Growing Up

I made a slideshow over two years ago and just found it yesterday. I updated it so it has at least one picture all the way from age 2 to age 19... and now I'm posting it :)

One More Day

I turned in my final draft of essay two yesterday for english class. I'm a bit anxious to find out what I got on it. I thought I did well on the rough draft, but my fellow students didn't agree. I did more editing on this paper than I think I ever have on an essay before. So hopefully it was worth my time and effort.


I'm done with everything for my math class, with the exception of the final. After calculating it all out though, it's pointless for me to take my final. Don't get me wrong, I'm going to take it. However, it's worth forty points and I need 80+ to get an A in the class and I would need to get a negative 14 on the test to get a C, which of course isn't possible. I already have a 5/40 for letting my teacher know that I was going to show up. I really thought this was going to be my first A in math ever, but maybe next time.


I hung out with Alaina last night since she's leaving for Best Buddies International on Friday morning. We basically just surfed facebook and took silly pictures, ranted about boys and school... typical stuff nothing special. She's decided that her and I need to start going camping every weekend just the two of us. Honestly, I have no problem with that :)


We took some typical Britaina pictures <3

Working

I worked the night shifts both Tuesday and Wednesday this week and both days were relatively slow. There were the stupid questions here and there and of course the typical paperwork and checking guests in, but other than that not much else was going on. So, I decided to take advantage of my time and work on my homework. I finished my rough draft for essay two of my english class and I am working on the last chapter for my math class. However, while working on my math homework yesterday, I figured out that if I hit the button "similar exersice" after my three attempts were up, I could have three more attempts at the same problem with new numbers- and get credit for it! So all this time, I could have been getting 100% on all of my homework and pretty much gaurenteed myself an A in the class. I was so angry that my teacher didn't let us know, that would have been good information at the begining of the class instead of the end! Darn...

Today I am working the morning shift and it is again still slow, even though we are at a pretty decent occupancy. There was a couple that came in a few minutes ago to look at a room and check the rates so I showed them around and gave them a five percent discount and just did the typical sales part of my possision. While I was putting their information into the computer they started talking in a different language, it didn't sound familiar at all but the man had a very strong accent to begin with. He said he was from Texas, but I think they were from Africa originally. After a minute of them talking, they started using clicks in their speach, it was interesting to listen to, and it makes me wonder where they are from and why they are here and everything else. They then turned to me and politley asked what my age was, when I told them I was nineteen they said that I look much younger, but I act so much older. They were impressed with my professionalism and pleased with how much I helped them find what they needed. It's always nice to get compliments like that, it just makes my day that much better.

In fact, there is another guest here who is on the long term program that I helped situate and get the lowest rate for him and made sure he got a room where he wanted and away from all of his employees that are here as well. He told both Victoria and Leslie how great of an employee I am and that I should be getting some sort of benefit for my work and how much money I made the company by getting him into the hotel (especially since he brings in people like crazy and they all stay at least one month.) Then, days later he was "horrified" to hear that I wasn't recieving anything for it, not even a thank you. I understand it is my job, and I told him that but he was still not satisfied. So instead, whenever I work the night shift if I am hungry and he is cooking, he makes me a dish too. So far he has made me two dinners: steak, mixed veggies with potatoes, and salad, and homemade tacos. He has also gotten me a pet fish that I named Beluga who sits on my counter at work. He keeps telling me that whatever I want he'll get it for me, and the fact that he makes $350,000 per year, I don't feel guilty about a meal or two. The thing he really wants to do is get me a gift certificate for a resturaunt of my choice, but when I told him Chili's or something like that he scoffed; he wants it to be a fancy resturaunt that I couldn't afford otherwise. Basically, from what he has said he felt I should be getting some of the profit the hotel is making on their stay, and that should be around three to five hundred dollors. So I should be going to a resturaunt that costs at least a hundred a person. I just can't ask for that much money from someone though, it doesn't feel right.

