The Destiny of Lily and Jack

Week 1

2009-02-22T21:09:19Z

Week 1 of my vegetarianism has gone pretty good. I only failed once (which is far less than i thought). It was on Friday. I was SO busy at work (covering about 4 peoples jobs) that when the sandwich man drove up with all his goodies, out of habit i ran downstairs, bought a sausage roll, ate half of it, then remembered 'shit, i'm not supposed to be eating these anymore!'.

*shrugs* in any case, I'm still trying. Though, i've noticed that I ate an extraordinary amount of junk food last week too. That will be stopping. I cant substitute junk food for meat. How healthy is that? I need to find a balance (and stop eating shit).

Last night I had a dream that I got my license. I was very upset this morning when I woke up and realized it was just a dream. =/

Goodbye and Hello

2009-02-18T12:17:52Z

So I am now, officially (and legally) a UK resident. After 16 weeks of waiting for the Home Office to put a STICKER in my passport, I finally have it! Woo! No more having to worry about when my visa is going to expire because it wont! No more having to put out rediculous amounts of money for a freakin sticker in my passport (already spent £2,000 on visas!). Woo! first thing I did when I got it? Fill out my drivers license application. =P I'm gonna get me a fecking car and UK license or die trying!

I have also made the decision to temporarily go vegetarian. I say temporarily because I'm not sure if it will stick, but I'm trying. I've given myself 2 weeks, and if i find that it's working, and I'm happy with it, I hope for it to become a permanent thing. Andrew is being uber supportive as well, which is lovely. He's willing to eat whatever I make, and fulfil his manly-meat-eating elsewheres.

Uh, that's it really. Everything else seems so unimportant compared to those two tidbits. =P

A Few Thoughts...

2009-02-03T15:43:16Z

I played in the snow last night. It was fun.

I have horrible, horrible cramps today. This is not fun.

My Sign Language class was cancelled tonight. Woo! =D

I've rekindled a long-lost friendship only to find out he's only living 2-and-a-bit hours north of here! It's a scarily small world sometimes.

I am currently 'working' in accounts doing more fecking data entry bs. I swear I can hear my brain snoring...

I miss my Whitney. =(

I was supposed to have been on my 6th novel right now for this year. I am only just finishing my 5th. =(

IT'S MY BIRTHDAY ON THURSDAY! WOO!!

I am not having any more birthdays after this one. I have decided I will not age past 24.

My friend, Clare, bought me a kitty-keyring (early bday present). he's about 4" tall and 5" long and made of adorableness. I've named him Lushy.

Both Slumdog Millionaire and Nick & Nora's Infinite Playlist fecking rock!

OMG SNOW!

2009-02-02T09:45:10Z

*WEEEEEE!!!!* ^_^

It always snows for my birthday (with the exception of last year). ALWAYS!!

*runs around in circles smiling and dancing* =D

Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

2009-01-29T15:17:23Z

Damn Daft Punk gettin in mah heads. Perhaps I should stop listening to them, and then I wouldnt have this problem?

I've decided it's long past due that I make a post on here about my uberly fantastic, awe-inspiring, amazingly fabulous life. ok, I might have exaggerated a bit there...

Actually, the truth is, my life is pretty ok at the moment. It has it's up and downs (like anyone), but I try to stay positive about it all.

I've made a few new friends in the past few months and have started going out a lot more. It's really improved my mental state, being able to go out and have fun with people whom I've met on my own. For the longest time, I felt like I didnt have any friends of my own. Everyone I hung out with over here was one of 'Andrew's friends'. Please, please, please dont take offense to that (you are all amazing and I love you all dearly), but there's something infinitely different between friends you 'inherit' by dating/marrying someone, and friends you make on your own. But friends are friends tho, and I'm grateful for each and every one of you. =)

Getting back to the point, I have been going out most weekends lately. This, however, is both a blessing and a curse. A blessing because of the reasons I stated above, and a curse because I still dont have my FECKING LICENSE (to be discussed later) or a car, and going out costs money (which is poop). But it makes me happy, so surely it's ok?

