update

Ok, well I really have several posts I could make, but for simplicity I will make only one split up into sections.

Reno was fun. We went down and slept and gambled, and drank, and gambled, and drank, and slept and laid out at the pool. It was a good time. I think that the trip was just long enough too, I don't think I could have handled anymore of it. It was fun, but being that I'm such a cheap skate, I don't take losing money very easily. Good for me, I only walked away about twenty bucks down. Mostly I played Let it Ride (thanks to Linda for teaching it to me), and Roulette, which I pretty much hate, but found myself playing a lot. I also played Paigow Poker, which can kiss my ass because its hard and confusing and you pretty much never win, you just push with the dealer the whole time or lose. Then I lost like twenty bucks playing blackjack, and the dealer was a bitch, so that kinda sucked. We also trekked out to this tiny casino on the outskirts of town (we had to ride the city bus) and played one dollar craps which actually was a bunch of fun. I still don't understand fully what I was doing, but I walked away up some money, so I'm cool with it. As far as drinking goes, I consumed a lot. I was never drunk though, which was a combination of impressive and sad, mostly because the free drinks they give you while gambling have little to no alcohol in them at all. Mostly it was fuzzy navels, corona, lemon drops, and my three foot tall margarita, of which only had two shots in it, so we asked the cocktail waitress to just bring us more tequila shots to dump in. It worked well. Also after leaving ten bucks behind in team slots at the fitzgerald, we were all walking out with drinks in hand and two in mine because I was holding Katie's and a woman runs up to me and yells "THAT IS SO WRONG" and starts lecturing JUST ME on the street about open containers, threatening me about the fines and whatnot. Meanwhile everyone else is holding a drink in their hands. So of course all of us freak out and start yelling at her. It was funny. So we proceeded to go back inside finish our drinks and complain loudly about her five feet away from her. I'm unsure why she couldn't have just said "open containers are not aloud on the streets", or "excuse me but you need to finish your drink on the casino" instead she screamed at me on the street. Not to mention that I had walked around and taken pictures the whole night previous with a drink in my hand, passing several cops as I went! I proceeded to flip of the fitz every time we walked by it the rest of the trip. My favorite casino was the Cal Neva, because it was trashy and had low limits on hands, which frankly I adored. The people there were funny and the dealers always helped on hands and stuff and would do funny things like tap your cards if you asked them. It was fun. I got a little sick of being around two moms and a mom type though by the end of the trip. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love those ladies to death, especially my mom, but I got a little sick of being lectured on what I was wearing, when I was getting sunburned, and being forced to put on makeup. It got a little old. Overall though, the trip was a lot a lot of fun and I'm really glad that the feeshays came along. The catch phrases of the trip? CIND! THAT IS SO WRONG! and CRAP OFF!

I'm sad that everyone is getting older. My Grandpa is 79 and has aged considerably in the last month. He broke his pelvis, had a pacemaker put in, then replaced already, fell down in his garden and laid there for two hours until someone came and helped in, and was then re admitted to the hospital. He is not allowed to drive and it pisses him off immensely. After my Grandma died in October I think he's been really lonely even though she wasn't very lucid for a long time. Taking care of her was his job and his life for the last 20 years. The fact that she lived so long after her stroke really is amazing. So last Sunday before we left for Reno I started to probe him for details about his life, so if God forbid something happens to him, I will know more about him. I asked him about where he grew up, how many brothers and sisters he had, how he got into the Navy, how long him and my Grandma dated all that stuff. He has really been the dominant Grandparent in my life my whole life, and watching him deteriorate is excruciating. He was finally convinced recently that he shouldn't drive anymore. Well today after my mom, him and me were coming back from the annual pictures, a man came to take the bull he had borrowed for his cows. Apparently for some reason we didn't understand he needed to drive him truck. Well my mom was parked behind him and told him that she wasn't going to move her car because he shouldn't be driving and he told her he was tired of "this bullshit", she then told him it was the stupidest thing he's done etc. I was just sitting there feeling extremely awkward not looking at either of them. Afterwards he came up to me and apologized for yelling at her in front of me and whatnot. I decided to come home tonight and not tomorrow because frankly I just want to sleep in my own bed and be alone for the first time in a week and he got really sad looking when I told him that. Then he said "I hope you're not leaving because you're mad at me" which of course I wasn't, I just wanted to go home. Well then I felt horrible about the whole thing and called my mom to make sure that he wasn't mad at me and knew I wasn't mad at him. It was a debacle. Then when I called to tell my mom that I was back in the ham, he talked to me and we kinda figured it out. I just felt like a horrible person because I really wasn't mad, I just wanted to sleep in my own bed and get out of smoky clothes (a horrible side effect of gambling and casinos). So now I feel bad about the whole thing, even though we both said we were not mad at all. I'm just scared about that whole bit. He's my only real Grandparent left, other that that is just my Dad's dad, and, well yeah.

