Phone interview

Well, today I had a phone interview with Russell Sage college. It's the all girls portion of Sage Colleges. I'm applying for the job of Admissions Counselor. If I get the job it'll be a $30,000 a year plus benefits. However, the thing I'm really excited about, is that if I get this job, I get free grad school! How awesome would that be?! It'd be pretty gosh-darn cool.

I'd have to say that the interview went well and that Creative Memories might actually be helping me out a bit. The woman said that this job consists of pretty much selling the school to prospective students, and my sales experience might be helpful. I'd be going around trying to recruit girls as well as help decide who gets in or not. I'm not sure if I like the decision making part, but I guess it comes with it. I'll get to travel to nearby cities on company time and money, which is fine by me. I'll have to do some weekends and nights, but that's okay I guess. She said that I'd have to work like four weekends in the fall, so that's not so bad.

I really just hope I really just hope that I can land this job. It's right downtown so my commute, if you can call it that, would be five minutes. But man, free school. That would just be great. I'd get my degree in Literacy Education, but who cares? It's free and I'd be learn lots of cool stuff. Anywho, keep your fingers crossed that I can get an actual person-to-person interview. This was just the screening phase. My Eight Ball says that I will "Most Likely" get the job. Last night when I asked if we'd get Pippa the dog it said "Yes-definitely", so it might just be on it's positive side, but oh well.

Congratulations are in order

Last night while trying to figure out where to put our new rugs I received a call from Josie. Of course, no one ever calls me, but when they do I'm in the bathroom. Well, when I called back our conversation went something like this:

Josie
Me

"Guess what?"
"You're engaged!"
"Yeah!"
"Yeah?"
"Yeah!"
"Was that a 'yes'?'
"Yes."
"Oh good!!!"
"It'll probably be this year."
"Oh cool, well, if it's July 14th then I'll already be home for two other weddings."
"Hahah, well I think that's a little too soon."

I couldn't hear her properly because we were both so excited that all of the 'yeah's' came out in big 'ahhh' kind of sounds so I couldn't tell what she was saying. But CONGRATULATIONS!!! I guess I'll be home again this year. Woo hoo!!

We're getting a dog!

For those of you who I have been talking to, you've probably already seen these pictures. We're hoping to get Pippa. http://www.nebcr.org/Available_Border_Collies.html I just found out today that our cute little dog is being persued by another family. I sure hope that the lady is just telling me that so that we speed things up more, but I doubt it. Everyone cross your fingers for us!

Baking with High School Musical

I am currently listening to the High School musical soundtrack and baking fresh chocolate chip cookies for tomorrow's scrapbooking workshop. It smells very good in our kitchen right now. Anywho, we're back in New York where it's not as cold as we thought it would be. It's supposed to snow here on Sunday, but right now it's just chilly. Hmm, I just took my cookies out of the oven and they don't look as brown as they should be, but they're the right texture and the bottoms are starting to get brown. I can't wait for my car to get here with all the baking stuff that Auntie May got me for Christmas. It's going to be cookies galore for Edward!

The wheels on the bus go round and round

I've decided that I'm going to take the GRE's again so that I have a slight chance of getting into a grad school. This should be fun...now if only I could figure out a way to raise my GPA without having to pay out of my nose in out of state tuition fees.

Let's go red!

The red scarf I've been knitting can go around my neck now. Family pictures and update on how cool my family is will be up soon. I'm a little bummed about going back to New York so I'll post on the greatness of my family later.

The start of something new

Here are the first few pages of Austin's scrapbook. They're coming along slowly but surly. The minor details that are on here are difficult to see, but that's okay. They're subtle, but there. By the by, these are actually in order.



These are homemade apples by the way. APPLES, I tell ya, apples. First when I showed them to my dad he couldn't see them and then when he put on his glasses he thought they were watermelons! Apples! We're at Applebees!

Back to back Austin... that's what everyone needs.


Though he actually looked like he was having fun in this page, it still warranted a "Phil go away" title.

Attn: Austin

Austin, I forgot my camera downstairs and don't feel like getting it, so I'll post pictures of your book later.

