life changes

So, I've made a big life-altering decision this week. (One could argue that every decision is a life-altering decision but that's another post for another day.) I've decided to take the summer off from school. It's been plaguing me for a couple of months and I just finally broke down and decided. I feel better already, actually.

My original plan was to quit my job in May and take my last 2 science classes (+ 2 freshman goverment classes... stupid Texas public school requirements) over the summer, to apply in the fall, to start in the spring, and be done December 2009. But the last 4 sememsters I have been balls-to-the-wall (figuratively, of course) with work and travel and school, and I've really been stressing myself out lately. This semester is hard. All of the sudden life was screeching up to May and I am just not ready to quit my job. I'm not ready financially; I'm not ready emotionally- I'm just not ready. Not to mention the fact that I'm pretty sure quitting my steady income job to wait tables and take 4 classes in 12 weeks wouldn't really do anything to alleviate my stress level. I feel like I chose the quickest path and there was really no need to do so. It's not like nursing is going anywhere. Plus if I wait another cycle, I can do the fast-track plan (15 months instead of 2 years)- which will only push back graduation 9 months from the previous plan, allow me to take out fewer student loans, and put me in a program of people my age, who have degrees in other fields and have real-life work experience under their belts. All in all I think it will be a more enjoyable experience for me to do it this way.

So, summer is mine, like the old days. I'm going to give my brain a little rest from capillaries and tissues and bones. I'm just going to work, and read, and travel, and maybe even go on vacation. I'm going to turn 31 and I'm going to go back to school in the fall. In the end I think my psyche will thank me for it.

Name-that-Movie

OK, so, my friend Tom is writing a treatment for a made-for-TV movie about an internet predator. We were batting around really horrid MOW-worthy titles for it like "Instant Message: Fear" and "Preda-dater" and I decided to hold a contest here at No Day but Today. I bet you guys will have some great ideas.

It's about this tough, take-no-prisoners network TV journalist (is there any other kind?) who hosts a show like "To Catch a Predator." She's going through a messy divorce and her teenage daughter is rebelling, natch, and befriends an internet predator just released from prison (put there, of course, by her mom's show). But then, the predator dies, so who is she talking to? Is it the high school date rapist? Her dad, looking to make Mom look bad so he can get custody? The guidance counselor? Her mom's boss? Or... is the predator still alive?

I leave the floor open~

make-up help

Thanks for all the discussion in the book-to-movie post. I'm surprised I didn't hear from Giovanna or Brain Diva so maybe this post will reel them in.

Most of you know, I'm not a really girly girl when it comes to primping. Don't get me wrong, I like to look cute or whatever, but I pretty much only buy drugstore makeup and if my hair takes long than 10 minutes to fix, well, forget about it. It's not going to be fixed. I just don't like wasting an hour of the day in the bathroom looking at myself.

Two days ago, I was a the drugstore and needed to pick up some mascara. I have been wearing the same mascara for about 15 years- Max Factor 2000 Calorie. It's the best. I've tried others but always come back. In fact, In Style did a huge mascara survey a few years ago and good old $4.50 Max Factor 2000 Calorie came in 2nd place after some $30-department store stuff (which I would never buy. I also didn't read said article; someone told me about it, so my facts could be off).

Well, I couldn't find it at my Walgreen's- in fact, I couldn't find the Max Factor display at all. I remembered hearing somewhere that some major drugstore chain doesn't carry some major make-up line, like Rite-Aid doesn't carry Cover Girl or CVS doesn't carry Maybelline, or something. I just assumed that it was Walgreen's and Max Factor and decided to pick it up at Target the next day.

So yesterday, I couldn't find the Max Factor at Target, either, so befuddled (and hungry, and you guys know how all over the place I am when I am hungry), I turned to the first Target employee I saw, who happened to be the Boots rep, and asked where the Max Factor was, and she said they had been bought out!!!!! I was all... "no more Max Factor?" "No," she said, not unkindly. "I can't remember who bought them out, but Max Factor won't be sold here anymore." "So no more 2000 Calorie mascara?" I asked with a quivering lip. Long story short- I was so verklempt that she talked me into a $9 tube of Boots mascara, which by the way, BLOWS.

So, now, I need some girl help. I need a new mascara (drugstore mascara, not department store mascara). Please keep in mind that I spent the last 15 years faithful to my 2000 Calorie, so I'm going to be emotionally distant and commitment-phobic to new mascaras for a little while.

Handle with care, everything (even the predators).

