sister (J) – Imaginary Sunshine

Say what now?

Michelle — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 06:40:59 +0000

I’ve been getting a lot of mail lately. Some of it was solicited (TEXTBOOKS!!#$%!) and others was not (dear playhouse that I purchased musical tickets from you 2 years ago, you’d think because I haven’t bought tickets in 2 years, that would be a hint to stop wasting paper). Unfortunately, I’m still unable to intercept the mail so my dad always sees it first.

Dad: Why are you getting mail from [insert name of local community college]?
Me: I applied there.
D: long pause. What program?
M: Their 4 year nursing program.
D: longer pause, I can practically see the wheels churning inside of his head. Is it the same program as at [insert name of big university/the one that I attend]?
M: Yes.
D: hands over the envelope, finally. Okay.

Because even nearly 5 years after I graduated from high school and even after he even admitted that trades was an “appropriate” career choice, he still has a problem with smaller schools, or not internationally recognized institutions, even if they’re public, government funded & approved schools.

My sister J started school this week. She graduated from said Big University in either 2006 and is just going back to school now for a trades program. Granted, it’s a medical-relate program, so it’s not like she’s becoming a mechanic. But J is the Golden Child and can never do anything wrong. So because she applied (and was accepted into) a trades program, suddenly trades is the Best Thing Ever.

And my father had the nerve to ask me:

D: Why didn’t you go into trades as well?

Well, dad, maybe it’s because you spent the first 17 years of my life telling me that I need to go to university and get a degree because it’s what I’m fucking supposed to do. That and I get to live rent-free at home provided I stay in school, so it was kind of no brainer. But I have friends who graduated on time (unlike me) and are woefully unemployed. A friend of my sister’s has been out of university since 2006 and just got a full-time job in her field (she has an education degree and spent 5 years being a substitute teacher, filling in when people were sick or on maternity leave and having very uncertain employment). Having a Bachelors, regardless of what it is in doesn’t mean a whole lot these days. Mostly because a lot of people have a Bachelors degree. Which is really depressing to think about, considering I’ll be graduating with one at the end of May. And it’s going to be fantastic. The word “Science” will be mentioned on that piece of paper 4 times in my degree title. Not because I wanted them to emphasize how much I love science, but because of what my program was. (A lot of science.)

But really. Having my dad tell me when I’m 9 credits away from finishing my BSc that I should have gone into some sort of trades instead? Like a knife through the heart. Maybe he should have been pushing that for the first 17 years of my life instead. Or maybe he should just keep his opinions to himself.

Mastering Procrastination

Michelle — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 04:40:21 +0000

It’s always when I have a million and one things to do that I end up blogging. Why? Probably because I could be one of the many Queens of Procrastination. Next week I have a couple of midterms and a lab quiz. I’m more worried for my lab quiz than I am the midterms. Why? Mostly because I did very poorly (but not a failing grade) on the first lab quiz (worth 5% of my total grade, so I’m not entirely nervous about it yet). And the other two midterms? Multiple choice. Yes, I know, be happy for me that I ended up taking 300-level courses for my secondary concentration that ended up with fully multiple choice tests. (Have I also mentioned that I’m horrible at multiple choice because I generally second guess myself?) Luckily I like my professors and they’re fairly approachable. Even if they’re dropping F-bombs in lecture because their ancient laptop freezes for the umpteenth time while connected to the school’s “secure” wifi network.

In other news, I bought candy on November 1st because that’s when it’s cheap. I bought Tootsie Roll pops, mini Hershey chocolate bars, mini Kit-Kat bars, little boxes of Smarties, a bag of mini lollis, Halloween-themed Lindt chocolate balls, Halloween-themed Kinder Surprise Eggs and a box of 120 mini chocolate bars. Nom nom nom. I knew I always loved November. And it’s not just for the sugar rush either.

