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Random Thoughts
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Below are the 50 most recent journal entries recorded in the "Herbie" journal:[<< Previous 50 entries]
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01:30 am
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Various things, including testing out IE8 for this post.
Well folks, For a while I've been using Jaws 8 and IE6 on my machine because they work just fine. The original reason was because I was not impressed with Jaws 9 as it would do things such as interfeer with goldwave to the point where it was unusable. That, and I liked the speed of IE6 better than 7. But after 10 came out I tried it on my laptop, and after it solved a few issues and I got used to how the new forms field option works, I decided to try it on the desk top. The over all result is that now I am using IE7 as well as the latest jaws and it's proving too be interesting. For one thing, the links folder is now called favorites bar, and they add a whole bunch of msn crap in your main favorites folder. I chose to get rid of them as they are no use to me and were in the way. As for jaws 10, I have mixed feelings about it. For the most part it works fine, but it can read a couple of sites a little weird such as reading links that shouldn't appear as links. The automatic forms mode is something to get used to as well. Sometimes I forget so I battle with it sometimes with it saying I'm in it and me hitting enter which takes me out of it. It finding the forms mode on the page you go to can also be a good or bad thing depending on the site. For example, really good for a bank site that you frequent, bad if you are taking surveys as you need to read the instuructions on what to write. It's also very nice to have for a laptop as it makes it easier to get out of forms mode.
In other news yesterday was my birthday. Dawnielle and I had an excelent dinner at a barbecue restaurant called Famous Daves. Surprisngly we got there and back with out asking for help which is surprising for when we go there. It was our first time going this year as it does not sound appealing in the winter time. Well, more the going outside part then the food, but in general it is more of a summery place.
This Birtyday unfortunately was preceeded by tragedy as we had to put Madelyn down after her hind leg got broke. If you have access to dawnielle's journal you can read about it all there. All I can say on the matter is that it was unfortunate we had to use the emergency vet rather then our own. It was also unfortunate that we were unable to save her as she was a young rabbit, and also unfortunate that we do not know if saving her life would have been the best thing. Sometimes I do wish time travel did exist, or some way of looking ahead to see multiple alturnatives and chose what you feel is the best one. The only thing we have to go on is that 2 out of 3 vets were not sure what her life would be like afterwards. I juust hope that one day animal medicine will get to the point where putting them down does not have to be the only way. They can have a good chance at life with the correct surgery or treatment. But more people need to care first for that to happen.
And now to add insult to injury Dawnielle's desktop is giving her some major problems, and her mom has gone in the space of one day from ?sure, I'll help you restore or look in to a new computer." to ?I think we can use a computer that's a couple years old. Just needs reformatting, and we'll be good to go.? One can only hope, but it's unfortunate as dawnielle has looked at ways of saving her current computer as well as looking into some new ones. I advised her for now to try out this computer that her mom's reformatting and see how it works out as we are both pretty good and getting computers to work for us. In the mean time, we can spend money on getting a new companion for Quazi who has taken this the hardest out of all 3 of us. It wasn't until yesterday that he finished his hey, and Madelyn was put down early Saturday Morning.
In work related news I finally have a new coffe machine that so far has been working out pretty well!! I also have a new snack machine which I think has motivated some people to buy more from my sharp looking machines. The result is that now I only have on snack machine, one coffee machine, one food machine, and 2 pop machines at the post office. It sure makes filling them a lot faster. The state has also given me a stair climber dolly to help with lugging products up stairs and it has been very helpful.
That is all for now, I will update later.
PS, if you do use Jaws 10 you will want to use your aro keys to get out of forms mode to read the fields suchy as music and all that.
