Mockingjay Part One

So I went and I saw Mockingjay Part One and it was an emotion roller coaster just like the books. I didn't see any changes that I disliked but as an avid fan of the books I noticed some (in my opinion) important parts were missing. I am hoping that I will like the first half better once the second half is available but let's be honest, the second half is even more upsetting. I won't say why because I know not everyone likes spoilers but I will say that we are in for some serious nonsense in the second movie because of where they elected to stop the first half. Brace yourselves kids, things are about to go down. 

In other news, I opened the store and planned some friend time today. I felt like I had real progress at work but we shall see. I have also decided that I am going to be cutting out bad sugars for the month of Decemeber. I've noticed that I consume quite a bit of sugar on a daily basis and with a family history of Diabetes that could end up coming back to bite me. I need to stop. No more candy or ice cream or chocolate. Good sugars only.

FSU VS UF

Today was my day off and I spent it babysitting my nephews and making chocolate cookies before stressing out over the FSU/UF rivalry game.

I don't watch the games very often and I never really cared about football. BUT this games means a years worth of bragging rights. Originally the game started with my nephew rooting for the Gators while I told him that my team had not lost the last 27 games they played. Still, he stuck with the Gators but that was mostly because they were winning at the time. His younger brother needed to be fed so I went to do that while he kept watching the game. Ten minutes or so later he came in bawling his eyes out because my team was now in the lead by 6 points. Completly distraught (even though he is 6 and has no loyalty to either team in reality) he claimed that they had taken away all the point from his team and refused to hear otherwise. My response was to explain to him that it didn't really matter and hand him a cookie.

He ate it and dried his tears before running back into the living room to check the score. This is when he saw Jameis get attacked by the Florida player on the side lines. Naturally he ran in to let me know and then I heard the words "so I've decided to root for your team. The Seminoles." His brother soon finished his dinner and we all found a seat in the living room to scream at the TV for a stressful 2 hours.

I was rewarded for all of my babysitting efforts with Mexican food from my favorite restaurant, a (sloppy) Nole win, and the ability to do laundry. Hallelujah.

Magical Friday Chronicles

3:30 am: The heater lulled me to sleep at 9:30 right after we got home from the holiday festivities. I passed out in my tribal print sweater dress and really pretty makeup until around 2:30 am when the heater woke me up with its death grip on my throat ( the heat made my throat close up). I decided to take off my holiday outfit and clean my face before heading back to sleep. This was interrupted by a phone call from Kayla who had just finished work because of Black Friday and wanted to talk on her way home. Now I am going to start re reading Mockingjay in order to fall back asleep.

6:30am: I have finished the book for the fifth time since 2012. I have not gone back to sleep. I don't understand.

8:00am I now have to get up from the hour of sleep I was able to acquire and cook corn casserole for work before I go in at 10:30. I'M SO TIRED. I have decided to pay for everyone's breakfast if someone will go get McDonalds.

6:00pm Work ended early for me but I had to wait for my sister to be finished with her nail appointment. Work was... a feat. I'm not really sure where to begin. All I know is I am now headed to find some sort of sleeping position.

Happy Thanksgiving Day

We went to my Aunt Linda's and saw most of the family members. Anderson learned he likes pumpkin pie. A bunch of my family members called me Snow White. Everyone likes my tribal print dress that I hated. I ruined my boots.

Prep for Friday

And I'll write about it tomorrow because I'm so tired.

I am updating this on Saturday because I just never got around to it over Thanksgiving day or yesterday.

The earlier part of the day was spent getting supplies for recipes and shopping for something to wear for Thanksgiving dinner with my extended family. It was also spent trying to figure out why there was no digital copy code in my digital/bluray/DVD combo pack. Target had no answer after we check every combo pack they had and neither did iTunes. Now I just have to figure out who from Dreamworks I can get a hold of to apprehend a code.

Then I headed to work in order to prepare for a successful Magical Friday. I feel like prep went well but it was really tiring. I came home and went to sleep.

