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poor amy winehouse

Amy Winehouse is so sad. I think she has a really good voice, and brought a nice revival of older genres, and I think it sucks that she has thrown her life away to drugs. I'm sure she won't live too many more years. I recently read that she might be confined to a wheelchair if she doesn't stop smoking crack, because she has emphysema or something ridiculous like that. She's 24. That's only three years older than me. I hope I don't have emphysema by the time I'm 24, haha.

Last night, Ashley and I were watching some of her latest performances on YouTube where she was high/drunk out of her mind and you could barely understand what she was saying. We even saw one where she did a line of coke in the middle of a performance (she got it from somewhere up her sleeve) and people in the crowd actually cheered. Ashley thinks it's really funny, and I do too to some extent, but I also think it's really sad. I can't believe we applaud performances like that. Like so many other young talents, she really sold out to drugs. We also watched an interview from when she was 19, still had a brain, still had a little body fat, and didn't have that beehive hairdo yet. It's crazy to see how much she has changed.

freaking awesome night

Last night was phenomenal. I went out with my friend Courtney to bars on Franklin Street, and we ended up talking to Bobby Frasor and Tyler Hansbrough for like 15 minutes on two separate occasions like normal human beings! (They are star basketball players, in case you didn't know.) It was so awesome. All of these sluts were throwing themselves at them and buying them drinks, and we kept it classy and just were friendly and fun, and they definitely respected us a lot more for it. I'm sure he enjoyed meeting someone more on his level ;). And, like an hour and a half after we met Bobby for the first time, I said, "You probably forgot my name by now, right?" But he said, "No, Angela, and Courtney." Hahaha! We were shocked and amazed and so excited. Bobby Frasor knows my name. No big deal. I hope we see him out again soon. :)

dinner time at the house

Last night was my night to cook dinner. I made burritos with beef, black beans, corn, salsa, and cheese, and then had "Mexican fiesta rice" on the side. It was a hit and everybody liked it, including me! Haha.

Tonight Ashley is making a pasta salad, which I want to eat RIGHT NOW, but she told me I have to wait until it gets cold in the refrigerator because she just finished it and it's currently hot. Man. I'm hungry. But I can wait, I GUESS. Haha.

I need to put another coat of paint on this little bedside table I'm painting, which I planned on doing tonight, but I think I might just wait until the weekend. I'm tired. And I should finish sanding my desk tonight instead. I'm going to stain it a dark cherry color to match my dresser.

Ok, I'm going to go check on the pasta salad and see if it managed to get cold in like 5 minutes. Haha.

money!

I just picked up my paycheck from my cashier job. I was expecting a pretty big one, because I thought I worked a lot during that pay period, but unfortunately it was smaller than expected. Bummer. This whole paying-rent thing is making saving for Argentina (or even just saving for the school year to come) really hard. But I guess it's only June. I'm sure it will all work out just fine. I guess I just thought I'd be half rich by now since I've been working 6 days a week. Haha. But I really can't complain. I have all of my needs met (and more) and my bank account is slowly growing.

I think I'll definitely have to work a little bit during the school year, but that's ok. It's been nice not doing that and concentrating on my studies these past 3 years, but this semester I'm taking a slightly lighter course load (or so I hope--I'm taking a couple really hard classes like econometrics and a couple easy ones like Italian 101). So anyway, working shouldn't affect my grades too badly.

abs

Earlier this month when my grandmother was visiting from Buffalo, NY, she and my mom and I were sitting around a table looking at the Sunday ads from the newspaper. I was looking at a Target ad when I saw a girl that looked like this posing with an exercise ball:


I asked my mom and grandma, "When you guys were younger, were girls so obsessed with having a nice stomach?" It seems to me that every girl I know is always trying to do crunches and go to the gym and eat less and less in order to have these treasured "ABS."

My mom replied, "We didn't even know girls had abs."

Hahaha. I thought that was so classic. And so true. How many women do you really know who have a stomach like that? Even girls I know who are constantly working out usually don't look like that. I can only think of one girl I know who has defined abs, and that's because she's on the university soccer team and is really active all the time. And why do you think that is?

