Valerian and Chamomile and... Jewelry?

So for my aunts' Christmas presents, my mum and I are making trees just like the ones at Roger's Gardens.
This is what they look like. Picture taken from the Rogers' Gardens website...

 We raided our jewelry boxes and got a tremendous amount of things... but it didn't seem like anything we found had enough substance. They were mostly just a few beads and some pendants but nothing great.

So I was looking around Craigslist and saw somebody selling jewelry for $1. So I contacted them and asked if I could buy their spares and the ones that were broken beyond repair for cheaper. He (who I just assumed was a she) told me I could buy 10 things for $1. BEST. PRICE. EVER.

So 'Der Boifriend' and I went to the place. Herm. I didn't realize that this might not have been the best area in our county... I stay within a half-hour bus ride/ biking distance from my house... and that means that I stay in the nicer areas. When I learn how to drive my moped (I'm working on a driver's license, then going to take the class) I will broaden my radius and hopefully pursue more things further away.

I want to visit more tea and coffee shops. There was one in a neighboring town a good drive away that a Hello-Kitty obsessed friend took me to with a couple others. He recommended the orange tea and it was DELICIOUS. (I took their idea of using the rinds, cutting off the pulp, drying them and then steeping them in place of tea. It worked wonders and if you use tangerine peels, it's easy to de-pulp and the smell is AWESOME.)

So we pilfered through this guy's jewelry box for what seemed like ten minutes, and left with a good amount of stuff. I filled a gallon sized freezer bag 1/3 full and got it for $7, rounding up. It was more like $6.50 but I didn't have change.

So anyways I've been having trouble sleeping... and I don't like the idea of taking medication. I always feel like I'll overdose since I'm so tiny or that I'll become dependent on it or something. So I like looking up natural or home remedies. Most of them work well. When in doubt... C4. When sick... black tea with honey and lemon. My favorite cure-all.

Anyways so I noticed reading somewhere that Valerian was supposed to be good for people with insomnia and is good for people trying to get to sleep. That's my main concern... sometimes it takes me hours of tossing and turning and (weirdly enough) trying to create seed-dreams in my mind. Though these usually never work... they seemed to help me sleep when I was a kid...

And ever since Gawd-knows-when I've known that chamomile is supposed to be good for sleeping too. So I'll see if I can find Valerian tea or something at my local hipster-market and some chamomile tea.

I think I drank chamomile tea once.

I don't remember anything but the color. Imagine... well... yellow ochre paint mixed with a ton of water. That was it.

Yes I just described what you thought I described that way.

So yeah. That's been my day.

Work wasn't bad. Though this chick did come to me wanting to return a bunch of items and then buy them again using a different coupon... normally we wouldn't do it but the cashier called our manager and she said it was OK. So I got landed with typing all the codes in manually... TWICE. And don't get me wrong... these are 12-16 digit codes, not to mention the barcode at the top doesn't scan so I have to type in that 24 digit long code (I should count the numbers in my spare time.)

So that was SO MUCH FUN.

My leg just fell asleep. Perhaps I should stand up and run around the house singing "Ding Dong the Wicked Witch is Dead..." from the Wizard of Oz. Gawd I loved being in that play.

Headaches and Books and... Pirate Skulls?

So today was one of those days...

I slept in, napped for two hours after school and then am still tired now...

I blame it on the weather! And the fact that I stayed up until about 1:30am reading a book my friend lent me. IT'S SO GOOD. Oh Em Gee... Hahaha! I can understand the main character/narrator's perspective so well its like it was written for me.

Other than that I've had a headache for a while now. I have a feeling I'm going to have a migrane all month. I have to deal with finals starting soon... (though I only have one class) and then my work decided not to allow us to request time off so we have to change our availability... which is not always checked. And if they don't allow it... I'm going to have to figure out how to get somebody to cover up to five shifts of work... all to go to my grandparents in Santa Barbra and hang out at their house for a couple days and then have Christmas Eve off. 'Cause who doesn't want to spend Christmas Eve chilling by the fire and drinking hot cocoa?

