Well, it's been a month since I've last blogged. Nothing new, really. Lots of travel, still more to come.

I am in the early stages of looking for a new job. We had a meeting today at corporate, which resulted in everyone being told "don't be selfish, think about what's best for the company." Yes, ladies and gentlemen my company is getting that corporate attitude. How can I possibly be selfish when I can think of how great the company will be doing with MY hard earned bonus (that has now suddenly became almost impossible to get ever again).

I'll attach a pic of the puppy. Any takers? You know the number.

Worth the 22 round trip drive:

I am officially the worst person. I just had a trick-or-treater and no candy.

On the brigher side- I am having corn bread and some stew stuff for dinner. :) Yay!

I have been disturbed this morning. There are several cars in the parking lot with antanne foam balls that are smiley faces with real HAIR. How disturbing is that? What are those smiley faces smiling about anyway? What do they know that we don't?

I just got back from Basket Bingo. Yes, Longaberget Basket Bingo. I spent $30.00 tonight and the only thing I got out of it was a few hours entertainment and a "dobber." Will I do it again? Who knows?

My next door neighbors bought a house. Her parents, his parents, Chris and I helped move them. Five trucks, one trip. Keep this in mind for next time I move. Last time I moved, I used the five plastic tote method....turns out the five truckload method works a lot faster.

It's one of my good friend's 1st wedding anniversary this weekend as well.

What is the excitement going on in my life, you may ask? Marriage? Buying a house? No and No. I moved my bedroom furniture around. Look out world. I am a mover and shaker now, baby!

I had a dream last night that I had Peyton Manning's baby, and I was also on one of those reality shows that people get voted off of. It was a cool dream.

Hmm, now that I think about it, I haven't seen my favorite baby in a long time. I wonder how Michaela Nichole is doing? It would be really nice to see them in person.....Maybe they can drive up to Terre Haute for a visit one day.

Today I took Maddy to a dog wash in a pet store. It was just us until some 100 lb husky and two really talkative people came in. Maddy also broke her leash yesterday pulling on it too hard, so we got a new one for her.

I'm thinking it's a Cracker Barrell dinner night.... mashed potatoes and fried okra look out!

Happy birthday to me tomorrow. This is my present from Mom and Dad...well, this is what I did with my birthday money :) Dad got a four leaf clover too!

I went home this weekend to visit with the fam. We went arrowhead hunting and I found a ton of flint. (See above picture)

I took my dog with me, and discovered she's a "River Rat Terrier." Maddy loves the river, and lollypops!

My life expectancy is 90.4. Not unless this ornery bear eats me first! What's yours?

Direct from the pages of Better Apartments and Gardens...updated pics of my apartment. I just bought this really cool candle holder deal that is hanging right above my free couch, and moved my free chair from another uncle to make room for a free shelf from my auntie.

Home again home again jiggity jig.

I know this guy who's girlfriend likes to have her toes sucked. Apparently he can only suck the middle one, because it had roast beef.

OOH...funny!

I decided to walk my dog after work today. Bad idea. Now I am completely paranoid. The pre-story:
My neighbor's (who is a big assface and terre haute cop) undercover cop car was broken into when I wasn in NC. Ever since then, about every 20 minutes a marked Terre Haute cop car drives by through my cul de sac. I suppose I should feel safe, but for some reason I think "what if someone comes when the cop isn't here"

Sooo back to present:
I am walking my dog and I'm half way through the complex. I look off to my side and I see some guy wearing mirrored sunglasses sitting in his car staring at me. ( I also forgot to mention UNmarked cops are everywhere staring) I look at him, he looks at me. I walk, he stares. I turn around and he's half out his car staring at me. I decide to turn around, and have been freaked out ever since.

As much as the cops are trying to be obvious and everywhere, it's making me wonder why they'd want to be all over the place...it makes me feel like there's a reason they are there.

