In which Starzl comes through my line and everything rocks

So, work has been . . . interesting. Yay . . . I keep getting crabby abusive moms coming through my line and it's not sweet. Makes me wonder why I never had anything like that happen when I worked at Wal-Mart. For example, I had a mom and her two kids on Saturday and the boy wanted something and the mom got mad at him and he got mad back at her and she screamed at him and then he kicked her and she said, "When we leave I'm going to spank you. You don't kick me like that!" I thought to myself, "If you don't want him to kick you then you shouldn't beat him up every time you don't like something he does . . . " Physical violence breeds physical violence. I was thinking about it today and I think the whole "rod" thing in Proverbs is probably something that Satan is using. Not only does it destroy kids, but non-chirstians see Christian parents treating their kids like that and and they're like, "Why would anyone believe in a God who tells them to treat their kids so brutally?" That thought just occurred to me today and I was like, "Dude, I'm brilliant!" Or not -- but it does kinda make sense. I also had a mom and dad and their kid yesterday and the kid asked for candy and the mom flipped out and yelled at him and the kid started to cry and then she pinched him until he screamed and then he ran away in terror. She was paying with a check and I thought to myself, "Lady, it's not that smart to pay with a check. I could SO turn you in if I wanted to . . . " I should have. You don't treat your kid like that -- EVER. Today there was a mom and dad and their boy and girl and the mom told the kids that they could have a pop to share and they were picking one and they accidentally dropped it and the top came off and it spilled and the mom flipped out and started to swear at them and told them that they had to drink it, even if they didn't like it. What a mean mom . . . I should have told her about a bogus "rule" that we supposedly have about not selling open products and told her that she had to let them get a different one. I was thinking about this whole mean mom thing this morning and trying to figure out why I never saw it going on at Wal-Mart. I think it's because I was too close to that sort of thing myself and I was desensitized. My attitude was "Suck it up kids -- that's the way life is." But now, I haven't been around stuff like that and my heart is so burdened for those poor babies who didn't ask to be their mom's kids and don't do anything to deserve it. I hate mean moms . . . Then again, maybe I'm having so many mean moms come through my line so that God can show me how I've changed.

I moved out of my lovely apartment. It was so sad . . . I could have cried. I almost did -- I love Shannon and Lindsay so much. Shannon's mom came to help us clean and that was cool. I left my phone number for her in case she needed to get ahold of me while I was moving the rest of my stuff over to Kelly's. I talked to her a lot over the course of the evening and she said that she'd keep in touch with me, even though Shannon isn't going to be going here anymore. (*Sniff*) Lol -- I went over to Kelly's and we chit-chatted until 3:00 in the morning and then we went to bed and at 9:45 the next morning, 5 minutes before my alarm was going to go off, Shannon's mom called me. It was SO great! Yay!

So, I've been working a ton lately. I got off work last night at about 5:00 and when I got home, Kelly was trying to talk Matt into not going to the Hiawatha pageant in Pipestone because she had too much to do. When she got off the phone, she told me about it and I said, "Well, is there something I could do to help?" I ended up vacuuming the church. That was awesome. I love being at church, even when no one is around. It's almost like God's Presence is stronger there than anywhere . . . I sang the whole time I was vacuuming and then I took a nap and then we were off to Pipestone. It was totally fun. Lol -- we were extras in the pageant and it was totally cool! Matt wore pajama-like clothes and Kelly and I wore nightgown-like dresses. They were awesome. Matt's dad was a chief. It totally rocked my socks off. It was SO fun. We just went out and listened to Hiawatha whenever he had a monologue and that was our part -- except for at the end, we had to wave as Hiawatha left. It was great! Matt's dad is getting tickets for all of us to watch it next Friday. It's gonna be GREAT. I HOPE I can get someone to switch shifts with me so I can go . . . Anyway, today I worked from 10:45 to 7:45 and I'm completely exhausted. The only day I have off this week is tomorrow, but I told Kelly that I'd help her at her cleaning job. I'll be working from about 9:00 to 5:00. I'm also planning on working there any time I can until the job is done (it could take a good 6 months), and that will rock as far as my bank accounts are concerned. Yay!

