i joined and left the town of islip in under 2 weeks. it seemed like a good idea at the time -- classic last lines. i took up an internship for our supervisor, whom i always took as being a super friendly man. turns out, however, that when i met him the 2nd of my 4 days in his office, he barely said hello and was the opposite of my mental impression. i let that lie, but my superior was a huge dick and i didn't want to continue to put up with that for no pay.... i won't donate my time for someone who doesn't deserve it. and welp, here i am.

i still have my job with moneymedia, and i still adore that but it doesn't change my absolute neeeeeeed for an insurance policy. i passed my resume along to a pal who works for a different politician in the area, and i found an open position with disney's interactive media group which i intend to apply for some time real soon. and SPEAKING of disney, im itching to get our 4th trip to disney underway, sparked after we went to see the 3d double feature of toy story 1 and 2. waiting on eric for that and to be frank, i'm not feeling too confident we'll get to go anymore after a phone call with him a little bit ago. :\

reading has been my new thing lately, trying to expand my vocabulary and knowledge and piling up a ton of wonderful literary quotes and experiences. i read first everything is illuminated which a 3 prong story about a ma searching for history in the ukraine, the correspondence between that man and his translator/guide, and a recounting OF that history which is the writing of the american's findings. it is a holocaust history that traces further back in time to cover the town's past. by the end, i was insanely depressed and extremely uplifted, so much so that i purchased his second ALSO critically acclaimed book about a boy who loses his father in 9/11 called extremely loud and incredibly close. i'm in the midst of that right now as my first october book. september i finished:
everything is illuminated
tuck everlasting
brokeback mountain
the beach

and my o my how i loved the beach as well -- what an insane, realistic and tempting story. paradise found and lost, a common tale i suppose but so well crafted by alex garland... i, too, bought his 2nd work called the tesseract. lots out there to read and catch up on, but i feel like i'm on my way.

that's it for today!!
:)

I'm 22 now. And I think it's time I go and get a tattoo lol.

Currently I want one of 5 things:
1. Map outline of Long Island on my right foot
2. Atlas outline of the world on my right foot
3. Atlas outline of the world on both feet -- N/S America on one, Eur, Afr, and Asia on the other
4. "freedom" in my own script handwriting on my neck
5. Cherry blossoms up the side of my foot and a bit on to my ankle/leg


This is the atlas photo I'm looking at (though they're basically all the same LOL)
http://www.clker.com/cliparts/b/c/5/e/1195421696248988212molumen_world_map.svg.hi.png

I want to go to someone and see about some ideas? Maybe they can "cartoon" the continents a little to get ride of the details... get some advice on detailed tattoos and if it will work? I would truly love this -- if it is impossible I am likely to go for Long Island instead.

That's the update -- paper to finish!
<3 Korey

Two years ago (just about) while at work at good ole' ShopRite, James (whom I miss a lot) and I were shooting the shit one night before close about random stuff and he said something about being full aware of a hole on his tooth but having neither the time or the money to take care of it. I don't know if it was coincedence or God's magic hand, but the next day I was pretty confident that I, too, felt a hole way back on my upper left wisdom tooth. Confidence became assurance and I made an "emergency" appointment to have it filled; not emergency like I was in pain, emergency like *I'm here just for this, don't xray me etc.* Dr. Bealler was there at the time, and he tcb-ed that and poof I went on my way.

This fall, that tooth started feeling sensitive to hot and cold. In fact, in hindsight, all of my teeth had a hard time with cold. So I start thinking, "Oh man, Bealler must've fucked up... or else another cavity is back there." The insurance will be over once I graduate so I figured it'd be a good time to just get the full xrays and have them deal with that tooth again in the process - nice and simple. Well BALLS was I wrong.

Bealler was long gone at that point and I was now with Dr. Bapat, a mean-looking older Indian man who speaks a bit unclearly and always does so behind his dentist mask. This is also known as I don't know what he's saying ever. Xrays were taken, and in I went. The news, as it always is, was far worse than expected : yes, that wisdom tooth had another cavity, but wisdoms with cavities are supposed to just get pulled (so Bealler DID f- that s- up! lol). But moreover, I had a slew of other cavities - he saw at least 4. Major bummer mostly because he wanted to make me feel as shitty as possible about their condition. The truth was that I never/rarely flossed, I chewed gum daily, I drank sodas and coffees and I was just generally very poor at upkeeping them. I let him lecture me though and set dates to start working on getting this all done. December was the first, on the bottom, and later in the month right around Christmas two on the top were done. The extraction was set for post-winter Disney at the end of January.

As we neared vacation, one of the top cavities, which had taken up a TON of my tooth, started to get really pained. I couldn't chew on that side, but more importantly a consistant pain was starting. It felt, as I have described it, as though a skewer or rod was inside of my gums and pressing down very hard on to my tooth. It made the rest of my upper right gum throb and even made the bottom teeth hypersensitive. Eric forced me to a different doctor in Massapequa the day before we were leaving for Florida on a weekend. After looking at an x-ray, looking in my mouth, this woman Claudine Agosta -- who was so AWESOME -- said I probably had a tramuatized nerve because of how close the filling came to it and if it didn't go away I would inevitably need a root canal. I already expected to hear that because of some research I had done and she wrote me pain prescriptions and an antibiotic to help the internal problems.

