I have discovered bubbles in time. I really should come up with a better name for them, but that is the best way to describe them. Sure, people have been encountering them on Star Trek and other fun sci fi shows, but I have found real ones. 

What led to this discovery? I realized that my phone, which has an affinity for 3G, has been quite sketchy of late. How can I sure there are bubbles? Well, my bed in the hotel room is in such a bubble. Most other places in a several mile radius have provided wonderful 3G... except my bed. So, when does this bubble lead back to? All I can be sure of is that it goes back to a time before 3G was a twinkle in somebody's eye. The phone still works so it can't be too far into the past. 

I had the opportunity to attend the Scarborough Faire a week or so ago. Let me just say... I LOVE REN FESTS! Too much nerd at once? Deal with it.

Not only are Ren Fests a great place to take pictures, have fun, gorge yourself on delicious food, and dress up (if that's your thing), but there is also such a great sense of camaraderie there. You can stop someone walking down the path and strike up a conversation. The vendors are super nice, outgoing and friendly, and the ones that arent... well they're awful fun to make fun of.

So, I thought I'd share some of my pictures with y'all. If you want to see all of them, then click on any of the ones here and they will send you to my Flickr account.

You learn a lot about people when you travel with them. You get to see them at their worst. Sometimes it's eye-opening and it helps you understand that person better, but sometimes it's absolutely terrifying and you wonder how you ever actually got along with that person in the first place. I think it should be required that all couples intending to get married should be put into a car for at least a 24 hour road trip without a map or GPS. Or maybe just toss them both into a country where neither of them speak the native language.

I love to go on road trips and I love to travel. I can safely say, however, that there are few people I can travel with for long. I am also well-aware that I may not be the easiest person to put up with. I am still alive, so I can only thank those that have traveled with for not strangling me when I got on their nerves. What made me think about this? Well, I am currently on a road trip. This is definitely the longest stretch of driving I've ever experienced... 40 hours. Man alive. I am definitely happy with this trip though. Currently sitting at a Starbucks in Seattle... not the Starbucks, but one of them. We've seen a lot and done a lot. Lots of pictures and lots of memories. We leave tomorrow around 5 am. The final test of our tolerance for each other... By the end of this trip, will we even want to talk to each other?  Unknown. Will we be even better friends than when we started? Unknown. Will I want to sleep for a year and a day? Probably. I think the next road trip I do, to Minnesota, I will have to do alone. Is that better? I can't really say for sure.

What I don't really understand is that this road trip, Austin to Seattle, even with gas prices at 3.50 at least, is still cheaper than flying. Maybe i'm just looking at the wrong flights.

Random side note: Last year, on this day, St. Patrick's Day, I was in Bucerias, Mexico with good friends. We wandered around, ate some awesome food and had some beer. This year I am in Seattle with good friends, looking forward to spending time with our hosts here. Perhaps there is something about this day, but it might just be what I make it. :)

I've been thinking a lot about how I'm spending my time lately... I decided to recount it for y'all (see what I did there? Yep, Texas.). Keep in mind that this is only Sunday through Thursday.

Here goes... for the sake of ease, I will be rounding:

Sunday starting at midnight:
7 hours of sleep
1 hour of getting ready for church
2 hours at church
2 hours of potluck
4 hours of reading
1 hour of cleaning my apartment
1 hour of laundry
1 hour of cooking/eating dinner
2 hours shopping
1 hour of Family Guy
2 hours of sleep

Monday:
7 hours of sleep
1 hour of getting ready before work
1 hour of reading
5 hours of work
2 hours of coffee with a friend
3 hours of work
2 hours of reading
2 hours of sleep

Tuesday:
7 hours of sleep
1 hour of getting ready for work
1 hour of reading
9 hours of work
2 hours of shenanigans
3 hours of work
1 hour of sleep

Wednesday:
7 hours of sleep
1 hour getting ready
1 hours of reading
10 hours of work
2 hours at Devo
1 hour walk
2 hours reading

Thursday:
8 hours of sleep
1 hour getting ready for work
2 hours of reading
9 hours of work
1 hours of shenanigans
3 hours of work

Totals thus far:
Work - 42 hours
Sleep - 41 hours
Reading - 13 hours
Socializing - 10 hours
Everything in Between - 9 hours
Getting Ready - 5 hours

