The situation at work has gotten much, much, better. The one co-worker who kept giving me crap finally left and now it's just me, the new manager, and three other ladies I have no problems with. My boss's (is that even right?) wife (I'll call her Z) has seen me work and she says I work better than her own daughter, which is huge really. But I do work hard, I pay attention to what needs to be done, and I treat the customers well.

So work is a lot less stressful for me. The other day Z told me that since we now have a new manager (who is a really nice guy), she and I will be mostly working the day shift while the new manager and my other co-worker will be working the night shift. Which I'm super happy about because closing is such a pain in the ass.

Yesterday my sister and I went to the local Goodwill and it was quite small, which was disappointing, but they did have a lot of great books. I picked up The Da Vinci Code and Digital Fortress (both by Dan Brown), Girl With A Pearl Earring, and The Scarlett Letter. My sister also picked out some books and got the S Club 7 CD, which we shamelessly listened to on the way home. We're definitely going back.

This week I have only one day off, Wednesday, and I'll be going with my Dad to get our couch. Later that night, my roommate's parents will be stopping by to have some dinner and then it's back to work again until my next day off, which will hopefully be Monday. I'm not complaining though, the more hours the better. I still have a few things to buy for my room. We also have to paint the apartment. I think we might even do that today when I get off work, I'm not sure. Once the apartment is all set up and decorated, I'll post another real video tour where I actually explain the stuff and am not wearing PJ's.

The internet is all set up but omg, it was such a pain in the ass. First, we were supposed to get the equipment in on Monday but got it on Friday instead (for some reason I don't know). Then, when I do get the equipment and me and my friends try to hook it up, the DSL doesn't want to connect. Fanfuckingtastic. So, I call up AT&T, the guy is super helpful, tries to send me signal directly to my phone jack blah blah blah, it doesn't work. Then he sets up an appointment for a service guy to help us out.

So he comes this morning, checks all the jacks, and lo and behold~ one of our jacks is fucked up. Apparently, someone cut the wire by accident? So the service guy John fixes it. Super sweet guy. He could've charged me $110 to fix it (CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT, A HUNDRED AND TEN DOLLARS WHAT) but he tells me he's not charging me AND he hooks me up with a wireless modem.

I love him.

Video coming soon! I just got this set up but I have to work in an hour and then I'm going to my parent's house so maybe tonight y/y?

So we were supposed to have internet all set and ready to go on Monday but they lied and I'll actually get the modem tomorrow. To be honest, I'm glad I get it tomorrow because I've been super busy running around buying things we need, working, and setting up the apartment just like we wanted.

We have a friend moving in with us so we're able to buy a few more things since we can split it up.

So far we've:

1. Bought a tv, got cable, and have it working great <3 The tv is by far the most expensive thing I've bought so far (or we've bought really, but it's in my credit card) but it's the most affordable we could find for the size we wanted. I also wanted to make sure it was a good brand since we would be spending so much. We finally decided on a Samsung flat screen tv:

Everything is all set up! Our guy friends bailed on my Dad so he and my Mom and my sister (I was away) had to haul everything up there. Some of them really couldn't do it but still man. I felt bad that I couldn't be there since last night I went over to my sister's house to have a few drinks with her friends and hang out. She lives an hour away so I couldn't rush over and help my parents unfortunately. I had a great time at my sister's house though!

I went straight from my older sister's house to Wal-Mart to meet my sister and a friend to buy all the necessary things we needed like food, plates, cookware, etc. Then my parents helped me unload the two carts full of stuff up to the apartment and we organized everything. We stopped by Rooms to Go to see if there was anything worth looking at (there wasn't) and then we went out for lunch.

Tonight I'm staying over my parent's house because something is not quite right with our access key apparently? (It's a gated community with code access) I left a message at the office and hopefully we can get that all figured out before tomorrow night.

The modem is supposed to get to us on Monday so I won't have internet until then but as soon as I get it I'll post a video tour! There's not much to see but at least you guys will get an idea :)

We signed our lease this morning after having breakfast with a friend. We asked to see the apartment before signing the lease and it was PERFECT. We signed the lease and then we moved half of our things and all that's left is the heavy stuff like the beds, desk, my computer, etc. and that will all be done tomorrow. Water, gas, electric, and internet are all set up (although my modem doesn't arrive until Monday) so we're pretty much done. DKFDKLJFDJK

Thank you so much for your comments you guys. This has been a long time coming and we're super excited to finally have our own place and yeah, your comments mean a lot and ily.

