Tucson, Sarizona

I am so great! I am so great! Everybody loves me! I am so great!

29 October 2005

Cleaning...

I have to clean my apt. It's driving me crazy. So...Fall/Winter Cleaning has begun. I found these pages I ripped out of a magazine at some doctor's office, which list the best restaurants in Tucson. I want to throw out the pages, so I will record what I want here:

Best Vegetarian: 1) Govinda's Natural Foods Buffet, 2) Blue Willow Restaurant, 3) Sweet Tomatoes and The Garland (tie)

Best Steak: 1) McMahon's Prime Steakhouse, 2) Sullivan's Steak House, 3) Fleming's Prime Steakhouse and Wine Bar

Best Sinful Deserts: 1) Pastiche Modern Eatery, 2) Le Bistro, 3) Bisto Zin and Wildflower Grill (tie)...whatever...what about Something Sweet???

Best Pizza: 1) Sauce, 2) Magpies Gourmet Pizza and Zona 78 (tie), 3) Oregano's Pizza Bistro

Best Romantic Dining: 1) Anthony's in the Catalina's, 2) The Grill at Hacienda del Sol, 3) Ventana Room at Loews Ventana Canyon Resort

Best Longtime Favourite: 1) Vivace, 2) Terra Cotta, 3) El Corral

Best New Restaurant: 1) Acacia, 2) Tavolino, 3) Fleming's Prime Steakhouse and Wine Bar

Best Restaurant for Out-of-Town Guests: 1) The Grill at Hacienda del Sol, 2) Pinnacle Peak, 3) Arizona Inn

Best Restaurant for Special Occasion Dining: 1) The Grill at Hacienda del Sol, 2) Ventana Room at Loews Ventana Canyon Resort, 3) Janos

Best Mexican: 1) El Charro Cafe, 2) Cafe Poca Cosa, 3) La Parrilla Suiza

Best Chinese: 1) P.F. Chang's China Bistro, 2) Golden Dragon Chinese Restaurant, 3) China Phoeniz Restaurant

Best Italian: 1) Vivace, 2) Gavi, 3) Michelangelo' s Ristorante Italiano

Best Japanese: 1) Sakura Teppan Steak and Sushi, 2) Yama Japanese Fine Dining, 3) Yuki's Sushi and Japanese Restaurant

The Top Five Overall Restaurants were: 1) Anthony's in the Catalina's, 2) The Gold Room at Westward Look Resort, 3) The Grill at Hacienda del Sol, 4) Wildflower Grill, 5) Vivace

Good now I can throw that away. Those were from Tucson Lifestyle by the way.

Next topic of conversation...If people don't buy plane tickets soon, I'm gonna scream...a lot.

Oh, I got a new license yesterday. The MVD (as it's called here in AZ) only took like an hour, so that was cool. I look kind of old in the picture and my face is super long, but it's aight, I guess. My VA ID pic makes me look old, too. Maybe I'm just getting old. I hope not though. Oldness sucks.

My new "friend," Mary, hasn't called me back yet. I called her the other day. I hope she doesn't not want to be my friend. That would be gay.

26 October 2005

Allergies are still running my life...

I thought they'd be gone since I got back from NE, like, 2 days ago...It's still pretty bad though. As I've said many times before, I can deal with the constant nose-blowing, but when my lungs close up, I get soooo pissed. Why should that happen ever? I mean, come on Immune System...what is the point of that?