This upcoming weekend is going to be atrosious though, I work two twelve hour shifts. As Jeffery said, I could have said no. I can always say no, but I just feel bad when I do. It's hard to say no... But then I started looking at the schedule today and realized something. I decided to calculate the hours, and Victoria is only scheduled for twenty-five hours this week! What the heck?! Seriously, I work extra so that my boss can work barely over one day in a full week? That's just not right! Gr.

My final for math is a week from today. Just the thought of it makes my stomach turn... I do get to bring a 3x5 index card of notes though. I'm going to cram that baby FULL!

Well, back to work now :)

Just An Update

So the weekend went well and my little gathering of friends was a total blast; it really lifted my spirits and put me in a good mood for the entire weekend all the way up until yesterday. Not that I'm not in a good mood now, it's just that I was practically walking around with a smile plastered to my face. I was talking to Aaron about a little of everything and I realized that he is the type of person that although he gets along with literally everyone, he would be perfectly happy all alone. I don't think I could ever do that. In fact, I know I couldn't. I love my friends, and I love to socialize way to much to seperate myself from others.



And since last weekend was so much fun, Alaina and I have decided to keep this high-on-life feeling going by planning a camping trip for this upcoming weekend. Aaron, Jessica, Alaina, Blake, and I are all going for sure. Alaina's mom is letting us use their large tent that has seperate rooms as well as her suv. We're going to Christopher Creek, or at least I think that's what Alaina said. I am going over to her house to continue planning after work today. It's very exciting!



On top of that, since the following weekend is going to be the last that Alaina is available to do anything before all of her Best Buddy President stuff starts up, we are trying to convince her mom to let us go to Vegas to see Love. She likes the Beatles, and I loved it when I went (no pun intended.) Besides that, we have been trying to plan a road trip since before school was released and it's about time we take that trip.



Speaking of school, I am doing well in my math class, which actually surprised me a bit. It's discouraging to fail a class and have to take it over again, so I was really not pleased at all, but it's actually a lot better for me and I've only gotten one mark below a C which was on homework. Other than that I'm doing well. I got an eighty on my midterm, which to be quite honest I was not all too happy with. It is a B, so I am happy, but I thought I would have missed one, maybe two problems tops. Oh well, it's better than before which means I'm learning. I just would love to get an A in the class, it would be my first ever in math and I think I would cry from shock and happiness as well as pride.



On a different topic, I'm really starting to love my job. I work Tuesday evening and Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday nights. I always thought that I enjoyed having a day off and then working two days and then having a day off and then working three days... but that was until I started having three days in a row off. It's absolutely amazing! By the time Tuesday rolls around I'm ready to go back to work and I'm all refreshed too so that I actually work instead of half-assing it. The only bad point is the exact opposite: by the time it's Friday I don't care what happens or where, I just want it done so that I can leave.



Anyway, as I was saying I'm really starting to love working here. My fellow employees are great, the ones I actually work with at least. The other GSR's are eh but I only see them for maybe three hours a week if even that. Martha is one of my housekeepers and she acts like the mom of me and Alaina when she's here. She's really sweet with a sense of humor and is just as social as I am, so we get along really well. Mike is the maintainece man here, he is cool too. He's like a twentyone year old in a thirty something year old's body. We listen to the same music and have the same taste in pretty much everything. Cindy is another housekeeper, she's old and frail but has a major bite. She's polish too so I think most of her personality reminds me very much of Monika; they even have the same facial expressions sometimes. Victoria is my boss and she's great- most of the time at least. It's really weird with her because the more aggressive you are toward her, the more she seems to like you. Like Mike called her a witch with a capital b the other day and she immediately calmed down and was pleasant for the rest of the day. Personally, I would have fired him, but that's just Victoria. She's a real sweetie most of the time though; she just doesn't take kindly to anything she thinks is stupid.


