• 18:01 is constantly amazed by the beauty of her new home. Oregon is stunning. #

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Happy birthday, dawnshine! Even though I tried to sell you when you were first born, I am extraordinarily pleased by the fact that you are my sister and am very glad you were born. You are one of my best friends, and I'd adore you even if you weren't related to me. I hope your day is glorious, and I'm really looking forward to our chat tomorrow. I love you!

I am looking for movies, preferably princessy movies, that will appeal to a very smart three year old and that do not have a negative gender message. Brad's niece, Mo, and I have watched Enchanted about a squillion times, and while we both love it, I imagine she's going to get bored with it before too terribly long. I'd like to have something else lined up for her when that happens.

So here's the gender thing.

Mo recently came home from daycare and announced to her Mema that princes must save princesses because only boys can save girls. Girls cannot save boys. It's an idea she picked up from a couple of the slightly older girls at daycare, and not an idea Mo's parents are at all okay with. And it's definitely not an idea that I want to have any part in encouraging. Enchanted is great because at the end of the movie, Giselle saves Robert (I think?) from the icky icky dragonbeast. It shows people helping each other, taking care of each other, and supporting each other.

I want to have more movies like that to show Mo when she's here. So, my little FriendBots, please make suggestions. Tell me which movies you think would work well for a smart little girl who loves princesses but is not Baby to be put in a corner.

Also, I just lost the game.

Oh dear god, I need a job. Which means that oh dear god, I need my license. I need a sealed copy of my school transcripts, which my instructor from the Institute emailed me about today, and which I should have in a few days. All that's left after that is having a passport photo taken and paying for the Board exam. And studying. I must start studying again. Argh.

I'm fairly confident that I'll be able to find a job quickly after I'm licensed, so at least there's that. It would be nice to have an income again. I vaguely remember what that was like, and I recall rather enjoying it. It would be nice, too, to be doing this thing that I trained for and that brings me such joy.

Speaking of joy, things are going well with both Brad and Chris, and I am a very happy girl. Brad and I are going to goth karaoke night tonight, and I'm very much looking forward to that. (the_xtina, are you and Josh joining us? You know you want to. Or, perhaps more accurately, you know I really hope you'll want to. Because yay!) Chris and I had our 11th date yesterday. It seems we've been dating so much longer than that, but at the same time, the time has flown.

You know what, my little FriendBots? I truly love my life. I couldn't have chosen a better family if I'd been given a shopping spree at Family Members R Us. I have two amazing men in my life who love me as much as I love them. My friends are wonderful, intelligent, interesting, funny, fun people. My cats (and I'm including Brad's in this category) are awesome. I love this new city. I am surrounded by love and laughter and brightness, and I couldn't be happier. It is good to be me.

• 16:53 The 80s are all 'where's our hair?' and I'm all 'yeah, it's on my head.' #

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I recently met someone new. His name is Chris, and he's an actor who lives not too very far from Portland. We had our first date on Wednesday, the 14th, and our sixth date is tomorrow. Oh, god, he is amazing. Smart, funny, hot, generous, compassionate, sweet, and so much fun to be with.

I am still wildly, madly, crazy in love with Brad, too, and he is awesome. My relationship with him is the best I've ever had in my life, and I am so glad I moved here to be with him.

I love my life.

• 11:45 is hanging out with Mo again, playing dolls and dying of the cute. #

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• 18:26 is watching Enchanted with Mo and is very much enjoying it. Movie dates with her rock. #

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• 19:36 Dear god the hottie dads in the park. Babysitting rocks. #

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• 22:32 just had to summon Brad from the shower to deal with a spider emergency and is now considering burning the house down just to be sure it ... #

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• 00:02 has just lost the game and is cheerful about bringing the rest of you down with her. #

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When penghuin and I were moving things in my room last night as he worked on my super spiffy lighting, I saw the gorgeous print of a photo that oceanstorme sent to me and realized that the thank-you post to her that I'd so carefully planned out was never actually written. I am an idiot.

oceanstorme, it is even more beautiful in person than it was on the screen, and I absolutely love it. It's just waiting for a frame before it goes up on my wall, and I cannot wait. Thank you so much! I am so excited.

I am also hopeful that you will forgive me for being a complete flake.

