Modern Fairy Tales

Life is moving so fast! I have until January 9 to get my financial aid settled, register for the rest of my classes, get my life in Tampa wrapped up, move, and start classes.

In a stroke of good luck, I found out that I can transfer to the new Master's of Education in the summer semester and finish up a graduate degree in the same time it would have taken me to get my certificate. All I have to do is take the GRE and pass to get into the program!

I got into UNO's graduate teacher certificate program!

My mommy told me I had some fans out there, so I thought I'd post some pics and a little about me.

Here are the basics: I was saved from my original humans when they decided they had too many kittens. They started killing my brothers and sisters, but fortunately me and a few of my litter survived when someone found out and stepped in. I was fostered for a while, then one day I came home with Momma Wendy and joined her forever family.

I enjoy sneaking out of the house and eating canned mushrooms. I don't get along with Kitty very much- she's a real bitch. But, I love my mom, and I've started standing up for myself. No one is pushing Serious Black around any more!

I sleep with Mommy and spend as much time with her as I can. I love people and have tons of friends. I worry when I can't find my mommy or when I'm lonely. My favorite time of the day is really at night, when I can sleep at my mom's side. Or, maybe it's the morning when I get fed. Or, in the afternoon when I get wet food. It's hard to decide.

Here are two pics my mom and I took earlier tonight. I'm a Super Serious Goth Superstar!








Sorry if they're sideways.

I'm sending in an application for an apartment tomorrow.

http://www.liveatesplanade.com

$850 a month for gated parking, a pool, a partial view of a cemetery more than 200 years old, 24 hour concierge and maintenance service, access to a fitness room, sauna, movie theatre, lounge, hair salon, convenience store, and a game room. Plus, utilities are included. If I'd found an apartment for $600 without utilities, I would have paid all that much without all the bells and whistles. Plus, Moira and Josiah are going to be a few floors away.

As long as my application is accepted, that's where I'll be living at the beginning of the new year! I just have to make sure I find a job/ money to pay for it.

Yay for going for my dreams (even if it is a little scary).

My hoarding caught up to me today. I got home at 6 a.m. from a DnD campaign, and at 9 a.m. my landlady called me to tell me an appraiser was going to come at noon. (I think I have an annoying "wrong number" angel that calls at random times when something like this is going to happen. I got a call a few minutes before, where someone informed "Taylor" U2 was on some TV show. Because I was already awake, I actually listened to the voicemail my landlady left instead of turning the volume off my phone and going to sleep.)

I cleaned up my kitchen, got some of the clutter out of the way, changed the litter, and had little else I could do. My landlady came home, and I asked if we could reschedule, since she didn't give me 24 hours notice before coming into my apartment, which is stated on the lease. She said no, because she wants to get out of Florida, and if I'm leaving in January she needs to have the appraisal done now.

He came in and there was stuff everywhere. My landlady wasn't happy. He looked around and left. Then, my landlady told me I needed to deep clean the apartment before I left, which is fine. That's what I was planning.

I'm just glad she didn't come tomorrow, when I'll be on the road to New Orleans. The kitchen was a wreck with tons of dirty dishes as of this morning, and I probably wouldn't have done them before I left. I had old pizza boxes in a corner and somebody peed on one of my blankets that fell on the floor, probably because they were mad I made them stay inside then stayed out late last night. Even though I told her I'd be out of town tomorrow, it would have looked really bad to have two cats alone in a house that had a dirty litter box, dirty dishes, pizza boxes, and a pee blanket on the floor. Instead, it was just a bunch of my stuff everywhere, and a box that broke open and spilled dishes and glasses all over the floor just before they came in.

Sigh.

I just scheduled a phone interview for Teach for America. That means I got past the application stage!

In my application, I listed New Orleans as my top region to be placed. Many of the schools in the area hire from Teach for America first.

The way my "move to New Orleans" process has been going in the past few days, I'm glad I was smart and had a backup.

So, I found out that in order to have my cats at student housing at UNO I'll have to pay about $1,000 a month on an efficiency. So, it's back to looking for apartments. I'm also hoping this week to have my transcripts ready to send to UNO, and next week I'm traveling to New Orleans to take my teacher subject placement tests!!!!!

I.e. I will make the best of things and come out of today as the plucky young heroine.

At the large, corporately run theme park's scare event I work at, we have the worst stage manager ever. She's rude to us, she's drunk on power, she lies to us and management, and she's all around not a nice person. And, last night, she wrote me up for being rude and offensive.

Apparently, blowing kisses at friends across a crowded cafeteria is offensive.

Hugging friends is offensive.

Telling a coworker that something they said about a guest hurt your feelings because you're bisexual and knew it from a very young age is offensive.

Saying Joey Lauren Adams was one of the reasons you knew you were gay at a very young age (because the movie Chasing Amy was playing in the background) is offensive. (And, for anyone who isn't familiar with the movie, their are tons of gay characters talking explicitly about sex and all sort of actual sexual scenes throughout the whole thing.)