I was told by my friend’s mom that I’m a (and I quote) “horrible influence” on her daughter this week. Why? Because I told her daughter to do what makes her happy and that it’s okay to kiss a boy that she’s dating. Zomg. You would have thought I told my friend that it’s perfectly okay to shoot up drugs and get wasted during a midterm or something. Public enemy no. 1, that’s me. Then again, I may have said to her face that she was crazy. Because I honestly do believe that she is. Which also did not help her perception of me as being a horrible influence. But really, who tells their daughter that they have to marry a guy first and then date him? And that if you hold hands, you’d better be married first? Crack pots, that’s who. Even my own mother thinks that it’s really weird and completely backwards (I found someone with parents more traditional/strict than mine, with an extra helping of crazy-pants added in there).

Now I’m going back to studying because I have lots of things to do! I also get invited to my sister’s birthday party, which was very generous of her considering she’s having it at the house that I live in and I plan to be in the house at the time of the party anyways. I’m only going for the food though. And if her friends start singing karaoke again, my ears may bleed. (There is very few things worse than listening to grown men trying to sing soprano when they really should never ever ever try to hit those notes because their range is not that high. Also, they sing 90’s pop songs, because what’s what we have in terms of karaoke discs.)

Fur goodness sakes

Michelle — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 04:20:31 +0000

Picture this scene.

It’s about 3pm on a Saturday afternoon, let us say that it just happens to be January 9th, 2010. Michelle and her family decided to go shopping (gah, more shopping?!) and they ended up at a high-priced store. So while Michelle is seeing how a particular Burberry coat looks on her (didn’t buy it – it cost more than how much I paid for tuition for an entire term), her sister J picks up a neckwarmer/scarflet/I-don’t-know-the-technical-name-for-it*

J: Hey, what do you think of this?
M: [putting uber-expensive coat back onto the hanger] … Is that fox fur?**
J: What? Of course not!
M: [reaches for the object to check the label and reads] Genuine Fox Fur from Canada…
J: %&#&!&%$(#*
M: What did you think it was?
J: Uhh, thought it was fake.
M: [holds up price tag] Not at $480!

* Pretty sure, thinking back now, that it was a stole (which is technically different from a scarf).

** For some weird reason, I can identify fur when it’s no longer on the animal. I’m not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing.

My sister was disgusted at that point and went to look at other things. Our stay in the store did not last very long after this incident where she was horrified at having touched a fur object. Me, on the other hand, while thinking it was sad, also did marvel (a little) at how soft it was. (Please don’t throw red paint at me, the only ‘fur’ object I have that is wearable is a fake, vintage tiger-print jacket that I got as a gift from a family relative – 100% polyester. Other furry items would be my stuffed animals, but those are made from synthetic materials.)

Just a few questions for today:

What are your thoughts on wearing fake fur/real fur?
How about for clothing items that were made before people really began to realize the impact it had on populations of species? Or items that have been in a family for a few generations and gets passed down?

Hope everyone had a lovely Saturday!

Merry Christmas (Eve)!

Michelle — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 05:08:10 +0000

Merry Christmas (Eve) – depending on when you’re reading this. I hope you all got what you were hoping to find underneath your Christmas tree. I’m just glad that I have a tree this year – even though I didn’t get to decorate it (it looks fabulous though! More photos of it tomorrow!).

I spent this morning shopping with my sister. She bought my Christmas present for me (… while I was there and picking it out and watching her fork over her credit card for it… -coughs- So yes, I ‘peeked’ at my gift!) and we went shopping for craft supplies (it so happens that there’s an absurd amount of people who also go shopping for craft supplies – mainly yarn – on Christmas Eve). We bought some more yarn as the store I went to on Tuesday got new inventory, I also got some fabric (marked quilting squares?) that were priced at $0.25/each, it’s more than enough fabric to make at least one doll dress out of each, so I’m happy about that, as well as a double-ended crochet hook! I’ve been trying to find one for ages, it’s used for double crocheting and it can also be used for Tunisian crochet if I’m not mistaken – new methods of crocheting to try out!