Which I meant to get a recipe for earlier today so my mom and I could make our own but I took a nap instead.

Which most young people think is an 'old' thing to do, but if you have a headache it's one of the BEST things that you can do for it. Seriously. If you have a headache, or get them often, WATER and NAPS are your best friends. Try not to take aspirin and stuff too often. After a while those things won't work as effectively as they did before so you'll have to take more, and then you'll have a massive chance to overdose on an OTC drug.

Hee hee. The OTC dude looks like the OTL man. In my sleepy mind he does. It's just the OTC man is a contortionist and the OTL man is just a normal human being.

Anyways in my art class that I'm taking I just doodled a couple things... nothing special really. But the group that I'm always around makes a HUGE DEAL about whatever I do. I don't know... I guess they're good? Anyways when I get around to taking a picture of the scarf from last time (Here) and then the stuff from this time I'll get to showing you.

I am a procrastinator. Or at least... I will be when I get around to it.

So after my art class my friend happened to be driving by in her car and decided to give me a ride. So I got in and both of the back seats were down. Which is odd but whatever. So I sat inbetween the middle seats and the center console by the driver and shotgun seat in a crouch. And I noticed something.

She'd taken down the drooping ceiling fabric, painted the whole thing black, and turned the roof into a picture of a skull and cross bones with the caption "Dead Men Tell No Tales". Which is perfect for her car.

'Cause it's the Black Pearl.

No joke. It has two decals on either side of the sliding doors, it has a decal on the front (all skull and cross bones) she has a Jack Sparrow Mickey Mouse antenna ball (you know those things...) and she has a pirate hat and a sword that she drives around with. She wears the hat. And when there's a passenger (used to be me before and after school during high school) that person who's riding in the shotgun seat gets to brandish a sword everywhere.

It's quite fun...

So now her car is even more like the Black Pearl. Now I just need to get her a small antenna flag or those ones that Ambassador's cars have... You've probably seen them. The flanking double flags that flutter as you drive. They're great.

Anyways the book is CALLING TO ME. I should get about to reading it... along with the five other books people lent me.

If you have a suggestion for a good book please comment. I'm always looking for something to get off my Kindle. I don't think I use it often enough so now I'm making more excuses to be on it more often.

Now if I could just write my notes for class that'd be golden... I could... but I'd want a keyboard.

TO THE INTERNET~

Tea and Crumpets and Trees... Again

Ho hum.

I feel a bit sick today. As in feverish. That might be because I'm wearing two layers of everything... but that's beside the point. I only just started feeling it ten minutes ago... when I've been wearing this for about three hours already. Inside. Under my comforter. In a room with little to no ventilation. You'd think that I'd have started feeling sick or warm before but nope...

And my toes are cold.

But that's beside the point.

So today I didn't have work so I just chilled around my house for the morning (which is a long way of saying I slept in until 11) and hung out with 'Der Boifriend' for another couple hours.

We had tea and cocoa at his friend's place we'd seen yesterday (description here -->Coffee and Cocoa and... Trees?) and afterwards he had work. His name forever shall be 'La Photographia' because I asked and he answered that.

So I kept working on the scarf that I made for 'Der Boifriend'. Here's the picture of what I have so far. The pattern is random, in regards to the color choices. They were the remnants from a Doctor Who scarf that my mom is/was making me for Christmas. I'm not sure if she's finished... she said she was but then again she bought two skeins of some colors and didn't use them... Last I saw she just needed the tassles and then to stretch the scarf to the full 12 foot length... I'm so excited!!! >U<

The pattern of the yarn itself is called "honeycomb" and is a Tunisian style of crocheting. It's in between crocheting and knitting and I like it. It's very easy to follow and comprehend.

I just realized that that smiley is the first one I have used so far. Perhaps I should use more... I usually talk with them. They're great for showing emotions! But I shall restrain the annoying usage of them for now... I'll work them in slowly and only do a few.

