Current mood:	happy
Current music:	Nothin...

Random Thoughts...
Mom told me the last entry was too long, so I make this one shorter...RIGHT.

Things are totally crazy to me right now - I'm so disorganized and it's definitely not the way you want to be when you're a week from leaving on a 10 day international trip.  I think I have everything I need, I HOPE anyway.  I need to sit down and figure all of that stuff out.  I made multiple trips to Wal-Mart last week because I figured it was better to go when I thought of what I needed rather than to make one big trip.  I got most of what I needed last Friday night, but I'm sure I'll be making some more trips.  

Speaking of Wal-Mart, I'm starting to feel more comfortable where I am.  I've always been comfortable, but it seems like the right decision to stay where I am right now.  I've had my doubts over the past couple of months.  I talked to my friend Meredith last week and it made me realize that I wasn't the only one who felt a little lost, regardless of what type of setting we're in.  Now I've got some experience under my belt and I'm ready to tackle everything.  I started to laugh today because at one point for about an hour or so there wasn't a single person under the age of 25 working inside the pharmacy.  It kind of made me wonder what the people who were doing business with us thought.  We were all just having a good time and getting everything done.  It was a nice atmosphere to be in and one that we don't have very often.  It was just a good day, and we were busy.

There are a couple of things weighing on my mind right now that I don't really think I need to put on here in detail, but it's on my mind so I can be vauge.  Some of you will know what I'm talking about because we've discussed it.  There have been so many things pointing me in a different direction lately.  Friends being forced to resign from their jobs and seeing and hearing from people I haven't seen in awhile who are encouraging me to go in that different direction.  It's just a really hard decision to make when I know I would miss where I'm at right now.  It makes me angry to think that just a few people and their opinions and often times lack of integrity are what are making me have to deal with this.  I was the person who said I wanted to stick it out all those months ago and was irritated at people who didn't.  Now it makes me disappointed in myself to think that I'm giving up on something that means alot to me.  Making that choice would be like leaving home...and I don't want to have to make a new home right now.  But I guess I'm in the same boat with a lot of other people.  The whole situation makes me angry and sad at the same time.

Have you ever realized how much bitterness you hold toward someone that really doesn't even matter?  Earlier tonight as I was browsing around myspace I came across the profile of someone who I definitely had a personality conflict with in the past.  Never before has someone made me as angry as this person made me.  I don't even think it was anger so much as just disbelief.  It still irritates me to think about them and their actions.  I think what irritates me the most is the lack of respect that this person had for me and the fact that it really didn't bother them.  They seem to act like they were perfect and not at fault for anything - never got even the smallest apology for any lack of respect.  I guess I need to let go of the bitterness, but it's so hard to do - especially when the last impression that person made was to be rather immature if not downright cruel.  It seemed as if this person went out of their way to be rude to just me, but was nice to everyone else.  I'm one of those people who tries to be reasonable, but there was no reasoning with this person, they just seemed to only care about themself.  Guess I need to work on the bitterness, it's not like I'll ever see this person again.  I guess what I want to know is what it was about me that made them act the way they did.  I mean I know some things I did were probably irritating, but they weren't things that I could help.  I tried to be as unirritating (is that a word?) as I could be out of respect for this person - I just didn't get the same in return.  What I got was cruelty in reponse, I just turned the other cheek and dealt with it at the time.

I guess that's about all for now.  I'm off tomorrow and I have a list of projects to help me get organized.  I'm going to finish in my closet, get some stuff packed up to take to storage and then I have some craft projects to work on.  I got new curtains and I bought fabric to make a bulletin board and curtains for my entertainment center.  I had been trying to think of a good way to hide the lower shelves and CD racks on the entertainment center when I saw what LA did.  I was just going to make a tablecloth type of thing which didn't really make things accessible.  LA actually made curtains, so sorry...I'm copying you...  Hope you all have a good week.  I'll send out an email with my trip details later in the week...be looking for it!

