First of all, (Sorry, Britt) I need your address so I can send out my holiday cards. I think I only have the current address for about three of you, so please email me at Amanda234 AT gmail DOT com because I would love to send each of you a card. I really really would. Thank you.





I've spent a total of about eight hours working on the picture above in SketchUp, and it's still not close to being finished. I need to get rid of the line on the wall (when I erase it the whole wall falls apart) and add soffit. And hard ware. And I'm sure a ton of other things.

I've spend this whole semester procrastinating because December seemed like a such a long way away. In this class, the whole grade is essentially based on designing and presenting a house. There are only three times in the whole semester we get grades for this, so each point is pretty important. I was never worried because really? December? That's a long way away. Except for that the entire thing is due TWO WEEKS from yesterday. Good lord.

It's not like it's an easy two weeks either, the only days I have off work between now and then are tomorrow, Thanksgiving, and the Saturday after Thanksgiving (because I'll be at a wedding).

I forsee a serious lack of sleep in my future. Stupid procrastination.

Making birthday plans as an adult kind of sucks. Remember when you were a kid, and your birthday was all that mattered? Apparently, your 24th birthday is not that big of a deal. And I don't really want it to be either.

Previously, I've always not gone to class on my birthday, so I could spend the day doing my favorite thing (wearing pajamas and watching television). This year, I really need to go to class because of the intense course load. So I'll be spending most of my birthday day hunched over a drafting table.

Then, my boyfriend has an exam in his ecology class in the evening so I won't even see him until after 8. Sure, I could just go out with friends, but he's the one I want to spend my birthday with. So we'll go to a late-ish dinner, but I can't even stay out that late because I have to work on Friday, and I do much better when I'm not exhausted and hungover.

Oh well. It won't be that bad. At least I have someone to be upset with for not spending time with me on my birthday, I suppose. I think I'll let this one slide, but my 25th birthday had better be fucking huge.

I'm sorry to talk about the election, I really am. I know you're all electioned out. You don't have to read it if you don't want to, of course. And to be honest, it's kind of a downer. But I feel so mixed up right now. Or, a better word, bittersweet.

On one hand, all of the people/issues I voted for passed, which has never happened before. I've never voted for a winner (except for one senate race). My candidate for governor, Jay Nixon, won by a landslide (with 57% of the votes, I believe). Both of the issues I really cared about in my state (Proposition A which changed the rules about gambling, giving schools a shit ton more money, and Prop C, which had to do with renewable energy) both passed overwhelmingly.

And, of course, some dude won some race for president. I can't begin to describe the elation I felt when CNN first projected Obama as the winner. I immediately began crying because that's the only way I could get it out. I then saw MSNBC and Foxnews also report him the winner, and knew it had really happened. We had really voted for change. We had really voted against the tyranny and against four more years of the same failed policies.

And yes, we voted for a black man, which is huge. I personally didn't vote for or against him because of the color of his skin, but I understand some people did. If I were going to vote for someone based on a physical attribute, I would have voted for Hilary in the primaries. But I didn't.

And yet, along with the elation I felt, I also felt sorrow. Sorrow for John McCain. He was perfectly gracious, honorable, and strong during his concession speech, and it reminded me of the old John McCain. The John McCain who wasn't afraid to stand up for what he believed in, who wasn't afraid to reach across party lines, and who didn't put air quotes around "women's health." That was a guy I could have stood behind. That was a guy who could have helped heal this country after 8 years of such divisive partisanship. I feel badly for how poorly managed his campaign was, and I feel badly that he felt an inexperienced, unpolished, controversial woman could possibly be a good choice as a VP.

There are many other issues that killed my good feeling buzz as well. To quote my future sister in law's Facebook status "remembering the sounds of the campus last night, while people in California wake up to find out they aren't legally married anymore" I'm amazed that we've made so much progress that a black man was voted president, and yet we're still writing hate into the constitution. Not just in California, obviously, but also in Florida and Arizona.

I'm appalled. I'm truly appalled. It gives me a sick feeling in my stomach to think about the hatred and bigotry that's still occurring on a daily basis. I don't see how we could have come so far in civil rights, but are so backwards still. It sickens me that people would vote to take away our right to choose how to express love.

It just proves how far we still have to go. We've made progress, yes. Barack Obama is living proof of that. But until we stop discriminating against each other based on things that are out of our control (for example, the color of our skin or who we love)we can't move forward.

