I research randomness

Oh memes...

So I was just watching my daily meme vids, laughing to myself and taking screenshots of the best ones that I'd want to save & share.
Please enjoy a representation of my meme humor:  (1) random human comedy, (2) mental health jokes, and (3) puns.

(my apologies for the strong language)

     I've been saving memes from "meme dealers" (like those facebook pages where they repost things from tumblr, and twitter posts, or those vine compilation videos, or this one app I had called Smile that had pretty clean funny content, or what I watch these days, just meme awards videos on YouTube, and etc) for years. And, since I transferred all my files from laptop to laptop as I got hand-me-down computers as a teen (and then my very own Mac after HS graduation), I still have all of the thousands and thousands of memes and text posts and random funny content that I laughed at 10 years ago. I have ones from probably the beginning of my internet days.
     But anyway. Those were the ones from today.

     And then, there's this one: it made me laugh out loud a couple days ago when I saw it in another video, and I saw it again today in the same video as the previous memes and decided to find out what it was about.

     I want to see this video! Haha it sounds so sad!!

     So I looked it up, and this short bit was what I found first:

     It's 6 seconds, and there's garbled Japanese narration in the background, and I have no context...

     But then I looked at another Google result, and this one made more sense:

     Poor raccoon, haha. But he learns on the third try! yaaaay

Anyway. This reminds me of how I had decorated my half of our window when I was at Liberty in the motel-dorm, The Annex, with printed memes. I wonder if I have a picture...I still have all of the little papers from when I moved and took them down. 

....I just spent like an hour looking for pictures of that, but completely forgot what I was there for, so I ended up saving a bunch of photos from my Google photos in the cloud. xD

Like this, at least this one somewhat relates to my search, but it was the wrong semester:

And then I looked in the right semester, and I did find a picture of our window (hehe):

Rachel (left) and leaning-over-to-make-the-names-readable me (right)

But that was before we decorated the window. Hmmmmmm. I still have a folder of the memes I'd printed out to put in said window.

Ah, and here's a picture I had Rachel take when she pointed out that I was very dainty (or maybe she used a different word) in the way I'd pointed my toes, and it looked like the a photoshoot with a big fancy dress or something:

Okay, I'm going to stop getting stuck looking through old screenshots of Snapchats from Alex, and finish up this blog post...which is kind of a mess now...lol. 

Here are a few of the memes I had in my window:

     I loved all the music-themed ones, because in addition to being a music student myself, my roomie was into music as well--she would have made a great music student, but she had mechanical engineering to study, and that 5-year major takes a lot of intense work. 

     But yeah. :) ...The following poem resulted from my attempt to close this post quickly. It failed, but the poem was fun to create. x)

That Meme Section

Enjoy this selection 

from my meme collection,

which began as a study on culture.

If you have an objection 

to an imperfection, 

I apologize for anything vulgar.

So upon inspection,

if I find a connection

relating to anything crude,

I'll make a correction,

for I respect the protection

of any who have not yet viewed.

But my own election

is simply deflection

of content that sometimes disturbs;

They come my direction

and escape detection:

Sometimes I don't notice bad words.

—ACS, August 27, 2018

Coffee shop pt3

  

A Job Offer!

"Hey, just wanted to update everybody--I just got out of my interview with The Main Cup coffee shop/restaurant in Milford, and I have a solid job offer!! I'm so excited!!
It's going to be the same number of hours & rate of pay (a bit more actually) as my nanny job that I did during the school year. I could look for a part-time job to supplement it if I need to, after working there for a few months and figuring out what I need. :)
After learning the details of the job, I now know that I am even more qualified and prepared for it than I believed I was at first. It's more food prep than barista, and I'll get to use my ServSafe certificate knowledge. I'm going to be in a learning environment, and I'll get to work with a chef and several other people in a close-knit group in the kitchen. I might get cross-trained on the Front of the House positions as well.
It's really more than I could have hoped for. Thanks for praying :)
It's a coffee shop that's expanding into a restaurant that serves weekend brunch, so the new building is going to open around September 22nd. The manager/consultant who interviewed me said he'd let me know by next week when I would start training, but most likely it will be 2 weeks before opening. So I'll probably start working the first or second week of September."

SO.
FRIKIN.
PUMPED.

I was really expecting that I'd have to spend a lot more time looking for a job before I got one that worked for me, or even a job that would call me back. But here I am, all set to make enough money for rent and utilities and everything I pay for while living on my own, and it hasn't even been 2 weeks since I found out I needed to get a job for the fall. God is so good. =)

--ACS, August 22nd, 2018

I finally got to use my Pokemon card!

