serpentillusion

I'm in Puyallup (poo-wallup) Washington right now. This Seattle trip has been a bit of a disaster. Things are looking up, but I'm out $200, it looks like, because the hotel we booked looks nothing in real life like it does on the Travelocity website. The hotel in real life is in an abandoned part of town that looks like it's one step up from a crack neighborhood. No lie. I've lived by crack neighborhoods before. I know what they look like. Also, the hotel is called Days Inn Seattle but it's 30 miles South of Seattle. I'm sorry, but that's not Seattle or "close to" anything in Seattle. I just feel like we've been led astray by Travelocity and of course we booked this a week ago because it's spring break. So our 24 hours to cancel is shot. We called Travelocity and they said to call the Days Inn and see what their policy was. The manager was not in and the ditzy hotel clerk had no idea what was going on and said to call Travelocity. So, we're going to talk to the manager. Even if they don't refund us for the one night, they better refund us for the rest of the nights because this is bullshit. I feel hopeless. We're not going to be able to do all we wanted to do and we're not going to stay as long as we were going to. My best friend came with us and with all the driving around....yeah. That's another thing. This hotel is hidden. We drove around forever trying to find it and the address led us to a dead end. We didn't find the hotel until we were on the freeway and we saw it from the freeway. Nothing like the picture, awful part of town, address leads to a dead end, false advertising anybody? We haven't used Travelocity before and we never will again. I'm going to give them a chance to make this right but if they don't, I don't know. I'm going to see what my next course will be. My best friend came with us and ended up having a panic attack. It's her car and her gas money. This whole thing has been a disaster.

Over the Rainbow Charm Swap

I'm participating. I don't technically have a blog (yet; yes, I've been thinking about it) so here's my link. I'm at the internet lounge to check my e-mail before I go to the quilt store. Plus, I think the quilt store opens at 10 anyway. So, I'm enjoying a perfectly made chai tea with whole milk. Perfect temperature. I haven't been here in a long time so I don't remember the coffee experience quite so much but in looking over the menu options I had an inkling I enjoyed their chai lattes and so here I am. And I was right! Gonna have to leave a tip, something I've been doing more of at places where a tip is not "required".

Also, I really really want a camera. I've been looking at a Nikon Coolpix mostly because I've seen it at various places in the last few months for only $100 and I know Nikon is a great brand for cameras. I have an older Canon (4 megapixels) that got way too much sand in it since we went to California two or three years ago and has been slowly deteriorating. And if C.J. can go to the Mac Store and buy a Mac Mini (which is going to be mine in a few short weeks once he plays around with it!!), I should be able to get a $100 camera! I only want it so I can get back to taking pictures anyway and I do need something digital so I can 'see' the picture beforehand since I don't have uber fancy photo editing software (next on the list but I'll have to wait 'til I'm a student again for that one LOL!). But yeah.

Today, after taking Aria to school, I took the rapid transit to downtown Eugene. There is some massive construction going on right across from the bus depot and in walking past it, I decided I wanted to get some pictures. I must have identified at least five more pictures I wanted to take in my 2 block walk to the internet lounge. I feel unemployed right now even though I'm not. Hours got massively cut at work and I'm not kidding when I say that within 14 days I get something like 15 hours. That's it. Portland is looking better all the time.

Anyway, I better do what I came here to do before my time runs out. Later!

Edited to add: Man, lj did not like her code for the button so here I go button-less. Oh well. No one's going to visit this lj anyway so it's not a big deal. Sheesh that was a pain. From my measly memory of html code, it was flawless so it's not her, it's lj. Or maybe it's just me.

There is a question mark there because I can't think right now about it. I can't be bothered. Well, I no longer have any type of health insurance. I've read some horror stories about coming off of Cymbalta, even with tapering off of it safely. This is cold turkey. I'm going to hopefully see my doctor on Thursday which is going to cost me $70. That's the discounted rate. I can do that right now. That's fine. Sorta. But how am I going to get my medication. I'm really irritated with this one lady at my doctor's office. She said, "Go to Cascade." and then hung up on me. What is Cascade? I've looked it up online but they have so many links I have no idea which number to call. Or should I already know what Cascade is? Because, as you know, all of us low income folks know exactly where all the freebies in the community are. -_-

I should just be intuitive and know how to help myself. I guess. I've been scared to breathe lately because of the brain zaps that I know are soon to come. Thankfully, I've only been scheduled to work 3 hours on Friday and for whatever reason, I have 4 days off in a row from work, even though I didn't plan that. So it helps. It doesn't help with money. But it helps because I am going nuts over here.