Birthday pictures were today. We had the props of a bottle of champagne, and a giant corona. They had to call headquarters to actually make sure that we could have them in the picture though which was kinda funny. They actually turned out really good. Normally I HATE the pictures, but they were cute. The lady did a really good job of not making me look fat which is quite the feat. Plus I got to take home the bottle of champagne and corona, so bonus.

Ok well, I guess thats all the updates that I can think of. I'm sure there are more things of note that have happened in the last week but I suppose thats the big stuff. I'm out.

gamble gamble gamble

I'm headed to Reno tomorrow. Leaving for Grandpa's in about an hour or so. Should be a good time!

bust a recap

I'm 21.

Saturday June 16, 11:59pm - Headed to the Depot for some dancing. Dance floor so packed, line at the door, abandon plan, head to the Beav. Enter. Drink my first legal drink (sex on the beach) compliments of my dear sister. Drink second legal drink (gin and tonic) compliments of my dear friend Taylor. Go home after last call, not drunk.

Sunday June 17th, 10:00pm - Headed downtown to the Depot for dancing. Depot is closed. Go to the Royale for dancing. Royale is closed. Go to the Fairhaven for anything, Fairhaven population: 10. Stand in line forever waiting for one bartender to make drinks. Drink the following (from what I can remember): Washington Apple shot, vodka collins, 151 shot, touchdown, some of Katie's drink, grape shooter nasty thing, delicious green drink I don't remember the name of, blowjob. Pretty sure there are others I can't remember. Go home. Drunk. Order pizza. Lay on the couch with Katie and Steve eating pizza drunk.

Overall the birthday was pretty low key. I ate every meal from Friday through Monday out. Lunch and dinner everyday. It was a fun weekend and I'm really glad that Katie came up it was great to see her. Since the legality started I have enjoyed a couple drinks out at dinner, one of which I got kinda buzzed off since it was huge. Then last night I went to my first late night foray at Boundary Bay reggae night. It was a lot of fun, dancing and whatnot. Overall being legal is treating me alright. I still have not been super drunk, and I'm not looking forward to buying my own drinks, and sadly I don't think I'll be getting many purchased for me... lame.

Reno in 4 days.

customer service

So, I like to get my eyebrows waxed. I have not gone in a really long time because of school, and lack of money and time and sheer laziness. So I went in today because I'm all done with school and I had time yadda yadda. I walk in, say I want an eyebrow wax and they take me back to the little room. The girl first goes, "is this your first eyebrow wax?" and I have to sheepishly reply, "oh no, it's just been a really long time, it's getting pretty sloppy", and then she follows with a kicker, "do you want to get a lip wax? you could really use it". Ouch. I was stunned and then agreed to it against my better judgment. It didn't hurt any worse than the eyebrows or anything, but now I'm a little afraid that I've always had this horrible mustache problem that no one has had the balls to tell me about. Yikes. More importantly, what the hell kind of customer service is that!?! I was so caught off guard I didn't know what to do. So I ended up spending double what I originally wanted to, and left her a big tip because other than the back handed calling me a big hairy monster, she was really nice and chatted with me and everything, plus she said she was having a bad day, so I figured a bigger tip might help.

This leaves me with two questions:

1. Did I/ Do I, have some horrible upper lip hair problem?
2. Was that the worst customer service ever, a girl trying to make ten extra bucks, or the first honest person about my lady stache?

terror

Well, people have to be difficult. Recently someone wrote on a bathroom stall in the library that "what happened at VT was going to happen at WWU on 6/14/07". Idiots. Was it a credible threat? Most likely not. People do weird things to get attention. I honestly don't feel at risk right now. This may be in error. We got our little bulletin from the UPD as we have been getting ever since the tradegy at VT about it. I just got an e-mail from a professor that our final exam tomorrow was going to be changed to an e-mailed four hour test. It is "open book and largely essay". Well this puts quite a bit more pressure on me. For one, I already returned one of the books. Whoops. I think it's great that I am going to have ample time and everything, and theoretically we are all safe this way, but what a hassle. I guess several people have contacted the prof and said that they were scared about coming to class. My thoughts:

1. Some idiot did this thinking that no one would see it, and he was probably bored of studying and didn't wanna take his final tomorrow. So now, because of one assholes idiocy, the entire univeristy is pressured into changing everything and making everyone afraid.

2. What is accomplished by us always being in fear? Maybe the University should not have shared this info with us if they didn't think it was a credible threat. Maybe they did a good thing. I don't like that everyone wants to know everything all the time, and because of this we are all in fear of what may or may not happen. (Can anyone say terror alert system?)

