Gibbongirl

Soooo.... yeah....

2009-06-24T15:33:00.002-04:00

Soooo... its been a while. I'm sure my 3 fans figured that I fell off the face of the technological world. But I haven't. I'm still here, trying to make it through the adventures of life. Finished school. Lost weight. Gained weight. Moved. Got a job. Traveled. Car died. Bought a new car. Went to wedding. Went to cabin. Went to Walmart. Cut hair. Had work drama. The usual. Good times.

Just relaxin'

2007-12-30T20:38:00.001-05:00

Some days don't you just feel like sitting around, at home, or at the local pool/waterfall. Good times. Its the holidays and much relaxing is being had. My favorite. No mishaps or adventures to report lately... which I think is a good thing... or it may mean that my life has become temporarily boring, sigh. But, do not despair its about to be a new year and there are bound to be some great adventures to come in the days, weeks, and months ahead. I'll keep you posted.

My Tirade Against the Establishment

2007-04-22T20:43:00.000-04:00

So, the other day I was trying to get my thesis printed out on the required 25% cotton, 20 or 24 lb, white paper. I thought, hey this is a university requirment so the university copy shop should be the place to go. Many students need to print out thesis and dissertations on that type of paper; it should logically follow that the university copy shop would be equipped to provide this needed service for the thier students. Sounds logical, right? This is apparently NOT the case. You can't even print from a usb drive. A total and utter dissapointment. So then I thought, the next best thing would be to find a name brand copy shop (the one that starts with a K) and it turns out that the closest one is about 30 minutes away. There I was able to rent computer time, at a per minute charge, and send my items to a printer. After making the last minute changes and triple checking that everything was in order I sent my pages to the printer, at the low low price of .50 a page (EEKS). I go to collect my pages and take them to the counter so that I can get the copied on the special cotton paper. Sorry, they can't make copies for me today, it will take them until 8pm, or sometime tomorrow. I can however, purchase the special cotton paper (which is actually 100% cotton and not 25%, but whatever) and make the copies myself. I thought that was the next best solution and proceeded to count pages to know how many sheets to buy, when I noticed that almost all of my pages had printed out slightly askew. Some pages were more than slighlty askew, with almost an inch difference from top to bottom. The univeristy has no tolorence for skewed pages, so I asked if they could check out the printer or if they had another printer I could use. They didn't and replied that that was how thier printers printed. Then they tried to reprint my pages from one of the behind-the-desk printers and after over a half hour of trying to figure out how the printers worked, asked if I could email the pages to them and they would try to print them out later that day. After almost 2 hours and 20$, I decided that I had had it with the "K" place. I started to drive back to the univeristy and was feeling greatly disturbed and disgrunteld, when I noticed a office supply store (we'll call it store "S"). I thought that I could find my 25% cotton paper and then maybe I could beg someone at the univeristy to let me print off my pages somewhere. Luckily the paper was in stock and I grab two boxes (just in case) and run to the cashier. As I am leaving I look at the reciept I'm shocked and amazed to learn that I have paid close to 40$ for these two boxes of paper. When I recover from the mild cardio infraction I realize that I had actually been charged for more boxes than I had in reality purchased. So back to the cashier, who talks to me in Spanish (another tirade for anther day), for my refund and then I'm off to the university. I am finally able to print my pages, when someone else sends a bunch of articles to the printer I was using and ends up printing thier articles on almost a whole box worth of my paper... the 10$ a box paper... and I about freak out. Good thing I bought that second box. Finally 4 hours and 40$ later my thesis was printed out, another 30 minutes and it was turned in. Sigh... it was a long day that really made me question the helpfulness of printer-outer-establishments.

Procrastination Nation

2006-11-27T01:00:00.000-05:00

Welcome to procrastination central, where all the work is done last minute and antacids are served with every meal.
Why do I do this to myself? I wait til the last minute, even the last second to do papers and projects. I make myself physically ill with the stress. I push the ox so far in the mire it would take a tow truck to get him out. Hello, my name is Gibbongirl and I'm a procrastinator. Too bad procrastination is not a super power, 'cause then I could be Gibbongirl the "Procrasti-Nator" except I don't think I would ever get around to solving super hero prolems, or maybe I would, it would always be just in the nick of time.

In a Rut ... Rut... Rut...

2006-11-01T17:50:00.000-05:00

Its been the same ol same ol for a couple of weeks now. I drive to Miami, go to class, go home, go to church, go to the sanctuary, drive to Miami, repeat, etc. I'm in the Miami-class part of the cycle at the moment. There have been the occasional excursions to buy food (realized it was bad when all I had in the fridge was a jet black banana, 2 eggs, and a stick of butter in the fridge... and that was all for a week at least). The food shopping excursions happen infrequently... apparently. Yup, its sad when shopping for yogurt is the highlight of the week... So there you have it-the not so exciting update about the goings-on in my life.