Taking The Blame

I've always known that I was a procrastinator. Even from a young age I waited until the night before to do my book reports or find magazines around my house to cut out pictures from. I couldn't be bothered to do anything until it absolutely had to be done. Not because I didn't want to do it but because my motivation to do things was tied to the stress of only having a small amount of time to do things. 

If anyone tells me I'm not good at time management I tell the, they are wrong. I am good at time a management just maybe not the way anyone would think I should be. I find the things that have to be done because there is no time left to do them and do those first. That's the logical thing to me. I'm 10,000 percent sure that it isn't actually the logical thing to do but that's how my brain works. Doing things in advance doesn't make sense to me. A sense of urgency doesn't come with those plans to me. It has to be down to the wire for me to function apparently. I'm not necessarily okay with that but it is all I know how to do and I wouldn't even begin to know how to change it. That's me. This whole time I've been writing about how I want to change aspect X and Y. I didn't obviously. I don't think I can. Or maybe I just didn't try the right method. Either way, I blame myself for every single thing I didn't accomplish or every single thing I put off. I don't know anything different. 

I got to see Brandi today which was fun. She hitched a ride down from Tallahassee for Thanksgiving week and her chauffeur dropped her off at the mall my job is located in which meant that her and her family were able to stop by and say hi. That was about the only good thing that happened today. Everything else resulted in a mental breakdown for the last two hours which I had to be talked out of by Greg and Brandi. One day at a time from here on out I guess. And focusing on the little things.

I'm A Slacker

I was going to post this on the day that it was actually due but the Internet in my house sucks so a day late it is!

Today was abysmally average. I didn't wake up when I was supposed to and I didn't do all of things I was supposed to do. Then I went to work and ran around like a chicken with my head cut off. Same old story about how I can't keep commitments to myself and how I don't seem to be holding myself accountable for anything.

Stress, Sleep, Repeat

I will open every Sunday for the rest of the year and that it totally fine with me. What I am not prepared for are the crazy hours and amounts of people that are about to come pouring in. On top of the stress I already have from work and the big move that is going to be here so much quicker than I know it, now more stress is about to come from higher guest counts. I will find a way. I will figure out how to balance  guest servicing and tasking and trending and accountabilitying and Merlin knows what else.

Today I got to see Catherine!! Yesterday was her birthday and I heard she had tons of fun! Today I went over to her house to make apple crisp stuff which was yummy and to watch like 4 hours do food network shows. We're fantastic.

I Don't Remember

I know that I did things today. I know that I went to work and that it was stressful. I know that I stayed up too late watching videos on YouTube but I don't actually remember what all happened today. Everything happened in a blur.

Chocolate's Molecular Structure

I got to have a lovely visit with my grandmother today and she gave me this really awesome windbreaker!! The front looks pretty cool too considering it has the right logo on it but the back is my favorite part.

I haven't had a ton of time to visit my grandmother since I have been home so I was glad to have been able to visit with her. We talked about family and construction, the events that happened yesterday, her family history, and recapped my sisterhood retreat to Eufala last spring. Pretty much everything except the molecular structure of chocolate.

We Stand United

Late last night/early this morning someone shook the foundation for 40,000 students who call the Florida State University home. Someone walked into one of the most populated places on campus and opened fire. His actions cost him his life and injured three students but it brought the college student demographic of the state of Florida together. UF, USF, and FAMU all expressed their condolences and some even offered support to the students. The state of Florida stood to support my school through this traumatic time and I don't think the Seminoles could be anymore grateful.

I Dislike Opening

I have become so accustom to closing at the store that opening seems foreign to me. I think I would honestly prefer to close. Which I will do tomorrow! Today though I feel like things went okay. I got everything I wanted to finish finished and two of those things I came up with and didn't have to be told which makes me feel better.