I read Bridge to Terabithia yesterday. I haven't read it since I was about 10 years old, but when the movie trailers started coming on, I was thinking, "wait, that doesn't look right." All that fantasy? I mean, don't get me wrong, I love me some fantasy. But I just didn't remember Terabithia being a fantasy book. So my memory was right (which is no small feat) - that's not what the book is about. Yet another stunning book trashed by Hollywood.

Why is it so hard to make a good movie out of a good book? With the rare & wonderful exception of To Kill a Mockingbird, I can't even come up with an example of a movie I like as much as the book, much less more. It's not that I think film is a lesser medium- I love movies. I ingest more movies than books. But why is it so impossible to translate the printed word into an acceptable, watchable format?

What are some of your favorite book-to-movie translations??

OK, edited to add: Don't throw things at me, but I actually liked all three Lord of the Rings movies better than the books. Mostly because they are totally dude books and they're so frakkin' long that I'd rather spend 3 hours with one than 3 weeks. Also, they were extremely well done by someone who obviously regarded the original work with the utmost care and respect.

geek alert!

You guys know I love my nerdy t-shirts. Well, I just got this one from my friend Nathaniel in California. Poor, poor, Pluto. I love it!!

I am home from NYC. I can't even miss it right now because it's 70 degrees outside and GORGEOUS. I slept in, watched some TV with Tom, cleaned the kitchen, and cooked a little... all in all, some seriously good Jamie time. I'm going to get some reading done and some schoolwork today, too, and hopefully get to the yoga studio later.

Oh, and my boss just called and asked if I'd be "interested" in working in Hawai'i in May. Um, yes??

because sometimes a post bears repeating:

The sun has left and forgotten me,
It's dark, I cannot see.
Why does this rain pour down,
I'm gonna drown in a sea,
Of deep confusion.
Somebody told me, I don't know who,
Whenever you are sad and blue,
And you're feelin' all alone and left behind,
Just take a look inside and you will find:

You gotta hold on, hold on through the night
Hang on, things will be all right
Even when it's dark, and not a bit of sparkling,
Sing-song sunshine from above,
Spreading rays of sunny love.
Just hang on, hang on to the vine--
Stay on, soon you'll be divine.
If you start to cry, look up to the sky:
Something's coming up ahead
To turn your tears to dew instead

And so I hold on to this advice:
When change is hard and not so nice,
You listen to your heart the whole night through
Your sunny someday will come one day soon to you.

Happy Birthday Erin!

I've know Erin for about 13 years. We have been friends for about 11. If I was at home I would dig out some awesome pictures of us dressed as a goose and a lamb or maybe "whacking the bush" or that time we almost won the talent show where we sang Galileo.

We have had some serious ups and even one sad, serious down, but all-in-all, she's one of the most loyal, generous, caring friends I've ever had, and I can't imagine my life without her.

Happy Birthday Erin!!! I love you!

And the collective IQ of America is?? Threeve.

So, when we're setting up a show, we have "empty stickers" that the exhibitors can use to label their empty boxes once they're done unpacking, and then we store them all and bring them back to the appropriate booth once the show is over so they can pack back up. This particular show is on two floors, so I have two colors of empty stickers: blue for the 5th floor and orange for the 6th floor.

So, both rolls are on my desk- and labeled. I actually wrote "5th Floor" on a blue sticker and stuck it to the table next the roll of blue stickers, and "6th Floor" on an orange sticker and stuck it on the table next the roll of orange stickers. It's not rocket science, right?

Not once, not twice, but THREE times today, I had something similar to this happen:

Exhibitor: Can I get some empty stickers?
Jamie: Sure, what's your booth number?
Exhibitor: 5431.
Jamie: OK, 5th floor is blue. Here ya go- take as many as you need and we'll come pick them up.
Exhibitor: So, what's the difference between the orange stickers and the blue stickers?
Jamie: The blue stickers are for the 5000-booths and the orange stickers are for the 6000-booths. *physically indicate stellar visual aid here*
Exhibitor: Oh, ok, so if my booth is on the 5th floor then I need the blue ones?
Jamie: FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, YES.

Seriously. Three times.

second breakfast

You know what the downside to going to work at 6am is? Well, besides the obvious going to work at 6am... it's that I have to eat breakfast twice. It's almost 10am and I've been working my ass off for almost 4 hours now. My normal healthy breakfast of soy latte, dried apricots, and a Luna bar is just not going to last me until lunch. I'm about to die of starvation right here at the service desk.

My Thursday and Friday were both kind of crappy. So far Saturday is better, despite being up for 5 hours already. I came in super-early before my workers started, and knocked out a HUGE load of paperwork. I feel so much better about the day now (or I will, as soon as I eat again).

