iiiiiiiiiii love technologeeeeeeee...along with the promised "birds"...

Between my laptop and my digital camera, I'm all set for technological woes. My comma key is absolutely ridiculous, only working when I pound on it until a miniscule speck pops onto the screen. It seems too much work for one small dot of punctuation. The battery doesn't work at all, so if I move ever so slightly it jiggles the cord and the whole thing shuts off. Not helpful. The backspace key is also having some problems, as is the delete key. Then the camera...no matter what I do the pictures seem to be fuzzy (granted there are some light issues at my friend's house...no pictures turn out in her basement no matter how good your camera is), and it won't connect to my computer unless I make sure the cord is not plugged in when I'm turning the laptop on and I don't turn on the camera until all of the programs are running.

We live in a wonderful world of gadgetry and gizmos that specifically designed for making our lives easier. I'm grateful for that.

..now if they'd just work properly...

Thank you for allowing me to vent. I feel much better now.

And now to business.

I promised photos of some interesting birds that stumbled into Carisa's basement room. Would you like to see them? I think you do...they're quite entertaining. And rather mind boggling, even. Shall we?

This weird creature, with two fellows, wandered into the family room while we were sitting around watching...oh, I think it was "Barbie's The Princess and the Pauper". This one happens to be my youngest sister. How she and the other girls got into a hoodie like this I will never venture to find out.

Mandy, Anna Jane, and Emma-three of the silliest girls in all of America.

Now for something that I did. Carisa decided it would be fun to straighten my hair. I didn't have much of a choice in the matter, after being told to "sit down and don't move." Fine with me-I like it when people play with my hair. Especially when they know what they're doing.

Well friends, 27 and 1/2 inches looks a lot longer when it's not curly anymore. Take a look:

I'm on the left. Anna Jane is on the right.

(this was before the birds)

Basically it was another wonderfully grand adventure. I can't wait for the next one! More about Christmas break coming up soon!

job search...

So...

It's January 2nd of 2010 (whoa, weirdness) and I have officially begun the job search. Yeah, I quit my job at the Scout Shop because a) I needed better hours and b) I wasn't really liking the inner workings of the whole corporate environment going on there. But mostly for better hours. I mean, telling me that I can have Christmas break off in April when I applied and then corporate saying in November "No WAY!" ... Not happening, especially since my family had plans since like...last January.

So far I've tried to apply at two places online (aka Build-a-Bear and Petsmart) only to find out that you have to be 18. Not a problem-that's in less than three weeks anyways (wtheck?). The problem was that they didn't tell me that until after I'd filled out the entire application. Bothersome. The other two places I've applied at are California Pizza Kitchen and Macey's Grocery Store. The other two I'll apply for in two weeks after my birfday, and we'll see what else I can find.

Tomorrow is Sunday, and church isn't until 1:00 (first time in about two years...our wards are not very good at the whole schedule rotation thing). I think I will write about the last "Night at Carisa's" that we had this week (including photos of plucked chickens, opinions about Barbie movies, and a loverly dress for Preference), the New Year's Eve Stake Dance (aka church dance [which kind of wasn't fun for me...but more later]), and other random adventures that have not been explained before. *smirk* Lots to share, peoples. :)

girls do dumb things when left to their own devices...

Before leaving rehearsal last night, Mary and Carissa showed off another side of themselves when they discovered that the Scarecrow's pole could not only be used for "burning" people at the stake, but for much more exotic activities. *smirk* Just imagine two 30-something year old women taking turns singing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" to a six foot long piece of wood. Interesting things happen backstage.

EVERYthing is so much funnier at 3:00 in the morning. The night got off to a great start with the last ten or so minutes of Barney and the Dreammaker. Carissa's younger kids were watching it. I rememer seeing that movie in the theaters when I was younger. I know. Barney in the theaters? Ew.

As soon as everyone showed up (Carissa, Emma, Jasmin, Balin, Mary, Shannon, Samantha, Miranda, Alaia, and me) Carissa broke out the key lime pie, cheese tortillas, and the LDS version of Pride & Prejudice, commonly known as "The Pink Bible". It sounds really dumb, and it really kind of is, but with 10 girls/women eating sugary pie and working on costumes and drooling (that was Balin) over Mr. Darcy, it's hilarious. I'd never seen it before, and I was really missing out. Actually, I'd never seen any of the real movies that we watched.

Once we'd finished that movie, Emma asked me if I'd ever seen Barbie and the Diamond Castle. I had not (for obvious reasons) so they put that one in next. It wasn't as funny on its own, but I laughed at some of the stupidity and all of the girls swooning over the two male interest characters. The two sparkling, dancing puppies were a little bit disturbing, especially since one of them looks just like Misty, but they were still way cute.

Next came The Muppets' Wizard of Oz, which was rather grown-up and absolutely hysterical (which could be related to the fact that it was 3:00 in the morning). There were parts where Miranda and I were literally falling off the couch with laughter (the Tin Man [Gonzo] somehow having nipples or some other crazy thing like that). And Toto the prawn with the Mexican accent. Wow. It was amazing. We (Balin, Jasmin, Emma) told Greg (Tin Man) about it at rehearsal, because the moment we saw him this morning we all fell to the ground laughing.

The night finally ended around 4:00. We tend to do that a lot. Emma, Jasmin, Balin, and I were the only ones actually sleeping over (Emma because she lives there). Mary, Shannon, Samantha, and Miranda went home. Alaia and Carissa went upstairs to sleep in their own beds. So, the Fab 4 of us giggled and hooted with laughter about "Jeetair Boogs" and bugly seizures onstage and poking our hair straight up to make antennas and boys and more Jeetair Boogs. Twas worthwhile.

Nights at Carissa's are amazing. They're just the most fantabularifical thing in the whole world.