Still here. Still working at Joann's. C.J. has moved to Portland to work and is almost through with training at his job. Money is tight but hoping my tax return helps to bridge some gaps. Still sewing. Today I hopefully get to see C.J. for the first time since January 5th. I turn 29 on Tuesday. Aria's doing great in school and is excited about moving. We don't have a place to move to yet but I need to take some time off work and go up to Portland to check things out. Looks like I can pretty easily transfer to another store so my job isn't that big of a deal, just need to find a place to live in an area that is way more expensive than here. C.J. is living in the trailer his dad and brother use for work (they're painters) so it's not a long-term deal as they'll need the trailer soon as the weather gets better.

So that's my life.

At my friend's house right now. We played Just Dance on her Wii which was fun. LOL Even though I looked like an idiot. I brought some sewing stuff but eh...might not get to that. C.J. was going to come today but...I hope he can make it though it was supposed to be around now. Anyway, see ya.

awesome guitar.

Listen to my station on Blip.fm!

To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not, rich; to listen to stars and birds, babes and sages, with open heart; to study hard; to think quietly, act frankly, talk gently, await occasions, hurry never; in a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common – this is my symphony. - William Henry Channing

I'm thinking of getting a second job and working at Joanns very part time. Reason for still working at Joanns? I like it, I like my coworkers, I like my 15% discount. But, I need something more if I ever want to move out of where I am living. I can't live with Joe's parents forever and right now, it really feels like forever has come and gone. C.J. is retaking his writing class so one more term to go before he can be DONE with school and start looking for work. Meanwhile he's working with his dad and meanwhile, hours just keep getting cut back at work. I put in for some time off this week but somewhere along the way, they got my time off mixed up with somebody elses so this week I have way more time off than I budgeted for. Oh don't get me wrong, I'm going to enjoy it while it's here as it's already in the system but...*shrug* I want to get all my projects that I need to get done for other people out of the way so I can start working on 'me' stuff more. I'm thinking I'll finally just start an etsy shop but I'm going to be making smaller things. The bags I'm working on right now ...there aren't that many and they've been taking me forever!! I can't work and still make enough bags to keep a shop stocked so...some bags, most wallets or something. I don't know...I'm thankful that I have this job and everything but I guess I still don't seem to be getting ahead anywhere. Time to just buckle down and suck it up. Not many people are buying craft stuff right now (back to school comes to mind) so when our sales are down, my hours are down, my pay is down...and on it goes. 'Course this being the end of August, sales are going to be going back up pretty soon and with Aria going back to school and stuff...I'm going to need to redo my availability so I can take full advantage of hours but...in the meantime, yeahh...

I'm participating. The projects that I have committed to all have a deadline of this Friday and then I'm free as a bird. Sorta. One that's flying around the city and occasionally flies into things.

Rainbows in the Mail

Woot! It's such a cool feeling looking at that picture of the charms all laid out and seeing one there that I cut with my own two hands. And thinking of all the people that participated and that something I touched is going into their project.

Wow, is that too creepy? I don't mean it that way; just it's cool to participate in something like this because a lot of the time fabric is just a 'me' obsession and it's nice to share with people.

Also, I'm a little drunk right now. Decided to try cheap rum and really good root beer together. It's not bad but wow...I have become such a lightweight! I haven't evne finished my mug and I'm already...can't see straight, can't ...probably shouldn't be on the computer at all. I have work tomorrow too...I didn't think this would impact me so severely. Eeek. I haven't drunk alcohol in years...

I haven't gotten my charms yet as I've been away from home but I can't wait 'til I get there so I can open my package. Squee! Oh what to make, what to make...I've been dreaming...

eta: the fabric I picked (that I actually would like to get more of now) is the blue one with the lines that's next to the purple.

eta again: next thing to cross off my list is the contest (i'll link it later). (as far as online committmments go as I actually have a lot of things on my many lists)!