I've been super emotionally needy this week, for some reason, and I want the three of you who have dealt with it (and quite adeptly, I might add) to know that I appreciate it! One of you will probably walk over here after you read this and give me a hard time. :) Which is cool; I deserve it. If you do, will you bring me something to eat?

Edited to add: I didn't get to eat until 1:30pm. And it was a sandwich from Starbuck's that an exhibitor brought to me because she felt sorry for me. Bah! Plus, it was chicken salad, and I haven't had much meat lately, so now my tummy hurts. *sad face*

snow snow snow ....

Jule is probably the only one singing along with me right now. But Jule, today I actually washed my hair in snow. It was unintentional, I assure you. And not at all as pleasant as Rosemary and Bing made it sound.

I also finally bought my ugly yet functional Uggs. Quite honestly, I'm not sure how I lived here without them before. They are extremely warm and very comfortable and kept my feet completely DRY. You know what aren't? And didn't? Chuck Taylors. I opted for the ones with the more rugged/durable sole and am quite pleased with my purchase.

So, basically, it snowed all damn day, and I was walking around in it like a moron. A moron who didn't wear the proper shoes or bring her "big" coat, even though she lived here for two Februarys and visited during at least two others. First stop, the Ugg store. My feet, both pair of socks, and my sneakers were completely soaked by the time I got there, so I bought them right off the shelf and wore them out of the store like when I was little and I got my back-to-school shoes. I went to my friend Melanie's, where I sat down and dried my socks with a hair dryer. My pants were too far gone; they just had to stay wet. We had Indian food ("look at me... I'm growing") and then went to the Angelika to see The Queen. It was very good but I still stand that my personal favorite movie of 2006 was Pan's Labyrinth.

Now I'm back at the hotel, drying my pants over the radiator and waiting on my Valentine, Brittny, to get done with work. We are going out for Greek food and then we're going to cuddle. Ibym "cuddle"... "wrap up in our separate double beds and talk." Tomorrow I'm going to get some schoolwork done and go poach Britt's show, which is an art show, and see if I can get some new brushes and things. Maybe hit the AMNH and if it's not snowing, the Park. Also, tomorrow is my friend Liza B's 30th birthday, and if tradition teaches us anything at all, there just may have to be a little trip down to the Cowgirl Hall of Fame.

I also have to leave Britt's nice, cushy room here at The Park Central tomorrow, and move into my own room down at The Super 8. Yeah. The Super 8. *sigh*

it's up to you, New York

I was walking to meet Tom for dinner last night at Da Marino, and I was listening to my "I heart NY" playlist on my iPod, and it started to snow. The city is magic!

Happy Valentine's Day. I have a date with New York City.

my weekend

My weekend was a fun one, for the most part. Friday I went to Madison & Dave's and we made chili and just sat around and caught up. It's nice to do normal things with my friends, and not feel like it's been so long since I've seen them that every meeting has to be a special event. Sandy came down Saturday morning and we met Madge for 90 minutes of excruciating yoga, and we saw a giant!! Seriously, he was at least, no embellishing, 7' tall. We took Madge home and had brunch at Dream Cafe where I swear, that giant followed us! I thought it might have been a different giant, but Sandy wisely stated that it was a 2-block radius: how many giants could there be?

We watched a horrible, horrible movie (as Tom would say, I could have written that script in my sleep) and the entire first season of Entourage, a Christmas present from Sir Justin, and I have to say... it kind of made me hate Hollywood. And men. After she left I caught up on 3 hours of Jack Bauer and 3 hours of Jack Daniels... oops. That's a lot of Jack. BOTH Jacks. I also got to catch up with an old friend on the phone who I haven't talked to in a while, so that part was great.

Sunday, the remains of Jack, the latter, caught up with me and I was sick ALL DAY. Seriously, I'm getting old because I didn't drink that much, but I know it wasn't the food because Sandy was fine. Man oh MAN, it was bad. Bill brought me some ginger ale and after a grand total of 1 sick session and 2 dry-heaving sessions, I finally got it all out and passed out on the couch. I did manage to watch BSG though and it was a nice stand-alone Helo-centric episode. I love Helo. He's 10 feet tall and bulletproof, but a big ole softie underneath his armor, and seriously, he can just never catch a break.

Today is my last day at home. *sigh* I have to go to the bank and to Best Buy, and pay some bills and do some laundry, and pack, for tomorrow I leave. I have a lab test at school and then straight to the airport for New York City. Yay!

Go productivity! Choose productivity!

Kiddo often lauds me for getting a great number of tasks accomplished in any given time period. I don't know if that's true- I think it's easier for me to attack small projects and that gives me the false feeling that I've accomplished more than I actually have, thus boosting my self-esteem and drive to keep going, but I will say this: I have been extraordinarily productive in the past 48 hours.