So this week, I'm babysitting one of my second-cousin's kids, like a second-niece and second-nephew or something.

     And her little girl, who's 8 years old, is a total kindred spirit when it comes to all things nerdy. I don't know if I'm allowed to give her name online, so I'll call her Skylar. 

     Skylar's gotten into Pokemon from her dad, and their family has a huge collection of Pokemon cards. Like, a 3-inch binder with pages and pages of them, plus the three Poke-decks that they play from. And the cover of her binder has a picture of about 15 Pokemon that she drew herself! It's so cute, and it totally makes me wish I'd played Pokemon when I was little. She knows all their names, and all their evolutions (she calls them "evolvements" and I don't know enough about Pokemon to know if that's what they call the next one up, or if I'm right in thinking that they're called "evolutions" instead. Hehe). 

     So I have a Stufful card, and it's one that Alex bought at Toys-R-Us and gave to me. It's a really cute Pokemon, and this one has an ability called "Baby Doll Eyes" where it can keep the opponent's Pokemon from being able to retreat on that turn. Its secondary ability is a tackle that does, like, extra damage, and that's really good—After you've used Baby Doll Eyes and trapped your opponent, you can do that tackle and they can't get away from it.

     I had no knowledge of this before Skylar's dad told her she should teach me how to play Pokemon, since I was showing her Minecraft (she picked that up lightning fast, by the way). So she got out her personal Poke-deck and her mom's deck and set it all up at the kitchen bar for us to play. 

     I was so lost, and I had that newb feel hitting me as I had to ask her to explain each and every move to me. But she explained them all, and the cards and what they were for, each time I asked. She's a great kid.

Appraising my Pokemon card

     Soon after she set it all up, I told her, "You know, I have a Pokemon card. Just one."

     "Really? What card is it?" she asked, instantly interested.

     "I think...I know it has babydoll eyes, but I don't know..." 

     She was confused, and when I went to my purse and pulled it out of the pocket where I keep business cards, I said, "Stufful. That's the name of the Pokemon."

     "Oh, Stufful—can I see?"

     And from there she wanted to take it out of the shrink wrap cover that it was still sealed in, and she carefully slid it into one of her extra sleeves. "You can keep this," she told me, and she continued to inspect the card. "This is one of the last Stufful cards they made," she said, pointing out the number 110/149. I asked, "So there are only 149 of those cards? And I have one?"

     She then explained that there are 149 different types of Stufful Pokemon cards, and that this one has the Baby Doll Eyes attack and the Tackle attack. Then she went to her deck and pulled out another Stufful, which had a different illustration and a different set of attacks. I was intrigued. 

     Time flew by as Skylar showed me how to attack with the cards in my deck—how to set them up on my "bench"—and how my Stufful could be played at the end of a round (idk what they'd call it, a match maybe?) when the opponent Pokemon's HP was low enough for that damage from my second attack to take it down. It was so fun! 

     One of the greatest things that I've experienced has been finding that connection that someone shares with me. 

     Sometimes it's discovering that another student grew up with the same Abeka homeschool curriculum that I did (it was at a Knowledge Bowl competition, and both of us knew the answer to a question about who invented the automatic reaper from our history book in 5th grade, because we could picture the exact spot on the page that talked about Cyrus McCormick). Other times, it's finding out that another MK has a common love of Tolkien and other fantasy series like The Inheritance Cycle. Once, I met the guy who had grown up with the books, and had first read The Fellowship of the Ring when he was about 11, just like me! (can you guess who that was? 😊)

     I got distracted on this post but I'm finishing it up so that I can write more posts and have them come in order... x) I had a fun time with these kids, and I can't wait until I get to see them again.

—ACS, August 2018

Coffee shop pt2

Update — They called me about my resume and wanted to schedule an interview!!

It's not until the 20th, but that's alright. It gives me time to apply to other places, too, just in case that one doesn't work out. I'm so excited!!

Right now I'm struggling with the desire to make it a habit of going to that coffee shop in the mornings, just because I love the atmosphere, and because I want to get to know the people—staff and the regulars—so that if I work there, I'll have them in my memory already.

But coffee is expensive. And I don't know what the pay will be. Their website says that they do Belgian waffles every Saturday morning, and I'm especially interested in coming in for that. They say they go fast, and to arrive early.

It's a dilemma! 😣(Lol I love these emojis, the alternative text for them is hilarious. "Persevering Face" for that one, whereas I would have named it "mfff, ugh" or something lol.)