Needless to say, I still had issues in Disney - I went through the antibiotic, the coedine was a tad strong... but my mom sent me Motrins and I took 3 pills 3 times a day which was what she was prescribed for her foot pain earlier that year. I cried to sleep one night because of how much it hurt, but by the end of the trip I was at least feeling normal but still couldn't use that half of my mouth. It's a lot harder than you think to eat without food getting over there!

When we came back, it was extraction time. Thus far, this has been the easiest, least painful part of my whole tooth experience. It took all of 3 minutes to take it out, and though I only saw it for a second, that shit was mangled and infected. The socket felt like it had gone dry a few days out and I was PISSED (I didn't need nor want another problem) but luckily I was wrong. Even today, a month after, the socket isn't entirely closed but the recovery is long over. To address my top cavities/pain issue, the old fillings were taken out and a newer, stronger metal was put in it's place. MIRACLE! I could finally eat and be regular.

Nothing gold can stay though, ya? Two weeks after, the pain comes back slowly, but this time it brings with it some seriously swollen gums and pallette. I was house-sitting Kim's and school was in full swing, but I made an appointment with the root canal doctor because the failing of this 2nd filling meant I would HAVE to go root canal. To control the pain I had taken a viocidin the da before and I was out cold & sick. I went to the office and was looked at but because I didn't have a REAL appointment, all he did was take out much of the living part of my most pained tooth. It was covered with a temporary filling, he had rays retake the bottom tooth filling I had done, and I made an appointment for March 6th to get the real meat and potatoes of the canal done. My bottom filling was looking a lot like my top ones -- deeper cavity, 2 teeth not 1.. So another appointment to get those fixed, which has been fine so far (knocking heavily). Bapat warned me though that there was a strong possibility I might have the same experience. Boo.. The worst though was Munter went to releave some of my pallettal swelling but I wasn't well novacained there. I was literally CRY-CRYING in the office. It was the worst pain ever. I was bed ridden the rest of that day (Eric kept me company in the daytime).

Today I found out that my insurance still hasn't cleared me for that root canal. This is bad because I am running out of time and there are still definitely 2-4 more cavities that will be addressed at the end of March (1 top 2 bottoms, minimum! lol) and I would like to have the other upper wisdom pulled for caution's sake. But beyond that, it also makes me really scared that I'm going to end up living with the pains in my mouth eternally. On our trip to Sagamore Hill last Saturday, I found out Theodore Roosevelt had a tooth infection for 20 years. I feel/fear I'm joining the club.

The lesson I have learned is: know your teeth, take care of your teeth, don't take lack-of-pain for granted. I have stopped chewing gum altogether, I've been trying to rid myself of sugar sodas and drinks, I look for sugar-free treats, I floss all day... Ugh. It's truly been eye-opening. Munter suggested it might be in my DNA to have soft teeth which could very well be correct, but I'm positive he just wants me to not guilt myself. Every day I get more and more afraid I won't finish all my work... they hate me there. The Dental Assistant loves me, Sajid, but he's nuts.


Let's hope for some scheduling success with everything! <3

Class yesterday felt really long -- I don't have any explanation for it but I have been consistently exhausted on a semi-daily basis lately regardless of sleep or physical activities. It's becoming a bit concerning.. we'll see how much longer it goes on for. So being sleepy didn't help the lecture move along but we DID watch a video (always a plus) on Jorg Haider from Austria. I have tentatively planned like, 4 trips to try and make this summer, all of which have been crumbling, but one involved a 2 week Czech Republic and Austrian adventure. My interest was already a little peaked for Arnold's homeland and this video was pretty "whoa" inspiring. The guy is/was (he's dead now) anti-immigrant/pro-Austrian but somehow he sounded logical and sensical and damn! He even got to be the #2 party in the country. Who knew Austrians really hated non-Austrians? Not I.

When I got home, dinner followed shortly after and then I made my way to Eric's to watch LOST <33 Played with the bbbbboyz before it started and sat at attention for the episode. John Locke is back in the real world trying to convince everyone to go back with him. Cue: orderly. Cue: Charles Widmore. Cue: Sayid speaks Spanish. A lot happened - Ben was more badass as per always and the man of science man of faith debate raged on. I hope that one day all Americans will have been part of the viewership to this show, mostly because it just rules so hard. It's a thinking man's show and that, too, makes me feel pretty good.

Regardless, here I am, in school between classes with an agenda to get my presentation in order ASAP. OF COURSE I didn't do it last night.

Update: all 6 fish are still swimming. I'm going ahead and deeming this route a success.