Today rocked. I was helping this lady in my line and it took a while and the next person was totally hot and I was like, "Who is he???" He bought a CD that has adult content and I would have asked for his birthdate, but he looked obviously over 18, so I didn't. I just put in 7/31/1987 and went on. I found out when I took his check that it was Elijah Starzl, last year's star basketball player. Yay! I asked him for his phone number -- he gave it to me. Part of it had to do with the fact that if he didn't, I couldn't take his check and therefore, he couldn't have his merchandize. But yeah -- now I can say that I asked a "famous" person for his phone number -- and he gave it to me. I even got to see his mug shot on his driver's license. It was so cool! And then I found $5. (I had to throw that one in there for my favorite basketball player . . . )

Eeek! My brother and sister-in-law are having a gala event in celebration of their marriage and their new house. It's going to be on September 17, nearly a year after the wedding (2 weeks shy) and almost 5 months after they moved into their house. I'm so excited! I'm going to help Stacy make some curtains for their new house. Yay!! Andy and Becky just closed on their new house this week and they're busy with painting and carpeting and they just found out that they have to completely re-do the sheetrocking in the bathroom because it was moldy. Gross. But they're happy and excited.

I was doing so good with the whole Athletic Math Boy thing. Yesterday I was thinking about it and I realized that I hadn't thought about him in like a whole day and I was like, "Is that a good thing? Or am I just being a woman again?" (Not knowing what I want and changing my mind forty times a day . . . ) Then, today, everything that happened made me think of him. Like, almost every shoe purchase today reminded me of him because we sell the brand he likes. And then Starzl in my line. Dude . . . I'm obsessed.

I keep comparing my Shopko experience and my Wal-Mart experience and seeing how I'm different now than I was back then. Wow. Now I see how expensive just every day stuff is and how very expensive it is just to live. And I'm like, "How do people do it?" The bathroom tissue and shampoo, clothes, food, shoes, purses . . . And then add kids -- diapers at $12 or more a package, formula at $12-18 a can. How do you make that much money??? And then the naughty kids whose mothers scream at them and treat them very brutally and swear at them. School shopping. I had a mom with her daughters come through and she had given them money for their school supplies and they had to pay for their own stuff. When the money was gone, it was gone. These kids were like 8 and 10. I thought that was an AWESOME idea because they learn the value of money and how to use it wisely. Definitely a plan I'd follow if I had a kid. Which, I'm beginning to think I don't even want any. You have your diapers and perscriptions and doctors and cold medicine and teeth falling out and vaccinations and school and friends and then they learn to drive and want boy or girlfrinds and then college and you have to worry about who they're sleeping with -- and hoping and praying that you taught them well enough to NOT sleep with people, and worry about if they're smoking or drinking or doing drugs and grades and . . . who in their right mind would CHOOSE to to have a kid???
~MK

In which we discuss how to make killer hot chocolate

I know it seems really odd to talk about hot chocolate at this time of year, but we all know how chilled I am all the time . . . Actually, this summer has rocked as far as that's concerned. It's just when the air conditioning is on too long that it starts to get to me. I think my lovely boys would be quite surprised and pleased.

Anyway, how to make a killer cup of hot cocoa . . . You know the Swiss Miss mix? It always leaves something lacking. I never could figure out what it was until one day, I tried to make some from scratch, and oh, horrors! There were no marshmallows. I panicked and then decided to just go with the flow and try it cuz it couldn't be too terrible. It tasted just like Swiss Miss without marshmallows. Tonight, I was chilled, so I decided to have some hot chocolate. I had my Swiss Miss -- and no marshmallows. So, I did what any red-blooded girl would do -- I screamed! Ok, ok -- I'm kidding. I thought about marshmallows -- what flavor is strongly present, aside from sweet? That's right -- VANILLA! So, I mixed up my hot chocolate and added vanilla to taste, and I had myself a killer cup of tasty cocoa. Yummy!

