Ew, why???

Why, oh why did someone decide that Skittles + chocolate = good? NO!

Skittles + Chocolate = Epic Fail

I want to kick the person who gave this product the green light...

Unemployed at last!

No. Wait. Unemployment at last!

I've been dealing with a snafu with the Arizona unemployment office which has caused me to not get any unemployment payments and which has totally sucked. After 4 weeks of calling the provided number and getting the recording that says "Thanks for calling AZ unemployment. Due to high call volume, we can't help you now, call back later", I FINALLY got through to an actual human being yesterday. They had managed to drop my SSN out of the active claims system but now it's back in and now I'll be collecting my whopping $240/week. Yay! I know $240/week doesn't sound like much but it's WAY more than $0/week so I'm pretty stoked. Plus, they're going to pay me back payments for the last three weeks that got fucked up. Super YAY! Big paycheck for me!

Now, I'm only allowed 19 or 20 weeks of unemployment so we really want me to get that awesome job at the Denver School of Massage, okay? Really really. I had a great interview on Monday and the lady was supposed to call me Friday to schedule a 2nd interview but she was out sick with a high fever soooo... we're hoping she calls me Monday to schedule the 2nd interview and then I'll get hired real quick for this awesome job that is perfect for me, my abilities, and my passion. Okay? Okay. Good. Glad we had this talk.

I'm siiiiiick

Blech. I hate being sick. Especially when vomiting or other such unseemly activities are involved.

It's probably some sort of flu. It's just not the kind of flu where I want to curl into a ball and beg for God to please have mercy and take me now. It's just a flu that gives me an overall oogy feeling, makes me not want to eat much, and thus makes me feel really weak. I've been sleeping for 18 of the last 24 hours and I'm thinking I may go back to bed after posting this.

It really sucks because a.) tomorrow is xmas eve. And b.) my soon-to-be ex-boyfriend is on a flight from Tucson to Denver as we speak and I want to, uh, have enough energy to, like, do stuff when I see him. Oh, and I also don't want to puke during, you know, whatever we end up doing...

Now if you'll excuse me, my body is asking to be relieved of some more fluids and then I'll be crawling back in bed. Thanks for your time...

Chicken soup for the soul

It's amazing how much good one cup of coffee with a close friend can do for one's well-being and spirit. One latte and two hours later, I feel infinitely better than when I woke up.

I also find it interesting that we can be surprised to be reminded of how much we treasure certain friends. Does that make sense? Like, I know I love my friends. Duh. But sometimes I'll be sitting with this friend or that friend and it'll hit me like a ton of bricks that "Man, this person is so fucking awesome and I am so happy to have this person in my life." Not that we necessarily take friends for granted most of the time. I'm just not sure we occasionally take the time to really stop, think, and realize how truly wonderful our friends are and revel in the gratitude of such things.

It was FAN-FUCKING-TASTIC to see you today, Ash. I didn't realize how desperately I missed you until you walked through the door! Love you long time, babe.

OMGOMGOMGOMG!!!

This morning, I sent a cover letter and resume to apply for this job:

Currently seeking Clinical Internship Instructor to Manage student massage clinic in a Vocational School environment.

If you have a proven track record of meeting and exceeding goals, a strong drive to help others succeed, and if you can multi-task with exceptional customer service skills, we want to meet you. Ideal candidate will be a Certified Massage
Therapist with a minimum of 3 years experience working in the field. Previous
supervisory or management experience preferred!

Essential Duties include: Create, manage and supervise Clinical Internship staffing flow including student schedules and make-up schedules. Hire, train and counsel
Clinical Internship staff. Communicate clinic and/or student concerns to
appropriate management. Handle student and customer issues as they arise and
report to Director or Education Manager. Conduct Clinical Internship protocol
class. Create, instill and maintain an attitude of Complete Customer Service in
all clinic staff. Create, maintain and disseminate to the Campus Director and VP
of Clinical Internship a weekly statistical report of clinic activity as directed.

Scheduled Hours: The Clinical Internship operates every Saturday and Sunday and is open for 12 hours each day. This is where the majority of the scheduled hours will be spent. If you are interested in applying for this position, please be advised that weekends are required.