Happy New Year: A dream is a wish your heart makes

In light of this fabulous holiday, I've written a short-short piece inspired by a five year old boy who I met last night. This is how every little kid's New Year's experience should be, well in my mind.

The Smell of Smoke

For Anthony

Bang! Bang! Pop! Crack! Wizz! Illuminating expositions erupted in the dark sky like Pop Rocks in a wet mouth. A little boy stares wide-eyed at the remnants of smoking fireworks, mouth agape in a silent ‘o’.
“Whoa,” he says, eyes bright with excitement. “That was so cool.” A long arm wrapped around his slender shoulders.
“Happy New Year, son,” says a deep voice, his massive hand lightly gripping the boys shoulder.
Clusters of people with sparking hats and noisemakers begin to head towards the parking lot exits as the wind blew away the smoky haze in the air. Taking his hand, the boy’s father begins to lead him through the thick throng of bodies.
“I smell smoke,” says the boy with a crinkled nose.
“I smell a great year ahead of us,” replies his father with a smile. “Come here,” he says, picking up the boy and throwing him onto his shoulders. Giggling, the boy gripped onto his father’s forehead as they left the smoking sky behind, blue eyes alight with anticipation.


Happy New Years everyone! May all your dreams come true.

A dream is a wish your heart makes
When you're fast asleep
In dreams you lose your heartaches
Whatever you wish for, you keepHave faith in your dreams and someday
Your rainbow will come smiling thru
No matter how your heart is grieving
If you keep on believing
the dream that you wish will come true

~Cinderella

Pictures galore!

Here are some pictures of the things that have been going the last week or so. Once again, I can't figure out how to rotate my pictures on this thing.


My visit to Riverside

Juni and Ron
Juni and Ron's friend Oren.
Me and Juni

This weekend all we did was eat, drink and sleep...oh and watch Veronica Mars. It was great for a weekend, but I don't think I could live a lifestyle like that. I'd go insane.

Wisdom teeth extraction

Right after I came back from the 951 I got my wisdom teeth out. I don't actually have any pictures of this, but while Christopher was home with me he figured out a way to keep his feet warm. He wasn't to happy about this picture. Lately he's been running away from my camera. Hehe

Our Christmas gift to our Mom


We remade our parents wedding album so that they could enjoy it all over again. Everyone really liked it.

Our family Christmas gift to our grandma





This book was my mom's idea, but it was my job to complete it. Since I was busting my rear with my mom's book, I didn't start this one until the night before we were going to give it to her. I'm glad that she liked it. She looked at it like four times just at our house. That was the best compliment that she could give.


I'll be home for Christmas
Everyone tries to come early so that we can go play in the park and stuff. It took a while to just get off our block, but we had an awesome time anyways. We always do...it's because we're family. We could be plunging toilets and have fun together.








Christopher's sousaphone bell on Justin's head. After playing around with Christopher's instruments everyone realized how hard brass instruments are. Clarinets are much easier in my opinion.
Natalee playing with Edward's kitty. She didn't want to leave him in the room.
Twenty-six people!!! Our family is huge, which makes it so much better.

This was our first Gingerbread decorating Christmas, compliments of Josie and Jenjen. They were really good cookies even without the frosting. Erika enjoyed eating the candy decorations more than the actual decorating.



And of course, our annual ice skating day. Although it was raining, it was tons of fun. The rink was like three inches under water. People were soaked, though our family, being the great skaters that they are, managed not to soak themselves in the pool of ice water. Only Christopher and Uncle Daniel really skated, but we had fun watching.


It was so windy that when Josie was eating her Dan-tat Jenjen was trying to catch the crumbs in her mouth.




Natalee's first time skating. I think that she went once around the rink and then that was it.

Title Release

As I'm sure that many of you have heard, the new title for the final Harry Potter just came out. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. How exciting! I have yet to preorder my book, but I'm sure that I will soon. Yay!


Happy Christmas!

You know you were a student when...