I just got off the phone with the Apartment Lady and she was all, "Did you get my message about being approved?" Um, no!? "Yeah, you got approved a couple of days ago. You're all set, and you qualified for the $99 move-in special!" Sweet omg! "You can move in on Friday."

So, we're moving in on Friday. Well, signing final papers on Friday. We can move our stuff in whenever we want, which atm kind of looks like Friday. I happen to be off and my sister has half the day off so we'll be moving most of our stuff right after we sign the papers with the help of our friends. When she leaves for work I'll make some calls for the gas, electric, internet, and water. Hopefully by the end of the weekend we'll be all set. 

Finally.

Earlier today my sister and I went to Target to add items to our gift registry for our housewarming party! It took us about an hour and a half, but I think we did pretty good.

The application process is still not 100% completed since my sister and I had to get a few last minute documents filled out and sent in first, but we should be set by the end of this week for sure. We're just waiting for the green light, and then the actual moving will be set in motion. Our friends will be helping with the move, as well as my parents, so we should be situated in no time (hopefully). I'll definitely be doing a quick apartment tour once we get the keys to the place, and then I'll probably do another tour once we have most of our furniture and decor done (which should take months, knowing me). We've decided to have our decor to be nature-inspired, and this is our inspiration (in terms of theme and colors, we're not crazy about the wood):


I'm planning a little getaway trip this Thursday and Friday to my older sister's house (she's technically my "half-sister" because we only share my Dad in terms of genetics, but that doesn't really make a difference to us). I haven't seen her in ages. She lives about an hour and a half away so it's hard to see her frequently :( But later on this week I hope to catch up, maybe clean her house a little bit, bring home some dinner (she gets home from work pretty late and tired) and watch some movies. Should be fun <3

Everything is turned in, we're almost approved for our new place, and we're waiting to hear back on the security deposit and move-in date. We're all packed (well, mostly) and ready to go and now all we're working on is getting some help on the actual moving part. This whole moving thing is a little scary, because we're basically grabbing our shit and starting somewhere new, but honestly, I'm sure everyone has gone through it. This is an important step, it's at the right time, and we're just ready. We're ready to grow up and start this new chapter, you know? It's time.

These past few days I've been pretty busy working on my final school projects and finishing up this semester as well as catching up with my friends. I missed them. Recently I've been really craving social interactions, and being able to talk with my friends and spend time with them. The other night I went to a small gambling place with two of my friends. I lost $10 but it was fun, and afterwards we grabbed some comfort food on our way home. Something new. It's just really nice, being able to do regular stuff with your friends or just watch tv and talk and have a good time.

So because of all that, I haven't been on the computer as much as I usually am, and it's not hard like I thought it would be? A few hours on here is quite enough. I don't find the concept of spending hours and hours on here appealing anymore. Maybe I'm outgrowing it? I don't know. Lately I'm thinking differently about a lot of things. About my friendships, school, stuff like that, and it's a little scary, but like with moving, it's just something you gotta do. 

I got a call today from the apartment people letting me know that they lowered the rent, yet again. That they hadn't canceled my application yet because they wanted to talk to me about this opportunity first. And that we would still get half of August free. I talked to my sister about it, and we're definitely back on board. With the new price (only $599 for 2 bed 2 bath) we can definitely afford it on our own with plenty of money to spare. I couldn't be more excited, and I'm glad things are turning back around in our favor. Wish us luck!

 I got my cellphone in the mail and it is super cute:


Tomorrow is a pretty big day. My sister and I are leaving bright and early to apply for the apartment we've been obsessing over for the past month and a half almost. I'm going to be a nervous wreck for two or three days until they let us know if we've been accepted and if my credit is good enough (I have very good credit, but I wish I had a longer history of it?) for a cheap deposit, etc. If everything goes well we'd get the special, which is $99 for a security deposit which would. be. awesome. If not, I'd just pay the $250 that's usually required. 

Once we get approved we have two weeks to move in and I'm counting on those two weeks being the most stressful two weeks of my life. I don't even know where to start in terms of packing all my stuff. I started with books and a few things like that, but I still have to do my clothing, iMac, all the housewares stuff we're taking with us, and other miscellaneous stuff and I need to get my ass in gear if I want to get it all done in time. I'm super excited.

