Thursday, October 6, 2011

Jobs

In honor of the late and great Steve Jobs, I am writing this post on my iPad. Yes, I have an iPad. I've sort of been keeping it on the down low to avoid envy and hatred from my friends and loved ones. Was it a necessary purchase? No. Do I regret it? I'll let you know in 2 years when I'm still paying for it and 2 newer versions are available.

But this post isn't about my iPad. It's not about anything really. I just needed to get my creative juices flowing, I guess.

September 17th has come and gone, and it's been a tough adjustment. When your world revolves around one day for four months of your life, there's bound to be some adjusting, right? Sure, my life hasn't been affected nearly as much as my brothers or his WIFE'S, but I don't think people realize how much the roommate/ Best lady of honor can be affected. I mean, what is my purpose now? Where do I go from here? What will I think about all day?

I'm trying to find direction. Really I am. I started an improv class on September 27th. So far, after just two classes, it has been interesting, uncomfortable, exciting, fun and frustrating.

My entire life I've worked at being the kid that was too cool to participate, but you can't do that in a class that you voluntarily took and paid for.

I'm also trying to come up with enough money to take a writing class. It's at The Second City, which is like the Harvard of comedy schools. Donations are currently being accepted. Make checks payable to CASH.

So there you have it. A post written entirely from my iPad. Rest in Peace Steve Jobs. My only regret is that I did not get to purchase my first iPhone in your lifetime.

Friday, September 2, 2011

Question

I had the day off today, so naturally I spent the day making business cards for a friend that never asked me to, nor implied that she needed or wanted them. But I have my reasons, and they are personal.

When my brother got home, I showed him the business cards. After admitting to taking yet another trip to a store I've been frequenting lately, in order to make said business cards, he began to wonder how I could turn this problem into profit.

So my question is, how much would you pay? Keep in mind I'm fragile, and while I hope you're being honest in your answers, I'm not looking for honesty as much as I am compliments.









Sorry you can't read the fine print. I'm not an amateur photographer like my brother and his wife to be ( IN 15 DAYS!). So if you're interested, here's what it says.

top left:
Bowler.
Hostess.
Bad Ass.

lower left:
You want me.
Come find me.

Yeah, she's a bowler too. We're basically sisters from different misters . . . also, we don't have the same mother.

Friday, August 12, 2011

Humph

Sometimes you come across people you desperately want to punch in the face. Psychologists say you shouldn't hold in your emotions though, right?

I guess I'm going to have to punch some people in the face.

Friday, July 8, 2011

The Orange and Green Machine

This post is dedicated to my Mother, Father, sister, other sister, (nope, I didn't accidentally leave out my brother) and friends to whom communication lately has been almost non-existent. The last time I talked to my parents was the day after Fathers day (better late than never or something like that) and my mother brought it to my attention that I never call. I quickly retaliated with "Well you never call me either!" to which she replied "every time we call you never answer, and anyway you said your phone doesn't really get reception in that apartment".

Damn! Mom wins again. I guess mothers have to be smarter than you though, or else you'll end up selling your body on street corners to rich, sex crazed businessmen with weird fetishes no one should ever have to know about. But I digress.

Today's post is about the chapter of my life I like to call " The Orange and Green Machine". The title should be obvious to most of you, but just in case you haven't had your coffee yet, or are living in a world that doesn't revolve around me, I'll explain.

I've been living with my brother, or as I'll be referring to him today "Captain Orange" and his fiancee, "Queen Green". Their wedding is about two months away, and life in this apartment has been, well . . . a little hectic.

Thus far, living with Captain Orange and Queen Green has been going well . . . at least for me, who knows what they talk about when they go into their fancy bedroom that has "real walls".

We all sort of live on different schedules though, so that may be helping the situation. Captain Orange is the first to leave in the morning at a time that I barely like to speak of, let alone awake at . . . 7:30 am. I do get joy out of the fact that I hear him every morning and smile as I roll over to go back to sleep. Next is Queen Green. She has the worst working hours of the day. I'm pretty sure whoever started writing these hours on an actual schedule only did it out of spite and bitterness for a person who had wronged them in some way and needed to be punished . . . 11:30 - 8. Then there's me. I work at night . . . usually starting at 4, and don't get home until anywhere between 10 and 12pm. So when you think about it, Queen Green is the only one who never gets to enjoy having the apartment all to herself, and though she and Captain Orange claim she never likes to be alone, I don't truly believe it.

Yes, as you can see, we are indeed, three peas in one pod . . . and if you can't see that, then I'll just clarify that we are . . . except that I'm the pea that's slightly farther away from the other two peas that are really close together . . . like you can two bites of this pea, and one of them is just me and mostly pod, while the other is two peas and hardly any pod.