So, I was with my sister and her husband at Shop 'n' Save today in St. Louis. We have a game night planned and I was hoping to procure some Leinenkugels Honey Weiss for the festivities. I go to the checkout line, the cashier scans the beer and asks for my ID. I appreciate this, so I give him my ID, a Minnesota ID. I state that my birthday is in the red lettering. He takes it from me, feels it and walks away. He's gone for maybe a minute or two and a woman comes into the line behind me. She puts her things on the conveyor belt thing. I tell her that he had to go check my ID because Minnesota IDs are made of a super flexible material so they don't break. They can go through the washer and dryer and all that and they won't break. The problem is that everyone thinks they're fake. So he comes back over to the line with someone else and says, "Sorry, we don't accept out of state ID." Seriously? First of all, you DO accept out of state ID, you just think this is fake. The woman he brought back to the line was also really rude about it as if she just expected me to leave it at that. No. I brought out my passport. I could have easily had someone else buy it for me, but it was the principle of the matter. So, they call the manager. Turns out the manager was in the middle of decorating a cake so it took a couple minutes. Meanwhile, the woman behind me is asking me about the license so I tell her about all its cool features and let her see it etc. She was really good about the whole situation. So the manager finally comes up to the line, takes my license, says they don't accept passports, takes my passport and disappears for a while. The cashier is just hanging out, offering us candy canes. She comes back, says "The only reason we are accepting this is because the books says Minnesota licenses are flexible." HA! Take that, Missouri! Seriously, I have never had a problem with this before. I've used my license all over the country, but I've never had anyone refuse it before. They said they didn't accept it because they had never seen anything like it before. That says a lot about Missouri... my hopes for the Missouri intelligence have just been dashed against the rocks.

Don't worry, we had a happy ending with this, I got my Leinenkugels and my ID was eventually praised above all other state IDs. Win!!

I left a note at the house that received my box. I got a call saying I could come pick it up. Done and done! I now have all my stuff back! The guy said he was going to hold the box until Wednesday, but I beat him to the punch! I would call this a happy ending. 

Thanks for your rapt attention. My life is quite exciting, I know.

So, my mom sent me a package.  I was supposed to receive it on Thursday, but was visiting friends and wasn't home. I checked the status of it. Delivered. Awesome. Text my friends to see if they saw it.  Nope. Hmmm... this is odd indeed. I get back on Sunday, no box sightings. I start to become concerned. What does this box contain? All my movies and camera lenses. Awesome.

Today, Monday, I call Fedex to have a little fireside chat about the state of affairs concerning said package. What do I find out? It was sent to the wrong address. So, now I am waiting for the residents of my box's current dwelling to return home so I can get my box back.  Will I actually get my box back? I don't know.  I sure hope so... but I really don't know.

Also, for those of you that don't know, I borrowed this title from a book, "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime" which is a fantastic read.  I highly recommend it to anyone! Fascinating and thought provoking. Loved it.

So, I was supposed to get paid yesterday for that one day of work on that final pay period back in Minnesota. I didn't get a check.  I waited until today... and still no check.  What was supposed to happen was that I was supposed to get paid for that one day and then paid for the 20+ hours I had in PTO (paid time off).  So, I called the office. Apparently, they had no record of me working on that last day, and in order to get credited for my PTO, I would have had to work there for a year.  The problem was that my first day of work was 09/22/09. My last day of work was 09/18/10. 4 days difference and I'm shorted a couple hundred dollars?  I don't think so. So, the woman I talked to in the payroll office called the Duluth office and figured out that, yes, I did work on the 18th.  Also, I signed my contract to work with that company on 09/18/09... so, it is a happy ending.  I'm going to get paid for the things I should be getting paid for! YAY!

For a while there, I was not a happy camper, but it all seems to have worked out, thank goodness.