Current mood:	happy
Current music:	Moscow Music

I'm still alive...thanks for asking...
I've tried to write this 3 different times and I've lost it EVERY time, so I'm starting over one more time, next time I lose an entire post...well this is the last time I'm starting over.  Fair warning, it's a long one, so Dennis and Brent you're gonna have to scroll, guess you'll just have to deal with it. :) 

That's for those of you who wonder where I've been for the past month! It's been pure craziness. I've continued to work extra shifts so I don't have to take vacation when I go. By the time I leave for Russia (in 2 and a 1/2 weeks!), I will have 81 hours saved...1 hour more than I needed. The good news is that I found out I have like 23 days of vacation time to use between now and June of 2007 which means I'll be able to take off a decent amount of time to go on vacation later in the year...I think we're contemplating Vegas, as well as, some other places. We were flipping through the RCI book a couple of years ago and found a REALLY nice place in Vegas called The Cliffs at Peace Canyon.  If we go that's where we want to stay...  I guess we've thought about some other places too.  I want to go back to Banff.  Mom, Dad, and I drove up and spent a couple of days there when I was on rotation in Montana.  There's so much to do there, and we didn't have time to see and do it all in 2 days.  It's also close enough to Glacier that we could drive in to the States and do stuff there too.  I'm a little sad that I don't get to go to Montana with the group going in July.  It's one of my favorite places to be...don't get me wrong, I don't want to live there, I just like visiting.  

I've been really busy working and travelling this past month.  I worked overnight one week while they were remodeling the pharmacy.  I've finally got my days and nights back in order now...it took a couple of days to readjust.  Nights were actually fun, it was strange to be awake while everyone else was sleeping, and where do you go for lunch at 1am?  After 5 nights of work, the pharmacy has new carpet, paint, and counter tops.  No more gray walls and dark blue carpet...it definitely looks nicer.  If you're in the Cool Springs store you should drop by and take a look.  The whole store actually looks nicer, and if you give them a couple of weeks, you should be able to find everything.  Right now when they lay new flooring in a section they have to move everything thing in that section out.  Things are definitely jumbled up and some things are just not out right now.  It's frustrating to not know where everything is, but it will be nice when it's all finished.

I've also done a little travelling.  Mom, Dad, and I went to Corinth to see Leslie Ann and Dennis for Mother's Day.  Mom and Dad stayed at The General's Quarters and we ate breakfast there on Sunday morning, so we got to see where LA works and meet the people she works with.  It was fun, and it was a nice breakfast.  Then we went to church...we were true "Back Row Baptists."  I don't think I've ever actually sat in the back at church, but we did...and people really are still greeting each other through like 2 or 3 songs.  It was definitely a friendly church.  The next weekend I spent in Chicago with Crystal.  We did A LOT of sight-seeing in 3 days!  

My flight got in late on Saturday night, and we took the train, the bus, a cab, and walked in order to get to her apartment.  It was definitely an experience, pulling my suitcase behind me the whole way.  Thank goodness I packed light!  Sunday morning we got up and walked to Panera (woohoo for one close by, I miss the one in Vestavia that was 5 minutes from campus) for breakfast and then caught a bus to church.  Church was GREAT.  It was nice to be in a church where there were a lot of young people, and we sang worship songs.  So different from everything at Judson right now.  The guy spoke about the Davinci Code (let's be honest here...what church HASN'T had a sermon on it in the past month!).  After church we took the bus out to Navy Pier, ate lunch and then wandered down the pier.  It was definitely WINDY and COLD!  Then we headed down to the Magnificent Mile for a little shopping and headed home and went to see a movie.  I don't recommend seeing Friends with Money...I definitely could have done without one particular scene.  Just not my kind of movie, I guess my opinion is similar to the one I had with Upside of Anger...it really didn't have a point.  Monday we got up and headed out to Lincoln Park Zoo.  We spent most of the morning there and then headed back downtown for serious shopping.  For dinner we went to the Twin Anchors.  Famous probably more for Frank Sinatra than anything else, but it was the restaurant in "Return to Me."  Definitely some of the best ribs I've ever had...ALMOST better than Dreamland, only because you got more than just white bread with your ribs.  Tuesday we had breakfast at Panera again and then made our way to Buckingham Fountain and Millenium Park.  We walked downtown from there and went up in the John Hancock Tower to see the city from up high.  It was pretty cool to see everywhere I had been.  Our last stop was Wrigley Field then it was time to head back to Nashville.  It was nice to be able to spend time with Crystal.  We were ALWAYS together in high school.  In college it was a comfort to have someone who really knew me around, but we didn't see each other everyday.  Then she went and moved to Chicago so I only saw her when she came home to visit, now that her family has moved to Decatur I don't get to see her that often so it was alot of fun to get to spend more than a couple of hours together.  