The trip itself was ok. I didn't get to do any combining, which was both good and bad. I wanted to see what it was like, considering the combine has 2 seats. That would be a welcomed change from sitting on an armrest in a tractor for hours. On the bright side, I didn't have to spend my days sitting on my ass in a combine going back and forth down the field. Instead, I got to sit on my ass in the dander-infested house. AND I got Brice to watch the entire 1st season of Scrubs! Woo hoo! My favourite line from any episode goes something like this: "What? Too frank? Yeah, that's my problem. Maybe that's why my mom pushed me down the stairs. She is fat though...AND boring..." Hahahahaha Whilst in Nebraska, I convinced my boyfriend to take me to the Olive Garden. Being that I was on vacation and not a slave to my diet, I thought I would indulge on the never-ending pasta bowl thing they have going there. Well guess what. They don't have that going on there anymore. A-Holes. They should just have that all the time. What's the big freaking deal? I'm sure it's a money maker. Whatever. The meal was sure better than the next night's meal of bowling alley food. I also made Brice a belated b-day cake while I was there. It was funfetti, and therefore awesome. His mom made taco salad the last day I was there. She made a meatless one for me, which was nice, but I will never understand how lettuce as the only vegetable constitutes any type of "salad." It was still aight, but I think she used the damn mango salsa after I explained to everyone how mangoes make me nauseated. Whatever. It made me want to make taco salad of my own, and Greg and Elka are having a barbeque, so I just might do it then. OH! Possibly the best part of the trip was the first plane ride there, when I met my new friend (who I will call tomorrow, I swear), Mary. She's just moved to Tucson recently to work at Raytheon. She has no friends yet, and she seemed really nice...score...She was going to visit her boyfriend in Michigan. She had only been dating him for a while when she got the job offer down here and didn't sacrifice her opportunity for some guy. I like her already. When she found out that I was going to visit my super-long-distance boyfriend, she said, "Oh it looks like you should be reading this book, too." The book was entitled, Be Honest-You're Not That Into Him Either. Maybe I will check that out. Hahaha

Monday I got my genetics test back that I totally bombed. Big time. I'm meeting with the professor (aptly named Dr. Meaney) to discuss what, if anything, I can do about my grade. Today I had class and then work. Then I had to meet with my group re: our presentation on Thursday. I haven't done anything on the project yet. I'm saving that for, you guessed it, the last minute. What? It's just a stupid speech class.

I watched National Treasure yesterday, and it seemed like a kid's movie. The dialogue and content were really juvenile. I thought that if I were just about 10 years younger, I would have enjoyed it more, but it was aight. Way better than Dumb and Dumberer, which I tried to watch tonight and fell asleep. Yeah, I don't know what I was thinking. I like the first one...Tomorrow I will watch my 3rd Netflix movie, Lolita. Or maybe Thursday or Friday.

Erin asked me to go to the thing at Old Tucson Studios on Thursday with Mario and her friend Meg (and I'm assuming Azer). I think I'll call Mary and ask her if she wants to go...or Paola...I haven't talked to her in a while. Being a 3rd wheel is bad enough, but being a 5th wheel. Argh...

15 October 2005

Word Verification

I am sick of this "comment spam." So, I'm forced to implement word verification for all comments. I realize that this will greatly decrease my comment volume, but I'm sick of deleting all these stupid things...

New Discovery...

My new favourite website is bettycrocker.com. There are sooooo many great recipes of all kinds. First I began looking at the cake recipes. I felt encouraged right away, as I found 2 different almond-flavoured cake recipes AND 2 different peppemint cake recipes. I WILL be tring those out as soon as I'm not fat anymore. Then I started looking at the dinner recipes, and I was just totally blown away. It's so well organized (which I think ALL websites SHOULD be, but often are not), and there are so many recipes I can't wait to try. I went bookmark-craaaazzzyyyyy...

This week has been ok. I was sick on Tuesday though (sort of), and I stayed home from everything. The downstairs neighbour began his music at 10:30 a.m. and wouldn't stop all day. When I woke up (I forced myself to sleep through the majority of the day; after all, I was sick), I began banging on the floor. I don't think that I should have to leave my apt and go downstairs and face confrontation when, first of all I am sick, and second of all they are the ones being inconsiderate. This is what I explained to the downstairs (short, punky, drain-on-society) neighbour when he appeared at my door. He was all pissed that I was pounding on the floor, and I was so flustered that I didn't express myself as well as I should have. I did get my basic point across that any volume that I can hear in my apt is too loud. He was like, "It's the middle of the day though. This shouldn't be a problem." WTF do people think? It's an apt. complex, A-Hole. I'll bet he's from Cali. Inconsiderate A-Holes. He didn't think there was any reason I should have been pounding on the floor. I wish I had thought to be like, "What? You like playing your music loud; I like pounding on the floor...It's the middle of the day, come on." I just don't think he realizes that it's the same principle. Whatever one is doing that bothers the neighbours, be it music or pounding, is inconsiderate. I don't care if it IS a student community. That is a weak argument. Yeah, it is a student community. Why aren't you at school? I realize that I also wasn't at school that day. But normally I am a contributing member of society. Turns out he's been playing his music every time I've gotten home from school/work this week. So...I feel pretty confident that he is the dregs of society. Whatever...I called the office on him twice on Tuesday, and I will continue to call them as many times as it takes to evict his worthless ass.

