I made blueberry white tea cupcakes the other day!

It was quite fun.

I can’t say that I’m a terribly proficient baker, or even the best, but I do love baking desserts. There’s something so satisfying about making something sweet for everyone to enjoy, and I do love figuring out decorations and the like with my Mom. Everything tastes so much better once you’ve put in some work to make it.

So yes, I work at a retail job. It’s a store I love to shop at and, well, working there is cool, it’s just, really repetative and boring and seriously? I’m just not cut out for retail (on the level I’m at now).

However, I work in the children’s and men’s departments about once a week and love it. It’s messy and kids run about unsupervised, but hey, it’s a job, and at least it’s entertaining.

Tonight I had to put out about 20 picture books, and in order to fit them in I had to completely reorganize the books, as they were simply tossed over shelves, in their usual state of semi-disarray. (Okay, so I probably didn’t have to, but uh, this is OCD girl, right?)

So, I’m trying to pick out whether I want to shelve the Princess & Me! Collection next to the ever so lovely Goosebumps horror novels or not, when this four-year old hispanic girl stomps up to me.

You know what I love about kids the most? They don’t know how to talk: THEY YELL. I’m really not being sarcastic when I say that I love it–I’m sure that if I ever have a wee one of my own it’ll drive me crazy (”B’Nargin Arcadia Bon-bon you will be quiet now!“), but at the moment I just find it hilarious. This little girl nearly shrieks at me, she yelled so loud.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?”

Most kids are terrified of me in the section. I am ( dramatic pause ) The Store Lady. I accept their fear mostly because I totally remember hiding behind racks of clothing and playing fake-marbles with the Silica gel packets (Don’t worry, I didn’t eat any!) and scurrying away in fear of being discovered by Mom, or worse… The Store Lady.

This little girl had no such fear. Indeed, I think she might have some Super Retail Woman making in her, because she decided to help! Only now she’s used up all the english words she knows, and so the rest of our exchanges were her yelling something at me “DA DA DA DA DA?” , me going, “…What?” and her yelling it louder: “DA DA DA DA DA?“, gesturing from a book she’d found to my stacked piles of Princess volumes.

It worked out nicely. After a few turns and probably her frustration at my lack of understanding what she was OBVIOUSLY asking, she scampered of to find her Mom. Something about shoes? I’ll probably never know.

So yeah, I’m my retail job kind of drives me crazy, but there are parts of it I’m crazy about.

Besides, I should tell you about the time I had that kid who learned how to play “Merrily We Roll Along” on the electric keyboard. For five hours straight. Yeah. That was a ball.

Hey ho, been drawing a bit more lately.

Here’s a self portrait I did off of a photograph. I’m still not sure just how much it looks like me, but I’m pretty fond of it.

And finally, have a gorilla. Word.

Life is good. I’ve been working a bunch and eagerly awaiting school. My good news is that I only have to buy maybe two textbooks this term, and I am almost ready to buy a new iPod! The sad news is that this means I can’t buy the three necklaces I want, the new bag I was looking at, or the sweater I wanted… heaven help me if I ever run out of places to put my money!

It’s interesting to see the differences between men’s commercials and women’s commercials. View the differences:

Body wash for women.

Body wash for men.

To be perfectly honest, I’m less interested in relaxing and exfoliating and being all calm as I am in having a SOLID DEFENSE against DRY SKIN.

TAKE THAT, DRY SKIN.

YOU HAVE BEEN HYDRATED.

Why do women get all of the boring commercials?

The other day I discovered Listography and I am totally addicted.

It’s a great place to just record random things you’d rather not forget. I’ve always been a compulsive listmaker, anyway. (Did I ever tell you about the 35 page binder I made at the age of eight where I listed names, colours, words, cars, CD’s, actors, actresses, phrases, definitions, and places I’d want to live? IT WAS EPIC.) But I’ve really been enjoying a place where I can just write things without needing an explanation.

For example, this list comes in handy for me to remember all the random people I’ve talked to at work. It seems like every single day someone comes into my store that I know, and it’s both unnerving and interesting. It’s a reminder that I work in the neighborhood I grew up in, something I think I’ll appreciate in four years when I live somewhere where there are no familiar faces.

My favourite list so far has the most to do with this picture:

It’s the story of my life, people.

Listography is also great for recording wishlists, to-dos, and also things you’d like to be able to access online. I might have one or two lists that might not make much sense to you, but to me they’re a list of character names or a reminder to not bite off more than I can chew. It’s one of the reasons I love the internet, you can use it as an external USB hub.

