New Bedding for Florida!

I went on a little pre-CP shopping spree this past weekend. Target had put out all of their dorm furnishings and I was inspired to go ahead and buy some of the stuff I will need for the apartment. I bought a couple of packs of hangers and almost all of my bedding. The bedding ended up being a great deal--$25 bucks for the throw pillow (I know this isn't that cheap, but I really loved it), $20 for the sheets, and only $15 for the comforter at Wal-Mart. I love the look I ended up with, but, boy, the sheets and comforter sure feel as cheap as they were! The sheets are supposed to be cotton jersey, but they definitely don't feel "t-shirt soft!"

I plan to keep looking for a comforter because I like the look, but I'm sure I can find another plain black bedspread that doesn't cost much more and hopefully it will be made of a little bit nicer fabric. I also need to find a matching pillow sham. I'm hoping they sell them on WalMart.com, because they didn't carry them in the stores. The comforter, the sheets, the bedskirt, everything...except the shams. And they weren't just out: they never carried them! I don't know what's up with that. So the lovely yellow and white sham featured in the above picture is from the bedding that I usually use. It doesn't look bad with the new stuff (the yellow shades look closer in real life than they do in the picture), but I hate to take the sham from my nice bed set down there. That was kind of the point of buying cheap-o bedding this time around.

The sheets also feel a little scratchy, but I love the pattern (the subtle pinstripe doesn't show up very well in the pics) and I'm hoping they'll soften up when I wash them. The yellow and grey pillow is definitely a winner and really the whole reason I decided to go with this color scheme. Plus--bonus alert!--it matches the things that are in my bedroom at home right now. So unlike the rest of the things I bought, it won't have to sit in the closet until August.

I'm Okay!

It hasn't been a good couple of weeks for my car. Recently, she was burgled and infested with vermin. And now this...

I was awoken this morning by the sound of the wind outside--that's how you know it's gonna be a crazy day, when the wind is loud enough to wake someone who can normally sleep through anything. Soon it was pouring rain and thundering and lightning, complete with occassional power flickers just to keep us on our toes.

I've known for a while that my tires aren't the best. The treads are worn way down, and I don't have great traction in the rain. So I left plenty early so that I could take it easy on the way to work and drive slowly. Fat lot of good that did me! I had been on the interstate for about 5 minutes, driving under the speed limit in the right lane, when I lost control of the car, went careening across the left lane, and spun into the median. After a few seconds of hysteria, I called my dad, who called 911 and came to pick me up. We eventually got the car out onto the road and back home. It drove okay, but is obviously damaged and, also obviously, will not be leaving my garage again until I have new tires. Lesson learned!

I'm fine: just a little sore and still a little shaky 9 hours later. I really do feel like I was incredibly lucky today. There was no car in the other lane, and if I had slid right instead of left, I would have hit the metal guardrail and bumped back into traffic. When I hit the median, the ground was slushy enough to slow my car down very quickly, so I didn't even hit the dividing wires. Very lucky indeed. Blessed, actually. It certainly could have been much worse.

Some Less-Than-Two-Months-To-Go Musings

This past Wednesday marked the beginning of the two month countdown before I leave for Florida. Crazy. So I now have less than two months before I'm going to be living on my own, in a new city, working a new job, hanging out with new friends, living under a new, made-up name, going around with a new post-plastic surgery face...wait a minute. Those last two aren't going to happen. But the first few are! And not only that, but I will also be going to Disney World basically every day! For free! Amazing.

I've begun to sever ties with Missouri. Last week, I notified the nursery coordinator at church that I would need to be off the schedule starting in August, and my boss is beginning to look for temporary help for the office while I'm gone. Today, I even kept the cardboard boxes when we got in supplies at work. I'll need them to pack in!

I feel like I keep saying this here, but I just can't believe that this is really real. Every day I get a little more excited, apprehensive, reflective, and prepared for the whole experience. A while ago I caught a special on the Travel Channel about Disney World. And I watched it, thinking how crazy it was going to be to pass Graumann's Chinese Theatre every day on my way to work. Or to walk through Cinderella Castle on my lunch break. Unbelievable. In 58 days, I will be somewhere completey different, living an almost completely different life. And as scary as that thought is, I really, really just can't wait. :)

The Exciting Conclusion to the Roommate Saga!

No time or content for a full post, but I now have a roommate. There--wasn't that exciting? ;)

Roommate Notification Part Deux: The Adventure Continues

As soon as I opened my email at work this morning, there was a shiny, purple email from the Disney College Program, saying that I had been matched with a roommate. After my frustration a couple of weeks ago finding out that roommate notification wasn't available for my arrival date, I checked back last Thursday. And, lo and behold, I was able to sign up. It said that there were currently no matches available, but that I would be notified when they had found one for me. The next morning, however, I logged back into roommate notification, and the old message about it not being an option for my arrival date was back up. What the french, toast?