Wednesay I took my car in for an oil change, and I found out the my left rear tire was so f-ed up that I had to replace it. My alignment was so off that they told me to go back to the dealer and tell them they shouldn't have sold me a car with the alignment so f-ed. I told them that I don't have time to drive all the way down there to fight a losing battle. I really think the dealership's gonna be like, "We sell them as is..." If I bitch a lot, I can probably get something out of it, but I don't think they'll pay the bill or anything, so I feel like it's gonna be a waste of time, time that I don't have.

Thursday I had class and then the VA. I was a little perturbed at the VA because they had been just having me observe all these activities that I've been doing on my own for 2 years now. It's been really kind of insulting, but then again I didn't have to do anything and still got paid. Then Thursday my supervisor was like, "I'll have you observe the Hearing Aid Tech today as she does hearing aid repairs." What?? Hearing aid repairs? Now that I've definitely had plenty of experience with over the past two years. What could I possibly learn from a tech who just started doing it 3 or 4 months ago? By her own admission, she hadn't even ever SEEN a hearing aid prior to that time. But she's a nice person and she has pet snakes so we talked a lot all day, as hearing aid repair isn't really a strenuous job..."Hm...this hearing aid is broken...guess I'll send it to the manufacturer..."

Today I worked with Diana, who's really nice. We also usually talk all day long, but today was busier. AND they actually let me do everything! Woo hoo! The day went by a lot faster than it has been. Everybody there, like office staff included, don't seem to realize that the only difference between me and the audiologists there is the fact that they have many many more years of experience than I do. I'm not trying to downplay that at all. It is a HUGE difference. But I wish they would stop treating me like I'm new at this. We all (myself included) have the same degree. As I said though, today was better, and I think this is the beginning of the autonomy. Everyone says the VA fosters autonomy really well, so I'm optimistic.

Tomorrow I have the Festival of Hope. It's that thing in Tucson for homeless people where they can get clothes and health screenings, etc... I worked at it last year, and it was fun. Last year I got up early, and Emily and I went to help out at the clothes part of it. This time I'm gonna do just hearing screening stuff (actually, just results explaining since 1st years and speechies are gonna do the screenings because they need the practice). I wanted to do more, but I couldn't find a phone number for the Festival. It was really poorly "advertised" this year. Also, it's not at the convention center this year; it's at Tucson Electric baseball field. Outside? That should be perfect hearing screening conditions. Hope they have a building there for us...hope it doesn't rain, too...

Night.

08 October 2005

Lists...

I was watching CMT and they had the 20 Sexiest Women of Country on, followed by the 20 Sexiest Men of Country. I didn't really care about the women one, but I did watch the men. In most cases, I could see where they were coming from, even if I didn't find the person that great looking. But then they picked Keith Urban, quite possibly the homliest man I've ever seen, as the #1 Sexiest Man of Country. Gross. This inspired me to make my own list, especially since I enjoy list-making immensely. I was only gonna put 5 guys on it because there definitely aren't 20 in my book, but I couldn't even think of 5. So here's 4...

4. Clay Walker...he's a cutie. Kind of boyish-charm.

3. Trace Adkins...I never used to think he was attractive, and I know he's kind of old, but he's so big (he's like 80 feet tall) and masculine. It just got to me. Plus I love his voice.


2. Toby Keith...I just love him. I know he's prone to getting kind of fat, but he's very masculine, which I have a weakness for...


1. Kenny Chesney...of course...I don't care what my boyfriend says, Kenny's super hot. I will admit that sometimes he does wear pants that are waaaayyyy too tight. But I prefer to look at the upper half of him anyways.


To get a better idea of these guys, I recommend that everyone go to CMT.com and watch videos to see them in action. It's way better than stills. I especially recommend Kenny's video for "No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems," which I think should be called "No Shirt, No Shirt, No Really Kenny Keep Your Shirt Off." Ah, the objectification of men...

