Friday, February 27, 2009

ta-da!

I am now a Mary Kay Independent Beauty Consultant. You can check out my web site at
www.marykay.com/melissamcneil! You should totally tell your friends. :)

Saturday, February 21, 2009

as the world turns

Okay, I have a job. I'm keeping it for the time being. I'm a personal assistant. That's the best way to put it because I do a very wide variety of things that you can categorize but it's pieces of each here and there throughout the day/week. We'll see how it all turns out... My main goal is to be able to pay all my bills and sock enough money away to pay for summer session classes just straight out of pocket. I have some other possibilities in the works too that I think may work out really well.

In other news, I now have plans for spring break. I am taking care of the babies while my sister and bro-in-law work that week. We have arranged it with my mom that my sis will bring the kids to her house and I will take care of them there. Just call me Super Auntie! And pray for me. I will be in charge of a five year old and a four year old. I don't know what I've gotten myself into... Actually I think it will be a lot of fun. If we bake cupcakes or something sugar filled, it will be on Friday after nap/rest time. I am going to try to plan some fun things like making a little obstacle course in the back yard to run around and doing things like having them help me make lunch (pbj or sprinkling the cheese on a tortilla for a quesadilla, that kind of thing). I'm going to cut sandwiches into fantastic shapes and bring some books to read to them and plan on definitely getting some exercise in running around with them and helping them ride bikes. If anyone has any ideas for ways to entertain kids while staying mostly at home or doing things that are very low cost, let me know!

My grandmother is in the hospital with an infection of an undetermined origin. She's hopped up on pain killers and antibiotics and feeling much better, but still has been admitted to the hospital. I am a little worried about her, but mostly I just want her to not be in pain and to have the life she wants to have. I have thought for quite awhile now that she is much sicker than she has really told anyone because she is much sicker than she is ready to admit to herself. Up until yesterday or the day before, she was still able to carry on her day to day business without any problem. I hope that the doctors are able to figure out what's going on so she can just go back to her normal schedule. It's so hard to say how healthy she really is. She has bounced back from quite a bit, but there is definitely something going on with at least her liver that just isn't right. Hopefully I'll be able to make a post soon that says she's just fine and has made plane reservations for sometime in July to come see my new niece.

My apartment is kind of a disaster area, so I need to get on that while I have the time and energy to actually do a good job. :)

Monday, February 16, 2009

i think this is what i'm going to do

Mondays will be either a movie review or a list of facts you may or may not know about me. I would like to be watching more movies than I have been lately but time is the main factor. What can I say? I'm a busy working woman. So here you are:

1. I typically have two or more open bottles of lotion that I am using and they also tend to be scattered throughout my apartment.
2. I am addicted to Carmex. But it keeps my lips kissable and it's cheap!
3. I can handle a lot of body fluids and stages of people being sick but the thing that never fails to gross me out is snot or listening to someone tell me about an operations on the nose or sinuses. I have no idea why this is.
4. The addition of almonds or almond extract/flavor to almost anything makes it better.
5. I wish my hair was longer again already.
6. I love the Spurs. This season I am working on choosing a favorite player and hopefully going to at least one more game. Next season I will start to learn about stats. And the season after that, I may very well be a full fledged basketball fanatic.
7. Lately I have been really proud of myself for politely holding my ground on things.
8. Lately I have been noticing how jobs I've had before have all added up to me being the person I am with the confidence I have and the feeling that I have the right to politely speak up and call someone on their bullshit immediately instead of waiting a few days to figure out the right way to do it.
9. I have more respect for the Buddhist/Muslim/Jew/Hindu who practices their religion to the best of their ability than I do for a Christian who loudly proclaims they do and turns around and acts un-Christlike on a regular basis.
10. Yoga still makes me happy, from my very core.
11. I think gas is hilarious. Burping and farting totally make me giggle much to my boyfriend's consternation. I try to keep my own gas to myself because, after all, I am a lady.
12. I could eat Japanese food every day and not get tired of it.
13. I never ordered pizza for delivery before living in this apartment.
14. It irritates me irrationally when people add an extra "s" to things. It's Barnes and Noble. Not Barnes and Noble's.
15. My mom has an unusual first name and so my whole life I have unconsciously always made an effort to know people's names, preferred nicknames, and the correct spelling of all of the above.

Monday, February 9, 2009

lesson learned

Today I went to my yoga class. And as I was sitting in the parking lot waiting to go inside, my headache really came to full force. So trying all these poses that while I have gotten better at still frustrate me because I know my lines are not nearly as good (and therefore graceful) as my teacher's are. The headache just got worse and worse and I contemplated leaving because I wasn't sure if vomiting was going to be the next step. I made it through the whole class and then decided to just come home. An hour later, here I am. So basically, the thing I learned today is that if I can make it to yoga, I should simply stay for the rest of my school day because the headache is going to get way worse in traffic than it would have just staying for classes. Who knew?

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

wednesday wonders

Things making me happy lately...

