I'll be working the polls today with my mom (and 8 other people) in my home precinct today. I am predicting that I will know 60% of the people that will come through the doors. We'll see. The brief schedule for the day goes like this:

Now - finish waking up, get ready to go, leave my parents house (which is where I am right now because I slept here last night).
6:30am (or before) - Arrive at the polls and get settled and find out what my job will be.
7am - The polls open in PA and we let the line of people outside in.
7:01am-7:59pm - Much voting for various peoples will be happening.
8:00pm - Polls close in all of PA. Or else.
8:01pm - All write-ins have to be counted by hand and any absentee ballots that were not counted earlier in the day.
???pm - I get to leave, come back to my parents and pack my stuff up, and go home to sleep.

I'll do my best to remember any exciting things, but I don't think photos are allowed (I'm bring my camera in case, they probably are and I'm just weirdly paranoid). I doubt any of it will be posted about until Wednesday. Hopefully by then we will know who the next President of the United States of America will be! That is kinda exciting.

If you live in the US and are registered, VOTE TODAY! If you've voted already *high-five*! Take the time to remind 1 person to vote today.

Someone (was it sillyliss?) asked about what my walk home from work is like. Here's some pictures!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/29521833@N02/sets/72157608359601842

Today, I finally got around to carving my Styrofoam pumpkin (otherwise known as a funkin). I decided on a spider pattern than I found on the 'net. I was going to do one of the Pirates of Caribbean patterns that I have but I decided against it for two reasons. 1) I wasn't sure what it was going to be like carving with the soldering gun with the knife tip and 2) I didn't really think the pumpkin I got to test it out was big enough to make it worth it. I didn't take progress pics, but here's the final outcome:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/29521833@N02/tags/funkin/

On October 16th, I had an allergy test. Basically, they injected my arms with all kinds of stuff that people can be allergic to and then watched my arms get all full of hives! Weee, fun! But we confirmed that I am viciously allergic to allergens that exist in Spring, Summer, and Autumn. And not really allergic to dustmites at all. So, I can live in squalor, but I can't go outside. :-P Anyway, since I'm a dork, I took pictures of my arms. I tagged the best photos with what each injection was. Here they are:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/29521833@N02/tags/allergy/

And this is from a while ago. Mike and I went to El Rodeo (our favorite mexican restaurant in the area) and we were being silly. Mike can wiggle his forehead and it looks extra funny when he has a hat on. Check it out:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/29521833@N02/2973298956/

I went to the PA Ren Faire on Saturday and I met up with some good friends from RIT. Here's the pictures that I took (Matt, I am expecting to see pictures from you at some point).

http://flickr.com/photos/29521833@N02/sets/72157606948690670/

Please have fun commenting on these pictures (if you can figure out how, maybe you have to have a flikr account?).

ps, this is my camera.

day in the life post tomorrow. full day in the life of me. more than a day actually. you are so lucky.


zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz (ps, midnight movies used to be more fun)

Saturday - After the yardsale and watching Gilmore Girls, I went to Lindsay's brother's graduation party. YAY for seeing Lindsay! Lots of good food and good times. Mike came about half way through and towards the end a bunch of "the gang" from high school showed up! So that was neat to catch up a bit.

Sunday - Church in the morning and then I went to Mike's. We watched Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, then we went to Kokomos for dinner (he had Chicken Parm, I had a Mexican Burger), and then we went to Regal to see the new Indiana Jones movie. We really liked it! :-)

Monday - This morning, I went to Hummelstown and met up with my parents to watch the Memorial Day parade. Albert marched with the boy scouts. After the parade was over, we went to the ceremony in the cemetery. Judge Cherry spoke and it was pretty intense. And Rev. Kerns did the benediction and the other prayers. After the ceremony was over, we went to the VFW for lunch (awesome hot dogs). All that time outside really did me in with my allergies. I am just about finished with the summer and it has barely started! BOO!

Tomorrow is work and Wednesday is my birthday! Mike and I are going to Hershey Park that day and then going to my parents afterwards for cake and presents (I think).

My internet is down at my apartment. 23 or so modems are out on the circuit near my place. SUCK SUCK SUCK.


I made $11.25 at the yard sale this morning. I also got some good exercise carrying everything down (and then mostly everything back up!).

I actually came to work to check e-mail and post this. That is just how lame I am. Going to a party soon, though, so hopefully that will make up for it.