No baking for today, I didn’t get home until about 2pm-ish, at that point my sister was more interested in showing off our ‘loot’ to my other sister (who went shopping for my Christmas present – on Christmas Eve, apparently the mall were ridiculous!) so we had lunch and then watched a movie (Borrowed Hearts – the only Christmas-y movie that I watch every year).

And then the rest of my evening was spent watching The Sound of Music (yay) with the sisters and during/later, I changed 2 pairs of eye chips on my Blythe dolls (more details, and photos!, over at Little Miss Sophie, my Blythe blog).

Happy days… Ish.

Michelle — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 07:24:24 +0000

So I went with my sister go and buy her new computer last night. My mom was a little concerned, my sister was in the store for all of 5 minutes before handing over her credit card to drop nearly around $900 on the new laptop. It’s an HP laptop (dv6-series, same as mine – but with much better specs!). The salesperson came around and stared talking about how popular that specific laptop was, because it’s white (“Just like Macbooks!”) and how it’s cheaper than the Macs. So within 5 minutes of being in the store, and 2 minutes of talking to the salesperson (who reassured my sister about how all software is completely compatible with the 64-bit Windows 7), my sister bought her new laptop. At $750 base price, plus $100 for the basic set-up and plus tax (it was ~ $100 in tax alone… cripes). It’s a very nice laptop though, white keys with blue lettering – it’s quite nice. However, her touch pad is like shiny silver – like a mirror. I quite like my touch pad a lot better, mine’s dull silvery gray and doesn’t pick up fingerprints like a magnet.

Then we went around to a few other stores in the mall. My mom ended up getting presents for people at work – I love picking out presents. Especially of the edible variety, yum. Granted, none of it was for me. My sister bought liquor filled chocolates for her friend, and I picked up a little Muk Muk key chain that I quite liked, but ended up not getting ($10 for a keychain… No thanks!) and I picked out my dad’s Christmas gift (a hex bug, it’s quite cute!). I still have my sisters and my mom to make things for. My mom’s getting a scarf (she got one last year, but it was a very short one, this time it’ll be long enough to go around her neck at least once). Then for my sister’s… One’s getting a necklace so she’ll stop borrowing the ones that I’ve made for myself and my other sister is getting wrist warmers, so she’ll stop complaining about how cold it is to type on her computer’s keyboard downstairs or when she’s in her room. I’m even going to decorate them with buttons (because I have so gosh darn many).

Today’s been pretty low-key. I didn’t get any baking like I had wanted to do, but I did do a lot of preparation for my psychology final, which is Monday night. I finished writing up all my definitions, as well as rereading (and reading, some, for the first time – heh) the chapters in my textbook that are relevant. Tomorrow, I plan on doing most, if not all, of the essay prep (for 8 different topics – gah, some of the essay questions are long with so many parts – I think my prof was slightly sadistic when he was coming up with them).

I hope everyone has had a wonderful Thursday and will have an even more wonderful Friday! Only eight more sleeps until Santa comes (hope you’ve all been good!).

And from the men’s department…

Michelle — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 02:42:56 +0000

Lah de dah… Today’s been kind of a wash. I spent today: eating (…), studying (biology), listening to people sing (a.k.a. the choir) and more studying (biology).

My sister (J) is in a choir and they had a performance today at a local mall, so my other sister and I went and took loads of photos and videos of her and her choir for my mom. Which was fun, D ran through an entire formerly fully charged battery for her camera (she has a Nikon Coolpix) and I went through about a quarter of my battery (Sony Cybershot). Suddenly, she’s not so impressed with her camera and its battery life. We went out for lunch and ended up eating at the food court in the mall because the IHOP was full of people (granted, we got there at around 11:30am – hello, lunchtime!) and we all got different things – J got 5 pieces of chicken nuggets from KFC ($4.19), I got a Torpedo from Quizno’s ($4.20) and D got a burrito from Taco Time ($4.29). We all agreed that J’s meal was a rip off (she wasn’t feeling that hungry and just ordered any old thing) and that D’s burrito was definitely a little lackluster as it was incredibly flat and lacking in the cheese department. Me, I had no complaints about mine (mmm, beef, bacon and cheddar? Don’t mind if I do!).

