I did it! I survived my first day as a full time employee! I don’t think I’ve ever been hired as a full timer (I worked full time for about 2 months in a previous job, but I don’t like to think about those days). I feel odd. I feel like I’ve achieved some step towards being an adult. Yikes!
I spent most of my first day reading a giant OSHA manual, and then doing loads of computer OSHA things. OSHA is mostly common sense, but I feel that they write out things the most confusing way they can think of. Anyway, after I learned all about how I can catch evil things from blood if I’m not properly handling it, and all about how to get electrocuted, I got to actually go in the lab! I ended up doing chores, but I didn’t care. I was in scrubs and a lab jacket, and I was in a real life professional lab! Ever since I was in tech school, I’ve been fascinated by the lab side of medicine. Getting to work in one has kind of been my personal Holy Grail. I have many dreams, and I feel so blessed to actually be getting to have one come true. Especially after so many years of heartbreak and disappointment.
Also, to document that my first day, I decided to take a picture of myself showing I was ready to head off into my future!
I’m not sure what expression that is on my face. Unfortunately, this was the best of the crop of photos I took. However, I really, really, love the scrub top I have on. I’m so excited that I can wear fun and pretty scrub tops to this job. There’s so many beautiful tops out there, and the last job I had that I wore scrubs for, I had to wear pretty blah ones all the time. I now have a whole assortment of pretty tops that I’m excited to wear!
-A couple of days ago I bought a movie I had never heard of and knew absolutely nothing about. It’s called The Watcher in the Woods. Some of the acting was really terrible, but the story itself was quite good, and surprisingly scary and dark for a Disney film. Bright spots of this film were Bette Davis and David McCallum (NCIS’s Ducky). Davis was super creepy. There was not nearly enough Ducky in this film, I think he was mainly in the film to attract whatever audience Davis didn’t attract. Here’s the trailer:
-I spent tonight with my mama figuring out what the spring puppet show is going to be. I’m pretty excited about this one, and am hoping that it all pulls together smoothly.
-I’m getting really excited and pretty nervous about Monday. New job! Big plus: I get to wear cute scrubs! There’s no mandatory scrub design I have to wear, so I can wear the fun cartoon tops. Also, I’m madly in love with the Grey’s Anatomy brand scrubs. They’re the softest, most comfy scrubs I’ve ever encountered. I’m also glad that they’re making scrub tops that are much more feminine than they used to be.
-Had weekly lunch at Zemogs. Ended lunch with “I have a job” celebratory sopapillas. Here’s a picture of the deliciousness!
-This afternoon, I decided to try to be artistic, here was the outcome:
-I’m thinking of getting the Bob Ross videos and learning to paint.
-I’m not trying to brag, but I’m super excited thinking about having a real paycheck again and being able to pay my bills again!
-I love my Hello Kitty headphones. I spent more on them than I normally spend on headphones, but the whole Hello Kitty design totally made it worth it. They work fantastic, which was super surprising. Best headphone investment I’ve made in years.
-My hair is finally getting some decent length to it. I’ll be glad when I can braid it and put it up.
-I need to find a mascara brand that doesn’t make my eyes itch and burn. Thinking of trying Physician’s Formula (waiting to make some money, just because it’s more expensive than what I usually spend on make-up). Many people have told me it’s gentle on sensitive eyes. I don’t wear a lot of make-up, but I’ve found that mascara is kind of crucial if I don’t want my eyes to look terrible.
The rumors are true. I finally have a job. Not just any job, a full time job at a medical lab. Next to my dream of being paid to travel all over the world and get paid for it, this is pretty much my dream job. I cried when I got the official “We’d like to offer you the job” call. This really is such a weight off my mind. Knowing that I’m going to be able to pay my bills and face the future with a little more hope just makes me all sorts of happy!
And now, here’s a random picture of Aragorn preparing to do battle against my new (and possibly favorite) mug:
For Christmas, I got the movie The Decoy Bride. Here’s the trailer, just to get you up to speed on what I’m talking about:
It’s a very predictable film, but incredibly sweet and funny, so it’s worth a watch. Plus, David Tennant is the love interest, so it’s hard not to enjoy it.
