keep it on the down low

I just set the blog to invited readers only. It will just be for a few days. I need to lay low for a day or two.

The one where I use "y'all" twice and un-ironically.

Oh my god. It never ends.

Sunday my brother and Liz were driving my car to where I live from SGF. About halfway, my brother became concerned that the battery wasn't holding a charge, so he pulled over in Mansfield (where Laura Ingalls Wilder settled, for all you history/pioneer buffs), Liz right behind him in the truck. They conferred and then decided to call my parents and ask them to come out with the trailer and tow the car back to the house.

Mind you, the car was ONLY being moved b/c my brother's apt complex was going to have it towed Monday because I don't have plates/registration for it yet and can't get them because I have to have it inspected which I cannot do from here when it is there. Which is in contradiction to MO's law stating that a body has 30 days to get their shit sorted. (it says that more or less. They should let me go through and re-write all of the legislation in people terms. Then people would know what the f is up.)

Anywho. So, yeah, big deal my brother and Liz calling to have my mom and dad come pick the car up. It's a big deal because my dad hasn't spoken to or acknowledged my brother's existence for a year. I was at work getting steady text updates FREAKING OUT because I was so afraid it was gonna get ugly. My dad has had the tendency to get REAL shitty with my brother when he sees him (which is incredibly rare. That he sees him. Not that he gets shitty. That's a given. Shitty upon sight.). My parents had to stop at my older sister's house to pick up the trailer. They were a little grumpy that they had called beforehand and when they got there, all the shit they had been hauling with it was still on it, so my parents had to offload that. Always considerate when they are using someone else's things, my sister and her husband are (hello, Yoda my name is.)

Now, this is where it starts to get REAL good. As they were pulling away, my dad noticed that the spare tire for the trailer was not on the trailer. My mom called my sister to ask where it was and she replied "in the garage" in an offhanded, oh silly forgetful us, manner. They chalked it up to their general carelessness and lack of regard for anyone other than themselves, and continued the approx 45 minute to drive to Mansfield.

When they arrived, they discovered that one of the trailer tires was flat. And had been flat. For a while. In fact, it had been flat for so long without my dad realizing he was driving on a flat tire that the aforementioned flat tire was shredded. Into strips. And bits. And pieces. And, oh hey, where was the spare? And hello, if it had been flat why didn't my sister tell my parents? What a kidder. My mom called my sister to ask why she hadn't told them that the tire on the trailer was flat, so my sister went ahead and confessed to our mother that she did, in fact, know it was flat, and that, HA HA HA, it was actually the spare tire that they had to put on the trailer when the other tire (the one that is in their garage) went flat. At this point my mom started screaming at her because UHM HELLO she did not even mention that the tire in the garage was flat AND she let her PARENTS DRIVE OFF ON A JOURNEY TO PICK UP A CAR WITH A TRAILER THAT SHE KNEW HAD A FLAT TIRE.

I HAVE TO BE RELATED TO HER, Y'ALL. IT HAUNTS ME.

I have my suspicions as to why she did this, and I will keep them to myself because it would be very easy for her to find this blog, and I talk enough shit as it is. But let's just say, things are heating up and getting ugly.

Anyway, so my mom and brother drove down the road to find a place that would sell them a tire while my dad and Liz chilled out at the gas station admiring the delightful new addition to the parking lot that is our driveway. Thirty minutes and a $93 trailer tire later, my mom and brother returned and my dad and brother managed to get the tire changed (SIDE BY SIDE. TOGETHER. WITH MANNERS. AND TALKING. AND NO SHITTERY, Y'ALL), the car loaded, and back on the road.

So, yeah. My car is here. In the driveway. Still on the trailer. Waiting for a few more things to be fixed and then my ass to be firmly planted in the seat. It is the cutest car in the world, and you already know I am going to drive her to hell and back.

This was just on Sunday. It doesn't even begin to touch on the drama that occurred today, but you're gonna have to wait for that. I am not sure if I wanna type it or make a video telling the story. Either way, it's not going to be told tonight because my fingers are cold and I am tried of typing.

Does this really happen to people?