Current Mood: okay
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12:27 am
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Interesting developments
Well folks, I'll move on beyond the stuff I've posted before about how it's been a long time and move on to what's been going on lately. First of all, I've done something totally hip and like modern, in my circle of friends at least and it seems like in most others it's the thing to do. What is it? I've gotten a facebook account. Yes indeed folks, I have one and boy is it fun with jaws!! I'm starting to get the hang of it but boy is it tricky. If you wish to find me over there search by my name or email as I haven't yet figured out how to list schools and all that. Maybe I should get myspace or twitter next. Maybe twitter if I'm bord, but no myspace. Actually, I don't even remember if twitters supposed to be speach friendly or not but that's the least of my worries right now. Let's go in to more serious subjects such as the coffee machines that hate me. I sware, I don't know if it's them spacifically or something but they are really starting to annoy me.
I'd finally gotten to the point where for the most part they were working fine. The main problem was keeping them clean but beyond that nothing too major, until the switch. I decided to switch to a local brand of coffee that a lot of people at the post office had been requesting. I was excited at the prospect since we were going to offer more choices and things but not too hopeful of it being a major money maker or anything like that, just to slightly help sails along. Well I finally got the new stuff in and by the weekend the machines were giving me problems. I had one grinder that decided to completely clog up on me, and another that was making the coffee too light. So for a while I had non working coffee machines, not fun. The people came last Friday to help with the machines and we got them re-calibrated and everything. Spent all day doing it though and I didn't leave work until 7 that night. It all may end up proving to be for nothing as the other major event to come up, Dawnielle and I are looking into moving back to Washington State.
Surprising that I'm going for it yes, but it's come down to either that or bye-bye relationship. The truth is that Minnesota is Killing Dawnielle. There are some things she could do to prevent some of it, but all it would do is shift it from it killing her to just not getting along with her. For instance, her body clock has never adjusted to central time from pacific, she's not done well with the winters, and even though it's rather simple, she doesn't get mobility too well for this place. As for me, to be honest I'm getting tired of teh winters here. I can deal with the cold to an extent, and I can deal with it snowing and all that, but the real killer is berried sidewalks. To a sited person this may not seem like a big deal, but believe me it is. A lot of mobility depends on sound, we here things such as cars, buildings, etc. Snow dampens the sound making things too quiet. Add to that you're all bundeled up and you're really in trouble. This year especially I have had some fun adventures even down town where a simple mobility trip turns into a nightmare because of navigating snow banks and all that. And work, I'm forced to cab it everyday because the sidewalks there are impossible. i could walk along side it in the street and hope for the best, but I would miss the landmark telling me when to cross so that would be a problem. Another factor for me moving is the job is not working too well at all. It brings in some money but not much more then social security. It's all most like getting SSI with a little extra, but having to work for it. The rest of the money you make goes to suppliers, taxes and all that fun stuff. This also leads to another issue, I stay here, and i have to take care of everything myself. Oh some aspects of life would be cheaper, my only pet if I chose to get one would be a bird but that's about it. No lower rent for me either since I'm working. Doable I suppose but not necisarily worth it. Moving back there also brings us back with family though that can be for better or for worse for both sides of the coin. I'm getting tired so I will update some more tomorrow about this hole things. Please forgive spelling errors.
Current Mood: tired
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11:06 pm
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A badly needed update. What kind of cupcake am I.
It's scary how accurate this result actually is. I don't like carrot cake, but this really fits me.
You Are a Carrot Cake Cupcake
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You are a complex person. You have many interesting layers to your personality, though others might not know it.
You are drawn to a cross section of people. You friends play different roles in your life.
You are like a cupcake because you are are deceptively simple. There's actually a lot to you!
There are many ingredients in your life, and you only want them in proper amounts. Being you is a delicate art.
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Current Mood: It's been a long day.
Current Music: talking to vanilla and chocolate mint cupcakes on skype.
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03:41 pm
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The Surgery
For both readers of Dawneille and Herbie's Journal.
I am pleased to report that Dawnielle has made it through her Surgery and is resting somewhat comfortably right now. She had 6 sists, 4 on her right overy and 2 on her left. She also did have to go through the hole c-section and so she's been experiencing a lot of pain. I will update more later, but I thought I would keep you all posted for now.