The reason I loved this film was because it felt very relateable, or rather Kelly MacDonald’s character was relateable. The first time I heard her line about “hotter than I look,” all I could think was “That’s exactly how I feel about myself.” When I’m not near a mirror, I tend to think of myself as a lot prettier and a lot slimmer. I also tend to think that I’m witty, clever, and generally delightful.
Today was a rare day when, once I got dressed and did my makeup and hair, I actually felt pretty. Not hot or anything like that, but definitely more attractive than usual. To that end, I decided to make today’s photo a first for me. I decided to take one of those infamous bathroom mirror shots. Although, I don’t think I did it right, because I wasn’t holding the camera when I took the picture. So, here’s the photo:
Now, I could’ve cropped the picture, but I thought the hair straightener sticking out into the photo was such a “classy” touch.
Alrighty, it’s 2013. Today is the first day of the rest of the year, or something like that… So, before I get to my Doctor Who weekly obsession (who are we kidding, it’s more like a daily obsession), it’s time to get the list of goals for the new year listed.
Malia’s 2013 Goals
1. Lose weight. (This is kind of a no brainer, and I’m sure I’m not alone in having this at the very top of my list.)
2. Exercise a minimum of 30 minutes 3 days a week.
3. Write a blog entry once a day.
4. Write non-blog related things.
5. Finish the blanket I promised mom I’d make her 3 years ago.
6. Read through the Bible in a year.
7. Take at least 1 photograph everyday.
8. Watch all the Doctor Who episodes, starting with the first ones from back in 1963.
Okay, so this leads into my weekly (at minimum) discussion of all things Who. It occurred to me two days ago that I can’t really call myself a true Whovian unless I go all the way back to the beginning. There are a couple hundred episodes and more than a few Doctors for me to catch up on. I actually started this monumental task on the 30th, but I figured it was better to start early than not at all. So far I’ve made it through the first three sets of episodes from season 1 (1963). Here’s my initial conclusions…
-The stories are really good. Even though there’s so much I dislike about these early episodes, I really like the plots, so it makes it worth it.
-So far, the companion Ian, does almost everything. The Doctor is pretty much this old guy-that I spend most of the episodes wondering if he’s a dementia patient-that does nothing but be a jerk and cause more problems than actually do any good. Susan, the Doctor’s granddaughter, is incredibly annoying. The first episode, Ian and Barabara (her teachers, who end up becoming the first human companions to the Doctor) both spend quite awhile discussing how smart Susan is. I’m not necessarily doubting her intelligence, but I’d like to be given some evidence of it.
-Speaking of the women, man have times changed since 1963. Basically, the sole role of the women thus far has been to scream at everything and do absolutely nothing to help themselves. Seriously. There’s one part where Susan gets tapped on the shoulder when she thinks she’s alone, and instead of investigating (like one of the modern female companions) she screams and basically has a meltdown. There’s a lot of screaming done by these two women. Also, it really bugs me that there’s this general attitude that if the young handsome men don’t do something, it can’t be trusted to be done right.
Also, I spent New Year’s Eve, and New Year’s Day getting mom and dad caught up on season 6 & 7 of the current Doctor. I’ve now seen the ending of The Angels Take Manhattan about 4 times, and I still bawl like a baby. I’m super excited to see the Christmas episode and the rest of season 7.
In closing, here’s today’s photos (remember, taking at least one photo every day):
So, I got this bee in my bonnet to try making these brownies I saw on Pinterest. I started with a box of brownie mix and several packages of peanut butter cups:
I then made the batter:
I then poured part of the batter into the bottom of the pan:
I then laid out the peanut butter cups:
Then I covered that with the remainder of the brownie batter and popped them in the oven. Then out came this:
Mom cut them:
And I ate one:
The brownies needed to have cooked longer. Honestly, thought they were done, but I basically ended up with brownie batter goo in the middle (the top and sides were mostly completely cooked). However, if you’re going to end up with brownie batter goo, it’s best to have Reese’s right in the middle of it. Peanut butter cups make any baking “disaster” much better.