• 23:07 I've just lost the game. #

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murnkay: Only if it's lime!

photocentric: 1. Purple and black. 2. Not Portland, exactly. Raccoons, though.

cheryln: Exploration and discovery! Lots to see and do, and that rocks.

katiebea: I don't believe tape is the answer. It is my opinion that epoxy would be the way to go. If it must be tape, though, I think duct tape would be best.

I take the MBLEx this evening, and I'm all nervous and in need of distraction and entertainment. Help me, my little FriendBots.

Standard Instructions: Ask me a question and tell me a secret. No one can see your answers but me. I'll try not to give away your questions when I answer them, and I might even tell the truth. So go. Fill out the poll. Entertain me. You know you want to.

Poll #1443900 Ask Me/Tell Me
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: None, participants: 6

Ask me a question.

Tell me a secret.

Happy first anniversary, penghuin. I'm looking forward to our second, and our squillionth. I love you.

O hai, LiveJournal.

I don't post here so much anymore, do I? I keep saying that I'm going to, and it keeps not happening. I know a lot of my FriendBots have drifted from LiveJournal to Facebook or (*gag*) MySpace, but even though I play on Facebook a lot, that's really not what's happened with me. Mostly, it's that I used to do most of my LiveJournaly stuff during downtime at my 8-to-5 job, and I haven't had one of those in, oh, well over a year. Also, there's not a whole hell of a lot going on to post about. I don't want to read about how I studied for my MBLEx again today, so I'm fairly certain no one else does, either. And then there's the fact that I'm now about a squillion hours behind most of the rest of the country and am therefore most likely to post long after the rest of you 8-to-5ers have gone home for the day, and there hasn't seemed much point.

It makes me strangely sad. I love LiveJournal. My FriendBots are mostly people I've known, at least online, for years. It isn't that I think I know you the way I would a best friend from elementary school, but still, I've seen glimpses of your lives changing, day after day, in some cases for eight years. Eight years. That's a long time. And I miss you guys.

So. Do I just keep quietly reading? Or do I post a whole bunch of nothing important in an effort to maintain the FriendBot interaction that has made LiveJournal such a source of joy for me? I have no idea. I just know that I don't want to lose what LiveJournal has been to me, even though with all the drifting away to Facebook and similar, it seems a losing battle.

Aaaand I have no idea where I was going to go from here.

Maybe Monday I'll post an Ask Me/Tell Me and see what happens.

I've not been at all posty lately, have I? There's not been much to post about, really. Without school or work the days all seem to flow together. Most mornings are spent studying, penghuin and I often watch a couple of episodes of one of the three television shows we're watching, we make dinner, and we play a lot of Text Twirl on Facebook. Those are the things that make up the framework of my day, and things like cleaning and laundry and errands and reading fill in the rest. Except for the part with no paycheck and the part where I've yet to meet very many people, it's not bad.

I have a library card now, and it fills me with joy. I've put quite a few books on hold, mostly by Val McDermid, who writes the series that Wire in the Blood on BBCA is based on. I've also put the first season of Farscape on hold because penghuin has promised to watch it with me. I'm looking forward to that. I love the show so much and I'm hoping that he will, too.

I think I'd like to take some classes. Cooking, photography, knitting, beading. Probably a squillion more, too, if I spend some time thinking about it. That will have to wait for the job, though, and the job will have to wait for the licensing.

I've sent in my registration for the MBLEx, which is the national exam required by the State of Oregon. After that it's a CPR class, and then the Oregon Board exam. I'm incredibly nervous about all the testing, but I've been studying a lot and I generally test very well, so I'm hopeful that I'll pass the first time I take them and won't have to shell out astronomical sums of money for retakes. Because really? The point is to be making money, not giving it away.

I'm so looking forward to actually working as a massage therapist. I really miss it. I knew I loved it and that it was good for me, but I don't think I fully realized what it does for me until now. I miss the feeling of energy combined with calm, and the feeling that I'm making a difference in someone's day. I want that again.

I so have no idea where I'm going with this. I'm not even entirely sure where I started with it. So. Have some rambling incoherent entry, my little FriendBots, and enjoy. Or something.

Happy weekend.

Oh, sweet shrieking Jesus. penghuin has built additional shelves for my shoes, and they are glorious. I've arranged all of my shoes on them. And there is room for more.

Today is a very good day.

This entry formatted for buscemi's Bullety Listy Thing viewing pleasure.

My schedule is full of fun today. I don't know how my poor little heart will stand the excitement.