3. I don't think anything will happen. I honestly believe that this is some asshole who just wanted to get out of taking his exam tomorrow and thought that they would cancel finals week. Well that backfired.

4. What if something does happen? I can't emotionally handle that. I don't want to try. I can't even imagine if something that horrible happened here. I feel like we are a pretty tight community, it would be horrible. I hope that I'm right and that this is all just a joke.

5. Work is going to suck tomorrow. Everyone is going to be calling every ten minutes saying they are scared and for some reason this should get them free parking. Whatever. It should be interesting if nothing else. I guess they are going to have extra officers out and about, so hopefully that makes people feel more safe. I hope nothing happens to T.O. .....

booze

Today, I've been incredibly hung over. I almost never get hung over, I may get a headache, but I never puke the next day, and I always feel fine in a couple hours. This was not the case. I thought that I would try a new drink for the summer, I wanted to stray from vodka and ____. So I got rum and juice. Bad choice. Rachel even told me not to drink rum, Gaby said it was a bad idea, but I'm a little headstrong. I didn't even drink all that much. I mean, I was drunk, but not as drunk as I've been before. I remember most of last night. This morning was hell. I felt like I was going to die. I thought I would go get a coffee at Starbucks, then thinking about all that food and coffee and milk smell, I almost puked. Then I made the poor decision to ride the bus to work. All that haulting and jolting around didn't bode well. I walked in the door to work marched into the bathroom and puked. Puke count, 1. I went up front, everyone laughed at me, my boss came and joked around with me for being hung over and I very painfully did some work. An hour or so later I was not feeling well so I went back to the bathroom and puked again. Puke count, 2. I again felt better and returned to the front and lazily helped more people. About another hour later I was feeling really bad again, I was trying to drink water and I felt horrible but I flat refused to go home and be the irresponsible girl who got too drunk and had to leave. So I got called up to talk to a customer, I helped them and then another guy walked up, asked me about health center permits, all I could do was point at the VC and I ran to the bathroom again. Puke count, 3. That third puke really helped. I feel a lot better now and I actually ate a little on my lunch break. I had a hamburger bun and some carrots. After the carrots I regretted my decison, that could not feel so good coming back up. But I have thus far kept it down. Now I just have to make it threw two and half more hours of work and I can go home and go to bed. Not to mention that I have a final tomorrow I have not studied for yet. I was hoping thats what my time out here at the VC would be for. We will see. Then thinking about my birthday this weekend made me want to puke, no more drinking.

Moral of the story, stick with what you know. Don't experiment on new booze when you have to work the next day, even if it is at noon.

let downs

I suffer from building things up so high that they could never live up to my expectations. It's what I do. I fear that it is going on in my life right now. I'm building up my 21st birthday a lot, I fear it won't be as fun as I'm imagining. I'm actually not thinking about my trip to Reno too much, this may be good, leave everything open, if it's good, awesome, if it sucks, I didn't have any expectations. But I also think that my affliction is rubbing off on my friends. Everyone is building summer up so much that I don't think it will be as awesome as predicted.

Last summer was great. I had a really really fun time getting to know everyone building relationships. I think that PKO nights were so great because we did it at someone's house, just sitting around bullshitting and playing drinking games because a couple of us (making up almost half the group) were underage and couldn't go out to the bars! After next Sunday and my birthday we are not going to have that social pressure to stay in anymore. There are underage people still working there, but they have never been a huge part of PKO nights, so I doubt they will really keep anyone in. Now that we will all be legal, I think people will want to go out more, which could be really fun, but I honestly don't know. I have no way to, I've never been out! I just miss last summer I think. Maybe I'm just being protective of my memories thinking that we can't top last summer. Maybe, I don't want to! We will see I guess. Either way, I know that I'm going to have a ton of fun because I have crazy friends, and crazy co-workers, and we are going to have a good time at someone's house, or out at the bars! It's inevitable, we're just fun. Plus we do have one more house party PKO night left for while I'm a minor. Tuesday should be fun. If we can just convince our host to start at a reasonable time instead of 5:30, or to just concede to have it elsewhere! Either way, it should be fun. I want drinking games, and I want a lot of them. Now, I just have to figure out what my drink of THIS summer is going to be. I think it's time to retire Vodka Collins.

justice

Oye. Paris Hilton. I feel a little dirty even typing that. Well, apparently "justice" has been served. Here is a bulleted list of my thoughts on the Paris Hilton fiasco.

