BLAH!

Wanted to do a photo post but it figures that I just recently happen to lose my cam cords. So in a few months, you just might see what happened last week. Great....

Anywho...much has happened. CSI is on or else I would post more...a lot of wonderful things! (Besides the car...looks like I'm going to have to fight to get it repaired....glorious!)

And then it hit me...

So, St. Patricks Day started off pleasantly. I wore my bright green RL turtleneck to work to fit in with everyone else and went through the day normally.

I didn't have my reading class that day, so after helping out with a Shamrock project, I decided to take my lunch break early.

That day, of all days, I had forgotten to pack a lunch. I was also about 15 minutes early for lunch. Luckily, or so I figured, I was close enough to the grocery store to stop in and grab something on the run.

I drive to the grocery store, and I see there are parking spaces out front. However, the parking spaces are close the Main Street, right off of Main St. in fact, so I decide to swing around the to the side of the building so I could leave easier.

I make my right turn and slow the car to a stop. There is a big truck parked so that I have to figure how I can maneuver my way around to park along side. All the spaces are slanted so that I am facing the back end of this truck No, I didn't even glance at the spots before the truck, I wanted to go around the truck and park there.

All of a sudden, the lights turn on, on the truck and the reverse lights fly on. I heard the rev of an engine as the truck reversed (at least 10mph). The next thing I hear is "CRAK!" as the truck slams into me.

For those two seconds, it was like my body went into shock. I heard myself say "Uhhh" just as I reached for the gear shifter to put the car in reverse. I wasn't fast enough. And then, as the truck impacted, my head flew back against the headrest twice.

The truck and I pull over to the parking spots along side of one another. He handed me his car insurance car, his drivers license and I write that info down along with his license plate number. All the while I'm doing this, the man is apologizing, saying he couldn't see me (which is true, he had a huge construction vehicle that blocked his vision out the back window). The guy is also thanking me for not flipping out, for acting calm instead (was I calm? I remember my hands shaking uncontrollably and my eyes watering). I look at the damage done to my car and wince. I ask if anything was done to his truck, although I know, from looking at the steel bars hanging off of the back, that it was only Blue Thunder in pain. He is very nice to me, trying to move me to sit in my car as I write the information down (it was VERY windy and VERY cold out). I notice he has a biblical man on his license plate and I comment on it. I try opening the hood of my car and am unable to because of the dent. We say goodbye and get into our car/truck.

I left the grocery store, went to the Post Office and remembered that I still needed lunch. I drove back, ever so cautiously, to the grocery store and sat in my car and ate.

I call work to let them know I will be a little late and then head over there.

As soon as I'm inside work, I have lunch duty and I start feeling the twinges of a nasty headache. I see Shane, let him know what happened and he goes out to the parking lot to check it out.

I go to class, and feel myself starting to zone out. I'm still in shock, still shaking and feel my breathing becoming more and more labored. I knew that I was on the verge of an anxiety attack and my inhaler's whereabouts are unknown. I focus myself, take smaller breaths and calm down.

I find myself explaining the situation to a few coworkers after being asked "is something wrong?" repeatedly. Work is done, I stay on hour late as to avoid getting in my car.

Shane drives me home and I go to bed.

Now, I have a beast of a back and headache and my stomach is in knots. I'm thankful that I am not at fault, but upset that I will have to get my car fixed and charge the man's insurance company. I feel bad, wishing that the damage was a mere scratch so I could only laugh it off and tell the man not to worry.

Ciao.

First New Purchase

So, Shane and I had a lot of time over Spring Break (last week of February), and I know I'm late updating on everything else, so I will just briefly mention the news...

We bought a few important peices over Spring Break, and I only have pictures of one of them on the computer....

So, here's the newest addition.

This is what our bedroom looked like when I sad against the bed headboard and looked straight:

(Please, take notice of the incredibly GORGEOUS :barf: FUSHIA walls....oh and I guess you can see part of our newer acquisitions...the desk on the right).

Now, for the AFTER:

Yes, we upgraded from a 13inch television to a 32incher. It's rather obnoxious in size, at first. But it makes our viewing much more pleasurable. It's an RCA tv, on sale at Circuit City for $249 and it is awesome. The funny thing is, Shane is doing the same thing in both pictures, playing XBOX. (And I spy another new acquisition, the white bureau on the left.)

Our room has changed a whole bunch, there are still a couple more things not pictured, but when I get around to it, I will post more pictures.

Onto some seemingly (actually, really) worthless shots:

This is what happens to old, crappily plaster walls when your doorknob (is that how it's spelled?) taps against it. Yes, this was merely a tap. No temper caused this.

So, it only took about six months, but I figured out my black and white. This is my cat, Akila (whom everyone calls Tequila, because it rhymes). I have too many pictures of her.

