I don’t know where to begin. So much is different. It’s difficult & sad. But it’s also a new beginning & a hope for a better time ahead. While I will miss the past, I look forward to the future. At first I was really worried & even scared, but I know everything will be ok. Things happen the way they do for a reason. Who knows exactly how things will turn out, but I do know that I will survive. Finding the words to express what I’ve gone through, what I’m going through, & what I will continue to go through is very hard. So much time has passed. All I can do is try to explain…

Well to start, after almost 8 years, Terry & I are no longer together. I don’t want to say anything bad about him because I do still love & care about him; I think I always will. But over the past few years, a feeling of loneliness & dissatisfaction has been growing. I didn’t feel needed & wanted or feel the love & affection that I needed. I tried to talk to him about it, but I could never seem to make him understand. I don’t think that he didn’t love me, but I feel like maybe it wasn’t in his personality and/or he took me for granted. I just think that there should be more to a relationship than there was. I don’t feel like what I wanted & needed was too much to ask. I don’t think that for things like that you should have to ask; they should come natural. I feel like we weren’t going anywhere; we were at a standstill at best. So this has been building for a few years & I tried to make it work & I tried to fix it. But it got to a point where I had to come to the realization that I just might not get what I need (& deserve) with this relationship. It was hard to figure that out & I’m going to miss him, but I think I’m doing the right thing. Terry says he now realizes how much he loves me & doesn’t know why he’s been the way he has over the past years, but he wants me to come back. A part of me wants to, but a part of me says “Why now?”. I think it’s best to move on. I don’t think there’s a point to hold on to that dream any longer. So many things will be different. He & I have been through & done so much in our years together. I won’t forget it & I will miss it.

I’m not living with him anymore & I’m in the process of moving my things out of our house that we’ve lived in for the past 4 years. Over the past few months, I’ve become really close with a friend of mine. He and I really enjoy each other’s company & get along really well. We have a lot of fun together. We decided together that we wanted to start a relationship. I’m really excited about it. His name is Jon. I didn’t mean to rush into another relationship (and I didn’t leave Terry for Jon), but it just happened somehow that we really feel something for each other. Jon left a couple of weeks ago to go down south to work for a few months as he had been planning on doing. He has always said he wanted me to go with him, but until a couple of weeks ago, just before he left, I had been saying that I couldn’t. But then during his last week before he left we had such a great time together & I finally realized not only that I could, but that I should. I didn’t want to be without him & it’ll also be good to get away from here for a while. I’m going to fly down to meet him in the middle of November. We’ll stay where he is for 2 months after I get there & then we’re going to travel around the U.S. for 4-5 months. It’s going to be so much fun & we’ll get to see so much. It’ll be a really great time together & I think it will be a good experience for our relationship. We are both really looking forward to it & are very excited. I also thought that this was a perfect time in my life to do something like this, this could be the only chance I’ll have to travel over this long of a time period. I’ll write about our experiences & post pictures.

This may seem like a lot all at once, but it’s happened over a long period of time. We’ll see how things go. Like everyone always says, things happen the way they do for a reason. I don’t know how things will turn out, but however it does I will be fine. I guess I have some editing to do with my website. I’ll get to that when I can. Well I’m gonna go for now…

Thanks: Frankie, Nancy (VA), ~Donna~, Judy, Meredith, Lissy, Jenny, Libby, Rick, Sara, Matt, Christy, Aurelia, Ciel, Cecilie, Zoey, Gwen, Lishy, Nayana, Christine, Kristen, Tiffany, Linda, Jodie, Meredith, Iveee, Aichee, Jenn~, Ellie, Olivia Kitty!

When we arrived at the airport we immediately noticed the temperature as well as the number of people walking around with cowboy hats. His parents picked us up & were very happy to see us. During the next few days we got to experience what it was like to be around young kids. While they’re very cute, I’m not quite ready to take on that responsibility just yet. One day, but not yet. Tori, the almost 2-year-old could say a few words & loved seeing new things. We took her to the rodeo on Saturday morning & she had a blast looking at all the animals. The rodeo grounds are very similar to county or state fairs if you’ve ever been to one. I bought a nice cowboy hat at one of the vendors there. When I get a picture I’ll show it to you. I also bought a souvenir rodeo shirt.

Every day of the rodeo they had a rodeo show in the afternoon followed by a performer & one in the evening followed by a performer. So we bought tickets to see the 1pm rodeo & Josh Turner concert on Sunday, February 10th. I had never seen a rodeo in person so it was a lot of fun. There was bareback riding, steer wrestling, mutton bustin’, tie-down roping, calf scramble, team roping, saddle bronc riding, barrel racing & of course bull riding. Very neat. Josh’s performance was great as always! (I’ve seen him in concert 4 other times.) He came out across the arena to the stage in a black GMC pickup truck (it was the sponsor of the rodeo or something) & it was great to see him step out of it! He performed many songs from his new album Everything Is Fine. It was so neat to hear them all live for the first time since this was the first concert of his that I’ve been to since the new album was released. He’s such a great singer & it’s always nice to hear & see him live. He’s very cute, nice, & humorous too. Love that deep voice, beautiful eyes, & great smile!

