um...stress

nothing much going on here, except death. i'm soooooooo tired and as a result, rather cranky. i told mom that if this workshop that i'm taking right now were personified, i would defenestrate it. the last day for it is today, but i just looked at my other workshop schedule, and that starts next tues-fri, and then m, t, w of the following week. i really need to get some sleep.
PHIL??? PHIL CONNERS???

mah-wage

it's official! I'm getting married on August 19th to BradenJohnMr!! i'm going shopping right now!! Yay!! Yippee skippy!! I'm happy!!

more

i think i want to do my projects using stuff from my portfolio back in the day. i found a bunch of stuff that was originally on zip disk and put it on the web in a storage site thing that we set up two days ago. Later on today during my workshop, I'll make an image collage, ah yeah.

Braden's going to see Star Wars Episode III today (for the second time) while I'm at work. I told him to go ahead without me b/c I'm not up for seeing it a second time yet. More time needs to pass. We want to see Batman Begins like banshees...North Olmsted peeps: How about a matinee on Friday? We're probably going to come up to visit either Thursday night after my workshop (so we'd get there after 10pm) or Friday morning. Not sure yet, but the Friday morning thing probably would extend to Friday afternoon, since by the time we'd actually get on the road, it wouldn't be morning anymore. When I don't have to get up at 6:30-7am...I *don't*. :)

I found out yesterday that my workshop teacher is only going to grade us on our projects and not on whether we do the exercises from the book. HUGE RELIEF!!! Because essentially what happened with my workshop last semester was that I was rushing through all the exercises just to get them done and not learning them like I should. So now I can pace myself and not have to worry about it. Plus I know Photoshop well enough to do the projects without even going through the book at all...not that I'm not going to look at the book, b/c I will, but I'm not dependent on it, which is good.

So I sent off an email to my prof (who is my advisor for the case study) asking him whether a book I found would be good for the case study. It's a book written by a former mayor of a city near Barcelona, Spain (she's the vp of the Socialist Party and a member of the parliament...still very politically active), detailing her struggles with fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue. Her story has a lot of similarities to Mom's; for example, she's a year younger than Mom, and they were both diagnosed in 1998. The book was published only a couple of months ago, which would be perfect for the case study, since it has to be relatively recent. I haven't read it yet, only an excerpt and a summary, but it looks really good. It won't be definite until after I read it and get approval from my prof. Cross your fingers!! :)

workshop

so i just started my workshop on Photoshop last night. It's interesting and everything, but it makes for a really long day when I have to work that day and then go to the workshop from 5-9...
we got a huge tutorial book that will teach us the ins and outs of Photoshop CS, which is pretty cool, but basically it means that we have to get through the whole book in like 6 days of 4 hours each. Plus we have projects due along the way. i'm supposed to come up with about 6 images/pictures for an image collage for the first project.

i remembered recently that it's once again my turn to teach this coming Sunday, so sometime before then I need to prepare my lesson. I forget what it's on.

My friend Marú told me yesterday that there's a concert with Chayanne, Alejandro Fernández, and Marc Anthony on September 1st near Chicago. I would love to go, but that just happens to be the first day of my interpreting class... So I don't know if it will happen, but hey, if you gotta miss a class, it's better that it be the first day, right? :)

I'm not sure if Cedar Point is going to work out on the 7th for me. Again, i would like to go to that as well, but my other workshop conflicts, and when I was looking on the syllabus for the Photoshop one, it said that you must attend all sessions, NO EXCEPTIONS!!! If that holds true for the July workshop, then I won't be able to go. :(

We got Chinese food last night, and the place where we went was so crappy. The food was less than appetizing, and we didn't get any water like I had requested. So I asked one of the employees out on the floor, and she was like, "NO WATER!!!" Okaaaaaaay. I don't think she spoke English that well, but still...quite rudeyhead, if you will. NO TIP FOR YOU!!! All in all, I don't think I'll go back there again. The other time I was there, they put so many onions on my pepper steak that I had this big pile o' onions on a soggy napkin by the time I finished my meal. Only when we were about to leave did I realize that there was NO FREAKING TRASHCAN anywhere in the dining area!!!! When we asked, the guy was like, oh, just leave your trash there. so...i did. HERE, HAVE THIS SOGGY BOTTOM PILE O' ONIONS. I felt really bad, but I piled them under the mistaken assumption that I myself would be able to chuck them at my leisure (pronounced LEH-sure). Maybe they remembered me from all those months ago and took it out on me last night. :) but seriously, folks, put a trashcan in the dining area of your food establishment!!! come on.

man, am i tired today!! I work till noon, and then I am taking a rocking nap until my workshop starts at 5. mmmboy.

back to work

we're back from cincy, and i'm back at work. looks like my tire is still losing air, so we're getting that checked today hopefully. today is not a cool day, for me or for braden, since i work all day and then have a workshop from 5:15-9pm. I have the workshop today through Thursday and then Monday through Wednesday of next week. I don't mind the workshop itself; i mind what time/date it's offered at, since Braden is visiting. I would change it, but I want to get these workshops out of the way earlier rather than later, and I wanted to get a refresher course on some web design programs. anyway....it will be over soon.