Friday after work, I finished packing up, stopped off at the bank and then drove down to visit Cindi in Winchester, VA. I missed a lot of the pretty views on the way down since it got dark. I drove through PA, Maryland, West Virginia, and Virginia! Woo! Lots of interesting stuff along I-81 as well. Finding Cindi's apartment was easy enough. We went to Red, Hot, and Blue for dinner. I had Cajun Catfish which was very yummy and our drinks were served in mini-pitchers which were really not so mini. The food & the company were very good. ;-) After dinner we went to Borders and looked around which was fun.

Saturday we had egg puff that I brought for breakfast. I watched Cindi work on a worksheet about meter for her 9th graders. Then we went out shopping. First Staples, then the dollar store, then we had lunch buffet at China Jade (which was okay), and then we went back to Borders so that Cindi could get a Beatles CD to play in her class room. Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds is in Anapestic Tetrameter (a fact that I will probably never forget now)! Who would have thought?!? When we got back to Cindi's place, we did a craft! YAY craft! We used super glue & attached buttons (from the $1 store) to some magnets (from staples) to make some decorative magnets for Cindi to use on the blackboard in her classroom. They came out really nicely and we had magnets leftover to play with so that Cindi can make more if she finds anything cool to glue to them. Ed came up around dinner time and we ordered a pizza (and then went to get it) and hung out and talked all night. Around 10, Ed left and Cindi and I watched videos on the internet until we could no longer stay awake.

Sunday, we had more egg puff for breakfast, and then we went to the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley. The Museum was very awesome and we spent a lot of time there. We also had lunch in the Tea Room which was quite delightful. (Square Club sandwiches, salad, tea, & very large grapes). By the time we finished at the museum, it was about 2:30pm. We went back to Cindi's and I packed up and hit the road. Driving back was nice because it was sunny and I got to see the beautiful countryside. It is a very relaxing ride! I stopped in Chambersburg to see Mike since he was there for inventory at the KBToys in the Chambersburg Mall. That was a good leg-stretching break.

I went straight to the grocery store (big sale that is ending today) and bought a bunch of meat (loose sausage & boneless/skinless chicken breasts - both $0.99 a pound), 12 jars of Ragu sauce, 6 12oz bags of cheese, and a bunch of other stuff totaling to over $100! Major savings, though, and I won't have to buy any of that stuff again for a long time. Since I had to unpack the car from the weekend and lug the groceries up the stairs, it was about 5 trips! Good workout, for sure. :-)

After I got settled in, I packed up & froze the meat that I bought & cooked up some old apples that I had in my fridge that were taking up space. Now I've got filling for the dessert calzones that I'm going to attempt to make. I really need to steal one of my mom's rolling pins next time I'm over there.

I just calculated my hours for the week. 65 hours. Insane. I am so not working this weekend.

YAYS

I left work around 7pm and there was about 3 inches of (really fluffy) snow on my car. It had been falling lightly since mid-morning, so I guess I wasn't too surprised, but I also wasn't too prepared since I wore my clogs that are open in the back. Fortunately, I did wear my jeans which are warmer than most of my work pants. Clearing off my car went pretty quickly since the snow was so nice and light and fluffy. I emptied my shoes of snow and vowed to change my socks when I got back to my apartment.

Driving up my road (which is probably a 20deg incline) was a little iffy, but the roads hadn't been touched at all. It could have been worse, but my Rochester training served me well. When I pulled into the parking lot, it was pretty empty. I was surprised because a lot of business and schools and such had closed early this evening. I got in the outside door of the apartment and I decided to shovel the back stoop before going up to my place. Tony (landlord) leaves a shovel inside the door, so I put my stuff on the inside step, grabbed the shovel, and got to work on the stoop. It's not a very big area, but it is uneven so it takes some handiwork to get it cleared. Took me maybe a minute or two, tops.

When I turned to go back inside, I saw my keys - sitting on the steps inside. Not really good for getting back inside. I knocked on the windows of the apartments downstairs, but no one was home. I made a bunch of phone calls and the best option was to have Dad drive over with the spare set of keys that I made for my parents. It took dad about 25 minutes to drive over. About 3 minutes before he arrived, my downstairs neighbors came home and let me in. When Dad got up the hill, he was not the rescuer he thought he'd be. I invited him up for hot chocolate and we talked for a while.

I was stuck outside for about 45 minutes total and I think it was about 20 degrees. Took about an hour to regain feeling in my feet. But I survived.

This has been a rough 24 hours!