Later today we have our 3rd video conference for my POL374 class, Global Issues in the UN. Weekly, we go to a different room in the Engineering building to a special, technologically equipped room that calls a teleconference to the UN and we have a class/lecture/guest speaker/Q&A with Pakistan's former ambassador to the UN, this older gentleman named Kamal. He isn't what I envisioned when we first talked about him. He lacks a beard or any facial hair, he doesn't wear any glasses, and he's pretty thin. I assumed all to be the opposite, so it has been kind of a let down for me. We haven't really seen the "true" Kamal come out -- supposedly he's really old-school Pakistani conservative with some negative views on women's rights and a sharp tongue back at students. Neither had been seen yet, but we're all kind of anxiously awaiting it (hoping the retorts won't be at us). At the close of our first meeting, he said that we should not listen to anyone under 30 years old because if they knew what to do, what was right, they would have done it and made the world a better place for us. They have failed according to Kamal and now we must do it ourselves, adding that he was one foot in the coffin with the other foot asleep. We get some laughs out of him -- let's hope for one today, too.

My work deadline is due tomorrow, AKA I'll be working probably 8-5 hustling to get that shit in. I'm already prepared for that though and since Eric has some polishing to finish up, we won't be up each others butts slowing each other down. He sent me a text this morning, which was in response to one I sent saying "Fact-soooo tireeedddd." His said, "Fact-I don't think anyone can be loved as much as you." <33 Did I mention I lurvveee him? Today's a 26 - so we've been at it for 2 years and 3 months. !!! As a side note, he applied to a bunch of local schools for transfer next semester. Among them are St. John's University and CUNY Baruch. I joked with him last night that though it's almost entirely for selfish reasons, I'm hoping he gets accepted to at LEAST (keywords haha) these two schools. Then maybe I can trick him in to getting a place with me in the Queens/Brooklyn area ^_^

Over.

Most girls... like the girly girls (we all know the type)... have an extensive and colorful collection of SOMETHING (shoes, make-up, perfume, jewelry, whathaveyou). I am not really one of these "girly girls" nor do I have the proper funds necessary to have any collection at all really, but it hasn't kept me from maintaining a passion for one certain expensive name brand -- Dooney & Bourke. And Dooney & Bourke seems to think its a-okay to email me from time to time with their newest designs. This happened to me this morning, and now OMGZ I want it.

Few things working against me here...
1. Finances. This is an obvious one; I shouldn't spend my limited money on something frivulous, especially when I already own 4 others.
2. Location. I wouldn't buy this offline without seeing them in person and getting a feel for their size and utility. Unfortunately they only have like 6 stores though one is in right here in NYC. Which really means that all-in-all a purchase of a new DB would entail a trip to the city.
3. Choice. There was a clutch featured on the cover of their magazine a few months back and I wanted this more than anything they've ever carried before. It was a whopping $400 which could not ever be justified... but it's my #1, and given the prospect of buying another bag that would be the one.
4. ________________ I guess that's really all the things hahahaha

Deep down the problem is just that I KNOWWW I don't need it, I KNOWWWW I shouldn't get it. Neither of these stops me from drooling over it. It's so plain and it's fabric and not leather... Here it is, in all of it's glory..
[Please note: I do not prefer this color combination, but photos of the others are not currently available ;) ]







Yummmmmm.

In other news, Eric and I went to On the Border in Hicksville again last night when our movie plans sort of disintegrated. We've (mostly Eric to be fair) been wanting to see The Wrestler after all the buzz and we've also (mostly me to be fair) tried to see Milk. Oscar-loyal much? HAHA This time though at the restaurant though, Eric did something REALLY WHACKY and got something new; we NEVER do this and luckily he enjoyed it thoroughly. A weird older couple was leaving when we sat down and gave us a free dessert coupon -- she illegallllllly printed 2 that were sent to her for their anniversary. HAHA We didn't use it though because a) the waitress watched her give it to us and moreover b) we were tooooo full. I mended some of my fish problems, too, when we stopped at the Petsmart in Levittown appx 30 minutes before their closing time. I found the fastest and smallest fish around -- maybe even ever -- Zebra danios. I spoke to the fish girl for a little bit and she told me a funny story about the needlenose (one hilarious fucking fish) and I told her about how Hank ate, or tried to eat, the Black moor. It's currently 10am and miraculously all 6 of them are still swimming around my tank! They're schooling fish so occassionally I see them swimming together lolll. They're just too darn fast for Hank's reflexes to get a hold of. This has given me the utmost optimism that like Gloria Gaynor, they will survive.

I helped (nah, I pretty much straight up authored) with Eric's health class paper - a nice and short 2 and a half pager on Life is Beautiful and discrimination. We fell sleep after that was all done, which hasn't happened with us in awhile, and I woke up after midnight to head home. Quite frankly, I was sleep driving.

I was apparently still sleeping when I got home because I didn't set my alarm to work this morning. UGHGHGHG epic fail.


Today (now that I'm up late) - I already ate -- dry Life cereal (I'm pretty confident my temporary filling is about to pop out again) and a little brownie coffee. Showerpower, get up to school early and try to do a little work before class 2:20-5:10 (yes.. the long one..) Tonight is LOST <33333 yessssss. Tomorrow I hope to break back in to the gym for the first time since like, November. It'll be a good time I think, supposing I do make it. Eric went back on his own terms, and now I feel like a slacker! I also have an assignment / presentation due on Secretary of State Brynes to give tomorrow and promised my partner I would send what I was doing sometime tonight. It'll probably be a real rough idea since, duh, LOST takes precedence.

