Today I could have died...

Ok so maybe my subject line is a little dramatic, but I was severely traumatized today. So I was driving to work today taking the same route I usually do every day. I was a little weirded out about driving simply because when i was driving home the night before some random creepy pick up truck behind me kept flashing his brights but i couldn't figure out why. Anyway, so my mom had graciously filled up my gas tank this morning for me, and I was sitting happy with a full tank of gas.

So I'm driving on Les Paul highway (yeah...our highway is named after the inventor of the electric guitar cause he was born in Waukesha) in the turn lane to turn onto a different road when all of a sudden theres this huge BOOM! And I see smoke/dust, and my car jumps and I couldn't control it at all and I slammed into the curb. All I can say is thank goodness I was in the right most lane and I didn't hit another car. I blew out my right front tire! It completely burst right above the rim part. I managed to drive it into the parking lot of a nearby abandoned grocery store, however theproblem of me being late to work (I'm OCD about being on time to work) had now arisen since I was a good amount of miles from work with no one more than 10 minutes closer to me to come save me.

NEVER FEAR dear readers!!!! My Knight arrived courtesy of a trusty white Taurus (his version of a trusty white steed). Yes the wonderful Brian came and rescued me and took me to work while my mom (who had also come by this point) waited for the AAA people to come tow my car. Needless to say not only did he come rescue me but he also got me to work on time (no joke, I clocked in right at 1:00, my scheduled time). AMAZING I tell you!

My car now has two new front tires thanks to my parents' generosity. However, I am now paranoid to drive again...

Oh and we didn't win at Bingo yesterday either, but we did have a good time :)

More Wisconsin Perks!

Tonight I got to sit in the FM 106.1 suite for the Carrie Underwood concert. It was amazing!

FM 106, for the record, is our local country radio station that also happened to win the CMA award for best large radio station in the country last year. So needless to say, the DJ's pretty much rock. The opening act for Carrie Underwood was Little Big Town, which is sort of one of my favorite bands. I have been wanting to go to their concert since New Years when they played at the local casino, but I was consequently sick (surprise surprise). Their section was great! They're way awesome live, and because of them I want to rock the white-girl sporting a fro look. Admit it, I'd look hot.

Carrie Underwood was amazing live too. She didn't do my favorite song (Lessons Learned) but thats ok. She's really so beautiful in person too, and it made me want to become a blonde. There were these really obnoxiously drunk girls in front of us a few rows making things not as pleasant, but I guess when you're sitting in a cushey seat with free foods and drinks life isn't bad. To top it off, in the suite they had a TV which the guys insisted was turned on the Brewers game so I got to see the game as well. What else could a girl need? After the concert I have a new desire to pick up my guitar and practice more so I can be amazingly hot (once I lose my 50 pound goal of weight) with my guitar, short denim skirt, cowboy boots, hat, and plaid shirt. All proper attire for a country singer ha ha (I wish).

Tomorrow, is round two of trying to go play Bingo. It didn't pan out so well last time because it was SUPER crowded. So we're going earlier and dang it we're getting a good seat. I need to think of a new present to buy myself because I was gifted with a lovely coach purse this past week from my mom. Its not the one in the picture, but its the same color of brown and I adore it! Wait, I know...I need a black one because my winter coat is black and white herringbone. I think I'll wish for this one:



I love the bow, and this would look super cute with my winter coat, and I found the picture on coach.com for all those liability type things that could pop up some day.

Ashley Tisdale ruins perfectly good songs!

Haha my subject line comes from my first official day of work today. I never really thought about the music that they would play at the Baby Gap/Gap Kids, that is until today I realized oddly that every other song played there is by Miley Cyrus. Then I started to really pay attention, and I realized that indeed every other song is not only by Miley Cyrus, but the ones in between are remixes of good disney songs. Sure theres some 80's music thrown in the mix, and other random songs, but the girl who trained me said that every month they get a new Muzak CD but it always seems to be the same. Then while putting away toddler girls' clothing I heard Ashley Tisdale ruining a perfectly good song from Enchanted, the "Thats How You Know" song or whatever its called. I love that song in its original form, but thats just ridiculous to have it remade already. I'm protesting Disney remaking its own songs with its teen artists from here on out.

I liked work today though, and everyone is super nice. The girl who trained me was way cool and I'm glad she wasn't obnoxious like a lot of people can be. I'm not dreading this job as much as I was before, but I still need to find more income somewhere.