I think it's because we aren't supposed to look like that. Ashley was telling me that every woman naturally has that patch of fat on their tummy below their belly button to protect their uterus. Makes a lot of sense. Just in case you get bumped around a little, you will still be able to have children. So, it also makes a lot of sense why it is so hard to get rid of, and why women have to literally fight their bodies to get rid of it. It's because we are supposed to have a little fat there.

So, I started thinking, if it's supposed to be there, then I'm not in such a hurry to get rid of it. I'd rather look healthy and not overly muscular.

big brother is watching

Margie and Heath were talking about the RFID "Real IDs" that NC has implemented on our drivers licenses, and which apparently will be on all state licenses very soon. They are so creepy. This sounds way too much like "1984" to me. This 2-D hologram chip on the back of our licenses, which I am looking at in my hand right now, is apparently big enough to hold an encyclopedia set worth of information. It holds all of the information on the front of our licenses, our SSN, picture, and tax information, and I hear they also want to put things like fingerprint data and retina scans on it too. Awesome. (Not.) Basically, now they can track our every move, and a lot of people that commented on articles I read about it expressed a greater concern that the system where the government keeps all of this information could be easily hacked into. Someone wrote that Homeland Security databases have been hacked into over 800 times in the past 2 years. Anyway, read this article about it.

Sadly, I found surprisingly little information about it online. I wish more people were aware of what the government is trying to do here. Well, at least Obama is against this "Real ID Act." I am conservative when it comes to economics, but liberal on most other issues. I'm pretty well split between McCain and Obama when it comes to the issues, but I'm pretty sure Obama's going to win anyway. Maybe he will be against making a national ID.

Europe

I was just reading an email update that my friend Christin sent from Florence. She is studying abroad there this summer. The stories she tells are hilarious! Reading them makes me really nostalgic for when I studied abroad in Spain in the spring of 2007. I wish I would have kept a better journal of my time there. The memories are fading so quickly. Oh, well. When I go to Argentina this December, I'm going to try to blog about it everyday while I'm there, or maybe keep a journal if we don't have internet access everyday.

Last night, Ashley and I were also talking about how we want to go backpacking through Europe together sometime in the future. I saw a lot of southern Europe while I was there, but I want to see more. And traveling around Europe was just so much fun. What an adventure. I know that traveling with Ashley would be awesome, because we get along so well. We wouldn't get under each other's skin.

all over the place

Another lunchtime update.

My roommate Kate is going home this weekend. She is from the beach, and her dad knows how to surf. I told her I really want to go down some weekend this summer and get him to teach us! I've always really wanted to learn how to surf. Hopefully sometime in July we will make a trip. Surfing looks like so much fun, and such great exercise. I don't think I'll ever get serious enough about it to do huge waves (they scare me), but I'd like to get up on the board and surf some nice small-medium sized waves. That's about all we have around here, anyway. This will be me!

I ordered a subscription to the Wall Street Journal today, which will be great for keeping up with Economics-related news. That will be important once I start interviewing for jobs. Anyway, I got the subscription free with some airline miles which were about to expire. I also got a subscription to People Magazine in Spanish. So, these subscriptions should be good practice for my majors. Unfortunately, I still have like 5,000 miles left and I'm not sure what to do with them because I'm not making any trips anytime soon.


On a sadder note, my mom just informed me and my dad that my childhood best friend's mom died yesterday in a car accident. It is so sad. Her family has been through quite enough already. It was a single car accident, so who knows, maybe she just hit her breaking point. I can't believe it happened. It's so weird to me--being young, this is one of the first people I knew really well that has died. Anyway, I need to pray for her family.

summer sweethearts?