Your dad says that you're probably the only Creative Memories consultant who uses a scientific calculator to add up customer orders.


Yup, that's me.

The busy life of Allison

Okay so I've been super busy lately as I'm sure most of you are too. However, I will briefly update you on what has been happening. Last weekend I went to go hang out with Juni. I gave her my awesome Christmas present which was a Storybook of us in college. She got so excited that she knocked over her drink. Hopefully I'll get the pictures of that weekend up after the holidays. Then when I came home I got my wisdom teeth out. It was kind of funny because they had to tell me to stop talking so that I could absorb the laughing gas. I guess I was breathing it in through my nose and then it was coming out of my mouth. They didn't knock me out and since the oral surgeon is a family friend he was talking to me like my normal dentist. Later that day Edward came which was exciting since I hadn't seen him since I left NY. We were bummed because the night he came home I was leaving for LA the next morning. Hmm, after that on Wednesday we went to Davis for Julie's holiday party. Thursday I drove home so that I could finish my mom's Christmas present. I won't say what it is until after Christmas. Now for today, I had a get together with Shanna and her family. That was a huge success. After, I drove out to Davis to give Julie and Ed their Christmas presents. I made them a recipe Storybook of their grandma's recipes. I was so excited that I couldn't wait to give it to them. They're going up to Gualala tomorrow and not coming back until after Christmas so I had to get it to them and hour drive both ways to see them open their gifts. I know, I'm a strange one. But the reactions I got were priceless. Tomorrow my mom and I are going to Burke Williams got get massages with all the Chin and Ho girls. It would be cool, but we have to get on BART by 7:45 am. At least the service will be good. Then on Sunday we're having Christmas Eve here and Christmas at my Uncle Tom's. Well, I guess I could tell you the rest of my schedule for the upcoming week, but i think that's unnecessary, though it is very full. Okay, well that's all folks. Sorry for the lack of paragraphs. I'm so tired right now my brain is working like a run-on sentence.

Until we meet again, have a beautiful day.

New rooms... finally!

This is a picture of Bellatrix Lastrange

Here are my two rooms that I did when I was temping. I know, finally! I've just been feeling so lazy lately, but I think that I'm out of the slump now. I had to write a little tonight on the interrogation room so I think that I've gotten out of my anti-writing mood that has inhabited my body the last few weeks. So here they are. Once again, these are in Azkaban so they're a little scary.

Interrogatio Tabulatus: Interogation Floor

Meticulous rows of lifeless vials and syringes sit with wicked intent. The tiny room reeks of stale vomit and bile. Rusted buckets line the walls and a cobwebbed mop leans abandoned in the corner. In the center of the room is a small black wooden stool. When in use, the stool serves as a kneeling block for the unfortunate interrogated. Injected with the near toxic serum, the victim is forced to vomit while kneeling uncomfortably over a rusted bucket. The retching noise reverberates around the small room as the interrogator questions his charge. Facing the corner, the victim cannot see the only exit to the southwest. The smell of despair mingles with the stench of excrement.

Extended Descriptions

Vials Syringes Wicked Intent

Stripped naked, the questioned is forced to kneel on the splintering stool as a vomit educing serum is injected painfully between the second and third vertebrae of the spine. Injected with this clear liquid, the interrogated is forced to vomit until only dry heaves are available. Only the interrogator has the antidote, in which they release little by little on to the floor with every unanswered question.

Stool Kneeling Block

Blacked by fire, the stool looks as though it is about to collapse. Resembling human knees and shins, the roughly carved surface of the stool holds up uncomfortably well for the interrogated. As the victim shivers with a cold sweat, the charred splinters dig viciously into the soft flesh around the kneecap. Stabbing pains shoot through the victim’s legs as the stomach pumps uncontrollably, sending their knees in deeper.

Mop Cobwebbed

Covered with grim, the gray-brown mop is stiff with old vomit. The pungent stench is almost strong enough to emit fine vapors of wretchedness. Green bacterial mold grows at the base of the handle where it meets its cloth counterpart. At the top of the worn handle sits a squished eyeball. Dried streams of blood drip down the graying wood about three inches. It is an ornament of a past victim.