Another story:
My next door neighbor that I've known since we were 5 totaled his car. He was driving back from home at 4AM and fell asleep at the wheel. His car fell down into a 30 foot ravine, where the impact hit him so hard his shoes were knocked off. He broke three bones in his face and may have to have surgery on it, and has a huge gash on the back of his head with staples in it. I was wondering why I hadn't seen his car yet (his wife and I went out on Saturday and she said he would be back Sunday). I went to see if Tracie (his wife) wanted to go for a walk this evening and Mike answered the door. He looked like something from a horror movie. He's really fortunate to have made it out of such a wreck.

Well, it's official. The life has been resucked out of me. Terre Haute has stolen my soul again.

I'm going to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory again tonight with my next door neighbor Tracie. She doesn't know that I saw it already.

Maddy and I spent the morning watching a show on Discovery Health called "after obesity" where this guy lost around 180 lbs and looked like a deflated balloon. He had 14 lbs of skin removed around his stomach. Now there's a story on the same show where this woman is over-morbily obese. (I've personally seen fatter people). She became this way after one of her children died. They cut out like half of her digestive tract. Try exercise, lazy ass.

Thanks to my mom and dad, I'll be having fried zuchinni, corn on the cob and some sort of meat for dinner. YUM

Be on the lookout for my vacation pics in your email....!

Official day two of NC:

Today we got to "sleep in." For me that was 7 Am Terre Haute time. I had about three donuts and watched some lifetime tv on a sugar buzz and played with Michaela. I have discovered she likes to dance to MTV.

We then proceeded to the Carl Sandburg house. We started out with a 10 minute black and white video in this dude's basement of total random crap. This was followed by a $5.00 tour of his house from a lady who had issues with groups over 2 (who also flipped out because it was sooo busy). After the tour was the self guided tour of Carl Sandburg's wife's goat farm. Look out! Kristina and I took a tour of a park bench while everyone else went to see this magnificent sight.

Flash forward to a really good lunch at Craker Barrell. The special today was meatloaf and mashed potatoes.....

On to what everyone thought was going to be a trip up some huge ass mountain. We got about a third of the way up the mountain and stopped at a folk art museum. The folk art museum had a few really cool things and what I know is crap imported from China. I personally think the only reason the stuff in this museum was so expensive was because it had to have been hand crafted by illiterate mountain people....Ted said it was all made by NY people who transplanted to NC. There was a tiiiiiny bowl that was 80 bucks. That's the kind of prices we're talking about.

As everyone thought we were going to go UP the mountain, dad apparently had a different idea. We had to drive two vehicles, so I followed dad out of the parking lot and to the right, which is down the mountain. See, this morning mom said "I want to make a cake for Kristina." We had about a 2 hour window for said cake to be made before going to the movie. Dad thought this 2 hour window was too small, so we cut the trip up the mountain short so we can make (in my mother's words) a fucking strawberry cake. Driving all day is not the hottest of ideas.

Now we're hangin out at the apartment. I think mom and dad are counting the minutes before we leave to watch the movie so they can watch Michaela alone.

Official Day One:

Mom, Kristina, Michaela and I went shopping at Target and Petsmart. Dad, Ted and uncle Jim went to Chimney Rock.

We met up for lunch and discovered that most restaraunts in Hendersonville are closed on Monday. We ended up at some italian restaraunt and had a really good home made lunch.

On to more shopping in downtown H'ville. Plus ice cream.

We split up again and did more shopping. Michaela decided shopping time was over, so we went home and relaxed a bit. Dad, Ted and uncle Jim went to some other rock formation/ park thingey.

Now we're debating on what to do for dinner.....decisions decisions.

Total damage today:
2 fossil like things
2 t shirts from target
1 hendersonville nc long sleeved shirt
1 pair of jammy pants
3 pairs of earrings

I have decided Michaela loves dad the most. She will sit and talk to dad with her eyes wide open like there's no tomorrow. It's pretty cute. :)

I've only had one person ask me if she's mine today....I am not sure if I should be flattered or not, considering most new parents look like ass.

Back by popular demand, direct from Hendersonville, NC.

I just got out of the car after 8 hours and two pit stops (three if you count the big cracker barrell disappointment that is known as a 30 minute wait for lunch).

