so i had a very eventful day yesterday. i woke up at 530am and went to the natatorium to go for a swim with a friend of mine (not sure if i’m supposed to name names in blogs, so i’ll name everyone anonymous till i specifically get permission i guess).  the only time i’d ever been to an indoor pool was with my grandma, so i was assuming it was just a big pool, only inside. come to find out, it was actually a massive “pool” with about six “lanes” in which a bunch of old men were swimming laps in speedos. ugh. i was feeling extremely uncomfortable in my blue leopard-print, 2 piece, string bikini. no wonder she asked me whether i was wearing a 2 piece or a 1 piece before we walked in. as it turns out, anonymous is quite an experienced swimmer and just picked up a lifeguarding position here at the natatorium. she comes here to swim laps so she can stay in shape. that’s all jolly but i feel like a fat idiot now as this old guy stares me down from four lanes over, wondering what the crap i’m doing here. >.<

this is how i felt at the pool and the guy in the background is how i felt everyone was looking at me

of course i’m not fat, i’m exactly the right weight for my height (5’7″, 130 lbs) but the atmosphere at the natatorium somehow makes me feel like a fatty. maybe it’s all in my head. it probably is. still, that old guy was staring, and not one of those “ooh hot young chick in a bikini, yum” kind of stares. more like “dern hoodlums runnin’ around in bikinis, taking up lanes serious swimmers are sposed to be using. where’s your mum!” kind of stares. well i’m not one to lie down and take it. i’m going out and getting a 1 piece, and i’m going right back to the natatorium with anonymous and using that lane, and i’m gonna swim my fat little butt off. yes i said fat little butt.

******WARNING: the following 2 paragraphs are a mildly graphic, yet somewhat entertaining tale of my experience during a pap smear. nothing new for women, but men may find it a little…well…ew. if you don’t want to read, skip down 2 paragraphs. otherwise, be my guest. but you know that curiosity is just gonna get ya ******

so after swimming, i went home and got changed because i had a 130 doctors appointment for a screening for *deep movie preview voice* CERVICAL CANCER. DUH DUH DUUUUH. yes, that’s right. we’ve all seen the irritating commercials where that girl with the voice that makes you want to sniff and clear your throat, gets HPV which turns into cervical cancer, and for some reason decides that she got it from “an old boyfriend from college”? do WHAT? i guess, in college she slept with every living thing on 2 legs, but after college she remained celibate until marriage, and for some reason her husband couldn’t possibly have given her HPV… i know i’m a little critical of this retarded commercial, but come on–if they want us to take cervical cancer seriously, at least put a little thought into your story line.

so i’m thinking this is just going to be a regular pap smear, right? well, actually i’m thinking, why didn’t they test for this during my pap smear? and, “regular” and “pap smear” aren’t two things that go together in my brain. no pap smear is ever a normal experience for me. i mean, every woman knows that is just a terrible experience. i mean, really? it’s 2010 and there are still cold metal specula out there? i wonder why no one has thought of using, i dunno a rubber coated speculum or something so it’s a little less, um, PAINFUL!? yeah, they lubricate the thing, but it’s still at best hard plastic. and i’m always a trip with those poor doctors. during my first pap smear, the doctor tried to insert the speculum, kind of tilted her head, made a weird face and said, “um. you’re shaped weird.” thanks, mean lady. she then asked me to “grasp your hands together under your back, maybe that’ll even things out a bit”…still with a weird face. sigh. that’s a regular pap smear for me. this was not anything like a regular pap smear. this wasn’t just checking things out, making sure it looks and feels normal. well, normal for me. this was a “take that speculum and JAM it in there and scuh-raaaaaaape a big chunk of flesh out of there!” pap smear. it’s been over 24 hours and my cervix is still pissed and my uterus is having sympathy pains. good GRIEF. we can perform surgery on infants in the womb and we can’t put a numbing cream in before we scrape a cervix? fortunately i have a very supportive husband who allowed his hand to be crushed for like the fifth time at the doctors office this year. the poor thing knows he may not make it out alive but he still bravely goes on that suicide mission every time. i love you so much, boo. <3

yeah. that's how it feels.