After the performance, we went shopping and I got this hoodie which ended up being the subject to a funny conversation. See, because I’m (relatively…) short, I tend to buy clothes in the youth section rather than the adult section. Which is fine by me, as clothes for kids tend to be less expensive than an equivalent in the women’s department. So this is the hoodie that I got (ignore the clutter that you see, and the fact that my sheets are wrinkled beyond belief – no one, besides the internets, sees them, so I have no need to make them all nice and neat to impress anyone, hah)…

Original tag price: $32
Sale price: $18.88 + additional 40% off ($11.33)

It’s also from the men’s department, adult size small and it’s super comfy. It’s also a bit long in the torso and in the sleeves, but since it’s a hoodie, I figured it didn’t really matter too much. Did I mention that it’s super comfy? My sister brought up the fact that I normally buy clothes in the youth/kids section, and hardly ever the women’s section unless I find something that I really like that is also on sale, and now I’m getting hoodies from the men’s section of the store. I replied with “Well maybe if they had some decent hoodies in the women’s section that I could actually see myself wearing…”.

Needless to say, my sisters were impressed that I didn’t go for a hoodie with My Little Pony (first of all, I don’t even like the new MLP, vintage illustrations and toys were so much better, and secondly, the hoodie went up to the largest toddler size – I’m not that disillusioned about what size I wear, thanks). Which reminds me, I still haven’t taken photos of the clothes I got in November. But I’m done buying clothes for now, as after I finish cleaning out old clothes from my wardrobe, I’m pretty sure I’m good until summer rolls around.

Also, I took this photo today of one of my dolls in a knitted coat that I made last week (the pattern is a vintage Barbie coat that someone posted on the internet). Just wanted to share, because I adore her so much (she was my first Blythe and definitely one of the reasons why I got two more!):

Almost cheery Tuesday!

Michelle — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 04:21:42 +0000

Oh dear, Caity and Jenna! I didn’t mean four hours of math! I meant four hours between my 3rd class of the day and my 4th class (being math!) on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. My math class will only be 1 hour long, three times a week. You had me scared there for a moment!

Anyways… Today’s been rather nice. I spent a lot of time today at work with my data entry, of course. I chewed someone out for being downright lazy… Despite them being higher up than me. Luckily people think I’m just so cute and funny and that I couldn’t possibly be yelling. At the end, I ended up just going straight to my supervisor who went straight to that guy’s supervisor. It’s kind of like playing leap frog up a mountain and over people. It was not a highlight of my day. Eating chocolate chip cookies and gummy worms? A lot better than having to inform a grown man that some things should not be elective (i.e. using documents required for work). But, alas, so not my problem (right now, anyways).

And enough about work!

I bought a (doll) dress online, it’s a dress that came with a different doll, but I’m in love with it. It’s white with butterflies on it. I’m hoping it arrives within a week. I have plans to do a bunch of sewing on Saturday. I’m so excited for Saturday since it’s Les Miserables night! The circumstances have changed and I’m no longer to go see the play with Clay. Instead, I offered my second ticket to my friend C and she accepted. She likes musicals and plays and such as well and plus it’s been ages since I’ve seen her (… by ‘ages’, I mean ‘May’… I think – I obviously have a very poor sense of time and a very poor memory).

