I've been too tired to go online much lately.  I got off work today at 2 and promptly went home and crashed- not that it did much good.  I had to babysit this evening.  Usually the kid I babysit for is an angel, but tonight was such a pain.  He cried and screamed for two hours straight.  I had to lock the dog away because it kept getting kicking the the face by the flailing kid (dumb dog had no sense of self preservation).  He yelled at me while I was getting dinner, kept turning the TV back on while I was trying to put him to bed, and got mad at me for mispronouncing words while reading him a story (hey, it's not my fault I don't know french).  It was definitely the most trying babysitting experience I've had.

I went to the pool yesterday for the first time this summer!  It was amazing to finally get some sun and go into the water.  

Movies:
-Almost Famous: Watched with my friend right after going to the pool.  I can't believe I had never seen this movie before!  I loved it!  First off, it has an amazing cast: Kate Hudson, Frances McDormand (who I now love even more after Miss Pettigrew), Jason Lee, Zooey Deschanel, Billy Crudup, Anna Paquin, Phillip Seymour Hoffman....  Kate Hudson was perfect for the role.  
-The Virgin Suicides: I wasn't so impressed with this movie.  Normally I'm not a big Kirsten Dunst fan- usually I can't stand her.  I actually almost liked her in this movie.  It was the story I couldn't stand.  I don't like movies/books/whatever where I can't figure out the character's motivations.  Why were the boys obsessed with the girls?  Why did the girls commit suicide?  And what where the "puzzle pieces" and "evidence" they kept talking about?  It was a suicide, not a homicide.

Currently reading:
This is mostly for the other romance fan on my f-list, but I'm currently reading Loretta Chase's Your Scandalous Ways.  I'll probably be posting a review of it on

romancenovelssome time in the rext few days.  I also got a copy of Johanna Lindsey's Surrender My Love from a friend- '90s cover art.  Be afraid.  Be very afraid.  I'm going to see if I can find I way to scan the cover.  It reveals the secret of where furry boots really do come from...

 

Canoeing in Pennsylvania was the ultimate disaster. The river was less than 10 inches deep, a fact the rental store failed to mention, and our canoe weighed over 700 pounds.  My parents and I abandoned the canoe after about four hours of getting stuck on the rocks every other moment- we had only traveled about three miles in that whole time.  It was ridiculous.  I got to stay in town the next day while my parents went to get the canoe (we had left it in the river- there wasn't any real risk of it floating down stream).  It wasn't much of an improvement though.  First off, there was nobody my age could find.  Guys younger than me were all walking around with their hunting gear on.  The women had facial hair.  No joke.  Serious stubble.  I was sitting the the park where two old men were having a five minute discussion on the probability of rain.  All the shop windows had signs saying "support our troops" and advertising something called a "jesus concert".  It was so stereotypical.

On a slightly depressing note, I realized today that five people had un-friended me.  It's understandable though considering I've been so busy I haven't been commenting as much as I would have liked. 

In the end this past week has been fairly movie centric- again.
1. Wall-e:  An absolute must see.  It was amazing!  I love it and now have and extreme soft spot for curious robots.  It's a bit heavy handed in it's message to take care of the Earth, but it's still enjoyable for all ages.
2. Ever After:  No matter how many times I see this movie, I still love it.  Possible one of the only roles I think Drew  Barrymore did an okay job in.  And the dresses make me very very happy.
3.  Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day:  I finally understand what visualthinker11was saying about Lee Pace... I liked Amy Adams in this even more than in Enchanted.  One of those great life lessons movies that doesn't beat you over the head too much.

 I just picked my top choices for tutorial next year, but I don't think I'm going to get my first choice because I waited until five days before the deadline.  Bad D.L.

Anywhoo, I leave tomorrow morning to go on a canoe trip with my parents.  We're driving up to Pennsylvania and then traveling down river about 60 miles.  I think it's there way of saying they're going to miss me.  As much as I love canoeing, I'm totally doing this for them.  I'd much rather be at the beach with friends, or since that's not happening, at least trying to earn money working more hours.  I guess I should cut my parents some slack since their only child is about to leave home.