At last! I have recieved two rolls of developed film, as well as some new contacts, and some enlightenment.

Work has been interesting lately. I’m slowly gaining a lot of confidence and also losing it as I make mistakes and right myself, with a lot of help from my coworkers.

I also have a new flash for my old Canon SLR. I am very pleased about that. You know what this means? Next time I have nothing to do (aka “next time I have a paper to write”) I am so totally making myself a ringflash.

Look out world, here she comes… with a sexy cardboard ringflash.

Whew! Been a few days, hasn’t it? My apologies.

You see, on Wednesday on last week I had three teeth removed. Wisdom teeth. Thursday through Saturday can be fully summarized by saying that I slept a lot and Vicodin is my best friend, even though I couldn’t eat for three days.

I’m back, though, and feeling somewhat better. I’m still a little swollen on one side, and prone to taking a lot of advil, but really, I’m better. Last night I returned to work, and today was the first day in a while I’ve felt like I’ve had enough energy to do things without needing a nap afterwards.

Though I wouldn’t mind a nap now.

My older sister returned from South Korea last week, filled with fun stories about her students and being the tallest blonde woman in the province. I have missed her so much over the past five weeks, and since I had my teeth removed the day after she came home, today was our first day to drive with the windows down (listening to our theme song, “SexyBack” of course!), talk about frivolity, and for me to take pictures.

I was possessed with feverish insomnia last night, and I decided to start taking more photographs with real film, and start pulling away from the ease of a digital camera. Ever since my lovely little Canon died and I’ve been stuck with Mom’s Casio I’ve lost a lot of my desire to shoot pictures, and mostly because of the Casio’s inability to focus when I want it to, or to take the photograph I see in my head (Unlike my Canon, which must have had some angel dust in between it’s inner workings, because it was perfect for me.) So today, Angel and I drove to Fred Meyer’s and I bought four rolls of film.

We drove through Germantown, on Old and the ‘new’ Cornelius Pass Road, ending up at the Skyline elementary school. It was a lovely day of sunshine and hanging out with my awesome sister, what more can I ask for than that?

I can’t wait to get my film developed–I’ve forgotten how semi-sweet it is to open up an envelope of freshly developed film.

Lots of things are changing over here.

Last week we had our yearly week long house party. That’s really what it is, though we don’t smoke or drink (much) and the extent of us trashing the place is normally a lot of potato-chip bags and a few decimated cakes.

On Tuesday a few of us went to the local swimming pool (well, we call it the ‘Aquatic Centre’, but it’s the same thing) and were awkwardly the only adults there without children. It was still a lot of fun–it’s interesting to think that in high school all four of us would have been too terrified to even consider going swimming in public. None of us were cool or in shape enough, where now nobody cares and we have a much better time. I’m one of the few people who actually had a semi-decent time in high school, but even I’m glad it’s over.

Speaking of school, I am desperately trying to register for classes. I wasn’t really planning on attending this semester (long story), but Mom talked me out of it when we learned how much money I’ll have to pay for my insurance, something I can’t afford without paying for tuition! I’ve tried to register and lo and behold, I have to declare my major(s). I can’t declare them online and the next time I can get on campus is on Tuesday–do they make these things so inconvenient on purpose? Hope with me that I can see a guidance counselor, I’m not sure what I will do if I can’t see one!

My sister comes home next week, and also my wisdom teeth are being stolen by the dentist. It’s going to be interesting.

Today is my half-day off, and I’ve been chilling out with my Mom. We watched the biography of Patrick Stewart. A clip from The Next Generation came on the screen, and it was the good Captain talking to Data. I mentioned that I’ve always wanted to watch more TNG, since I haven’t exactly seen much of it. Apparently Mom and Dad were big fans Back In The Day.

My Mom gestured at Data.

“You know what is cool?”

“What?”

“That guy.”

“Yeah?”

“He is a robot.”

I live right next to the local airport and the annual summer airshow starts next week.

This means that about once every thirty minutes or so my entire house vibrates and all sound is lost to the overbearing roar of plane engines streaking above my house. It is both a nice tradition and an irritant. Even though it occurs in my hometown and people flock here to see the jets and antiques, I have never been. I much prefer to watch it from below, and afar.

This photo was taken two years ago. It’s funny that now it’s one of my favourite pictures of silly me. I look pretty different now, but it’s still an accurate depiction…

Tomorrow my two best friends come into town, and I intend to make the most of that rare time.