Getting onto the license topic, I STILL HAVENT BEEN GRANTED MY INDEFINITE LEAVE TO REMAIN! AAAARG! I applied for it almost 14 weeks ago now, those bastards. They state that they try to return 90% of them within the first 4 weeks. Well thats a bunch of phooey. Apparently I am awesome enough to fall into the 10% that has to wait FOREVER. *sigh* I cant do anything without my passport! I cant apply for my license, I cant travel out of the country, I cant even buy alcohol (not that I'm so upset about that, but that's besides the point). Grrrr..aaaargh. This is the major source of my frustration at the moment.

Other minor things include (but are not limited to) the following:
-Not having enough time in the day to do what I want.
-Not having the energy to keep my house clean anymore. I've pretty much given up.
-Having to live with 2 dogs that piss and shit anywhere they fecking please.
-Having to live with a roommate that doesnt understand basic hygiene.
-Having to work part time in the accounts department (which is why I'm writing this. IM FECKING BORED).
-Having to deal with stupid, back-stabbing, bull-shit at work.
-The sun not being out when I get home in the evenings.
-Not having got my exam results back from my Sign Language course yet. It's been 7 weeks, people, wake-the-feck-up.
-Rain
-Rain
-Rain
-Cold
-Rain

Well now, dont you all feel better for reading that? I dont. It's made me realise just how frustrated I really am. I need to unwind a bit. sheesh.

There's a frog in my throat

2008-12-05T19:56:02Z

So moving has gone (somewhat) smoothly. And by that I mean all our stuff is here. =P I still have the lounge to clean (this weekend's project) and the bathroom. The bathroom is going to be a Christmas-break-project. It needs a LOT of work. *sigh*. At least I have something to keep myself busy.

I shall also be putting up Christmas decorations this weekend. Oh yes, it's that time of the year again! I love it! I totally thrive during Christmas. I dont get all stressed about buying people presents or decorating, or going to visit family, or whatever else it is that people whinge about at this time of year. I love giving presents to people and I love having a proper excuse to do it! It makes me happy. Plus the fires in the fireplaces, hot chocolate, sweaters...it's such a cozy season! YAY!

Oh, Excuse me; Illegal Immigrant coming through!

2008-10-27T08:09:13Z

Woo! From today I am an illegal immigrant!

Ok, no, not really. I'm in a sort of 'limbo'. They cant deport me because I have posted my Indefinite Leave to Remain application and haven't heard anything back regarding it yet. But then, I did only post it last week...

In other news, this weekend I was sat on the train, coming home from a weekend in London, when I realized I was sitting next to two American gals. Now typically, this wouldn't have been very exciting news (you can totally tell who the Americans are in London. As it is football season, they are all wearing football jerseys...I tend to avoid contact with these people at all costs) but I was in desperate need to find another American citizen to 'witness' and sign my ballot for the general election next week. So scooted over to them, interrupted their conversation, whipped out my ballot, and asked one of them to sign and write their address. They were both very excited and happy to help, so in order to choose who to sign, I asked where they both were from. One of the girls was from Illinois, and the other was from Wisconsin! Oh what a small world it is! Of course I had the Wisconsinite sign it! Now they're is no chance that they wont count my vote...So I shall be sending that in today.

Right, so it's yet another work day. Where did the weekend go?? Time really does need to slow-the-fuck-down on weekends. I'm going to be dead before I know it. =P

Where is home??

2008-10-24T18:27:17Z

As of Monday 27th October 2008, my marriage visa will be officially void/expired.

As of yesterday, the application process is no longer in my hands.

*gulp*

Lol, how random!