Current Mood: relieved
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03:40 pm
[Link] | Well folks, I am currently sitting in the hospital right now. Dawnielle has gon up to pre-op and they will be operating on her in over an hour. I must admit that I am very nervous about this hole thing. For one thing this could end up being more then must a mini sergury and there's always room for something to go wrong. So now I just sit here ande wait. There's also some confusion as to whether she'll be staying in the hospital over night or not. Hopefully she is able to since if anything goes wrong there is very little I will be able to do. Plus the prospect of getting her out the cab into the apartment building and all that, It's a pitty the apartment building doesn't have a wheelchair down there. Oh well, we'll manage. It looks like we get internet here and can use cell phones so calling people won't be a problem. Her mom comes in a couple days to help out and that will be nice.
Current Mood: nervous
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09:52 pm
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Trapped in Minnesota for longer then expected.
Well folks, the vacation I thought I would be getting may not be after all, though not because Dawnielle's mom changed her mind: but I will get to that in a minute. First, let's talk about her visit. It went better then both Dawnielle and I expected. She was a lot more relaxed this time making it easier to get along with her. She did some more organizing and we replaced some things like my computer chair. This place looks more like a house than an apartment, probably one of the more organized places in this building, but that is unfare since I haven't seen anyone elses digs. We talked about going home and me getting rid of my job, or volunteer position as it seems to be lately. This last week for instance was very dead and I made no more than 400 dollars that week, most of which went to suppliers, and sales tax. The proffit margins for this job are way off from what they were supposed to be. But that;s for another post and previous ones where I've written about this. When Dawnielle's mom left, we were planning on going home to Washington on the 16th of December, but all that changed this last weekend when Dawnielle had to go to the ER. It turns out she have two ovarian Cists, which will have to get removed, and possibly one of the ovaries as well. This means cutting her open, and no mini operation like she had a couple of years ago. Needless to say if that happens which her doctor is pretty sure of then she will probably be out of it for a while and not wanting to travel, who can blaim her. This would have been my first trip to Washington since moving here and I was curious to see how I felt going back there. So now we face surgery next Monday and it is Scary for both of us. And everything feels like it's been turned upside down with how unexpected this hole mess is. Andf now, winter has set upon us in a brutually cold and windy fashion with a low of 11 degrees right now and no let up from the wind all day. It will no doubt be blowing thourhg the night making sleep rather interesting. That is all for now, I will post after the surgery to talk about it.
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12:13 pm
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My first vacation and my first independent voting experience.
Well folks, it's been a while I know but I've got plenty to talk about.
I'll start with my job as always.
It is too soon to tell whether things will improve or not, but the one bit of good news is now that prices have been adjusted so that I am no longer losing any money. Some products such as milk I'd been losing money on for a while because I wasn't able to get any help adjusting prices on the food machine.
People are unhappy about it naturally but that's how things go. Hopefully we'll see the economy improve and people be able to aford more or willing to and maybe prices will start going down, but that is a maybe.
In other news Dawnielle's mom invited both me and Dawnielle to come back home for Christmas. After some deliberation we decided that it would be to our advantage to except since there's no telling when such an invite will come again or if ever, especially if we decline this one. So we leave the 16th of December and come back the third of January. I'll get to meet some of here family that I've only heard about so it will be interesting to put faces to names. This will also be my first trip back there since moving out here in late 04. It's going to be strange let me tell you. To make things even more interesting Dawnielle's mom is coming for a visit today and will be here until the 11th. This will be interesting. Pour Dawnielle though get's to see both her and my family this year in one trip. From her side we get to here about how they miss her, and from mine I get to here about how I look like my cousin and how I should lose wait. And it's all ready starting with an email I got from my dear mother last night talking about how I look similar too Berock when I was a little thinner. And while I agree that I should be a
little thinner, she could try to stop talking about it. Oh well, some things will never change.
Now let's talk about something more exciting, my voting experience. On the hole, I was disappointed in how unprepared our pole was.