We offer a competitive salary commensurate with experience and excellent benefits to include medical, dental, life, vision, disability, paid vacation/ sick/
personal/ holiday time off, a matching 401(k) retirement plan.

Five minutes after sending the email, the lady called me to schedule an interview! She told me that she doesn't say this often but she was VERY impressed by my cover letter and wanted to give me mad props for that (she didn't say mad props. She meant it, though). Anyway, I'm interviewing on Monday at 11:00 and I am beside myself with anxiety and excitement. It's a pretty impressive-sounding job, management level and everything. She said we won't have a problem arguing about pay because it pays better than the $15/hr I was asking for. Also, I'd be off Tues, Wed, Thurs most weeks, which is fine by me. Working 12 hours every Sat and Sun kind of sucks but then I think about how I've been spending my weekends lately and realize I may as well be managing a massage clinic rather than watching another House marathon on USA. I'm not certain that I'm quite qualified for the position but I am a quick learner so as long as someone is training me, I should be fine.

The really cool thing is that I mentioned on my resume that I'm seeking a supervisory or teaching position at a massage school. She asked if I'd be interested in moving into a teaching position eventually and I said yeah except that I don't have a bachelor's. She said a degree is nice but she's more interested in experience and personality. So 10 years after dropping out of the music education program at CSU, I may still get a chance to be a teacher! Isn't that crazy?

Oh, and did I mention that this is at the Denver School of Massage Therapy, which is located across the street from Westminster Mall?? Hell, that's like the dead center of my 'comfort zone', 6 blocks from my mom's house and 6 blocks from Alex's house.

Happy, happy, HAPPY thoughts here people! I've wanted to work for a massage school since graduating so we REALLY want this to happen!

What a difference 6 months makes...

My summer in Tucson...



And my winter in Denver...

I didn't get the job and I'm not qualified to sleep, either.

I had a 1st and 2nd interview this week at a chiropractic office in Brighton and I really thought the job was in the bag. It was for a front desk/admin position but I would've also been trained as a chiropractic assistant, which would have been AWESOME. Plus, it paid $14/hr, which also would have been AWESOME.

But, alas, they found someone with 10 years of experience as a C.A. and had run all aspects of a chiropractic office so they went with the experienced person rather than the fabulous one. *sigh*

On top of that, I got a call this week from the CU sleep lab, telling me that I did not qualify to take part in their sleep study. WTF? How did I not qualify to sleep with electrodes on my head and a pulse/ox on my finger? Lame and lame. They'll keep my info on file for future tests but that really doesn't help me make money NOW.

I'm back to square one now, applying for everything and anything on craigslist that pays more than $12/hr... Boo.

Much love to my only follower...

Hi Ash! How are ya! Miss you, babe. Coffee soon, okay? :)

Religion, In Laura's Eyes

My beautiful friend Laura, who lives in Kosovo, posted this on her blog today and I just loved it. It's quite a brilliant way to think about religion, really, and I think everyone could benefit from taking a minute to read this and then taking a minute to think about it afterward.


I am really opinionated! :)
I personaly am Baha'i (If you want to know about that: http://www.bahai.org/ ).
I go to any type of worship to pray, whether it is Hindu, Christian, pagan, Muslim, etc.
I am currently going to Liberty University in Virginia, which is probably the most Christian College in the US.

I personaly do not care one way or the other what people want to do for Winter Solstice. I don't believe in Christmas, but I also don't think that preventing anyone from praying, celebrating, or worshiping, in any way that doesn't hurt others, is wrong.

I like Christmas. I like Christmas trees, and the lights on the houses. I like Nativity story scenes, and watching a Charlie Brown Christmas with my Dad. I like Christmas Stockings and Santa Claus. I like gathering with my atheist relatives to have a family gathering. I like Egg nog and I like Cranberry sauce. I like Christmas Carols and Christmas Presents. I like tradition and I like Jesus. I like Angels, and I like Mary. Just because I don't believe the same as someone else, does not make them any less mine.