Crap -- apparently, according to my lovely life-long friend, middle children are supposed to be the first ones in the family to marry. I missed that memo. I'm the middle child and both of my older brothers are married . . . This stinks. I think they need some help with delivery on those memos . . .

So, as you all may know, I'm having some serious issues with my prof. I believe that she gave me a terrible grade on a paper (Ok, so it was only a flippin' C -- but honestly, how does one get a C on a paper??) because I brought my religious views into my paper. The assignment was very open-ended -- we had to state a thesis regarding a book and movie duo that we read/watched in class and then defend the thesis. It had to be 2-4 pages long, and aside from that, there were no rules. I think (and everyone else I've described the assignment to has agreed) that as long as you turn something in and it's well-written (grammatically-speaking) and fits the length requirement, you can expect to get at least a B. Apparently, that rule only applies if your views aren't diametrically opposed to those of the prof. She wrote on my paper that it was wrong to bring your own belief system into your paper (among other things), but I must ask: isn't she grading based on her own belief system? Isn't that just as bad, if not worse? Personally, I would say that it's worse -- people can choose to accept or deny what they read, but grades affect my GPA, and that is NOT sweet . . .

So, I'm moving. Yeah -- I'm going to be moving three times in the next few weeks. I'm going to Kelly's tomorrow and I'll stay there until 8/15 or so. The weekend of 8/12-8/14, I'll be going home and going through my crap, sorting and throwing stuff away. I'll be deciding what I need and what I don't need and getting rid of that which I don't need and bringing most of the rest of it back to school. Hopefully, on 8/15 (I have to ok it with Michael), I'll be moving my stuff from home into my dorm room and then sometime after that (hopefully the same day or the next day) I'll move my stuff from Kelly's. I hate moving . . . I'll have 3 different addresses between the last week of July and the middle of August. What does that mean for my lovely little blog? I'm not sure at this point . . . I won't have internet access at Kelly's, but the labs at school may be open, and if they are, I'll try to post at least once every other day. If the labs aren't open, I'll be going to my aunt's house to check my e-mail, and whenever I do, I'll try to post. Hard to say how often that will be, but I think it's safe to say that I'll be able to post at least once a week.

I heart you my lovely readers! I shall miss you until the middle of August!
~MK

In which we define "monitarily challenged"

You know you're poor when doing laundry is your idea of slurging. Yeah -- that's what I'm doing right now. Splurging on laundry. Whee!

You know you're poor when your employer has a special "additional 10% off employee discount" (on top of your normal 10% discount) and you don't buy anything.

You know you're poor when you realize you're going to be working 3 jobs and taking 16-20 credits and you still need to take out additional loans.

And you know you've spent too much time in the sun when your shoulders get crispy after the second layer starts to peel.

~MK

In which we learn some valuable lessons

In the past 2 years, I've learned that everything is nothing if God isn't in what you're doing. I have lost count of the times I studied my brains out for a test, only to fail it miserably. It wasn't because I didn't know the material -- I still remember a lot of the information I learned in those classes.

My grades were so low that my dream became impossible. I had to change my major. I loved my Psychology classes and had done very well in them with little or no studying. I decided to change to psychology. Then I took a writing class and I absolutely loved it and decided to add literature and creative writing to my repertoire. In the spring semester, my lowest grade was a B in speech, a class required to graduate but not part of either major.