Last night, I actually got out of work at a decent hour, so I invited Mike over for Tacos with all the fixin's (minus fresh tomatoes, silly winter). After dinner, Mike (finally) got to open his birthday presents which he really liked. (Mostly 'cuz this year he gave me a wish list, but I did sneak a surprise in there.)

After presents, we went to Singers rehearsal. There was a low turn out (I was the only alto for half of rehearsal), but that was mostly due to the fridged (for us) temperatures and wind and predicted ice. The roads were fine, though, and we didn't have any trouble getting back and forth. Mom stopped by to say hi and bring me my mail (and a package!) and a few other things during our break.

After singers, Mike and I went back to my place. The packaged contained some really nifty mugs from my Aunt Sandy & Uncle Ken for Valentine's Day. I washed 2 of them and we had hot chocolate and we split the AMAZING fausnaught that my parents saved for me. It was approximately the size of my face. Which is where I wanted to shove it. But I savored each bite instead. :-P

After that, Mike and I decided to play some Smash Brothers Melee on his game cube which has taken up residence in my apartment. We played for a little while, and then the power went out. I think it was about 10:15. It didn't come back on. Strangely, there were lights in the park behind the house (and the houses behind the park), but my street was completely dark (which was completely creepy). After finding my flashlight(s) and making sure that nothing was damaged (and everything that had been on was now turned off), I decided to go to bed and Mike left to find out if Wal*Mart had power (I'm assuming they did) so he could do some shopping before going home. I called the power company to report the outage (put your power company's number in your cell phone if it isn't there already!) and the automated voice told me that an element that protects underground power lines had been damaged and that it was going to be fixed by 2am. Great! So the power would come on, the heat would come on and all would be awesome. I used their wakeup call service to schedule a wake-up call.

I have to say, after growing up with water coming into your house via a pump from a well, it is very strange to be able to use the water when there is no electricity. But, I was not going to take a shower in freezing cold water, so I put 2 extra blankets on the bed, and fell asleep.

I woke up and thought it must have been around 1:30-2am. The power was not back and there was a lot of banging, sound of vehicles, etc, in the street. It was actually 6:15am and about 50 yards down the road there were 7 trucks/construction vehicles and such digging up the street. Lovely. They must have started earlier than that, though because they were all gone by 8:15 when the power was finally restored. When I braved the rest of my apartment, I discovered that it was a lovely (not) 52 degrees F in the living room. Fortunately I was able to take a HOT shower, have a HOT breakfast, and take a mug full of HOT tea with me to work. Oh, and the cable was out so no morning internet for me. I called Comcast and reported the outage (which I should have done last night) - 20 minutes later trucks came up the street. Apparently I am the only one that can pick up a phone. Although, I do know my neighbors have the triple play, so maybe they couldn't phone if their cable phone was out? I don't know.

So, now I am work and I feel like I didn't sleep at all. I had weird dreams that involved what I can only imagine was the crew working on the road. (I will have to write about them next, but they will be a seperate post).


EDIT: Oh, and yeah. That wake-up call I was supposed to get from the power company didn't happen. Fortunately(!?!?!?!) I didn't really fall back to sleep after being woken up at 6:15. Sigh.

The soul should always stand ajar,
ready to welcome the ecstatic experience.

-Emily Dickinson, poet (1830-1886)

There is something very satisfying about having your neighbors see you working on your car with the hood up looking like you know what you are doing.

Also, YAY for having 2 working headlights again without having to pay $30 for labor.

Thank you, gods of the crappy weather, for letting it clear up this afternoon so I could do this.

Tonight, in lieu of a rehearsal, we sang for the Hummelstown chapter of the Lion's Club. They rented the local VFW for the night, so that was where we were preforming. Mike and I got there at the same time as a bunch of others (at 6:30 when we were supposed to be there) and were told we weren't going on 'til after 7pm (instead of AT 7pm). Also, there is no piano in the building, so someone had brought their 56-ish key keyboard. (fyi: a normal piano has 88 keys).

Um, yeah.

So, I volunteered to go get my keyboard from home and bring it back to set it up and use it (since mine is full size and has all 88 keys). Mike and I go back to the car, drive back to my apartment, disassemble the piano set up, put the keyboard & stand & cables & bench in the car, drive back to the VFW. Mike went in to enlist some help bringing the keyboard into the building carefully under the cover of my ugly blanket since it was raining. Then I went and parked the car in the municipal lot down a block.

By the time I walked back to the VFW, they had the keyboard set up and were trying to figure out which jack to plug the peddle into. We got that figured out and our pianist started warming up on the keyboard. She had never played on an electronic keyboard before! =-O She did really well considering that since it is a way different feel and can take some getting used to.