Today wasn't as productive as yesterday because the majority of my hours were spent somewhere else but I did get some more apartment research in after making a complete fool of my self while ordering dinner (and after watching AHS of course). SIDENOTE: THE GUY AT THE RESTAURANT WAS RIDICULOUSLY ATTRACTIVE AND I LOOKED THE EXACT OPPOSITE.

I Was Productive

Today was kind of like a day off because I didn't have to be at work until 5:30 so I emailed more apartments and researched some others. I think I have it narrowed down to two other complexes so now I just have to hear back from one before I can make a decision.  After acting like a secretary for a few hours I joined my sister on her life adventures and got to drive for a little while. This missing my framed glasses thing is not okay and I meant to clean the other half of my room but emails were more important.

Work went fine, we managed to get nearly everything done which was good. My castmember and I had to save our sanity for a moment and fangirl over Hunter Hayes coming to the strawberry festival which means we get to see him! WOOO!! MARCH NEEDS TO GET HERE!! I also decided to switch one of my classes for spring to an online class so that I don't have to juggle get back and forth as often.

Searching For Solutions

I thought I had my apartment problem solved but I was wrong. They had another armed robbery and that just doesn't seem like something I should overlook. Back to the search! Although I think I have an option already. I don't get my own bathroom or a walk in closet and its much further away but it seems to be safer and I still have bus access. I'm going to run down my list one more time tomorrow and then I'll make a final decision. 

The rest of my day off has been planning my Hunter Hayes adventure, watching movies/shows, and emailing a TON of people. 

Sunday not Funday

Yesterday I fell asleep around 11:45 pm which is not something I normally do. I did that in order to wake up today around 8:00 am so that I could grace the tore with my presence by 9:00 am where Istayed until  3:00pm. Then I came home to tears from my nephew and drama with the apartment complex that I was thinking about moving into. Apparently they just experienced ANOTHER armed robbery which makes me really hesitant to sign my lease. Iduhtriueghuisrhijsg. So doneeeeee.

OH! AND THE RUMPLE WENT AND POSSIBLY RUINED THE CAPTAIN SWAN SHIP ON ONCE! what is happening 

54 More Days

54 more days until I move to Orlando and start my masters program. 14 more days until I don't have to worry about finding a place to life because everything will be signed and done with my lease (hopefully). 20 more days until I got see my favorite person (HUNTER HAYES!!) in Jacksonville! 

54 more days of being at home and being able to see everyone at my store. 54 more days of potential mental breakdowns because of planning and packing. 54 more days.

I'm so BEWILDERED

I was going to talk about how I bought a really pretty jacket today as well as a couple Christmas presents for people but when I sat down to write everything I noticed that my glasses were not on my face. I HAVE NO IDEA WHERE THEY ARE! I don't even remember taking them off today so I am unable to retrace my steps. I don't even know where to start. 

I have already combed through the sections of my room that I was in today and then I took my search to the kitchen, living rooms, the office, and my sister's car but nothing has come up. I'm honestly nearly in tears because of this. How does someone misplace glasses that they have no recollection of taking off of their face?! 

TWO POSTS, tomorrow

Came back from Disney and then went to work and now that I am home I am so incredibly tired. But that is okay. I will do my post about yesterday tomorrow after I go buy presents from my store on my day off.

CELEBRATE THE MAGIC

We started our Disney adventure by waking up at 6:20 this morning ... And I will post all about tomorrow because I'm so incredibly tired!

So like I said, we started our adventure really really REALLY early in the morning in or to get to the parks to use extra magic hours at Animal Kingdom between 8-9. This however did not work due to leaving late, having the guard tell me that my castmember ID didn't get me free pairing (I had a back up plan though!) and there being traffic for my Big on her way to the park. I did get a massive donut out of it though! IT WAS THE SIZE OF MY HEAD!