2008-10-02T12:13:25Z

1 minute, 6 seconds

I have machetes in my eyes

2008-09-25T22:44:52Z

This morning was a bit of an odd one. I put my contacts in, like normal, and went to work. About an hour into my work day my left eye starting stinging/burning/hurting really badly. I promptly took my contact out, thinking maybe there was a hair in it, but there wasn't. There was no hair, grit, particle, tear, etc; so I put it back in. A little while later, it started stinging/burning/hurting again. The same old song and dance ensued and again, nothing. I couldn't figure it out for the life of me! It wasn't inside out either! GUH! By 11:30am (2 1/2 hours into my working day) I couldn't take it anymore and just took the damn thing out. It seriously felt like thousands of microscopic machetes were hacking away at my defenseless cornea. All was better though when Adam was kind enough to give me a lift home during lunch so that I could put my glasses on instead.

Otherwise this past week has been nuts. I have barely had 10 minutes to myself! Friday was Judy's funeral, then Andrew and I went to Simon's till 11:30pm. Painted on Saturday and Sunday. Monday Andrew and I celebrated our 2 year wedding anniversary. Tuesday I had night class. Wednesday Simon and Dave came over for Dinner/games. Tonight I cleaned the house. Tomorrow night there are people coming over to see the house, so there will be more cleaning/tidying. Saturday there will be more painting. Sunday shall possibly be a day of much needed rest? I hope so...

Speaking of rest, it's 11:45pm - I should be in bed.

Well, I might as well tell you before chinese whispers start...

2008-09-15T19:24:08Z

Andrew and I have made the decision to move to the states. As you may (or may not) know, we recently came by an offer too good to refuse and are now moving in with our friend, Simon. Instead of paying £722.50 a month in rent, we will now only be paying £350. Plus it's a house with a yard. So why the hell not, eh?

Anyway, Andrew and I got to talking about moving back and I found out that he had already been thinking about it! Bless him. =D We came to the conclusion that after two years (which is the time-frame we have agreed upon with Simon) we would reassess the situation and start organizing the move. Hopefully this means by Summer 2011, we'll be back in WI. Nothing is set in stone. This is all very tentative at the moment, and is largely dependent on both the job and housing markets.

Also, I am very excited!!

Vote Obama

2008-08-27T13:49:08Z

Last night was the first time I have ever watched a speech given by Hillary Clinton and not wanted to hang myself. Her typical insincerity and her somewhat desperate approach to anything I've watched her do was absent. Her speech was nothing short of inspirational and moving; and yes, it even made me cry a little. So well done Hillary!

If you didnt get to watch it, you can read it (it doesnt take long) here.

Indeed!

2008-08-27T13:29:00Z

I found this little gem in a 'Bad Tattoos' gallery.

The End

2008-07-06T20:33:01Z

I am sad to say that I think it might be time for me to take my eyebrow ring out. This saddens me greatly because it was the first piercing I got that I kept for longer than a few weeks or months. It was the first piercing I got both legally and told my mum about (this is, of course, other than my ear piercings).

The main reason for this is because my skin is rejecting it (albeit very slowly) and when you look at it in proper lighting you can actually see the metal under my skin. This is both gross and unhealthy. What if I were to be brushing my hair and got the brush caught in it (surprisingly, it happens semi-often)? It would probably rip the ring right out. I'm not in the mood for that kind of pain. Not now, not ever.

So when I get back from Wisconsin (we'll be gone July 21st to August 1st), I will be saying goodbye to an old friend.

Not to worry though! I'll probably get it redone. =D

A brief excerpt from an email to David

2008-07-01T20:53:53Z

It's pretty much what I was going to write in an update anyway...so here you go.

I'm sorry I dont write more often. It's a problem that I have, I know. It's not just with you either. Lately I have become somewhat apathetic in the area of keeping in touch with people. It's always there in the back of my mind, 'you should write to ___, it's been ages since you've heard from them' and so on but I cant seem to work up the energy to do it. I just keep thinking 'oh I'll do it next time I'm on'...it's a wee bit of a vicious circle I'm afraid. I guess another reason is because I've just plain given up with trying to stay in touch with some people. It's a bit dejecting when you write message after message to one person or another and you either get a few-sentenced reply or nothing at all. Anyway, enough of my sad-sap. The point is that I'm sorry I dont write to you more often.

