I was so tired this morning...

...that I couldn't put my shirt on. I'm not joking.

The first try involved me getting stuck. This shirt has a few layers, so I thought maybe it was tangled. I took it off and saw that it was. After thinking I had fixed the problem, I tried for the second time to put it on. Once again, it didn't work. I decided to carefully examine the shirt this time. I turned on my lights, laid the shirt on the bed, and decided on my plan of attack. It was to put my head in, one arm, and then the next. Well, I got my head in, and my right arm in, but the left sleeve magically got tangled AGAIN. For those of you who don't know me, I hate, and I do mean hate, having to do things more than once. At this point I was ready to throw the shirt away. But, I calmed down, remembering that I used to wear this shirt all the time when I catered. I never had a problem before, what was it now? I decided it was because I was tired. So, I tried one last time. If I hadn't succeeded that time, I had decided I was going to donate it to someone smart enough to wear it. But alas, I won the fight and succeeded in putting my shirt on. Thanks to my incredible patience, I am wearing clothes today.

USPS sucks.

I am extremely fed up with the f-ing postal service. For my brother's birthday in October I got him the best "brother" birthday card ever. Since Kyle is my surrogate brother, I decided to get him the same one. Unfortunately, it has been quite the ordeal.

First, I went back to the Target where I bought Jonathon's. They were out of it. Then, I had Jonathon tell me the website on the card. This card was not one of the many I found on the website. My third step was checking the Target in Boulder. I thought "different Target, different clientele." They did not have it either. I was beginning to give up on it, when a little thing called fate stepped in. Do you remember when my friend Adam drove in from Minnesota and I met him at a truck stop? Well, I had some time to kill while waiting for him. I had noticed a Target on the way to the truck stop, so I tried to find it.

Finding this target was a mission all to itself. I kept seeing it from the highway, but every time I got off to look for it, the oasis that is Target, seemed to disappear. Finally, thanks to my wonderful navigation skills, I found the Target.

My whole reason for going to this Target was just to kill time and look around while waiting for Adam. Then, of course, I started finding things to buy. At one point, I ended up in the card aisle because I had to find my mom a birthday card. All of the sudden, it hit me that I should look for the card that I wanted for Kyle. Almost exactly as I realized that, I spotted the card! I am now kicking myself for not buying 2. Needless to say, I was thrilled that I would be able to send Kyle this card that I had searched long and hard for.

Cut to the 23rd (Kyle's birthday). And fyi, I sent his card on the 8th of January from the post office. Here's, roughly, how our conversation went on gmail chat:
ME: Happy Birthday Kyle!
KYLE: Thanks!
ME: How did you like your card?
KYLE: Jennifer, I hardly have the heart to tell you this, but it hasn't arrived.
ME: WHAT?!?!?!?!?! Are you kidding me?
KYLE: No. It never arrived.

After all of my hard work, not to mention the aligning of the stars, for me to find this card, the fucking postal service had to LOSE IT!

Now this is not the first time that I have been directly affected by the USPS. And I'm sure not the last. Another recent example was when Stacie sent me a present for my birthday which never arrived. Also, I sent her a package when she was living in France, that never arrived. That one didn't surprise me too much since you know how Europeans are. I'm sure they couldn't care less about getting mail to and from people in their countries. I mean, isn't that why it takes so freaking long?

Anyway, that's my story. And that's why the USPS sucks.

Ankle boots

I, Jennifer Suzanne, have bought a pair of ankle boots. The link I've provided is a picture of them. You have to click on the brown suede ones, and then you'll see a picture of mine (except mine are black). Before you know it, I'm going to be wearing neon clothes again. But never, ever, will I wear leggings again. Especially not the ones that go around the heel or the ones that are capri length. The capri ones only look good on really skinny people; bulimics and anorexics are basically the only ones who fall into that category.

Along with shoulder pads, feel free to slap me silly if you ever see me wearing capri-length leggings. One of the last times I was in Lawrence, I was with Meghann, Amanda and some others at The Jackpot, listening to Amanda's husband's band play. I could not stop commenting on all of the really awful outfits I kept seeing. It was like all of the girls at the Jackpot had done their shopping at their grandma's thrift stores, and then threw leggings on underneath EVERYTHING. Nothing fit these girls well at all, everything clashed, yet they all thought they were smoking hot. Meghann thought it was funny how much this was bothering me. Little did she know that a week after that night in Lawrence, she would be sending me updates through text messages about how many legging sightings she had for the day. So happy I could open her eyes to the leggings that were slowly taking over Lawrence.

