After much back and forth, my work decided not to hire me back for my last few months before the baby comes. At first I didn’t know what to do with myself. I have been working since I was 15, and now I might never work again!?

I got over that pretty quick.

I basically have been goofing off since I got back this summer. I downloaded a bunch of old DOS computer games. It’s amazing! So old and cheesy. This one is actually a remake, so it’s pretty good:

The others are pixelated masterpieces:

I have been doing somewhat worthy things with my time, but who wants to hear about that, right?

My friend invited me and a few other girls over to do some ab exercises at her house the other day. We followed a 15 minute DVD routine called Ab Ripper X. It was intense! I love the burn when working out abs, and this routine provides serious burnage.

I have been doing the 15 minutes every other day for maybe 3 weeks now and can say there is a definite difference. Try it out. Who doesn’t have 15 minutes

I don’t own the DVDs, so I found the ab section of the video online; here are the links below:

Part 1

video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2445079873095200471

Part 2

 video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6584463388003516309

Someone told me yesterday that my old house from when I grew up is for sale. I checked out some pictures of it online. Way weird! Funny how things seem so big when you are little. Check it out: http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/17-Meadow-Rd_East-Brunswick_NJ_08816_1105265479?mp=1

As previously posted, I am getting a crown put on my tooth. Today was the day, or so I thought. When I went in for my appointment, they asked me if I would like to go to a student instead to try and save some money. I knew about the student dental school but decided I didn’t want to risk having my teeth messed up more than they are, which is why I was seeing the faculty and not the students. So my first thought was “no” until she told me the price difference. It is $1,300 for my crown if I stayed with my great dentist. If I went to a not so great, not-yet dentist I would pay $400.

I gave in to the enormous price difference. Unfortunately, this means I have to wait another month until the student can see me and since she is still learning the appointment will take 3 hours instead of 1 1/2. She did an impression of my moth today to get things started, and let me say watching her do that seemingly simple task did not calm my fears. I must wait apprehensively to see if my attempt to save money is worth a potential disaster.

I have to go to the dentist for yet another root canal and crown. Grrrrr. This new one will make four crowns and five or six root canals. Unfreakinbelievable. When I was at the dentist, the lady gave me the third degree to make matters worse. She asked me why my teeth were so terrible for a 24 year old. Beats me lady! is what I thought. I wish I knew so I could stop the expensive bills from coming in. My mouth is worth a fortune.

I decided to go even shorter. I have to experiment a bit, but hopefully it won’t take me long to do it in the morning. I have some wicked cowlicks. I will have to let my hair grow out a bit to cover those bad boys up.

My teacher at Hollins told me I should I enter a paper I wrote for him into the IAFA (International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts) Conference 2009. I submitted thinking it would be good rejection practice. I knew my paper wouldn’t get accepted, so when I received the acceptance letter telling me to confirm my attendance I thought “Oh, crap! How I am I going to afford this?”  The conference is March 18-22 in Orlando Florida. It’s just far away enough to be annoying to drive, flying is super expensive, and the date is two days after Ryan’s spring break ends.

I searched around trying to decide if the conference was even credible. I couldn’t find definitive evidence either way. I thought that all presenters got published but found out only the graduate student paper that wins gets published. My chances for that are slim to none. I would go if it weren’t so expensive. It would be good expereince to present my paper at a conference. But I can’t pay hundreds of dollars for practice. I will go read my paper on a street corner for free if I need practice reading in front of people. All in all, it wasn’t meant to be I think

I took a children’s writing class while at BYU, and my teacher for that class started a society for all those who get rejected by publishers. It is called My Manuscript Stinks Society or the MMSS. Since practically every writer gets rejected by publishers, she thought it would be fun to award those of us students who inevitably got rejected. In addition to giving out awards in class for our rejection letters, she also started a blog to help us newby writers practice writing and get support from other writers.

Last month there was a contest on her blog, and I won! To check out the contest and my story, go to http://mmssociety.blogspot.com/

If you want to write more, go to her blog and use her writing exercises and post stories for her contests. It is a great way to keep up your writing and win free stuff! You can also become a part of the MMS Society; just check out the guidelines on the blog.

Long-zies

Short-zies. Good-bye blond

When we got to Kansas the skies were stormy, which we thought was cool…until a tornado warning was issued, and a tornado came through the middle of the state a few hours behind us. Note all the bug guts on the windshield.