Routines

Aren't routines strange? We never think about them. We never pay attention to the fact we're doing them. We just get into habits and routines and carry on in life. I was driving to work this morning, following my regular routine, heading towards the gas station to grab a diet Dr. Pepper fountain drink. As I'm winding through construction, around orange barrels that I swear are placed in such a way to mimic the game frogger, and towards my employment "destination," I realized this routine was engraved into me. I do this five times a week, twice a day (the driving part at least), and have gotten to the point where I can have an entire fantasy life flow through my head on my drive to work without even concentrating on what's happening in my real life!

That sounds super dangerous.

I bet it is. Oi.

Well once I started thinking about it, I started having a bit of fun with it. The gas station I stop at every morning is Kum & Go (yeah... I know... haha). Why do I stop there? Well it surely isn't because of the ridiculous namesake it carries. No, it's because of it's placement on my routine path. It is on the right side of the road, right before I turn left to head to my store. It doesn't compete with my routine, it is just there. So where is the fun part, you ask? Well, I love QuikTrip and their new Kitchens. For all of you unfortunate souls out there that have never experienced Tulsa's own QuikTrip, I deeply apologize. This is a super gas station, completely equipped with a crapper AND a mini kitchen/restaurant for your enjoyment. Phoenix, Arizona just about peed their pants when they received one!

Back to my story...

So I'm a QuikTrip loyalist, but since the construction on Hwy 44 had halted my previous routine to work, I had to switch to Kum & Go to maintain my diet cancer creating, fake sugar soda needs every morning! Since I work for a company that prides themselves on kissing the butt cheeks of their customers (appropriately so sometimes... some of our customers are wonderful!), I started imagining QuikTrip calling me to ask why I hadn't shopped with them in awhile? How would I answer this question, since clearly I'm their most valued customer with my .50 purchases?

I started feeling special inside. I was making myself feel necessary and needed... highly valued on the red carpet of gas buyers. It's an important carpet people! The lights were shining on me, the cameras and microphones were in my face awaiting my response on how they can change to get me to come back and spend .50! I smiled at all of them, in my head of course, since this was all a daydream. In reality I was winding through frogger orange construction cones at this point. "Well," I started. "Turn my old QuikTrip into a kitchens and I will make a new routine," was my response. Everyone applauded my extremely humdrum response and immediately started construction on my new QuikTrip.

CRAP.

Red light! *braaaaaaake*

Oh yeah... time to turn right and pull into Kum & Go and get my diet Dr. Pepper, before turning left and heading to work...

I need a change in my life, wouldn't you say? Red carpets for gas buyers? Ha. Until next time, folks.

Saaavings

So MamaKat made mention of the communities called BlogFrog and Frugal Living and how amazing they are and what they have to offer bloggers and people who like to live better in general. Well I started scrolling through Frugal Living and researching this amazing thing called couponing and then saaaaaved on our groceries yesterday!!

I sat down and googled "grocery coupons" and spent an hour printing off 40 coupons (15 of which we actually wound up using) and then when we went to check out, we watch our $101 grocery bill drop to the mid $80s. It was so nice feeling to leave knowing that we still had a half a tank of gas (approx) in our wallets AND yummy food to eat when we got home!

So now I'm addicted. What can I say?

Everyone, if you want some awesome shoes... stop by here and check out there clearance section! Awesome, previous expensive clothing, shoes, and accessories for low $ amounts!

BlogFrog

Visit me at BlogFrog!

So Tired

So I am a med student in this crazy state that I live in, and I work full-time for a company that I really don't like that much. It's finally really catching up to me, and I just want to fall over and sleep for twenty-seven years. I'm sure that mothers out there will tell me to have some kids and then talk about what's tiring, but I am so wiped out. I couldn't even imagine having children right now, let alone finding time for my boyfriend and I to keep our relationship fresh and new. I work all of the time, and then when I'm done with that I go to school and sit in lectures for. ever.!