Things have been otherwise brilliant. As you well know, Claudia came for a visit a week ago. It was probably the best few days I've had since moving here. The only bad part about seeing her was how horribly homesick it made me. I'm actually almost dreading coming home in a few weeks (July 21st - 31st) because I know how hard it will be for me to go back to England. Isn't it funny how that happens? I spent most of my life dreaming about the day I could get the hell out of my house and out of Oak Creek and out of Wisconsin and yet now, all I can ever think about (when thinking about the future, mind you) is the day I will be able to move back.

Lately I haven't been so contented with my life (not anything close to what I was the last time we spoke). I keep thinking to myself, 'is this it? Is this what I was in such a hurry to grow up for? Is this going to be my life?' What depressing things to think at the sweet age of 23. I want to go back to school so badly to finish my degree and 'make something of myself'. No, that's something of a lie. I want to go back to school to escape from the monotony of being an 'adult'. I want classes and structure and something to work towards. Do you know what I mean? Being an Administrative Assistant is certainly nothing I aspired to do. And I have no interest in the things we do at work. I dont ever want to 'move up' in the company because the only place to go is to sales (and thats something I definitely dont want ). I know what I do want. The same thing I was working towards in the first place; a teaching degree. *sigh* I'll get there one day...I know I can do it, it's just a question of timing.

That's mostly the cause of my unease these days. Dont get me wrong, I do enjoy my job, I just get no satisfaction from it at the end of the day. I dont go home at night thinking to myself 'I really helped that person today'. I get more happiness out of my volunteer work. In my young, innocent, angsty, teenage days, I never thought my main goal in life would be to help people. Again, funny how things change, eh?

So as you can see, things have been good but I'm just not content with good. I want more. More schooling, more satisfaction from my job, more money, more energy to write to my friends. More...

Woof!

2008-06-11T13:08:27Z

Yesterday Andrew and I went to visit this elderly couple with two dogs. The Cinnamon Trust called me up two weeks ago to tell me about them; they needed someone to walk their dogs. I said yes, of course, but was even more eager to do so once I found out that the guy is 94 years old and the lady is 88! That's just down right impressive, it is! So anyway, we went over and got the doggies. They are two toy poodles and their names are Susie and Paulie. OMGSOCUTE! I'm not a poodle person but by gods, they were just the two most adorable little fluff-balls! Susie was (and still is) quite weary of us, but she'll hopefully come around; Paulie was just a wee sweety and a joy to play with. I look forward to walking them again next week!

After that, Andrew and I went out to dinner to one of the curry houses in town with peeps for Rachel's birthday. It was an amazingly good time. We dont all get together nearly often enough and I miss everyone dearly. We should do it again sometime soon. Perhaps a game night in the near future??

That's all for now. Back to looking like I'm busy at work now!

Hello Friends!

2008-06-08T22:40:26Z

Oh boy, I failed, didn't I? I said I would try to update in here more, and make the effort and blah blah blah, but I didn't. Oh well, I'm here now, So let's do this thing!

This week is going to be quite a crazy one for me. Tomorrow I will be baking a cake after work for a colleague of mine whose birthday was yesterday. However, the dept isn't going out to lunch until Tuesday to celebrate it (his choice) so I decided to make his cake for then.

Tuesday I will be walking two toy poodles for an elderly couple after work.

Wednesday Dave and Simon are coming over for dinner after work and I still haven't a clue what I'm going to make.

Thursday I have nothing to do after work! Woo!!

Friday is Adam's (another colleague) stag do after work. That should be interesting...

Saturday I will be shopping and spending the day with my most favortist person in the world, Andrew.

Sunday I shall be cleaning my house top to bottom.

Oh deary me, look at the time! It's past my bedtime! Goodnight all!