My 22nd birthday is in five days. My grandmother is staying with us for two months and she arrives on my birthday. I'm thinking of just having a nice family dinner and some delicious cake to celebrate.

It's hard to believe that tomorrow is already the middle of the month. I haven't done much in terms of summer activities because I've been mostly concentrating on preparations for the Big Move (well, it's Big to me), working, studying, sleeping... that takes up most of my time. The rest of the time I'm just lazy.

Lately I've been looking around trying to find some decorating ideas for my side of the room. Here's a little inspiration collage I made earlier:


Just a few ideas to get my creative juices flowing. I think I'll be doing some shopping next week or the week after that for some stuff. We're hitting up Ikea with my mother in July, she wants to get us a few things so it'll be nice to have her along and show her what we want to do.

This past Friday I got a very nice paycheck, more than I thought I would get (which is great), so I'm thinking of the extra money as a bonus to the money I'm already saving. This time next month we'll hopefully have already signed the lease and put away first month's rent just in case. I'm really excited about it all but I don't think it's really going to hit me the day we sign the lease. I can't wait.

The weekend before the Big Move we'll be having a garage sale just to clean out a few things we won't be taking with us. The problem is that we don't have that much stuff. So I'm thinking of trying to make it look festive, easy to browse, and colorful, so that it sticks out. I'm hoping to have a tarp, a few folding tables, some colorful table covers, nice background music, and free refreshments because I live in the ninth circle of hell and the heat is unbearable. I got most of these tips from reading articles and tips on having garage sales. I'll be getting the tables, chairs, and possible tarp froI already have ideas for the signs and pricing, so I have a few items to buy for the set up and the rest of the time will be spent moving things into boxes so that they're easier to set up that Saturday morning.

That's about it, really. I haven't been doing much online-wise, I find myself spending less and less time on here and actually looking for new stuff to do, which is weird for me. But it had to happen sometime, and I'm glad it's now tbh. The less I'm lazying around on here the more I can get done.

True Blood tonight! Who's watching?

This is basically a list for my own convenience that I can look back on and edit.

( The List )

Yesterday afternoon my sister and I went to see some apartments. We've been planning to move to a new place in August for some time now, and we had a list of apartments to see, but we just fell in love with the one we saw yesterday. The price is right (we cranked out all of the numbers and were amazed tbh), the location is perfect... it's everything we could've asked for. We are so excited and we can't wait to move. We're planning to move in the middle of July. It's a 2 bedroom apartment with 2 bathrooms. We saw the apartment model with furniture so we were able to gauge how much space we would have and how everything would look with furniture put in and we were surprised at how spacious it all looked.

The actual model we saw is a bit different than the one shown on the company website. The cabinets were different, as well as the dining table and the little bar (nook?) area. The rest looks pretty much the same. The actual apartments are only 6 years old so they look nice and new:
Not bad for $700 a month, yeah? This upcoming month will be spent shopping for furniture and basic items. I already have my eye on a bunch of items from ikea (there's one about 40 minutes away) and I'll be posting them here soon no doubt, since I can't stop talking about it.

I finished reading The Lovely Bones two nights ago. It was on my favorites list for ages and I finally decided to re-read it when I bought it for my sister this past Christmas. I read it a long time ago and while some details were a bit foggy I remember loving it when I finished reading it. This time was no different. ( A little review, I guess. )

According to my book list I've read six books this year. Only two a month :( I'll be finishing Northanger Abbey very soon. I started Catcher in the Rye (so far I don't really like it =/), and as soon as I'm done with Northanger Abbey I'm going to read Mansfield Park. I tried reading Watchmen and didn't get far. I find myself reading a chapter of Twilight and not picking it up after about two weeks or so, which makes for very slow reading. Probably because it's an e-book, which I don't like much. I'd rather have a book in my hand.

I was browsing Urban Outfitters this morning trying to make a mental wishlist for the apartment I'm moving into in two months or so and I wanted to share my favorites. Click on the pictures to go to the item page.

I was hoping they'd have cuter bedding but I guess I'm going to have to look elsewhere. Target, maybe. If you're into interior design and all that (I'm obsessed), check out my ~inspiration~ flickr.