In other news, since its past midnight it is officially Brian's and my two-month-a-versary! I'll have to admit it seems a lot longer than only 2 months (in a good way), and I'm looking forward to many more month-a-versaries. That also means its only one month exactly until our little trip to the Kalahari Resort in Wisconsin Dells. I even officially got off of work for it (which I was sort of worried about), so long as I promise to work the day after Thanksgiving and the day after Christmas I can get it off. Brian asked me if it was worth it, and I would have to say...um...YES! Since most of you are Utah type people I decided to post some pictures of the Kalahari I found courtesy of their website. Maybe its a little early cause it's a month away, but I'm so freaking excited to get out of the Milwaukee area that I'm doing it now.

This is what the outside looks like:



And they have an indoor water park, as well as an outdoor water park. However, I'm guessing since its the end of October when we're going, the outdoor one will be out of commission. So here is the indoor one:




And this is where I'm going one of the days that Brian is in his meetings and such, except I'm getting the head to toe exfoliation treatment and not so much a mani or pedi:



PS Does it bother anyone else that not only does the guy in this picture have that stupid soul patch on his face, but that he's getting a pedicure? I'm all for metros and guys who are manly enough to get pedis, but a.) metros don't have soul patches and b.) thats one heck of a girly pedicure...note the flowers and fruits floating in the foot bucket thing. I just want to hand him a Mach 5 razor and a sports illustrated and/or repossess his man card. Not only that, but its obviously a couples pedicure and I would never submit Brian to that...would anyone else make their significant other do that?

and lastly, this is some of the cool decor they have around the lobby. I want to curl up in my pj's with some hot chocolate and chill with this elephant ha ha. Too bad the other guests probably would look at me like I'm psycho.



Its weird to think that had Brian and I live in Utah we would be getting the "so when are you getting married?" " when are you getting engaged?" type questions. Let me just say I'm so glad we're not in Utah ha ha, despite how great he is I am no where near in a place to even think about getting married any time soon, let alone engaged. But I am glad that he treats me so well and that someday I hope you all get to meet him :)

Employee Discount

I realized a huge perk of my job is going to be the discount. In fact, I've decided after I get the perfect full-time job once Milwaukee's economy picks up, I'm going to keep my part-time job purely for the discount. I get 50% anything regular priced at Gap, Gap Kids, Baby Gap or Banana Republic, 10% off if its already on sale, 30% off at the Gap and Banana Outlets, and 25% off at Old Navy. In addition, they have tons of bonus stuff every month that you can randomly get on sale, and a variety of other perks. It seriously is worth it to work there just for the discount. So, being that I like to shop, my mom took me shopping today to get 6 things at Gap since its almost the end of the month. Here are the cute things I got (oh and I stole all the pictures from gap.com for the record).



I LOVE this sweater, and because I love it so much I also got it in this color:



Then I got this cute blouse but in the same blue and brown as the sweater above:



and then this sweater to go over it, but its brown not grey:



and then I also got a pair of jeans, and a plum tank top to wear under the first sweater. And all of it came to only $150.00 which is way cheap for the Gap! I was happy, and so grateful my mom bought it for me.

Anyway, I just thought I'd share some of my cute new clothes. Tomorrow night Brian and I are going to play Bingo at the Potowatomi Casino in Milwaukee again since we have a $25.00 gift certificate from last time. Its buddy night too, so if you win, a buddy gets $500.00 too! I decided if I win I'm saving part of my money and then splurging on this divine purse which is $248.00, but I do have a 20% off coupon at Boston Store where they're sold (and I stole this picture from coach.com):



I want this purse badly, so keep your fingers crossed for me!

Surprises!

I know I usually post really long rambling blogs but I just wanted to share something cute. So today I had my training at Gap Kids/Gap Baby (which I'll save for another time). Before that, Brian met me at the mall and took me to Applebees for dinner and then we got those new chocolate banana shakes at Starbucks (they're gross for the record, but we had free coupons). Then I had my training, and when it was over (a half an hour later than scheduled) I walked to my car. I look up and I see a white car parked across from mine and it looked like Brian's but I didn't think much of it. Then when I got closer I saw it was him! He surprised me and was waiting for me all that time to get out of my meeting so he could surprise me! I was so happy and it made me all butterfly-ey inside. Then I got another surprise and we went to the Cheesecake Factory and got super yummy carrot cake cheesecake! Then I realized that my tail-light is out, so that wasn't a fun surprise, but all the other good things were totally worth it.