Not surprised, but still disappointed. Dawnielle and I arrive there at around 9-30 and the place is all ready busy. We tell them we need the watermark machine and when they find someone who is familliar with it they take us over there. The machine is off so they have to find someone else to turn it on because it requires a certain key. After another 5 minutes or so they finally get it turned on, but the headphones that came with were plugged in to the wrong plug. They were too busy to set it up earlier. What a reminder of how insignifigant we are as blind people. But in the end Dawnielle and I were able to vote and we are very pleased with how the election turned out. I am tired for whatever reason I know not so I will go for now. I will keep you all updated on my trip and the like.
Current Mood: tired
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11:33 pm
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More things to post now.
Well now that I know this thing is working I will post a few things.
First of all job related things.
Things have gotten better over the past several months.
While proffit margins aren't that much better, I have a different coordinater now who is more on top of things and was able to get me better set up with keeping better track of the ledgers and all that.
However I have had one major disappointment.
My coordinater and I had talked about replacing a few of my machines at the post office with some updated ones including a bottle pop machine to replace the can pop one, a newer snack machine, and a newer cofrfee machine.
He put in the request and the machines were ordered, only to find out that they may have been meant for an entirely different location.
That really bites.
In non job related news I finally have a new desk-top and it is a beauty.
500 GB Harddrive, a decent soundcard, vary fast, and of course, XP, not vista.
This is a home built computer and I have every confidence that it can last as long as my 98 beast, which despite it's problems, still is useful in emergencies.
We have also had a tragedy recently with our bird diing.
We don't know how he died, though we think it may not have been as sudden as we first thought.
Dawnielle had noticed the day before he seemed a bit subdued, and our cleaning lady had said the Friday before he was flying funny.
Never the less it would not surprise me if our apartment ghost had something to do with it.
And before you scoff at the idea, even Dawnielle seems to think we have a ghost and we have had a partially sighted person whitness something before we told her about it.
The ghost was noticed back around late June, early July.
It was on a Wednesday night/Thursday Morning.
Dawnielle and I had a disagreement over whether we should sleep with the window open, I did not want too because I felt it was too windy out there, and it was windy indeed, and it felt wrong, though I confess I was half aslepp but still, I remember thinking that it felt wrong.
Dawnielle decided to go sleep on the recliner.
And both windows were closed. While attempting to sleep she noticed that the kids seemed to be vary adgitated for no reason and her recliner was moving with out her doing a thing.
She came back to bed then I had a dream that involved airplanes with me in them going up and down.
The next day we agreed that it might have been the ghost of Matildia trying to get on the recliner.
Her ashes are still here in this apartment.
Since then we have noticed that weird things happen around those day's.
And yesterday, our friend whos' visited us noticed her headphones moving with out anyone touching them.
But now, I will tell you all something really scary that could happen to anyone. The other day we were at a restaurant and I paid for dinner with my debbit card.
When I got it back, I noticed that it didn't have braille on it. I had someone look at it and it said Wells fargo on the back so I didn't think much of it, until it stopped working.
I tried using it online yesterday and it didn't go through. I tried using it again at a store today and it didn't work, however seeing it reminded me about the fact it didn't have braille on it.
I had someone read the numbers to me and sure ehough, it was the wrong card. The restaurant we'd have lunch at the other day had given me the wrong card. Fortunately I hadn't tried using that phisical card until today and someone had reported my other one as lost. So now I have to wait for a new one and memorize it's numbers. That is all for now, but I will update again soon.
Current Mood: tired
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11:28 pm
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Test.
This is a test post. If this goes through then I will post more including visi5ts, and a vary scary credit card incident.
Current Mood: tired
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10:29 pm
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What ever my brain comes up witn.
A lot has happened since I've last updated.
Let's start with some good things.
My last internet station has gone through a name and design change.
If you want to check out a station with a wide variety of programming then check out kfuzradio. Depending on how things go money wise will depend on how long we last but I hope it can be a long time.
The weather is warming up and I am able to start taking the bus again to an extent. As long as we don't have anymore snow then it will be doable but we are still in the throw's of winter so I may not be so lucky.
Marriage wise, Dawnielle and I have talked about setting a tentative date for next summer and I hope we can meet it.
Bad things, business is not the greatest at the moment though I've heard it's no better with our economy so maybe I shouldn't be surprised.
