This is Texas.

Awhile back, I went to South Carolina for the visiting of family and the attending of a wedding. We flew, and I had fun photographing the nifty strange circular fields. What gives? do crops grow better when planted in circles instead of squares? Wouldn't it be easier to do straight lines? How in the world did they get these fields so perfectly shaped? I think it must be aliens. As you can see, I'm having trouble with getting the font the right size. Give me some time. I'll figure it out.

Whoa. I mean, Whoa.

Ok, Mozilla Firefox rawks my socks. I had no idea the buttons I was missing out on. Like colors! And fonts! And just everything. I saw the thing advertising the Blogger photo capability, and tried to figure it out, but to my dismay, explorer on Macs doesn't do the whole buttons thing. So I finally broke down and got firefox. I think I've turned over a new page in my life. AND THIS PAGE HAS BUTTONS. AND STUFF.

I think I love you, Firefox.

Fear not, though. I'll try to keep my posts less frighteningly colorful and strangely sized. I'm just very excited. As you can see.

Look how smart

Your IQ Is 115

Your Logical Intelligence is Exceptional Your Verbal Intelligence is Genius Your Mathematical Intelligence is Above Average Your General Knowledge is Above Average

A Quick and Dirty IQ Test

Hope that turns out looking like a thing, and not like a whole bunch of computer babble. Cause that'd make me look less smart.

Where do dentists go to gas up their cars?

The filling station, dummy!*

So I got two fillings this morning. I'm really glad that we found this dentist, because he's just great. And his staff are just great. And they don't hurt you. And if they do hurt you, they make you tell them so they can fix it and not hurt you anymore. And they give you a cd player to listen to so you don't hear the whine of the drill as much. But today I brought my iPod, so I just borrowed the headphones from their cd player.

I chose to listen to the Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots album by the Flaming Lips, cause it's mostly soothing to me. But during Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots pt. 2, I realized how ironic and funny my choice of music was: there I was, with people grinding away chunks of my teeth, while chaos and unrestrained screaming ensued in my iPod. I had it turned up loud, but I was afraid the dentist might hear it and take it as some sort of commentary on his work, so I skipped ahead to the next song.

*taken from the crappy Kids' Meal toys that we have at work right now. No joke. Except it IS a joke. Never mind.

Huwway fow Wodney Wabbit

I've got this coworker. He's a moron. And he's lazy and less than agreeable. I don't expect him to last long here at the prestigious fast food castle. But he is a fairly interesting person. Interesting in that he's stupid, but doesn't know how stupid he really is. And it's fun to watch him get angry or confused by the regular goings-on of the store. He's actually probably like average intelligence. But he acts dumb. And tries to pretend he's all black and ghetto. But he's not. Anyway, today I was watching him, just for the sheer entertainment of it, and he looked at me, and I decided I'd better say something so he doesn't think I like him or anything, cause I don't. So I stated what I was thinking about him: "Oscar Wilde once said that there are only two kinds of people, and they aren't good and bad. People are either charming or tedious." I've come to realize that that's a pretty astute observation. Anyway, I said that, and he looked at me for a minute, and then got kind of upset, asking in violent terms which I thought HE was- charming or tedious?

Let me ask you: would I start a conversation with ANYONE with the sole intention of telling them that they're tedious? His reaction was not what I expected it to be. Perhaps he's even dumber than I thought he was, or perhaps he just doesn't know me well enough to get that what I was trying to say was that he's charming. I decided not to tell him which he was, because it's more fun to watch him try to work it out on his own.

OK, so...

I don't really have anything much to say, except yes, I'm still feeling swoony about previously mentioned young man. Also, I remember why I quit my job before. Because working sucks. You have to, like, wake up in the morning at the same time. And take a shower, and eat breakfast. And then you have to stand up all day and be nice to people you don't care about and will never see again. And you have to be nice to them FAST, because heaven forbid I greet a customer 6 seconds after they drive up instead of 5. Really. You're evaluated on what percent of customers you greet within five seconds of their arriving at the drive through. Come on- when you go through a drive through at fast food, do you generally even have your window down in five seconds, much less know what you're going to order? Sheesh. I think I'm glad that I'm only back for a couple of months. And it's not like last time, when I said I was gone for good and then I came back three months later. This time, after I quit, I can't possibly come back. The commute would be like, three days each way. And that thought makes me so happy I could scream.

WHAT?

