Rewarding Success

    Woohoo I did well on another Accounting quiz. It only feels like forever when I'm going through the lesson, but it's so nice to see my entire day was not wasted! Now I have plenty of time to enjoy the cold, gloomy weather...bitter sweet...

    But there are so many things to reward my success with. Yesterday though, I ate the rest of my rocky road ice cream. Last night, Jared and I finished off the last two thin mint Girl Scout cookies...so delicious.

    Now, I am back to rewarding myself with some YouTube time! Jared showed me a Conan O'Brien clip and I about died thinking it was so funny! He's out talking to a group of people who play baseball in the 1864 style. Click HERE to see the clip!

    Conan also does a spoof on Rebecca Black's Friday song which I find hilarious and it fits perfectly with today. Click HERE to see his song about Thursday!

    I will admit, I watched Rebecca Black's video and I agree with most people that it isn't really that great of a song. But it was brave of her to do it and put herself out there. I really hope she is coping well with her video being the most disliked on YouTube.

    From watching her video, I moved on to watch some of Justin Bieber's songs and then to Lady Gaga and I ended the day watching Adam Lambert videos. Really, it was all just to waste time, but I would rather look at it as rewarding my good efforts in school!

    I'm trying to think of other rewards though that might be better for me. I love chocolate, but it always goes too quickly. If I open up one of the cases of Dr. Pepper for one can, the whole pack will be gone in two weeks. YouTube might end up melting my brain in a few weeks.

    After talking to an awesome friend, Suz Cox, I started thinking about Netflix...free trial for one month. Sounds good to me! I can watch movies and TV shows that Hulu won't let me watch! This will be great!

    I just have to remember that Netflix is a reward...not a distraction from school work and studying...

Gross People Make Me Grateful

    Have you ever looked at a person and thought to yourself, "I am SO lucky not to be that person!"?

    Today I spent two and a half hours in the Davidson County Driver Services Center and had that thought CONSTANTLY. 

    I first got there after having a good morning of spending time with Jared and getting my I-9 all worked out so I can start training Monday. The place was packed and there was a pretty long line just to get a waiting number. 

    Sometimes I am a patient person and I was feeling pretty good this morning. It didn't matter there were 25 people who were in the same category that would be helped before me. It also didn't matter that things were moving slowly. What did matter is the people all around me. There was no escaping the grodiness (grodiness=a form of the word "grody" which is a synonym of "gross" or "repulsive") 

    The first seat I could find was a space away from a normal looking guy. He kept to himself, I kept to myself, it was good. The problem started when he asked me to look over his "stuff" while he went outside really quick. So I "watched" his "stuff" until he came back smelling horribly! He had me watch his precious possession (a falling apart folder full of wrinkled and torn papers) so he could go smoke a joint in his car! 

    I am SO thankful I do not smoke or do anything grody like that. I am SO grateful Jared doesn't either. This guy was breathing all over me as he sighed with impatience. It didn't help that the smoke smell was just a cover for his natural terrible smell. 

    In the row in front of me, there were two guys who looked like they were friends and both took the morning off work to get something changed. I'm not sure what they were there for, but I saw a lot of crack and I realized after a few minutes that they were VERY "friendly" with each other. 

    I am SO glad all my pants cover all the parts they need to cover and I'm glad Jared's do too. There are few things worse to see than too much skin. 

    Also showing WAY too much skin was a young woman across the room. It's a pretty reasonable Spring day. It's about 55 outside and the sun was out. That does NOT make it O.K. for a heavier-weight young adult to wear a tank-top that came down too low and some short SHORT athletic shorts. I would also like to mention the shorts were white and showed more than they should have.

    It's great she is comfortable with her body, but I am so glad I am modest in what I wear. Even when I'm alone around the house, I always have several layers of clothing on. Sometimes even a jacket when the heat is too slow to kick on. 

    This isn't grody, but I saw a guy hit on a rather pretty girl while we were all waiting to get our licenses. It was more embarrassing to watch, but they swapped numbers and I stopped having to hold in my laughter at the awkwardness. 