The singing itself went really well. My solo rocked. The space is very small so the accustics were really tight. If that makes any sense. It was nice, because for once, I could hear every part! OMGs. Yeah. So, it went well. But it was approximately 150 degrees in that building, so we were all sweating. And we should have cut more than 4 songs because we have too many songs for only one set. But anyway.

After it was all over, I got the car and we loaded everything up again. We realized that I now have 2 headlight bulbs out. Before it was only one bulb on the side that was redundant, but now I'm in the whole "illegal" territory. When we got back to my apartment, and got the piano back in, Mike read my car manual and found the kinds of bulbs I need to buy at Wal*Mart tomorrow. And he bookmarked the page that I need to look at when I replace the bulb. Looks just about as easy as the back light sections, so I'm not worried. I just wish it would stop raining so much so that I could actually do it.

Yesterday, the bulb in one of my halogen lamps died, so I have to get one of those at Wal*Mart, too. Especially since it's the lamp that I turn on when I walk in the door so I don't run into walls and stuff. Yeah. Safety.

Now I'm exhausted and if I thought my shoulders hurt after yesterday, tomorrow is going to be really bad.

er, Lo Cash Cowboys. Whatever.


Yesterday, I got off of work around lunch time, came home, packed up the car, and went to pick up Mike. From Mike's we headed to downtown Harrisburg to visit Aunt Karin in the hospital (she had knee replacement surgery on Thursday morning). Other than taking a non-shortcut, I manuvered downtown pretty well. I hate driving in Harrisburg. I don't know why, but I get all nervous and flustered. I never had that happen when driving in DC or Rochester (either one), so I don't know what's so different about Harrisburg, but anyway.

We got a text from Jones when we were in the car which said he wasn't going to be done with soundcheck until 5:30ish so we decided we would take our time visiting with Karin and get to MD when we got there. We visited with Karin for about an hour before Mom showed up around 2pm. She was extremely lucid compared to the day before and our visit went really well. Mom showed up at 2pm and then Dad and Liz showed up around 2:30, methinks. About that time Mike and I ventured upstairs to the cafeteria for some lunch. Mike had a make-your-own-sandwich and I had a salad and a cup of soup (yum). The cafeteria is on the top floor and we got to eat while looking out over the Susquehanna River which was really very beautiful. We went down to visit a bit longer, but Karin was on her way to Physical Therapy, so we tagged a long and watched for a bit before we said adieu. I was completely amazed by the amount of mobility she had less than 36 hours after surgery. Truly Awesome.

Mike and I only encountered a bit of traffic on the way down and I think we arrived in town around 5pm. We met up with Cindi and Jones (and Jones' Mom) and then went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner and ate too much. :-P It was very good, though. They have a very affordable 6oz sirloin steak. I was impressed. Mike devoured his burger, so I think he liked it too. We have one of those restaurants around here some place, so I'm thinking we should go there more often (or, ya know, when I want a steak).

After dinner we swung by the hotel to get more earplugs and to figure out what to wear to the show (for maximum comfort). I should have been thinking - which of these clothes would I rather smelled awful and of smoke? But I wasn't. Oh well.

Of course, the venue and the band were on Jones Standard Time, so instead of the show starting at 9, it was pushed back to 10 and then really didn't start until about 10:15. :-P We spent the first set down on the dance floor, and then moved around more during the second set. I am so not used to standing for that long. My feet are still killing me.

We didn't get out of there until I think 1:30-1:45. It was a smashing show and Ryan really did a bang-up job playing his fiddle and mandolin. It is like some sort of out-of-body experience watching him jam up there with these guys..... LIEK OMG HES FAMOUS.

We parted ways with Cindi in the parking lot - hopefully we will get to visit with her more often now that she is close. Hopefully our schedules will mesh at some point.

This morning we went to McDonalds for breakfast and hit the road by 10:30. Mike was back at his apartment by 11:45, I think. Sounds about right. I went to Karn's to get 5 pounds of chicken and other groceries. I'm definitely going there to get some turkey for the after thanksgiving thanksgiving that Mike and I are going to have. Their meat is fabulous looking, tasting, and all local. YAY.

Now, I'm going to find my gloves again, fabreeze my pants, and head over to the hospital for another visit.

over and out.

My kidnapped Cindi has been released into the wild.