Now, this is where the first hijink of the day occurred. I had already linked my paper tickets to my account and the lady at the AK GS counter said that if she converted them to plastic that it would be fine. So we did. We were wrong. My ticket then didn't scan at all that day. They eventually just gave up and flagged me through. So I essentially got free admission all day. But we finally got in to animal kingdom right at 9am and we booked it to Everest. Only to learn that it was closed. A castmember named Steve told us to stay updated on the MDE app so we decided to head to Dinosaur in order to give Everest some time to recoup. 

We got to Dinosaur and my Big handed me a really pretty Tinker Bell bracelet as a birthday present. I am still so shocked by this! Thank you so much again! Ten we got on the Dinosaur ride and barely escaped with our lives. It was awesome. Everest did not open so we said goodbye to Animal Kingdom and headed to Epcot!

I don't tend to spend a ton of time at Epcot but I knew it would be Catherine's favorite! We had reservations for lunch in France so we spent the time before that watching the "SAVE THE PLANET FEATURE THE LION KING" show, going on Living with the Land, and pin buying/trading. I ended up getting the pins and lanyard pictured below because the FSU was the last one and everything was on sale. We did have an interesting adventure on Test Track because of this really nice man who gave us his fast pass! We made a pretty kick ass car and it was tons of fun! Definitely doing it again!

Then we headed around the world and almost stopped to meet Mulan in China. Eventually we found ourselves in Japan and Catherine and my Big were in heaven! I'm not big in to cultural experiences but it was still fun to watch them go all wide eyed over everything! I feel like there will be many more adventures in Epcot!

We finished our journey with lunch in France! The actual lunch part was pretty good but the dessert was the best. I would seriously go back to Epcot just for the chocolate mousse. Ohmygoodlord.

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Disney Vacation Planning

THAT IS LITERALLY ALL CATHERINE AND I DID FOR TWO HOURS TODAY! I will see my Biggles and the castle in approximately 9 hours! So excited!! 

Wait One Moment

Disclaimer: To avoid any further occurrences of an issue that I faced today, I have posted a public service announcement of sorts below. This is not meant to attack, accuse, call out, offend, or mentally distress anyone but rather allow me to share my honest opinion in the realist way possible If anyone has any questions, concerns, opinions, additions, fun facts, tidbits, snaps, criticisms, or adjustments please use the comment boxes or contact me directly :)

 If you read *my* blog and you find something I have said or done or have expressed in any way offensive then I encourage and ask (read "WOULD STRONGLY PREFER") that you talk to me about it before anyone else. Just out of curiosity, in what way is respectful or proper to tell someone something that I have said (MOSTLY ABOUT MYSELF) in such a way that you're essentially asking the person you are talking to to reprimand me for my opinions? This is a legitimate question.This isn't sarcasm or me being passive aggressive! I am hurt and offended by these actions and I would actually like to know, how is that fair or right? In my book it isn't. It is hurtful and dangerous! I only post things on here that I believe in, that I don't think would hurt anyone, and/or things that I just want to share. What gives anyone the right to then take what I have shared, lightheartedly mind you, and turn it in to something malicious?  I just don't understand. If someone reads my opinion  and doesn't agree or doesn't like it, how is it fair for that person to judge me and then essentially be a tattle tale when I didn't even do anything wrong? All I did was state how I view something! AND what it is that I said was taken out of context! So there are two things to talk to me about! First of all, if you have a concern about it then ask me for clarification. If, after I give you said clarification, you *STILL*  don't like what I have said or how I view *my life* then message or call me back and we'll talk about it. I'm a good listener, trust me.

I'm so bothered by this that I am actually afraid to share this post because Heaven forbid someone misconstrue what I've said here! I'm making myself share it because I refuse to feel... repressed. I just don't feel like I should ever FEAR sharing my opinion. I'm a strong willed person but I'm only going to state something if I don't feel like I am going to get attacked! Drama has already been WAY to apparent in my life so I don't tend to try to attract it.

That being said, I edited the posts in question so that there are no further misinterpretations and wrong accusations that stem from it.

Today also consisted of my being inadvertently late to work, finding an apartment because the house is just too far away, and not cleaning my room because I was so busy looking for a place to live.

