Mmmm....the smell of freshly baked garlic bread.

I'm sitting here in the church office with a nose full of the baked spaghetti and garlic bread that Gina, the youth minister, has cooked for World Changers. She's promised me any leftovers in about an hour. I'm going to hold her to that.
So. Wha's up wit' choo?
Me? Getting ready to start the new job....wheeee, exciting. that's the kind of exciting it is: wheeee. Caswell this weekend! I can't wait. The folks and I are heading down to visit my bro and catch up with my peeps down there for the annual Parent's Weekend. I'll be glad to be on the receiving end of all that good food that they break out only when parents are around. Otherwise, it's pork loin and rice pilaf for everybody! Parent's weekend, however, they roll out the seafood buffet...that's right. Caswell wants to let all the parents know how good their kids have got it working all summer for them.
What I'm actually looking forward to this weekend, though, outside of getting to see my Yam and my other favorite Caswell-ites is:
1.)A crabcake burger from the Yacht Basin Provision Company
2.)A Slush n' Joe from Port City Java
3.)The beeeeeeeaaaaaaaaach!
4.)The traditional Parent's Weekend Slide Show-palooza

Even though I won't know anybody in the pictures that i haven't worked with before or that i'm not related to or that I'm not willing to get to know because they're hot (kidding! so kidding!), it should be amusing nonetheless. plus, there's the added bonus of knowing that my brother helped put the thing together. Criticism is inevitable, Nate. be on your toes.

Command Decisons Two and a Half.

You know how i made the command decision to go back to grad school a few weeks ago? well here are some follow-up decisions to keep the kids happy:
1.)Despite the innate urge in me to get out of my parent's house and head for the hills with a maniacal cackle, I've decided that I am going to stay at home for now and save up some much-needed moo-lah. Plus, my room rocks and I kinda like it there anyway. So. No apartment for at least six months. And then I'll need a roommate. Any takers? Put your hand down, Jeffrey.
1/2.) This doesn't count as a whole command decision since it's only a revert back to previous command decision. Even though I'm about to start a great job at a company I'm really excited about, doing something that's IN MY FIELD....I'm still going to go back to grad school. That's right. I want to go back and get that degree in professional and technical communication so that my employer will know what a rare treasure I am(well, outside of my banana sandwich-making skills and my spit-take-worthy jokes)...with a masters under my belt.

So there you have it. Be inspired to make something of your life. As Oprah inspired me. ....kidding.

Alright...well that's pretty much it for now. Don't read my brother's blog because it's boring this week but do keep checking back right here as I'm sure I'll be posting more nail-biting excitement as the Caswell Weekend and First Week On The Job progress. Can you stand the excitement??? Can you????

Out like proverbial trout.

Cancelling my Job Market card...

Good grief but there's lots of stuff going on now to tell you about! I know, i know...yes, it's me, and no, i'm not lying this time. I really actually have some stuff going on right now that makes my life surface slightly above the mundanely boring. I wouldn't take my snorkel off yet though.
The biggest news, ladies and gentlemen? Why, it's the same news I had approximately three weeks and five days ago, only this time, i'm WAY excited about it. I got a job!! Yes, I already had one, but the truth is, it bored the mess out of me so i obviously wasn't the right girl for it and so, thanks to nothing but the pure and completely undeserved goodness of God, I have recently been presented with another job opportunity...get this....IN MY FIELD! That's right, I'll be writing. And getting paid for it! Before being offered my current job (I don't start the new one until the 27th), I had sent my resume off to this company in Cary but before I could hear back from them, I had been called in for not one but two interviews and then offered a job, all in less than a week. So....long story short, after starting at my current job, I heard back from the company in Cary who wanted to interview me. It worked out (God again) that I had the perfect opportunity to leave work early one day and go interview with them and less than 24 hours later, I had been offered the job and this past monday, gave my two weeks! Isn't that crazy??? Anyway, I'm just deliriously happy that I've got a job in something that I love and can really be interested in every day and it will also provide me with the long-awaited opportunity of moving out on my own. Yes, i've still been at home with the parents. Shut up.
So...to wrap all this up, I'm currently slugging my way through my last two weeks here at the church. It was hard to break the news to them but it's for the best and i would've kicked myself forever if i hadn't taken this opportunity. and that would've hurt after a while. or landed me in the looney bin. or both.
What else is going on with me? Hmmm...everything gets a big blurry after all of the afore-mentioned "goings-on" as they used to say back in the day (I don't know when). Oh yeah....Jeffrey, Jayson, Sarah D., (friends of mine and Jeffrey's from Caswell....woot! Caswell representin'!), and I are heading up to lovely Williamsburg, Virginia this weekend to celebrate the brewing tradition of Anheiser (sp? probably not) Busch in amusement park form at the multinational dreamland of Busch Gardens. That's right...we're leaving at five in the morning in the heated, salivatory persuit of what could possibly be a ten-hour self-imposed bake in the summer sun on black pavement. What could be more fun??? If that doesn't sound mind-blowingly fantastic enough, this fun is there to be had for the trifling price of $48 a pop. Can you believe it? For just $48 bucks, not only can you expose yourself to enough sun to give you second degree burns over 90% of your body and dehydrate you to the point of hospitalization (unless you suck it up and pay your $5 for a 10 oz. beverage), but you also get to mingle with the pleasurable society of thousands of middle-aged tourists and their attention-saturated children. What else could one ask for? I, for one, can't think of a thing. Oh wait. there is one more element.
While most people attend amusement parks for the supposed joy of riding rollercoasters, I am not one of them. they scare me. there. I said it. Homegirl ain't gettin' on no rollercoaster so just forget it. So what will I do to amuse myself while my companions are riding them? so far all I've got is to either check out the fat guys with fanny packs and see how many I can count in the time it takes for my friends to make it through the line once or to attend the brewing school and sample beer until i'm inebriated enough that I don't care how hot it is or how much I'd like to kick that kid who had the foresight to bring a gameboy to busch gardens with him.
Okay, okay, okay....so hopefully I won't be that big of a stick in the mud when the time actually comes. Jayson and Sarah (and occasionally Jeffrey) are always a lot of fun to hang out with and Busch Gardens has much to offer entertainment-wise outside the realm of rollercoasters. There is, after all, Oktoberfest in "Germany" (schnitzel anyone?) and I don't know about you, but I plan on getting in on some of that Irish step-dancing action while I'm there. Ireland is brand-spankin' new since I last went to BG and, being a gigantic U2 fan and a teeny bit Irish myself, I'm more than a tad bit interested in seeing what the beer people have put together to insult the citizens of that proud nation.
Anybody want to know what this weekend's trip will be a celebration of?? Anybody? Thanks for asking, twitchy guy in the back row! Why, Jeffrey and I will be celebrating TWO WHOLE YEARS together! TWO! I'm so excited I could do something inappropriate. It's been this long and I'm afraid that Yam would say I'm still pretty "stupid" over Jeffrey. As in I get the giggles and trip all over myself around him. He's used to it. He thinks I was born that way. Also...Jayson and Sarah will be celebrating ONE YEAR together! How cool is that? We thought it was so cool that we couldn't not celebrate with each other. I'm so excited about this weekend (despite previous whining) that it's the only thing getting me through this incredibly blah week at work. Don't worry: the details will be shoved down your throat later so you can wait in breathless anticipation until then.

I think I forgot to mention that I passed a slow-driving cop on the way home from work yesterday. If coming to that realization when you're in mid-pass on the wrong side of the road with oncoming traffic ahead doesn't make you pee your pants, I don't know what will.