Ciao.

New House

Okay, I don't want to get too optimistic about anything....however, my mom was approved for a loan through some crazy (not really) company. Thank God!

We've started looking at homes, in fact, we were shown one today. It was all right, but three bedrooms, two of which were small. Not to mention there was no fenced yard, so if we wanted dogs (which we do, of course).

But we drove by this house (my links aren't working for some reason so bear with my non-savvy way of linking) http://www.masiello.com/search_profile.cfm?propertyid=a6683d61-f12d-4c32-b660-21a1fa9c8344&thiswindow=1&propNo=14# It's pretty awesome. If this link doesn't work for you, just search Charlestown in the box provided on masiello.com and it's listing number 253803. A big light blue house. Anyhow, as soon as I saw it, I fell in love. It doesn't look like much, but it has incredible potential. A new paint job, if the asbestos siding provides, huge evergreens along the side to shelter the trailer park immediately adjacent (cleverly hidden in the picture). We walked around, peered into the windows, it's soooo charming. The kitchen needs updating, the backyard could use a bit of landscaping but it's PERFECT. Just the right amount of bedrooms and the price makes me smile. :D I'm so worried that I'm getting my hopes up, that we will make the offer on the house and someone will come up and snap it out of our fingers. So I'm trying not to get caught up, but it's so hard. It's a HUGE house, there is an added addition in the back....oh look at me blab too much.

Anyhow, we need a house, and this one's location and price is ideal. I would love for Sarah to go to the primary school we work at, the teachers are wonderful and it will make our schedules easier. We'd save money on gas and on daycare and save time being annoyed at our landlady.

Okay, Whitney needs to shut up...now.

Ciao.

FAFSA

Has anyone filled out the FAFSA? (My blogger linking isn't working in posts, but the link is in the title.) This is driving me NUTS!

blah blah blah blah blah

Ciao.

My Career

When I was a little kid, my mom brought out the video camera all the time. One clip of me particularly sticks out in my mind. I'm about four years old in this clip, running around the backyard of our home, being a geek. My mom shoves the camera in my face and asks. "What do you want to be when you grow up Whitters?" My answer? "I wanna be a mommy".

Now, times have changed since then. When I was in elementary school, I found out that I could not live off of being a mommy alone, I would need a real job. At the time, I loved animals, almost obsessively. We had two dogs, Einstein and Willy, and they were awesome. We had a cat, Rembrandt, who was...not so awesome (fat, lazy and mean). Still, I loved animals, so my logical assumption was that I would be a vet when I grew up.

Again, it changed once I was about in middle school. In seventh grade, my then best friend Amber and I wanted to start singing, professionally. This was around the time that major boy "bands" were ruling the music scene in America, and we thought, we want a piece of that. We asked my cousin Nikki to join us, and we made our first demo as a band named "Dream". Just as we were notarizing our lyrics, and making duplicates of our demo tape, a girl "band" came on the radio. What was their catchy name? Yeah, it was Dream. We decided to do a whole new approach, and try something unique with our name. Adding my cousin Crystal to the group, I took the first and last initials of everyone's name and came up with Candi Wac. Weird, I know. In hindsight, I realize we were wasting our time. Nonetheless, we made a demo tape, re-notarized everything, and finally sent out copies to multiple record companies. I spent that summer, waiting nervously, to see if we would even get a note back. It made sense for me to go into music, my grandmother had an amazing voice, my mother did, and mine wasn't so shabby. Two months passed, we didn't hear from anyone. I'd left all the correspondence up to Amber, so I waited for her to get an email, phone call, letter. In September of that year, just as mine and Amber's friendship was falling apart (over something completely unrelated), we got what we were waiting for. Fontaine Music Management contacted us. They were very interested in our look (a blonde, a brunette and a Laotian) and in our sound. They wanted us to see them in L.A. Long story short- Amber grew to hate me and in what followed, in actions between Sona and I and her and her friends, I was almost expelled. We never went to L.A., my friendship with my cousin Nikki fell apart, and I just left all of the singing business alone.

Going into tenth grade, I joined the high school's Mock Trial team. In short, we competed against other schools across the state using one case that we had affidavits from (affidavits from the victims, accused, witnesses, etc). The first year, I was the defendant and three of my peers were my lawyers. The next year, my junior year, I was a lawyer (the harder job). I loved it, the way I could stand up and yell "Objection!" when cross-examination wasn't going well. I loved the rush I had, when my mind would go over details at last minute and I could use them in a closing argument. I loved everything. But, alas, I knew that I wouldn't be happy forever. I talked to countless lawyers throughout the Mock Trial run, and they all talked about having to spend a lot of time away from family, working long, hard hours...it didn't sound appealing to me. I loved law, but not enough to do it my entire life.