Anyway, before this gets more rambling, I just had to share how cute my boyfriend is and how much I like him.

Money Blues!

So I've been extremely worried about money lately for no real reason. Maybe its because I've been extremely focused on my future lately for again no real reason, but I've been a worry-wart about it anyway. I live at home, I have a car payment that quite frankly my parents would pay if I couldn't (not that I want them to, I'm just saying if I couldn't pay it then they'd take care of it), and I have a credit card payment due to things like books and stuff I couldn't afford my last year of college, but I don't have to worry about putting a roof over my head, clothes on my back, or food in my mouth. My parents take care of all that for me, I love my parents, they're so great and are such a blessing in my life. I was stupid when it came to money when I was 19 and 20 and now I"m paying for it by having little to no savings. Anyway, being that I start my job tomorrow I figured out my paychecks and deducted taxes to see how much I'd be making in a year.

Then I decided to see how much I could spend a week if I payed an extra 50 dollars every month on my car, gave myself 35 dollars a week for gas (thats roughly how much I'll be paying a week based on 4 dollars a gallon), payed my student loan, and completely payed off my credit card in a year. It left me with $420.00 for the year to use as free money or save...thats not a whole lot.

I've then decided I was screwed over by the educational system. Seriously, unless you want to be a doctor, nurse (and other health care positions like a dentist), teacher, accountant or lawyer whats the point of going to school? They want experience more than an education. I've seen countless jobs that are "high school diploma plus 3-5 years of experience" but they wont substitute education for that experience. Ok so then you could argue "take a entry level job"...good luck finding one that doesn't require any experience.

Basically, I should have just gotten a crappy paying job out of high school, and then worked my way up in the company and gained the experience, and got my associates on the side. Ok, I know some of you want to throw the whole "but your education was important, you learned so much, blah blah blah" thing in there, but honestly what good is it doing me? I could have read books at Barnes and Noble and learned the same crap that really isn't helping me.

I just pray that either a.) a full time job will open up at Gap Kids or b.) I'll find a full-time non-retail job. Let me clarify that I don't want to work my life away at Gap Kids, but they do have a good management program with awesome benefits that I do want to go into, and I do want to get my MBA someday (Brian no laughing at my ADD job choices lately) so it is the experience I need. I just wish I could be able to save more.

Thats my venting, and I won't apologize for it because its my blog and I can bloggity blog about anything I want!

8 things tag

8 T.V. shows that I love:
-Gossip Girl
-So You Think You Can Dance
-Grey's Anatomy
-Scrubs
-Jon and Kate Plus 8
-Project Runway
-Say Yes to the Dress
-What Not To Wear

8 Favorite Restaurants:
-Panda Express
-PF Changs is a new favorite
-T.G.I. Fridays
-Olive Garden
-Chilis
-Paneras
-Cheesecake Factory
-Pizza Factory

8 Things that happened yesterday:
-I went to Church with Brian
-I got rained on and my hair went all sorts of crazy
-I helped make a pizza
-I watched the Packers game
-I took a nap
-I beat Brian at Trivial Pursuit for Young Adults from 1984
-I went to Wal-mart to get cosmetic sponges for putting foundation on
-I got a Pumpkin Spice Latte from Starbucks

8 Things I look forward to:
-Starting work on Wednesday
-Having money again
-Seeing Brian hopefully Wednesday before work, if not Friday
-Going to visit my grandparents and shane tomorrow
-Shopping tomorrow as well for new wintery clothes
-Going to my first Packers Game
-Getting skinny again
-Going to the Kalahari in 5 weeks or so!

8 Things I love about Fall:
-Crunching leaves when I'm on my walk
-Cold weather and how it smells outside
-Fall/Winter clothes! I hate short-sleeves
-Pretty colors everywhere
-Hot chocolate/coffee drinks from Starbucks
-Apple Picking at the Elegant Farmer
-Thanksgiving
-Carving pumpkins and making pumpkin seeds

8 Things on my wish list:
-To have my debt paid off from school
-To have a job that pays me what I deserve
-To go to Africa
-To go back to NYC and San Fran
-To be financially stable in marriage so I can stay at home while my kids are pre-school age
-To be skinny again
-To have my own sewing machine and dress form so I can make clothes :)
-To pay off my car

8 People I tag:
I tag whomever wants to do this :)

I need a troll doll!