I really ought to spend time with my friends more often, I really don’t see them often enough and it’s easy to remember how much I’ve missed them when I’m actually spending time with them after a month-plus of only talking on the phone, or texting or chatting online. I guess I never really noticed it during high school because all I did was see everyone five days out of the week and chatting online in the evenings or weekends was perfectly fine because I’d just see them again in less than ~48 hours. But now it’s just a whole different dynamic and things are different. We’re all at different schools, we all work at various places with different hours. Some of us can drive, some of us can never seem to borrow the car (that would be me!), some of us just have different groups of friends now, or spend copious amounts of time doing something else. Like me with my blogs, crafts, tv shows (The Bachelorette is ending in a few weeks, whatever am I going to do for entertainment?!), doll (!!!), work, volunteering and trying to stay sane around my dad…

I’ve been working on loads of things lately, especially at home. My sister J and I cleaned out the closet where we keep all the wrapping paper and gift bags and massive rolls of Christmas paper. You do not want to know how many rolls of wrapping paper that we have that is red with dull gold holly with the words ‘Happy Holidays!‘ we have. I wish I hadn’t counted. I’ve been working on cleaning my room, which is a huge task in itself because while I’m fairly organized in many aspects of my life (i.e. my desk at work, usually my school stuff) the rest of my room is a disaster. I’m going to be getting a new bookshelf (which will not be going in my room, but will be doing downstairs so I have a new ‘expansion’ in terms of storage space!) so a lot of my novels will be moving, as well as a lot of resource books (i.e. my physiology book that I’m never selling, a bunch of books about animals for children) and I’ll free up some space and just keep my ‘favourite’ books upstairs. Which will be… a lot, to tell you the truth. I’m also going to clean out my wardrobe, figure out what I’m never wearing again in my life (or haven’t worn since I was in high school). Once I figure that out, I can figure out which fabrics I want to keep to cut up to be sewed into dolly-wear.

And speaking of dolls… I’m also working away on my (new!) dolly blog. I’m quite happy with it so far, but it won’t probably be done until tomorrow. I’m getting picky about the colours and such… I do occasionally wish that I was more decisive.

And… That was my day! And me going on and on about nothing and everything all at the same time.

I’m not like “everyone else”

Michelle — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 02:55:48 +0000

Hey everyone, thanks for the concern about yesterday. (Caity, sorry there wasn’t a block of Michelle text waiting for you!)

So… Sunday. I went to bed like really late, I stayed up to talk to Clay and then I fell asleep on him (I do this a lot, by the way), which wasn’t my intention at all. Then I woke up again at probably around 3:30am and we started talking again. And at this point, I’m like wide awake. I went to bed at around 1am-ish, so I only got a little over an hour of sleep. But I’m like wired, totally awake, and I stayed up until about… 6am, if memory serves. I said good night, head hit the pillow and I was out like a light. I woke up at around 10am, so I had a little over five hours of sleep in total to function on for Sunday. Which is never a good thing. But I did pretty okay in terms of being able to function.

My family and I went to my sister’s show (she’s in a show choir, so that was really awesome, they did a bunch of classics and some songs from musicals), so that was nice. Everything was fine up until sometime in the evening when my dad started complaining about the show (he didn’t know any of the songs, so he didn’t enjoy it as he also didn’t understand the lyrics as well) and how he had to go and how hot it was yesterday and then he got really mad at me for not putting something back (an exacto knife, if anyone’s curious – there’s like one in every room of my house – don’t ask why). And it wasn’t me that had moved it, so I was trying to defend myself and he just cuts me off and goes off about how I just always say that it isn’t me, even though he just knows that it always is me.

(Turns out that it was my mom that moved it and didn’t put it back – he didn’t apologize, he also didn’t yell at her, he just stalked off.)

So my rather cheerful mood just bottomed out after that. Hence last night’s entry. Which was all of like… Fourteen words.

So Monday! It was super sunny today and very hot at work. Luckily my cubicle is in an area with air conditioning – however it just makes everywhere else in the building seem very hot. I didn’t have a whole lot to do today. I had actually had stuff to do from 8am to about 1pm, but after that there wasn’t very much and I couldn’t find my boss anywhere to see if there was anything else he’d like for me to work on as he was in a meeting until about five minutes before I had to leave. So I wasn’t very productive today. I stayed hydrated, read the news online, did all my work, walked around, talked. It was… lazily productive, I’d say. Which isn’t saying a whole hell of a lot. But I tried to do more work, but I wasn’t about to interrupt the meeting since it was important.