I have to be at work in an hour. I've had a really nice morning though. I allowed myself about 10 hours of sleep last night so I would be well rested and feel better today. I woke up at 10 am, picked up my reading where I left off in II Corinthians while eating a banana, then I made a sandwich and ate that with some chips, and now I'm having a cup of coffee while I update my blog. Sounds like I ate 2 or 3 meals in the last hour, but I kind of have to, because I work from noon till 9:30 or so today, with only one break around 4:30 or 5. It's pretty hardcore. King Leonidas would do it. Haha.

Mitchell and I were talking the other day and he said, "What can we do?" kind of acknowledging that we like each other but we can't really do anything about it because we don't go to the same school or live in the same state even. Yesterday, we were texting and I said, "How about being summer sweethearts?" Yeah, that's a dorky thing to say, I know. But I didn't want to say "summer fling" because that sounds like you don't care about the person, and I didn't want to say "summer love" because that sounds like you care a little too much for where we're at. Anyway, he said he'd love that. So I guess that's what we are doing. I think it's nice, because I'll see him every few weeks or so, and we can just have fun while it lasts. I think it's stupid when people say, 'Oh, we can't be together and we should just break it off now because I know it will end up that we get hurt.' Then you just make yourself get hurt now. You might as well enjoy the time you've got, and it might end up that no one gets hurt and you both just move on, or that the situation changes. It's not that big of a deal. People like to make everything so complicated. We like each other, so, well, let's allow ourselves to like each other right now! Haha.

Okay, I'd better go shower and get ready so I don't look like a dump for work. I hope it goes by fast today. I think I only have 6 more of these long shifts. YES.

lunch time

Well, it's lunch time at work. Everyone else went out to lunch on my side of the building, but I brought my lunch today. So, I thought I'd write a little post.

Saturday, I only stayed at my cashier job for 3 hours. I was supposed to work from 12 to 9:30 or so (long day, I know), but I was feeling really lousy, so they let me go at 3. I was so thankful to be able to go. I checked my phone and I had a text message from Patrick saying, "call us asap." So, I called him and he said that he and Ashley had gone to the thrift store and saw lots of desks, and they knew I needed a desk. They had just left, so I decided to go check them out. I ended up finding a nice, real wood desk that is just the right size for what I needed, for only $20, and also a little bedside table for only $3! I am going to paint the table raspberry to match my room colors, and restain the desk a darker color to match my little dresser. What a deal! I'm glad I got to leave work early so I could snatch up that desk and table before anyone else got it.

It will be a bit of a project to fix up the two pieces of furniture, but then they will be exactly what I want, and it will be fun to put a little work into it. My room is really coming together!

Our house is really coming together, too. We put up some sheer teal curtains in the living room yesterday, and 4 small square mirrors above the couch that add a nice modern look.


You should check out this blog. I stumbled upon it, and I really love her eye for photography and her writing style.

Speaking of photography, I went to the darkroom on Friday finally. I developed 3 rolls of film from when Sofia and my family and I went to the mountains, and some from the arboretum. I really want to hang some prints on the walls of my room. Unfortunately, the paper developer solution was completely shot (I tried it to see if it would work even though it came out of the container dark brown... a bad sign; only hints of grey showed up on the paper) so I couldn't make any prints. It was really frustrating, because I was on a roll (no pun intended). I wish they would replenish the chemicals, but I guess that's what you have to deal with when you are using the school's darkroom for free. I think I might try to sneak into the art building's darkroom so I can make prints this summer, even though I no longer have a class there. Hehe. I hope all the other chemicals I used for developing the film were okay... but I think they were. I checked the fixer and it was fine. I'd be really sad if that film got ruined though.

last year

Last school year, I lived on campus in one of the nicest dorms at my university. It was such a blessing to be put in that dorm, and I was even on the first floor, right next to the kitchen, and in a room with extra high ceilings. The first semester I lived there, I was placed with a girl who lived there the year before named Emily. I had just requested a random roommate in hopes of getting a great dorm--to me, the location was more important than who I lived with, and I just prayed to get a good roommate. Well, it turned out that she was really nice, and although we weren't best friends, we got along really well. She was laid back like me, and a really nice girl to live with.

