a cute post about the weekend. It will have to wait.

instead, I bring you ranting. ready? go!

~this morning I overfilled my leak proof mug, thereby negating it's leak-proof-ness. I found this out the hard way, and Mattie (my car) got a nice roof wash with coffee.

~I cut my toenails too short.

~I keep waiting too long to add more liquid to the vacuum filtering, which means some of the orange stuff gets through and I have to start over again.

~three hours into my reactor heating the variac decides to stop working. for no apparent reason.

~and, my personal fave. today I was using helium instead of nitrogen for one of the projects I'm working on. I asked one of our technicians if I could use the line on the gas manifold, and he said yes. I did. This afternoon he came up to me and told me that I'd bled our entire six pack of cylinders pretty much dry. Long story short: it is not possible to hook up the line to the gas manifold as is and not bleed the cylinders dry in a matter of hours--you have to use a needle valve or your flow rate will be way, way too high even if your pressure is suuuuuuper low. yet, the set-up in the lab makes it appear that using a quick connect is going to be peachy with a side of keen. egads, I tell you!

and I know I'm not the only person who is particularly un-fond of this monday. yick.

I'm sure this seems like jibberish, but I assure you it is both frustrating and annoying. And I want to go home, have beer and watch heroes. And I shall.

[baking] the [pie] fantastic

I baked until the wee hours of the morning--I made three pies last night. Two pumpkin, one apple. The apple I made combining two recipes--one from Martha Stewart and one from Everyday Food--but I used my great grandmother's crust recipe. And I used gala, granny smith and golden delicious apples. (I just noticed that they're all G's!) And of course the pumpkin pie is my great grandmother mae's recipe too.

When I talked to my Granny last night she was amazed to learn that I prefer using two forks to using a pastry blender when making my crust. I told her I was a little nervous since a)I'd never made an apple pie before and b)I was improvising the filling recipe and she told me "Carrie, it's in your blood. You're gonna be just fine."

I haven't tasted it yet, but it looks like it's gonna be yummy. It isn't beautiful, but it's not too shabby for a first attempt, I think.

also, I managed to burn myself, per usual. but on my dinner. I cooked it in the to-go foil thingie which is waaaaaay flimsy, and the sauce jumped up and got me. I also had to use my bbq tongs to remove the few pieces of pasta from the bottom of the oven--while it was at 475. yikes. thankfully, that was my one and only burn. and it looks much better this morning than in did last night--here's how it is now.

if you'd like to send kisses to my boo-boo please let me know so I can arrange to catch 'em.

and I also made an egg strata--or really made the parts of it. there will be a drunken assembling post-bowling tonight, methinks. it's supposed to sit overnight, so I've got to wait until tonight to do it.

oh, and corners of my home. that frame is what matt gave me for our six months--you can't tell, but some of the pictures are further in/out than others. I like it, and it's in my bedroom.

and then here's my table, all done now. the fruit thing is michelle's, and I changed the photo (corrie it's your fave!) and got new candles too. all done, all done. :)

this morning gobi and hazel were waaay sleepy. I guess 'cause it's raining. seeing them made me want to call in sick and crawl back into bed. they're so cute and furry and cuddly. :)

today will be a busy day, but per usual, I am so so so SO glad it's friday.