i've been looking online for a text for my case study (same thing as a thesis), and i've come across some interesting links so far. I'm thinking of doing it on fibromyalgia, but we'll see what i can find. it will definitely be in the medical field, though.

we had a nice visit with dan, carolyn and family. joel is so big now!! the last time i had seen him, he was only about 6 weeks old, and now he just had his 7 month "birthday". he's got this cute reddish-brown hair. scott said "hi Kerry, hi Braden!" a lot, and Amy wanted to know "What Kerry has my birthday?" :) She memorized Braden's birthday as well, and he was quite impressed, since she didn't acknowledge it when he told her. Scott has this thing he does when he wants to make Joel laugh, which is shaking his head over and over until he gets really dizzy. In reality, it makes Scott laugh way more than Joel, but it sure is funny to watch.

well, i'm going to go look up some more links...

ultimate schmultimate

we are currently in cincy visiting dan, carolyn and kiddos. just got done playing some ultimate croquet. i almost won, but then braden got poison, too, and hit me. what a chairhead!!! :) jk. but since we all cheated rampantly, i guess i can't complain too much. we are about to watch Hidalgo with Aragorn....to be continued....

mmm-boy. comment heaven

ok, so as i was saying yesterday, cousin David and fam are going to be in town soon and going to CP. However, one of my workshops starts that week. So I'm going to see if I can miss that day (it's actually only a half day) and make it up somehow. David said that anyone else who wants to come is welcome. Ryan, Kevin?

i took a little bit of a nap yesterday and had hoped to get to bed relatively early, but didn't until about 10:30pm, b/c i got online and time passed...

braden comes today! :) we're going to head down to Cincy on Thursday afternoon and then come back after church on Sunday. So yes, Dan and Carolyn will finally get to meet the famous Braden. I'm excited to see the kids, too, especially Joel, who will have grown a lot since I saw him last in January.

I have to figure out how to get to Akron-Canton airport, since I've never been there before, and I'm picking up Braden today.

update

well, I am back in sunny, hot and humid Ohio. The weather is very muggy, but it is what I am used to for this time of the year, unlike WA's weather. I walked out of the airport Sunday night into 80 degree weather, and I had a long-sleeved shirt and jacket on. The jacket came RIGHT off. I was on a plane or in the airport for most of Sunday, and ended up coming home on the same flight as the entire track and field team here. I got about 5 hours of sleep Sunday night and a little less than that last night. I was up late last night because Ferchito was leaving for Colombia, and I don't know if he'll ever be back to the US. :( So we had a little going away party for him.
I'm back at work and starting my first workshop next week on Photoshop. I already have experience with the program, so I'm skipping to the Advanced class, and it will basically be both a review and update.
Cousin David emailed me a couple of days ago saying that they'll be in town with Rick, Jackie, Jef and Rebecca (and I'm assuming Sarah Leigh as well) the week of July 3rd. They're planning on going to Cedar Point that Thursday the 7th....
this is to be continued b/c my shift just ended. ....wait with baited breath. :)

what up ya'll

today is relatively uneventful, as will tomorrow be. braden has to work both days from 3-11pm. raaa. so here i sit, surfing away. I had a dream a few days ago that I had a baby girl and I didn't have a name for her, and the doctors and nurses were all badgering me, "what's her name, what's her name???". and i was like, i don't know, we never discussed it, i don't have any girl names!!!! so now i'm trying to remedy the situation. not by getting pregnant right now, for those of you who are smart alecks, aka my whole family and braden, too, not that I have to worry about getting pregnant. but by looking at girl names so my dream doesn't come true and i have no name for her.

I'm going to Braden's dad's Christian Psychotherapy class at the university he teaches at tonight, since Braden's at work, and the class sounds interesting. There's a returned sister missionary who served in Germany that is taking the class. I'll have to ask her where she served, so I can reply, oh, ok...i have no idea where that is.

peace out, yo.

rain rain please freaking go away

so i guess we're not going to portland...not today, and maybe not at all. why, you ask? go to weather.com and look at the weather for Lacey, WA, thru June 8th. Then put in Kent, OH. notice anything? I CAN'T FREAKING GET AWAY FROM THE RAIN!!!!!! grrrrr.
What else? We went on a "date" to Costco. Braden's dad said, "you're the only guy I know that can pull off a date to Costco. lol.
Braden bought the soundtrack for Star Wars Episode 3 yesterday, and it's a special bonus edition with a really cool DVD. The DVD has highlights of Williams' music with clips from all six movies. It mostly had music from the original 3. Also, Palpatine introduces each segment. We got annoyed with him after a bit and chose to watch it all without his intros. I know, I know, sacrilege.
I would like to see a picture of good ol' Ian without makeup when he did the first trilogy, just to see a comparison.
by the way, should you ever desire a can O ketchup that is gigundous, go to Costco.