I asked Helmut (there will probably be an entry involving him tomorrow haha) if he would proofread the second paper for his foreign policy class if I were to hand it in way early. We have to do 2 of the 3 assigned essay topics. I did not do the first one on Vietnam, so this will be my first and before handing it in and fearing a poor grade I'd like to see where I stand. ANYWAY! He said on record, no he cannot, but he usually does anyway. So after I finish my work assignment on Friday, I'm going to maybe start whipping up something for that. I'll give one to Jay, too (he's our TA) and let him tear me apart lolll. Midterms are coming... who the fuck knew time was going that fast!

<4 days until my birthdayyyy>

February 24th means two things -- today is Mardi Gras, and my birthday is around the corner. It also means one month in to spring semester and three months until being a college graduate.

I was looking at pictures I had just taken (though not with my camera since that shit has been busted for awhile now) and realized MAN I wish I could post these on LiveJournal. So I logged in and here I am, ready to dispense them and their story to you as I re-embark on useless chitter chatter here online.

Right around Thanksgiving and right prior to celebrating two years with my manpiece, a friend's girlfriend's uncle (still following?) had rescued/found red ear slider hatchling turtles around his house. I was offered 1-4 of these said babies to which surprisingly my parents said "ok." They figured that a turtle was pretty low maintainance on the pet scale. They were going away for the weekend. So I had been promised one or two RES (thats the formal shorthand for their breed) and anxiously awaited it's arrival. They were babies and I understood the whole weaning process to a point anyhow, knowing that they needed to be a certain age before they didn't need 24/7 attention. But I grew SO impatient SO fast. Because for those of you who know me, when I want something, I want it NOW. I blurted out the name I had chosen right after Mom gave me the green light -- Hank.

HAHAHA. Hank. Somewhere deep down my love for Tom Hanks must've been brewing or SOMETHING because I don't even know a Hank. IMing sessions between me and Ashley, me and Ryan, me and Eric, me asking Eric to ask for the turtle -- resulted in a late night meet up, off the cuff session of picking up a baby in the Starbucks parking lot in Deer Park. Ryan brought 4, and would take what I did not. He already has an adult turtle named Crowley. These would be the new additions. Eric drove us up there and I had brought a little Glad container for him to ride home with me in. Ryan's Jetta was already there, so like coverts we just went right in his backseat, and the turtles were presented to me -- in a Nike shoebox, four of them in different corners. Scared? Lost? I don't know, but they were all in a corner. It seemed, at the time anyway, that there were 2 boys and 2 girls because of a distinct size and color difference. Since I had done a little research online already and knew that a female turtle would be a handful and a half as it got older, I went and picked one of the two smaller turtles. There is NO way to tell which is which when they're babies.. in fact they need to be about 4" / 1yr + MINIMUM to make an educated guess. But my hope was that a smaller turtle would give me a male in the end.

One of the small ones was huddling in a corner with a larger one, and the other was standind or sitting I should say like a rock in another. Eric made the final decision -- it was dark a. and b. I couldn't see them anyway, they were tucked neatly in to their shells. So the new baby Hank moved from shoebox to Glad container and we decided to go in to Starbucks for a little bit anyway. We brought them inside, me covering the clearness of the sides so no one would think we were insane. After we sat down and shot thr shit for a little bit, staring at the new addition to the Homer household, a cop car pulled up (which is extremely frequent at Starbucks around here) and out of LOL and actual concern we hid the convict Hank. SELLING baby turtles is illegal in NY and a lot of states. But I didn't buy him and was actually going to make him better off in the end.

(This is Hank sitting in the Glad container in my kitchen as his house was being prepared for him)

I REALLY wanted two, but so many people were warning against this and the possibility of aggression, biting, etc. I took Hank back to West Islip -- having spent that morning with the green light of meeting up buying the essential tank equipment for day one: a 10 gallon tank, a docking platform, gravel, tank decoration and a filter. I think -- to be honest it took a few days to get everything, which later included a water heater, two lamps - one UVB and one UVA, another plant for the inside and some fish which were soon losing their numbers. Turned out gravel is bad for turtles so that got taken out and replaced with clear stones later on.



(Once upon a time, Hank was really tiny inside this tank...)


The next day or so I thought -- I REALLY want to go ahead and take a second one. And the longest story short, he was returned to Ryan about 24 hrs later. They were both doing fine for the first while, swimming around and enjoying the baby turtle life. I was calling him Kingston and then Thor (both with Eric's influence behind them) but saw Hank chewing on Thor's feet when he would hang on the dock. Appalled at Hank I told Ryan one would have to go back. Later in the night, Thor went ape shit on Hank and since Hank was my #1 man and Thor the technical invader, bye bye Thor :[ Ryan seems to have no problem with 1 adult and 3 hatchlings which makes me very jealous. It's pretty much a scientific fact that turtles don't get lonely, but I can't help but feel like he does.

(Thor.. what a badass motherfucker)
(This is how long they were nice to each other for..)