So it's been a couple days since I wrote the above, it's been crazy busy for me. The planning of the camping trip was pretty rough and took several hours on Wednesday. I am supposed to go pick up Aaron and Jessica in Apache Junction tonight so that we can all leave from my place in the morning, but currently I am stuck at work. I was supposed to be off at two, but instead I'm waitng for Pam to arrive. Anyway, I also have been swamped with school work and stressing very much over my english class. I ordered the book over a week ago and it still has yet to arrive. My final draft is due on Monday, and I have yet to even start the essay. I sent an email to Mr. Martinez, so at least he knows. My math class is okay though, I only have one section left in chapter six, chapter seven, review, and my final to complete then I'm done with the course. I'm really hoping that this camping trip is fun and takes my mind off of school for a couple days.


On another note, I need to plan a trip to Vegas. I haven't seen Gma in a while, or the rest of the family for that matter. I was planning on seeing them when Alaina and I went to Vegas, but she isn't going to go. I know Jeff wants to go too, so hopefully we'll make it up there before fall semester starts up.


Other than that, nothing much is new. I'm just living my life and having a blast while doing so. Better than anything else, I'm happy.

Barbie

So I spent the night at Alaina's last night. We watched a movie that we promised ourselves we wouldn't, but of course we enjoyed it. Mom called me this morning around nine, but we were still in bed and I really wasn't awake enough to have a full-out conversation with her. All I remember is that she said she would be home tomorrow. After another hour or two of sleeping, Alaina and I went to Wal-mart to buy Diet Coke and some food for lunch. We really didn't do much today but we sat and talked. It was one of those long talks that make you feel relaxed afterwords... this particular talk was about ex-boyfriends.

But then five o'clock rolled around, and it was time for me to meet Brennan at his place so that we could attend Ashley's funeral. We arrived about a half hour early and not many people had showed up yet. We went into the auditorium and picked some seats semi-close to the front on the friends side. There was a picture of her though, and so we both had to step outside to contain ourselves. When we decided to go back in, it was ten minutes before the scheduled time of start (even though it didn't start on time) and there were several more bunches of people. I knew most of them, but none of the family. It was interesting, because people moved from where they were sitting to sit next to Brennan and I. Several of the people I hadn't seen in ages, but they were glad that I came. Everyone was pleased to know that everyone else there cared and that her life didn't go unnoticed.

Throughout the ceremony there were lots of tears shed even though everyone knew that Ashley would kick all of our butts if she ever saw us shed a single tear because of her. We all tried to laugh it off, but it was one of the most difficult things I've ever had to do. At one point the person speaking actually had to stop because he was reading a poem that caused a few of us to cry to the point of sobbing. The line was something about how we may think that God took her too soon but it was part of his plan and she had lived a full life. It actually made me quite angry. I'm nineteen years old and haven't even begun my life, Ashley was barely eighteen. How on earth could anyone consider that a full life? And all I could think about throughout was how could someone kill someone so young? She didn't just die, she was killed. She was shot four times in the face by an ex boyfriend... We couldn't even get a last glimpse at our friend.

And then they played the Angel's Among Us song witch me and a couple other people tried to sing a few versus to, but I couldn't help but think: "There are angels among us, and one of them was just taken away." Ashley was honestly a godsend to so many people. She always had a smile on her face and she always knew how to put one on yours as well.

After the ceremony was over, we all tried our best to put the tears behind us. Ashley was truly one of those girls that could turn anything negative into something positive, and we knew that is what she would have wanted.

I have never seen so many people under twenty at a funeral before, but I was very happy to see how loved she was- as was her family. Her uncle came over and gave all of us a hug and a smile to thank us for caring.

Some of us played football in memory of her, since she literally played everyday. Others just sat around at the park and laughed and joked around for an hour or so. More people went to swim at Chris' house, but I was ready to go home.

I haven't cried so hard or so much in a very long time, but it is behind me now. Ashley, I shed my tears for you at the funeral to show that I love and care for you. I will proudly say that you were like a little sister to me that grew into a wonderful young woman. So now I put away the sadness, and remember the good times and the good nature within you, because I know that you will always be in our hearts. We miss and love you so dearly, Barbie <3