Of course now that I've written this something "exciting" will happen I'm sure. As long as no bones break, no cars die, and all fingers stay intact I think I can handle it.

Summer, wherefore art thou??

2006-08-30T16:12:00.000-04:00

Haven't really posted in a while. The double life I am leading tends to create a time vortex or even a black hole that sucks time into oblivion till I come up for air suddenly, (and infrequently), and realize that whole months have gone by. Its an odd feeling to say the least. I live half a week in one town and the other half in a town 5 hours away. Somewhere along the path of I-75, between my two home towns, I swear there is a portal that when breached starts the week over. By the clock only one week passes at a time, but it feels like there are two weeks squished into that one week's passing. So time flies even as it creeps by. Like I said, an odd feeling.
So, the summer has come and gone, but oh joy there is a new semester coming up. Actually it has already started. And we're off to a good start. My first class was cancelled when the university closed for Tropical Storm Ernesto. Only one more class this week. Nothing says the end of summer like the dread that occurs when you realize you have to go back to school and sit in a classroom hour after hour after hour. . . after endless hour. . . And even though I have to contend with time vortexes, black holes, and portals again this semester it should be a good one with lots of "fun" adventures, mishaps, and experiences to fill this bog.

In the midst of my imagination

2005-11-29T00:37:00.000-05:00

The imagination is a powerful thing. I thought that being older than 5, ok maybe 10, indicated that I should have firm control of how my imagination worked by now. Not so. I have been proven wrong twice this week. At home, alone, one night I decided to throw caution to the wind, put homework aside and pick up a book to read. It turned out to be a murder mystery, with vanishing women and ghastly deaths, the usual murder mystery fair... And, yet the author did a good job of collecting my imagination and refusing to relinquish his grasp. I found myself jumping at slight noises from outside, holding my breath when I heard neighbors on the stairs, and even locking my bedroom door. (Not super effective if a killer wanted to get me... It's one of those locks you could open with a penny.) Even after I told myself I was being silly, I still had a some nervous minutes (ok I'll be honest, hours) that night. What added to this personal embarrassment (side note: is it really embarrassment if no one else is there to witness it? :end side note) was that this was not the first time I had read the book.
Incident number two is not for the squeamish, or those who are currently eating so stop reading now! No? You want to keep on reading? I warned you... As I was attempting to pick up my mail one afternoon from the communal mail boxes; you know the type, where everyone's box is next to each other, stacked like the cubby holes from first grade; and I noticed a bunch of ants climbing and darting all over the area. My imagination kicked into superdrive, took control of my brain, and my immediate thought was: what if someone put a dead rat in my mailbox? In my head I had a clear picture of myself approaching the mailbox, opening it slowly, reaching in and pulling out a dead, moldy, decomposing rat by its squishy tail...eeewwwww... Why I wasn't screaming in my head while this was happening I don't know, but the non-in-my-head me shuddered violently and felt extremely nauseous and ended up not getting the mail that day.

Adventure #1

2005-11-13T21:59:00.000-05:00

Even though this is titled "Adventure #1," it is not my first adventure (boy is it not my first...sigh...), only the first since the beginning of this here blog. I am in the process of moving about 4 hours away from my current location. Over the weekend was the big trip to move all my stuff. You know its amazing, I moved across the country with all my stuff jammed in a little car, but to move 4 hours away I had to rent a U-haul truck--when did I accumulate so much stuff, I'm not sure. So anyways everything was fine and dandy going up.... until we pulled into the parking lot of the apartment complex. As I was trying to find the right building in what was a labyrinth of apartment buildings my car stalled five times...in a row, my car is an automatic-its not supposed to stall. That was only the beginning. After unloading everything and returning the overly expensive truck, we had some dinner and were on our way. After driving for a while we realized that we had gotten on the wrong freeway to come home, it was still going south but ended up taking us on a 30 minute detour before connecting us back to the freeway that we needed to be on. Which would have been ok, only it connected us 15 miles from where we began... We kept on driving, kept on driving when all of a sudden the car started to vibrate... alot... then we heard a kind of popping noise and quickly pulled over. Yup, you guessed it: tire troubles; the thread was barely hanging on to one of the back tires. Luckily we had a spare and even more luckily we were stopped literally feet in front the "last exit for 40 miles" sign. So we go into town to try to find somewhere to buy a new tire, cause the spare is good for what, 50 miles? And we were only half way home. NO place was open, not even Walmart! So, we decide that since we don't want to stay in this town overnight, we would risk it and continue on our way home. So now we're driving along, slowly but surely, driving along when all of a sudden the engine light comes on and the car stalls out again! We quickly pull over to the side of the road and do the requisite check, make sure there is oil, not over heated, etc. etc. Don't know whats wrong, but the car starts again and we continue to slowly drive on. We decide to buy more gas and take a break. While there at the gas station the restroom facilities were used,.... come to find out there were no locks on the door... need I say more? Embarrassment ensued, 'nough said. Chocolate was purchased and we continued on the way home. You know those cartoons were everything goes wrong and the cartoon character finally gives up and kicks the car and the car explodes or shatters into a pile of rubbish? Well I didn't kick the car, didn't want to chance it, but I did consider it... Finally, hours later we were able to make it home. And this concludes Adventure #1.