Apparently, I was also flirting with her and another coworker and that made them uncomfortable. (Neither of them are my type, to say the least.)

This was right after I told her manager about how we were given an hour and a half shift to work. (Policy states we work a half hour and get a half hour off, because our jobs are physically demanding. It's a lot like how they work stage shows at theme parks.) The stage manager lied and told him we were on break, then she lied to us when he chewed her out about the incident and said she pleaded to get us a break and after she fought for us he finally gave in.

It's clear she's a liar and unstable. I'm glad I only have to worry about dealing with her one more day, but I'm upset she's managed to ruin the best job I've ever had (for 6 years) and kill the love I have for the event and the company. I hope I can let it go in time and learn to love it again.

I'm slowly keeping things moving in regards to New Orleans. I've submitted my Teach for America app (for last resort plans), and I'm going to pay my registration fee for the University of New Orleans today.

My friend Moira (or as I will now refer to her, my NO minion) has been sent Craigslist links to my dream apartments and some more realistic apartments around the city, so hopefully I'll be able to get that stuff together.

On November 14, I will be in New Orleans with my mom and stepdad to take my PRAXIS tests for subject placement and assessment.

I sent out my transcript requests, but they have not arrived yet. I'm going to be following up next week.

I need to fill out my FAFSA, so I will have money.

That's about it. I'm going to start inventorying all my stuff, so when I move I'll be able to pare down to the essentials.

I'm past the halfway point for Howl O Scream. A big part of me is relieved, but getting closer to the end of HoS means I'm also closer to the moment I have to make my future happen.

Two weeks after HoS, I'm going to be traveling to New Orleans to take my Praxis test. I have to get my financial aid stuff in line, make sure I pay my UNO registration fee, get my transcripts from USF, and sign up for an advising session from the UNO.

I also have to prepare for a fast move to New Orleans and figure out how I'm going to pay for the move the first week or two, because I'm hoping I'll get financial aid, at least for the first semester.

I'm also hoping I'll have a substitute or some other job to support myself with while I'm going to school.

Of course, there's a good chance UNO won't pan out. So, while I'm doing all that, I'll also be working towards applying/ qualifying for a teacher's certificate in Florida, and if I don't receive my entrance into New Orleans society, I will be quitting my job in January and getting a job as a sub until I can convince someone to hire me as a teacher.

Fun times.

I just got an email thanking me for applying at UNO. I just requested transcripts from three of the four colleges I attended.

The last transcript is the scary one. For a long time, I haven't been able to pay my loans. So, they started to go into default. When I went to talk to the financial aid officer, he was 1. rude, and 2. said I would have to pay almost $600 to clear up my account and get my transcripts from USF.

I have part of the money, and my deadline is Friday. I'm not going to have all of the money by then. My stepfather said he would help me out, but when I picked up the check he said I couldn't deposit it until Friday...

I would take part of Friday off to settle things, but it won't make a difference, because the $500 will be on hold.

To confuse things more, I talked to a rep from a group that does loan consolidations with the Dep't of Education. He said that the fin. aid officer won't be able to take my transcripts off of hold, because the loans had already been sent to a collection agency. I filled out paperwork through his corporation to clear things up, but that could take somewhere between 30- 45 days.

I am very, very, very, very, very, very, very stressed out. Everything is up in the air, and it all has to do with my important school and financial aid stuff. I can't handle this job for another year, let alone the three months that will get me into January.

The only thing I can do is wait and try to fill in all the gaps around my application and hope the loan thing gets cleared up as soon as possible, that it doesn't affect my FAFSA, and that I get into the UNO with scholarships. Then, I just have to figure out how I'm going to afford an apartment up there.

-Edit-

I logged into my new online UNO account and found out the materials I'm worried about don't have to be in by January! That's a big relief!

So, the University of New Orleans has a teaching certificate program where, if I was to attend classes over the summer, I could start teaching in the fall. From what I've seen on their site, it's selective. I would have to find a way to support myself over the summer while I was taking classes. But, if I get in, I would pretty much be guaranteed a good job in the fall.

I've taken the practice subject test and managed a 100 percent.

My family is going to drive me to New Orleans in November to take the test.

I'm ambitious, optimistic, and enthusiastic.

I'm feeling good about life right now. Except, I am currently fighting a sore throat. I'm hoping it won't take a turn for the serious. Pfft sore throat. Pfft.

A billion years ago, there was this perfume I loved in the bathroom of my synagogue. I didn't seem to be allergic to it, and it had a refreshing citrus scent. It was nestled amongst sanitary napkins, mouthwash, and hairspray provided for the convenience of the congregation. Then, one day, my perfume disappeared.