so that was the second part of my day. we went straight from there to get me some food (lol) and then to the pet care center to get a kitten. I’ve been wanting a kitten so kiko can have a friend. she follows me all over the house and it’s kind of sad to see her playing all alone. i think she needs a friend, especially to keep her company when we’re not here. i know cats sleep a lot but she’ll be passed out somewhere when we leave and in the exact same spot when we come home six hours later. i really think that at least sometimes she just sleeps out of boredom. so we went to the pet care center to look at kittens. i’d heard two days earlier that they had a “crapload of kittens”. well a “crapload” turned out to be one litter and they were awaiting “test results” which wouldn’t be back for 2-3 weeks and we couldn’t even claim one. sigh. they were SO cute and those stupid ladies didn’t even let us take one out and hold it. gah. so i’m gonna keep checking back–like every day–until the results come in and then we’re taking one home with us. i’ve heard bad things about those ladies too. i don’t like em, no not one bit. arron says it’s cause i’m super critical, and maybe it is, but i don’t like people that keep poking sticks on hand to shove in at helpless kitties in cages. i’d like to shove a poking stick in her face and see if she doesn’t get mean.

well, as a p.s., go check out the Anna Ternheim video, i don’t know how, but i fixed it, and after a rather frustrating day, i think i’ll end on a relevant and positive note

William Fitzsimmons (amazing bio)

Anna Ternheim 

Greg Laswell

Rosi Golan

and since i hate word press because it seems like i can’t do anything, i’m just going to put this video in a separate post.

i found a REALLY cool website!!! if i were rich, i would totally support this site!

http://www.sheetmusicfox.com/forum/

hooray for the fight against intellectual property rights!!! woohoo!!!!

so what is it about the guitar? why are there soooo many beginner guitar players out there? I for one am SICK to death of beginner guitar players and their stupid tabs taking over the internet. you try to look up music for the piano and you will find A MILLION “tabs” for the guitar for a song JUST ON ONE WEBSITE but absolutely NO music for the piano. since when did the piano become a thing of the past? why does EVERYONE want to play the guitar???? and it wouldn’t bother me so much if people who *play the guitar* ACTUALLY played the guitar!! but they don’t! they just dilly dally around with two or three songs for THIRTY years, and throw their tabs around all over the internet and tell everyone they *play* the guitar!!! i’m sick of it! if your gonna play guitar, learn to play it, get good at it and QUIT with your STUPID tabs! GAH!

Of course, I say this, and yet i’ve been a beginner piano player for nearly 20 years. well you know what, starting now, i’m getting serious with this piano if nothing else than for the sole reason of making my previous statement a credible one. ok, i’m done.

so, i know i’m having a hard time keeping up with this thing. i’m sure many people would disagree with me, but wordpress is just complicated to me! if i had an iphone i’d probably be on several times a day, haha.
oh, so much has happened. let’s see, arron randomly went to Thailand. he came home one day and just blurted out “i’m in a hurry, babe, i’m going to Thailand.”
“what?! when!?” i says.
“in an hour,” he yells behind him as he runs all over the house, throwing things together.
ugh, he was gone for two days and came back with horror stories! apparently, he was tossed about from creepy van to creepy van (on the side of the ROAD mind you), had to use a FAKE VISA or something, had some lady who spoke no english escort him into the country, basically illegally, so he could drop off a tool and fly straight back. he got paid 120 something dollars for that. i was livid. ugh, they got out of paying him because THEY made the whole thing ILLEGAL, because they were in a rush!! since it’s not on paper that it happened, they don’t have to pay!!
ugh.
He’s going to Hawaii on Sunday. They better do it right this time, or i’m gonna be down there myself and if i get down there, boy they’re gonna get an earful.