I bought a car. A completely adorable car. My brother has been working on fixing the few things that are wrong with it, and replacing some things that are not necessities, but are nice to have (like functioning speakers). In the great state of Missouri, a body has 30 days from the purchase of a car to get it titled and registered and plated and all that good stuff. So, I have no worried about getting everything sorted out because my brother is not done working on the this and the that and the what and the have you, and HELL, I've got thirty days, right?

Aside: I know I promised an entry on my brother and the drama that took place in our lives one year ago (exactly a year ago, for real), but this is not that entry.

My brother works for a small company. The guy has, like, three employees. My brother asked for a raise recently (he is making like $7.50/hr) and instead of giving him the raise, his boss fired him Friday last, and said it was because he left work early last week to go help my sister find a tire WHEN SHE BLEW HER TIRE OUT IN SPRINGFIELD 80 MILES FROM WHERE WE LIVE. So, my brother has had extra free time in between job hunting to work on my car for me. Tuesday, his ex-boss calls him and asks him to come in so he can talk to him about whatever, and he offered my brother his job back. Wednesday, his apartment complex called him at work to tell him they were going to have my car towed b/c it did not have plates. So, my brother had to leave work early AFTER HE GOT FIRED FOR LEAVING WORK EARLY, all because his apartment complex which IS NOT EVEN AT HALF CAPACITY OF TENANTS (my brother is the only person who lives in his ENTIRE BUILDING) did not want to let my car that has been there for FOUR DAYS sit there without plates.

WHAT HAPPENED TO THIRTY DAYS?!

Liz called the apartment and explained to them the situation, that we live an hour and a half away, that my brother was doing minor repairs, and that it should be done by the weekend. They agreed to extend it until Monday, but because I was totally terrified that those idiots were gonna have my car towed I convinced Liz to ride to Springfield with me so I could pick up the title and papers, bring it all home, and then get everything registered and sorted Thursday morning. This way, I reasoned, Liz could take the plates and registration to Springfield with her Thursday evening when my brother came to get her. THIS WAS FOOL PROOF! I AM GROWNUP, HEAR ME ROAR!

I woke up Thursday morning to a text from Liz, who was at work, that read: "I just realized that you cannot get plates for a car without getting it inspected." I FUCKING HATE MISSOURI.

So, not only did I waste the gas money to drive up there, it was fucking pointless because even if you can find a place in MO to pass a car EVEN THOUGH they shouldn't, they sure as hell won't do it w/o the car being there. How's that for business ethics?

I am freaking out. My brother is on edge b/c his job is obviously not secure and he feels like he coerced me into buying a shitty car that he keeps finding little things that need to be repaired on, and all in all, I am just really annoyed. So, it's Missouri's fault. SUCK IT, MO!

The Olympics

JEEEZ! I have been trying to update for like two days but for some reason my internet and blogger have combined to ANNOY THE SHIT OUT OF ME!

Anyway, I wanted to say that I finally got started doing videos on youtube. If you are interested you can check them out here. Feel free to subscribe! I am going to try to keep the content on the two (blog and vlog) a little more varied so that it is not a repeat and you aren't wasting your time watching one thing and then reading the same thing. Hopefully I am able to pull that off!

My job is going really well, I think. I keep making mistakes, but they are fewer and further between, which is how it is supposed to be, so I think I am right on track. I was watching the Olympics the other night when I realized that the last time I watched the Olympics (that I actually remember) was at the Front Page Deli in Clarksville, TN. I was there with Renee&Jenny and we were eating french fries and drinking sweet tea and swooning over how hot Apollo Anton Ono was (is, haha). I was a junior in high school and they were seniors. And then I realized that was eight years ago. Where has the time gone?

It's a wonderful life

Dude. I had the most epic Tuesday ever! I got my package from amazon containing my Sookie Stackhouse books (keeping the reading classy over here at kashmirror.blogspot.com), my webcam, my digi cam, and my battery charger&rechargeable batteries. I also found out my work clothes that I ordered FINALLY shipped. AND THEN I GOT A NEW PHONE! Yeah, today was way better than Christmas.