Now, here’s some pictures of my cats. Howard wasn’t thrilled I was taking pictures:
Best picture I’ve ever gotten of Gracie (She always moves before the picture finishes taking, no matter how fast I’ve got the speed set):
Gracie also has a thing about boxes (mostly, she likes to eat them):
-So, today I was at Hancock Fabrics, and I looked up from whatever it was I was looking at and noticed a couple of people at the end of the aisle. Normally, I wouldn’t have thought anything of it, but what drew my attention was that two of them were wearing the Fourth Doctor scarves. (Two different versions.) They turned out to be pretty cool, and randomly meeting fellow Whovians totally made my day.
-I’ve yet to hear back from the job I interviewed with last week. They told me they’d let me know one way or another by the end of this week. I’m hoping that they simply forgot to figure in the fact that Christmas was this week, and I’ll hear something next week. I’ve been in full blown panic since last night. I know I shouldn’t worry, but being jobless is not something I handle brilliantly. Plus, I really want the job at the lab, and the longer I have to wait to find out if I got the job makes me more and more stressed.
-The flu has been bouncing around our home since Christmas Eve. It finally attacked me this afternoon. Hopefully it’s about run out of steam.
-I’m super excited about the S Loom I got for Christmas. I do loom knitting, and I’ve been drooling over the S Loom for a couple of years now. I’m really bad at stitching panels together to create a blanket, so the S Loom was really appealing to me because it allows me to make blankets without having to mess with the stitching of panels.
-So, I’m not sure if I stumbled across something really incredibly stupid, or the most brilliant money-making scheme ever. Yesterday, I was at the grocery store and one of the freezer endcaps had a deal featured that was if you bought 6 Lean Cuisines you got either a free pack of Skinny Cow ice cream treats or a free container of Edy’s ice cream. Now, I thought people at Lean Cuisine because of the weight brought on by eating things like Edy’s. However, if the person on the diet eats the Edy’s, they’ll gain weight and need more Lean Cuisine.
-Yesterday, I went to the Joslyn, and was once again confronted with the fact that while I really love art, I just don’t get modern art. There was a piece of paper that was painted with a rectangle of black and a rectangle of grey. Those were the only things on that piece of paper, and it was hung proudly on the wall. I’m confused. What about that makes it art? I grew up believing that art was something you put your heart and soul into. Maybe the artist is obsessed with rectangles. I can’t think of any other reason that makes it make sense.
-I was introduced to Spotify this week. It’s what I’ve always wanted Pandora to be. I like that if I’m in the mood to hear a specific song, Spotify will play said song, and not one that it judges to be similar. Although, I’m really hating that tonight Spotify is insisting on playing Trojan commercials every single time it goes to a commercial break.
-I can’t believe it’s almost 2013.
-Tonight I realized that the relationship of Sherlock and John on Sherlock is exactly like that of Sheldon and Leonard on Big Bang Theory. John is Sherlock’s filter. He’s the one who keeps Sherlock in check. This is pretty much what Leonard does for Sheldon.
-Speaking of Sherlock, !!!!!!!!HERE BE SPOILERS!!!!!!! I’m still trying to figure out how he survived suicide. Obviously, he did, but how. Mom’s theory is that there was a mask that he put over Moriarity’s face. Possible, but it’s still bothering me that we were shown someone alive standing on the edge of the roof moving around. I know that Molly had to have helped him cook up some solution, but I still can’t quite put my finger on what it is.
Be warned, this is a super long post…at least for me….
Well, Christmas is pretty much winding down. All in all, it was a good Christmas. I had a bit of a meltdown mid-day Christmas, and ended up sleeping it off most of the afternoon. I just suddenly really missed Grampa. This was the first Christmas without him. The whole day, while good, felt wibbly-wobbly. I know he’s in a better place, and much happier because he actually feels good now. I wouldn’t have wished continuing to be miserable on him. The thing is, our immediate family is so small, and Grampa being gone just makes us an even smaller group. It somehow emphasizes the fact that he’s gone. It’s hard wrapping my head around that fact sometimes.
