Student loan payments are freaking KILLING me financially. I really need to get on the ball and get a lower payment...especially since my other loan starts payments in July! In the meantime, if anyone has a spare $26K laying around that they'd like to toss my way, I'd be eternally grateful. I really need to write that book...

Life is pretty rad, my friends.

Woke up around 9:30 this morning when Jess called. Canceled on the working out, due to fatigue. The Pantsmom called shortly thereafter, saying she was on her way over to visit and have lunch. Jerry and I dragged our asses out of bed and waited for her to show.

We visited here for a bit, then headed to Los Ocampo for the best lunch ever. The food was SO GOOD. I love hand made tortillas.

On our way home, we totally got into a car accident. We were turning left out of the parking lot, and Mom decided it was a good idea to go between a bus and a car that were stopped at a light. As soon as we rounded the bus (and Jerry finished saying, "I have a bad feeling about this,") we got hit. Whoops! The people were actually very nice and nobody was hurt. Mom's going to get her car fixed this week.

Hung out with Jerry for a bit before heading out to work. Things were awfully slow, and I got cut around 8.

I totally helped a lady carry her groceries for a few blocks! I was at 32nd and Fremont, talking to Mom on the phone. I saw her stop and set her bags down to take a stretch break. She was also carrying a heavy backpack. I crossed the street and convinced her that she should let me carry her bags.

I love helping people. I wish I could take a vacay from life and just go around the state/country/world helping people with little things like that. I wonder if I could get a book deal out of that premise. Hrm...

Got home around 8:30. Changed clothes. Rode the scooter to Jessica's place and picked her up to go work out. On the way home, some lady tried to run us off the road. ARG, people need to start seeing scooters.

That leaves us where we are now. I'm sore, in need of a back rub, and dinner. I'll likely get dinner tonight, but not the back rub.

Monday: Worked out with the Wifey. Had lunch with the Wifey. Rode to bingo with the Wifey. Had cuuuuuute beers with Jerry B., Amanda, and the Wifey. Went home and made amazingly tasty bacon-shells-and-cheese-crescent-roll-thingies. So great! I stayed up late with Jerry B. watching The League of Gentlemen. Also, extremely great! We partook in a round of Jynnan Tonnyx, too.

Tuesday: Hung out at home, in bed, ALL DAY. :) Dropped off my scooter at Meeeeeguel's place, and he gave me a ride to the Vesc. That was very nice, especially since it was balls cold and RAINING outside. :( After my freakin' awesome day at home, I really thought that nothing could ruin my mood. I was wrong! Shitty tippers ($8.50 on a bill of $85, and $6.50 on a $70 bill...arg), pissy co-workers, and just plain moronic behavior from more than one person was just enough to tip me over the edge of not having a great night at work. :/ I got a ride home from the closing hostess, though, so that was nice. Saved me a cold, wet, looooong ride home on the bus. :)

Wednesday: Got up and worked out with mah Wifey. We had lunch together again afterward. We rode together to SPW at Ryan's. Awesome times were had.

Thursday: Worked out yet again with the Wifey. I had much business to attend to, so we weren't able to go as long as we usually do. I dealt with my student loans, made appointments at various locations, set up more jobby stuff. Greh. What a busy day before werk! I had a shower, then headed off to werk. Had a decent night, still rife with shitty tippers. I had a table of five teenage girls show up right as I was about to be cut. They tipped me a grand total of $6.88 on a $70 tab. Awesome. Went to Arden B to watch Jurassic Park with Jerry B. Good times were had by all!

Friday: Got up at the ungodly hour of 9am in order to make it to work out with Jess by 10am. Jerry, Jess, the Pantsmom, Matt Anderson and I had an awesome lunch at Ping's. What a way to celebrate Friday! :) After Ping's, Jerry and I came back here for a bit. He worked on the couch (lucky guy with a mobile work station!) and I took a catnap before werk. I had a decent night at the Vesc in terms of customers. We were still slow as hell, but it was better than Tuesday and Thursday combined. :/ I caught a bus downtown and went to Target to pick up a few necessities. I'm currently chilling solo in my room while everyone watches horror flicks in the living room. I really hope that their volume level isn't offensive to the caretakers. :(

On an unrelated note, I'm craving pizza and thai food (independently of each other) like a crazy person as of late. I want cheese back in my diet! :P

I haven't been made to feel like a teenager in over seven years now...until tonight.