I never thought I would actually need one of those ridiculous troll dolls from the 90's but I decided I need one. I should have kept one of mine, I had the freaking most awesome troll dolls, including one that was like the size of a cabbage patch doll that crawled. Why do I need a troll? Well Brian and I went and played Bingo today at the local casino in Milwaukee. Laugh if you will but I had a really good time...especially considering if you got Bingo the minimum you could get was $500.00 and it only cost us $16.00 each to play like 57,000 games of bingo. However, it was us and like 500 old people who had like 170 daubbers each and good luck charms. No joke, the lady we sat across from (who was freaking awesome) had like a rosary, a good luck coin from a hotel in vegas, a keychain, some mitten clip thing, and who knows what else. Oh and to top it off she was wearing mardi gras beads. Sadly, Brian and I didn't get Bingo at all, but Brian did win $25.00 in Bingo money to come back which means heck yes we're going to go play Bingo again. I need the troll doll though for my good luck charm!

Before that I got the loverly chance to go to P.F. Chang's for dinner with Brian as well. It was so yummy and I got Crispy Honey Chicken which was the closest thing I've found to Panda Express' Orange Chicken since I've moved home. My thought is, if podunk Cedar City can have a Panda Express why can't Milwaukee? Oh well we have a Chick-fil-a so that makes up for it slightly. Anyway, the dinner was amazing and I even got a cute fortune in my fortune cookie.

This is where I brag about Brian so turn away if you must control the gagging and subsequent vomiting over my sappiness. So I've been having a rough time and I'm not the best with talking when I'm having a hard time mostly because I can never say out loud how I feel. Most of it has to do with what I wrote about yesterday, but a large chunk is I'm lonely. Like I really don't have a single friend here in Waukesha that I can randomly get lunch with or just go chat, and thank goodness I'm dating Brian, but sometimes a girl needs a girl to just gossip with and talk about "girl things". Plus I'm really bad with change, and I know we have to grow-up and move on, but I wish I just had like one or two friends here to do stuff with.

However, I do have the world's most amazing boyfriend, who I would see every day if I could. That helps with loneliness tremendously, and as we were driving home and literally one block from my house and I started crying. He, being the amazing guy he is, drove around my neighborhood for a while and then pulled over and we talked. It was hard for me cause I couldn't say exactly how I felt inside cause I'm bad at it, but just having him do that made me realize that I need to just deal with the cards I've been dealt. He mentioned yesterday that this whole job thing is just a moment in my life and isn't the rest of my life and that is so true. It was weird because even though I couldn't say how I felt and Brian couldn't say every little thing to make it better because of that, it was the silence of just being there that helped. Thats really sappy, I know, but I guess since it is my blog I can write about whatever I want.

I'm also really grateful for my parents because they do and say so much for me. I recently learned a lot of people my mom knows and some of our neighbors charge their kids my age rent to live in their home. That to me is just crazy! My parents would never charge me rent (oh correction, if I'm doing drugs or in trouble with the law they would) and on top of that I still get an allowance ha ha. I'm so glad I have the parents I do, like tonight when i walked in I guess it was apparent I was crying (stupid eye make-up) and so my mom was worried Brian and I broke up. However, when I explained the situation to her she just told me some stuff that helped a lot too.

I guess I realize after typing all this that I have more than a girl could ask for. Great parents, amazing boyfriend, a job (sort of), a place to live, a car thats in good running condition, and other things that I want. I think from now on I need to focus on what I do have and not live my life wanting more all the time...though I still do want a full-time job, but that will come in time. I got rejected from the Marquette job because according to their website the position is filled. Thats ok by me really, I'll still be fine. My job will pay me enough to pay my car payment, credit card payment (books and such from school is all thats on it), gas (ugh), a lot left over to save, and a little left for fun money.

While typing this it also reminded me of one of my favorite songs we ever sang in HOPE called "Truly I am Blessed" and its the chorus (my favorite part) that I was reminded of:

Truly I am blessed
To be a lamb in his pasture,
To dwell in his love.
In my darkest hour he made my step sure.
I am his beloved.

Even though it probably would be dramatic to say this is my darkest hour, I still love the reassurance that even if it was I still am on the path I need to be on, and I shouldn't doubt.