This morning, however, there was that super exciting email. I quickly clicked on the link to learn the identity of my new roommate...and was taken back to the same stupid page saying that my arrival date wasn't eligible!!!

I've sent a message to tech support and housing to find out what's going on. I don't know if it's a glitch in the website, or if the housing people have made a mistake. But this roommate thing is taking on a life of its own! Check back soon for the exciting conclusion to the saga!

My Life Lately, in 696 Words or Less

Updates on a few of my summer goals:

• Work Full Time--Check! At least one thing on my list is being done. But, boy, is it being done slowly! Since I work on campus, a large part of my job depends on the demands of students, faculty, and administrators thrown into the full-fledged tizzies that are the fall and spring semesters. But during the summer, things are oh-so-quiet.
  They make working in an office seem so glamorous on TV...
  
  Last summer, working part-time, I felt like things were slow. But they were sort of pleasantly slow. In the "take your time with what little work you have to do and pace yourself so you don't get too bored" sort of way. But working full-time, there's just not nearly enough to do here. I've gone home early several days the last few weeks. My supervisor encouraged me to stay, because she knew I wanted the hours, but I just feel bad sitting around being paid to do nothing. In the three weeks since school got out, I have dusted every surface of the office, organized my work space, and even ventured into the dreaded "back room" to organize the mess we call our storage space. It's all stream-lined, cleaned, and de-clutterfied now. Which makes me wonder...what am I going to do for the next 2 months?!
  
  
• Volunteer--It's not my fault! I applied at the Make-A-Wish foundation, but they said they didn't need any help right now. So, basically I'm blaming this wonderful charity for my lack of volunteerism. It's all their fault! Just kidding. I know I really should try to find somewhere else. Someone out there needs help! But I just haven't yet. I'll get to it.
  
  
• Learn Spanish--This is going...okay, I guess. To be honest, I haven't been practicing much, lately. I need to get back on that! But before I got lazy, I was really doing pretty well. I can now give basic directions. However, they translate to something like this: "Left. Go straight and right at next to bank." As you might have figured out, I haven't really gotten to grammer yet. Hopefully I'll get motivated to do that very soon so I can stop sounding like I learned Spanish from a broken See 'n Say.
  
  
• Get Crafty!--Check! I dove back into crafts with a passion after my DIY binge at the ever-wonderful DesignSponge.com. And the one that really ended up catching my fancy was an old friend--knitting! In the last couple of weeks, I've bought knitting needles of all types and sizes, deliciously candy-colored yarns for hats, gloves, and scarves to come, and almost completed a bag. Seriously! The first project of my Craft Revival is almost finished! I started sewing the lining in yesterday, but here's a picture from a couple of days ago when I was blocking the sides:
  Instead of being completed and sewn at the top, this bag is actually designed to be finished on the needles--making this a very cute bag to carry my future knitting projects in! I'm very, very proud of my baby, so expect to see more pictures in a few days! I've already started my next project, even. No pictures of this work-in-progress, but don't worry...you'll get to see them (I know you were worried! Oh, come on. Can't you at least pretend that you're really excited to see these pictures?)

Other than these things, I've spent the rest of my time lately being robbed by homeless people, (He was drunk, my car was unlocked, and they arrested him. The only thing he got was some worthless text books. Seriously. I couldn't even sell them back. Worked out real well for him, didn't it?), unintentionally providing shelter for baby mice in the air filter of my car (This didn't work out so well for the mice...or for me! Smelled horrible!), and seeing Shakespeare in the Park (Unlike the other things mentioned here, this was a very pleasant experience.)

It's been a little crazy lately, but in a fun, interesting kind of way. And, yes, I just described being robbed by a drunk guy as sort of fun and interesting. Makes for a good story, anyway!

Finalizing Travel Plans

My mom and I had another long discussion yesterday about travel plans for August. My last day of work will be Friday, August 7th. I'm planning to use Saturday to wrap up my packing, and then we'll get on the road first thing Sunday morning. We're going to break the 20-something hour trip up into two days--definitely an improvement over our Spring Break driving marathon. We have family in Alabama, so we're going to make a little detour and spend Sunday afternoon and night with them. Then we'll get back on the road at a leisurely pace Monday, and get into Orlando late Monday night. Tuesday, we're planning to spend the day at the beach, and then Wednesday is the big day--CHECK-IN! (And Ikea. :) )

This is all just tentative. My mom's going to fly back, and they only have flights early Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings. So we may not leave until Monday, and then we could do the beach on Thursday. In fact, she might not even get to go--we've been trying to sell our old house for months now, and until that happens, the extra hotel bills and plane ticket may not be in the budget. We'll just have to see.

But either way, it is exciting to have an actual plan. Just a little over two months to go now! So exciting! :)