We were doing our regular Rock Band/South Park thing at my place, when suddenly, we get a knock on the door. I immediately suggest that we need to turn off the drums/quiet down, because it's probably the caretaker lady.

Nope. It's the cops.

Ann got to the door first, and I was shocked as all get out to see them! They asked who lived there, and Ann said that she did. They asked for her ID, and she went to get it. I headed back into my room to get mine as well.

I made it out to talk to the police slightly before she did. The officer took my ID and copied down some information. She also asked for my phone number.

They (one male and one female officer) asked if we knew why they were there, and if we knew what the rules were if the cops were called on a party. The male officer told us that if they were called again tonight, it would be a $750 fine for me (since they took my ID), and if they were called a third time, it would be ME thrown in JAIL.

He said he understood, that parties where people are drinking get too loud. They could "hear us from the street". FUCKING DUH, YOU COULD HEAR US FROM THE STREET--THE WINDOWS WERE OPEN BECAUSE IT'S 95 DEGREES IN OUR PLACE WHEN TEN PEOPLE ARE OVER!

I told the officer that there really wasn't any drinking going on, and that there were only 10 of us. His recommendation was that we get everyone out sooner rather than later. He was kind of a dick about it, too.

What baffles me is the fact that whoever called the cops (I'm guessing it was the caretaker, who lives below us) didn't feel like they could give us a little warning. Maybe a heads up, like, "If you don't quiet down, I'm going to have to call the cops." Nothing.

In her defense, there was a night, the week after Thanksgiving, that she came up and told us to quiet down. There was also a night when she came out into the hallway to tell Mike, Asian Dan, and Pete that they were too loud in the hallway putting their shoes on. I am guessing that in her world, tonight counted as the third strike.

I honestly don't get why they called the cops on us TONIGHT. There have been SO MANY other exponentially louder nights that we've had people over.

In a way, I think this is a good thing. I'm 99% sure that SPW and SPS will be moved to Ryan's place. We would want to hang out there more often come summer anyhow. He's got a bigger place, more seating, more counter space, and a back yard with a fire pit. He's also currently got my XBox. :P

Ann will probably appreciate this, too. We won't have to worry about 15 people showing up on a regular basis at our place, and she won't have to participate if she's not feeling up to it. I know she's not nearly at the same level of social needs as I am. While I LOVE having 15 people over twice a week, I'm sure she'd appreciate seeing less of that. :P

Arg. My body is so stressed out. My back hurts, my teeth hurt, my knee(s) hurt, my heart hurts, my brain hurts, my wrists hurt...boo.

An actual conversation I just had with Darin:

Darin: Who's RT? (we are playing Rock Band, and he saw RT in the lineup of available players)
Pants: I'll show you! He's our Mayor!
Darin: How did you find the Mayor? How did you get to pick him?
Pants: We made him.
Darin: You did good at making him.
Pants: Yep, he's pretty great.
Darin: Is he cool?
Pants: YES, YES HE IS VERY COOL!

I <3 my little brother. :)

I seriously have the best friends EVER. :D</p>

( wanna see what it is? )

Man, people on the bus are LAME.

I had every intention of walking to Ping's for lunch with Mom yesterday. I got outside, walked about six blocks, and called it a wash when the bus came rolling up. It was so cold out! I had my arm warmers, but not my gloves. Sad.

Halfway into my trip, I de-bussed and transferred to something that would take me to the correct region of Downtown. After much shuffling with other passengers, I finally gave up on standing and took a seat across from the rear door. I only had a few stops to go, so I sat in the outside seat.

Trouble came strutting in the front door of the bus when I sat down. His name, I would later find out, was Rico.

Rico shambled toward the back of the bus, wearing his shockingly white Vikings polo, coupled with gray sweatpants and a leather jacket. Rico was of the African American persuasion, and wearing FAR too much cologne.

As he tried to put his bus card back in his stack of IDs and credit cards (he had no wallet) the bus started moving, so Rico LURCHED into my seat. He halfheartedly apologised, sat down, and started a dialogue. I will recall it for you herein:

Rico: Oh, 'scuse me. I didn't want to miss sitting with you. You're CUTE.
( the hilarity ensues )

We left off on Monday of last week! How does the time get by me so quickly?!