That was November. It's on the heels of March and my little man has grown leaps and bounds. His baby colors of bright green are slowly turning to brown. His itty bitty shell and tiny little feet are expanding. His appetite is always huge, his love of eating my fish also huge. I won't know if Hank is actually a Hankette or not until winter or so.. maybe even longer. I always look at his claws -- the tell-tale sign of gender -- and think that they're getting pointy-er and longer but it's all in my head. Females, like I said before in my preliminary research, lay eggs in adulthood even if unfertilized which is apparently a big to-do because they're picky about when, where, and the conditions of doing this. They also incapsulate the expression "Big Mama" because they can get around 10" long! (And that's just the shell!!) I will quite obviously love Hank unconditionally, but let's just keep 'em crossed for a male AIIIIIIGHT?

(Swimmin'... sometime between Dec and Jan)

(Tank setup after taking out the gravel)

I joined a Turtle forum immediately -- who knew there was even such a thing? -- on redearslider.com which is the ultimate in awesome information. In my first post, which introduced myself and Hank, I am quoted as saying:

I have since adopted "Hank" who is probably the prettiest little man I ever did see.

And a few days later after people commented on his photo, added the very profound"

he's made my days happier, so its been a win win lol

I truly love this turtle more than most anything. We have since gotten 2 chinchillas -- more on them some other time -- and I have been oogling Roborovski hamsters. But deep down I just adore my Hank. I don't even care if that's gay, but having gotten him has such a baby and seeing him grow almost literally right in front of me has been probably the coolest possible experience ever... he's gotten so big so fastttt.. And I still have like, 19 years more to go of it! When I walk in, and especially when I come home from a long day out or wake up way early, Hank goes BALLISTIC. I take this as a personal homage, though admittedly he probably just wants some food. He makes me smile big time, except when he mauls my fish, and his funny mannerisms add to his already quirky quirkiness.

(Best thing turtles do - called "Supermaning" when basking. Guess why? LOL)

(Tearin' that shit UP!)





(Hank today!!!!)

Oh, and about being low maintainance? False. Though I would recommend turtles to anyone who had the time, I wouldn't be putting up any false fronts -- it's a ton of initial investment (I think I have, to date, spent about 300+) with a lot of time investments - things like cleaning the tank take chunks out of your life and their lifespan requires more than a quick glance (we're talking up to 20 years!!). I do it all with a smile, though, because like I said before this guy makes me the happiest.

To Hank!!! <3 The reptilian love of my life

Ok.. I did it again and went and abandoned livejournal. I'm sorry! It's a hard thing to keep up with sometimes! But I make a promise to try and be a little bit more on top of it again. Seriously.

Today is the second day that classes have been back in session at Stony Brook. So far so good I suppose although the payment on textbooks is a bit off the hook -- and not in a good way. My World Politics teacher is a bit hard to understand but my Sociology professor is from Kenya! My Third World Politics was already cancelled on Monday, the first day, so I haven't met that professor yet and there is still one more lecture this afternoon with a woman who required us to buy HER book for class. Bitch.

Yesterday was great. In the morning I went to Eric's house were we watched two more episodes of LOST trying to catch up before the season begins on Thursday and laid around on the bed being children. I left around 1245 and went to get my oil changed on Deer Park Ave {$34 in the hole}. It was smooth sailing to SBU where I only had the one course and picked up it's respective books at the campus bookstore for about $61. I got home starving and ate promptly upon dinner's completion around 5:30 with two Seinfeld episodes and the beginning of Jeopardy! before I felt ill and fell asleep.

Eric called me when he was leaving Nassau and I ended up hitting up the Kjeldsen household by 8:30. We got chai down at Starbucks and went upstairs where Eric, Nelly and I laid on the bed with more TV - South Park and Scrubs lol. We both felt sick plus I had class early so I left around 1045 with Eric making advanced plans to call out of work this morning -- which he did.

It was hectic this morning getting ready for school because mom who normally doesn't work on Tuesdays was also getting set to go along with both Kasey and I who were in rushes respectively. I made it here literally in the nick of time. American Government, a muffin with Turtle, World Politics, the bookstore, nachos with awful awful salsa, and here to the Union to order textbooks and type out this lovely monstrosity. Immigration politics is next... then me pretty much sprinting home to get to work at 4 and close there. Gr. It's my own fault for making this not so great time wise schedule but I'll make it work. I forsee a schedule, weekly, that looks like this :
M off
Tu 4-close / maybe 4-8 or 6-close if I'm lucky once in awhile
W off -- even though I said I have an 8-12 availability in the morning.
Th off
Fri some random ass shift
Sat see above
Sun daytime. I hope.

Hoo-rah.
My Disney scrapbook is on hold of sorts. I haven't been able to batch upload the photos because Eric's links froze my progress last time but I will soon -- hopefully this weekend -- be sending out for photos so I can get this show on the road!

<333
I love him a lot, by the way
-Korey

[This was saved in my drafts. I obviously didn't finish it but here is what I wrote from before Christmas!!]

I indeed went to Eric's Saturday night while he stalled his speech for public speaking and I watched the tail half of The Notebook which was playing on channel 2. Yada yada yada, best ever, fell asleep and went home around 1am. Sunday I woke up and thought, today is the day. I got dressed and took the 10:11am train out of Babylon to Penn Station. The ride was long and it was drizzling/raining the whole time. When we arrived near 11:20am, I got out and exited like everyone else and wondered if there was entrance to the 4,5,6 or N,R,V lines from Penn. [ I obviously don't know my subways ] The answer was no and I walked from 7th ave to Lexington, and up a few blocks to I think 42nd street? I don't even know but I got the subway. This was all while it was raining and windy, umbrella in hand.