I should write more, but I am tired so I will do a better update tomorrow or Friday.
Current Mood: tired
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09:11 am
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sickness, business, and other things
Well folks, I keep forgetting to update this thing so it's time to do it.
This past week proved to be rather interesting. I got sick this past Sunday with a minor stomach bug and got lucky I didn't have to miss work.
Dawnielle got sick later this week and I did miss a day of work.
She's still recovering so hopefully today she'll be completely recovered. It doesn't help matters to that Quazi it showing signs of being sick again as he has barely eaten anything. Dawnielle found some of his critical care med left and that did get him to eat. We will be calling his bvet tomorrow and see what she thinks.
Work has been busy for me though on the whole, not much in the way of money to show for it. Though when you have emergencies like last year with vet bills and computers that doesn't help much. I may be gtetting a third location in the next couple of months, but nothing is deffinet at this point so I don't have my hopes up. Dawnielle's and my relationship for now seems to be on more of a solid footing which is nice. I was even able to get her an early valentines day gift the other day, well early as in the fact that if I ordered now I'd get a discount, but she won't open it until valentines day. (if you want to know what it is ask privately) I had a physical exam the other day, and ocer all I'm healty, not problems or anything like that. I had pretty much guest that, but people were pushing me to get one so I did. Weather wise, things are pretty cold here. It was 21 below yesterday and it's 18 below right now. I hear it's cold other places too, but I have to admit that dealing with Washingtons Rain might be a better option sometimes. I used to think it was cold though I doubt I'll think so now lol. I don't really have much else to talk about for now so I will see everyone later.
Current Mood: okay
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03:54 pm
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These results all ways amaze me
Well I decided to take this, only part of the answer I found obvious and the rest, well I honestly don't know what to think other than to say I'm surprisede it came up with this since it's too true.
| What Your Pizza Reveals | 
You have a hearty appetite. You are likely to complain if a restaurant has small portions.
You consider pizza to be bread... very good bread. You fit in best in the Midwest part of the US.
You like food that's traditional and well crafted. You aren't impressed with "gourmet" foods.
You are dependable, loyal, and conservative with your choices.
You have many conflicting and complementary layers to your personality. You should consider traveling to Australia.
The stereotype that best fits you is geek. You're the type most likely to order pizza to avoid leaving your computer. |
Current Mood: okay
Current Music: The country cafe
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04:13 pm
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Good or Bad news. I'm not sure.
Well folks, my proffit an loss statements from april to July have been added up.
Right now I am worth about $600 give or take.
Not a lot really, I mean I only make more in a single month with social security. But that's life I guessl Extra money is good so I can't complain about that.
I'm actually having a bit more success with my internet station.
I've gotten about 14 DJ's which isn't bad.
About four came when another station shut down but otherwise we're not doing too bad.
My mom and Grandma came for a visit.
Surprisingly enough it didn't go too bad.
Sure my mom complained about my wait and stuff but that was to be expected so it was easier to ignore and not get upset over it. After I was able to deal with that, the rest of it wasn't bad at all. We got this apartment clean, a new bed, unearthed some CD's, and a few other odds and ends.
Let's see, what else.
My business might be expanding.
I must admit I'm a little nervous about that.
Sure the extra money will be good but the extra traveling and stuff is going to be somewhat of a challenge.
I'm trying to think of what else to write but my brain is not working.
Well in that case I think I will go look at my friends page which I haven't done in god know's how long.
Talk to you all later!!
Current Mood: tired
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10:55 pm
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Long time no update. Let's talk about life, and religion.
Has it been forever since I've last updated?
It sure doesn't feel like it.
But I've been busy, and when I haven't been busy I've been tired.
So let's see, where to start.
First off, my job.
I can do without the coffee machines.
Everything else is going pretty good but the coffee machines have been problematic.
Right now there working and have been for a couple of weeks, but before they have been a problem.
Otherwise the people are good, and I get along with the people I see during the day.
I haven't made too much money with this job yet but I'm not surprised.
With all the machines working now it may increase some.