Tuesday--my wrist was still sore when I got up. Major bummer when you work in the serving industry, I can tell you that! :( Werk was fine--I just made Corey do the brunt of the heavy lifting. :P I was actually supposed to work dinner, but got my schedule all jacked up in my brain. I got up, packed, took the bus across town, and got to werk before anyone else showed up. By the time I realised that I wasn't supposed to be there, the girl who WAS had arrived. She agreed to come in for dinner for me. That was so great! I took the bus up to Elk River after werk. Mom, Darin and I went to the Chinese buffet in Elk River, even though I wanted to go to Monticello. It was still tasty. I spent the night at home and did some last minute packing and hammering of details before Mom's birfday party. I think I managed to go to bed at a reasonable hour (before 3am, anyhow) since I knew I was getting up early the next morning.

Wednesday--got up around 9, I think. Took a shower, ran some errands with Mom. We had an AWESOME ADVENTURE at the furniture store in ER. :D We ate Taco Bell for lunch, yet still stopped in for milk with Darin at school. So great! Mom brought me home in the early afternoon. The Wifey and I were supposed to go to Costco, but my timing was poor. I checked in on Crystal and Jessica B. to make sure they didn't need anything. I still have beans and oil for Jessica! Our schedules will work out one of these days, I promise! We had a successful SPW, complete with Church Basement potluck foods. So great, I tell ya!

Thursday--I had to get up FAR too early to go to werk. That's the only downer to SPW, is working the next morning at the ungodly hour of 10:30am. :P I worked my tail off all day, despite a severe lack of sleep. Stopped in to see my good friend, Jeneane (sp?) at Ragstock with dinner in tow. She spoiled me with tidings of a cute wallet and two reusable bags. I have the bestest friends! I also hit the bank and the grocery. I replaced Crystal's three year old condiments. :P I hit up Powderhorn Park with Meeeeeguel, Dave, Bertine, Ryan, mah Wifey, and E-Man. SO GREAT, was the sledding! We went to Crystal's afterward for cocoa and treats. Tofu lo-mein, butterscotch schnapps, and an unflattering nap later, I had a great night. :)

Friday--After sleeping in extremely late, I eventually dragged my bum ass out of bed and hit up Costco with mah Wifey and Meeeeeguel. We procured many goods for Mom's b-day party. We went to Bertine's for Raving Rabbids and pizza before she and Crystal went to a concert. The Wifey and I weren't feeling up to a concert on a Friday night. I'm just not much of a 'let's go out on Friday night' kind of person. Meh. I'm too cheap and get easily overstimulated. I loaded up many party goods into Grimace (Wifey's car) and called it a night...or, at least, I tried to. Seeing as I slept in half the day, I wasn't able to fall asleep till well after 4am. BUMMER. Oh, I was also having a hard time falling asleep due to the fact that there were ANTS crawling all over my ceiling. Plunkett's was called in to inspect the damages--the lady "laid some traps" in hopes that they would eat the bait and take it back to the nest. I bought a shiny can of RAID and killed every last one of the bastards. I haven't seen an ant since. :D

Saturday--got up just in the nick of time to finish packing, get dressed and RUN to the bus with my little old lady cart in tow. :P I spent the day at Tiff's--worked out with the Wifey, baked two cakes for the party, set the party room up, took a shower...bleh. The party was a rousing success, save for the fact that Mom was the FIRST PERSON TO SHOW UP. :P Usually, when she says she'll be somewhere at 5pm, that means 5:30 or 6. She got there at 4:30. Whoops. :P A bunch of family members came, as well as a lot of my friends. I think Mom had a really good time. I know Darin did! We had lots of Nerf and Nerf-esque guns to play with, and lots of camo was worn. SO GREAT! Mom and Darin ducked out around midnight, but the rest of us partied till nearly 4am! I got so tanked...

Sunday--I reluctantly dragged myself out of bed and got over to Tiff's around noon thirty. She headed off to breakfast, and I stayed to clean her place up. Thankfully, Meeeeeguel lent me a hand and packed up the party remnants into his van to bring back to my place. I thanked him in the form of lunch at Los Ocampo. OMG, I <3 Mexican food after a night of heavy drinking. I came home with the intention of taking a nap. I got here after 3pm, spent a solid half hour unpacking leftovers from the party and finding new homes for them. I laid down to take a nap, and then Amanda and Chris showed up! This is why I am off to bed as soon as I finish typing this goofy thing. I'm wiped! Ann bought lots of awesome new animal hats to go with the Frog Hat that Bertine gave me. We lost a guitar due to a broken spring. We had many technical difficulties with the webcam, so we called it quits on that front for the evening. Everyone hit the road fairly early--Amanda and Chris first, around 9 or so (so awesome to see them again!), and people slowly filtered out after that. I think Asian Dan was the last to go, and that was around midnight.