Took the 6 up to 59th and Lexington and was in the heart of shoppers delight. I walked up 57th and stopped in Coach and Burberry, Tiffany and Co on 5th ave, Williams and Sonoma, Sephora... I did them all. At W&S they had mint hot chocolate.. mmm too good in the cold. At Burberry they made me put my umbrella in a plastic Burberry bag. At Coach I had to leave it by the door. Tiffany's had an elevator. It was too overwhelming, especially around this time of year, to be in there less shopping.

The commute home after that snow was damn near the longest commute of my life. I left thirty minutes earlier than normal, and got home ten minutes later than usual. Ho. Ly. Moses. Work, blah, whatever.

Friday was rather productive.. I, in fact, didn't go to Dooney and Bourke, but instead went to the gym around 10:30. One thing I really like about the gym is the fact that the machines/floor usually aren't crowded. Some mornings this isn't so, but I always tend to find them in a state of solace. I did my thizz-ang for about an hour and came home to a large lunch followed by a nap :-x. I woke up JUST in time to leave for work at 3 and was there until 8. I don't like being there, yesterday no exception. Problems with payroll, being yelled at via security etc etc.

When I got home, Eric and I decided to go out for dinner because our plans with Danielle and her boyfriend Keith were quickly falling through for the nighttime out at John Harvards. He came to pick me up and unveiled his new mp3 cd, complete with Jason Mraz <3 We drove for a long while until I finally asked where we were headed. And as I could've predicted, we went to FOOOODSWINGGGGSSSS in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Soy vegan buffalo wings to split, faux philly for Eric and the Zapata pour moi. He polished things down with a vegan chocolate shake and we took the trek back home. If there's one thing I truly do enjoy, it's the drives with Eric.

As we got back to my house, Eric thought someone was following him but it was actually Kasey just driving behind us. I.. semi stupidly, in retrospect... said they should race. LOLLL. And race they did down Robert Moses. Babylove won 4 for 5. An exhilirating race over the bridge reminded me that no matter how mad I get at this place, I do love this island.

I went right to bed with the doom of working 7-3:30 the next day, which was today. And BOY HOWDY I am sincerely on my last threads. So thin are these threads, that I came home today and began immediately searching for an opening somewhere. Now that Colleen is gone/going/not with books anymore, things have hit the proverbial shitter. Everyone is up everyone's ass about everything. And since Zulmary and I have been doing serious favors to the department by stretching and changing out schedules/availability and OPENING for them you think we'd get a little more respect. The exact opposite of that statement is true. Money was lost yesterday from payroll. $294 worth of loss, which I understand is a "big" deal. BUT MY GOD the inability to comprehend that we can indeed be even despite the shortage of this till. On top of continued agrivation, the computer giving me a hard time, a long shift on medium sleep and then a +$200 in my till at the end... which I KNEW was from a pick-up caused Jeanne to tell me I couldn't leave until it was found.
WELL
FUCK
YOU
TOO.
Last time I do favors, ever. I've learned my lesson for sure by now. No more abuse. I ended up there until 3:58 on a shift that could've and SHOULD'VE ended at 3. Thankfully Carlos worked quickly to help me find out with the money was.

I didn't go right home after work, I went to BestBuy to cover 2 more Christmas presents. The lines were unbelievable. And since I usually don't even start shopping until this time every year, I was sincerely surprised by the volume of people in the store. At this point, I have 4 people to buy for, two of whom I know what I'm getting but need the opportunity to be at the correct location. Crunch time is impending.

I fell asleep looking for jobs on hotjobs and careerbuilder, and was awoken to dinner of shells and sauce. Dinner argument was heated, starting with Ron Paul, to Al Gore, to global warming, to China, to the union representative at work. Toooo gay. I can't honestly believe I belong to the same family sometimes because they are the exact opposite of me. To the point of 100% agrivation.


In summation, I'm going to Eric's after hes out of work at 9 and hanging there while he gets some work done. Tomorrow, I'm going to find out if Dooney and Bourke is open and may go there to pick a Christmas present for myself. If not, I'll get some studying action in before I have to be at ShopHell at 6 at night.
The end :)
<3
The happiest girl in the world because of the greatest man on the planet who sends me "mid-pee texts" and who says he loves me like the earth loves the sun.
Korey

Yesterday after school ended, I went home but stopped first at Waldbaum's in Stony Brook to get some peripheral candy for the GINGERBREAD HOUSE! I called mom on my way, who told me we were having baked ziti for dinner. When I spoke to Eric, I invited him over and around 6:30 he came over as planned for a cute little dinner time extravaganza, which turned in to the architecture night with the gingerbread house!!

To say the least, it started off a little dishearteningly. We couldn't manage to keep the walls/roof "iced" together. After a bunch of tries we got them stay up!! Eric cut the chimney piece and came up with a great decorating scheme for the roof pieces. I took photos, of course, and will edit this with them in it. It turned out magnificently well -- even more so ex-post facto. It rules.