By now if you've read Dawnielle's journal you'll have read about Matildia, and her passing away.
Needless to say that was vary hard on both of us.
Even though she wasn't really my cat she was part o the family, and she and I became close wile living at Stephanies house.
I've alsostarted a little interne station.
You can check it out here
We're not all ways on right now but we are during most of the day usually.
We're also looking for more DJ's so if your interested let me know.
I will update later.
Current Mood: tired
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04:39 pm
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I like this
| What Herbie Means |
H is for Hip
E is for Enthusiastic
R is for Rebellious
B is for Brilliant
I is for Ideal
E is for Expressive |
Current Mood: happy
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07:16 pm
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Some good news for once?
After several months of nothing I finally got the job last week.
Yes, not only do I get a job but onw in the Duluth main post office and that is not too far away from where we live.
Now comes the preparation, getting suppliers lined up, getting tax registrations taken care of, bank account for business, mobility training, and meetings, machine cleanings, (The last company didn't do a good job of maintaining the equipment), and much much more.
Otherwise things haven't changed much.
Dawnielle's still going off the deep end but maybe after my job starts and things go well with this new bird things will settle down somewhat.
The prospect of a new job has helped my depression a lot, though our money situation hasn't yet and doesn't look like it will anytime soon.
Other than that, not much else to talk about.
I will talk to you guys later.
Current Mood: accomplished
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08:11 pm
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life.
Well it's been a few days since Chanelle just up and left us.
Over all I have to admit that I'm happy for us that she's gone, but sad for her the way she went about it.
After all this time we still don't know what set her off.
I've seen her a couple of times since then, once when she came to move her stuff, and yesterday wen I went to church with them.
Over all she seemed happier which is good, but I wish she would have moved out on her own.
But oh well.
Like I said she's gone, and now Dawnielle and I can move on with our lives sooner than expected.
Dawnielle isn't aking Chanelle gone being too well but I think she's having some residual effects from Chanelle being gone.
But now things really get interesting as yesterday (Much to Stephanies horror) I ended up getting invited to sing at there church after Carren told the passter that I was a good singer.
When it turned out that I was put on the bulliton Stephanie was more nervous about it than me.
She was afraid of what I would do singing wise.
As it turns out all three of us are going to do a song with me as the feature person.
I don't mind that since my last solo performance, well, if you heard the zone icon show you understand and if you din't or don't know what I'm talking about, consider yourself blessed.
Chanelle seemed to like the idea of me singing, just not singing with me.
Since our voices are diferent hough I share her hesitation.
Nothing else to write about for now so I will update later.
Current Mood: uncertain
Current Music: nfl football
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11:23 am
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News break!!!!!!
I don't have much to say right now but Dawnielle and I have received vary shocking news.
Chanelle has just anounced that she intends to move in with stephanie.
Today.
I can't help but have some good and bad feelings about this hole thing.
Good for us, bad for Chanelle.
At this point I have no idea what caused her to desie this, especially since she was all ready planning on moving to her apartment early.
I will update later.
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08:56 am
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Life
Well the Duluth Vending oute came up for gravs last week and I was able to get my name on the list as someone who would be interested.
There is a licensed operator ahead of me but the directo isn't sure how serious she is about that job.
To her I say this.
"Have you no heart. Did it not occur to you tat there may be others that don't even have a job that would jump at anything? It's one thing if you're serious and you're trying to get a better location, but if you're not, then you just add to mine and Dawnielle's torment."
They should revamp the system so that students can get first pick with at least the lower income jobs.
We're the ones after all who don't have anything going for us right now.
But I doubt that's going to change.
If she does take it then at least her stand becomes available and I can all ways see about getting it, if it sounds worth it.
What else to write about.
I could write about Chanelle but that's been written in Dawnielle's journal so no need to.
I will update later.
Current Mood: hopeful
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11:49 pm
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And so the wheel of life turns, and my worst prodictions become reality.
So the past couple of weeks have not been the greatest.
I came down with a cold a week ago and I'm just really starting to get over it, the cough is the worst part of it.