I made a funny

2008-05-19T20:06:24Z

Sooo, last week was awesome. Well, one day in particular (though I dont remember which). I was running a bit late for work and already had my super-sexy, heeled, brown, strappy sandals on my feet from when I was upstairs getting dressed (I put my shoes on while I'm upstairs for two reasons; 1) I keep all but my tennies and flipflops upstairs in the wardrobe and 2) I usually have my hands full with things that need to go downstairs with me already, so it's just easier to put them on right away). Anyway, I would normally take my shoes back off and put them in my backpack to carry to work, and throw my tennies or flipflops on because they are more sensible to wear while walking to work. But as I said, I was running late. I figured 'what the hell, it wont *hopefully* kill me this once' and ran out the door. The rest of my outfit: white cut-offs that go just below the knee, white and brown belt, brown off-the-shoulder 3/4-sleeved shirt, and my hair was tied back. It was warm, so there was no coat involved.
I got a grand total of 3 wolf-whistles and 2 blokes hanging out their cars, pointing at me and yelling lewd things. This was quite the confidence-booster!

Then, later that day (at work about 11:30am), I got a call from Tim, one of our warehouse blokes, who wanted me to order some more Documents Enclosed pouches for our Fedex shipments. figuring this wouldnt take long, I called straight away and ordered 250 of them. It's not 3 minutes since Tim called when I call back down to the warehouse. Johhny (the warehouse manager) answers and I tell him what I've ordered. He then promptly tells me how fantastic I am and goes on to explain how much they love me down in the warehouse. This just added to my already inflated ego. It was a super-fantabulous day!! I wish I had more like that! ^_^

Today, I ordered my new camera. Oh yea, sexiness.

You wanna do it in the what?

2008-05-04T22:09:18Z

Hello mah peeps, how are you?

Yay for sleepy days. Andrew and I have done nothing all day but laze around the house. Well, not true, we took William for a walk and played with the kitties outside for an hour or so. =D I have some cute pictures of them, but I cant be arsed to upload the pictures and whatnot. See? Lazy.

Claudia is coming to visit me! I cant tell you how excited/happy/loved/joyous this makes me! 2 years I have lived here and other than my wedding, no one has come to visit me. Oh well, c'est la vie. I CANT WAIT UNTIL JUNE!!! ^_^

I laughed so hard when I saw this!

2008-05-04T21:52:26Z

There is a bruise on my knee!

2008-04-23T12:58:35Z

*yawns* ok, so here goes my post.

Last Thursday I did over time at work. This means I didnt get home until almost 9pm. Joy.
Friday I was supposed to do overtime, but we didnt have the supplies, so I went home. Yay!
Saturday was Adele and Adam's wedding - Adele is Andrew's cousin. That was fun. It was awkward at times (mostly because Andrew LEFT ME THERE ALONE) but entertaining towards the end. I did, however, find out that there is another American in the family. So because of this, people automatically assumed we would get on (I mean, really? Just because we're from the same effing continent??). She's from freakin New Mexico! I've never been there, she's never been to Wisconsin, she's 40+ with a 9 year old daughter...what could we possibly have to talk about? Naturally I excused myself to the loo. Then that night, when the dancing started, Andrew's family because obsessed with getting me out on the dance floor. I dont know what it was! Uncle Tony actually picked me up and attempted to carry me out there! AH! By that point, however, I wasnt going out there to dance just to spite everyone. Lol. I didnt want to dance to begin with because I had heartburn and was waiting for it to pass. Oh! AND his dad asked me 'if it was a girl thing'. Wtf?...Andrew and I ended up leaving at about 11pm because he had just come off of nights and had only had a few hours sleep and was starting to get a headache. Poor dear.
Sunday I went shopping and bought me come new work clothes. *awesome!* Then Andrew picked me up and we went to his parents place for lunch because it was Aunty Shivy's birthday. Good food and lots of laughs playing Family Fortune. =)
Monday I did more overtime at work (I didnt leave until 8:30pm again).
Tuesday was relaxing and warm!
Today and tomorrow I will be doing more overtime (meaning I will be working until at least 8:30pm). *sigh* more 11&1/2 hour shifts! Its ok, I want the overtime because I want a new camera. A new super-duper-awesomely-fantabulous-expensive camera. It will be worth it in the end...

Hey Miss Murder Can I...