Then, around October, Emily told me that she had decided to study abroad in the spring in Dublin. As soon as she told me that, I started praying for another good roommate, because I could either A) not get a roommate placed with me and have the room to myself, B) request that someone I knew lived with me, or C) get placed with a random incoming roommate. I didn't know anyone who needed a place to live, so it was either A or C. I didn't know what would be best for me: I thought having the room to myself sounded cool, but I think God knew that I would get lonely. He knew better than I that I really like social interaction. Anyway, I said, "God, you know better than I do what would be best for me next semester, so I pray for either the room to myself, or a really cool roommate who I could be great friends with, whichever would be better. And, it would be really cool if I could somehow have a roommate that spoke Spanish so I could practice speaking with her."

So anyway, I prayed for this a lot that fall, not knowing what to expect come January. Then, I think it was in December that I got an email saying I had a new roommate coming to live with me for the spring semester. At first, I was disappointed that I didn't get the room all to myself. I sent her an email saying hi and asking her to tell me a little about herself. Then I looked more closely at her name. "Sofia Mitjans." I thought, the last name doesn't look Spanish, but "Sofia?" That's a really Spanish name. WHAT!? So I sent an email to the housing lady who sent the email, and asked if she was an international student.

Guess what she said. She told me yes, she is an international student from Argentina coming for the spring semester.

It turned out that Sofia and I got along like sisters. She joined Glee Club and sang with me and got to perform Brahms' Requiem with us in Memorial Hall, we started running together and did really well, she came with my family and I on a trip to the mountains, and we had so many other good times together. I really miss that girl. And, we really practiced Spanish! I taught her English, and she taught me Spanish (and I learned a lot of words unique to Argentina.) My conversational Spanish really improved, and it was cool to learn that accent. I love her! I got to meet most of her family when they visited, and now, I'm planning a trip to visit her in Buenos Aires come December!

I'm so, so excited to have friends to visit in a city as cool as Buenos Aires, and I'm so excited to see Sofia again. She is one of the greatest, nicest girls I'll ever meet.

Oh, and just so you know, I found out during the semester that Sofia was the ONLY female international student from a Spanish-speaking country that semester, and the ONLY international student to live on north campus, and she just happened to be MY roommate and we just happened to get along like sisters. God sure works in big ways, doesn't he?

I need to start praying for more stuff like that!

miss dior cherie

What a cute bottle, too.

good night

Just a quick post before I go to bed. I called in sick to work today because I wasn't feeling well. But I also just needed a day off. It was so nice to not work today. But I was/am legitimately sick, so I don't feel bad. Just not too sick to do a little shopping this evening with Ashley and Lora. Hehe.

I need to get a good night's sleep tonight though. But only one day of work and then I have another day off. I hope work isn't too crazy tomorrow.

Patrick said he messed with something in my room while I was gone today, but he wouldn't tell me what he did! He hinted that he "may or may not have done something with my facebook," but I looked on my history and on my profile and sent messages and I can't find anything... hopefully he didn't do anything too bad. Haha. What a butt.

I just ordered that Dior perfume online! I'm excited about it. AND, I got free shipping and a free bath wrap thing, which is one of those towel things that Velcros around you. So basically, I saved the time of going to the store, the gas money, and got a free gift for ordering it online. Sweet deal.

Okay, I need to go to bed.

ratdog

I'm waiting on another assignment from my boss, so I guess I'll do a quick little update here.

I need to deposit a paycheck and some checks for my birthday today. I owe my mom some money, so after I pay her back, if I still have a decent amount, I think I'm going to do a little shopping this weekend. Things I would like to get:

• Miss Dior Cherie Perfume. (I decided that it is the scent for me. It is so alluring to me.)
  
• A headwrap from Urban Outfitters. (I have been eyeing them for a while--the kind that look really hippie-ish. I'm sort of a hippie at heart. )
• A v-neck t-shirt dress. (I have a picture of exactly what I want in my head, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to find it. Basically, if someone would just sell me a long t-shirt, I'd be happy. Maybe I'll make one.)
• A summer scarf. (I've been wanting one of these, too. So posh. Haha.)
• A pack of boy's white v-neck undershirt tees. (My roommate Kate wears these, and now I want some!)