I started to take a lot of random classes at this point in high school. I was in Mythology, Shakespeare, Public Speaking, Business, Health. I didn't know what to do with myself. These classes didn't necessarily inspire me. I did very well in the first three, and was told by a teacher that I should go into diplomacy for my interest in politics. I decided that I wanted to be a teacher. There was no real reason for it, just that I figured that's what's left for me, I guess I'll go with it.

So, I started to actually sincerely pursue what I thought I would be. I got a job at an elementary school. I love my job, I don't regret one minute of it. But, I finally came to the realization that I wouldn't be happy choosing one career after the next if I didn't think about it thoroughly. Yes, I love the kids at the school. Yes, each day is different than the one before. But would I be happy? No. Sure, it's a great job for now, but I can't see myself doing it for years to come. Fortunately for me, doing this job, I actually realized what I want to study in college.

Psychology. Weird, but being around children constantly, you learn more than you seem to teach. At least, that's what I think. I didn't want to just teach kids how to count to ten, or in high school, what was important about World War II. I wanted to help them. In the job I have, you run across people who need help. Desperately. All my life, it seems as if I've tried to help someone who has gone through something traumatic, or something that destroyed their life. I am fascinated on how the mind works in each individual, and how certain events in one's life dictate how they will react to changes, be it, a new job, a new relationship, whatever. Moreover, I want to find ways to help them adapt to these changes, and help heal the past. As someone who was once in therapy, I realize the benefits of talking through your demons, getting over your past and planning your future. I love knowing that each person is different, and that I will have to change my focus with each new person I meet. No one will react to an incident, say, in an extreme case, rape, as the next person. I love that I will be helping someone as well as learning things myself. It's not psychiatry. I haven't wanted to be in the position to hand out medication like candy like a psychiatrist typically does, so that's why psychology, where I can study the effectiveness of different treatments, works for me. So, this fall, I am enrolling in University of Maryland-University College. No, I didn't add too many Universities in there, that's what it really is. It has a great Psychology program and if I take a full load, I can work on my degree fall, spring and summer no matter where I am. If I want a vacation away from Vermont, all I need is my computer.

So, this post was just about how I've come about to wanting to study Psychology. I know, I probably didn't need the humungo intro, but this is my blog, and you don't have to read it if you don't want to. :D

And if you want something to do, you could check out Shane's Blog because he actually posted something.

Ciao.

Mercury

Well, Tuesday was an interesting day for work. Then again, what day isn't?

Someone* at Charlestown Junior High dropped a blood pressure device. It broke, and out came a bit of mercury. It slid from the table to the floor. It wasn't more than a quarter-size but it caused the entire school (grades five through eight) to evacuate. We're a block away from the school, so naturally, the kids came to our school.

Now, right now my school is undergoing some work. There is a humungo extension being added to the south end and a larger all-purpose room (HUGE!) being added on the west side. The entensions aren't finished, won't be for a while, but they're going up so we have the room for fifth grades.

Anyhow, not to get into details, the kids were trapped in our building until school ended three hours later. Luckily, I only had to endure the headache for 2 hours as I left school earlier, but it was all a bit ridiculous all around.

I love my job, but admittedly, there are some things that stress me out.

This past week flew by, but still, I managed to escape fatigued. The first thing I did when I arrived home was grab a book and jump in a steamy bath tub. It felt good, and I actually got to use the bath salts I recieved for my birthday back in October.

Why is it I forget to indulge in such little, easy pleasures such as a steamy bath? I've been a reading machine lately, but a bath just makes the entire thing that much better. Blah, surely my blog has not come to me praising baths, has it?

Speaking of which, I am lacking sooo much motivation to post. I have interesting things to say, but I choose not to because a lot of them revolve around work, and I signed a Confidentiality contract, not to mention I don't feel like discussing personal bits. I need people, new people to hang out with, but I'm a social groundhog. I don't try to change it either, which makes my whining dumb.

Something very interesting...it looks as though Shane and I will be bringing a case to the Keene Chamber of Commerce and the Better Business Bureau. A certain company was paid a GREAT deal for flowers (they were for Valentines, from Shane to me...my favorite ones!), and they never delivered them. It wouldn't be a huge deal except for the fact that my favorite flowers, which are out of season, cost an arm and a leg. They charged Shane's debit card, but never delievered and have ignored the 6 messages left since then, and whenever we've called, they have hung up on us(Oops..I mean, accidently disconnected). They don't have their address listed anywhere! Only their phone number, so we're in a pickle. Shane paid too much money to have it thrown away...they never once called to say the flowers wouldn't arrive or refunded our money. I've contacted several people asking how I go about filing a complaint, so we'll see what happens. Arg...this whole business is riling me right up.

I'm fixin to eat now, so bye. Or, rather,

Ciao.


*Name has been left out