I also like Hannakuh and I like Yule. Names and traditions are created by people not by Gods. I sometimes notice that a lot of people who are not Christian seem to be very nervous about anything that is, and I say screw that! Just because they claim it does not give them ownership, and does not mean that I can't have it too. I was getting Christmas cards worked on today, and found myself wondering if I shouldn't have said happy Yule instead of Merry Christmas on a pagan friends card, or whether I should say God Bless in a Christian friends card, and I decided that if anyone does not like their card they can throw it in the trash!!!! :)

I don't care if they put the ten commandments on the wall of the court building, and I don't care if people pray in schools. I don't care if it says "In God we Trust" on our money, or that it says "One Nation under God" in the pledge of alegiance.
If something is said that I don't believe in then how does it affect me? If they want me to swear on a Bible and think that is going to keep me honest, that is their problem. I don't mind saying or hearing "God" in any situation. God is not a name, and it is not owned by the Christian Faith. I also don't care if other people don't believe or what they believe. If I believe and you don't, how does your lack of faith affect mine? My faith would have to be pretty weak for you to be able to harm it, or alter it with your own.

Equality means an equal right to having freedoms, it does not mean that we are or should try to be the same. Equality: The equal treatment of people irrespective of social or cultural differences.

I think it is really sad that people are stealing signs and throwing acid on stuff, just because it is not something they believe. It is also really too bad that these people have apparently not read the Bible, since they sin by their own belief constantly. How hard it must be for them to pray to God with so much shame...

I am sad that people think that Muslim's are bad now, becasue Iraq is a Muslim nation. Kosovo is too, and I've never had any problem involving religion here! Maybe Christians should just ban free speech in the US, and then all of my friends can pack up their families and we'll all move to Canada...LOL!
I hope that wasn't over doing, but I was really thinking!

Follow me!

Hi. See all those things over there on the right of the page? No, not the slide show. No, not the profile thingy. The Follower thing. Yeah, that. You should go add yourself there as a blog follower. You know, so that I know you love me and whatnot. Yesh. Then I can love you more, you can love me more, and, according to Burt Bacharach, what the world needs now is love, sweet love. It's the only thing that there's just too little of. So go on. Follow me, my lovely!

To sleep or not to sleep...

Okay, so... I've been trolling craigslist, Yahoo HotJobs, and Monster for two weeks now, applying for pretty much every job for which I'm qualified and that I think may be remotely interesting/lucrative.

On this search, I came across an interesting "Other" job posting. It seems that the University of Colorado at Boulder is conducting a sleep study in order "to examine the effects of caffeine, melatonin, and light exposure on daily patterns in human physiology and behavior, to help us develop better treatments for jet lag and sleep disorders." There is a long study and a short study that I could take part in and get paid for my involvement.

This intrigues me.

Both studies start with a basic physical, blood work and EKG, just to be sure I'm a healthy 28-year old woman. The short study involves a week of me tracking my sleeping patterns at home by writing down bedtime and wake time for a week as well as calling their special answering machine to let them know I'm going to bed or waking up. It also involves living in their sleep lab for 3 1/2 days to be monitored and tested. It would pay me $503 for this study.

The long study starts the same way, with the week of sleep tracking, but the lab part is much longer. "You will then live in the sleep lab on four occasions; each visit you will stay in the lab for five 24-hour days." Okay, I know it sounds kind of crazy and time-consuming but it also sounds kind of cool. Plus, they would pay me $3,060. Not bad for a month's work.

I dunno, I'm thinking about doing it. I mean, I don't have a job so it's not like it would interfere with such things. And I'd be off for two days at the end of the week. I'm unclear whether or not I'd have internet access or tv access (the Avalanche!) or cell phone access. I need to get clarification on all of that. I know that they have specific things in mind for me like making me stay awake for 40 hours on days two and three and I'll also have to do some things on a computer, including a driving simulator. They'll test my sensitivity to bright and dim light, study my sleep patterns and body temperature, etc. It seems kind of crazy and time consuming but the payoff is pretty damn good and it's a really interesting thing to do, don't you think?

Sure, I won't get to see friends and family as often as I'd planned when moving back to CO but it's only a month's worth of work. As long as it starts in the new year, I think it would be pretty cool. I dunno... I think I may do it...

The first snow

The view from my balcony. Colorado is much colder than Arizona... this NO DUH moment brought to you by Lotus.