But, I will undoubtedly find some other things while I am shopping, and probably not find everything on my list. That's okay.

Tonight, we are going to a delicious local restaurant for dinner. They have the best milkshakes. Last time, I went with my friend Patrick and didn't think I wanted a milkshake so I didn't get one. And then I tasted his and accidentally ate probably a third of it. I'd love to order one this time, but I have a cold, and ice cream is probably the worst thing you can eat when you have a cold. All the sugar and milk combination does is make you produce a lot more mucus. Anti-dibs.

Hahahahaha. In browsing blogs for my job, I found this hilarious picture. Check out that little dog in the portrait. Just look at his face. His name is "Ratdog." Sorry if the dog owner somehow finds this page. Anyway, I just thought he was really funny looking, and cute. I want a dog that looks like that hahahaha.



All right, it's time to eat lunch! I'll post again later.

house!

Just thought I'd post a picture from my birthday party of me and my beautiful roommates. That's Ashley, me, and Kate. I love these girls. I couldn't ask for better roommates for this summer. I can't wait until Courtney gets here this fall! God really answered my prayers about getting an amazing house with wonderful roommates for this year! You know it's really great when you can't wait to get home each day and you hardly even want to go out some nights because you love being home with your roommates. Haha :)

boys and colds and foodstuffs

I didn't get enough sleep the night before last, so of course, some cold is trying to get me. I always get a cold when I don't get enough sleep and push myself too hard. Yesterday, I worked 9 hours at my cashier job, so there was no time for naps. But, I'm not going to let this cold get me. I took lots of vitamins yesterday and I plan to today as well, and got a better night's sleep last night (although I could have used a couple more hours.) I can't wait until July 6th, when my cashier job slows way down and I don't have to work 54 hours a week. But, I don't mind too much right now because I need to save up money for my trip to Argentina to visit Sofia this December. (Every dollar I make here to spend there gets me like 3 times as much, so that's exciting. I'm going to buy designer jeans and things. It will be great to be in a place where the exchange rate is in my favor for once.)

My roommate Ashley is sick too, so maybe I got what she has. Either way, it's sort of nice to have someone sick with me; like last night, my other roommate went out with friends, but Ashley, Patrick, and I stayed home and I'm glad I didn't have to stay home alone.

Mitchell stopped by to "tuck me in" around 11:30, but really it was just to say goodbye, because he is leaving town today and I won't see him again for a couple of weeks. Mitchell is my friend's younger brother who goes to school at Pittsburgh. For all logical purposes, we probably shouldn't like each other, but we do. Oh, well. It's fun. That was only the fourth time I've ever seen him in person. I usually don't go for younger guys (he's 19... 20 in October), but he sort of makes up for his age by being huge. Haha. He's 6'4", 275 lbs, and most of that is muscle. So, he's not a young little shrimp. I hope he's not dating other girls. I know that he has every right to, but I'm not really dating anyone else right now (we aren't even really "dating"), or at least not trying to, so I hope he isn't :). I wish he lived here.

Enough about that though. Tonight is my night to cook dinner. I'm going to make chicken with this yummy Trader Joe's orange stir fry sauce, basmati rice, and steamed broccoli. I am absolutely loving how we are actually cooking dinner at home 4 nights a week like we said we would. It has been working out so well; everything has tasted delicious, and it's been so nice to sit down and eat together. And it's so much healthier and CHEAPER!

Patrick's first day

Today is Patrick's first day at the office. I think it's kind of funny: my dad recommended me for a job, and then I in turn recommended Patrick. I told him he will have to recommend the next person they hire.

I've been learning that's really how business works most of the time. It's all about having connections and networking to get jobs, not about posting your resume on Monster.com, most of the time.