1. What kind of idiot (I know she's a celebrity, but she must have SOME brain cells to rub together up there) hears her publicist tell her that it's ok to drive on a suspended license, and thinks it's true? Honestly. If she has to SIGN SOMETHING, one would think that she got what it meant.
2. When I heard she was actually sentenced to jail the following popped into my brain: "wow, a judge who actually believes in the law" "there is no way that she will serve any time" "its a media stunt". Now, I've completed a minor in criminology and am currently enrolled in the sociology of correctional facilities, so I know what jails are extremely over crowded, and it's very common to choose your time to serve and get turned away because the jail is full. You have to wait, to serve your time. Even if you do get in, you often serve short periods of time because the jails are stuff fulled of all the people we want to get "tough on crime" with, who will just be back in 5 days anyway. So it honestly didn't surprise me that she got out early. I do however think it's funny that they said it was for "medical reasons", like jails don't have an infirmary and psych staff on hand ....
3. Being called back: finally, they are making an example out of her. Exactly what they should have done from the start. If there is one thing that our justice system is, it's inconsistent. So scaring the public by showing them that "hey even the rich are not immune" sends a message if nothing else. MAYBE, that will happen now. Unfortunately, I doubt it will.
4. Why do we care so much? I know that our lives are full of nothing but media nonsense but seriously. Why don't we address why she couldn't stay her full term. Our prisons are overcrowded because we have imposed arbitrary sentencing laws on our judges that leave them with no decisons to make. We sentence people to 20 years for having an ounce of pot in their pocket. Honestly, Paris Hilton violating her parole is not a real issue. Why don't we think about what is.

Now if you excuse me, I need to go look up pictures of her in the back of a police car with no makeup on!

Work work work

Today we got the schedule for summer quarter. I am working the counter along with Taylor for most of the quater, with a little Rachel, Joelle and Leilonie thrown in on the side, with either Erica or Gaby, whoever is not visitor center. I feel guilty about the visitor center plight. I hated it so much last year, but Erica and Gaby are so freaking funny I want both of them in the office with me ALL THE TIME! I guess not everyone wanted full time, and so thats why the schedule is a little wonky. I'm really excited though for this summer, it should be a lot of fun. Now, here are my countdowns of the moment:

End of Work: 1 hour 45 minutes
Deadliest Catch: 2 hours 45 mintues
History outline or draft to sheepishly present to my professor for help: 2 days
History final paper due: 6 days
Communication group presentation final: 6 days
Storytelling Pizza Party!: 7 days
Soc of correctional facilities final: 9 days
My birthday: 12 days
Reno: 20 days

anti war vs. anti troops

One thing that I just cannot stand, are those people who assume that just because you are anti-war, means that you hate the troops. Not so. Yeah, I don't have one of those little yellow magnetic things on my car that says "I support the troops", and no, I don't repost those stupid myspace bulletins that tell me that my maid does my laundry while the troops wear the same thing for days on end. I know it's incredibly hard for the troops right now, and I see the death count rising everyday and I don't think it's right. I think the war we are in is not the war we were told it was going to be, I think this administration has fooled us, and went on a war rampage with ulterior motives and I think thats not only morally, but legally wrong. Caught in the middle of all of this are the troops. They are just doing their job, whether they agree with the bullshit they are being put through or not, they are doing one of the most painful and dangerous jobs in the United States. People I graduated with, people I know, people from all over are in this war, and just because I think it's stupid and pointless, doesn't mean that I think our soldiers are. I know they are fighting everyday so that we can live in a society that will probably never have a war on our soil, and we can go on living our cushy American lives where we can protest without fear of being killed my the government. So before you lump all the people who protest, have anti-war bumpers stickers, and wear anti-bush shirts, into a group of people who want to see all our soldiers dead, remember that there is a large difference between hating the war, and hating the soldiers in it. And don't for a second tell me what I believe.

smoking

I really don't like smoking. I think it's a gross habit, it kills you, your teeth get gross, your hands get gross, you waste tons of money on it, I hate it. Not to mention the smell. I loathe the smell of cigarette smoke, it gets in your clothes and hair and everyone around you, its nasty. I think when Washington banned smoking indoors it was one of my favorite days. I still love the fact that I can sit anywhere in a restaurant and not come home wreaking of cigarettes. I saw my Dad's mother die of lung cancer covered in golf ball size tumors all over to head and neck, she didn't even know who my father or any of us were, it was horrible, and the best anti-smoking ad I've ever seen. That's what they should have on those truth commercials, a big picture of my Dad's mom with tumors all over her head.

Now after all that, I feel like smoking is taunting me. It's always around me. Everyone is smoking all the time, at school, as sasquatch, everywhere. Sometimes I harbor a sick desire to smoke a cigarette. Why? I have no idea. I still really do believe everything I've said above, and I really don't have any true desire to become a regular (or occasional) smoker. It's just there, always. I feel like I have gotten more peer pressure to smoke in the last year than I ever did in High school when people seem to start smoking. Damn you hippie liberal college!