Ahhhh, fashion. I am aware how dangerous it is for me to be putting this in writing. I'm sure a few years from now I'm going to be decked out in hot pink leggings, wearing a shirt that has shoulder pads sewn into it, my hair in a side ponytail saying "I can't believe I ever wore boot cut jeans. What was I thinking?!" The dangerous part will be when one of my friends brings a copy of this entry saying, "Remember when you said I should slap you silly...?"

Working out

I love working out... once I get started. I usually just need something to distract me while I'm doing it. If I forget a towel, which I use to cover the time on the machine, I have the worst work out. And it usually lasts about 10 minutes.

Well, I found something to distract me on Monday. In case I haven't mentioned this before, I love 24. And unfortunately, Rich and I don't get Fox at our place. This has been torture for me since the new season started recently. I know there is the possibility of buying the first several episodes on DVD, but I just don't want to buy them, you know? I mean, it's on a basic network channel. I should be able to watch it for free. Right? Anyway, back to the gym. I got there around 7:45 and started my usual workout on the elliptical. Then, about 15 minutes later, I look up and see Jack on the screen. I freak out, and try to find an elliptical with a jack for the tvs. I found one, plugged in and continued my workout, knowing that it was going to be extra long that night. First of all, the only way to listen to the tv, is by being plugged into one of these jacks that they have on the bikes, ellipticals and treadmills. Other than that, there is no other way to hear it. Second problem was, each cardio machine has a 20 minute limit, which they are pretty good at enforcing. Third problem, the only way for me to see the entire show was for me to do an HOUR of cardio.

I never, ever do an hour of cardio. I make myself do 20 minutes, because I believe that is the minimum one can do in order to make it worth it. I want it to be worth it, but I don't want to do more.

So Monday night, I did over 20 minutes on the elliptical, 20 minutes on the treadmill, and about 10 on the bike, but I got bored and went back to the elliptical.

This is going to be great incentive for me to work out on Mondays now. I get to see 24, my hour of cardio flys by and I get a smoking hot body in the process. Although, there is the possibility of me thinking to myself, "Hey, I just did an hour of cardio, I deserve to eat this entire cherry pie!" Hopefully I will be able to prevent myself from doing that. We shall see.

I am definitely not adopted

Here is why:

First, you need a little background. While in Florida, my mom and I did the shopping for my grandma several times. She only buys things that she sees on sale in the discount booklet they give out. And when something that she likes is on sale, she buys many of that single item.

Okay, so last night I went to Whole Foods after working out. Stacie had recommended these particular frozen enchiladas, which I have tried before and enjoyed. So I'm walking through the aisles, not really knowing what to get, and I see Amy's frozen low-sodium enchiladas on sale. Before I can even think about what I'm doing, I'm grabbing 3 of them. Now, I don't love these or anything; it's just a "these are not bad, so I'll eat them sometimes" kind of relationship. But when I realized what I was doing, I could not stop myself. It was that Nicol gene, saying "buy them all before they aren't on sale anymore. You will eat them someday!"

I believe this is a great argument for the "nature vs. nurture" study. Unless the week that I spent with my grandma made me do this (which I don't think it did, because I've caught myself doing this before), I believe this falls under "nature". My grandma and I have spent about 3 months together, if I were to combine all the visits we've had. Over 24 years, that is not a lot. My dad's mom is insane about this whole "must buy things that are on sale", and she always has been. My dad and mom aren't really like this, at least not to the extent that my grandma is.

Anyway, I think just seeing this in action with my grandma for a week, and then coming home and catching myself doing it, really made this apparent to me. I've done this a lot, but never really thought about it until now. I am definitely a Nicol. She is definitely my grandma. Thankfully, I believe I did not get the "I must save EVERYTHING gene." Please, if you are ever at my place and you see a huge container holding hundreds of shoulder pads, give me an intervention. Not only for the fact that I am saving them, but for the fact that I have them. I don't care if they ever come back in style. They are fugly. Sidenote: I just taught mom that word, and she loves it! I can't wait to hear her use it.

I am now going to go eat my enchiladas. And don't laugh, because I saved $2.80 on them!

Ciao a tutti!

Ok. I have decided, with the help of my father, that my laptop has a cold. I'm taking it in on Thursday to be checked out. Probably much better that I don't even try to use it the next few days, because if I do, I may smash it to pieces. No bueno.