anyway, i’m gonna talk about more cheerful things, it’s thanksgiving, i hear! hehe, we’ve had a turkey brining all night long, and it’s gonna go in the smoker in about thirty minutes here. we’re making all kinds of gramma’s recipe’s. if i can’t be with my family on thanksgiving, at least i can eat the same food, right? i figure, if the house smells like i’m there, and the food tastes like i’m there, maybe i can close my eyes and pretend like i’m there.
but then i realize, this house could never get noisy enough to be convincing. just ain’t the same without my pops XD
sigh, i gotta stop talking about that, it makes me sad. gosh, the next four years without that loud howl when he laughs and claps his hands and leans forward with his eyes closed. that’s what i see when i think of dad. or the “okay the foods awesome, but i gotta stop eating” plate push and belly rub. i miss my daddy.
i remember when i was little and i would sit on the couch and beg my mom to scratch my head every five minutes. i did the same thing every sunday morning at church too. she used to get so annoyed with that lol. now arron does. i used to hide behind her skirts all the time. i wish i still could.
and me and jeremy would fight the whole ride to gramma’s and the whole ride back. we gave my parents such hell, lol. and then he moved out and went off to college, and i knew things would never be the same between us, and sure enough they weren’t. i missed him so much when he left, i basically moved into his room. i slept in his bed every night. i missed my brother.
that’s how i feel now about my family. i’m so thankful for my family. and i’m so mad at myself for choosing to go to japan. but i gotta make the best of it. if i make the best of it, it will go by a LOT faster, and then i can come home and make up for all that lost time! I can’t wait to see my parents again. They’re gonna get so sick of me when i move back home, lol. i’m gonna be around ALL THE TIME.
I love you guys SO MUCH!!! And I MISS YOU!!!!

me & arron and natalie & victor

so we’re going to have a scary movie night tonight. a girl that i met on yokotaads.com, named caillee, is coming over with her husband and we’re going to make a yummy chocolate cake and watch all the saw movies >.< natalie from upstairs is coming down too. hope caillee doesn’t get mad o.O
i made bread today. natalie found a bread machine at the airman’s attic, and since i had said that i was asking for one for christmas, she snatched it up and now i get to ask for an ipod instead. or a zune. i made banana nut bread but instead of macadamia nuts, i used pecans. and i added wheat germ. sposed to make it healthy. meh. it made me feel healthy and that’s all that matters.
i’ve almost got my business off the ground. i don’t know if i mentioned my making a business before, but yeah, i’m making a business out of cat gyms/towers/whatever you want to call them. i named it “happii kyattsu” which means happy cats. i’ve nearly got all my materials, i just need to go to the housing office and get a business license and then go to the arts and crafts center and get permissions to use their wood shop to cut my plywood. either that or find someone who has a table saw, which….i doubt anyone on an air force base would have. like…what would they use it for… “ooh i need this table saw to add a porch to my house…oh wait…”
but hey you never know. stranger things have happened. considering i randomly came across like 100 sq ft of carpet for FREE at the airman’s attic. i peed myself a little. what are the odds?
i’ve already got like four orders for towers, which kind of stinks since i can’t even start making them yet. doh!
oh well i’m going to be the cheshire cat for halloweeen. i’m stoked. i just have to get arron to let me go to the monster’s ball so i can show off my tail haha…little pun there…
anyhow, i know i’m terrible about putting up pics so here’s the deal. dad, if you’ll call me and WALK me through setting up a …whatever the website is called account with the pictures and stuff, and like linking it to this page so i can er put them up together o.O then i’ll put up pictures when i get them. it’s just so dern complicated on this site. they always come out backwards no matter which direction i put them in. so i’m going on picture strike.
ok well they’re going to be here in like 5 min and this post is getting boring lol. so catch ya later.

jen