A few weeks ago I ended up watching the show Hoardersand it really got me to thinking about all the stuff I’ve got. I’ve got a lot of stuff. Really, much more stuff than anyone needs, and it’s just stuff. Sure, I have a few things that are really important and meaningful to me, but overall, I’ve just got a lot of stuff. I think the time has come to get rid of a lot of my stuff. I’ll keep my books and movies, but there’s so much random crap that’s been living in boxes under my bed and I haven’t looked at it in over a year. Clearly, I do not need it to function as a human being.
The thing is, going in the ditch in South Dakota a few weeks ago started tweaking my perspective on life and such. I guess, I never really filled all of you in on what happened after I wrote my post about going in the ditch and then being rescued and spending the night in Brookings. What happened following my writing of my December 9th post was even more “exciting” than going in the ditch.
About an hour after I wrote the December 9th post, I went to bed, only to wake up about 3 hours later in a full blown panic attack. I’d had a nightmare and all I remembered when I woke up was that I was driving, and the van was going off the road and all I could see was blinding whiteness. My panic attack basically consisted of my realizing that not only could Katy and I have frozen to death, but the fact that neither the 9-1-1 dispatcher or sheriff’s dispatcher were willing to do anything (even offer a kind word) to ease our terror. Basically, I felt that they had left us to die. Trust me, that’s pretty much the worst, most scared I’ve ever felt for my life (and ironically, we were completely safe at the point this feeling kicked in). I ended up calling my mom in the middle of the night, completely hysterical, wailing that, “9-1-1 left us to die!” Once mom got me calmed down a little and we prayed, I ended up calling my “sister” and we talked some more and prayed, and I was finally able to get to the point of being able to go back and get some sleep.
Now, when we went in the ditch on 12/9 Katy’s mom had talked to a towing company in Brookings, and they had agreed to rescue my vehicle on Monday morning. So, when Katy & I got rescued, I called 9-1-1 back and told them not to worry about moving the car, we’d made arrangements to get it in the morning. The dispatcher told me that was fine and that she’d documented it. I also left a big sign under the windshield on the driver’s side with my name and phone number. Come Monday morning, Katy called the towing company, and they told us that there were about 6 cars they needed to get before getting to ours, but they’d give us a call when they needed the keys. About an hour later we got a call from the towing company telling us that not only was the van no longer in the ditch, but the state troopers had my van towed during the night. Katy’s phone connection was bad, so she only got that my car was somewhere in a nearby county. I began calling counties, and each person I talked to was completely rude and unhelpful. Finally, Katy called the towing company back and asked if they could give her more details about where my vehicle had been towed. They told her that the van had been towed by Tiny Town Towing in Tiny Town, SD. Immediately, I turned to Google maps because I had never heard of Tiny Town. Tiny Town happens to be 40 miles southwest of Brookings (Perfectly logical place to tow it, right? Since I crashed 10 miles south of Brookings…)
I called Tiny Town Towing, and proceeded to get told that not only was my vehicle there, but there would also be fees to get it back. I asked repeatedly for specifics on the fees, and was told that it was $100 for getting the van out of the ditch, $3.50 per loaded mile for taking the van to Chester and also for taking the van from Tiny Town to Brookings, on top of which, I was told there would be fees for diesel fuel, service, and labor. I could not get her to tell me what the last three fees would come out to. So, I told her I would have to call her back. I ended up calling home finally and telling mom and dad what was going on. Dad told me he would call Tiny Town. At that point I was an emotional wreck because I’d spent the better part of two hours talking to rude person after rude person. Not only was I not being my normal sweet self on the phone, I was being a stern, direct, no-nonsense “I want answers” person.
A few minutes later I ended up getting a call from Sheriff who was the county sheriff responsible for towing my vehicle. Our conversation went something like this:
S: May I speak with Milia?
Me: This is Malia.
S: Hi, Malia, this is Sheriff from …. County. How are you today?
Me: Hi, Sheriff, I’m pretty stressed.
S: Well, I just wanted to let you know your vehicle is at Tiny Town Towing.