Kicking Holiday Off

The last few Sundays have felt like Mondays, including today. I opening the store for what seemed like the first time in a long time and then I went home for 5 hours before going back to work for the holiday meeting. My purpose was to explain the fun parts of holiday to my team which mean trivia and candy and prizes! Wooo!

In those five hours between shifts however, I drove to Target, did my makeup, and made serious progress in the search for a place to live! I found this website where you can put up listing to be a roommate or reply to listings for roommates/places to live. I favorite-ed a property the other day and today they lady got back to me! It is further than I had planned but its only 490 dollars for everything which is FANTASTIC! It is a house and it allows pets! I really hope I can figure out a way to make it all work.

CRYING A RIVER

I got home from a short shift at work around 7. Then I had dinner and finally headed to the computer room around 8:15 so that I could watch the Noles win and do more research on apartments. Said research lead to a list of apartments that exist on the UCF bus routes and I sat there and went to every site. I looked at every number. I got really comfortable with the possibility of moving into some of the complexes. I emailed each complex that I liked after narrowing down the list. THEN it occurred to me to look at the reviews.

"It can't be that bad" said thought Kaitlin. THOUGHT KAITLIN WAS WRONG!

Every single place has a horrible reputation. From crime to bugs to mold to maintenance issues. You name it and every. single. apartment had TERRIBLE reviews about it. MULTIPLE TERRIBLE REVIEWS.On MULTIPLE websites. Is it just the students at UCF being snobby? Do I just say " ehhh" and go with the one that I like the most?
WHY IS THIS SO HARD!?

Shuttle Bus Rides

So after a day full of searching for ghosts on the sims, doing Alexis' makeup, and searching for place to live in Orlando I finally came across something!

THERE IS A SHUTTLE!!! IT TAKES YOU FROM THE MAIN CAMPUS TO THIS PLACE NEAR MY JOB OPTIONS! I'M SO HAPPY I COULD CRY! 

With this guaranteed mode of transportation, living situations might change!  Where the shuttle drops off is practically next door to my job options so as long as I plane with enough time it should be okay.

In other news, I tried to do Brandi and I's dance that we so diligently worked on 7 months ago and I couldn't do it. So sad.

Progress is Progress?

I'm sitting here, in butterfly pose, typing this whilst I think to my self "what am I actually going to talk about today?" This has been a question that I have asked myself about the majority of my posts recently. I knew that the day would come where I wouldn't automatically know what my post was going to be about. That is also why I haven't been sharing the link as much. My life story was already lame when I had things to talk about. When I'm just flying by the seat of my pants and posting about random nonsense I can only imagine what a snooze fest this place is. Still, I must finish this project. I MUST continue,  Onward to greatness!

  

I made the title about progress because I made a small dent in the massive pile of life choices I ahve t make.  I talked to Brett today and we have determined that because of how far my school is FROM EVERYTHING and because there are others involved in housing arrangements that I should just focus on my own stuff. That means I can cross living with him off the list and now I have to really take some time to evaluate what my next options are. Do I find a carpool list for UCF students to Disney? Do I try to find a roommate for a far away apartment? SO MANY DECISIONS! Not to mention the fact that three people made comments today at work that I should be at the parks. SPECIFICALLY in MK. That is flattering, really it is. The whole purpose of my job is to create magic and to help those who may never get to visit WDW feel like they are having just as an amazing experience at the store as they would be if they were to go to the parks. That being said, if I worked at WDW it wouldn't be as a friend of the princesses or as a dancer. It would most likely be in some little food service job or as a ride assistant. I honestly cannot find the magic there. ASDJGLFLGNFLGNFGNDF.

Tomorrow I will go hang out with lexis for awhile and then I need to clean my room and start making phone calls and mapping out plans. I can't wait on this any more. The ball needs to get rolling. December first is going to get here before I know it and then I will have nothing done. This is real life, not a cooking goal. THINGS MUST BE ACCOMPLISHED!