For the time being, I will use the computer provided to me at work. In between checking in clients at this busy downtown location, I will (hopefully) write a decent blog today.

Of course, now that I have time to write, and a computer that isn't going to shut down on me, I can't really think of anything to say. Figures.

Well, I'm finally back in Denver for awhile. It's actually very nice. I feel like I have basically been traveling, on and off, since last May. This is the first time in awhile that I'm actually going to be here for several months in a row. Although, I am definitely going to Coachella this year with my brother, Andrea, Kyle and Erin. Anyone want to join? Not quite sure about the list of bands yet this year, but you should check it out.

Hmmm, what else... Well, I was proposed to on New Year's Eve. ;) His name is Jarred. It's actually quite amazing, we went from not knowing each other at all to engaged! Unfortunately, I missed the wedding because I was on a flight back to Denver. I have a feeling though, that the only reason he wants to marry me is so that he can have, what he thinks, a claim to my dad's cars. Little does he know... Anyway, I'll keep everyone posted.

As I said in a previous post, I am now working at the very busy, downtown, location of the salon. My days are very long. 10 1/2 hours each day! But they go much faster than they did at the Tech Center location. There is really only so much surfing on the internet one can do. It's very entertaining working down here. We are garden level, so we are down a flight of stairs from the street level. I can still watch as people walk by though, so it keeps things interesting. Also, it's only 7 blocks from my place, so I can walk. Much better for my health to have a 15 minute walk, than a 25 minute drive where I'm very angry at all the stupid drivers on the road.

Ok. I believe that is all for now. I shall write more later.

My laptop has hours to live

I'm going to smash it very soon. This is my 3rd attempt at this post. I'm so mad. I'm going to bed. I'll write more when I'm not close to taking a sledge hammer to my laptop.

GRRRRR

Well, I had a blog written but the stupid connection in this cafe in Florida sucks and kicked me off. Therefore, I lost my blog. Basically I was just writing to explain why I haven't been writing for a few days. Mom and I are in Florida visiting my grandma and this is the only place with internet within probably 100 square miles. Maybe I'm exaggerating a bit, but I doubt it.

Anyway, I'll write more soon hopefully. Unless I don't make it out of Port Charlotte. Wish me luck.

I'm hungry

It's one of those nights where absolutely nothing sounds appetizing for me. Except Chipotle. But I refuse to eat it 2 days in a row. That's one of my New Year's resolutions. Actually, I should say I refuse to buy it 2 days in a row, because I usually buy it once, cut it in half, and eat the other half the next day. Now that I think about it, the resolution should probably be "I won't buy Chipotle more than 2 times a month." Whew. Glad I got that figured out.

Mom is coming here tomorrow. We are going to hang out here in Denver for a few days before heading off to Port Charlotte, Florida to visit my grandma. It's been awhile since anyone in my immediate family has visited her, so mom and I decided to do it. I will also, most likely, be out of contact with the internet for this entire week that I'm in Florida.

Man, today at work was crazy busy. They have moved me to the downtown location because I rock. It is much busier than the tech center location and, lucky me, today was filled with many problems:

1. Still trying to get clients in who had their appointments canceled due to the blizzards.
2. One technician was sick so I also had to find new appointments, preferably on the same day at the same time, with other technicians.
3. Clients are stupid.
4. Computers are stupid.
1. Multiple schedules of the girls, were screwed up because of the computer (I know because I fixed this problem about a month ago. And I KNOW that I did it. And that I did it right. Trust me. I was extremely anal about it.)
2. Had to fix these schedules; one by one, day by day, for 6 months. This took the ENTIRE DAY. (I'm still not done.)
3. While fixing the schedule problem, I found several other smaller problems within the program we use. (I won't go into them, since I assume I've already bored all of you.)

Oh, I have some pictures from christmas, mom's birthday and the snowstorm. If you want to see them, message me and I will send you the link (if I know you). To hold you over, here is a picture of a car I saw on my way to the airport the Saturday after the snowstorm. The photo is not clear because of the extremely dirty windows on the bus, but you get the picture.

Back in Denver

I'm watching my love right now. Ahhhhhh Jack. He's getting ready to sacrifice himself (again) in Season 2. And I had Chipotle for dinner. Jack and Chipotle; what a wonderful night.

Hmm, I realize now that I don't have much to write today. I must do laundry and prepare for my mom's visit.