So yeah. His scarf. It looks like this so far (folded up and such but it is about five feet now.)

I have to finish the length (which is when I run out of both yellow, grey and white...) and then weave the excess on the sides into the scarf so that they don't show.

Boifriend you better be pleased with this or else.

OH! Here's the picture of the scarf...

(The picture will be belated because my ridiculous camera ran out of battery as I was taking it... It needs to charge now...)

Anyways then afterwards we were supposed to go to Kron again at the local college but it was a no-go. Apparently, there was a threatened rain storm or something.

All I saw were some meaningless light grey clouds. Not those angry black ones that roll in from the coast, hit the breeze from the Inland Empire and then turn into a massive hail storm.Which usually happens during the summer but that's another issue entirely.

So instead he and I went to the coffee shop again. I had Chai tea and he had a Mayan hot cocoa. It was spiced but I didn't notice it until the end. I kept stealing sips from his 'cause Chai tea is smooth in flavor and needs something else entirely to spice it up again.

His friend brought us whipped cream that was eggnog flavored while we were chatting. In little espresso cups with spoons that were sticking out of the top like a little flag or something. I thought it looked comical. They were on the verge of toppling over too.

So I have never tasted eggnog before. I've heard it's slimy and has alcohol in it... and as I don't like the taste of alcohol I have yet to try it. So 'Der Boifriend' tried it for me and told me to try it.

IT WAS DELICIOUS.

Nutmeg, cinnamon, clove, apple juice and other things were all woven into the rich foam and it gently reminded you of the flavor of the holiday season. All we needed was it liquified into a drink and then to be standing in front of a giant Christmas tree covered in gently twinkling lights and classy ornaments, with songs softly playing and a fire crackling merrily off to the side.

Which reminds me. We have decided for our Christmas Tree gag to use a small tree instead of a huge one. This was decided for a couple reasons.

A: We wanted to give my parents a good present as well, and since the cost of a tree would be just shy of the cost of a present we voted for a cheaper option.
B: My parents keep telling me "I don't know" or "Maybe" when I ask them if we're getting a tree. What happens if they were going out on the date and when they returned decided to buy a tree and then we had one already? Our living room isn't big enough for two trees... It can barely fit one.
C: 'Der Boifriend' had an idea. We would get a tiny one that the grocery stores sell, decorate it with my tree's decorations, and write a note saying "A real tree wouldn't fit into 'Der Boifriend's' car... So we got you this instead."
D: We also considered the fact that both my dad, brother and I wouldn't clean up after the tree. You have to keep it watered and vacuum up the fallen needles...and since there's almost no chance we'll do it for my mom she'd have to do it. And that's one of the main reasons why she didn't want a tree this year.

So it's decided. Now... I just need to abuse the coupon policy at my work and get some mini lights for the mini tree... and send my parents on a date later on in December.

But not too late 'cause I have a final to study for. I think the test is on the 18th or something like that... I should check.

Deer Lawd... I had to change my work schedule calendar to December because it's just a couple days away! EGADS.

Coffee and Cocoa and... Trees

So today I went with 'Der Boifriend' to his old friend's workplace... which happened to be a great coffee shop. I actually love it there.

Everything's dim and warm looking. The pendant lights hanging from the ceiling are awesome and twist slightly as they fall. On the tip they have little tassels like on curtains in old, rich people's houses. The whole place was active but quiet. And not an awkward quiet. It was a good kind of quiet, where everybody's happy and drinking or eating a croissant and reading the newspaper. There were some hipsters there (you can tell by the women.... if they wear a hat... hipster. If they wear a headband... just a popular crowd person) but it wasn't so annoyingly so that it was not a place anyone can go.

And their cocoa was AWESOME. The boyfriend got that. It was rich and smooth and probably made with bittersweet chocolate, like the chunks in chocolate chip cookies. It's great! And if you're one of those people who like milk chocolate... there's a reason why bittersweet and dark chocolates are better.

