Dogs make me sneeze.

I am snowed in here in Magnolia while house sitting for one of Mandy's friends. I've slowly developed a very slight allergy to pet dander over the years; something I only notice after spending a night where there are pets and wake up with a stuffy nose, no big deal. But this time, I am sneezing up a storm, and blowing my nose constantly! Good times. If I vacuum every day, it's not so bad but that gets tiresome. Anyways, so I wasn't able to go to work today because the buses are still suspended due to the snow. Now, if I were at home, I would do like I have been and carry on walking the two miles to work, and two miles back every day. Magnolia is a little further away from downtown than where I live in Capitol Hill. So today I had to call in stranded.

My adventures today consisted of trying to figure out how to get to work, failing, taking a nap and deciding I needed better coffee than the dried up watery stuff in the freezer. So I bundled up and braved the rain to walk about a mile into town to get some groceries (they left me with hardly any food!) and some coffee. As I started my trek I learned that it was going to be a bit of a tiring walk. I start hoofing up a huge hill, and every time I think it might crest, there's another hill at the top of each block. So finally, I get done with the hills only to find that it is a very steep hill of equivalent length down into town. My instant thought was... I should have brought a sled seeing as how the road was closed anyways. Oh well, I wasn't looking forward to the trek back up the hill on my way home.

My original plan was to walk to town, get the groceries, get the coffee and enjoy it on my way home, and then once I got home I'd sit down and read for the evening. But when I discovered it was a huge hill to get back home, I may as well sit down and relax for a bit before I get to hiking again. Good thing I brought my book just in case. So I search around a little, looking for the grocery store. Didn't see it. So I scooted into the Starbucks, ordered my double tall eggnog latte and made myself cozy at a table and waited for my drink. For some reason I find myself unable to settle down and start whatever it is I am starting until I get my drink. This seems to be somewhat problematic when it takes a good 10-15 minutes to get my drink. Anyways, I got my drink and sat down to finish "Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim" By David Sedaris. I got sucked in and stayed at the bux to finish my book and my drink and almost ended up laughing out loud on several occasions haha.

On my way home I saw an Albertsons and picked up the most random assortment of groceries I think I've ever gotten. At least it was all food items. I got a bag of tatertots, a box of hot chocolate with EXTRA marshmallows, a 24oz Dr. Pepper ( I get random cravings for soda, but usually 8oz or so will suffice... what happened to cans?), a pint of vanilla frozen yogurt, a box of Annies Organic Alfredo, a can of Spaghettio's, and half rack of Fat Tire. And then I am on my ways.

I start trudging up the seemingly never ending hill when it finally crests and I am so taken by the view that I kept walking and forgot the road ended and I had to go around the block. As I kept walking, a little girl was bringing her chocolate lab puppy home from the park and she let it come up to me and jump on me and I played with the puppy a minute, told the little girl to have fun and be safe, and on my way I went. Not two seconds later I realized I had come to dead end. Crap. So I could turn around with a hand full of beer, and my crazy hippie beanie, while I just had an interaction with a little girl and her dog... now if I were her, I would be creeped out to see this strange person who just played with my dog, had beer in her hand and a crazy hippie look going on (really it was the beanie, I'm exaggerating but STILL) who starts walking back my direction. Lost? Drunk? Who knows but what the hell. So as I contemplate this scenario, I found some stairs that led me down this dead end to the road I needed to be on... whew! Awkward situation averted. And then I get lost again because this isn't the way I went to begin with and I haven't left this place since I got here, nor have I ever spent time at all in Magnolia really. I found my way eventually once the afore mentioned scenario left my head and I could think clearly again.

Anyways, I am gonna start some tater tots and start reading. "Stranger in a Strange Land". But first I am going to post about the recent goings on lately... pretty much a seperate post but I don't feel like posting this and then another... plus it will be out of order that way so here goes!


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Lately,

So my job has caused me much stress, and after talking to Alex, who just transfered to the 4th and Seneca store, about my situation and everything that is going on in the district, he made me feel much better about everything. He has worked with Paula, my new manager starting in a little over a week at 2nd and Lenora. She is new to Starbucks but worked for Tully's before as a store manager. So she is excited to have a shift supervisor that has a decent amount of experience with the company. Or so I am told. Apperently she is pretty nice and down to earth, and the store is pretty fun to work at as well. We'll see. I am still skeptical after everything that has gone on lately. Anyways, so I am starting to feel at ease with all of that which is nice. I just need to work on straightening out a lot of other things in life too, but one step at a time is good. I am also happy to have the internet again! Did I mention that in my last post? Probably, anyways, I am still excited about it.

So aside from the sbux drama, I have had some really great things as well. Hanging out with my friend Matt who moved down here from B-ham at around the same time has been really fun and just laid back. I saw Chris for the first time in nearly two years, which was really great. It was fun to catch up on as much as we could over two beers time at the Hopvine. Mandy and I had a little dance party with just the two of us which was WAY too much fun. I am still making more new friends so it's all dandy! I am really going to miss working with the people at 4th and Seneca but I have created strong enough bonds that I know we'll still hang out anyways. Also spending time with Greg has been amazing. Nothing like a Sunday tromping through the snow, grabbing soy mochas at Volunteer Park Cafe, then tromping some more to get breakfast at Glo's (which I am pretty sure I was told was vegetarian... maybe just veggie friendly I dunno) so I felt I led Greg under false pretneses but we had great food anyways. And we checked out Half Priced Books while we waited for our table, then truged back through the snow to my place and I listened to Greg play the guitar and sing as I took some photos of random stuff, and Greg, and just relaxed and listened. I wish every weekend could be that relaxing and fun at the same time!

I haven't gotten to see Katrina as much due to this crazy snow, but I hope to see her at least once before her winter break is over! :) I miss that girl! I got spoiled with seeing here every weekend! Oh and also I've gotten the opportunity to hang out with Gail, my second cousin, more often these days too! I never knew we had so much in common! We were going to get a christmas tree and decorate it at her place one night... and this was about 5pm when our adventure started. We got some pho to go, ate it at her place and sipped on some tea as we talked our mouths off and found that we both had a ridiculous amount of things in common! We talked until about 10:45pm, the tree was a lost cause once we started our second cups of tea, and then I had to go home. Man it was so great! I'm so happy I've learned so much about her and that she lives so close! Okay, really now... that's it for now! Ciao