It was nice to share the Josh Turner concert experience with Terry this time. He’s not a big country fan; if anything he’ll listen to a little bit of traditional country singers. I’ve been wanting him to like/appreciate Josh more, so it’s great that I had a chance to get him to a concert. He actually said he had a good time & said that he was a really nice guy, good singer, he liked some of his songs, & that he wasn’t an idiot (lol). He then said how could you not like him, really. I think he said a few other things, but I can’t remember them. I’m happy though, because I haven’t been able to get him to go to just any Josh Turner concert, so with visiting his family & seeing a rodeo too it worked. Yea!

Other than the rodeo, we all went out to dinner, spent time at each of their houses, walked around the town where Terry’s brother-in-law works & fed the ducks at the river, & had a nice dinner one night at his parents’ house. We had a great time down there & it was nice to have a break from work/school & the cold weather we’re having here. It’s funny going from freezing & wearing coats to wearing short sleeves & sweating. In fact, the day we came home it had snowed here earlier in the day & it was freezing rain the whole way home from the airport. Fun. Despite the cold weather, it’s nice to be home again, as we all know there’s no place like home & I really missed my dogs!

Speaking of dogs & cold weather… it’s been a fairly mild winter as far as snowfall, with only a couple days of it, but on January 17th we finally had our second day of it actually snowing all day & accumulating on the ground. I got to leave work early & class was cancelled so I took my dogs out to play in the snow. Kaycie loves snow! After a few laps around the field in my neighborhood with Tyler at her heels, she & I had a great time with a game of fetch while Tyler licked the snow. Even though I had a sweater on Tyler, he still got cold pretty quickly due to the fact that Papillons don’t have double-coated fur & he’s only a 7 lb. dog so I took him in & then went back out with Kaycie. I took some pictures so check it out!

Anyway… There have been some updates to my site: I’ve added a Calendar to The Girl section, updated the Upcoming Concerts/Festivals in the Visitor section, & updated My Music, Concerts/Festivals Attended, & My DVDs/Games in The Girl section. Well I guess that’s enough for now. Take care, later!

Thanks: Sheryl, Jenn~, Lissy, Shanice, Brook, Aurea, Brenda, Gina, ♥ K, Jaz, Lauren, Gwen, Cecilie, Aurelia, Steffani, Helen-Marie!

I know this is going to be very hard trying to remember everything that has happened in the past year & a half, but I’m going to try. Right now though I’m going to talk about more recent events. For the first time in years I actually have a job where we get the winter holidays off. This allowed me to spend Thanksgiving with my family - the whole [almost] family. My boyfriend Terry had to work unfortunately, but I went over to my parents’ house to celebrate with my Mom, Dad, sister Allison, brother Michael, Mom Mom, Nana, Aunt Linda, cousin Joe, cousin Jen, her husband Joe, & their kids: Zoe, Ellie, Mesa, & Kiki. Somehow we all fit in the same room with 2 tables pushed together. It was really great though because I hadn’t seen a lot of them in a while. We always have a really funny time together too.

I’ve been working at this great white water outfitter since April 2007 (which I will talk about in a future entry) & we had our Christmas Dinner Party on December 19th. I was really excited about it because usually Terry can’t attend my work events because they’re at a time when he is working… but this time he could. And it wasn’t just any party, it was an important company dinner. We went to a really nice Mexican & Spanish restaurant (The food was great! I had salmon stuffed with crab meat, yum!). It’s the off-season for our company so only the people (managers & directors) that work there all year round went to the dinner. There was Matt, Angie & Shayne, Amanda & Rob, Jeannie & Rodney, me & Terry, Ben, Ed, Bill & his wife, & Adam. I love the people I work with so it was great spending a night all together. Thanks Matt for dinner! After dinner we went out to a bar & had a few drinks… I usually don’t drink, but I did have a couple to celebrate the occasion & for once I wasn’t the designated driver! After that I had to drop Terry off at home because he unfortunately had to work in a few hours, but I went over to Amanda, Rob, & Adam’s house to hang out with them & Ed for a little while. It was a fun night.

Christmas day was celebrated early this year with my family because our trip to Utah was during Christmas & we didn’t want to bring presents on the plane. On December 20th Terry & I packed up our things for the trip, then he went to wrap a few things up at his work & I went to drop our 3 dogs off at the kennel. After that he & I went to my parents’ house where we had Christmas dinner with my Mom, Dad, Allison, & Michael. Afterwards we exchanged our presents. It was a small gift exchange this year as we were all very busy in the weeks before Christmas (& rushed with celebrating early) & didn’t have that much money. But that’s not the point of Christmas anyway; it was just nice to be able to spend it with the family. I did get a Peripheral iPod adapter for my car (that connects directly to my factory radio to charge my iPod while playing the music through my car speakers & is controlled on the car stereo buttons), a Magellan Maestro 3225 GPS thing for my car, incense, a gift card to Best Buy, $30 for clothes, & $150 for whatever I want.