The week of working overnight and then the trip to Chicago gave me a chance to relax a little.  I worked all day Thursday and Friday (13 hours...plus some extra on Friday night so they could do a little work in the pharmacy) by myself and then I also worked this weekend.  I haven't been the least stressed out and while I'm working about 100 hours in the next 2 weeks, I have enough days off that it doesn't look like it's going to be too bad.  I've had the best time working and I saw and heard from people I haven't in a while.  Thursday I looked up and saw Mrs. Kemp walking through the store and we talked briefly.  Friday the first phone call came from Jenn who I haven't talked to on the phone in probably about 2 months (How did  "it" go???).  Then later in the day I heard from Meredith who I haven't talked to since January.  It was great getting to talk to her...someone who knows what's it like to be a "new" pharmacist.  (I guess we can't really say that because there's a whole new group of graduates now...I can't believe we graduated a year ago!).  Things definitely change over time, I was the person who was dead set against retail pharmacy; I wanted to work in a hospital.  Meredith was the exact opposite.  Now I'm working at Wal-Mart and a couple of months at Walgreens showed Meredith that's not where she wanted to be and she's working at Kirklin Clinic...funny how things change.  The Wolfes drove into town on Friday to send Carmen off for a year in China so they stopped by the store with Mom and Dad to say hi and not long after they left I saw Abby.  Abby and her family were our next door neighbors when we first moved to Franklin, they've moved to Brentwood since then, but we still keep in touch.  Abby is a nurse now and has bought a house in Franklin and is living here.  It was good to get to catch up with her; I haven't seen her or her family since LA's wedding.  It was just good to get to see and hear from people I haven't seen in a while.

So my next trip is Russia, and it's going to be a busy 2 weeks working up to it with work and packing all thrown in together.  I know I posted once about the place we were doing the big concert in Moscow, but the group I'm with is going to be based out of Sochi which is on the Black Sea.  I couldn't find a lot of information on it before, but Tara sent us a link about a week ago.  Sochi has apparently applied to host the 2014 Winter Olympics so they now have a website where you can see the city.  Now I'm really excited about where we're going... it's definitely my kind of place to visit.  If you want to see it, you can look at the website here.  They have a slideshow that shows you the city.  Now I just have to start packing!

I guess that's all I have for now...I'm starting to get excited about having a new car...I guess the first trip I'll get to take in it will probably be to Gatlinburg with the State crew if it all works out.  I'm getting anxious, and I keep pestering Dad to call the guy at Gray-Daniel's to check on it.  I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.  I'll post pictures from my trip to Chicago before long...as for now, it's time to get to cleaning.  I'm going to organize my closet tonight...and I have tomorrow off.  Hope you all have a GREAT Memorial Day!

Nashville Star

Current mood:	sleepy
Current music:	Drinkin' Me Lonely, Chris Young

A request from Mom...
So Mom asked me this afternoon why we never update our journals anymore. I guess the best answer is probably lack of time, I don't know. I just have other things that seem more important to do. I've had a busy couple of weeks, but I am getting out and doing more in Nashville, hanging out with friends. I've finally had the chance to settle in and it feels GREAT!