But coming home was okay, I fell asleep in the car since it was so hot (even with the window down). However, everything fell apart once it was dinner time. Because my dad decided it was at that point that would be best to start asking me why I’m not applying for nursing classes for this September. The answer: I wasn’t eligible to apply for the program at my school when they were taking applications (in December). And then there was the question of why that wasn’t possible. And how I never plan anything. And how I’m not serious enough for school. And how everyone else can do a Bachelor’s degree in four years, instead of five like me (which is kind of funny… Considering both of my sisters did their BSc’s in five years instead of four – and I don’t think any of my friends are on the path to being able to complete their Bachelors in four years right now anyways!). And went on and on and on and on about that.

I mean, sure, it’s good that my dad cares about my education. I guess. But at the same time, he asked me the exact same question 3 times in 30 minutes. The exact same question. I answered it in the exact same way each time. My answer did not change, at all. And every single time I answered the question (about why I didn’t have enough credits, etc.) he got angrier and angrier. He actually came out and said that he thought I was “doing this” (i.e. taking more than four years to complete a degree) to spite him. Like I really see the connection between my completing a degree, graduating and getting a full time job and… him.

But to leave off on a less… I-am-upset note, here’s a text message that I sent to Kelsey today:

I’m learning the hard way how stupid people can be. How hard is it to understand that something cannot be on and off at the same time?

How did your Monday go?

It was just one of those days

Michelle — Sun, 24 May 2009 03:21:05 +0000

Yesterday was an incredibly long day. Today’s been an incredibly long day. Headed out with the family for lunch (lunch for them, breakfast for me – we left at 10am!). Later, apparently we drove over an hour just for lunch/breakfast (go figure) and then we went back home. My sister had a dentist appointment, so she dropped me off at the store so I could go and looking through things. I was there for… an hour and a half. And my goodness, it’s boring going furniture shopping by myself! There was a book shelf that I wanted to get, but I wasn’t too sure about the dimensions fitting in the area that I was thinking of, so obviously I didn’t buy it. There was also these really cute ghost night lights that I fell in love with, but I only liked it when it wasn’t lit up (which kind of defeats the purpose), so I didn’t get that either. And once my sister was finished her dental appointment, she didn’t want to buy anything either, so we went to a mall and went shopping for her storage containers there (we need a place for yarn as the other sister is moving back and we can’t really keep our yarn where she’s going to be storing her clothes – although, I mean, we could… It just wouldn’t be very nice, I think.). She has expensive taste in storage containers, by the way, and my eyes just about fell out when I saw the total after the cashier was finished ringing up all three of them.

At lunch/breakfast, my dad got into random rants. He vented about the invention of email and how people waste more paper now than they did before. He went on and on about how people who own pets should just get a big LCD tv and load videos of animals playing on the screen and no one would ever have to own a pet again. He complained about how freehosts for websites all had ads now and how people who pay for hosting are just stupid (thanks dad!) as you can get it for free. He also complained about the construction going on next door (I can understand that – they’ve done sidewalk and the turning area so where our driveway ends and their entrance begins are both in line with our property – I can just picture stupid drivers hitting our fence now. Repeatedly. When it’s done, of course.), which was completely understandable. And then, when we were getting our last dish at the table, he went on about how my oldest sister (the one who’s moving back!) is so socially inept that she doesn’t have a boyfriend yet (and gasp! She’s almost 30! The horror!) and how there mustn’t be enough ‘suitable Chinese boys’ down in LA. I don’t know, if my ‘nearly 30’ sister is scoping out the boys, I think there’d be more issues there beyond the whole “she doesn’t have a boyfriend yet” thing.

But hey, he’s focusing his ‘I want grandkids’ attention onto my older sisters instead of me now! Yay! Sometimes I think that if Hogwarts was real, my dad would have been a Slytherin. Not because he’s evil or anything, just because he’s so into harping on and on about what would be the Potterverse equivalent of Pure Bloods. Ahem. That’s enough book references for one day!