The next morning we had breakfast, got ready, & then we all headed to the airport. Everything at the airport went smoothly, our flight took off on time, & we arrived in Salt Lake City, Utah with no problems. After a 40 minute shuttle ride to our condo in Park City, UT we were pretty tired after our day of traveling. My Aunt Terrie, Uncle Vince, cousins Sarah & Mark had arrived there a little bit earlier. The next couple of days we spent snowboarding/skiing at on the Park City slopes. The first day I ended up being pretty sore since it has been about a year since our last trip snowboarding/skiing, but I did still have fun that day & after that I felt warmed up & the next few days wer great! I really like that resort; it has a nice mix of intermediate & expert slopes. It was a fun vacation with the family & it was great seeing Terry interact with my family too. The rest of my family members stayed in Utah until the 28th, but Terry & I had our flight back on the 24th. We got to the airport around 3:30pm & our flight was supposed to take off at 5:30pm. Just as we were getting to the airport it started snowing pretty hard, but when we checked in I asked if they expected any delays & they said not if the snow didn’t get any worse & that they win awards for their snow removal. Well we boarded the plane on time, but we were delayed leaving the gate because the runway was backed up removing the snow. Once we finally left the gate, we went to the airplane de-icing & antifreeze station. After they had finished to process they noticed that the cockpit windshield was overheating to the point where it burned to touch it so we had to go back to the gate to have it check out. After another long time they said that we had to switch planes because the windshield had de-laminated during the overheating & needed to be replaced. So finally after a little bit over 3 hours total went by since our scheduled take off time, we were rolling down the runway. Instead of getting back at 11pm (east coast time - 9pm Utah time) like we were supposed to, we got back at around 2:30am. Needless to say we were very tired & a little aggravated. After getting our luggage, taking a shuttle to the parking lot, & finding my car we were too tired to drive back to our house so we stayed at my parents’ house that night.

The next morning Terry & I went back to our house to spend our first Christmas together in our own house (the past Christmas’s have been spent at other family members’ houses). We had our Christmas dinner of ham, corn, mashed potatoes, & garlic toast. I gave Terry a really nice painting of a beautiful wilderness scene of mountains, forests, & a river. He gave me a gift card for day at a spa. It was a nice time together. On Friday the 28th Terry, Ed, & I went to a Dark Star Orchestra (the best Grateful Dead tribute band) concert. It was a fun time although they didn’t play many of the songs I wanted to hear & Ed was sick. There was also a weirdo guy sitting behind us who kept trying to touch us & say weird things in our ears. (We finally ended up moving to another place & standing.) I think Ed got me sick because that night I started sneezing & my nose started running. The next day (this past Saturday) was my first day back at work in 10 days, but I was starting to feel more & more sick. I really needed/wanted to be back at work, but because I got worse & was completely miserable, I didn’t go to work on Sunday or today. I’ve been feeling like complete crap the past couple of days. I hope I feel better, or at least well enough to go to work tomorrow or Wednesday. I was planning on doing something tonight to celebrate New Years Eve, but because I’m sick I’m just sitting here writing this. Oh well, no biggie.

Anyway… I guess I need to wrap this up. I hope you all had a great holiday season with your friends & family. I hope your new year starts out great & I wish good things to come in the 2008 year! Wow this year has gone by fast, but I guess it always seems that way. Well I still have more things to tell you about from the past & I will be going with Terry to visit his family in Texas in February so that should be fun. But I’m out for now, take care!

Thanks: Anya, Jenn~, Lissy, Meredith, Sheryl, Shannon, Nanda, ♥K, Ciel, Christine, Ellie, Brandi, Iman, Aichee, Gwen!

A lot has happened in my life in the past year & a half! It’s been a really long time, so it’s hard to remember everything, but I will try to recollect it for you in the next Diary entries to come. Later!

Anyway… moving on to what I’ve been up to. I don’t remember everything, but I will do my best. Starting from where I left off… So Terry & I went to TX to visit his parents & sister for Christmas…. it was a nice break from the freezing cold weather back home & it was good to see them. In January I went snowboarding at Whistler in Vancouver, Canada for a week. It was pretty awesome! The mountain was huge & the powder was deep! I would love to go back again one day. In February I started working at a veterinary clinic in the kennel part. It’s a pretty good deal because I have great hours, a lot better pay, free food, cool people (for the most part) to work with, I get to board my dogs for free, & I get to bring Kaycie to work with me everyday. So I’ve made a lot of new friends there, which is really cool. Also in February Terry took me out to a great 4-star restaurant in Georgetown (in Washington D.C.) for Valentine’s Day. We got really dressed up & had delicious fancy food. There was also live music… it was very romantic. In March I turned 22 & I went to The Cheesecake Factory with Terry & my family, it was nice to be with all of them. In June Kristen & I went to Kings Dominion. It was SO much fun. We went at the perfect time, right before all the public schools got out for summer. There were hardly any lines & we went on every ride, a few of them twice. We’re also going to go to Six Flags soon! The weekend after that Terry, me, & the dogs went down to Richmond to visit my sister. She just got a townhouse down there with 3 friends because she goes to school there. It seems like a really cool place to hang out & meet new people. We also went to this huge island on the James River to hang out & let the dogs swim, pretty neat. Also while I was down there I got the cartilage pierced in my left ear, now I have 4 piercings in my left ear & 3 in my right, yea! For the 4th of July Terry & I went up to NJ for 4 days to visit the people he worked with for 4 months 2 years ago. It was great to see them again & meet some new employees. They’re always awesome people. We went to the one staff house that he stayed at in northern NJ for the first night & then we went to their new beach house for the rest of the time. That was a lot of fun (especially since Terry & I haven’t been to the beach in 3 or 4 years). We also saw the fireworks on the 3rd & they were awesome because they were done by the people who do them in NYC. It was so much fun & I didn’t want to leave. There are so many more things, but I just can’t remember them all right now. Oh well.