Then I decided to take summer classes. I took a psychology class in June, and that completely rocked. Based on tests alone, I got an A- in the class. If the professor takes attendence into consideration, I'm sure I'll have an A because I never missed class. Now I'm taking a literature class. This is by far the most intense class I've ever taken. I didn't have time to study much for my test on Tuesday, and when my classmates asked me if I was ready for the test, I said, "I don't care. I just want it to be done . . . " They laughed and said, "I wish I could have that attitude . . . " When I looked at the test, I freaked out because I didn't have a clue about half of the questions. I answered the ones that I knew and then I prayed that the Lord would help me to remember the rest. I scribbled down things that sounded intelligent and like it might be right and then I turned it in with much fear and trembling. I got my test back yesterday, and I was thrilled to see that I had gotten 110/110 -- a percentage of 110%!! (Ten points extra credit.) Little is much when God is in it!

Later in class, I asked my Buddhist professor how to cite Bible passages in papers. I had been talking to Kelly about the evil books/films we're doing in my class, and we prayed that I'd be able to be a light in the darkness of the class. My professor told me that you just have to be sure to note which translation you used and I said, "got it -- NKJ right there." My professor said, "I like the old King James best myself." I thought to myself, "since when have you ever read the Bible??" But I said, "They're pretty much the same -- In this verse in my paper, the only word that is different is this one" and I pointed to the word "ravenous." She said, "Oh. What is it in the old King James?" I said, "I don't know, but I'll check. I have one in my bag." It was crazy! Yay!! I never dreamed that I'd ever open a Bible in front of a professor . . .
~MK

In which my eyes deceive me

I was going to work this afternoon and I stopped at the corner of Village Dr. and Birch, and I waited for a car that looked extremely familiar. But, the person in the car didn't look familiar at all -- until it got closer and I saw that it was Scoop. I got back from work and I haven't seen anything of the duo. Wonder what's up with that . . .

Dr. Greenfield had the audacity to come through my line with his precious little one tonight. He was buying shoes for the little guy -- and he trusted me to give him the right change. . . I should have told him I wasn't going to give him his $7.01 -- he should pay for giving me that crappy F. Funny thing is that even though I got an F last fall (and a D- in the lab), I got a high enough GPA Spring Semester to put me on the Dean's List. Ha! Nice try, Dr. Greenfield! I've faced my dragon -- maybe. . .
~MK

In which I share some of my personal sportsological lore

. . . AFTER I tell a story.

Sometimes it's not the plot that makes a good story. Sometimes, it's who you're talking with when the story happens that makes the story. Yesterday, I had gotten out of class and I was late for work because they had scheduled me to work during my class. (I hate it when that happens!) I was just leaving the parking lot when my mom called me. Note: I WAS paying attention to traffic -- the problem was that the other drivers weren't paying attention to ME. Or rather, one driver in particular wasn't paying attention to me. She pulled out in front of me and when she saw me coming at her at 30 miles per hour, she stopped right in the middle of the road. I had visions of my car smashed to smithereens, one might say, and of my insurance costs skyrocketting and having to walk everywhere I needed to go because I couldn't afford to get another car. Meanwhile, my mom was still talking to me and I don't have any idea what she was talking about because the only thing my brain was letting me hear was "STOP!" And so I did. Miraculously, I managed to come to a complete stop less than 6 inches from the other car. Definitely, a "hand of God" moment . . . I didn't mention it to my mom. It's one of those things that you just don't tell your mom about . . . (Ok, so in some situations you would, but my mom would have freaked out and told me I had to move back home where it's safe.)

Did you know that Lance Armstrong's heartrate is only 35 BPM? That is insanely slow! I'm gettng there with sportsology, but I'm afraid I will always be athletically challenged.
~MK

In which I have possibly the best day of my life

I got the schedule for work worked out so I don't have to miss ANYTHING at SonShine! Yay! (And, I didn't have to give up any hours, either! Yay again!) I'm still rather put out with them though, because I was scheduled during my class -- again -- and also during church. I had given them my availability twice already (they lost the first one) and it's really frustrating. I left a note for the lady that does the schedule usually, asking her to make sure that whoever does anything with scheduling knows about availability forms and stuff. Cuz this is ridiculous . . .