That leaves me where I am now. Calm, cool, collected. Tired as all get out. I don't have a copy of the schedule for this week...I hope I don't work tomorrow. :P

I almost cried when I saw the stones in Crystal's ultrasound...every time she felt in pain...when they stuck her with needles and an IV...when she couldn't get any sleep due to the friggin' noisy automatic door...ugh, I'm such a baby. :P

Jessica just offered to give me a ride to work, stating, "you deserve someone to help take care of you after taking care of someone"

Shortly thereafter, Bertine sent me a message saying, "Call me when you get off work and I'll pick you up. You need your sleep for tomorrow."

That one seriously sent me over the edge. :) I still need to have a full on CRY over all of this--seeing a friend in pain, utter exhaustion, overwhelming friendship...but I'm definitely feeling better now. :)

I love you all so very, VERY much. <3

Not to discount anyone else, but I still maintain that the four of us are going to be the most awesome, craziest old ladies, pinching asses and talking about sex in the nursing home. :D

So...where did we leave off? Oh, yes, that's right. Last Friday, I went to Bar Abeline with Mike and his peeps. Since then, I haven't had a full night of sleep. Bleh.

Saturday morning, I got up bright and early to catch a bus to Tiff's rockin' downtown bachelorette pad. I got a sammich on my way over to Scooterville to buy my sexy new scooter with my good friends Jeremy and Jerry. I wish I hadn't bought the sammich, because Scooterville had TASTY chicken chili, croissants, and beverages. I partook in the goodies there, saving the sammich for later.

Saturday afternoon, I believe I took a nap. Yes, upon further reflection, I'm sure I took a nap. I meant to catch a bus over to bertine's place for the Tapas Party. Instead, my wonderful roommate gave me a ride. SUPER! The Tapas Party lasted at Bertine's until 11:30ish, and at MY place until 6am Sunday morning.

Sunday morning, I slept on Tiff's couch for ~2 hours before going to the meeting from hell. Fortunately, Ann was willing and able to give me a ride BACK to werk AND home after. I got to take some relaxing time to myself before closing down the Vesc for the night. I <3 my roommie.

Sunday night, I could NOT fall asleep. Looking back on things, I should have taken a couple of Benadryls instead of drinking an entire bottle of wine, but you live and you learn, right? :P

Monday morning, I managed to sleep in till very nearly noon, I think. Facebook will tell us the answer! I'll report back on when I actually got up. I spent much of Monday in my bed. A great place to spend any day of the week, but particularly satisfying on a Monday. Bertine came over Monday night for burritos and to bring me a phone charger, as I had lost mine Sunday morning on my way to Tiff's. I stayed up WAY too late playing Rock Band all by my lonesome.

Tuesday, with no work to be done, I slept in...again. I meant to get up and apply for some jobs, but the motivation could not be found in the subzero temperatures. Instead, I chilled at home and got things ready for Owen, Wes and Darin to come over and play Rock Band!

Tuesday night was lovely, with three young guys playing Rock Band together. Owen got a little hyper after eating a sugary treat, but that's ok. He's 6! Let him be hyper! After the kidlets left, the Vodka that Asian Dan brought was cracked open. I think we stayed up playing until 3am.

Wednesday morning, I didn't do much of anything. I was too hungover! Around 2, I got dressed and hit the pavement with my resume. The main event was a stop in at Zeno in Uptown, where ten other people came and went with applications during the ten minutes that I was there. Ain't no WAY I'm hearing back from them. :(

Wednesday night, SPW was held. Things got a little sillier than normal...I blame it all on the Wifey's bottle of 100 proof Vodka that she brought for making screwdrivers. Arg, my liver hates me, I'm sure. Much fun was had, and we even shaved Jerry B.'s head! He brought me a mug from Suzi's as payment--a Fu Manchu, per my request. It has a very cute note inside! ;)

Thursday morning, I semi-drunkenly called Javier from Vescio's to come pick me up. He even brought me a coffee! I was in no mood or condition to be working a 6.5 hour shift, so of course I volunteered to stay late and serve since someone called in sick. :P

Thursday night, I took a bus all the way from SLP to South Minneapolis. A scary Vietnam Vet kept asking me questions and telling me that his "back was screaming so fucking bad". I was very glad he didn't actually need the same bus that I did. Got to Ryan's and had a good social night. I played Designated Driver for Meeeeeguel, and ended up staying up till past 4. Arg, my body hates me.