In other news, my Kaycie pup is doing awesome. She’s now 1 1/2 years old, pretty big now, & very beautiful. She’s an awesome dog, very smart, very loyal, & she has an awesome temperament. She’s met a lot of doggie friends at my work now & some of my friends there have dogs so when we hang out, they hang out. Recently I’ve been training her in agility courses & when we get good enough I’m going to take her to some shows. Speaking of her, I’ve made a Wolf Hybrids (aka Wolfdogs) fanlisting for her called Wild Streak You should check it out & join if you’re a fan! Tomorrow I’m going to my parents’ house because it’s my sister’s 19th birthday today & she’s back home for the weekend to celebrate. In August I’m going to be going to a music festival, which will be kick ass & anyone who wants to go with us, lemme know! Well I think I’m done blogging for now, hopefully I will keep up with it this time. Later!

Thanx: Brittany, Lauren, MiMi, Lissy, Lisa, Joanne, Patricia, sheena, Farida, Cecile, Cecilia, Skye, Liza, Doreen, tina, Jen, child of flowers, Mary, Shanna, Kim, Rebecca, kristy, & Charlotte!

So, I’ve been looking for a new job for a while now. I mostly have been sending my resume & applying to Front Desk/Receptionist, Office/Administrative Assistant positions. I didn’t want to go back to retail. The reason why I was looking for a new job is because I really do need more money, I don’t need to be rich, but it just gets hard to live paycheck to paycheck. I also believe in being happy rather than rich, & at first I was happy working on the horse farm… but lately it’s not been that way. And if I’m not happy & I’m not getting paid enough, then it’s time to move on. Don’t get me wrong, I love the horses, but I’ve been having some issues with my boss & the 2 people I work with. The lady I work with doesn’t do any work at all, she slowly moves around doing small things to make it look like she’s working, when she’s really not getting anything done. She’s also always 30-60 minutes late to work every day, but if I’m 3 minutes late it’s the end of the world apparently. She also talks to people on the phone & the lady who lives in the apartment above the barn a lot while I’m continuously working. And the list goes on. I wanted to stay there & I also felt bad leaving because it was like a friend/family business not a big corporation so I tried talking to my boss about how I felt about the lady not doing anything while I was doing everything. I explained myself in the nicest way so it didn’t seem like I was complaining & to keep from offending anyone. She seemed to understand. I also asked her if it were possible to give me a slight raise even if it was just 40 dollars more every 2 weeks, but she said that financially she couldn’t do that & I understood. But ever since the time that I talked to her she seemed to hold it against me & I wasn’t aware of this until it came out weeks later all in one big sentence when she said that all I do is complain, that I’m ungrateful, & that I don’t care about the horses, only the money. All of which is completely untrue. So I just figured, I’ve gone as far as I could there & after 1 1/2 years, it was time to move on with my life.

That being said, you wont believe what happened to me last week. I had had an interview with this dentist office a few weeks ago for a front desk position & they hadn’t called me back. They finally called me back on Monday saying that they had filled the position, but they still liked me & wanted to give me a Dental Assistant position, I immediately accepted & was really excited about it. So I took a shower & went right over there to start working. Apparently one of their assistants quit & the other was in a car accident, but would be back soon. Everything went great, I was learning quickly, & they seemed happy to have me there. They said they would pay me $10/hr, with benefits, & a chance for a raise after the probational period, so I quit the barn. After work I went right out & bought myself a pair of scrubs to wear. The next morning I got to work 15 minutes early (that’s a big thing for me) & got to work right away. Both assistants were back for some reason, but that didn’t matter to me, I had just gotten a great job with great opportunities. The assistant in the car accident got there a few hours late when she had said the day before that she planned to get there early. The assistant who quit kept talking to the front desk person about why was I there & was I replacing her & whatever else, but I just kept working. I also mopped the floor which I think is a big deal because they said they hadn’t mopped it in 2 weeks, but I thought it needed to be done every day, possibly even after certain patients because I had witnessed blood dropping to the floor with extractions & such. So everything seemed to be going well until about 2:30 when the assistant in the car accident called me into the office to talk, I thought she was just gonna ask me how things were going & what not. That was far from it… she told me that since they were both back & that the office was going through a big transition & they weren’t sure what was going on with the different employees that they didn’t have time to train me & couldn’t have me right now. So just like that I was out of a job. First of all, I wasn’t getting in their way, I watched a few times when they told me to, I did what they asked & more, & I kept working… I didn’t distract them from their jobs at all, but whatever. I was so shocked & disappointed that I just left & didn’t say what I really should’ve said to them. People have told me that I should report them to the Better Business Bureau & the Department of Labor… which I probably will do. But I just couldn’t believe how unprofessional they were! They said they’d pay me for the scrubs & for the time I worked… I just got the check today & it was only for the time I worked. But I’m going to call them & tell them that they need to pay me for the scrubs, as well as the gas it took to get there & back, & that I’m going to report them for what they did. I also couldn’t believe that they let the one girl work there after she was unreliable to them, doesn’t like her job, & didn’t do much work while I came right to them in their time of need, showed a huge interest, learned fast, & did a lot for them. People are amazing. So I applied online to Best Buy because I needed a job & was sure it’d be easy to get one in retail & sure enough they called me the next day & set up an interview. I had the interview at 11am on Thursday with the supervisor, he liked me & set up a 2nd interview with the manger for 7pm that night & he hired me. So now I haven’t had a job for a few days, but at least I will have one after the drug test results are processed. The downside is it’s only $8.50/hr, slightly above what I had been making at the farm, but the plus side is that I wont be working with jerks or have to be cold & dirty everyday. I’m still gonna keep looking for another job, but I wont quit this one until I find one that’s secure.