Yesterday, I had a migraine headache. My friend Javi told me to go to his work so he could give me super tea that would get rid of a migraine/ tension headache that was ruining my day. I went to the International Mall and picked up my tea (which worked!!!!) and decided to hunt down the perfume. I went to every department store, makeup store, and perfume store in that mall. Nothing came up. Finally, I went to Bath and Bodyworks as my last resort, not to pick up the perfume I wanted but to settle. Historically, I haven't had too many problems with B&B products.

This is where the lulz start. I told a B&B lady about the perfume and described the bottle, and she led me to the home section, where I found room sprays that looked suspiciously like my perfume. She explained the scent I was looking for was discontinued, but I could pick out another scent I liked. Embarrassed (I'd been spraying myself with room deoderizer!) I picked out a scent, then walked across the store to the body fragrance section and sprayed the spritzer of that scent on my arm. The burning! The swelling! The red, itchy skin!

I then took the room spray ($7 cheaper!) on my other arm. Nothing. I sighed and decided to buy the room spray. I'm not allergic to it. I like the smell. Who cares if it's supposed to get sprayed in my house and not on my skin? (Hopefully it won't give me cancer or mutations.)

I went home and had a productive day for once. I did load after load of laundry, caught up on the Sons of Anarchy, caught up on Glee (which is awesome!!!!), worked on revisions for my novel, cleaned a bit, and ate dinner. This morning, I put on my shirt (black for the Erev Rosh Hashannah service tonight) got everything ready to go, and got in my car. I looked down, and there were gray streaks on my shirt. (This means I must go buy a shirt to wear to the services tonight.) I got mad. I tried to open my door, not realizing it was locked. (I've had to open it from the outside for years because the inside handle is broken.) The outside handle broke off and bounced off the ground! Now I don't have inside or outside door handles on the driver or passenger side of my car! I'm going to see if I can Gorilla Glue it back in place and pray it doesn't rain while I'm driving until then.

It makes me laugh.

I think my body is trying to trick me into drinking coffee. Here's how my day has been so far:

7:40- wake up energized and ready to go
8:20ish- arrive at work
8:21- Body: Don't you want to make some coffee?
Me: No, not really. I'm up and energized. I might have some tea.
8:22- Body: Really? Are you sure you don't want some coffee?
Me: Pretty sure. I might have a coke at lunch.
9:02- Me: ZZZzzzZZZzzz

I have been doing a lot lately. I've been hanging out with friends, going out on date type things, and realizing that I like hanging out with friends a heck of a lot more than going on somewhat date type things. I might have gotten to the point where I really just don't like dating.

I read The Offspring the other day. It was about a family of cannibals that terrorizes the countryside in Maine. They even have a cannibal baby. You should check it out; it's by Jack Ketchum.

That's about it. I need to get to work on my novel revisions again.

I have a job interview tomorrow at an advertising branch for a tattoo chain in Central Florida. Wish me luck! I think I would have a lot of fun there!

The awkward boy blew me off. But, since I was at home tonight instead of out with him, a friend of mine set up a double blind date with her, her girlfriend, and one of her friends. So, there's that...

So, I think I sort of asked a very awkward guy on a date yesterday. Which will be interesting, because I am also very awkward.

I guess this means I'm putting finding a girlfriend on hold. I idealize women too much. Even when I feel awkward and shy, I can go up to a guy and at least semi take charge of the situation. With women I just stand around blushing, tongue tied. Part of it is also probably because I live in a world filled with men. I interact with very few women on a social level. Plus, there aren't that many women where you can say "Hey, let's go see Inglorious Basterds" and expect it to be some sort of date thing. Although, if she's out there, let me know.

Oh, another reason to hate my day job: the creative director of HoS even says he loves me. My regular boss only feels contempt. He has given me maybe one or two compliments in a year and a half, and with all of them, he sounded pretty darned surpised when he sent them my way.

I started working at my synagogue's religious school yesterday. It's astounding how awesome it is to work for someone who actually appreciates you. I hate my regular day job because I'm underpaid and underappreciated. But, at the religious school, on my first day my boss kissed me on the cheek (she's a woman and a friend's mom) because I worked so efficiently. I think it's going to be a great religious school year, and it just shows me even more that I need a new job, even if it's just as someone's secretary.

Tonight is Howl O Scream orientation. This is my sixth year, so that's six years of the same orientation. Wish me luck with that!

Today, I'm going to deposit the check, then I'm going to the store for a couple groceries. At some point I want to hit the gym, but I emptied out my purse at some unknown point and now I can't find my social security card. I need it tomorrow for my first day of working at the religious school. Come back to me, card!

Then, Monday is Howl O Scream orientation! I will learn to scare with care!!!

I just got a check in the mail, so I don't have to be uber stressed out about money any more. If you guys still want to buy anything, let me know. I still have too much stuff.

At least now Kitty will be pleased I won't be giving up her new favorite lounging area.