Surveys make things easier.

Where did you begin 2008?
I was probably asleep. I've gotten into a pattern of being sick on New Year's.

What was your status by Valentine's Day?
I've been with Brandon since May 2006, so...I was still in a relationship on Valentine's Day.

Did you have to go to the hospital?
Nope.

Did you have any encounters with the police?
I briefly spoke to a police officer when two hoodlums stole a phone and tried to run off with it at the library. Briefly, since I didn't actually see them take it.

Where did you go on vacation?
We went to a conference in Atlanta, and stayed in a condo in Georgia, and then went to Daytona Beach. I think. Is that right? It was pretty nice.

What did you purchase that was over $500?
Nothing. I probably paid a little more than that on my car, though.

Did you know anybody who got married?
Several people. I can think of three or four off the top of my head.

Did you know anybody who passed away?
Um, I don't think so.

What sporting events did you attend?
All of Brandon's basketball games.

What concerts/shows did you go to?
0. Pretty sad.

Where do you live now?
Same house for a million years, it feels like.

What's the one thing you thought you would never do but did in 2008?
I went on a riverboat. I've been on one before, but I don't think I was expecting to again. It wasn't a big deal. That's the only out-of-the-blue thing that I remember, though.

Any new additions to your family?
My aunt got married, if that counts. And her new husband has two daughters.

What was your best month?
Probably sometime during the summer, when I wasn't in school.

Made new friends?
A few, I guess.

Favorite Night[s] out?
I don't spend very many nights out. I'm sorry this is so boring. I used to be more exciting than this, I swear. Back before I was in college, before I had a job and things to pay for. ;_;

Any regrets?
Not really. Well, I might regret not going to school so much. But I really hate school, so my regret isn't particularly painful.

What do you want to change in 2009?
I want to save more money, lose some weight and buy a house. Three pretty reasonable goals, right?

Overall, how would you rate this year?
I'd give it an 8. No one died, but no one won the lottery, either.

Have any life changes in 2008?
No.

Change your hairstyle?
Yes, I got rid of four years of black hair dye and went auburn. It was a nice change.

Get a new job?
Nope.

How old did you turn this year?
20. Whoa!

Do you have a New Year's resolution?
I have a few. Many of them are about developing better habits before I move out.

Did anything embarrassing?
Don't we all?

Get married or divorced?
No.

Be honest - did you watch American Idol?
I have never watched American Idol. Except there were a few days where I watched some of the bad auditions on youtube. They were funny.

Start a new hobby?
Not that I know of. Every hobby I have ever started, I give up on. I lack hobby commitment.

Been snowboarding?
No way.

Are you happy to see 2008 go?
Yes! 2009 is going to be very exciting. I'm finishing my junior year of college and getting ready for my wedding! Plus Brandon will be graduating and that's awesome.

Drank Starbucks in 2008?
Several times, I'm sure.

Been naughty or nice?
I am not naughty. My moral compass is too demanding.

What are you wishing for in 2009?
Wishing? Praying for? I'm praying that God will provide for Brandon and I. We will be looking to buy a house. He needs a job. We'll be planning and paying for our wedding. It's going to take patience and money, two things that I do not often have.

My dogs have ruined Christmas.

I got three stockings this year. One from my family, one from Brandon's family, and one from Brandon. These stockings combined left me with a whole bunch of candy. Like, several pounds. It was insane. This morning I had seven or eight truffles, plus two bags worth of Dove dark chocolate, a few crunch bars from the lunchable's I've eaten this week, Snickers, Milky Way, and a bag's worth of Hershey's bells. Plus kisses. I go out to lunch with my grandparents, come home less than an hour later, and the bowl that the candy was in has been pulled to the edge of my bookshelf and most of the candy is gone. There is a glob of dog slobber on the side of the bowl and two or three candy wrappers on the floor (I assume they ate the rest of the wrappers. I'm talking thirty, forty foil wrappers.)

I hate idiot dogs.

I was going to do a clever and nostalgic post about 2008 and what I hope to accomplish in the new year. However, I am no longer in the mood for such nonsense, and I guess I will have to go watch the dogs that are downstairs right now to make sure they don't drop dead all of a sudden. Diego ate a half a bag of chocolate chips a few years ago and acted really weird for a few hours- he looked a little drunk. This was way more chocolate than that. I don't want any of the dogs to get sick and die. But I am really really mad at them all right now and whoever ate my candy, I hope they have a really bad tummy ache right now. Serves them right.

Happy December 26th.

Christmas is over. ;_; How depressing.