I got home from class today and I made myself some dinner -- had to call my mommy to ask her how to cook it. After dinner, I thought I'd check my e-mail quick before I went to do my homework. (Still on Wuthering Heights -- I have to read 102 pages before tomorrow at 3. Eeek! Can I do it?) I got an e-mail from Andy! He asked me to do the Cru e-mailing!!! Yay! I'm so, so excited! I ran into my room, threw myself on my bed and screamed into my pillow. Then I giggled hysterically. Eeek! (I didn't want Eric and Jason to think someone was murdering me . . . ) Whee!
~MK

In which I lose my obsession with raspberry yogurt

I used to like raspberry yogurt. A lot. To say that I was obsessed with it was the understatement of the millennium. Now I still like it enough to eat it, but I can't eat more than half a container. It just doesn't taste that good anymore . . .

It looks like I'm going to SonShine. Hm. I don't want to. I mean, I'm sure I'll have fun and everything, but . . . it's . . . CAMPING. Ew. And I've never done anything like it before. Help? I'm scared . . . I was thinking about it last night and I decided that since I'm scared of it, I should really go because I'm not going to get anywhere in life if I refuse to do things that are hard for me. I was talking to KB about it and I told her that I didn't want to go and she said, "Then you should go." I was like, "Oh my goodness! That's confirmation -- or else great minds think alike . . . " It turned out that I was scheduled Thursday and Saturday, but they scheduled me during my class on Thursday so they have to find a replacement. I have to find someone to switch it up with me on Sat if at all possible. Saturday is Casting Crowns and I REALLY want to see them! I HOPE it works out!
~MK

In which I run into Jay Mai and can't remember his name

I was leaving my class today and I ran into the dude that sat behind me in Speech. He said, "Hey MJ, what's up?" I was like, "Dude, what is your name again?" He asked how I did in the class and then I had to go and I was pondering what this guy's name was. I remembered that he had a 3 year old boy and a new baby girl (as of February) and he's engaged to the mother of his children and I remembered that he was the pitcher for some minor league baseball team from California and he was picked in the 17th round of the um . . . pitcher picking thing and he WANTED to be picked by some team in Florida (I think) in the 16th round and he's VERY bitter about it. Then it ocurred to me that his name is Jason (Jay) Mai. Yay. Isn't it amazing that a former minor leaguer actually remembered my name??? Oh my goodness!

Lol -- anyway, so I'm reading Wuthering Heights for my Lit and Film class. What fun . . . It's a very captivating story. It was hard to figure out in the beginning because everyone has either the same name or very similar names. Like, there was a Catherine Linton and a Catherine Heathcliff. Hindley and Heathcliff were brothers (Heathcliff was adopted) and Hindley's son's name was Hareton. It's SO confusing . . . Catherine 1 (Catherine Earnshaw Linton) married the neighbor boy, Edgar Linton and now it's looking like Edgar's sister is going to marry Heathcliff. I've gotten to a very interesting part of the book and I don't know what happens in the end, but I THINK that Catherine and Edgar have a daughter named Catherine (either that or she is the love-child of Catherine and Heathcliff -- they had loved each other since they were children but Catherine refused to marry him because he didn't have any money) and Heathcliff and Isabelle have a son (the family tree I got in class today says his name is Linton) and in the end, Catherine 2 and Linton marry. I came up with this from info in the first chapter -- Heathcliff told someone years later that "Mrs. Heathcliff" was his daughter-in-law, not his wife. And someone said that Mrs. Heathcliff married her cousin. So, Heathcliff would HAVE to marry Isabelle and one would have to have a daughter (it would have to be Catherine and Edgar because Isabelle doesn't like her sister-in-law and would never name her child after her) and the other would have to have a son -- and it would have to be Heathcliff and Isabelle because they named him Linton and it would be totally silly to call your kid Linton Linton . . . Makes sense, right?

Gotta go back to the book . . . I MIGHT GO TO SONSHINE!
~MK