Last night, Mike & I were to meet Cindi for dinner at Arby's. It's right off of I-81 and she was driving home for the weekend, so it made sense for her to stop and have dinner and it was nice to get to see her. She was then going to leave Arby's and drive another 4 hours to NY state.

HAHA.

It was POURING POURING POURING rain. I mean pouring. Buckets. Flash-flood warning type rain. Scary-not-fun-driving on highways type rain. And after a conversation with my mom who was watching the weather channel, we decided that Cindi should crash at my place and leave in the morning. And so it was done.

Cindi gets up at 5:45 in the morning for school, so by 9 she was beat. And by 10 she was in my bed sleeping. I decided to take the couch (with the option of squishing Cindi to the side if the couch was uncomfortable for sleeping) since I wasn't planning on going to sleep until after 1am. It worked out nicely. Except for the fact that I woke up to see Cindi off (and make sure she ate some food-ish things) and now I am AWAKE. Arg. Oh well. I do have quite a few things to do today and now I can get my interneting out of the way this morning.

Things to do today:
- Call Micheal's
- post office
- Go to Staples/Office Max and find a computer cart/desk
- Pay bills
- clean up around this dump. :-P Especially for the purposes of running the vacuum.

I kidnapped a Cindi.

I drove down to MD yesterday for the day to go to the MD Ren Faire with Heather and to meet up with Jac (quembelle). It was amazingly crowded (so says Heather) compared to the weekend that she, Cindi, and Elga went. I figured it could have been worse. *shrug*

After I got my ticket (Heather had a two day pass from the last time), we waited by the front gate for a while, but no Jac! :-( We finally gave up (Hey, so what happened to ya?) and I wished I had gotten her cell #. *tear* I hoped we would randomly bump into each other, but no such luck.

Anyway, Heather and I wandered around. I was on a quest to find the turkey leg place. YUMM TURKEY LEG! And Heather got a massage. YUMMM mass- wait, no. Anyway, it was fun. We wandered some more, I got chocolate covered cheesecake on a stick and one of those orange icee thingies (which I successfully ate the whole thing but the peel). We watched some shows and looked in the shops and stuff. It was fun. Around 5-5:30 we headed out (after the witch trial - LOLIES). It took a while to get out of the parking "lot" (read: dusty field), but it wasn't as bad as it could have been. Then we went back to Heather's and I got my car and we went to dinner at Chik-Fil-A (WOOOOO). That was good. And yummy. From there we went our separate ways and I noticed that Heather's left backup light is out (possibly the brake light that goes with it). (PS HEATHER DON"T FORGET ABOUT THAT).

On the way home, I managed to get turned around twice. That's what happens when you are tired and dumb. Ironically, I didn't get messed up on 695. Silly Catherine. (went south on 97 and almost went over the bay bridge and went south on 83 and almost ended up in baltimore. doh) Was only about 20 minutes out of the way, total though.

Anyway, between being dehydrated and allergied from all the dust at the faire, wasn't feeling that great when I got home, but now I'm feeling better, except my nose feels yucky.

Today I've got a couple of CraigsList pick-ups today (some X-stitch stuff, and hopefully a real, live(well not so much) TV! dudes) and I'm thinking of con-ing mike into joining me since he's got the day off. He should be done sleeping soon, I hope.

Friday night, Mike came over and we watched some Due South and Mel Brooks' Silent Movie which was hilarious. We also had tacos for dinner (I'm officially out of hard shells). Mike kicked himself out at a decent hour so I could get some sleep.

( Saturday: Wedding Day! )

Sunday was much less eventful. Those of us staying at the same hotel had breakfast together at the hotel. My grandparents were pleasantly surprised at the quality and variety of the continental breakfast. Strangely, we were some of the only ones that ate breakfast at the hotel (even though there was No Vacancy), but that was good because we pushed tables together and were rather rowdy. :-)

My family drove from NJ to Kutztown to drop Liz off at school. First we had lunch at Mama's. It was very good. I have half of my 'boli for lunch today. YAY. Also, Albert and I hadn't seen her current room yet, so we got to see that when we brought her stuff up. She and Angel have a nice room again. Just no microwave this time around. I gotta send them a package sooner than later. Liz never gets mail. :-(

After we dropped Liz at K-town, the rest of the ride went quickly. We discussed Albert's and my schedule for this week. After we were home and I sorted out my stuff from their stuff, I loaded up my car and went home & unloaded everything. I had a quick dinner of grilled cheese and chips before Mike picked me up for game night! Yikes a lot of stuff this weekend!