Friday morning, I played some Rock Band with Mike. He had agreed to drive me to werk in exchange for a delicious lunch from the Vesc, so we had a little time to kill. Plus, I needed to wash Corey's uniform that I had borrowed the night before.

Friday afternoon, I was at work from 3-6:30. I'm so glad I didn't have to stay till 7! Amanda picked me up and we went to Bar Abeline. We did make one tiny stop before, so I could bring dinner to my awesome friend at the Uptown Ragstock. She is so great! :)

Friday night, we had an awesome girl's night. We hung out at Abeline till around 9, and sent Anney and Mel on their merry ways. Bertine, Sarah (lonely_doll) and I picked up some beer and wine and hit up Crystal's place. Much fun ensued as we watched Crystal sew for the awesome play that she is playing SM for.

[Friday night into] Saturday morning at 1:30, I announced that Bertine's DD (that's me) was leaving because I was falling asleep, and she claimed to not be too terribly far behind me. We had to stop by my place to pick up my serving uniform so I could go straight to Vescio's after my other Saturday activities. I couldn't find my keys inside my tiny frog pack, so I contemplated calling Ann. I'm glad I didn't, because she was sound asleep! I was a little concerned that when I did find my keys and got upstairs, that my apartment door was unlocked. Everything seems to be in ok shape, so I'm not too worried any longer.

Ont he way home to Bertine's on Saturday morning, I decided we needed Taco Bell at 2am. Best. Decision. Ever. We ate tacos with Xerxes, Harriet and Emerson. I love her kitties! I don't think we got to bed until well after 3, since we both like to talk. :P

Later Saturday morning, we got up at the ungodly hour of 9am. I made it to Tiff's with plenty of time to spare. I hung out for a bit until the Wifey could pick me up. :) I got to meet Jessica's guinea pigs. They are so cute! We headed over to the Manfort (Ryan's house) for art sled construction. We ate frozen pizza, rice and yellow curry.

Saturday evening, Crystal took me to werk. I made $200! I didn't have to work nearly as hard as the rest of the servers, either. So awesome. Jerry B. and I went to Chiang Mai Thai for some tasty Thai food. We stayed up past 2 because we couldn't shut up. :P

Sunday morning, I got up at 8am to head to Tiff's. We had to get up a little earlier than normal due to Bar Abeline's awesome Champagne Brunch! Amanda, Jeremy, Amy, Jessica W., Ryan, Tiff and myself were all in attendance. I still need to post pictures. If you get their secret code, you get $3 off your bill!

Sunday afternoon, full slightly tipsy, I made it home and took a power nap before the gang showed up for Super Bowl Sunday goodness. I had a TERRIFYING dream that Jessica had brought Damian over for the party today. Bertine made me a cake that looks like the main page of Facebook, complete with a news feed, status updates, and notifications. :P I was making people cry because I was so mad at them for letting Damian come to my house. :(

Asian Dan was the first one to show up to my place, around 3pm. We started the Endless Setlist around 4:45. As per usual, we stayed up way too late. I got to bed around 3am. Go me. :P

Here we are, Monday morning. I woke up around 9:30 so I could call my Mom in regards to lunch today. She said she would call me back when her meeting was over. She called around 11:30, but it felt like only five minutes prior, not two hours. :P One of these days, I promise I'll take a day to just SLEEP.

Mom and I went to El Paraiso for lunch. I had the flautas, she had a burrito. She was jealous, because the flautas are so amazing. :P We hit up Target for some household goodies and a present for my cousin Matt. We left it in his entryway. We'll see when/if he gets it...I'm betting he and his wife only really use the back door. Oops.

I'm chilling on the couch, watching Groundhog Day. I should really call my Grandma...Dad's Mom. It's her birfday today, and I neglected to send a card. I'm sending some pictures to Walgreen's tonight that I will print out and send to her tomorrow. :) I'm a good granddaughter.

I may or may not be going to the Artist's Quarter tonight. Corey from the Vesc needs a piece of arm candy to accompany him to the show tonight. He's doing stand up comedy, and he wants a pretty girl to sit at his table and laugh when he's funny. All of the other comedians always wonder where he gets his pretty girls from, since most comedians are pretty goofy looking people. :P

I might take a nap...I might play some XBox...I might keep watching Groundhog's Day...we'll see.