Work is going well. I'm still at Wal-Mart in Franklin, although I'm under huge pressure to take the Pharmacy Manager position at another store. It's not that I don't think I could do the job, because I think I can; I don't know if I'm ready for it right now. I guess its more or less that I don't want the added responsibility right now. I haven't even been out of school for a year. When it was first mentioned I hadn't even been out 6 months. It feels good to know that my boss has that much faith in me, he keeps saying it over and over. I just like where I am right now. Bottom line: It's just not the right time, I feel like I'll know when its the right time for me to take that step. I was surprised when I found out I was getting a raise in June...REALLY surprised. A couple of weeks ago I had my performance evaluation, and to be honest I don't really pay attention to the things because they always say the same thing. But the day after we went over it, I found out that I had the highest score in the store and I was getting the highest percentage for a raise, it felt really good to know that, because to be honest sometimes I don't really feel like a pharmacist and it has a lot to do with my age. People come up to the window and ask to speak to the pharmacist and they seem taken aback when they get me, kind of like you're too young to be the pharmacist (I actually had someone say that to me one day) and I have a hard time responding to that. I may not have the experience that older pharmacists have, but I went to school for 4 years and I passed my board exams, and whether they know it or not, I had at lease a year of clinical experience under my belt before I set foot in the door as a pharmacist at Wal-Mart. I do feel like I have one advantage over the other pharmacists that I work with. Experience as a tech and intern at Wal-Mart when I was in school has helped me TREMENDOUSLY in the past year, as it has probably helped other classmates of mine who went to work for a company that they worked at while in school. Regardless I'm settling in just fine and who knows maybe I'll be a Pharmacy manager this time next year.

I've had the past 3 days off...it's been GREAT! I got to sleep in and just play around. I've worked over 80 hours, almost 90 hours every 2 weeks for the past month and a half and will be doing the same for the next month and a half. I'm building up hours so I don't have to take vacation time when I go to Russia, since I'll be gone for about 2 weeks. So far I've built up about 8 days, I really only have like 2 more to go because I get 4 days off every pay period. One thing I can say is this...it's great to have a boss that totally understands my going to Russia. I told him last October that I was going. He told me I could have as much time as I needed and that anytime I wanted to go on a mission trip to let him know because it was great that I wanted to do that. In fact, his own kids (who happen to be my age) go at least once every year.

It looks like the Russia trip is starting to take off. I got all of my info in to get my VISA, its worse than trying to get your passport...they want all sorts of detailed info. We got CDs of the music we're going to sing, it sounds awesome! Now we just need the sheet music so we can start learning our parts. We also got an email from the missionary that's working in the area we'll be in. His email was basically just a warning to start preparing for the trip. Apparently the main mode of transportation in the area we'll be in are our own 2 feet. Apparently we'll be walking at least 2 miles a day...I'm wondering if that's at one time. It's not that big of a deal to me and the younger people, but apparently it is to some of the older people going. That's all I heard about tonight. So I guess we need to pray for the older ladies going on the trip; they need physical endurance. I also found out tonight who my roommate was going to be...supposedly. I was a little disappointed, but not mad, when I found out because no one ever asked me who I wanted to room with. Originally I had no roommate and was going to be with Mandy and Janice, then I had assumed it would be Tara since Kyle isn't going anymore, until I was told tonight otherwise. Also the way I was told, was not very tactful. It's all been worked out now and Tara and I should be rooming together! We'll have lots of fun! I'm starting to get excited about going. In fact I was so excited I attempted to learn Russian. I gave up after about 15 minutes, even if I could figure out how to say the word, I would never be able to figure out what it was exactly that I was saying. Let's be honest, how many times in my life am I going to actually need to know Russian? We'll have an interpreter on the trip...thank goodness. Start praying for our trip that we'll be able to touch the lives of the people we come in contact with. Pray for our safety and for physical, emotional, and spiritual endurance. Some people are also having trouble with finances for the trip, so pray that everything will work out in that area. Know that your prayers are GREATLY appreciated. 

Speaking of my friend and lunch buddy, Tara, she's got a myspace with demos and her website was launched a couple of weeks ago.  She can REALLY sing and she's pretty too, so check her out.  She'll do great things I'm sure! 

OK now that I've gotten the serious stuff out of the way, let's talk about fun stuff! I've had people over to play games a couple of times in the past month. It's been a lot of fun getting to know everyone and laugh at each other. I'm pretty sure it will turn into a monthly occurrence, I just have to find a time for April and May. Mindy, Mandy and I went to see Failure to Launch a couple of weeks ago. It's a great movie. I wasn't totally sure about it in the first 5 minutes, but ended up laughing hysterically periodically throughout the movie.