Extended Birthday Activities

So Catherine and I are not quite done celebrating my birthday and we are going to start celebrating her birthday when we finish celebrating mine! We are headed to Disney World on Wednesday to do all kinds of fun things which we will plan shortly before arriving! 

After work I took the time and researched how much it would be for a stay on property. Shortly after I booked the hotel (IT WAS 27 DOLLARS A PERSON ARE yOU KIDDING ME) for Wednesday and then I continued to research all the discounts!! Other than that but of planning, I also planned t other trips to Orlando. One of them will be with Ilana because I've never gone with her. The other is more focused around the grad school living arrangements and working arrangements. Another castmember and I started talking about the perks and pro/conning everything. He thinks I should transfer to the parks which I understand but that would mean another 8 miles of driving. Tomorrow I am going to (hopefully) talk to Brett about some living options and then I continue to make choices from there. I want to have everything settled by December first.

ALSO! I had to miss out on a great deal from Ulta today because the stupid website refused to save my cart and to recognize my account information even though the link I was using for the deal was from an email they sent to the email address they were telling me was not on file. 

November Means Elections

It is a pretty common thing for my birthday to fall right around Election Day. Or on Election Day. It happens. My household can go from "yay wooo birthday festivities" to " YOU'RE AN IDIOT IF YOU BELIEVE THIS PARTY'S BELIEFS!" very quickly. As usual it happened against Olay because of the election results and how some people weren't able to vote/why I didn't vote. Things got a little better once the results started coming out but it still seemed like an off day.

Reboot the System

The last two days were spent partying and laughing and not thinking about responsibilities at all. But today meant that work needed to be done! I meant to clean my room yesterday but that did not happen because of my nap so I was going to roll it over to the 7 hours I had before I had to go to work. I slept instead. Maybe tomorrow? I also need to get cracking on acquiring a place to live in Orlando and a job. I am sure I can transfer, now it is just a matter of working on it.

Work today went pretty well. A few minor things but I can fix them tomorrow. I walked in to balloons and to cards and cookie cake from my team! It was all so sweet! I just cannot handle how adorable and thoughtful it all was!

For My Birthday...

YAY IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!! This time last year Brett, Catherine, my little Alexis, and I were roaming our way through Disney world with Biggles! Catherine and I partied all night so today was spent pretty lackadaisically on my part. I was collected from Catherine's house by my brother in law and then we went to lunch at Outback. Normally I would have chosen Miguel's but the night before I went (READ: I drove!!) to Taco Bus so the constant hunger for TexMex was at bay. We came home and we had birthday cake and then I took a three hour nap.

That nap was not planned but it was glorious! Afterwards I am plans with Catherine and Co. and Amanda to go see The Maze Runner because Dylan O'Brien. Amanda has read the books and says that they are good. The movie was okay. Definitely not a Hunger Games level dystopia but it was alright. I mean there are a group of characters that are banking on a bunch of teenage looking humans not to investigate and ask questions in order for their plan to work. All it would have taken was one of them to go investigate and they would have known it was all a lie! Logic people! 

Anyway, after the movies I went back to Catherine's to play board games and then my birthday was over. I hope that 22 will see me do new things and meet new people. I hope that 23 for Catherine sees amazing things because she is amazing and gives so much to everyone! 

My Happy Halloween

I'm sure that I will have pictures to add to this in a few days but for now lets just know that today is my Halloween with Catherine and a few other people, including my grandlittle! I'm in the middle of setting my teeth for my Vampire costume which means I have to stop typing.

Update:Teeth are set and they look really good! Now I get to spend the next three hours doing vampire makeup!

Update 2: Vampire makeup is harder than I thought it would be but it is finished and now I am on my way to Catherine's!

Update 3: the party was really fun! It went until around 330AM but it was fun! There was lots of Just Dance and Cards Aginst Humanity was so incredibly funny! I was able to see Lauren and met some new people which was fun! My make up stayed on which as exciting!