Yesterday, bolstered by a full 9 hours of awesome sleep, I cleaned the back half of my apartment (bedroom and bathroom), ran a full afternoon of errands (Target, mall, tailor, cobbler, and liquor store to pick up a little gift for Flaskie), went to yoga, and watched about a third of the stuff on my DVR. Today I did all my schoolwork (for now), cleaned the front half of my apartment (living room and kitchen- even scrubbed the sink and stove!), and went to the gym. I still have TV to watch and work reports to tend to, but I feel about a million times better about life in general than I did on Wednesday.

home

So, after 2 back-to-back shows of 100-miles-a-minute, I finally got home yesterday. My travel day brought its own set of stresses, including a cab driver without a credit card machine who held my luggage hostage while I ran all over SFO looking for an ATM, a rooster on my airplane (yes, seriously), hairspray leaking all over my leather boots in my suitcase, and a unit exam over the endocrine system. I was in my pj's by 5pm with a bowl of homemade vegetable soup and a glass several glasses of wine. I caught up on some TV and decided to hit today with renewed vigor.

I had a conference call at 10, and that went fine, and then I was going to go to yoga at 12:15, but lo and behold, my only clean work-out pants were also soaked with hairspray from the aforementioned suitcase spill. Since I had so much laundry, I decided to take it to the laundromat instead of making 6 rounds in the apartment courtyard. I thought that would be less stressful but it wasn't. There was a machine malfunction and a broken hanger and a pair of clean wet pants dropped on the dirty floor. I think the real problem with today is that I didn't give myself enough R&R before jumping in. After the last week and a half, I should have allowed myself a full 24 hours of sloth before trying to be productive.

I was trying to study in the laundromat, but my mind kept wandering (ibym "wandering"... "fleeing off topic"). There was a girl about my age in there with 2 small children, and I found myself wondering about her life. Was she married? Did she love her husband? Did they plan their family? She had a nice face, like we could be friendly if we spoke the same language. We're neighbors but we live in different worlds.

In other news, my basil plant, Shady Spice, finally decided to give up. It wasn't her fault she had to live on my shady windowsill and never get watered. It wasn't her fault that my travel schedule keeps me from fully committing to a relationship. She finally understood that I was never going to be for her what she needed me to be, and she went on to a better place (that big spice garden in the sky). RIP, Shady Spice.

I thought I would get more done today. I have schoolwork but I need to go get an ink cartridge for my printer. I need to pick up my coat from the tailor so I can take it to NYC (another stress: I leave next Tuesday and don't yet have a hotel room; long story). I need a new power cord for my Nextel. I need to do 2 expense reports, 2 time sheets, and 2 post-show reports. I need to test my next show. I need to watch everything on my DVR so I can leave again. I need to put clean sheets on my bed and mop the bathroom and go through the stack of mail on my coffee table. Which reminds me, I need to pay my renter's insurance and I need to make an appointment to get my taxes done. I need a haircut.

And apparently, I need to go to the gym before I have a heart attack. But not today.

remember me?

It's been a long time since I've updated. I have worked about 15 hours a day for the last 9 days. It's 5:45am and I slept longer than I have all week, and I actually got up a little early so I could do some work before I go to work. The best word to describe me today is bleary. I'm having to reword every sentence because I'm not even making sense. Next time you're jealous that I sometimes get to stay home for a week and watch TV while I collect a paycheck, remember that sometimes I make about 17 cents an hour.

So, my Ugg project didn't work out very well, which totally blows my whole plan to pay for college relying solely on blog donations. Curses, foiled again! In good news, my friend Nathaniel sent me this link where you can build your own South Park character. Wicked fun.

Did I tell you how I get to wake up at 5 tomorrow to make an 8am flight, and when I get to the airport in Dallas, go straight to school for a test for which I am spectacularly unprepared? Yeah. Good times. But as soon as that's over I get to beeline to the couch and the remote, where I plan to stay for a good 24 hours. One week at home before I hit NYC for the 2nd time in a month! Whee!

OK, I have to get in the shower and go put in another day. Kisses!!

material-girl

I know I'm about 5 years late on the trend-bandwagon, but I really really really really want these boots. I think they're so ugly and hippie they're rad. Plus, warm! Also, I really really really really REALLY want them before I go to NYC for work in 2 weeks. I have spent so much time at freezing service desks next to open dock doors this winter I think I'm going to die. (This brought to you while wearing 3 shirts, a scarf, 2 pair of socks, and sitting about 6" from a space heater. If you'd like to donate to Jamie's Warm Feet Fund, please click on the icon below. Your $5 could help keep me from getting frostbite on my piggies. Seriously.