The other big news is NASHVILLE STAR! My friend, Buddy, has a friend that's on the show. I went with Buddy and 10 other people to the first taping and had a BLAST! It was the first time I had ever heard his friend, Chris Young, sing. He was GREAT, even if Big and Rich didn't think so. The next week we went to the premiere party at the Wildhorse and had great time again. Mom and I went to the show 2 weeks ago so she could see Kenny Rogers, and even MOM had a great time. She even held up a sign for Chris and we got to meet him after the show (Mom got his autograph...said it would be worth something someday). This past week, I went AGAIN this time with Mindy and Mandy in tow. Our group of 6 (Buddy, Celia, Mindy, Mandy, Buddy's friend Justin, and I) had a great time and Chris was AWESOME! He got to sing first this week, which was actually a relief. It was so much more relaxing to be able to enjoy the show and not be worried about who was going to be voted off! We headed up to the front to see Chris after the show and didn't make it very far. He has quite the fan base now and we couldn't get past all the little girls to get to him so Mindy and Mandy didn't get to meet him. Maybe next week. Mandy is trying for tickets, and I'm going to try to maneuver work schedules so I can go. It's original song night, so all the contestants (there are 6 left) will be singing their own stuff. You should tune in and watch. Nashville Star comes on Tuesday nights at 9pm Central on the USA Network. Watch and VOTE!  Check out Chris' myspace and web site!  I think he has a real shot to win the show...I wouldn't say it if I didn't think he was worthy of it.  And girls, he's only 20, so don't get any ideas.

Not must else has happened lately.  Last night after Nashville Star I ran into someone I haven't seen in about 2 years.  We were in line waiting to talk to Chris when I looked up on the stage and saw a familiar face.  It wasn't a surprise to see her in Nashville or at the show, but to be working on the show was a surprise.  I know her and her family from my years working as a Diamond Girl for the baseball team at Samford.  I worked one on one with her mom and cousin and got to know her family (the WHOLE family, siblings, grandparents, cousins, etc.)  really well.  I talked to her for a couple of minutes, and it was great to get to catch up with her.  She has a great family and you can really tell by her personality.  She doesn't flaunt who she is and I think its an admirable quality to have. 

What else...oh my new pet peeve.  It bothers me when you meet people and they act like they haven't met you before.  I don't mean a brief meeting either, I mean you know someone.  Tonight in choir a lady introduced herself to me for about the 4th time in 2 months, what does that say about a person?  Now it really wouldn't be that big of a deal, but I have told her and other choir members have told her several times not only who I am, but that I've been a member of the church for almost 10 years.  Every time she introduces herself she always says I must be new to the church.  First of all I've been a member for almost 10 years, my mom and dad were in her husband's Sunday School class one year and my dad has been on a committee with her for the past 2 years.  She always seems to remember who I am after I say that, but always manages to get my mom and dad's names wrong when she tries to correct herself.  It makes me feel like I'm unimportant to her, or like she just doesn't care.  Its like she's just going through the motions of being polite without the follow though.  Let's just say I'm not impressed with people who make themselves out to be important, but who seem not to care about others.

For Dennis and others who have been asking...I found out today that Toyota picked up the order for my car last week.  I should get it in June or July...I know it's a LONG time to wait!  I decided on the Titanium Metallic V8 4WD with the XREAS suspension.  I know, Dennis, the V6 2WD would have gotten better gas mileage, we were looking at resale value.  I'm happy with what we ordered, I just wish we had started this ordering process when we started looking back in December, then I would have my new car NOW instead of waiting 4 months.

I guess that's all for now...my 3 days off have come and gone. I have to get up and go to work tomorrow morning. I'm looking forward to a fun filled weekend visiting LA and Dennis and going to Super Bulldog Weekend. Let's hope the Dogs have a winning weekend. Guess I'll catch you up on that later.

OK Mandy and Kevin, I tried to be grammatically correct, but it's just a blog entry so it may not be perfect. (Mandy we know that correct grammar doesn't cost anything...)