Anyway… on a happy note, Christmas is almost here! Terry & I are going out to visit his parents at their new house in Texas. His sister & her husband also moved out there so they’ll be there too. It should be a fun time. Also, our plans for our snowboarding/skiing (me & Brian snowboard; Terry & Jason ski) trip are in place & our reservations are made. Me, Terry, Jason, & Brian are going to Whistler in Vancouver, Canada for a week in January & we’ll be staying in a condo there. It’s going to be awesome! I can’t wait!! Oh, Thanksgiving was fun too. Terry had to work, but that’s okie cause I went to my parent’s house & a lot of our family members came too. It was great to see them all because I don’t get the chance that often. Kaycie had a lot of fun playing with my brother, sister, & cousins too! So I’m thinking about cutting my hair… right now it’s down to my butt, but I’m thinking of cutting it to a few inches below my shoulders. It’s a big deal for me because my hair is so long & it took years to get that long. I like it that way, but sometimes it gets annoying & it’s kind of damaged because it’s been so long for so long. I’m probably gonna go for it, but I’m scared. I’m also contemplating dying it brown (it’s naturally dirty/golden blonde right now), dunno bout that though. Lemme know what you think. Well that’s what’s been up with me, but I’m gonna get going because I have to get to bed so I can wake up & do homework tomorrow. Take care, later!

Thanx: Cecile, Lisa, Anastasia, Lissy, Kelli, Chrissi, Crystena, Skye, Meredith, & Joanne!

The last 2 weekends in October I had to participate in a “volunteer” activity for one of my recreation classes. I say “volunteer” because our group was volunteering for the activity, meaning we weren’t getting paid, however we were pretty much required to do it for our class. Still, it was fun & a nice thing to do for the kids. The activity was a Halloween train ride in a park for young children on both Saturday & Sunday from 8am-6pm. The people in my recreation classes had to dress up in different costumes in different scenes along the track such as Snow White, Winnie The Poo, The Lion King, Mother Goose, etc. I didn’t so much enjoy the part of dressing up in a costume & acting out the part of that character, but the time in between trains was fun because I got to hang out with some of my friends who I don’t get to see that much (because of my year-long break from college & because I live so far away now). It was a lot of fun to hang out with them! I wanted to take some pictures, but I didn’t get around to it… hopefully I can get a copy of some from someone else. Since I live so far away from the park, I stayed at my parents’ house from Friday night to Sunday evening both weekends because their house is a lot closer. My sister Allison came home from college for the second weekend, so it was cool to see her again. We also all went out to celebrate my mom’s birthday that Saturday. We went to The Cheesecake Factory. That was my first time there, but I must say the food was excellent! I had a dish called Chicken Piccata (Sautéed Chicken Breast with Lemon Sauce, Mushrooms and Capers; Served with Angel Hair Pasta.), yummy! I was so full from the meal that I didn’t even get cheesecake, but afterwards I realized I should have gotten one to go. Oh well, it’s just an excuse to go back… maybe for Valentine’s Day *hint* *hint*.

This past Tuesday Terry & I went to see Bob Weir & Ratdog in concert. It was so good, man I love their music. Terry & I both wish we were born earlier so we could’ve grown up with the hippie generation, listening to The Grateful Dead. We met up with Dooly at the concert & he came back home with us & spent the next couple of days here. We also saw Claudia & Shawn there. Apparently Claudia remembered me, but I couldn’t remember her for the life of me… she was nice though, heh.

Other than that, I’ve just been chillin’, hanging out with Terry, playing with my dog Kaycie, working, going to class, & doing homework. I also just set up a MySpace account, so check it out & add me to your friends list if you have one. I also just made new smilies for my site, if you noticed. The other ones were too big & they were annoying me. Please don’t take them! Thanx. I also did a few other minor changes to the look of my site. Just so you know, I never did get around to returning everyone’s comments from the last 2 blog entries, but I’m gonna try & get back to all those people this time… so if you’re reading this now & you haven’t read my previous entry, you might want to read it just to catch up (if you care). Well I guess that’s it for now, I’ll try to blog again sooner this time. Take care, later!