My Christmas this year was really good. I don't know why but it seemed really low key...anyway. Church on Wednesday night was beautiful, work went ok, all the food was delicious (fried oysters, potato salad, cream puffs, Chick-Fil-A chicken nuggets, pumpkin roll....*sigh*) and I got really nice presents from everyone. Nothing I'm ashamed of or want to return. ^_^ I got more dishes for my house (the last place settings I needed!) and some fun things to watch and listen to. I'm excited that some people gave us gift cards. I really like to go out to eat and everything. Brandon does not because it's kind of a waste of money. But we can go out on a few dates now, and that's exciting. Especially since it's now time to crack down on frivolous spending so we can afford to get married and stuff in...372 days! I hope that everyone else had a wonderful, stress-free Christmas with their families, too.

Jingle Bells.

Merry Christmas!

Now get off the internet and go spend time with your families. ^_^

I hope there are fuzzy socks in my stocking.

What a relaxing weekend I have had. I don't think I did anything yesterday, except go to church (which was really good). Today I went to Brandon's and watched a movie. It was his first basketball game of the season, and it didn't go to well. They were in the lead for the first part of the first half, but then they lost by fourteen points, I think. I'll chalk it up to being out of shape. I think they'll be better next time. Today I made a gingerbread house with Brandon's little brothers. One is nine-ish, the other is in fifth grade. I think. It' s hard to keep track when Brandon doesn't even know how old they are. *_* Anyway. We made one last year, but this was a different kit. It was pre-assembled, and just needed decorating. That was an adventure. We had to mix the icing ourselves, and then get it into the icing bag. Some ended up getting stuck in the top and that came back out later...it was fun, though. The boys kept stating throughout the decoration that the purpose of decorating in the manner they did was to lower the property value of the other gingerbread houses in the neighborhood...ergo lower taxes. Apparently. And here are pictures:

I also made "Oreo truffles" last night, which are either ok or delicious, depending on your opinion of Oreos. The recipe is simple: mix one eight-ounce block of very soft cream cheese with three cups crushed Oreos. Roll into truffle-sized balls, and refrigerate for about half an hour. Then dip in melted chocolate and refrigerate again overnight. They are quite yummy when very cold and served with a glass of milk. Otherwise they kind of taste like a doughnut dipped in chocolate (per Brandon's mom's description). Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Cue the Hallelujah Chorus

After much confusing telephone conversation today, I received notification from some magical person in HR-land that I will be receiving tuition reimbursement on my first paycheck of the year. What's even more spectacular is that they will be providing me with the full amount of money I'm allowed to receive for the fiscal year. Wow. Basically this means that I can afford to buy my textbooks and possibly pay the remainder of my tuition for the year (meaning I don't have to take out another loan) without sacrificing my safety (i.e. tires) or common sense (insurance).

I am so thankful I could do a jig. If I knew how. Probably.

What a wonderful change of events from the way the first half of the week went!

A reminder.

"Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us." -Romans 5: 1-5 (NIV)

Jessi and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Week

If it is possible for one to win an award for worst week ever accomplished in two days and without anyone dying or losing their jobs (thankfully), I very well may be the front-runner for said award.

Monday, around one p.m., I checked my school email on a whim. Note the time and date: my last final was last Wednesday. All my books were sold back, and I was finished with the semester. Or so I thought. In my inbox was an email from my professor saying that he was missing an essay from me (he had told me last week he thought I had everything in) and I could do it and receive full credit, but it had to be turned in before noon. He sent the email at 11:15. I didn't read the email until an hour too late. And even if I had just happened to be looking at my inbox at 11:15 that morning, I no longer had the book so I couldn't do the essay, anyway. A great start to the week, finding out that one lost a sizable percentage of her final grade without even knowing. This, of course, put me in a sour mood for work that night. I didn't have extremely high hopes for some of my final grades, and was afraid to look at them when they were posted the next morning. So I had Brandon to it. I got excellent grades, except in that class: I got a D. Which is better than an F, I suppose, but still. Keeping my GPA high enough to retain my scholarship money is going to be extremely difficult next semester. On top of that, I am still waiting to hear about the tuition reimbursement I was approved for at work: I don't know if they hand out the money based on overall average, or if I am automatically disqualified because one of my grades was below a C. Hopefully I will be OK.
Anyway. Yesterday morning I perked up a little because Kelli was supposed to come over, and we would venture to Taco Bueno and possibly make another stop or two. Kelli got here, and we indeed have said tacos (note: Taco Bueno is pretty much Taco Bell with fresher, better food and huge portions. It wouldn't be anything spectacular without the cheesecake chimichangas. Oh, goodness. It's like a cinnamon-sugar egg roll wrapper filled with cheesecake. It was amazing. Go get one now. And bring me one, while you're at it). After being taco-fied, we went over to Target and found some spectacular deals on clothing. I got a few shirts. When I went to pay, my debit card was rejected-twice. I wrote a check and came on home, starting to feel a little queasy. I logged on to my bank account and saw a glaring red number staring back at me- my checking account was wiped out, as was my savings account. We looked at it and assumed that since there were pretty good sized charges ($26, a few times, and some $5s as well) that my debit card information had been stolen. So I called the bank, canceled my card and cut it up. After lots of crying last night (because, remember, I still have tires to get, along with a car insurance payment next month, and textbooks) and a restless sleep, I got up early-ish this morning and went to work to print my bank statement so I could look over it before meeting Brandon at the bank this afternoon so he could give me money (most of his savings, I think) to fill in the hole in my account before Sallie Mae receives and cashes my last student loan payment check. Upon closer, calmer examination, I saw that many of the charges on my account were penalty fees for overdrawing.
Basically, spending $12 total that I didn't have (that's another long story and some blame lies with Amazon not charging the right card for our pre-order of LOST season 4) brought me about $80 in overdraw charges.
I was late getting out of work to meet Brandon at the bank, all the way praying that the check to Target hadn't gone through, because that would cost me another $50 instead of the $20 something that the shirts had actually cost. We get inside to find that the check went through sometime between the time I checked it at 10, and the time I got to the bank at 2:15. Meaning my debt went from about $90 to almost $150, with that mysterious loan payment still on its way to Pennsylvania. Brandon, though, had the foresight to bring more money than I initially told him to, and I am covered now. Broke, stressed, and emotionally exhausted, but covered.
So yeah. It's been a bad week so far. I guess it's a good thing that my financial information actually hasn't been stolen. But that puts ALL the blame on me (with the exception of that bit from Amazon), rather than a slight majority of it. And I guess it's also a good thing that I did go to Target last night, because obviously no other retailers were stopping me from using my card, and who knows? If I hadn't picked Target, I may have gone on spending and racking up fees until I was several hundred dollars in debt.

