vel's journaly thing

Had my 90 day evaluation at work today. I hate evaluations, they are so scary to me! I don't handle criticism well, even when it's minor. Oh well, just got the same thing I always get: "You're doing a great job, but smile more!" Dude, my face just doesn't work that way; believe me, it's been like this my whole life. I'm just not a smiler! I don't sit around grinning for no reason, my face is just sort of neutral at all times. At least it feels completely neutral to me, people tell me I look like I'm frowning or something. And apparently my idea of smiling must be on a much smaller scale than everyone else. Sigh. This is how I smile, just deal with it! =p

Went to the Sharks' fifth playoff game of the first round with my brother last night, and they KICKED ASS!! It was SUCH an awesome game! They absolutely dominated and were finally able to get the puck past Colorado's goalie, clobbering them 5-0. Woohoo! So glad I got to go to that one! It was the first game in this series where they've led by more than one goal. One more win and they move to the next round of the playoffs! GO SHARKS!! =D

( Pics from the game )

Then last night as I was driving home, I saw a freaking big spider crawl across the INSIDE of my windshield!! D= Aaaaauuuuggghhh! Spiders freak me the fuck out! Normally I don't mind them, as long as they stay the hell off of me and out of my space! And inside my truck is definitely my space! I was nearly home when I saw it and had to stop for gas anyway, so I pulled into a station to fill up and try to get the damn thing out. Well it FELL off the windshield, and I had no idea where it went! I looked all over with a flashlight trying to find it without any luck. So then I had to get back in with the mysterious missing spider and drive the rest of the way home (about four blocks). >_< I damn near had a panic attack on the way, thinking about it coming crawling out of my steering column or something and was driving with one finger on the wheel and jumping at every movement out of the corner of my eye. I'm such a freaking sissy. I made it home safely, but the spider is still missing. ARGH.

I just finished up tagging all my entries, almost 900 of them. It just seemed like this journal has gotten to the point where I need them if I ever want to go back and find something.

I started on Sunday and didn't stop until 1am. I thought I might be able to get it all done, but I had about a year's worth of entries left to go and was just too tired to finish. Or so I thought. I went to bed and tossed and turned for hours, unable to sleep. I didn't want to take my sleeping medication because it was already so late, and if I did that I wouldn't be able to wake up for work. So then I got back up and tried to sleep on the couch with the tv on, because I often fall asleep this way when I'm really tired. Nope, nothing.

I ended up awake all freaking night for no reason at all, and it caused me to watch one of the most awful movies ever created, I Know Who Killed Me. I thought it'd just be a lame horror movie, but it went WAY beyond that! How can something be both predictable (I knew who the killer was within the first ten minutes) AND make no sense at all?? The "plot" was so full of holes and mixed up that it was impossible to follow, and the whole movie was really nothing more than an excuse for Lindsey Lohan to parade around in stripper outfits. Ugh, I think this was even worse than Batman Forever! Still not quite as bad as Kazaam, my ultimate worst movie ever, but it sure came close!

Anyway. I got no sleep at all, and hence felt horrible, stomach aches, sneezing and coughing fits, so I ended up calling in sick to work. Felt like crap all day and still couldn't get any sleep until it was late enough for me to take my medication and knock me out for the night whether my body liked it or not. Can I not sleep without medicinal help now? I wouldn't think so, I still fall asleep for naps all the time. It was just really bizarre.

ETA: Since all I did over the past few days was tag my own entries, I'm now waaaay behind on reading all of yours. If I comment on something a few days late I'm sorry, I'm trying to catch up on everyone!

Just got back from Melissa's memorial service. It was very beautiful and touching. She was a true mentor and friend and I already miss her dearly. =*(

( My dear friend )

Someone has stolen my yogurt from the fridge TWO days in a row now! This makes me MAD! >:( Bring your own damn food, theif!!

And at my other job, the keys I left for the girl who worked for me on Sunday are also missing! That one really ticks me off; the only people who should even know I leave them there are the ones who have subbed for me in the past. Now I wonder if someone else happened to stumble across them and take them. That would be bad.

Where to start? Well, I have a bit of a cold at the moment so I'm just resting up, and I see I've been neglecting lj again.

Easter Weekend

Friday night I had to work, and after that I met up with Josh at the Sonoma Chicken Coop in downtown San Jose for a group dinner event with his motorcycling friends, the South Bay Riders. It was pretty fun; much of the time was spent trying to convince Josh that he should go to Disneyland at least once in his life.

On Saturday we got up relatively early to drive down to Fresno for my cousin David's 20th birthday party. It was held out at my aunt's ranch in Clovis. While we were there some of us walked down the road to a neighbor's place to see my remaining duck in (her?) new home. The surviving duck turned out to be Kikumaru (I seem to be the only one who could tell them apart), so I guess Ooishi is fox food now. =( Maybe I shouldn't have named him something that sounded so close to "oishii"... ^^;

But all reports say Kikumaru is doing well and has buddied up with a black and white duck in the new pond, so I guess that's good. The neighbor is really nice and says we can visit anytime; we also went to another neighbor, a friend of my aunt's, and I talked horses with him for a while.