Eric wrote with pen "Eric and Korey : age 20" on the cardboard it sits on. LOL.

We went down to his house, tv.. stuff..

The bottom line is this : Eric James Kjeldsen, I love you more than I can even think about. It is insurmountable. Innumberable. Unable to ever be conceived by the mind of man. You are the single greatest human being who has ever lived and I can't say enough how lucky I feel - and KNOW that I am. You are the metaphorical and literal light. I depend on you for everything, and you give give give without any problem. You make GINGERBREAD HOUSES for crying out loud! You visit me at work when you're beyond exhausted. We trek out to Flushing for a good drink or out to Williamsburg to indulge in fake meat. Life is not complete unless you're in it. Thank you thank you thank you.

<333

And then there's today. I woke up in the morning to write my HIS325 final. Let's just say I plan on a C in that course. Which, ya know, sucks, but it's pretty unavoidable. I only took it for the DEC K/Skill 4 requirement it fills -- although it turns out I have other courses I DEFINITELY could've taken instead. I chose to write on the lyrics from "Keep Your Eyes on the Prize" but eeeehhhh. We'll see, fingers crossed.

Before I handed it in, we had Philosophy. We got back exam 3, for which I got another 97. 2 97's and a 90 averages 94.6666. A's are 92+, so I'm not doing the take home final since it won't affect anything. Our grade is the best 3 of 4 exams. Hoooo-rah! So that's one A. I'll return the Baudrillard book to the library before one of my finals next week. Why? BECAUSE ITS FUCKING SNOW/HAILING! Which would normally be awesome but I don't have a brush for my car and I have to walk in it with no hood. Grr.

This is my anticipated grade layout for 07. I'm being optimistic.
HIS325 - C
POL103 - A
PHI247 - A
FRN312 - A
FRN311 - A-

Tonight I'm working 6:30-close. :\ And now with the weather I may be cancelling my plan to hit up Dooney and Bourke in NYC tomorrow morning! >:\ Not happy about that at alllllll.

<3
Korey

Before I went to sleep on Monday, I had about 6 pages worth of history paper done. When I woke up around 7ish Tuesday morning, WordPerfect had FUCKED UP the text to spread over like 45 pages. It took me a solid 20-25 minutes to correct all the problems, and then finished to the best of my ability while taking a shower, eating, etc. I amaze myself in that regard -- I knew, and I always know, from the moment I receive an assignment that no matter WHAT I will NEVER start them until the day before they're due. This is why it is a good thing I am not a journalist or other sort of deadline writer. It'd be curtains for me.

So I went to school without problems and got to Philosophy on time and everything. Now, normally this class ends abnormally early but due to the total density of the current material plus it being the 2nd to last lecture, we stayed for pretty much the entire class session, which has only happened a few times this whole semester. He told us that Thursday we would get back the grade from our 3rd exam... reiterated that our final was noncumulative take home and that on TOP of this, he would drop the lowest of our three grades. AKA if I/we did well on all of them, we don't even HAVE to do the final! WOOO!

Civil Rights Movement was supposed to be a discussion. This seems pretty normal, but this class does NOT speak. It is just too uncomfortable to voice any opinion in any regard because the professor allbeit nice is very just uninterested and the mix of the class is deadly for comments that are unfavorable. It didn't go too poorly though, mainly people were talking about Obama and Hilary and things and we watched a few clips about the KKK and other hate groups in the middle. It because so awkward that conversation basically ceased. We filled out evaluations and were told... OUR FINAL WOULD BE TAKE HOME! And that we could chose one of the 4 questions we were given. HOLY LORD O MIGHTY THERE IS HOPE!

By the time I got to political science, though, I was too tired. We did a little review on development and talked about geography theories before being let go rather early. We picked up our final map quizzes... AND OUR LOWEST MAP GRADE WAS BEING DROPPED! WOWZA! This day was full of surprise. I took the bus to my car from exhaustion and headed home.

Work was scheduled for 6o'clock. Grrrreat. I ate quickly inbetween home and ShopRizz and spoke to Eric via phone. He had put on his winter wheels earlier. I got to work.. yada yada check problems.. yada yada SCOTs.. yada yada counting.. and I went to the desk to help Kaheem. AND THERE WAS ERIC KJELDSEN! Best day ever? I'd say so. I was so happy he came to see me... and he looked so tired and exhausted. But he CAAAAME!! He stuck around for awhile, met some of the people I work with and then was on his way. Work went swimmingly after that although I spent like 25 minutes counting and recounting and recounting the safe because I had messed up my numbers. Grr. I got home around 11:45pm.

I went to bed and woke up this morning with intention to go to the gym. But... no. I ate a quick breakfast, chatted with e-rocks anonymous, took my shower, listened to Coheed and accidentally broke the plate in the bathroom. This was after I dropped candy, the hair brush -- pretty much everything I had touched all day. I called Colleen to finish my availability for the week and took off for school. I stopped at an ATM in Smithtown, got a buttered everything bagel, and poof, here I am at SB.

Additionally, I've been crazy obsessed with wanting a tattoo. Like, two. Not even just one. This is one of my obsessions.