Tonight's lab that's due for my biology class is a letter we had to write to a congressperson about something having to do with the biology field. I chose Sullivan and reemed him for awhile about his ignorance and lack of understanding of real Americans needs. I won't get a response, and in return will not get ten bonus points, but telling him how I felt made me feel tremendous!

I would write some more, but alas class calls me yet again.

Goodbye bloggerverse.

America's Got Talent, Finale, 2010

Oh.

My.

God.

I'm dying watching this gosh darned show! There is a reason why I avoid shows like this, and the anxiety I'm feeling right now and the addiction of having to watch this show every. single. week. is why! I absolutely adore Jackie Evancho, but I love all of the other groups too and have no idea who I want to have win!

I joined BlogFrog as well kids, so you should come visit me!

Short post, that's all for now. :)

When things got bad, it's how we bonded.

It's that time of the week again. MamaKat's writer's workshop is due again! What have I chosen this week? What was it about that movie? Describe A movie you once had memorized.

The Wizard of Oz

We were, like a vast majority of other Americans were (and still are), poor when I was growing up. We went time and time again with the cable being on, and then being off. With this thing braking, those pants ripping, this and that going wrong. My mother struggled with depression and dealt with two kids the best way she knew how to. I remember there was one time when our cable had been shut off because of other bills needing to be paid, and during this particular time my sister and I were not at all bothered by it. We had not only gotten used to it, but we had realized that we could have a perfect excuse to use the dining/living room table as a fort, once again! That table was AMAZING, by the way! A spaceship, a fort, a tree house, and even a damned car at one point!

That was a traumatizing event for me, by the way. I used to own a monkey puppet that I loved with every ounce of my little soul. My sister and I were playing under the table one day, in our new car that I was driving... because duh, my sister was too young to drive! We had window cutouts, a steering wheel, all of our friends (stuffed animals) in the car with us. Shannon (my sister) and I were arguing over where we were going and when she was going to get to drive. We had the awesome heater on... or in reality there was a floor furnace under the table that was warming the inside of our "car." Well, I reached back to grab my awesome monkey only to see that his once black eyes were now brilliant white and staring at me like a spooky ghosty! He (apparently) was leaning against the furnace and his eyeballs burned the color off of them. Lucky for me, my mother was awesome and fixed his eyes with permanent marker... and off we went down the road again!

BUT... that is not the point of this post!

During our times of no cable television, we had a few options. My aunt would record weekly shows (Friends, Grace Under Fire, and the like...) for us on VHS and we would watch those, OR we would watch the Wizard of Oz, Ace Ventura, the Secret Garden, and Richie Rich over, and over, and over again. Shannon and I share the same month for our birthdays - she is the 14th of March, and I am the 19th, and this particular year the Wizard of Oz had come out around our birthdays and so we watched the movie a million times.

Shannon and I could recite every word of that movie, knew exactly when that evil witch was going to pop up, and when Dorothy was finally going to get to go home! It was the best time of our lives. That and playing and mastering every damned level of "Yoshi"... or Super Mario Brothers as you other people like to call it.

Ahh the good old times when we were poor and we found stuff to do (like going outside and being active!) that made life fun!

Moooore Paint

So I'm at work with Chris and we're helping the small handfuls of customers coming through the front door. Working at a paint store is complicated, especially Sherwin-Williams, and let me explain why. People have no idea what the hell they're looking for *and* don't want to take the time to research and/or listen to what we're saying. On a side note, just for clarification, no employees that work at the Sherwin-Williams Company Paint Stores get any sort of commission! We get nothing from selling you something that is more expensive and we get nothing for adding anything to your order. We recommend what as recommend because we believe it's the best product for what you're working on. With that said... please don't "ask Sherwin-Williams" where babies comrade from, if your breath stinks, if people like you, and anything else that our clever, clever marketers thought was funny to advertise! We are here for you and your painting needs and if you think we may have heard it before, we probably have.

Now... asking us for help with colors, product advice, explanations on how to do your project thoroughly and correctly is completely understandable AND wanted. I just thought I would pass this information along because I'm tired of being asked a question and then being bitched at because of my answer.