Thanx: Kristin, Mariah, Ciel, lauren, Cecilia, Lisa, Gina, Lauren, Judith, Aranil, Skya, Melissa!

I’ll start with where I left of in the last blog when I mentioned that Terry & I would be taking our new RV trailer on its first trip to a Nascar race in Martinsville, VA on April 10th! Man, that was a lot of fun… we had a lot of friends there & it was so cool to see the race live. We were in the front row & it was extremely loud & we could feel the wind from the cars as well as got hit by small pieces of tire. Not only was the race awesome, but it was like a big campout all weekend with tons of RVs. I’d definitely like to go again.

On April 22nd Terry, me, my sister Allison, & Sam left to go to the Treehugger’s Ball Festival at Sunshine Daydream. That was a lot of fun, but it was really cold & it even snowed… a lot! It was a really good thing we had our RV with heat instead of the tent camping we used to do, I can’t imagine what it was like for the tent campers (most of them left!)! The other good thing is that at that time of year, all of the bands play in the barn so we don’t have to stand out in the cold. Now here comes the really cool part… as we were packing up to leave on Sunday, a guy came up to us holding a puppy & asked if any of us wanted her, I was like of course! At first I tried asking Terry if it was alright if I took her, but when he kept saying we didn’t need another dog I just decided to take her anyway. She’s the cutest puppy I’ve ever seen! Just look at her! She’s part German Shepherd & part Timber Wolf. At the time she was 10-weeks-old, but now she’s 7-months-old. I named her Kaycie… check out more info on her here! So as we were leaving Terry’s car battery died along with the alternator & we had just made it out to the nearest gas station. Good thing our friends Dooly & Rouse were there with us & were able to give us a ride in their truck. It was a small Ford Ranger with only a front bench seat & 2 really small fold out seats behind it. Dooly, Rouse, & Terry squeezed in the front while Allison & Sam sat in the fold outs & I sat on the floor in-between them with Kaycie in my lap. That really sucked & I was so sore once we got home, but at least I got my dog! I’ve always wanted a German Shepherd.

Terry’s parents were in town on June 12th & 13th so we went out to dinner with them twice. It was nice to see them & we all had a good time together. I’m glad that it seems like his parents accept me & even like me now (they weren’t so happy at first because of the 7-year age gap between Terry & I). My sister graduated from high school on June 20th… & it was nice because Terry went with me & the family to the ceremony & family barbeque. I also got to see my aunts, uncles, cousins, & grandparents that I haven’t seen in a while. It was also the first time Terry met a lot of them & it went well I think, although it was probably really awkward for him. On July 3rd Terry, me, & the dogs (Kaycie & Gotti) went up to visit the people he worked with in NJ for 4mths (back in Aug ‘04-Dec ‘04) for the 4th of July. It was an awesome time; they’re a really cool group of people. We went out for a picnic in the morning on the 4th, played games, & played disc golf. That night we went to see fireworks. It was a really fun time. On July 10th Terry, me, & Kaycie went down to George Washington National Forest & went on a hiking trip… It was beautiful out there, but it was so tiring & a lot of work because it was mostly uphill. I’d like to go back someday & camp out there.

As most of you know, Terry & I had moved into a townhouse together on June 18, 2004 that we rented until this July. Our lease was ending in June (2005) & our landlord didn’t want me to have Kaycie in our house so we decided to look into buying a house. It took us a while to find just what we wanted for the price we wanted, but we eventually found a really nice townhouse that was totally redone & updated within the past year. So this past July we bought it together & moved into it! It’s so cool to be a homeowner & it’s really nice to know that our money is being invested instead of being thrown away into rent. We’re also in a really cool area where we’re around the things that we need, but there’s a lot of recreational opportunities as well. There’s 2 rivers, creeks, & a lot of mountains close by. Work is a little further, but that’s something that we can deal with. The neighborhood is really nice too. Previously we were in an older historical town & mostly we didn’t see our neighbors & they were all pretty much older, but now we’re in a nice secluded townhouse community & most of our neighbors are couples that are my age, so it’s really cool to talk to & hang out with them. Our next-door neighbors also have a puppy so Kaycie gets to play with him. It’s just a really cool thing & we’re really happy about it. I might get some pictures up later, but first I want to work on decorating & painting it.

On August 4th Terry, me, Allison, & Sam went to Jerry Garcia’s Birthday Bash festival. Man that was SO much fun. We got to see some friends we haven’t seen in a while, the weather was perfect, & the bands were great. There was 2 nights of Bob Weir (from the Grateful Dead) & Ratdog (his current band)! They were just awesome! Another great band was the Davisson Brothers & we even hung out with Donny Davisson for a while. I posted some pictures from the festival in my Hippie Family section so you should check them out! I also bought 2 cool hippie-ish style skirts & a new glass bead (which I haven’t made the hemp necklace part of it yet) because, if you remember, my other one that I had that Terry gave to me sadly broke a while ago. On August 20th I went with Terry to his 10-year high school reunion. I knew a bunch of his friends because we hang out with them anyway, but there was a lot of people I didn’t know so it was kind of awkward, but I was happy to be a part of it. My 10 year isn’t until 2012, eep.