Things with Chanelle have been rocky just like I was afraid they would be.
First off, the good news is that everything with her parents seems to have died down completely.
Thankfully tey only emailed her instead of constantly calling like Dawnielle's mom, so it was a lot easier for me and Dawnielle to stay out of the middle of it.
Oh sure we gave Chanelle advice, but we didn't have to be the ones to deal directly with her parents: thank god for small favors.
Chanelle's stuff arrived the other week and that's made things less stressful in a lot of ways because now we each can be on a computer.
My 98 computer is still down internet wise, but I can still use it for books, music, movies, radio drama's etc, since our router networks everything allowing me to download stuf on to it from another computer.
But there's still the stress of having a third person living with us.
Kim suggested that maybe Dawnielle and I stay here and Chanelle move to the new apartmet by herself but Chanelle doesn't like that idea because she'll feel more abandoned.
I've just gotten over the nigtmare of Dawnielle feeling that way so right now the last thing I want to do is make someone feel abandoned, especially when we agreed to help them.
Dawnielle and I have different views as to how we should help Chanelle as well.
Dawnielle thinks that we should leave it up to the state to teach her stuff and we shouldn't have to be the ones to teach her stuff.
While I can apreciate Dawnielle's position, the way I see it is that if we teach her stuff now, she can less dependant on us with in a short period of time so that way we can become friends, instead of instructers.
We don't even know when she'll be able to be with the state since sh's taking a break from school and doesn't want to work right now.
I have started to teach Chanelle mobility and she seems to be a pretty fast learner.
I can also tell that she haes being dependant on other people, but at the same time, she doesn't want to be lonely.
Poor
Chanelle, she knows she's in the middle of everything but what can you do, it's too late to turn back now.
As for the move it self, I'm forced to admit that even though I believe hole heartedly that this move is for the best: it will be sad to leave this place.
Let's face it, this has been Dawnielle's and my home for over a year now.
It is a nice neighborhood, and I do like the walk to the convenience store, I also like the people there.
But there is major advantiages to moving as well.
Better access to laundry, closer to everything, Dawnielle will be able to get more support from Kim, she can walk to counseling, and I can see us walking more since we can walk to the places we go to downtown instead of taking the bus.
It will also be nice to save on rent and getting Chanelle moved in to her own apartment.
:Plus, downtown is nicer in the wintertime then this area in reguardes to snow and ice on the sidewalks.
Safety is somewhat of a concern, though I have bre told by several different people that the area we'll be in is pretty safe.
Dawnielle's mental health is deteriorated and the big crash may come soon.
All I can do or now is try to prevent it but for how long before I potentially crash.
This has not been easy for me and it's all I can do to keep things from taking there toll on me.
I hope that Dawnielle and Chanelle can work things out, because her anger could not only affect Chanelle's and her friendship, but our relationship, since her anger can cause us to have totally different view on things.
I should feel angry that Chanelle has taken over our lives, but I don't.
It would be so easy sometimes to be angry with her, but then I'd have to be angry with Dawnielle for inviting Chanelle, and with myself for supporting it hesitantly in the end.
But I'm not, I've excepted it, and am trying to move on with my life, it's be rocky, but I'm still here.
Today was a fun day.
Stephanie invited all of us to her church and then for a walk on the lake afterwards.
Dawnielle didn't want to go but later on she let us pick her up for cold-stone, (Though she had Taco Belle,) and afterwards to there house for popcorn and a movie.
She doesn't seem to appreciate the fact that stephanie while not Linda, is still a friend of sorts.
They are starting to get along better, though I don't think they'll ever be the friends they used to be.
It occurred to me today that I haven't been in they're church since early last year.
As churches go it's not a bad church, while I don't completely jive with what they believe, they still have christian beliefs.
I wouldn't want to join it, but I don't have any objecgtions to going they're every now and then.
I have to admit though, I don't mind the idea of worshipping god on saturday's instead of Sunday, it's something different and Saturday mornings are usually dull for me anyway.
Well that's all for now, I will talk to you all later.