• Study.
• Clean the kitchen. Because dear god.
• Study.
• Clean the bathroom. Because dear god. Again.
• Study.
• Do laundry.
• Study.
• Try to find places for all of my things that are still placeless.
• Study.
• Maybe bake cookies. Not a chore, as I actually did the work last week or the week before, so all I have to do is put blobs of dough on a baking sheet and heat them.
• Study.
• Tidy the living room.
• Study.
• Possibly hoover the entryway and the stairs. This depends on my level of motivation. I would not place large bets on this actually happening.
• Study.

The studying is because I really, really am not ready for the MBLEx without it, and I'd like to actually work as a massage therapist, which I cannot do without having passed the exam. Woo. The cleaning is because I so have not been doing any of that this week due to migraine ick and then migraine hangover. And also laziness. There has definitely been some of that, too.

My inner tantrum-throwing two-year-old was rebelling against the studying thing until I looked through the DVDs that katiebea sent me when I was sick. I hadn't gotten through all of them, and I'd forgotten what was there. One is the optional DVD that is part of a textbook/flashcard/DVD set. I have the textbook and the flashcards from school, but didn't have the DVD. And the fantastically fabulously superawesomely wonderful thing is that that is on the list of recommended study materials for the Oregon licensing test and also for the MBLEx. So I can watch the DVD, then back up that information in my brain with the textbook. And possibly talk penghuin into quizzing me with the workbook and flashcards. Yay! Thank you again, katiebea, for being a wonderful person, and also for being a wonderful person who is my friend. And please thank your mom for me for also being a wonderful person. Oh! And the anatomy and physiology book she lent me? That's one of the recommended texts, too.

Good lord, what an incoherent paragraph o' rambly mess that was. Migraine hangover is still overhanging, it would appear. At least it's just my brain swimming through Jell-O (lime, murnkay) and not actual migraine pain. Because I can do without any more of that for quite some time, thank you.

And now, studying. Oh, the joy. How much do you wish you were me, my little FriendBots? You know you're envious. It would be impossible to be anything but.

Oh my god, I love Brad so much. He just gave me a copy of Grim Fandango, which I haven't played in forever, and which makes my heart bouncy with joy. Yay!

Oh. I just lost the game. Poo. At least I have the satisfaction of having taken you all down with me. That is some consolation. I am, perhaps, not a good person.

I found out today that I did not get the job I interviewed for last week. I'm both disappointed and, not exactly relieved, but okay with it. Disappointed because I think the office environment would have been a good fit for me, I know I could do the job and do it well, and the money was not bad. Okay because dear god, the commute.

Also in the okay category, I found out I'm eligible for an unemployment extension, so at least I'll have some money coming in while I continue to look. That lowers my stress level considerably. It also means that I'll be less likely to take something that is clearly a bad fit (although that wasn't the case with this particular job) or that pays far below the appropriate level for the responsibilities and skills required, just to have an income. And that is a good thing.

So. The search continues.

I had to put yesterday's job interview off until today, so today was interview day. I think it went really well. I liked the interviewer, who is one of the owners of the company, and I think my personality would be a good fit for the office. I know I have the skills and experience to do the job well, and I think it's work that I would enjoy, as far as office work goes. And the pay is higher than I originally thought, which doesn't hurt at all. The three and a half hours of commuting per day is still painful, though. Eee. But, it would be a paycheck, which is, you know, good. And the commute would give me plenty of time to study for the MBLEx, which I need to take as a requirement for my massage therapist license. I should know Monday whether they'll be calling me back for the second round of interviews.

In the meantime, I shall spend my time hoping for large piles of cash to fall from the sky and land at my feet. Preferably in nice Coach and Kate Spade bags, as my current favorite purse is all beat up.

I have a job interview on Thursday for an admin assistant position. The woman I talked to on the phone seemed very nice, and the company seems well established and a place I could be okay working, based on what I've seen on their web site. The downside is that it's not terribly nearby, and it pays considerably less than I'd have made in a similar position in Minneapolis. Of course, everything adminish here seems to pay considerably less than similar positions in Minneapolis, so I have to take that into account. So the lower pay I can live with. The distance is the potential issue. Then again, I'm one of god knows how many people going in for a first-round interview, so there's no sense getting too worried about commute at this point, really. At the very least, I'll have an opportunity to practice interviewing and I'll have an idea of an area that's too far away for me to commute to for less than a squillion bucks. But on the other hand, it could be fabulous and I could end up with a job that will make me as happy as an admin job can. And wouldn't that be nice?