2008-04-15T22:05:50Z

I had a very lovely weekend! Andrew and I went to Broxbourne woods and walked something like 6km. It's not much, but it was through mud, up hills, through a wee bit-o rain, around trees...in other words, IT WAS GREAT! We are hoping to make it a weekly thing. Eventually we are going to do the NNR trail which is something like 11 miles (or was it km??...I seem to remember it being really, super long though).

Sunday brought icky headaches and indigestion. Blah. Oh well, I fought on and CivIII(conquests)-ed it up with the hubby. One word - awesome. It was a nice day, regardless of gross feelings.

Today we had the first part of our yearly appraisals at work. They pretty much told us what our pay was going to be for this tax year. You would never guess how awesome I am. Oh yes. That awesome. No one in the company got more than a 3% pay raise, except me. Wanna guess how much it was? No? Ok, it was 13.5%! AND I was told they would have given me more than that if they hadnt have already gone way over budget (which is to be expected considering we just moved offices not yet 2 weeks ago). I was also told that they were really chuffed with me, I have exceeded all their expectations, I bring laughter and fun to the team, etc. So yeah, the moral of this story is that I rock. ^_^

Crash, Bang, Boom

2008-04-11T21:16:06Z

Today we had an awesome thunderstorm. Like, an actual storm with thunder and lightening and hail. OMG amazing.

I'm watching Dirty Sexy Money. I do love me some Donald Sutherland. Yum-oo. =P

People need to start updating their LiveJournals again. Like Dave M (he should get a new account) Dave T, Nick M, Jen P, Julie P, Whitney (again, should get a new account), Nick R (although, to give him credit, he probably updates more often than I do), and like a billion other people.

I hope it doesnt rain all weekend. I really would like to go on some of the foot paths in Broxbourne. *crosses fingers*

Oh yeah, I also need to find something to wear for a wedding next weekend. Ha. Yeah. Good luck with that. I went last weekend to at least 15 different shops and found NOTHING. Well that's not fully true; I found many things. If I liked it, it wasnt in my size or was so expensive it hurt, OR it was all hideous. Poo.

Oh the joys of a merry-go-round

2008-04-10T22:01:34Z

Hello everyone.

...Hello?

Is there anyone there? Anyone left on this thing?

I wish everyone still read/updated their Livejournals. Ok, I know, I'm one to talk, right? I'm never on this thing. I never update; and when I do, it's usually to bitch about something. Well no more! I am going to make an honest-to-betsy attempt at updating this more often. Get ready for the boring and mundane days of my life!

Excited yet? I am.

So today Andrew and I had Dave and Simon over for dinner. It used to be a bi-weekly thing, but because of Andrew's new shift patterns, it's now tri-weekly. It started last August (?) with me inviting them over for dinner because Andrew was always complaining about how he doesn't get to see them anymore. And since they were finally back and finished with Uni, I thought 'hey! Now would be a good time to get together!' So anywho, I invited them over, made dinner (they brought the dessert) and we played Pictionary. It was a major success. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and decided we would do it again (hence the bi-weekly comment). So now it's become our little thing (I wouldn't call it a tradition yet...it hasnt been going on long enough, but I do hope it turns into one!); Andrew and I make dinner, Dave and Simon bring the dessert and afterwards Andrew and I beat Dave and Simon at Pictionary (they have yet to beat us...although tonight was a close one!). I really look forward to these nights. They make me really happy. I know there will always be good food, brilliant pies, fabulous company, and oodles of laughter. Nights like these are the highlights of my months. =D

Alright, I guess that's as good a start as any. If I sat here and updated you on everything that's been going on, I'd be here for hours typing. No one wants that; least of all me. I'm completely shattered after tonights festivities and I have work in the morning, so offski to bedski for me!

Goodnight you guys. I hope everyone is well. =)

I wish Andrew and I had thought of this

2008-01-19T18:05:47Z

This is bloody brilliant!

http://www.aolvideoblog.com/2008/01/18/best-videos-of-the-week-1-18-08-no-9/