I had my first day of work Monday night. I was supposed to work the 10m-6am shift that I was hired for, but that morning my boss called me to ask if I could work the 2pm-10pm shift since she had family visiting and she wanted to spend time with them. I told her I'd be happy to, which I was, but it kind of messed up my day b/c I stayed up really late in preparation to stay up really late the next night. BUT I SURVIVED IT! The weather was getting nasty before I left to go up there, and by the time I was ready to leave (eight hours, one paperback novel,  a movie, an episode of scrubs, and several episodes of No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain later), the roads were atrocious.

My boss asked me to stop at the hotel they own in Houston on my way home to drop off some sort of cooking utensil for her son. I only mention it because when I tried to make the turn off the highway into the parking lot I locked the brakes and nearly skidded into a ditch. Thank goodness there was nobody else out on the road at the time otherwise it would've been CATASTROPHIC!!!!!!!! Or at least inconvenient.

I feel good. This is the best I've felt in a long time. I am excited when I wake up, I have lots of new toys, responsibility in the form of my new job and I think things are finally turning around for me. It's wonderful!

Classycats.

Why is it so hard for any of you to just walk into my room? Why must it ALWAYS be in the form of full on run, jump onto bed, and skid across record player? Have some self-respect, cats, SHIT.

updates/edits

I have been slowly updating and reworking things over here for the past few weeks. I've been adding sites/blogs to the Read It. Buy It. Love It. section, and I added a tags/labels cloud you can more easily find entries that are relevant to your interests. I am also trying to pick back up with twitter, so if you are interested, you can follow me there at https://twitter.com/kashmirror. I am cautiously optimistic about the year ahead of me, so keep your fingers crossed. I am going to try to take the internet along for the ride!

this is just something I want to remember.

Today I was showing a picture to my mother of a friend of mine's new tattoo. Her tattoo is beautiful. It is mostly just an outline right now, but it is a half sleeve, shoulder to elbow, of a woman with stars in her long, flowing hair and she is wrapped in a loose fitting dress. She said she has to do 2-3 more sittings before it's complete. Anyway, so I showed it to my mother and she was aghast that someone would want to have a tattoo so big. I kept saying "it's so beautiful! look at how beautiful it is!" and she said to me "it's not about it being ugly or beautiful, it's the size. I like small tattoos, like yours."

My mom, who I HID MY TATTOOS FROM FOR THREE YEARS, told me she liked my tattoos. Woah.

How to Ensure I Will Adore You Forever Take 2

Crawl into my lap and heave a sigh as though you AND YOU ALONE are carrying the weight of the world on your tiny, gray shoulders. What the fuck, you are a cat!

Shopping sucks.

I am in an ill-ass mood. I have been ordering clothes off the interwebs b/c I need some nicer clothes for my new job (and for my life, in general, tbh). The only clothing store in a 30 mile radius is walmart, and I am kind of a snob, so I don't like to buy clothes there if I don't have to. So, yeah, I bought some shit off the internet. The first bunch of stuff I got was okay...the tops fit (but only because I remembered at the last minute that I bought some tops from this place over the summer and that they were a little too big, so I got them a size smaller), but the pants I ordered in my normal size and they were too big. So, I filled out the little return and exchange form and mailed 'em back. Today I got an email from that place telling me they no longer have those pants in stock and that they will be giving me a refund in 1-2 billing cycles. Uhm, you will sure as shit take my money with the quickness but when it comes to giving it back it might take up to two months? I NEED those pants for my job, and if you don't give me my gd money how the hell am I gonna go elsewhere to buy pants? Do you just assume, Online Retailer, that I have an unlimited and expendable income and can wait for you to get your heads out of your asses and deposit the money back into my account? Hmmm?

Then, I ordered some more tops and a vest from another place. I got that package yesterday in the mail, and was pretty frustrated b/c everything was too big, the vest was horrifying, and one of the gd shirts they sent me WAS NOT EVEN WHAT I ORDERED!!!! How they mistook a green paisley sleeveless t-shirt for a beige trimmed polo shirt is BEYOND my comprehension, but I filled the form out and got it all ready to ship back via UPS OF COURSE!

I am incredibly annoyed because I do live in a small town and I do wear plus sized clothes and MY LIFE IS JUST REALLY INCONVENIENT!!!!!

I met up with the king/he confessed his body was burning...