Currently I’m pretty busy because after a year-long break from college, I’ve decided to go back & finish my Associates in Science degree. I should be done after the spring semester! I’m taking some recreation classes (my major is Recreation & Parks) as well as Intro to Speech Communication & Intro to Criminology. I’m also working & I live 2 hours away from campus so most of them are online & I only have to actually go to the campus one day a week. But it feels good to be working towards finishing my degree. I have weekends off from work so between Terry, homework, & my dog I try to fit in some fun things & hang out with my friends. Terry & I are planning a snowboard/ski (he skies, I snowboard) trip this winter to Whistler in Canada for a week. That will be awesome & I can’t wait! Well I’m gonna get going, I’ve written enough I think & my head is starting to hurt. But I should blog again soon, I hope. There are a lot of updates so make sure you check it all out. Later!

Thanx: Everyone who commented (sorry I don’t know who all of you were since Haloscan.com deleted most of the comments because it’s been so long, grr) & signed my guestbook.

The Monday after that Terry left to go on a camping trip with his work for 3 days, but it was ok because my sister Allison & her friend Sam came over to hang out & spend the night on Monday. It’s always a good time with Allison… I can’t wait till they both come to festivals with us this summer! On Easter Terry & I went out to my parent’s house & they took us all out to a nice Italian restaurant that had a big buffet for brunch. That’s the only time, I think, that it’s normal to put waffles & eggs on the same plate as chicken & pasta… but it was all very good, lol. After going back to the house to hang out for a lil while, Terry & I left to go over to visit our friends at the Woo House. It had been a while since we’d seen them because of the fact that we live 45 min. away. We hung out for a while & later played poker until really late… I ended up leaving with the $10 I put in as well as won $3; not a big win, but at least I didn’t lose any! The Monday after Easter it flooded again… I went down the same road (that I lost my car in during the last flood, if you remember my blog on 10.05.04) after my morning shift at the barn, just to see how bad the roads were (even though I was sure they were flooded) & sure enough it was getting really bad so I turned around & went the other way to be on the safe side. But by the next morning the water had gone down (on the roads at least) so we went to go pick up our RV from the dealer.

Then last Thursday was my 21st birthday!! I can no longer be called a minor or underage! I’m really excited because now I can go into any bar when Terry or my friends go to one & I can see concerts that just happen to be in a bar & many other pluses. I don’t really care to drink so you’ll almost never see me holding an alcoholic beverage, but on my birthday I went to the local 7-Eleven after work to buy, for the first time, a 6er of Smirnoff Ice just because I can… I drank one that day, but it’s been a week & I still haven’t drank the other 5, lol. I didn’t do much else that night since it was a Thursday, but Saturday was party night. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do for my birthday, but I knew I wanted to do something that you had to be 21 for, but wasn’t only about drinking… so Terry decided to take me out to Dave & Buster’s. So Saturday evening we went out to the Woo House to meet up with Smokey, Jen, Carrie, Steve, Daryl, & Matt, then we drove out to Dave & Buster’s. You get this credit card thing that you put money on & then you go around playing all kinds of games with it & most of them you can win tickets to get prizes. Essentially it’s an adult Chuck E. Cheese’s with bars & pool tables too. They bought me a couple of mixed drinks which I drank for tradition, even though they were pretty nasty, but the food was good! We of course went on the Nascar simulator game/ride which was cool because the whole seat moved while you were “driving”. Their prizes kinda sucked, but I ended up getting a lil teddy bear, D&B coffee mug, D&B coffee thermos, & a gigantic pixie stick. So it was a good time & a fun way to spend your 21st birthday. Sunday I went over to my parent’s house to celebrate my birthday with my family. They made an awesome dinner & yummy confetti cake, all so good! It was fun to hang out there too, weird how not living there full-time makes the visits a lot nicer. My parents gave me the limited edition Platinum GameCube, my sister gave me Mario Kart: Double Dash, & my brother gave me Sonic Heroes… just what I wanted, yea! I also went out & bought myself Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath Of Cortex with some birthday money & Terry bought Nascar 2005… so I’ve been playing a lot of GameCube the past few days.

So that’s some of what’s been going on with me, but I already have plans to do a lot more so keep checking back! Just incase you’re interested, I just bought Incubus’s Morning View CD a few weeks ago & it’s currently the CD that I’m playing over & over right now, I really like it so you should check it out! Oh & everyone should get a Gravatar, you know, the lil icon that you’ve probably seen beside some people’s blog comments. The service is free & all you haveta do is make & upload your Gravatar, then every time you enter your email when commenting it’ll show up. Anyway… updates with the site are: my About Me section, Ask Me, My CDs, My DVDs & Games, Nascar 2005, Link Exchange, SOTM, Gifts, & my Hippie Family section so make sure you check all that out! Well I gotta go finish packing for the weekend trip since we’re leaving right after I get off work tomorrow. Be sure to come back to see how that goes. Also thanks to everyone who wished me a happy birthday & a special thanks to Doreen, Kisla, & Kelli for the gifts (which you can view on my Gifts page)! Well, have fun, later!