We went up mountains, through mountains, and near other mountains. It was made a seemingly short trip thanks to a visit from the Masked Avenger.

We're supposed to go see Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory tonight. I'm pretty excited, it got good reviews.

Well, as they say in NC: off for some visitin' with uncle mom and brother dad. :)

I think I'll move. Terre Haute has officially sucked the life out of me.

I've been tagged!

1. Estimate the total number of books you've owned in your life. I've probably bought 10-15 books per year of my literate life. So we'll go with 150. I'm more of a magazine reader.

2. What's the last book you bought? The last book I bought was "It's not how good you are, but how good you want to be," By Paul Arden.

3. What's the last book you read? See question 2.

4. List 5 books that mean a lot to you. Nah.

5. Tag 5 people! Nah.

It's been over a month since I've written anything. Half of that month I haven't had my dsl hooked up because I rearranged my furniture due to a new addition of a really cool reclining loveseat and the stupid cord wouldn't reach. I've been too lazy to do anything about it, and pretty much too lazy to do anything else. I finally get to meet my new niece this coming weekend! I got her a really awesome present and I'm looking forward to spoiling her rotten.

Some kid told me I have fat legs today. Not like I needed to be told that, and it's not like I had a complex about it already. I say fuck off stupid kid, if you don't like my legs you don't have to look at them. Gee, I can feel the maternal instincts kicking in. Or is that me mentally kicking in the head of the kid who told me that? I can't remember. One of those two.

My one year review is Thursday, we'll see what happens. I'm not really looking forward to it, but at least it's the day before I leave for vacation. Maybe I won't come back. I don't have anyone to watch my dog so I have to put her in a kennel. I feel really bad about that, since she's a pound dog and has issues with being closed in places. Oh yeah I almost forgot, my landlord busted Prince Albert in a Can. He's officially not living with me anymore, it's just Maddy and me.

Okay, I'm outta here.

Sooo...I have poison ivy all over my legs. I have discovered it on my arm today. What the heck? This Wed-Fri I have training in Bloomington and I have a horrible feeling I'm going to be sitting through it scratching my legs and arms. Greeeeatttt....
I discovered one of the night shift people where I work graduated high school with me. We went to dinner tonight, and had oh so much fun. I tell ya, hanging out with people from high school is under rated. Or not.
That's about it for now.

I hate lazy people. What is the point of doing something if you're just going to half ass it? The thing that really ticks me off is when I ask someone who works for me to do something and they look at me like I shot their dog. "You want me to do WHAT? I can't POSSIBLY do WORK!"

What's the deal with that? I am sick and tired of putting up with crap that I don't have to, but do because I'm nice. Game over. Credit will be given where it is due.

I'M NOT AMISH ANYMORE!!!
Finally 15 days after moving in to my new apartment I have cable AND internet!
I've only moved my furniture around 1500 times, and I think I'm almost settled in.

Now all I need is some more furniture from my favorite uncle....

So I have decided I'll probably stay in Terre Haute until my one year "raise" comes along. If it's good enough I'll stay. If not, then I'll start looking for something else. That isn't too long from now, it will be next month.

My "Grandma" Helen passed away this past weekend. My favorite memories of her are when I first joined the church choir when I was in 6th grade and she'd talk to me during mass. She was probably the most sincere woman I'll ever meet. She'd let my dog run around her house, even though it looked like everything was dusted and meticulously cleaned every day. No matter what I told her, she'd always have something positive to say about it. Every year she'd get me a chocolate easter bunny and chocolate santa wrapped in colored cellophane. She said "I know how much you love your chocolate," even though dad always ended up eating it. She was my confirmation sponsor, so one thing I'll always have with me to remind me of her is my confirmation name, which I chose because it was the same as hers: Cecilia.

As if I'm not under enough pressure right now.....

Right now I'm an on-site coordinator for a staffing company in the Haute. I'm currently in charge of about 300-500 temps on average.

