Damn....

Oh my god, I am exhausted. Like mentally, physically, emotionally just drained. So much has been happenign I have barely looked around to check in.

I got my cosmetology license. :) I am official. I have even worked a day at a friend's salon just to get my feet wet. It was interesting. I will keep working for her til I hear from the doves so I can earn some cash.

I moved! Molly and I are officially in our new, beautiful apartment. I love it here. I am attempting to arrange some stuff today. I did my clothes - that might be my big accomplishment for the day.

At 3pm today I have a consultation with a plastic surgeon. It's the same guy who did my mom's stuff (our old neighbor from growing up) and he idd a great job. I am only going to consult - I am not cleared by insurance yet or anythng. I just want to make this real. I want to know what to expect and what can actually be done. I know I am gonna leave there wanting to get it all done tomorrow, insurance be damned! But I have to wait and see if my insurance will cover some of it. I could stand to save a few thousand dollars, right? I know. Patience.

I had a blast this weekend at my friend Steve's bbq. I was having weird, overtired, sober antisocial feeling a lot of the time but I need to figure out how to just get past that shit. It's stupid and just ruins things for me. In the end I had a really good time and Jason made rockin' bbq and I sucked at poker. Shocking.

I am off to maybe unpack my bathroom. Send me good organizational thoughts, my friends. Not so much my strong suit, there.

I want this over!!

I am taking my state board exam test tomorrow and I need it to be over. I am so nervous. I know I know the stuff but I can't seem to get out of this semi-catatonic state I seem to be on right now. I need to just let go of it all but I am worried abotu all the outside things that could go wrong. I could be late or get lost or my model could have some CADD (cut, abrasion, disease, or disorder) that I don't know about. I could just forget something totally stupid and fail cuz of that. I am just scared and need the anxiety to be done with. It's enough already. So tomorrow I will either be a licensed stylist or an utter failure. I love me some black and white-ness, you know,. so there it is.

The move is moving along. I am doing all my big stuff on sunday with actual movers so that will be a relief. I have been helping moll pack her stuff up and get it out of here. We'll do her big stuff at a later date. We have a few weeks til it all has to be done anyway. The apartment is beautiful though and we'll be having a poker night to initiate our new pad. I'll keep people informed as to when it will be.

Wish me luck on my test tomorrow. I need to be able to sleep again. This is getting old.

Crap, I am exhausted.

So, I did it. I am done. I graduated. Holy shit. I am so glad it is over and, at the same time want to go back to school immediately. I am gonna miss it a lot. I really liked being able to bein that environment - learning new stuff every day and getting to really practice what I needed to. It will continue in my new job, wherever that ends up being. Having a year as an assistant means lots of continuing education so I am way looking forward to that.

I had my interview with The Doves on Monday and it all went well. They really answered my questions more than anything else. I had to hand in a 30 question interview thingy that I filled otu beforehand so they had all myinterview info (weaknesses, strengths, past work examples, etc.) so they answered my stuff. The salon opens in September but they will let us know in August and we will start working then. It will be Tuesday-Saturday, 10-6 for the most part. Minimum wage! No benefits but that isn't surprising. They just have this amazinf vision for a true team environment. They aren't looking for the uppity clientele - they want this to be an amazing salon where clients feel like they are part of the team, not like they are being waited on. That appeals to me so much. It is so much more my personality. They just seem like such good people and like they really want to create something different. I am really hoping this is the place for me. I will let you know what I hear.

Apartment news - I am moving in withmy sister Molly! We talked about it and realized it is somethng we would love to do if the space is right and we found one. I g sign the lease today and all is done. I am so excited. It's in West LA and it is beautiful. I think it's a good move.

I went way for a couple days post graduation with my mom. We went and hung at the Chumash Casino for a night and played nickel video poker. It was so much fun. We did spa treatments and gambled some more. Then we gambled some and ate. Then we gambled. Then we left. :) We wnt up to Pismo to stay with my aunt and uncle who have an RV. They bought a partial share in an RV park right on the beach that is so amazing. They get 45 days a year there and even more if they do off peak time. They are so cool. They just travel so much and have such a good time. I really like spending time with them - I wish I culd do it more. They have this whole 3 year plan. They are retiring next July then starting their journeys. They are doing a bike ride through Maine to see the fall foliage. Then they are doing an RV trip through Mexico with a group for 40 days or something. They are also travelling the country to go to every major league baseball park (my uncleis a huge baseball guy). They are gonna drive to alaska (my dream!). I might go up again before they take off at the end of the month. I also got to bond with their new Puggle puppy, Belle, and their fab chihuahua, Bean. We shared some special times. :) We did a beautiful 6 mile walk to Avila Beach. It felt so good to walk. It definitely remionded me that I would have hated it if I hadn't lost the weight. I would have been miserable. But instead, I was healthy and happy and loving it. I did get a crappy sunburn though. Stupid me.