So what did you do today on this lovely (well, hopefully the weather was nice where you are too!) Saturday? Did you do anything that was exciting, interesting or would be fascinating to someone?

Edit! New theme is up! Feature sunflowers, yay! Also, I have a new fanlisting up as well, for the psychotic (and rightly so) character named “Alpha” from the television show Dollhouse. The fanlisting is called Evolved. Please give it a visit!

In which it was a pretty good Sunday

Michelle — Mon, 11 May 2009 04:30:29 +0000

@ Kelsey – I suppose it could be a sign that we should get a dog. Or that people should invest in leashes. Or train their little canine friends a little bit more.

But speaking of dogs… Today at volunteering, someone who was visiting their mom (for Mother’s Day, of course), brought in their dog (a lot of people do this, provided they get permission first) and the dog ran off and came near me because I was sitting in an area where some of the residents had dropped lots of crumbs. So I look down, and there’s this furry medium-sized dog snarfing up pastry crumbs around my feet. I reach down calmly, snatch up the leash and give the dog a little tug as I’m getting up so I can take it back to it’s owner. The dog looks up at me for a moment and then goes and stands up on it’s hind legs and puts it’s front paws on my legs. It was kinda cute. I mean, badly behaved and went straight for pastries (although, I must confess, I like pastries too), but still cute. When I relaxed a little, he tried to run back towards the crumbs and I nearly let go of the leash, but I held onto it and it whimpered when it couldn’t run anymore. But the most important thing? I didn’t freak out over being around a dog! And the dog didn’t try to bite me! Score one for getting over my fear of dogs.

Mother’s Day went well in my house. I made breakfast (French toast!) and my family went out for lunch (without me, asI had volunteering at 1pm). Then for dinner my sister cooked (… she never cooks, so it was kind of weird) and she cooked halibut with tomatoes, which was really good (my dad helped her). So that was cool. For my mommy’s Mother’s Day gift, besides the meals, my sister and I paid for a set of new gardening tools for her. She likes gardening (despite her many allergies, some of which include allergies to certain types of trees, grasses and flowers), and the hand tools that she had were from before I was even born so… We got her new ones. And she likes them! The old ones had hard plastic handles, these ones are a little bit more friendly towards using them for long periods of time. So she likes them, which is awesome. We also got her pink pastries (… it was a spur of the moment kind of thing).

And… May 10th is also my non-anniversary anniversary with the Boyfriend! Confused? (It’s okay, half the time I am too!). Last year, I asked him out on May 10th (and if what I wrote was correct, it was like sometime just past midnight). I annoyed my very wonderful friend K to death about it, going back and forth on if I was going to ask him out or not. And kept her up while doing it as well (the crazy girl loves company?). So I asked him out. And… he took on his own sweet time getting back to me on that one. Or what seemed like an incredibly long time (everything seems a lot longer when you’re anticipating an answer and you’re not quite sure of it’s going to be a positive or a negative answer). So, I kept her up and kept myself up while I was at it. Obviously, he agreed to go out with me (or else I wouldn’t be referring to him as anything besides “That Guy From Work Who Rejected Me” – althought that’s a bit long, I’d probably just call him “C”). And K stayed up with me until I got an answer. =) Granted, we didn’t go out on our first date until after the summer was over and until I started up school again (… in September). So technically, not our anniversary (which was decided on back in… March – we take our own sweet time doing things) but I’m a complete dork and have to mention it anyways! Mostly because I’m a complete dork and mostly because I wanted to show off what I gave him!

You may have already seen the photos over at Chelle-Chelle.com (where I mentioned a little bit about the construction and yarn fibers) or seen on my Flickr (if you happen to be following me) or over on my sidebar (when I uploaded them earlier, prior to volunteering when I hadn’t had a chance to write this entry yet). But nonetheless, this poor guy is getting cross-posted just about everywhere.