I don't even want to think about that.

So over the next few days, I will be waiting to see what happens with tuition reimbursement. If I get it, I can pretty much use all of the money I think I'm getting to buy tires, pay insurance, and get my books. If not, well, we'll just have to wait and see. You might as well start praying for me now regarding next semester, though, because it's going to take nothing short of divine intervention to get me the grades I need to keep that scholarship money.

Hey, like my boss said, at least I still have my job. Right?

Break, Day One.

Happy Christmas break, everybody. I'm tempted to make one of those "poll" thingies on the side of my blog asking how many people actually think I will get anything accomplished during these three weeks. So far I'm not off to a great start. I set my alarm for 730 this morning, and hit the snooze button until almost 9. That was pretty sad. I may eventually get around to doing something productive before I have to go to work at 230. Whee. Today is Miss Kara's birthday, though, and I work with her tonight and that will be fun.
I'm going to work to set some goals for this week, what I want to get done before I have to go back to school and I'm too busy taking 18 hours of complete garbage to do anything else. My room looks atrocious. It's depressing. Hopefully I'll get a lot done before Kelli comes over tomorrow. We're going to Taco Bueno. Has anyone else eaten there? They have deep-fried cheesecake so I already like them, and I haven't had any of their food yet.
Also we picked up my wedding ring yesterday. Perhaps eventually I'll put up pictures of it.

There is one thing I'd like to accomplish within the next few minutes, though, and there's a pretty good chance I'll get it done: getting warm. I think I'll go hang out under the covers for a little bit longer. It's so cold today!

Collective sigh of relief in 3...2...1...

Finals are O.V.E.R.

Thank goodness. This was an awful semester.
So how did I celebrate the end of this particular era (that will basically restart in three weeks)? I went to the used book store, found a cool book, bought some Christmas stuff on clearance for my house next year (assuming we have the money...) and went to Outback and ate a quesadilla. It's been a pretty good day. After those awful tests, I mean. Sadly, my dear Kelli will not be joining me this evening, as she is studying for her Biology final, but I've been playing Sims, and will watch Ghost Hunters in a little while and then go to bed. Because I have to work tomorrow. From 2 to 9. Hmm.

Maybe now that the semester is over I will not only have time to post more, but I will have more interesting things to say.

Christmas will be here in "twenty sleeps, four hours and twenty minutes"!

Hey, guess what! Christmas is exactly three weeks from today. Oh, my goodness. I'm not worried- I've had my shopping done for a while. But I'm getting antsy. I don't want to mail my Christmas cards until at least next week, but I may put them in the mail tomorrow, because Christmas makes me happy. I have little gift bags of candy ready to go to work, and everything is wrapped and ready to go. Unfortunately, I don't think that it's safe to put presents under the tree just yet (if the tree was even up...) because of the dogs. Use your imagination.

*sigh* Christmas!

This week has been interesting. I have two papers to go. But four books to read along with them. And then studying for finals. Tomorrow is my last day of classes for the semester and I am beyond ecstatic, even though I am sick and have little energy to be too excited about much else.

Kelli got to go meet Mike Huckabee this week at a book signing, and I am beyond jealous. Every time he was somewhere nearby (Nashville, Lexington, and Cincinnati) I was working or had to be in class to turn something in. It was depressing, and I am insanely jealous.

I should probably get back to cleaning my room, or working on homework, or any number of things. I just thought I'd post on here to let everyone know I am still among the living.