One of the managers at another "on-site client" decided to quit. She was located in Princeton. My manager approached me about it today. Am I interested? Yeah. Am I ready to move an hour and a half south? I don't know. Am I ready to be a manager? I don't know really. Would I be happy in a town where I don't know anyone?

He told me to sleep on it and let him know tomorrow if I wanted to pursue it.

What should I do?

Manda Panda is moving here!!!!

What does Manda Panda need? A kitchen table and any other kind of hand me down furniture :)

I'm really excited about it, because this is where I lived before. As you can see the new apartment has a lot more room (220 square feet to be exact). I've lived in a big house with yard and full basement, and I wasn't nearly as excited as I am now. Perhaps it's because I've lived in a tiny closet for a year. Either way, I'm moovin on uuupp....to the East side. There's only one thing I'm iffy about- it's on the ground level....anyone want to donate a 2x4 or a hand gun so I won't get murdered in my sleep?

So I'm at home by myself on a Friday night. I have no other choice but to catch up my family and friends on my life.
What's new? Well, my dog has taken to peeing on my kitchen floor, my cat sits by the door and meows/howls to be let out in 10 minute increments, I am going to move to a bigger apartment next week, my tv blew out, I bought a new tv, I had a really nice(ish) valentine's day weekend, one of my fish committed suicide, my other fish are turning black, I've been planning (with melissa) Kristina's baby shower, and I did my taxes.

That's about it. Nothing too exciting. Later gator.

What's new with me?
Not too much.
At work I am going to become a certified staffing professional, provided I pass the test. I will be able to put CSP after my name! That's pretty exciting.
I've been eating at Taco Bell for 50% of my meals for some reason...I think I have a food addiction.

That's about all.

Let me tell you how much I hate the Indiana Pacers. Wait, let me reiterate. Let me tell you how much going to or watching basketball sucks. Not too long ago I went to an ISU basketball game. It was okay, but not exciting at all. I figured it was because they aren't getting paid millions to do this and a professional game would be more fun. Football is like that. College football is fun, but professional football is SO much fun. Seriously.
So we walk into the Conseco Fieldhouse with my free tickets from work. It was a complete 360 from the energy of the RCA Dome. Everyone was calm and just sort of poking around before the game. The seats we had were REALLY good seats. The court looked tiny. The players looked really skinny. There was a DJ there who played 3 second clips from songs over and over and over. People just sat there and watched. How BORING. So I took a nap and then woke up before half time and decided to go home. Oh yeah, here's what really annoyed me: the players get paid millions and they only made around 1 out of every 10 shots. It was LAME.
Never again will you catch me at a basketball game.

For those of you who don't know my drama already:

My little sugar pie Maddy (aka Maddy Mutt aka Mademoiselle Mutt) had a bad weekend. She spent the entire day Saturday on my lap snuggling with me. Turns out that two of her teeth are so loose that I thought they were going to fall out in my hand. I took her to the vet today and she has to get her top front teeth removed. Apparently small dogs have genes for bad teeth.

Waaaaahhhh :(

I learned a valuable lesson today. You don't have to pay a lot of money to have a good haircut or color. Even if you do pay a lot of money, it doesn't guarantee that you won't have green hair at the end of the day. Sigh.

Good news- new bed comes tomorrow
Bad news- no weekend plans
Good news- I can be a total shut in and lay in my new bed and watch tv
Bad news- that may get a little boring

My very first delivery payment at 23 years old. Life just isn't fair sometimes. I'm moving closer to Ted so he can do his brother-in-law duties, like help move things up a flight of stairs, and transport things. All I wanted was my new bed in my apartment NOW. Too bad I can't carry stuff by myself. Nuts. Either way, I'm the proud new owner of a Simmons Beauty Rest bed. Weeee!

Shout out to my mama- Happy Birthday!

Happy New Year! My New Year's eve was spent on my couch sleeping, then waking up at 11:59 PM and going to bed. Today I went to an antique store. Wild, I know. I did go to Target and other Plainfield stores, and that was a lot of fun.
Gotta go, 60 Minutes is on.