Echo

1 11 1 A small spider with thick furry legs crawls over the sharp blue iris of the eyeball.

Vespertilio Turris: Vampire Tower

Small white spikes protrude from grimy cement walls. Shoddy brown plaster looks as though it does nothing to secure the talon-like teeth into place. A multitude of cracks splatter the surface like the slimy wrinkles of an over-used brain. As if adorn with horizontal stalactites, the small white teeth adhere to the wall at random. Ruby coloured stains taint the lower positioned teeth, while the upper most glisten with neglect. At the entrance of this narrow passageway the presence of teeth is sparse, although most are browned with dried blood. Towards the center of the hall the formation is noticeably denser. To an unsuspecting passerby, the hallway appears rather harmless; however, the motionless walls spring to life the moment anything living passes. Trying to escape only leads to more blood sucking punctures as the victim tries in vain to reach the north and southeast exits.

Extended Description

Teeth Ruby

When launched, the teeth wedge into soft flesh and immediately start to feed through the small holes at the ivory tips. The teeth tear away as the victim breaks into a panicked sprint causing the nerves to retract with the elasticity of a rubber band. Frantic hollow sucking sounds are replaced by the gurgling squelch of the teeth settling back into place. A cheap, but effective trick of a clever vampire; bewitching false teeth to do its dirty work.


Well that's all folks. I actually didn't have any extended descriptions or echoes for the interrogation room, but they just seemed to pop up when I was typing in the description. I just kind of pulled out sections of the descriptions and put them into the extended descriptions and then added more to the description. The entire room was based off the of the word "wretch", which I read in Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen. The wife was described as a "wretch", which made me think of "retch" and then "retching" and then you can deduce how I got the room from there.

For the vampire room I was listening to the Lion King's Cirle of Life and heard them say "Sapphire sky". The room was inspired by the word sapphire. This is how my thought process went as I was driving home from Thanksgiving dinner at my Uncle Jimmy's: Sapphire=red=blood=vampires. Well, I wrote the room and then thought about it and realized that sapphires are blue. I was disappointed to say the least. So, I used "ruby" instead since they are definitely red. I didn't want the whole room to be scrapped just because my inspiration wasn't really a "true" inspiration. I guess it was an inspiration, but it wasn't right, if you get what I mean.

Anywho, I hope you enjoyed these rooms. I enjoy writing these so much because my usual writing style is so light and fluffy--Princess Diaries style. It's nice to have a darker side of my writing. I guess it makes me feel like a 'round' writer

Quotationary: Friendship

"It is the friends you can call up at 4 a.m. that matter." ~Marlene Dietrich

I put this in the Christmas card that I'm giving Juni. This definitely doesn't define a friend, but it's so true. I can't wait to get down to LA to see her. I fly out tomorrow at 11am and come back Sunday. Of course that means that I don't get to see Edward until Monday, as he comes in tonight to Sacramento, but you have to give and take I guess. I haven't seen Juni since graduation! I can't wait! Not to mention that I can go visit Mike, Osama, April and Phil too. Lizzy said that she's busy all day tomorrow so I guess I won't be able to meet up with her this time. Aww, Melville buddy, it'll be okay.

Quote is compliments of The Quote Garden http://www.quotegarden.com/best-friends.html

Karaoke with Melanie and Shanna

For Melanie's birthday we went out to a little bar with karaoke. Here are the pictures from it. Most of the people I didn't really know, so I'm not going to post them since I don't know if I have all their names straight.

Melanie and Kevin, her fiance.

Me and Melanie
Shanna and Me with Ryan popping in the back. This guy is like freakin' 6"7'...a giant.

Shanna and Kevin singing a song that I can't remember. Sheryl Crow and what's his face. Oh, Chris Rock. I can't remember the name of the song.
The high school trio goofing around as usual.
Serious masks for this picture. From left: Shanna, me and Melanie
Shanna and I sang Goodbye Earl by the Dixie Chicks. It was the only song that we both knew. Hehe.