Next subject...

School is going great! Drew and I started Spanish yesterday and while we both honestly have no desire to actually be in the classes, he is going to graduate soon and that's all that matters to me! My biology class is exciting and my algebra class makes me want to cry a little bit, but math is math and the teacher is surprisingly nice.

Yay for being a med student!

America is amazing, now get out!

For anyone who happens to come to this page and read what I have to say, this may offend you and rub you the wrong way, but I'm feeling the need to say it.

GET A LIFE AMERICA!

I have spent my entire life listening to everyone here tell me that America is the greatest country in the world, like it's a sports team and our rivals should burn in a fiery pit of hell. I believed it for awhile, but as I got older and started paying attention to what was happening around me, I found I disagreed. I don't agree that we are the best... anymore. We're selfish and arrogant and filled with demands for other countries that don't want/need our help.

We boss everyone else around when we won't even help feed our own hungry, we won't be completely fair to women and "minorities," and we refuse to make sure that minimum wage *actually* covers the needs of our workers. We care more about left and right battles than actually helping our sick and making sure they can afford their bills. We run our workers into the ground, make them lose their jobs, and then completely ignore them because they're too "lazy to get a job" or just "take a job that makes less than you were making" because "hey, at least it's a job!"

We tax the shit out of the people that make less, and allow the top 10% of the country to pocket the rest and avoid paying taxes. We allow politicians to cry their position into law and the penalize the ones that actually stand up for Americans and their real needs. We turn our backs on the people who risk our lives for us because Britney Spears is having a breakdown again and Bristol Palin is pregnant with her third child.

So I'm tired of it and I think this country should go to hell. We are *not* better than every other country and until we can practice what we preach, then we are going to have to deal with that and accept it. Stop licking your non-existent wounds people! When other countries laugh at us, it's because we have put them in a position to be able to!

Birth Control Doesn't Work For Me

I know I am not the only one that goes through this, but birth control, of any form, does not work well with my mental state. I have tried several different kinds, low doses, regular, all kinds - and they all do the same thing to me! I get very depressed, sad, unhappy, uncomfortable, and mentally feel as though I'm being forced to share my body with my boyfriend (i.e. I don't want to be touched, be sexual, or be lovey dovey).

Recently, I gave it another go... you know, to see if I was crazy and it was all in my head. No... no it's not. I feel worse this time! It's one of the worst feelings, and I imagine as close to post partum you can get to without actually having children. Do you know what bothers me the most about this whole thing though? Bothers me more than all of my emotional stress? Being made to feel as though I am being a child, it really isn't affecting me the way I say it is, and that I should just deal with it.

It is like when male celebrities decide to claim that women who go through emotional trauma after pregnancy are just being horrible mothers and babies. I support you ladies... I support you, I feel for you, and you're not alone.

Neither are the women that have problems with birth control pills. Ugh!

Hating Your Job

It is understandable that many people hate their jobs these days. It is understandable that no one likes going to a job where you are disrespected and treated like you are less than you are by your co-workers and the customers that come into your place of employment.

I get all of that.

I understand that frustration and where it comes from. I have a job like that myself.

What I don't understand and approve of is treating your customers like crap. Especially when they haven't done anything. I went to Kentucky Fried Chicken (no NOT to get that artery clogging joke of a meal that they're now offering) to get that mashed potato bowl they sell. It comes with a drink, and I ordered some more mashed potatoes. I love mashed potatoes. What can I say? So anyway, she repeated my order back to me and then asked if I wanted a drink with that. All I did was ask if the the mashed potato bowl comes with a drink and she replied with the crappiest tone ever.

Ma'am... yes... that's why I said Diet Pepsi.

I just started at the little screen thing for a minute and then chuckled to myself. You have to be kidding me? I know you hate your KFC job, but when someone is just making sure that the order comes out correctly, don't treat them like they're worthless. I just asked a simple question.

Meh.