So what was I talking about? I want to say different varieties of peas, but that doesn't seem right.

Ahh yes, my life.

Aside from the madness that is "Watching two people plan a wedding", I am starting to somewhat enjoy my new job. Unfortunately, that's all I can really say about that, as I have signed a legal document stating that I will not talk about my job on the internet.

I have also taken on a few new challenges, and before I talk about them, I urge you all to jump on my bandwagon and try not to fall off.

1. I am training to do 100, yes there are 2 zeros after that 1, MAN pushups in a row. Captain Orange showed me this website that trains you to do 100 pushups in a row. I've been doing it for about 2 weeks now and am currently up to about 15. Doesn't seem like that many right? Well, in my initial exhaustion test I could only do 3. Which means that I can do 5 times as many now. Oh, and did I mention that the day after I did those initial 3, my entire body was sore?

2. I've given up eating . . . wait for it . . . while watching television. It's been quite the experiment actually. I wanted to see if I would eat less . . . because I think when you eat in front of the tv, you are so engrossed in what you're staring at, that you forget to enjoy your food, which only leaves you wanting more. Not to mention tv and eating go together like those 2 farther away peas I was talking about before. It has actually been really tough. I'm still having trouble with it (it's been about 3 weeks), especially when Captain Orange and Queen Green make dinner, then sit down and turn the tv on to eat. Leaving me, sitting alone in my "Bedroom" to eat my dinner somewhat alone, while still in very good earshot of the television*.

Just to clarify, I'm not angry that they do this, they have very little tv watching time on their hands lately, and it has really only happened like once.

Also, I don't count watching sports as watching tv because, well, I hate sports, and if say, a baseball game is on, I might as well be watching a fly on the wall, because they are more boring to me than church. Plus, it's hard to come home and not find Captain Orange watching a a Dodger game.

3. Caffeine. What can I say? The caffeine wagon is one bumpy ass ride and for some reason I always get a seat on the edge. I was able to go about a month without it, before the wagon came to a screaming halt and said "I'm sorry, you don't have enough will power to stay on this ride little darlin, you best be getting off here" as it pulled over right in front of a Starbucks.

Other than that, living with Captain Orange and Queen Green has made me quite curious about how exactly they met, and every little detail that went down during their "getting to know each other stage". Sure, we all know the shell of their story. Boy has blog, girl has blog. Boy comments on girls comment on other girls blog. Girl is intrigued by boys comment, checks out boys blog. Then boy checks out girls blog . . . and the rest is history. But what's inside that shell! Holy Cow! It's almost like a soap opera to me. But not a cheesy daytime soap opera, more like a classy night time soap opera . . . like ER, or Grey's Anatomy.

And in case you don't know the exact origin of of their first "meeting", well, here's a link. You have to go to the comments section of this girls post. Queen Green is Cadiz12 and Captain Orange is Jon.

I've also started reading both of their blogs from the beginning. Something I have never really been interested in doing before. I also suggest you attempt this as well . . . if you're family or even a fellow blogger that is. I have a whole new perspective on Queen Greens blog now that I know her a bit better, and it really adds to the writing.

Well, that's all I care to talk about right now, as I really have to use the restroom, and I've been writing this for about an hour and a half now.

* My bedroom was formerly their dining room. It's walls are made up of sheets. Which really gives the phrase " those walls are paper thin" a whole new meaning. You might think living in a sheeted off wall would get old fast, but I've grown quite used to it. I suppose if I had a boyfriend or a trashy reputation, the story would be quite different. But the goal right now is for all of us to save a little money, because as most of you know, I have no car. If you didn't know that, shame on you for not reading my blog more. You can find info on that here.

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

My latest Crush

It's no secret that in the past I have fallen for several older men, usually of celebrity status. Luckily, they are staying in the same age range, while I continue to get older. This leads me to believe I will end up marrying a 45 year old man when I am in my mid 30's.


So here's the latest crush.




Ty Burrell, Plays Phil Dunphy on Modern Family.


I would like to sing him this song. Unfortunately, he's already married (as usual) with a kid. But hey, maybe he'll fall into the bad side of the divorce rate, I'll become famous, guest star on his tv show, and he will fall in love with me.* Yup, I definitely have a shot.

* Just so were clear, I don't want that to happen to him, I'm not that horrible. I'm just saying, if it did . . .

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

I'm a good driver

This is what I did one week after I moved to Naperville, 20 minutes after I got a job, and half a second after I looked down.

Brace yourself.

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That's the bad news. But let me give you all the good news to make it seem like I'm a positive person.

1.) Nobody was injured . . . aside from some uncomfortable whiplash.

2.) The Monster energy drink I bought earlier that day survived as well.