You don't get tired of the sweetness.

It's just enough that it sedates your sweet tooth (mine for five seconds but who cares...?) and it still gives you the full flavor of the bold, dark richness of the chocolate. And what with the whipped cream and foam and stuff that they layer on top of it... You wouldn't notice that the chocolate was bittersweet.

Oh oh ohoh...! My favorite part of cocoa and teas are the last, final dregs. With cocoa you get the full punch of chocolatey goodness and with tea, the last finishing note of the drink washes over your tongue and leaves it feeling refreshed and (in the case of the tea I had today) warm.

And actually, the had a mint tea, and if you take a couple sips of the tea and then one of the cocoa it's THE BEST. Kind of like drinking a peppermint patty or York or something like that. DELISH!

So we were sitting there hoping that his friend would go off work and we were just talking about stuff. Turns out just before his friend could sit down and chat with us 'Der Boifriend"s mum called and wanted him home.

Phooey.

And so he dropped me off... I had dinner with the family, and afterwards my mom and I were talking while watching TV and I remembered something.

This would be the first year in about 30 years that our family wouldn't have a Christmas tree... including the years when my brother and I weren't born.

Anywhoozle I asked her if she planned on getting one this year and she was vague and said "Maybe..." and all of those parent-y crap that basically means that it's a NO but they haven't finalized it yet. But it was fine.

You know why?

'Der Boifriend' and I had hatched a plan to force my parents out to a dinner and a movie and whilst they were away on their merry date we would buy a tree, proceed to drop it off at my house, and hopefully put lights, ornaments, and everything on it. And when they came back (which we were planning on forcing them to a whole afternoon's event because it sounded like it'd take a TON of time) it would be all perfect and waiting for them.

I like this plan.

The only problem is... I can't drive. Well... I refuse to drive NORMAL cars. I have been... for lack of a better word PRESSURED into learning how to drive and THEN getting a Moped or a Vespa.

And I approve of this plan too.

As I approve of many things random and fun sounding.

So... I've decided that if we do that... (Der Boifriend and I) it'll be our Christmas present to the two of them. What with all the work and the amount of planning it makes up for the small-ish price tag. Per person per giftee it's about ten bucks or maybe 15 depending on the tree but hey... WE GET A TREE.

Nuclear Bombs and Glitter

Glitter.
Everywhere.

IT'S GOING TO EAT ME ALIVE!

I swear the people that work and shop at my work are CRAZY for glitter. To an almost inhuman extent. Everyday after work I have to brush myself off in front of a mirror to make sure that I have all the glitter off of me. I can't deal with it if I kept it on for any longer then I need to.

Seriously.

It covers the cash register, it covers the floors, the shelves, us... EVERYWHERE.

The whole store is glittering. With glitter...

In other news still haven't done much else to my essay... though I really should.

It's just... I don't like Political Science... It's nothing close to my major (art) so I really don't want to do it... but I must... it's a great transferable class but still... must I?

I guess. Time to stop moaning and complaining and get that stupid thing done.

But my major problem is my level of perfectionism. Unless I've been working on the thing for more than a week it HAS TO BE PERFECT. No joke. You should see me when I'm painting... any mistake I make and I automatically have it in the plan that when the paint dries THAT MISTAKE IS GOING DOWN. Command-and-Conquer style. Not Halo style... old school NUCLEAR ESCALATION STYLE.

Have you ever played that game? Nuclear Escalation? It's a really old (and I mean 80s game) board game and it's hilarious. The whole premise of the game is to be the last one standing after the nuclear fights. Imagine the Cold War if it got Hot instead of Cold.

And when you die, you have the option (which isn't really the best name for it because EVERYBODY decides to do this) to launch ALL your nukes at another player.

Which usually kills them... and you can see what they do.

So most of the time everybody dies "The End" type of story.

But when you're that winner at the end... Life is good. Life is very good. And you decide to celebrate by running around the house basking in your awesomeness and glory and so on and so forth.