<3
Korey

It's 11:30PM. I have until 10AM tomorrow to have completed my HIS325 term paper -- which by the way I should mention is only work 20% of my final grade -- and I have been procrastinating like WHOA. So here I am, posting another update to kill even more of my time. But it'll be short : )

After classes, I went home towards Eric's to hit up the mall as planned. An accident on 111 caused some severe stalling of getting there at a proper time, but around 6:15 I rolled up to his hizz-ouse and we were on our way. Mid-drive we decided on Roosevelt Field over Walt Whitman and Eric announced he had gotten us a reservation at the much saught after Le Cellier of Canada in Epcot for our trip!!!!!! Great great news.

Eric was aiming to purchase two items, both of which were accomplished very swiftly. We witnessed an older white woman at the counter of Macy*s cellar giving the poor Hispanic employee a hard time over some 15% off thing -- ps, off of a $19.99 item.. AKA all this for about $1.50. After a lot of her being bitchy and the employees looking glum as ever, Eric very loudly said while standing behind this woman on our way out, "If you're ever a big a cunt as her, I'll stab you." We both walked away laughing like kids.

Because I hadn't eaten, we went to Moes, also called the greatest southwestern food place on the island. Eric stopped for gas before that, and I talked to him out the window. We got great, overloaded meals for about $7 and I took a shot of seltzer in a salsa cup. It was his first time there at night -- and mine tooooo. The ride home was Opie and Anthony filled with my man Patrice as guest. I departed shortly after arriving back in Babylon to stall this paper and let erock get some much deserved sleep.

I got some paper written but I'm having a bit of a block continuing. I have allowed myself one more hour for this night so I better make that happen. Here's a good line or two I wrote. I might as well gloat the good shit.

"Black pride was fully exerted and exercised by the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense of the 1960s and 70s following the assassination of the so-called “Father of Black Power,” Malcolm X, on February 21st, 1965. Malcolm X – whose real name was Malcolm Little – held beliefs that stood in nearly complete opposition to the very well-known Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. King, who pushed for agape and love for all men through understanding, believed in non-violent action and resistance, while Little’s conception included his famous quote that blacks should seek equality, “by any means necessary.” Malcolm X truly felt that it was criminal to tell and/or teach African Americans not to defend themselves in the face of adversity and hate; the Black Panthers extended these beliefs to instill pride in their community as well as in to their futures."

... hell yeah.
<3
Korey

I, obviously, didn't take these. But here are three shots of where Eric and I are staying in Florida!

After careful consideration, I have started a NEW livejournal. This was done primarily because I miss the entire "blogging" experience and additionally it was a great time filler / diary device. So here I am again, fully ready to entertain you with every entry and keep you captivated and interested in my life.. !!

This time around, my user name is cheetah_heels. Why? In hommage to Opie & Anthony's guest host Patrice O'Neal's FANTASTIC appearance in which he and callers came up with a ton of would-be delicacy foods... and for Patrice, cheetah heels took the cake as it has done for me. He was scream laughing over this suggestion, and it has stuck with me ever since. Voila!

It is 10 December, and this is the last week of classes here at Stony Brook. Finals will commence next Monday and then it is home free until spring semester 08, which will begin on 28 January. A solid month + a plus days off should be the absolute perfect answer to this already glum late fall/winter. When all is said and done this time around, I will have earned 15 credits for French 311 conversation, French 312 composition, History 325 Civil Rights Movement, Philosophy 247 Existentialism, and Political Science 103 Comparative Politics. Spring schedule is set up but possibility exists that my philosophy professor will let me come visit/audit his 300 level Descartes course. For now though, I'm in 4 Political Science classes and one Sociology -- American Government, World Politics, Immigration and Refugee Politics, Third World Politics and Intro to African Society. !!

Still working at good old ShopRite #801 in Bay Shore... still not enjoying it.

Christmas is coming up quickly now and boy HOWDY will this one be good. Tonight after I get home from school, despite having a history paper to finish, Eric and I are going to the Walt Whitman mall to get a little shopping in. I hope that this week we can do something super nerdy (mainly make a gingerbread house mwuhahah poor guy) and watch his favorite, The Muppet Christmas Carol. Also, even though it's pah-retty gay, I do want to stop over by the Kime Ave. house in North Babylon for like.. 15-20 minutes one night too. Plans are all still a little in the air about what exactly we're doing family wise this time round. Eric started working at Borders books about two weeks ago and isn't sure what is going to happen for him with Christmas Eve. My family is having our annual party at my house this year with EVERYONE the Sunday before Christmas, which is the 23rd. Hopefully he can make it.. but also, I was intending to go to church with his family -- which is their tradition but asforementioned, we are unsure what will be happening.

The biggest, greatest, most exciting news ever for me is Eric's and me ARE GOING TO DISNEYWORLD 9 January - 15 January!!!!!! 6 nights and 7 days in the happiest place on Earth, together, alone, with nothing to do but enjoy our time. We are staying on Disney property at the Wilderness Lodge with a meal plan, a seven day park ticket with hopping option and transportation to and from the airport. I basically could not be any more excited for this than I already am. We are 30 days and counting...

So there's my re-introduction. : ) Hoooray for coming back!
<3
Korey