3.) The other car looks waaaaaaaaaaaaaay better. ( it was my fault)

4.) It happened here and not in Nevada . . . or somewhere in between. This is considered good because my brother lives here and he can tell me what to do.

5.) I just got a replacement title.

I know there are probably a lot of questions. Especially if I'm related to you and this post is how you're finding out. Just know, that it could've been worse, and if I didn't tell you it's because I was scared to and talking about it is embarrassing. I feel like a terrible driver and the thought of ever driving again is a little terrifying.

But just to be clear: I was not drunk. I was not texting. And the job is at a restaurant.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

The things you learn when driving almost cross country

Yesterday, I arrived at my brothers (now also my) apartment, after an 1860 mile drive from Sparks, Nevada to Lisle, Illinois. During that time I learned several things. I will now share those things with you in order to prepare you for a potential road trip in your future.

1. Starting an 1800 mile drive after approximately 3 hours of sleep is never a good idea. This combined with the fact that you just started your "lady time" is a recipe for disaster.

2. Trying to drive 75 miles per hour after never driving faster than 65 and usually only driving 55 mph (for the last 2 years anyway) is much more difficult than you would imagine. The reverse is also true.

3. Most of Nevada and Utah should just be declared a wasteland . . . I'd throw Wyoming and Nebraska in there too, but they're prettier so I'll leave them out of this.

4. Utah is the worst! I'm pretty sure it just used to be named Tah, but people so frequently said "F*** You Tah!" that eventually, everybody just thought it was named Utah.

5. High winds combined with several nearby salt lakes also contribute to the recipe mentioned in number 1. I have never been more scared in my life . . . including the time I drove over Donner Pass in a blizzard.

6. Road construction in other states isn't taken nearly as seriously as it is in Nevada.*

7. Half a box of cheese-its can be a meal, and you don't have to pull over to eat it.

8. Road kill happens far more than you could ever imagine. If you've ever seen roadkill and it was just a small animal that was all in one piece, consider yourself lucky . . . lucky that you didn't just see it's body, then 50 feet later, it's head . . . lucky that you didn't see a dark red color on the road and think "why did they paint this part of the road dark red, and what are all those chunks?", only to realize 10 seconds later what you were actually just looking at.

9. A good audiobook** is way more entertaining than even your bestest most favorite music. (Thanks TR!)

10. Semi's often think they are regular cars that have the right to pass other semis when driving on a 2 lane highway.

11. When you're really tired because you've been driving for 8 hours and still have eight more to go, put on a song you know the words to and sing it like you're giving a live performance.

12. Kum and go is an acceptable name for a gas station/ mini mart in several states.

13. The leading cause of bug death is head on windshield collisions. There were at least 1,000 casualties on my car alone.

14. Cleaning dead bugs off your window takes more than a little wiper fluid and a swipe of the wiper blades.

15. Some people enjoy watching the Glympse*** you sent them, while others couldn't care less.

16. The only thing worse than passing a cattle ranch, is being trapped behind a truck of cattle because there's road construction, and the highway has been reduced to one lane.

17. No matter what, the last 40 miles is more grueling than any other part of your trip . . . including the first part of Utah.


And that is my ride in a nutshell. I would like to give a special thanks to some people that made the ride a little easier.

1. My friend T.R.D. who burned me about 20 cd's so I wouldn't just be listening to all my old crap.

2. My former roommate S.P.R. who gave me all the ingredients for a Picklet (Patent Pending), as well as cookies and a gift card to subway.

3. My friend T.R. who gave me a bunch of candy and a gift card so I could buy the audiobook I was too cheap to buy on my own.

4. My sister A.S. who sent me frequent text messages updating me on my current location and letting me know how much farther I had to go.

5. My parents, for helping me get a hotel room the first night, when I couldn't figure out the Priceline application.

6. And finally, my brother and his fiancee, for letting me come live with them in the first place.

THANK YOU!

* In Nevada there's a part of the 395 that has a reduced speed limit of 55, this is due to road construction that has been going on for about a year and a half now. I rarely see any actual construction going on, yet the speed limit stays. In all the road construction I went through on my trip, the construction was usually very apparent and much scarier . . . yet the lowest speed limit was 65.

** The audiobook was Bossy Pants by Tina Fey, in case you were wondering, and it was pretty much the most perfect book I could have chosen for this particular trip.

*** Glympse is an application you can download on your phone. When used, you can send people a "Glympse" and they can track your progress. This helps people know when something might be wrong, and also gives them a better approximation of when exactly you will be arriving. It was so accurate in fact, that on my final day, my brother was able to find me on the freeway after he got off work, so that I could follow him home. Just to be clear, he wasn't already driving and was like "oh hey, Madelyn's two lanes over" . . . he had to pull over (only for about a minute though) and wait for me.