Anywhoozle... that is what I've been thinking about.

Glitter and nuculear bombs.

Essays and Letters...and Batman

So this morning... at 2am I sat up from making my boyfriend his scarf and realized... that I had an essay due in two days. So I was planning on waking up early to get it done.

Which never happens if I stay up until 2...

So anyways I slept in until 11am... which is mostly because of my nice and warm comforter but also in part because der boifriend (as he is called, of his own request, in my cell phone) did not text.

His texts usually wake me up. It is imperative that I read them~

Anywhoozle yeah... So for the past 45 minutes I've been reading the prompt and looking up stuff on websites that point out the faults in what people say.

Oh yeah! My essay is (belated enough as my writing this is...) about the Presidential Campaign and the misinformation surrounding what they did and didn't say and what is true and just plain hooey.

Anyways so the debates are pretty interesting. I've been reading them... and from what I've seen Romney uses a lot-- a lot of dashes about-- about everything... It makes me wonder if they were for dramatic effect (which he would've been using a bit too much in my opinion) or if he really was stuttering a bit.

Which serves a purpose... Don't just read the debates online... Watch them if you have time! 'Cause I have a bias for anybody that uses --that uses this... I dislike it. And I just realized that... I do that... a lot. I shall be cutting back on elipses... wait. I just did another one. FOOEY. Oh well.

So my boyfriend told me that he was going to vote early by turning it in VIA the mail system

And by the way... I LOVE THE MAIL SYSTEM. To an almost un-Godly extent. My friends and I send letters back and forth to each other, even if we're in the same town. It's weird but hey, everybody likes snail mail!

Oh so my boyfriend and a few other people I know were so angry and tired of the campaigns that they voted for NANANANANANANANA BATMAN!!!

Which children, you shouldn't do... but it serves my purpose.

I live in a Democratic state but a Republican county. Haha... blame the adults with tons of money here. But my family tends to lean more Libertarian than anything. Which in my mind is closer to Republican than Democrat but technically it's in the middle and flung waaaaaaay out towards Anarchism. Which my history teacher in High School was... that was an interesting class to say the least. He had some of his old hair attached to the wall as a reminder to us all to never grow a mullet. It worked.

But I digress. So my friends and I, knowing that in our state we're going to go Democratic anyways no matter how five people vote, unlike Florida who always seems to be the turning point state and has a hard time deciding who won, the Democratic vote is assured.

So we, deciding we didn't care as much anymore, said the hell with it and voted for Batman.

All except little old me... I forgot to turn in my voter registration. Hee hee.

SO CHILDREN. A LESSON. Turn in your voter registration, plan how you vote... and don't be Florida. And send mail to friends. They will automatically love you in turn.

50 Page Views

Woot~

More random rants coming your way! Hold on... the ride will get weirder and weirder when I have more time. AKA: Christmas break!

Senseless Advertising and Christmas Presents

So lately I've become more aware of what I do with my old things.

Like my jewelry that I don't want anymore or the clothes that I've murdered or grew out of. And stuff like that.

So I've decided to join Freecycle... Which (Senseless advertising) is a great website where you can offer up old things and get free things! It's great!

So I've also been making a Christmas present for two of my aunts. Have you ever seen those trees covered in jewelry at Rogers's gardens? Well neither have I but a bunch of little old ladies are obsessed with them at my work and my mom has caught wind of them and has decided that her two sisters TOTALLY need to have some for Christmas

Oh joyous occasion.

Actually, they're really fun. All we did to date was get all of our old jewelry and cut them apart, organizing them into colors... and deciding that we needed to get smaller Styrofoam cones for the tree bases.

Hahahaha...

In other news I'm always up at midnight, or there abouts. And I have slowly started making a scarf of the remnants my mom used for a 12 foot scarf for me for my Christmas present.

My family likes making things.

And we love free things too.

Senseless advertising.

Freecycle.org. GO CHECK IT OUT.