Musings of a snake's life...

2005-11-09T15:56:00.000-05:00

I know how a snake must feel. Slithering around all snake-like, doing your snake thing, living your snake life, not bothering anyone-just minding your own snake business. Then you have one too many rabbits for your current size, or sit in the sun for 3 hours and 58 minutes too long, and your skin has had it. Realizing that you are stuck in skin that is too small and too tight, you have to shed a layer... you have to, you can't help it, the skin has got to go. Then its a HUGE irritation and you rub and scratch and slither and glide etc. etc. against branches and rocks and door frames and whatever else that happens to be handy to help that old, dried-up, gross skin come off to make way for the new, beautiful skin underneath. I bet its during this time that most snake attacks happen. I mean you're at your worst-all flakey and nasty, and super irritated cause you itch and itch and you just want to get rid of the itch....stop the itch...stop the itch... oh the insanity.......-and someone comes along and gets all up in your face, I'd bite 'em too. Ok, well I might not bite them, but I would give them the evil eye at the very least and probably say something sarcastic, that is if I could think of something sarcastic to say (I always seem to think of the best come backs and zingers hours after the immediate need, and then when I do come up with something I reduce them to tears and expose them for the lame brains they are..... in my head). So, a word to the wise, if you don't want to get attacked by a snake: "Don't tease them while they're peeling!"

Burn Baby, Burn!

2005-11-05T17:43:00.000-05:00

So, ok I went to the beach today. Its crazy that its November and we can still go to the beach and not freeze to death. Oh no, we had great weather, the sun was out, there was a slight breeze, there were even some waves to jump through. Did I mention the sun was out? We had music and soda, played catch and soccer and swam and talked and had a blast. Unbeknownst to us innocent beach goers those evil sun rays were attacking our fragile skin, ok, ok, my fragile skin since I was the whitest person there. I swear I put on suntan lotion, I know I did. Although looking back I don't think it was waterproof like my friend Pao said it was supposed to be. Which was bad since the first thing we did at our 4 hour beach trip was jump in the ocean. So the sun raged on in an unprovoked battle for 3 hours 58 minutes against my white white (not even off white, or mother of pearl white) white white skin, which was unprotected from our primary's harsh rays. And let me tell you...the sun won... big time...there were no surviving white skin cells. My face is like unto an overripe cherry tomato, and if lobster were on the menu my back would be the main course. We won't even discuss my legs which haven't even seen the sun since the mid 90's--I'm sure you can imagine the pain. To remedy my "suntan lotion" situation, I had to go to the store, which was painful in and of itself, to buy aloe vera with lidocain and some special lip balm. Don't you just love people at the store? As I was standing in line trying to pay, the lady behind me said, "Looks like someone got some sun, heh, heh." My first reaction was really how could you tell, was it the fact that I looked like I had colored every inch of my skin with a red crayola marker, or was is the heat you could feel emanating from body at least 3 feet away... Of course I didn't say that, only thought it, and mumbled my lame excuse "I put suntan lotion on" and tried to joke it off, but you know how those grocery store line conversations go...As I was leaving I heard the line lady tell the cashier "ouch, that looks painful." Yup,.... yup it is. Don't recommend it, not one bit. So now I'm waiting for the lidocain to kick in, hoping the Advil works, reapplying the lip balm and planning my next outing. I'm thinking....someplace dark....with lots and lots of airconditioning.

Getting Started

2005-11-03T23:59:00.000-05:00

As I was rereading (for like the 50b'jillioneth time) our family forum, I had a realization: I'm becoming a forum junkie. Not the "oh, I need to check the forum today" junkie, not the "I wonder who's on now" junkie, oh no I'm talking hard core, "multiple checks (and by multiple I mean lots and lots-too embarrassed to give real numbers, only adjectives) an hour" junkie. I HAVE to have my daily fix, can't stop refreshing the page, even when I know no one has posted in the last 3 minutes 'cause no one but me is on-they all have lives, apparently-I still refresh, and refresh, and refresh and when nothing happens I refresh again. So my wise older sister suggested another creative outlet for my incessant need for internet forum-ing. A blog, she says, would be a good idea, so I'm giving it a try. I don't know yet if this is going to help my addiction... or make it worse....could be interesting...