 My boss/work schedule is really starting to piss me off.  I told him I want to work as much as possible- full time, or at least as many hours as he can give me.  Instead I'm losing hours.  Second off, I gave him all the dates I'm going to be out of town, and those are all the days he goes and schedules me for!  At first I thought it was just a miscommunication, and that he thought those were the days I could work (yes, there are only 5 days in all of June when I can work), but really I don't think he paid much attention.  As far as employees go, I'm fairly expendable.  So for this whole pay period, I'll only have clocked 30 hours.  How the hell am I going to pay for college at this rate?!

With all this free time and absolutely no drive to do anything productive, I've been watching tons of movies- rentals, borrows, things I catch on TV.  Here's a top three for the past two days:
1. Brokeback Mountain:  Loan from the wonderful deathonavespa.  I can't believe I hadn't seen this before now.  It was utterly beautiful.  Unfortunately someone had told me how it ended way before I watched it, but I still loved it.
2.  Joyeux Noel:  Rented with a friend.  Recommend to all history buffs.  It's about the 1914 Christmas cease fire.  It's a drama and could be considered a war film, but it's more character and dialog driven and there are no epic battle scenes.
3.  Marty: Caught it on tv.  Classic film about an Italian guy who meets a woman who he gets a long with but neither his mother or friends like.  It's a wonderful story about falling for someone and standing up for yourself- a "feel good" film.

 Wohoo!  After much nudging, deathonavespa is finally on lj! Just spent the evening with her discussing Twilight and watching Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire just for the Robert Pattinson scenes.  Er... yea.  Much fangirling occurred.

I had to spend most of today at an outdoor potluck/field day, which really pissed me off.  First off, I had potlucks.  People rarely bring good food and if they do it either gets swarmed or destroyed by the sun.  Surprisingly the food was ok.  I managed to find four or five dishes I liked.  But the heat was a killer.  I went through three or four water bottles in two hours and still got a heat headache.  Bleh.  I also hate outdoor sports (flag football... not my thing), and turned into a first degree bitch by the end of the day.

I also broke the news to my parents that I'm thinking about getting my eyebrow pierced.  To say the least, they didn't take it so well.  At least it's not like my tattoo- I didn't even warn my parents about that.  My mom said she's accepted the piercing if I swore never to smoke again.  I told her I'd consider it, but I doubt I'll take that one up.  I think it's worse to make a promise you don't think you can keep.  So I guess I'll be getting my piercing and my parents won't be looking at my face for a few days... 

I got a call today from a lady at my credit union saying I won the scholarship I applied for!  Yay!  That's another $1,500 off expenses.  She conducted a mini interview with me and asked stuff like, "how will this help you achieve your academic goals" and "why did you join the credit union".  She seemed to really like my answers.  I have to go in next Monday for a publicity shot with the other 3 recipients.

//funny work story/ mini rant//

As I mentioned before, I'm currently a cashier.  Not the greatest job, but it pays and is flexible.  Normally I'm pretty good with math, but after a while numbers do tend to run together.  This prissy old lady comes in (do ya get the feeling I don't like her?) and her total comes to $8.99.  She gives me a $20 and then offers to give me a penny.  I do a sudden double take and look somewhat confused.  She sighs heavily and says, "That's okay, you obviously don't know what to do."  Okay, granted, I shouldn't have looked at her funny, but I was really busy, and her offer threw me for a loop, not because I can't calculate the change in my head, but because wtf would she want to give me a penny?  Her change is already $11.01.  Giving me a penny would just make me give her two pennies back.  Four pennies would maybe be useful for giving her change, but not one.  I just gave her here change- the eleven dollars and one penny.  That's okay lady, you obviously don't know what to do.

//end rant//

 I don't get men.  

They create more problems than they're worth. I am officially swearing off guys who are significantly older than me, who have wronged me in the past, or who are just obvious sleazes.

Let's see how long I last this time.