Me: Yes, I know, I’ve been talking to them. I don’t understand why my vehicle was towed without anyone letting me know that was happening. Especially, since I had left my phone number and let 9-1-1 know we’d made arrangements to get the vehicle towed this morning.
S: Well, it’s protocol that we tow all the vehicles from the side of the road. If it makes you feel any better, I didn’t call anyone who’s vehicles we towed.
Me: That does not make me feel better! Did you even bother to look at my license plate? It says I’m from Nebraska. I don’t know where anything is up here, and now I find out that my car is in Tiny Town which is apparently 40 miles south of here. I went off the road 10 miles from Brookings. I do not understand why this happened especially when I made arrangements and no one bothered to contact me.
SW: Well, you can’t just have anyone with a pick-up and a towline come out and get your vehicle. It has to be an actual tow company.
Me: I made arrangements with an actual tow company here in Brookings!
SW: Oh. Well, I can talk to Tiny Town Towing and see if they can bring your vehicle up. I was there when they pulled out your van and saw where they parked it. Of course, there will be fees for all this.
Me: I have a grand total of $20, I have no idea how you expect me to pay for this.
Honestly, there wasn’t much after that, basically I told him that we were trying to figure things out. He pretty much ended up the conversation there. If Barney Fife and Boss Hogg had a love child, I’m pretty sure that child would be Sheriff W.
Anyway, by that point, I just collapsed and gave up. Fortunately, shortly after that I got a call from dad and he’d worked things out with Tiny Town Towing. Turned out they gave him a completely different quote. The van got dropped off about an hour later. My sign was still sitting where I left it, and the windshield had been cleared off, so it was apparent that the sign had been seen.
I guess mom and dad were on the phone back and forth with the South Dakota state patrol all Monday. Every time the state patrol called back they would change their story. They eventually tried to tell the parents that I was on the road illegally, because the interstate had closed at 1:07 p.m. and I was out on the road after that. We easily disproved that by the fact that we had text message and phone log proof that we had gone in the ditch at 12:56.
Anyway, long story short, avoid South Dakota in the winter.
Getting back to my original point, the whole realizing that we could have died or at least gotten hospitalization level hypothermia has really been working on my whole thought process. I’ve started thinking about what I really believe and also what I want out of life. Super heavy (apparently, something’s wrong with the earth’s gravitational pull in 2012). So, I’ve started making a list of what I want to accomplish in life before I’m 30 (which happens 11/24/2014 at 2:35 a.m.).
1. Actually finish writing my novel. I’ve got a good first draft, and have started on the second draft. It’s not a life changing novel, or anything, but at least it’s better than some pop tween fiction I’ve read.
2. Lose weight. Okay, this is an ongoing one, but I really want to be 100 lbs. lighter by the time I’m 30. Which is totally do-able.
3. Clean out useless crap from my room and/or life.
4. Go on a date. To this point I’ve been on one date in my entire life, and while it wasn’t a bad date I’d like to experience one where I don’t feel completely blindsided. (It’s an entertaining story, and the guy was a nice, decent, good guy, just not the guy for me). I would like to reach 30 having gone on more than one date. It’s not a big deal, but it’d be nice. Plus, I’ve got two really super cute date appropriate shirts now, so that should count for something.
On a different note, even though Christmas is over for the year, you should totally take 5 minutes of your life and watch the Penny & Teddy video I posted yesterday. I have to say that making these videos gave me a whole new level of appreciation for professional puppeteers. I thought doing the videos would be quick and easy, and I was shocked that in order to achieve 7 minutes of semi-okay footage we worked for about 5 hours and only stopped because the two diabetic performers (mom and I) hadn’t had lunch and we were both about ready to pass out. Here’s the video I posted yesterday (yes, I realize that I’m harping on this, but I’m actually pretty proud of myself for actually finishing a project for once in my life, and that said project turned out fairly decent).
Okay, well, I’m all pau for tonight.
Aloha.
P.S. There’s no Tiny Town, SD, I just changed the town name. Also, I was nice and didn’t share the sheriff’s name. I should also mention, that I’ve always had a lot of respect for the law, and those who do that work, and overall it really saddened me to run into this situation.