( Kikumaru at the new pond )

Then back at the ranch we went to visit the cows grazing in the pasture. My aunt and uncle don't live at the ranch (my aunt inherited it from a friend of Oma's; she's hanging on to it, but they actually live at their own house), but they let a guy who raises cattle graze some of them on their land. There are 10 acres split into three different sections; right now there are five cows in one of them, and some of them were actually friendly. Josh didn't seem to think much of the cows, but I thought they were cute!

( Cows in the field )

It's amazing how green it is out there from all the rain California has had. Normally it would all be brown and dried up by now. I'm glad it wasn't raining while we were down there, though. We stayed down in Fresno until about 7:30, then drove back up to San Jose.

Sunday morning I went to work and it was pouring and windy. That was good because it meant nearly no customers and I was able to leave early like I was planning on doing anyway. I left work at noon and went to Josh's aunt and uncle's place in Saratoga for Easter brunch that was really good. After the food we watched a photo album DVD with pictures chronicling the life of one of Josh's relatives...his grandfather I think? I wasn't paying all that much attention and fell asleep on his shoulder. When I woke up it was time to go over to my parents' house to have Easter dinner with them, my brother, and my grandma.


New Apartment

Josh and I are pretty much settled into the new place. I think all that's still left to bring over is my bookcase, and there's still some more decorating to be done. I don't have too much to say about it; it's a pretty decent place, and I'm happy wherever Josh and my computer and high speed internet are. *g* Anyway, onto the pictures...

( New apartment pics )

Saturday afternoon at work an adorable little nest of baby cottontails was discovered in the part of the barn where we keep the food for the horses. So cute! ^_^

( Lots of pictures! )

That's the end of our Easter bunny adventure. The joke is that these are the illegitimate children of the rabbit and the squirrel who live in front of the office and are always playing together. ;) I'll have to take pictures of them sometime.

I forgot, we also had a coyote come in reaaaally close to us at the stable on Saturday. It was only maybe ten or fifteen feet away from those horses tied there on the rail. And there were a whole ton of people standing there on the porch waiting for a lesson, I don't know why he wasn't scared off. I suspect it's a grown up version of one of the coyote pups that was living around the pond last year, which would make it really used to people. (Last year there was a mother with two pups living on the same hill with the pond that the rental horses live on). Maybe he's the reason the rabbit put her babies in the barn?

( picture )

Pictures of the new horses here. The ones with their names in quotation marks are to be renamed. The names have to start between Q and Z (because that way I don't have to move as many name tags in the tack room!). Any suggestions?

( Rename that horse! )

(cross-posted to horse_lovers)

It's freezing out and pouring down rain. There's a chance of snow for the hills in the area. Soon I have to leave to go work outside in this all night. What happened to our lovely 70+ degree bright and sunny February? I was enjoying that. Last night at the stable when I left it was 39 degrees and still dropping! =(

In other news, yesterday we got 7 new horses from Nevada for the rent string (I'll post some pictures of them later). One of them is a flea-bitten grey 17.1 hand MUSTANG. He's got the brand and everything to prove it. O_O If he does well with the vaulting team he's going to be quite an eye-catcher at shows...

Bootsie was found! I don't have any details on what happened to her yet, but she's down at the animal shelter. They're closed on Mondays, so I'll have to wait until tomorrow to pick her up. Thank you everyone for your well wishes; as long as she can stand spending the night in the shelter, she should be fine. I guess someone found her and brought her in, and since she wears her license and rabies tags, they were able to contact us here. Apparently she was just found today, so I wonder where she's been for the past day and a half...

( screenshot from the found animals page of the shelter website )

Yesterday there was a horrible rainstorm, so work was super cold and wet and windy. I spent only a few minutes out in the rain letting the horses in and watering them, and the rest of the time trying to keep warm and dry in the office. I had to call almost everyone to tell them not to come to work today, and then I got to go home early.

After work I went with Josh to Cindra's surprise birthday dinner (pretty surprising since it was a month early!) at a Chinese seafood place. Attendees were me, Josh (thomasj), Fox, Cindra (cinderfox), Steven, Shellie, Laura (angelkatharine), Mark, Jani (hurtta), Jennie (sipdeek), Annamarie (wonderwomandc), Erin (mommyofbuddy), and Sheng. The food was yummy, but there sure was a lot of very loud drunken karaoke singing going on out in the main dining area (we had a private room, but it was so loud we could still hear all of it). After dinner Cindra got the most chocolately chocolate cake ever and opened a bunch of presents. Then most of us went over to Jennie's house for an evening of playing with Itty Bitty the kitty and a game of Cranium Turbo, which was much fun. ^_^

It's freaking COLD outside!! I was freezing tonight while I was closing at work. And I'm subbing trails half the day tomorrow, I'm going to freeze again. How can it be so bright and pretty outside and be this cold?? Eek.

There's a new episode of Monk on tonight! Did they advertise that at all? Last I heard they wouldn't have any new episodes until January. I'm glad my brother told me about it or I would have totally missed it. Well whatever, more Monk! Yay!

Ooh! I just saw an ad for Memoirs of a Geisha on tv. I LOVE that book. I shall have to see this movie. ^^

Oooh...another good one is coming out, The Producers. Gotta see that as well.