However, I'm hopeful. Hopeful about our future as a nation, hopeful we can come together to make a real change. We have the tools we need. We have a President-elect who's one of the most dynamic, exciting politicians in a long time. I truly hope he lives up to his promise, and I have no doubt he will. After all, Yes We Can.

I, for one, had an awesome Halloween. How was yours?





Little known fact: I'm only four feet tall.

Happy Halloween, all. I'd like to go on the record saying I'm jealous of all of you in Orlando.

I've never been much of a dreamer. At least, I don't remember my dreams in the morning. Recently though, I've been having some bizarre dreams.

Some are obvious as to their meaning. Last night I had a dream where a customer at my store starting yelling at me, telling me I didn't know the difference between monk's cloth and broadcloth. I tried to explain that I did know if she would listen. Then she got mad because I said viscose was rayon. Have I mention that I'm taking a textiles class? And not doing so well in it?

Other dreams are harder to interpret. For instance, I was at a library with my boyfriend and he bought a poster from one of the librarians for $1,000. I got mad at him and made him return it, but they were only willing to give us credit towards a school fund raising catalog. So we had to pick out $1,000 in cheeses, sausages, and wrapping paper within a half an hour on a Supermarket Sweep type stage.

What the hell does that mean?

Reason #4987 I love my boyfriend:

His bank has a points system (you spend money, get points, turn points into rewards) and he's been saving them for awhile. However, his bank is currently most likely getting bought out by some foreign company (one of the few big ones not being bailed out by the government) so he wanted to spend them in case the new owners got rid of the system.

His decision? A gift card for Morton's, a Starbucks gift card, and a gift card for Sephora.

He could have chosen Best Buy, or something for himself, but he chose two we both would enjoy and one just for me.

He can be really sweet sometimes.

I had kind of an interesting weekend again.

It started off Saturday when we went to the Missouri Botanical Gardens to see the Niki sculpture exibit. It's not my kind of art, but it was interesting to see it at least. It doesn't hurt to learn new things occasionally.

Then we went to a fairly new casino here, Lumiere Place, which neither of us had been to before. For my birthday next month (November 13th, feel free to send presents) we're going to a restaurant there so I wanted a trial run, because last year on my birthday we couldn't find the restaurant we wanted so we drove around for an hour getting really lost. Anyway, I wanted to make sure we could find it, so we went to a place there called Burger Bar and I had my first taste of Kobe beef. It tasted like all other beef I've had.

After that we went to equal rights festival at a local college, which was mostly hippies sitting around singing songs. We then went to the grocery store and bought stuff for a cook out, since it was probably the last weekend we'd have temperatures in the 80s. My boyfriends brother grilled while my boyfriend set up his projector outside again. So we ate yummy food while watching Old School and playing Mario Party under the stars.

The next day, I had to work, but that evening I went out to a couple of bars with my coworkers. I don't get out a lot without my boyfriend, so it was nice to do something different. Especially at the second bar, where there was only a small group of us.

Monday I worked again, but monday night something wonderful happened. I went to my first Death Cab for Cutie concert. They've been one of my favorite bands (and my boyfriend's absolute favorite) for years and years, but we've never been able to go to a concert (mostly because they don't come here often) It was by far one of the best concerts I've ever been to. It was so exciting. I've never seen so many skinny jeans, plaid shirts, and converse in one place before. For those of you who care, this is a part of what they played:

The New Year
Bixby Canyon Bridge
Grapevine Fires
Soul Meets Body
I Will Follow You Into the dark
I Will Possess Your Heart
Cath
Marching Bands of Manhattan
Crooked Teeth
Long Division
No Sunlight
The Sound of Settling
Title and Registration
Tiny Vessels
Transatlanticism

All my favorite songs. They played more, but I can't remember the whole set list. I would have liked to hear A Lack of Color, but I'll live. I was surprised they played Transatlanticism, bands usually don't play their super long songs live, but it's by far my favorite of theirs. It made me cry. My boyfriend would have liked to hear What Sarah Said, but he'll live also. When they played I Will Follow You Into The Dark it was sort of surreal, they turned all the lights off except a single spotlight on Ben and the whole crowd sang along.

Oh yeah, and Fleet Foxes opened for them. If you're not familiar, they're almost like a choir that sings indie rock. They have amazing harmonies, which were even better live.