A Ronnieless Valentine's Day

Today ended up being a pretty good day, even though for another year in a row Ronnie and I were separated by 90 miles. Katie and I spent our second annual February 14th together and we began the day by volunteering for a local senior citizens' dinner (at 12:30pm!) from 11-2 and then going to a showing of "Valentine's Day" sponsored by Mirabel from 3-5:30. We then went to Old Chicago for drinks and a delicious dessert (the cheesecake lollipop thing). It was a lot of fun and I always love being able to hang out with Katie.

Speaking of spending time with "my closest roommate", we spent nearly the entirety of yesterday together as well. We went to Kohl's, Dick's, and Flattop Grill where I made a delicious combination of noodles, peas, potatoes, celery, and spinach. Then, Lauren (Katie's 9 year-old sister) and I went to Chuck E. Cheese. Word to the wise: rip your tickets in half the long way and the machine will count each half as one ticket! I freakin' love Chuck's because it's an arcade with easy-to-win games. The things I did not like about this particular visit: It was crowded (well, it was a Saturday...) and we didn't get seated for 10 minutes so we had to stand there holding our tokens and cups until we were finally given a table. Then, the table behind us was piled high with food and plates to be bussed, and during the time we were there - 7:30pm to 9:30pm, it was never touched. Disgusting. Also, four of these little kids kept asking me and Lauren for our coins to use! I don't think so!! Finally, I hadn't realized that it was a hangout for pre-pubescent teens looking to drop the f-bomb every five seconds. I'm not sure that I would go back to the Chuck E. Cheese's on Grand Canyon Dr. Not that it's much better than the one in the ghetto near Milwaukee....

I should not have allowed my tv to be put in the living room. The Winter Olympics (of which I am no fan) beat out my wanting to watch either the Amazing Race or Undercover Boss. I'm sorry, but I look forward to watching certain programs and it's annoying that since my tv was moved I can't watch them now. Poor choice on my part!

My thoughts on work

I truly do love my job. Of course, being well past the initial fear of showing apartments to total strangers when I may or may not have even been in a certain model or unit, certainly helps. I guess that I was kind of surprised to find out that one of our leasing consultants is no longer with the company as of today. This is the third person to quit in two weeks. I completely understand if one doesn't like the job - I mean, you really do need to be outgoing and enjoy sales. But, on the other hand, when you decide to take a job here when you have another job in the works...why bother taking this job? I am not going to discuss the merits of working at JSM versus other institutions, but it seems like a huge waste of time to train someone who may be intending to take another job offer.

Also, something was said at work that I disagree with completely. It was, "Yeah, well, it's each family's choice to decide [if it wants to pay for college or make their kids pay for it themselves]." I could not disagree more! Trust me, if it were my family's choice, I know my mom and dad would want to help out. But, because there really isn't a choice, finance school myself, with (a ton of) help from my scholarship. I guess that I thought it was a ridiculous thing to say, since not everyone comes from a wealthy background, and also not something to say in front of a group whose backgrounds are diverse.

Gettin hot in Helen C.

Today was a very long day! After work I came home and ate dinner before heading to APO. I may not have mentioned it here, but I have an online chat session every Monday from 7-8pm, which is incredibly inconvenient given that APO runs from 7:30-8:30pm. I simply bring my lappy to the meeting, which may seem rude, but it's the best compromise I could come up with. Anyway, after APO I went to the Big-Little Party where we had to essentially play The Newlywed Game with our littles. Oops. Maybe I should have met with them prior to this. Needless to say, it did not go very well and I ended up looking silly. I probably should not have allowed myself to be given two littles whose schedules are completely opposite mine. At least they understand. To return to the point, I have been at good ol' Helen C. since the rootbeer float social that was our Big-Little Party.

I am very frustrated. I was "elected" to drive to Duluth for APO. I found out tonight who would be in my car, and what do you know, it was all people I have said no more than a few words to since their joining APO. Awesome. I managed to convince Hilary to change it around a little so that the 6 1/3 hour car drive would not be completely silent, but I don't think she was happy about it. I was already unhappy about being volunteered to drive and being assigned people to be in my car, and so when I was told that we would not be assigning rooms prior to leaving, that was it. As thrilled as I am to drive immediately after working 9-5 and arriving around midnight, I will get last choice of rooms. All I want is to get as much homework done as I possibly can before Monday. As fun as it will be to meet all of the people from the other chapters, I need to keep on top of my homework and readings and not fall behind. So when the list of people going was snatched from my hand when I admitted that I was looking for those who might also want to enjoy a quiet room free of partying, I was upset. I understand that we should bond and perhaps room with members who we might not know that well. I believe, however, that if I want to get homework done (since I obviously can't while driving), then it seems logical to find people who have a similar goal and share a room with them, rather than showing up and filling in the spaces of empty beds/the floor. APO has been more than frustrating this semester, and I think that I will go associate next semester simply because I will be even busier than I am now (if that is even possible).

I need to get just a little more homework done to call this library trip a success... :)

If you don't have it, you're on the other side

Not ready for the "Digital Transition" from analog tv to digital? Neither am I. Or, I should say that Madison stations must not be. We, not having cable, went ahead and used our coupons to purchase our converter boxes and I went out and bought a digital/analog antenna so that our tv can better receive the digital signal. Several stations have decided that despite the June 12th movement of the required date to switch to digital, they will still be converting on February 17th. Honestly, the signal is so bad here, at night I hardly get any channels at all. This morning only three channels came in. I'm really hoping that when it comes time to switch, that we will eventually get all of the regular channels that we used to get (before we got converter boxes, et al).

Today after Ronnie left I decided that I would make the most out of this quiet afternoon alone. Cait is at Point, Beth work, and Liz home. I can hear that the guys upstairs are playing Halo again. I put "50 First Dates" in the PS2 and unfortunately, the movie froze halfway through. I tried to clean it off and replay it, but it looks like it's irreparable. So that means that sometime this week I need to go back to the $5.99 DVD store and return this movie. I hope that they have another copy, but who knows? Since I wanted to watch something light-hearted, I'm now enjoying Brother Bear.

I'm really happy for Liz that she's going to Costa Rica and is going to have a ton of fun! She left the apartment today for the last time before she leaves, and I completely forgot that we were going to go to Wendy's to celebrate a premature Valentine's Day. I hope that we do get to see each other when she gets back since I'll be leaving right around the same time she returns! Here's a link to her Costa Rica blog: http://costaricaliz.blogspot.com/

Well, I've spent enough time trying to get songs added to itunes and writing - time for homework!