Yay~

Anyways... Guten nacht... Guten nacht...

Black Friday?

I have got to say, the Black Friday that I experienced wasn't that Black Friday as I expected.

I work at a Michaels store... and yesterday night from seven til close was my shift.

There was almost NOBODY there...

It was creepy....

But it was fun since we nine of us just chilled and slowly did everything that we needed to do. And I got to chat with my supervisor and now she loves me. Hee hee. Brownie points!

Which actually makes sense 'cause I'm still a Girl Scout.

I've been one since I was a wee little Brownie... And don't even get me started on how much easier it is for the midgets to sell cookies... don't even get me started...

'Cause they're small and cute and everybody expects them to be going door to door (which I did) and asking if you wanted to buy some. When a teenager with a weird khaki and blue uniform comes up, everybody just thinks 'What the hell?' and doesn't buy them...

I did have some regulars...

But if you're a Girl Scout Cadette, Ambassador or Senior... Bring the cookies to your local community college... You'll get a lot of sales that way...

And I'm slightly offended... nobody answered my question!!! POOP.

Perhaps questions aren't my forte...

Whatever.

So today is Small Business Saturday. BUY LOCAL! BUY SEASONAL! BUY SMALL BUSINESS! YEAH!!

Okay. Senseless advertising done.

Thanksgiving

Which consisted mainly of stuffing my face with delicious things provided by my mum and other foodstuffs.

And Scrabble. Which I sorely lost at because I only picked up tiles that were either R's, E's, I's or an F... which you can't really make many words out of. And we play mean. You see those corners? WE FILL THEM. You see a box forming? WE FILL THAT BOX IN. Dirty we do play...

And a James Bond marathon broken up by the ORIGINAL Pink Panther movies. I don't really like the new ones because it's just TOO goofy. Not that I don't like goofiness or anything, ('cuz I'm one of the most goofy people you'll probably meet) but it was so much that the movie lost its integrity of being a satire... Anyways my brother's girlfriend hadn't seen the first one (which mind you isn't the best but I digress) and so we watched it. The scenes where everybody's in the same room trying to hide from the Inspector is just classic.
Hmm. Classic. (small nod)

Horrah! I had a good time.

LOOK A QUESTION!
What's your favorite Thanksgiving tradition?

Jellyfish and Penguins

God we're so hipster.

My boyfriend and I were celebrating our Two Month's anniversary of dating (which in and of itself isn't that hipster) at...

THE AQUARIUM.

Jellyfish...

Which I believe is a very hipster thing to do really. All I did was ignore him a bit and run around like a child in a candy store high on chocolate Cocoa Puffs and take pictures of every adorable fish and penguin. And jellyfish.

There was even some that we classified as 'Rave Fish'.

As in they had fluorescent bits that would shine when there was even the faintest trace of light. Neat huh? And there was a type of jellyfish that even had a built in light show.

It was kind of awesome.

Anyways... I believe that I let my boyfriend down... I was so damn tired after walking around for hours in hiking boots (because they're the only shoe that has arch support) that he never really got me to act very 'happy'.

But he knew I was. It's hard not to tell when I hop around with a penguin cell phone charm dangling from my pocket and making jokes about everything.

Poor dude never got his make-out session he was hoping for...

Oops...

Not-So-Noob Swordswoman

So yesterday my boyfriend got me addicted to a German Swordsmanship group at a local college.

I wasn't planning on participating, but a guy named Peter handed me a sword and said "Here's what they're doing."

And after working with me for about twenty minutes, I'd gotten down a couple moves that he said I didn't do  'noobish', which made me feel happy.

I know a move to do when the two sword's hilts are together. I wrap my hilt and grip around the other person's arm, grab the pommel, drag the person down, and slice the person's throat. And from there I can also disarm the guy.

I feel like a boss.

And I can swing around the sword in 'correct' ways around my head and look like a boss.

But when I got home I realized how very 'hipster' I was acting. Deer Lawd...