It’s the Eve before the Eve before Christmas. There’s a mouthful. Not much to write, but I thought I’d share this video of our family singing the song Mary Did You Know at church this morning. The quality of the video is atrocious, but that’s mostly because I had no one to run the camera, and I left it sitting on a chair pointed in the right direction hoping it would catch something. I hope you enjoy our singing as much as we enjoyed singing!
-So, I spent the better part of today with my parents making the videos for both Monday & Tuesday’s blog entries. I’m super excited for all of you to see them, and hope that you all have as much fun watching them as we had making them.
-How about more snow pictures? I took a bunch of photos on Thursday after Draco had finally finished it’s work here. So, here’s what I took:
-I’m back doing job interviews. I’d forgotten how much I truly hate job hunting. It’s so incredibly stressful, and I have a terrible time judging whether an interview has gone well or not. I went to an interview on Wednesday, and got a call on Thursday asking me to come in for a second interview on Friday morning. At the end of the second interview, I was asked to sign the paperwork to have a background check done, and to also do a drug test. The background check was no biggie, but not unlike others in this world, the whole peeing in a cup thing is just not the easiest thing in the world for me to accomplish. The task proved impossible yesterday, so I found myself back trying again this morning (the place I’m doing this for is a lab, so the testing is done on-site). My mom, knowing that I have always struggled with the whole bladder not cooperating thing decided to encourage me by quoting Sheldon from the Big Bang Theory episode about the ring from Lord of the Rings. Basically, Sheldon does this whole bit about “Waterfalls…Leaky Faucets…Peeing!” in an effort to make the other guys have to pee. Normally, this sort of thing doesn’t work on me, but when my mom was yelling it at me as I was getting out of the car it certainly seemed to help. So, I guess I can say that Big Bang Theory helped me pee in a cup. Now, I’m just hoping to hear from the job that they want to hire me. The gal who gave me my second interview told me that the background check and drug test weren’t a job offer, but I know how both things are expensive, so I’m thinking that they’re at least seriously considering hiring me since they’re going ahead with the checks.
-I think I’m coming down with a cold. Not my idea of a fun way to head into Christmas.
-Saw The Hobbit in the IMAX 3D yesterday. It was so stunning! Plus, I found that the second viewing was even better than the first. I still hated to see it end. It’s going to be a long year waiting for The Desolation of Smaug.
So, it’s a week until Christmas. Yay! I’m actually enjoying the Christmas spirit this year. I’m just so thankful to be with my family, it’s going to be a fantastic holiday.
Last Friday night I drove home from Grand Forks, and arrived in Omaha around midnight. The next morning I got up way earlier than I wanted so that I could rehearse music with my parents. We were doing the music at our church’s over-40’s Christmas party. Now, many years ago, my parents and I performed our take on gospel music quite regularly. However, it’s been about 7 years since the last time we performed anything for anyone. I had a grand total of one rehearsal with my parents going into the music presentation on Saturday night, and it didn’t go too badly. I managed to get video of the performance, and I thought I’d share part of it tonight. (Hopefully, I’ll be able to share the gospel music part in a few days.) Here’s the video of my family covering the Christmas “classic” Leroy the Redneck Reindeer:
My mama is playing the autoharp and dad is playing the banjo. I’m not playing an instrument (although, I’m about to get serious about learning mandolin), but I am singing with the group. It was a lot of fun.
This song has been a bit special to our family, because my Grampa’s (the one who passed this summer) first name was Leroy. The first time we performed this song was for him at family Christmas many years ago.
That wasn’t the only reminder of Grampa Saturday night. Every year for Christmas we’d give Grampa a can or box of ribbon candy. As long as I can remember he always got ribbon candy. Well, at the party on Saturday night, there was a white elephant give-away. My dad picked a package, and when opened found it was a box of ribbon candy. The exact kind of ribbon candy that we got for Grampa. It was a bittersweet moment. Kind of seemed like Grampa was looking down on us, letting us know he’s thinking about us.
Any Second Now... 