Thanx: Angel, Cecile, Jenn, Kathy, Jill, Heather, Doreen, TiFF, Carmen, gina, Jenna, Maeve, Roz, Jannett, Farida, natasha, Ellie, Kelli, Meredith, Kathie, Jojjo, Skye, Lissy, Sheena, JENNY, Chrissi, Sazzie, Lucy, Cecilia, Sue, Ranee, Lissa, Lauren, Marissa, jr, Chandra, & julia!

So the job search has been kinda put on hold I guess… a few places called me after I sent out my resume, but I wasn’t really interested in any of them. I also don’t really wanna be a front desk/receptionist anymore either. I was going to send my resume to this summer children’s day camp that has rock climbing, caving, kayaking, etc. & I think I’d love doing that, but then I started thinking about the fact that there are a lot of festivals I want to go to this summer & taking that job would cause a problem with taking off work to go to them. My current job is very flexible & I can take any day off that I need, that & I always get off at 1:30pm on Friday’s anyway. So I’m thinking I’ll hold off on working at the camp until next summer. In the meantime I’m still working at the horse farm, but I’m growing more tired of it… love the horses, but cleaning up the barn really blows. What’s more is that my boss (the owner of the farm) isn’t always there, but when she is there she can be pretty bitchy & it really pisses me off. Everything runs smoothly & happily when she isn’t there, but for some reason she feels the need to tell us what to do & the “correct” way to do it (which is of course always a different way every time she says it) over & over again when she’s around… if we needed her help, wouldn’t the barn be fucked up when she got back?! Sorry, just needed to complain a lil bit. I just dunno how much longer I can deal with this job & I’m not sure what job I will take next… we’ll see how it goes I guess.

I just received 2 books in the mail that I ordered from Amazon.com… they’re books on the kind of dog that I want to get, I’m so excited about it that I had to buy these books so that I could be ready by the time Terry & I buy a house & I can get a dog, yea! I know that I’m getting way ahead of myself ’cause it’ll be a while before this all happens, but what the hell. Last Friday was my lil brother’s birthday so I went out to dinner with him & the family… ooh & there was chocolate cake, hehe! Saturday night I went to a Doors tribute band concert with my sister & her friend… that was a fun time. LoL… the guy who sings as Jim Morrison could possibly look like him except that he’s a lil overweight; he should really lose a few pounds before wearing those leather pants. Other than that the band is really good. However, this creepy 40-yr-old (I’m guessing?) kept watching me as I was dancing… at one point he left, came back with 2 beers & offered me one, I was like “uh, no!” & he stepped back a lil bit. Shortly after he leaned over again while I was dancing & yelled “Oh yeah, come on!”, that was it… I got the hell away from him. That’s just ridiculous… that always seems to happen though, but what was he thinking? Anyway… there are more concerts I plan on going to, it only sucks that Terry wont be able to go to most of them since he works late on Friday’s & Saturday’s. But there’s also a lot of festivals I’m really looking forward to this summer & he’ll take off work for them. I love festivals… good music, the outdoors, camping, hanging out with friends & cool people. My sister is even allowed to go with me this summer cause she’s turning 18 in a few months, yea! It’s great that she & I can be friends like we are… not all siblings are like that. It’s also funny that we’re both turning 2 of the most important ages this year cause I’m gonna be 21 on the 31st of this month, hehe! I’m trying to think of what I’m gonna do for my birthday… I wonder if Terry will surprise me at all? Our friends at the Woo House have been saying for some time now that they were gonna throw a house party for my 21st birthday (they’re all 25-30 themselves so they’ve been waiting for me to turn 21), so maybe that’s what I’ll do, we’ll see.

Well the new layout is… um… coming sometime. I dunno when it will be, but it’ll be great when it is done. I admit I haven’t really worked on it. I know what I want the theme to be & I’ve somewhat started on it, but I haven’t really been in the mood to do much with it, meh. I do still like my current layout though too… not so much the horses, but just the colors & the way it’s set up. But even if I don’t blog that often or change my layout I still do a lot with the rest of my site. Don’t think that just because you come to my site & the blog hasn’t changed that there’s nothing new to my site. I’m constantly updating it, adding to it, & making it better all around. So don’t hesitate to visit just to check out the content… updated pages will always have the “Updated” blinker by the link. Speaking of which, the current updates are: my Ask Me page, Concerts & Festivals I’ve been to page, I finally fixed my CD page that I accidentally deleted, added more Birthdays (make sure you add yours cause I always send you a gift), added an Elliott Sadler (Nascar) page, added a whole lot more Fonts, did some more Link Exchanges, & added a lot more upcoming Festivals & concerts. So make sure you check all that out & keep coming back for more. Well I’m gonna get going, I haveta clean up my house some, fun. Talk to ya again soon!

Thanx: Cécile, Hannah, Natalie, Babz, Lissy, Stephanie, Kathy, Anith, Angel, Jill, julie, Nicole, Krista, Kelly, Farida, Joanne, TiFF, Lara, Ellie, Kelli, Jojjo, Sheena, Angel, JENNY, Carrie!