Anyway :/ How much money can I afford to spend in my efforts to acquaint myself with a potential workplace? I spent like $5 on the coffee that I bought as a courtesy on Tuesday when I went in to ask about applying. Smallest size, too. And it was so delicious. 😋(lol another emoji, this one is "Face Savoring Delicious Food"—very appropriate.)

I'm about to record all my gas station receipts (I just always stuff them in my car's little cubby above the stereo, you know, where I keep my Altoids) from the past month or two, and while I do that, I'll be keeping this in mind. I really want to go back to that coffee shop, but I don't want to be a rude customer who doesn't buy coffee and/or brings their own and uses the free wifi 😬("Grimacing Face", yes yes.) Maybe I can budget a weekly or bi-weekly visit, and maybe they have a cheaper drink option that I would feel better buying. (On Tuesday, it was one of their specialties—a "Purple Rain", a vanilla lavender latte. Sweet hallelujah. I'll need to hope that I'd burn a lot of calories as a barista if I'm gonna work in a place with such heavenly decadence. 😵["Dizzy Face"—I would have called it "Mind-Blowing Excitement" or "Miraculous, Shocking Discovery" or "Disbelief And Ecstatic Realization"]......I think my Adderall and coffee is starting to work, haha. Anyhow. I am definitely going to Planet Fitness today, not only because I'll most likely have the motivation to go and the energy to work out with FIRE IN MY VEINS, but because I was going to cancel my subscription, but realized that I'd already paid for August.)

So yes. I'm excited about possibly working at The Main Cup, and today is going to be a go-and-get-'em day for me I think. I've already begun recording receipts, starting with gas stations and then all the Walmart ones, and I'm about to finish that here in a bit.

Please pray for me as I start a new job in the next month, whether it's at this coffee shop or somewhere else. The last time I got a job in the summer (last year), it was too much all at once and I had to leave after barely three months. I'm doing so much better right now, especially thanks to the Adderall, so I have a good feeling about getting a job this summer. :) Thank you for all of your support, guys! I love you all!


—ACS, August 8, 2018

Cleaning the kitchen

Today I'm doing the dishes.

     There really aren't as many as I feel like there are when I pass the kitchen on my way to my room and avoid looking in the sink for fear that the guilt of leaving them there will descend upon me and keep me from being able to slack off in bliss.

     There really aren't that many.

     -_-

     In fact, I counted the number of forks, spoons, and knives that I own, because I always feel like I need more (and not just because I dirty them up and don't wash them). Man, I look bad in that picture. Anyway. I counted them and discovered this: 

     Ugh, I don't have an even, consistent number of anything! I texted Alex the results and just said..."So this is...kind of...blegh :p I will enjoy having enough money to properly stock a silverware drawer someday."
     And he agreed...I think he has, like, one fork and a spoon? I feel like he must have more than that, but that's all I remember seeing in his drawer when he moved into his new place a couple weeks ago, and I haven't seen any more since then.
     I'm proud of even having any silverware at all. There's a story to how I acquired such a random assortment of silverware, and it begins with Project Grad, 2015.

     It's not really very dramatic like I seem to be making it. But I wanted to add this picture that we miraculously remembered to take while we were there.
     "Project Graduation" was a tradition at our high school, and was a big lock-in party after the graduation ceremony for the seniors and their friends. Each senior was given a ticket and two friend tickets each, and that was the only way any underclassmen could attend. I picked Alicia and Tori, and while I wanted to invite our fourth friend, Mahliya, who was a freshman like Alicia and my brother Rickey, she wasn't allowed to come, and that was too bad. :/ But those three were my best friends from public HS.
     So this party had lots of fun activities, a buffet of food like pizza, oreos, and brownies, an art table stocked by our school's art teacher (I think, if I remember right), and--biggest of all--a bouncy house obstacle course in the gym. It was pretty sweet.
     Aside from getting to run around all night drinking soda and riding tricycles through the cafeteria and the gym with your best friends, there were also gifts for each of the graduating seniors. Since the party was parent-organized and wasn't school-funded, it depended wholly on the group of moms and dads of that year's seniors to raise money for the bouncy house rental, the food, the tricycles, and the games. They also put as much of the funds as they could into the gift baskets. Thinking back, not only was I blessed to be a senior when Miss Pam was on the Project Grad planning team, but I was also lucky (blessed!) to be at that small town school where everybody was somebody, and each student was personally thought of when they graduated and given such a wonderful graduation present.
     That year, the "baskets" for the gifts were these black duffle bags, and they were filled with things a kid might need once they moved out, either on their own to start a career or into a dorm at college. I brought almost everything that I got in that gift basket with me to Liberty, and the few things that I didn't need (like a discounted laptop that had half the capabilities and features of the Mac that I bought later that summer) were easily exchanged at Walmart for in-store credit. I sold that credit to my parents and put that couple hundred toward my own computer purchase, and it's been a magnificent deal. I'll never forget how incredibly I was gifted on my graduation. Thank you to anyone reading who made that celebration happen.
     These are some of the treasures that I found waiting inside my very own duffle bag:

• a big plastic turquoise bowl (my favorite color at the time!) that I would definitely use as a popcorn bowl
• a little bottle of Tide laundry detergent (I was going to need to have my own at the dorm)
• a set of Ziploc-brand plastic containers with lids (great for organizing things in my desk, as well as saving leftovers in the fridge)
• a drawstring net laundry bag (I also got a couple other net laundry hampers, including a three-section one from my grandma that makes it easy to organize clothes by color)
• Other things that I can't remember right now
• Silverware from the dollar store (the ones where a set of 4 forks is taped together and sells for $1) including:
• 4 knives
• 3 forks, tape cut open to remove one of the original 4
• 3 tea spoons, also with tape removed
• 3 dinner spoons, also with tape removed

     It turned out that they only had enough for each student to get 3 of each utensil, and there wasn't an even number, so some people got to have the full set of 4. 

     That's the story of how I got some of my silverware. But the whole story continues a year later in the summer of 2016.

     I couldn't find a picture from the wedding itself without going on Facebook, and I mostly want to post pics from my own photos, but this is from a wedding in Wisconsin that my friend and I (pictured above) were bridesmaids in. We flew up with her mom and stayed in the bible school's dorm, which was in the same building as the reception and was right up the hill from the chapel where the ceremony would be located. However, since it was a dorm we were staying in, and we came up a few days early to help prepare for the wedding, we needed to be able to prepare our own food while we stayed there. I don't think we knew that when we were packing, because we ended up buying pots and pans and cheap dishes to eat from while we were up there. Her mom actually carried a cast-iron dutch oven back on the plane. I contributed on this shopping trip by getting a cute yellow coffee mug from the dollar store and some silverware: knives, teaspoons, and forks, all sets of 4 that were almost the same as the ones I already owned.

     Now that I think about it, I should have another fork somewhere... I know I got 3 when I graduated and I'm pretty sure I bought 4 in Wisconsin, but I don't know where the other one is. Maybe it's lost in my apartment, or maybe while I was at Liberty, it got swept up with someone else's belongings when we were dividing everything up as we moved. Who knows.

     Anyway. I dropped everything an hour ago to count my silverware and then write about it, aaand now I've been blogging and haven't finished the dishes. I can put away the ones that have dried, though, and I won't have to dry them with a towel. 😀I would always rather let them drip-dry than have to dry them off. It's because I'm lazy. But anyway.
     I'm going to get back to doing the dishes and cleaning the kitchen and throwing away expired food from the fridge and taking out the trash. I'll see you the next time I get excited about a memory, or how my day is turning out, and just have to share it.

—ACS, August 8, 2018

I'm in a coffee shop

(My email to Neila after she recommended that I walk in and talk to Jim or Jill about applying to this little coffee shop down the road from her counseling office:)

Hey!! I’m in my happy place :)

And Jill gave me a card with their website so that I could send in a resume. She said that they’re having open interviews in a couple Sundays, so I’ll be coming in for that. I ordered a decaf Purple Rain latte (the lavender and vanilla flavor! so good!) and I’m hoping that I can update my resume here and then send it. 

I think I need to upload it to Google Docs so that I can email them a link, since the “Contact Us” page on their website doesn’t have an option for directly uploading files.

Thank you for recommending them to me! It turns out that they’re only hiring 21 and up, so that’s perfect for me. I am very excited and I really hope it works out. I might just hang out in this coffee shop anyway, it has a hipster Christian radio coming through the speakers right above my table and it’s so pleasant and familiar to me. 

Sipping coffee (very, very delicious coffee), listening to the sounds of the regulars chatting and laughing with the baristas…it’s such a nice little spot right now. And I was carrying my Lord of the Rings hoodie, and when I sat down and took out my laptop, it was just a bit chilly so I was able to put it on.

Can I express just how relaxing, invigorating, calming, enthusing, and lovely this is right now? 

Ashley Spence

"The Main Cup in Milford grinds their own their own beans", photo from Yelp!