...Yoga. It is hard and will continue to be challenging all semester, but I seriously love it. I also love that I start out my Mondays and Wednesdays with it. It's a work out but it's so calming at the same time that I just want to do it for two hours every morning. K's sister goes to a yoga class someplace so I can't wait to see if I can join her sometime. After the semester though and I've practiced a gazillion poses in a safe place. :)
...date time with K. We decided to have a weekly date and take turns planning it. Last week was our first one and we had a really lovely time.
...being in love with someone who loves you back just as hard. Relationships are difficult but being in love makes it all worth it.
...having a really good group in my Government class. Sometimes group work is a total drag, but I genuinely like my day to day group and the group I'm doing the semester project with. Sure makes things a lot easier!
...watching the commercials from the Super Bowl in my Social Psychology class and discussing what social implications they have. I love nerding it up like that!
...phone calls from my niece and nephew. They're so stinking cute!
...having a job! It's going to stick and it's going to evolve into something really great in the near future. Yay!
...fitting in an eye appointment (and getting a year's supply of contacts) and refilling all prescriptions last month. It was like a free month's of insurance and kind of the only way I could vaguely stick it to my former employer.
...the food I got to eat while watching the first half of the Super Bowl. Don't care about football, but when Bart invites you over, you go. My favorite thing was the jalapenos wrapped in chicken and bacon that were then smoked. Mmmm...
...eating tuna by myself because it means I can be gross about it. Tuna fixed with mayo and then adding relish and minced onion. Awful horrible breath afterwards, but so gross it's just delicious.
...having an income again. It really does get to a point where it's demoralizing to not be contributing financially when you weren't all that well off in the first place.
...streaming Air 1 while at work. I have missed that radio station more than I realized!
...having a really supportive boyfriend.
...dinner last night: t-bones, salad, and wine with K and his mom. He cooked the steaks, I cut up the vegetables, and she poured the wine. :)
...having evenings free again. It's been a very long time...

movie review monday (the late edition): taken

Sorry for the delay... I think by the end of this week I will actually be adjusted to my new schedule and therefore my apartment will look a lot nicer and my blog will be updated on a regular basis. At least in theory. Actually on both of those. :)

On with the movie review!

I have not seen any of the Oscar nominated films for Best Picture (this may be the first year that I literally have yet to see any of them), but by golly, I've seen Taken twice.

It stars Liam Neeson and Maggie Grace and beyond that, all you need to know is that you are going to be in for an edge of your seat experience. I don't want to give too much information away because when I saw it, I knew very very little and thoroughly enjoyed myself just because of that. The daughter is seventeen years old and goes overseas with a friend. The dad is a former CIA operative and has retired and moved to be closer to his daughter. He and her mother divorced long ago because of his job taking him away from the family for such long periods of time. He is trying to make up for lost time in his relationship with his daughter by being available for her and whether or not she realizes this is kind of an unknown.

While overseas and talking on the phone with her dad, the daughter's friend gets taken by a group of men in all black. The dad talks her through what she needs to do, knowing she is about to be taken as well. And here is what sold me on the film. One of the kidnappers picks up her phone and breathes into it. The dad says "I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want. If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don't have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills; skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my daughter go now, that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you." There is a pause, then "Good luck" then the phone goes silent.

This is not a movie for young kids. It deals with a very real and awful situation that I believe is actually also happening in the United States. There is violence and language although there is no nudity or sex. Lots of implied situations but I was grateful for them only being implied. The best way to sum up the feel of the movie is to say it's Alias on steroids. If Jack Bristow were to go rogue, and on top of him going rogue Sydney was in danger, this would be the movie version.

There are fights and chases and guns and explosions and glass and so many moments that you hold your breath waiting to see what happens that part of you just can't believe when the movie is over. I absolutely loved it. My parents both really liked it too, however my mom has now banned me from traveling overseas.

Taken. See it. Love it. Tell me what you thought.

Rating: 5 of 5 stars. Seriously. Can't wait until I can own it.

Sunday, February 1, 2009

blah blah blah

I have a new job. For the time being at least. The reasons why I can't go into exact detail about it is are complicated so we'll just say that it's a strange combination of The Devil Wears Prada, The Nanny Diaries, and some sort of eccentric rental property management company. But it's not all bad or demeaning or anything like that. Just an endless source of entertainment since the daily tasks are never the same as the day before. I don't know how much I'm making yet, but at this point anything is good. I went a month with no income and that's enough to make it easy to take a job that has a high chance of turning into an awkward situation down the road.

The plan is to work for a month, as many hours as I can, and then go from there. I still have my resume up on monster and I will take any interviews offered my way. Then after the month is up I'll decide if I need to be pursuing another job hardcore or if I can just continue to work where I started this past week. I'm also vaguely hoping to save a bit of money here and there in order to start selling Mary Kay, but I need to talk to a few more people and see what their experiences have been because so far I have one negative one.

My official new weekly schedule has me up at 5 am on Mondays and Wednesdays and 6:30 am on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. I was ridiculously tired this past week because I am really thoroughly not used to getting up early in the morning and being active ALL DAY LONG. I figure by the end of this week though, I should be pretty used to it. I really like the idea of having my evenings back. In theory at least. I was pretty bad at staying awake past 9 pm last week. Heh.