I was also listening to music lately, and thought I should come up with a list of the top best songs ever. But that is impossible as it is constantly changing as I remember new songs. So here's a Top 3 List for today. I was gonna put 4 because I had 4 guys above, but I can't think of a worthy 4. So here's three, in alphabetical order because I can't decide which is best:

1. "4th of July" by Shooter Jennings (my current favourite song)

2. "Immortality" by Pearl Jam

3. "The Good Stuff" by Kenny Chesney

Also, I finished Rilla. It was good. I wish there was more sex in it though. There's none...

HAHAHAHA

07 October 2005

Ugh...movies...

I've been seeing commercials for The Greatest Game Ever Played, and it's getting ridiculous. At first I thought, "Oh finally! A movie about badminton!" But then I found that it wasn't about badminton, or even Scrabble. It's about freakin' golf!?!?! Right. Like we need another crappy golf movie. It's been done, People. The Legend of Bagger Vance, Happy Gilmore (not crappy, but about golf), Tin Cup, Caddyshacks 1 through 20...No one freakin' even likes golf. Who wants to watch movies about it? Apparently enough people that they keep making them. I know of more golf movies than I know actual people who like golf...

I've been reading Rilla of Ingleside. I like it once you get past the first 2 chapters. The other characters, besides Loser Susan, are awesome. Especially that Debbie Downer-like Cousin Sophia. Like the part where Rilla is going to her first party/dance and she goes down to show them her dress and she's all excited...Here are a few good Cousin Sophia quotes from that scene:

"'Is your hair all your own?' 'Of course it is,' cried Rilla indignantly. 'Ah, well!' Cousin Sophia sighed. 'It might be better for you if it wasn't! Such a lot of hair takes from a person's strength. It's a sign of consumption, I've heard. Well, I never held with dancing. I knew a girl once who dropped dead while she was dancing. How any one could ever dance again after a judgment like that I cannot comprehend.'"

"'I knew of a boat load of young folks who went sailing on that harbour forty years ago just such a night as this--just exactly a night as this,' said Cousin Sophia lugubriously, 'and they were upset and drowned--every last one of them. I hope nothing like that'll happen to you tonight.'"

"'It reminds me of a dress I wore when I was a girl...I tore a big hole in it and someone spilled a cup of tea all over it. Ruined it completely. But I hope nothing will happen to your dress."
Rilla of Ingleside by L.M. Montgomery

By the way...here's a Debbie Downer quote I can remember from the last episode of SNL:

"Wake up. The Corn Belt is now the Chrystal Meth Belt." HAHAHA

("Guess who's in bed together...North Korea and Nukes." HAHAHAHA)

Off to reading...

05 October 2005

Things I forgot yesterday...

So there's a couple of things that I meant to post about yesterday, but I forgot. First of all, I received Fever Pitch from Netflix, and although I do not have high hopes for this movie, I still wanted to see it. So did Erin. So I put it in and we sat down to watch it. First this preview came on for some British movie...ok...weird, but whatever....THEN we realized that it wasn't a preview at all. It was the movie! It wasn't the Fever Pitch we were expecting at all! It was the 1997 British version about soccer. Ahhhhhhhh! Why would they name them the exact same thing? I guess I didn't pay really close attention to the DVD jacket. Hahahaha....we decided not to watch it.

This next part is just for the ladies:

Two questions:

Why in the world would they even make maxi pads without wings? So people can buy a pack of 40 of them and not realize it until they open it and it's too late and now they're all pissed off and screwed? There is no reason to not have wings.

Also, who would buy scented tampons on purpose? That's just wrong. I think you could definitely increase your risk of TSS with scented tampons. Ewwww....

Life Organized Though My Desk Is Not

I feel like I've gotten a lot done in the past couple of days. I had 2 assignments due, both of which I completed on time. Also, neither turned out crappy (in my opinion). Amber came over on Sunday afternoon to do school stuff and hang out. She took my Pharm book home with her by accident, but returned it the next morning. She had it for a total of maybe 12 hours, and it was ripped by the time I got it back. It wasn't too bad, and she fixed it. It's just funny that she ruins everyone else's books. She really did a number on Jon's Pharm book when she was reading it by a pool...