I went back to Weight Watchers after, like, 3 months. Amazingly, I lost 1.6 pounds! I am back to being motivated. I think not being in school will help cuz I am not a slave to the vending machnes. No more crappy snacking. I want to get down 10 more by summer's end. Oh, and I have a doctor's appointment on the 20th to try and get what I need for insurance to cover surgery. We'll see what happens.

Off to a day of lease signing, old security deposit checking picking up, and general vegetation. I don't have to do much of anything over the next week except study for state board. Yay me!!!!

xxoo to y'all!

I didn't move!

So, I am not moving into that amazing apartment. You know that whole too good to be true thing? It was. After 3 attempts to get my keys (Thursday night she forgot to call and ask me to come friday, then friday she was there but left my keys in her apartment so she said she would leave them in a drawer for me and leave the apartment open the next morning but when i arrived the next morning - the second official day of my lease - the apartment was locked and no one answered any of the numbers I repeatedly called until 40 minutes later. I finally got in at 12:45pm.) I got into the apartment and found it wasn't cleaned at all. The carpets weren't vacuumed, let alone steam cleaned, there were cobwebs everywhere, the kitchen drawers were so dirty there was actually weed left in there from the last tenant.

When I was talkign to hertrying to figure out what to do abotu it, the manager went balistic. I suggested I have someone come clean next week and I just deduct it from next month's rent and she started to scream abotu how she would lose her job if I did that and was that what I wanted. She accused both my mom and I of trying to ruin her life. She yelled about how she was sick and it wasn't her fault she couldn't get thngs doen in time. The last tenant moved otu the 21st - this was the 30th. The bathroom wall was patched with packing tape which I assured her was fine - they could fix that next week. No worries. I am easygoing girl, ya know? I have no problem with things that are no fault of yours. The workers do a crappy job repairing? Ok, maybe it takes soem time to get it done. No problem. But 8 days to vacuum?

Every apartment I have ever moved out of (I am counting 11 right now) I have had to steam clean the apartments or else the management company took the charge out of my deposit and did it themselves. That is how it works. This lady insisted, and I am serious that this is what she told me, that she had 2 people come smell the carpets (who does that??!!!) cuz she has no sense of smell, and they said it had been cleaned. Um, yeah. She also explained, abotu the dirty kitchen, that she can't see anything without her glasses so she hadn't noticed how filthy it was. Um. Put your glasses on, woman.

As I pointed out that the apartment was too dirty to move into she went into hysterics, I guess you could call it. She said she was gonna have a panic attack. She told my mom to shut up. She backed into a corner. She again insisted all we wanted was to ruin her life and get her fired. I just wanted to move into my apartment. There were supposed to be movers coming in 2 hours. That certainly wasn't gonna happen. After she insisted she couldn't talk to my mother but she felt she could talk to me (freak.) she again asked how we could solve the problem. She said she would go get a steam cleaner now and I pointed out it wouldn't help cuz the carpets would be wet when the movers came. She first freaked on me again then later said that people did that all the time and we could leave my stuff out on the sun porch til the carpets dried. I am not moving my shit onto a sunporch that won't even hold my fucking couch. I suggested we just call that weekend off, I eat the cost of my movers, and we reset my movein date to the following Saturday. She screamed that she would get fired and her boss couldn't find out about this. She said she would clean - again. Mind you, my lease is already 36 hours in and I have a filthy apartment that can't be moved into. No f'ing way am I just gonna trust her to have the place clean and come back with a moving van full of stuff. Uh uh.

Picture 10 more minutes of panicking, yelling, accusing, going off about how she had, even in her horrible illness, tried to help someone else out and she got screwed for it (I don't even know what that means). She went off about healthcare and how this country just throws away sick people like trash. She yelled about having no money to buy food. She told me how she would lose her job and be out on the street if her boss found out about this. She talked about having a nervouse breakdown. She accused us of conspiring to ruin everything for her and that being our primary purpose that day. It went on for a while. It was really astonishing. She finally decided she needed to go get her boyfriend because he would be calm. And how is he even involved in this? By the time he got there, we had called my stepdad, a lawyer, who said to just get out of there. We took some pics of the mess and got our stuff to leave. The boyfriend came up to talk to us and I told him how the lady has totally freaked out on me. His response? "Yeah, she freaks out on me sometimes too." Um... I am not her fucking boyfriend!!!! I am a brand new tenant. I thanked him for his helpfulness and kindness, left my keys with him, and let him know I would be contacting the property manager monday to arrange getting out of the lease.

Yep. That was Neely's move-in extravaganza. So insane. My mom and I spent the rest fo the day apartment hunting and we found some good stuff. I applied for a place this morning so hopefully that will pan out. Who knows? At this point, I am ok. I have a place to live. I have my stuff in storage. The movers were the nicest folks ever and didn't charge me. If you need a mover, call them. They are Starving Artists Movers. I spoke with Celestin Cornielle and his email is celestinonline@msn.com. I will use them for my move when it happens. I am sure I will end up with a better place out of this, all in all. And hopefully i will live closer to what I hope will be my place of future employment with The Doves in Santa Monica. I will keep you all up to date.

Fucking A that was ridiculous.