I'm watching the Greatest American show right now. I'd like to know: how did Hugh Hefner, Brett Favre, and Dr Phil get put in front of Lyndon Johnson?

Oh, and hey, on that Crestor commercial that they're playing every five minutes, is that Mandy Patinkin?

*Sigh* (but a happy sigh, not a depressed one like usual)

Okay, so I know I'm being a little girly and swoony, but, you know. I met this guy. Well, really, I met him a few months ago, but I never really got to know him very well. Last night a bunch of us from church went on a night hike. We left a little before sunset, with about thirty of us walking along the wide-paved road/trail thing. By the time it was dark, only about ten of us were still going- people aren't terribly into hiking, I guess. But us few hardcore hikers had a fun time. After a while, five people wanted to keep going the 3/4 of a mile to the end, but three others wanted to go back. I wanted to keep going, but as one of the three was my roommate and ride for the evening, I decided to go back with them. So the four of us, my roommate and I and two guys, walked along for a while, making small talk in the almost-pitch-black. After a little bit, I don't know if me and my companion were speedy, or if my roommate and her companion dropped behind, but we were suddenly paired off. Which was okay. I always get nervous trying to talk to more than one person at a time anyway. So we had a very interesting conversation for the three miles back to the parking lot. We got to know each other better, our disparate personal histories (VERY disparate), thoughts and feelings on various subjects, etc. It was really nice, and the setting was so pleasant- dark canyon, crickets chirping, frogs making sheep-noises, a cool breeze, and towards the end, we got out of the canyon and could see the city lights. Very nice. But this guy. He is one of the sweetest people I've ever met. Really very sweet, and thoughtful (as in, he thinks. Not like, he held the door open for me. Not that he wouldn't hold the door open. I'm sure he's thoughtful in that way, too. He just seems like the kind of guy that could probably solve all of the world's problems if you gave him some time). He's cute, too. Well, at least I think he's cute. He's not Brad Pitt, or any kind of mainstream good-looking type of face. But he has a kind face, and friendly and gentle expressions. And I fear I'm being too swoony and babbling a little. I just wanted to get that out in the open so that everyone can mock me. Feel free to mock me in person, over IM, or on the phone. I want to talk to an actual person in real time about this. It's still not off my chest.

Oh, people... people...

I am weak with mirth. Seriously. I don't know if it's because the list is funny, or simply because I'm tired. Really, though, I'm not all that tired. Here's the list: Pickup Lines: The FIrst Drafts. Ah, such hilarity. Such poetry. Alright, probably not, but it's good for a chuckle, or if you're weak like me, a good stifled guffaw. Do stifle it, though, because guffaws are singularly unenjoyable by anyone but the speaker.

In other news, I'm still in my new apartment, and I haven't run crying to my parents. Okay, I DID go to their house yesterday, but that was only to make salsa, because we don't have a food processor. And to get them to buy me dinner. Cause I'm saving up my money for, you know, rent. I'm feeling happy about my situation, my roommates, etc. We're even going hiking tomorrow night with a bunch of people. It will be fun, as long as no fearsome predators lurk out of the foothills and eat us.

The Exciting News

I'm writing this from my new apartment. That's right, I no longer live with my parents, and I finally have the chance to share a tiny room with someone, use a shower that has sub-par water pressure, and not be able to run inside for fear of disturbing the downstairs neighbors! Wow. When you put it that way, it seems like kind of a stupid move. Especially when you consider that I have to pay to live here. But no, it's cool. We're talking about utilities right now. Woo-hoo! Water and electricity and cable, oh my! So. I'm getting my introduction to roommate politics tonight, as one roommate is here, and the other is out. I fear that I won't be very good at it. What if I say the wrong thing? I could be snubbed forever! Fortunately, I'm only here for three months, till I go to far and away places for school in the fall. Great. Only I could pick the three least comfortable months of the year to change my housing from place-I-live-in-for-free-and-get-great-air-conditioning-and-water-pressure to place-I-have-to-pay-for-crappy-water-pressure-and-air. Hopefully the excellent social life will make up for it. Sigh. It's like every half hour I swing from "I'm so excited to be away from my parents and living on my own with cool people" to "I can't believe I just traded in my free and easy life of sitting around in a big ol' empty house watching tv all day and living with people I'm comfortable with." Right now I'm feeling like I want to cry and run home, but just watch- in a little while, I'll be basking in the glory of living away from my parents.

I am going to have to raid my parents' house tomorrow, though- for advil, sunflower seeds, a trash can and a fan.