Monday I got my damn VA orientation done. Some of it anyways. I was told that, due to my extremely limited schedule of free time, I would only need to complete the Monday, 7:30 a.-freakin-m. to 11 a.m. portion of orientation. When I got there (20 min. late...what 7:30 a.m.? wtf? ok, ok, sorry U.S. govt., don't kill me), everyone was still signing in. Luckily, there were, like, a ton of people there, so my tardiness went undetected (damn right, I'll come when I'm damn well ready, ha!). Of course since I had to get up very, very, very early, I was wearing whatever the hell I could find whilst sleepwalking, my hair was an unblowdryed-frizzy-still-half-wet mess, my makeup was nonexistent, and I was frazzled because I was way more than fashionably late. So imagine my horror when I got in the door and realized that it was Picture Day. F! I'm thinking this picture's gonna be on a badge that I will be wearing on my person for people to look at on a regular basis. I could just imagine. Also, I'm thinking that I'll bet that picture of the president that's hanging everywhere was probably retaken as many times as G.W. wanted, but I'll bet they won't do the same for my with my badge picture. So imagine my opposite-of-horror when they didn't have enough time to take my picture because orientation had to start a.s.a.p. Sweeeeeeeeet!!! As for orientation itself, those HR people really take their stupid job seriously. Their jobs epitomize bureaucratic nonsense. Orientation consisted solely of filling out a series of stupid, redundant forms in a classroom setting. It was super gay. Especially because I know I could have filled out those forms by myself with minimal problems. I know because I did just that, as I was not following along with the Form-Filling-Out Program. Also, they all got really pissed when I told them that I couldn't stay for the rest of the day, nor could I come back every day for the rest of the orientation process. Come on, a week of orientation all day, every day. That's excessive. Even for the federal government. The thing that pissed me off the most is that they have my salary as, like, $20k/year, not to exceed 350 hours. So I'm only actually making $3500, but I'm getting taxed as if I'm making $20k. That seems very wrong to me, and bad. It seems like I'm getting screwed somehow. I'll have to ask someone though because I don't know taxes...Maybe they'll give it all back to me in the end. Well, whatever, when I talked to the guy I originally talked to in HR, he said it wasn't a problem that I couldn't stay for orientation and that we'll get it all figured out eventually. I forgot to bring my bank acct. information though to get my MANDATORY direct deposit all set up. Oops...

So after that, I had class all day on Monday. When I got home, I had an article review to do that I hadn't even started yet. I hadn't even read the article, of course. So upon arriving at my domicile, I promptly took a nap. Then I turned on the t.v. to see what was on. And guess what was on...The Karate Kid. Awesome. Watched that. Then Stand By Me was on. Well, it seemed like as good a time as any to give that movie another try. I had attempted to watch the Netflixed version of the movie, but I couldn't get into it at all. Now, I don't know if it's because of the fact that I wasn't sleeping during the movie or the fact that I had something else that I should have been doing, but this movie was way better than the last time I tried watching it. I am the queen of procrastination. To watch a movie I did not like the first time around just to not do work. Wow, that impresses me. Good thing I did though, otherwise I'd still be thinking that movie sucked. I was really into the train part. If that was suspense at its finest, I don't know what is. I did eventually finish my assignment, and it turned out good, I think. Turns out the test-retest reliability of the SCAN sucks. Hm...

Today I had class at 8 a.m. I got there on time today! Woo hoo! Then I worked all day. Then Erin came over to study for our Pharm test tomorrow. We quizzed eachother and found out that we were the smartest girls in the world. So we decided to watch Awakenings, which is totally Pharmacology related, so it was a continuation of our studying...and son of a vondrook if I didn't fall asleep in the middle of it! I am so awful. I am always falling asleep watching movies with Erin. Am I the rudest girl in the world or what? It's like, "Hey want to come over and watch a movie by yourself while I sleep?" Ugh...I tried so hard to stay awake too, and the movie wasn't bad or anything. I was just sooooo tired. Oh well...better luck next time...I really do feel like a complete arse though.

Then I passed out on my bed for hours and hours (like 4), and woke up to write this B-Log. I should go to sleep soon though because, even though it's my late day tomorrow, 4 a.m. is pretty late to still be awake on a school night of any kind...

Wow, long post...