100 Random things about me:

1. I love rainy days more than I like sunny ones.
2. One of my life goals is to open my own used bookstore/coffee shop with a hostel connected to it.
3. I think that almost all religions have at least one good thing about them (a lot of qualifiers in that statement...)
4. I have three tattoos.
5. I've been to at least 15 countries (US not included)
6. I love writing, but am really bad at finishing stories.
7. I have a rather jagged 3-4in. scar on my left cheek.
8. All but two of my injuries involved winter sports (mainly sledding)
9. Korean food is quite possibly one of my favorite kinds of foods ever.
10. I mainly eat just fruits, vegetables, and nuts, not out of principle; I just don't really like meat.
11. I'm basically nocturnal.
12. I try to take one international trip each year.
13. I've seen well over 1,000 movies.
14. My sister is my best friend.
15. I have a very confusing family structure.
16. My favorite holiday is St. Patrick's Day, despite the fact that I'm not Irish.
17. I try to avoid full-time work, but am at work (my full-time job) as I write this.
18. I sleep on the floor because beds hurt my back.
19. My favorite author is Chaucer.
20. I think that one lifetime is not enough time to see everything I want to.
21. I hate it when I end sentences with prepositions, like I did the sentence above. Teehee... that one too.
22. I think that everyone should be passionate about something in their life.
23. My money goes four places: travel, craft supplies, books, and basic necessities to live.
24. I really hate talking on the phone, except to my mom or sister.
25. I hope to never have to go through pregnancy.
26. I hope to one day live in Scotland.
27. Wine makes me giggle.
28. I'm tempted to hire someone with a Scottish accent to talk to me, doesn't matter what they say, I just like to hear the accent.
29. I love word games, like cryptoquips and crosswords.
30. I have a Bachelor of Arts degree in English (focusing on Literature) which basically means I'm qualified to read.
31. I love really cheesy ridiculous movies.
32. One of my pet peeves is when people are late and they don't tell you they are going to be.
33. I love the water, and I love wind.
34. I have naturally curly hair.
35. My eyes change color depending on the season and what I'm wearing.
36. Dairy and I are not good friends.
37. I have to say, I'm a Mac person.
38. Modern, folksie type music is fantastic. This includes Gaelic Storm, Flogging Molly, Pogues, The Devil Makes Three etc.
39. The Peace Corps is in my very near future.
40. I love yoga.
41. I still keep in contact with my friends from high school.
42. Tofu is delicious.
43. I love British humor!
44. I'm a very laid back person.
45. I've never fired a gun.
46. I've always wanted to learn to swordfight.
47. I love to act, but hate doing repeated performances.
48. I play a little game with myself: I quote movies in everyday conversation and see if anyone gets the quotes.
49. Another game I play is guessing what people look like based on the kind of shoes they are wearing.
50. I also make up lives for people I see at airports, on the street, on the bus etc.
51. Pomegranates are quite possibly my favorite food.
52. I don't cook often.
53. I don't like coffee, but I like espresso (not the espresso coffee roast, but espresso shots).
54. I like to think that instincts are generally right, unless they are clouded by extreme emotion. This is why, when I get in an argument, I like to address the issue the next day.
55. I have two rings that I wear all the time. One is a claddagh ring I got in the claddagh in Galway, Ireland.
56. One day, I would like to see all the continents.
57. The first mountains I ever saw were the Italian Alps.
58. I like to dabble in photography.
59. I am allergic to some sort of cheap metal... It might be nickel, it might not be.
60. I am horrible at card games.
61. I have no aptitude for musical instruments.
62. I've always wanted to go to the opera.
63. I can't walk in heels... it's a curse, or maybe a gift.
64. I love to write, but I really love the actual act of pen to paper.
65. I rather like the taste of Pepto Bismol
66. I have seen every episode of Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis (movies too).
67. The BBC is, by far, my favorite broadcasting company.
68. I honestly can't choose a favorite book.
69. All of my fingers are double jointed (except thumbs, but I guess that depends on if you consider thumbs to be fingers).
70. My greatest fear is being forgotten.
71. I don't think I could live without a water source around me (river, lake, pond, sea etc).
72. If I could, I would live and die in the Scottish Highlands.
73. I am really horrible at meeting new people.
74. I love theme songs to shows.
75. If I could have a superpower, it would be something along the lines of the Babelfish from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (the ability to understand and communicate in any other language).
76. I love breakfast foods.
77. I've dyed my hair twice, once green and once red.
78. I hate having dirt under my nails, which is why my nails are almost always short.
79. I would love to become fluent in at least 2 other languages.
80. I love studying word origins.
81. I think Dali was a genius and Picasso was insane.
82. If I could travel back to medieval times, I would, but as a high class male.
83. With all that imagination has to offer, I find it odd that there isn't much more to it.
84. Street lights turn on and off when I'm around.
85. It always rains when I'm camping.
86. Technology always shuts down when I need it most.
87. I don't really like seafood, but I love sushi.
88. I have very little rhythm.
89. I watch movies and TV shows with captions on (preposition ending). The mind is more active while sleeping than it is while watching TV, so, if you're reading while watching TV, it's better, right?
90. I love using commas, and I definitely don't always using them correctly.
91. My favorite characters in TV and movies are always supporting roles.
92. I don't like crowds or loud noises. Concerts really aren't my thing.
93. I don't like milk, chocolate, or hot drinks. Hot chocolate really isn't my thing.
94. I love marshmallows, especially stale ones.
95. I see the sun rise and set almost everyday. That's because I usually go to bed after sunrise and wake up before sunset.
96. My feelings about relationships can best be summed up in a quote by Dr. Sheldon Cooper (Big Bang Theory): "Human relationships will continue to baffle and repulse me."
97. I'm addicted to Bubble Bazinga.
98. I talk a lot more than I should.
99. I think word jokes are so punny! HAHAHA!! (Part of me wants to say I'm not laughing out loud at that, because it really is a bad joke... the honest part of me is definitely laughing at it!)
100. My video game abilities are limited by the amount of buttons I have to interact with. The original playstation was the stopping point, then they came out with the Wii... for people like me.

I honestly can't believe I finished the list! It only took me 7 hours. Woohoo! Time at work well spent.