Yes dear?

Today's topic: pet names. How many are with me here, either 1) you hate pet names in general, or 2) you, like me, have noticed that the usage of pet names is coming from a younger and younger generation. I can't tell you how many times, but only recently, I have been in a conversation with a friend, usually younger than me or close to my age who, out of the blue, says something like, "Oh, well I'm sorry hun!"; or ends a letter with "Love you sweetie pie!".


And I am left wondering.."Didn't we used to play in a tree fort, make our brothers lives miserable, have tea parties and groan over 2nd grade homework together? I still consider myself young, since when do you have the dentures neccesary to justify phrases like 'honey', 'sweetie-pie' and 'precious'?"

Let me emphasize. Do NOT refer to me as hun, honey, sweetheart, sweetiepie, precious, etc...UNLESS:

1) You are my grandparent. That's their job. This only excuses 4 people though.

2) You are old enough to remember the 70's show in real life.

3) You are dating me, AND taking me out to eat at least weekly.

4) I, for some reason, become mentally incompetant and no longer care. Physical inabilities do not count. If I lose a leg but am still mentally sound and my sister calls me hun, I will run her down with my wheelchair.

5) You have at any past time had to put up with my shenadigans while babysitting me. If you were ever one of the poor souls who endured my obcession with tormenting anyone my mom bribed into being in authority over me for a few hours, you deserve to make my life a little irritating and lie and call me sweetheart.

6) I am facing a real tragedy and you are being truly sympathetic, in which case a large amount of chocolate must also be supplied.

7) You are awarding me a good sum of money that I have in no way earned. In this case all pet names and unneccesary congratulatory endearments will be temporarily overlooked.

8) You have excellent medical insurance and don't mind spending a few hours in the dentist chair.

9) You have honstly mistook me for someone under the age of 10. This excuse can only be used once.

10) Your last name is Tatum and your first name is Channing and you're trying to teach me how to dance.

11) You are over 7 feet tall. In this case I have no arguments with you; please just concentrate on not stepping on me.

12) You mistook me for the largest honey jar in existence. However, you had BETTER be over the age of 85 and/or be accompanied by someone in a white coat.

13) You are trying to piss me off..in which case, prepare to have all your belongings and your pet armadillo posted for sale on craig's list.

14) OR, if you are my mother. She can call me whatever she wants, just don't call me late for dinner.

Updated dorm tomb..er. Room.

So I guess the last dorm room you remember is the cruddy one you and Thomas moved me into, right mom? Well, sometime around Thanksgiving I upgraded, but today is really the first day it feels like more than just a space to put my stuff. Today, everything in my room has a place. And there is room for more than just the bare neccesities. There's just enough creativity put into this tiny place, that it feels just a bit like home. What a satisfying feeling.

The beginnings of the poorly instructionalized, overpriced, boringly colored shelf. White was chosen because it's the easiest color to paint over at a later date. Ha ha. Thankfully the hatchet you see pictured was not neccesary, but at this point I still wasn't sure whether the end result would be a bookcase or a bonfire.

About here the hope began to dawn. All the contents of my dorm floor were shoved against the wall and it was still a very tight squeeze. You may have doubted my intelligence after reading the toilet paper post, but this one should give you hope again. I did indeed put this entire beast together by myself. With minimal reference to the destructions.

Here you can see I did eventually have victory. Those bins that fit the spaces hold clothes excellently and I no longer have to shove them in my closet. My ceramics/dishes collection is visible in the upper right, with plenty of room to be expanded. Working three shifts a week is growing it rapidly. What's really nice is that now I have space to have more than the bare neccesities in my room, without making it look crowded. The two canisters on top are ceramic also, one holds my tea collection (which you are welcome to contribute to mom!) and the smaller one holds sweeteners, honey packets and juice drinks. All my textbooks are in the upper left and my coffee has its own shelf right below them. Ha ha.

It felt soooo good to have everything organized again. Dad, I've been holding out on your for pictures of my room for a long time, but it's finally clean today so I felt motivated to take pictures.

This is the view from the door. Slightly unmade bed, and coffee maker strategically within reach. =)

Here's the view from being backed up between the bathroom door and the coffee maker. I'm currently sitting were you see facebook opened here. Haha. The green pencil can you see to the left of my laptop is also a creation of the ceramics lab..Oh, and that's a snowflake stuck to the side of my desk.

Here's looking back at the door from the edge of my bed. I guess you kinda get the perspective now. My keys always hang from my door handle or I'm nearly guarenteed to walk out the self locking door without them. What a pain. Also, shoeboxes are my best friend. What's in my closet is only a small part of the collection. Of course, my walls are covered in stuff. Habits are hard to break, ha ha. Not too bad though huh mom? Much better than the old one...this is kinda a boring post but I've been bugged for these pictures for months. And I like sitting at a clean desk. And I ran out of things to do on Facebook.

Summary of the week.

Started out the week with an afternoon drive to Cooper Landing for lunch at a burger place. Very cute little spot. And amazing chili nachos.
Beautiful day for a drive.

Perhaps my biggest accomplishment for the week was literally a third of my weight...in carrot cake.

Yes. There are indeed more carrots on top of the cake than in the cake itself.

The rest of the week consisted of, obviously, forgetting my camera at opportune picture moments.