Gainfully Employed (finally)

I finally got a job, and its at Gap Kids/Baby Gap. I would be more excited about it if it wasn't part-time. I would be even more excited if I was making decent money and not just $8.00 an hour. But I figure that its better than making no money when I have zero job prospects elsewhere. Oh wait the lady at Hallmark wants me to work there part time for $8.00 too.

I was excited with the thought of working in retail again because its better than sitting around at home, but now I'm just blah. Like seriously what did I just work my butt off for 6 years for so i can be making just as much as I was at Bulloch Drug (no wait, a whole 75 cents more) with no benefits or anything. People keep saying "oh you can keep looking for a full-time job" but the thing is, I would feel so guilty just up and quitting right away. So I decided Ill stick with it through the holiday season until January unless something amazing comes up full-time with benefits in the mean time. I just feel weird about the whole thing, not that its wrong weird, but like...depressed this is where my life has taken me. Back to the mall. Maybe its depressing because the job I had before leaving for college was also at the mall, again making me wonder why did I go into debt with student loans just so I can end up where I started. Oh right...I got an education. I think I could have just gotten the same knowledge from reading books at Barnes and Noble on my break time.

I guess I need to be grateful that I have a job that does pay me more than minimum wage and isn't flipping burgers at McDonalds (no offense to those past McDonalds people). Ok thats my venting on the subject and I'll try to get this "weird" feeling to go away and be excited. I have a tiny ray of hope that the Marquette Dental College still will hire me on full time with benefits since I haven't been rejected yet and according to the website they're still in the proccess. They have til Wednesday (my first day on the job at Gap Kids/Baby). Lets just hope it happens and then I really will feel like celebrating.

Four!

I GOT TAGGED

Four random things I like about my significant other :
1. His amazing laugh and smile
2. He'll come all the way out to Starbucks to console me after hitting a wall of rocks with my car. This is just an example of all the amazing things he says and does.
3. He humors my randomness and quirkiness, oh and sarcasm too
4. He's pretty much the nicest most wonderful guy ever

Four jobs I’ve had:
1. Bulloch Drug!
2. SUU-Career Services
3. Aeropostale
4. Stein Garden and Gifts

Four movies I have watched more than once:
1. Enchanted!
2. Cars
3. A Beautiful Mind
4. Newsies

Four TV shows I watch:
1. Grey's Anatomy
2. Gossip Girl
3. Project Runway
4. Scrubs

Four places I have been:
1. Utah
2. San Francisco
3. New York City
4. Toronto

Four of my favorite foods:
1. Chocolate Covered Gummi Bears or chocolate covered pretzels
2. French Fries
3 Chicken Salad Sandwiches from Panera Bread
4. Apples

Four places I would like to visit:
1. Africa, times ten
2. Deutschland!
3. The Bahamas
4. Australia

Four things I am looking forward to in the coming year:
1. Getting my first real grown-up job
2. Going to the Kalahari Resort (its a hotel with a huge indoor water park in Wisconsin Dells) for 3 days with my loverly boyfriend Brian
3. Going to my first Green Bay Packers Game! Packers vs. Colts
4. Hopefully visiting the people of the great land of Utah

Four People I tag:
Um...anyone who wants to ha ha you all should do it!

I Am So Lucky!

So today there was a doorbell ring at my door today, and to be honest I was very surprised because no one ever comes to visit me except Brian, but he and I have rendevous (or something like that) plans for this afternoon. Lo and behold! Its my mailman...er mail lady with packages in hand. Packages only mean one thing, surprises, and this time there were 2, one for me and one for my mom. They were our aprons from the Apron Swap from our super secret partners. After much struggle with a shiny bubble wrap envelope (ok so normal people would use scissors but I was bound and determined not to...but gave up and resorted to scissors after quite a struggle) I got to see my apron. I was nervous because neither my mom nor I ever have luck with things like this and since I roped my mom into this I totally wanted us to "get good ones". (If you haven't figure it out, I'm building to my excitement level).

Oh man, the apron I got is amazing! Its the prettiest apron ever and totally my style. I mean come on its fall colors mixed with pink...what could be more me than that? It even has an S on it and a nice big pocket. Its made so extremely well and I am in love with it. In fact I'm going to make Brian let me make him dinner just so I can wear it around him (Brian, if you're reading this...I'm making you dinner buckaroo). It was made by Alison H. from Virginia. If you're reading this too, thanks a million! I love it!

And since I can I'm posting a picture. The self portrait with camera phone wasn't working out so hot, so heres just a picture of it spread out all cute on the floor.