    Woohoo I don't ever have to deal with awkward pick-lines or weirdos trying to get my number! Jared gave me pretty shiny ring that I thoroughly enjoy flashing around if I catch some crazy eye-ing me.

    Along the lines of showing too much, tattoos just aren't attractive. Whether it's just one on your shoulder or a whole canvas on your body, it's gross. There was a guy there with his fraternity symbol or whatever on his neck. His NECK! Who would want a needle around that area! It's ok though, his girlfriend matched him with her sorority symbol in the middle of her cleavage. GRODY!

    The last grody thing I will mention is the LARGE women who wear their pants too tight, the guys who wear their pants too tight, and also the guys who wear their pants too lose. The last thing I want to look up and see is a big woman walking around in pants that show everything. My skinny jeans are tight, but there is still some space to get them on and off comfortably. Some women don't have ANY space. 

    Guys who wear skinny jeans just look silly. If they have long hair, they might be mistaken for a girl on a regular basis. On the other end, if I don't want to see something that tight, I sure don't want to see something loose either. When guys have to hold their pants up by the crotch when they walk, buy a belt! If they lost weight, go buy a new pair! It's not attractive showing your boxers or briefs, I don't care to know which ones you are wearing!

    All in all, I am grateful I am not a white trash woman, addicted to smoking who doesn't dress to match my body. It's clear to see I have standards and I strive hard each day to live within them. I respect myself and my husband and I do my best to take care of myself. When I go out in public, I put on regular clothing, not just a clean pair of pajamas or sweats. I take the time to do my hair and my make-up. 

    I'm not saying I'm better than all those people. They may be very nice and have great personalities. But I will say, based of first impressions, I am VERY grateful not to be them.

    Apparently, I've had a mystery list of things I've wanted to do or have done. I've never written this list down, or even realized it's been a list! It seems I've had a collection of ideas in my head of random activities for several years and am just now acknowledging them. 

    One, I can successfully french braid my hair. It takes a few tries and my arms start to ache from all the random muscles I use, but I can get it done! Now, I'm not saying it looks great or anything :) It just gets the job done and is easy to recognize as the "style."  CHECK! In fact, it was because of this great feat that I first became aware of this random list.

    Two, make a classy dessert. I made pie once and even wrote about it here, but it wasn't a normal pie...just a random creation that had bits from a pie recipe. Some day, I will make a great dessert that will look pretty, taste great and be something special.

    Third, watch every movie Jared and I own. This one might take a while to finish. There are a few movies Jared has that I just don't feel like watching. And I'm still finishing the stack of movies my mom brought during her last visit, but for some reason, I want to watch every movie in this apartment. This doesn't mean I have to be awake during the whole movie though :) Jared falls asleep during movies all the time, so I can too!

    Fourth, I want to burn one of my school books that I will never use again, or ever have hopes of selling. People talk about throwing all their notes away and burning books in bonfires. I've thrown the notes away, but I haven't burned a book...yet

    Fifth, I want to drive a really, REALLY fast car. Jared got to test drive a Nissan Leaf today, and I am so jealous! But it got me thinking, I want to drive something awesome, and around a track or whatever. I feel the need for speed at times, but poor Bob Dixon (Jared's car) just doesn't cut it...no offense to Bob Dixon. He's been good to us. 


    Sixth, the apartment will one day look better than the day we moved in. I clean the apartment in segments. So the living room and dining room/space looks great, but the kitchen and bathroom has junk all over the counters. One day, ALL of it will be clean and put together and look awesome. Even if only for one day...


    Seventh, I want to own a pair of shoes in every color I like. So far I have pink, blue and green. White, brown and black don't count...everyone has those colors. I will be searching for purple, gold/yellow, silver-ish, and maybe red. 

    I'll stop my list here. I believe this is a good stopping point, because some of those look to be a little impossible. Who would EVER let me drive their fast car!? And I'm not a good enough cook/chef yet to even try making a super cool dessert. Oh well. This is why it's the list I've never acknowledged until now.