Anyway, I'm on the other side of the office, so I can't hear what's going on over there, but I hope things are going well for him. I'm sure he's not doing too much today--just learning and training. It was really nice to ride to work with him this morning, though. Carpooling is going to be great for saving gas, and I like riding to work with a good friend instead of alone.

Okay, back to work!

rainy night

I'm pretty happy they are calling for rain tonight. My roommates were talking about going out, and I would feel like I should go with them, but I think they might stay in now that it might be raining. And I'd rather stay in and rest, watch the rest of "V for Vendetta," clean up my room, and get some other things done.

keeping up

I realized something yesterday: technology is going to keep changing just as fast as it ever has before, if not faster, and I am going to turn into my parents' generation--kind of slow to adapt, not understanding new technology that well--if I don't make an effort to embrace new technology throughout my life. It makes me sad to think that someday, I might not be able to work with gadgets using nanotechnology, etc. as well as someone half my age, so I'm not going to let that happen. My reluctance to switch over to Firefox wasn't a good sign, haha. From now on, if people tell me that some new technology is cool or better and it is available to me, I'm going to embrace it and learn how to use it, so that I don't end up falling behind. :)

forever 21

This past Sunday, the 8th, was my 21st birthday. I really can't believe I'm finally 21. There are so many small perks now that I'm really going to enjoy--just like little conveniences. I can finally order a glass of wine with a meal if I want or buy beer for home. And I can't get over that I can go to bars and show them MY license and it will work and they will let me in. Hahaha.

My friends were really great and had a birthday party for me Saturday night at our new house. We just moved in June 1st, so it also served as sort of a housewarming party. It was such a success! They bought a keg and made mojitos and didn't charge anyone for drinks, so everyone was really grateful and just had a great time. We had some awesome, awesome people come (almost all of my good friends!) and it was so much fun to have such a great crowd. Haha, it ended up that everyone was pretty far drunk, and everyone has been telling me that they had so much fun at the party. At around 12:30, we went out to a bar to celebrate really being 21 and being able to get in!

I also must say that I had a very successful 21st birthday. I had so much fun, really, and 15-16 drinks (we are unclear as to whether or not we counted the last one) which is really a lot for me! (Just call me Frank the Tank). BUT, I didn't throw up, didn't black out for too long (I don't remember the walk home from the bar at all, but that's the only thing I can't remember, so pretty decent), didn't cry, didn't injure myself or anyone else, and didn't do anything too embarrassing or regretable. And, my friend Patrick and I won two games of beer pong in a row, and I made a good amount of shots, especially considering I haven't played in a couple of months. So, I'm really happy about all of that, and that my birthday turned out so well and everyone involved had such a great time.

I guess this was just the first of many epic parties that we will end up having at our new house. OH, I forgot to mention also that our house actually didn't get trashed and nothing of value got broken! (There is a funny story about how someone got thrown into a plastic bin and broke that, and someone broke the back of one of our crappy kitchen chairs, but no big deal. Haha, the stories are totally worth it. And now we have a cool new stool in place of a chair.)


I feel a little bit pudgy around the middle today, and it's probably a combination of being dehydrated from the weekend's festivities, being tired, and could also have something to do with the crazy amount of extra calories I consumed Saturday night. Haha! I just thought about that today--let's say I averaged 150 calories per drink (considering most were light beer), that's 2250 extra calories from all of that alcohol I drank! Holy crap! That's more than a day's worth of food. Haha that's pretty comical. I think tonight I'll rebound a little bit and maybe do some crunches to try to make up for that a little bit.

Introductions

Well, I kept a blog for about 3 years (wow, that is a long time now that I think about it), but I gave it up a while back. But, I think I am back in the game now. But I needed a fresh start with a new blog.

The title of this blog comes from a coworker who was making up nicknames for me. I liked this one. He also came up with Japangela, Jackie Changela, Frying Pangela, and more. Funny kid.

Anyway, my last blog was really a great log of those three years of my life, and I hope this one is a success, too. (And someone actually wants to read it.) I'll try to keep up with it regularly.

All right, I think that is a sufficient introduction, haha. Until next time.