Bye
Current Mood: okay
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11:35 pm
[Link] |
Life
Well things have been pretty busy since my last posting.
When was my last posting?
Was it before I looked at our new apartment? I think so.
So let's start with that.
Dawnielle, Chanelle, and I went to see an apartment last Wednesday.
It's in the downtown area but in the safer side of it.
It's in a convenient location for walking to Wells Fargo, the library, counseling, the Transit center, etc.
There are a couple of drawbacks the main one being we won't be in a country like atmosphere, and the apartments are a little smaller then the one we've got here, but we have better access to things such as the dumpster, recycling, and most important, laundry.
We looked at there laundry facilities and they were nice.
We also get an intercom system so that way we don't have to tell people to call ahead before they arrive.
I will let Dawnielle explain her missgivings in her journal but it looks like we'll be moving there.
Chanelle seems to have not only gotten used to the idea of her own apartment but starting to like the idea.
Even if it wasn't for the relationship it would probably still be a good idea.
For one thing, Chanelle likes to get up early, where as both Dawnielle and I like to sleep in late.
We usually go to bed later than she does as well.
There's other good reasons for it as well but that's one of the main ones.
Friday Chanelle and I did mobility, as well as squeeze in stuff she needed to do such as getting a mental health case manager, turning in a statement saying she's paying rent, (we're giving her a break on that for this place since she's going to need all the money she can get.) and my accessment for Arhms.
The mobility went ok.
She struggled mostly with the skywalk route from the holiday center to the Nystrum office but she started to get it.
I hope she continues to be a fast learner because I need a break.
I have to go downtown tomorrow for a medical accessment with arhms and we'll do more mobility then, hopefully the weather will be nicer so we can do some outside stuff.
This weekend has been relaxing thogh poor Dawnielle is coming down with a cold.
I hope I don't get it.
I will talk to you all later.
Current Mood: tired
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12:03 pm
[Link] |
It's been a while
Well with one thing and another going on I haven't had much of an oppertunity to be on here.
Apart from the fact that we've been busy, my 98 computer is still down so I'm having to share Dawnielle's computer.
Once Chanelle's computer gets here we will at least each have a computer.
Thank you to those who have commented on my last entry.
So far my worst feres seem to have come to past: the chief of them being that Dawnielle is falling apart mentally.
She does have her good days but she's still falling apart.
I get to see our new apartments tomorrow but I think it's for sure that we're moving.
I must admit I'm looking foward to being closer to everything.
I have the family meeting with Dawnielle today about her adult partial group.
I'm not sure what they will ask but if they're is anything else they can do for her then that would benice.
Not much else to write about.
I still haven't heard anything about the vending route here and I have know idea when I will.
I wish I could do something to keep my skills up but they're been nothing offered and I've been busy around here.
I will talk to you all later.
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02:28 pm
[Link] |
Quick Update
This is just to let you all know that I've graduated today.
Depending on mobility concerns will depend on whether I get the Duluth Post Office or not.
They were vary pleased with my performance over all.
I will go into more details later.
Current Mood: tired
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11:40 pm
[Link] |
First week for On the Job Training.
This marks the first week in my On the Job Training (from now on it will be referred too as OJT, or O J T. You might want to fix it in your jaws so it doesn’t sound funny.)
My schedule goes from nine to three-thirty now instead of nine till three but that’s no big deal.
If things go good, I will be done with it and the program in three weeks.
I’ll get done when Dawnielle gets done with her group.
Today though, I’m not going to write about Dawnielle.
This entry is strictly devoted to the OJT and nothing else.
I went with Ed my instructor last Thursday to see my location and the person who works there.
It is a post office annex and It’s just a tiny bit out of the way for where the hotel shuttle usually goes.
Fortunately Ed was able to make arrangements with them so I could get there and back without any problems.
The guy who works there is called Larry.
He’s in his fifty’s though you’d think he was in his thirties.
He offed us a drink and then we talked about what my expectations were and all that.
They were just the usual stuff.
Costumer service, keeping the machine’s clean, showing up on time, the usual bit.
The only concern for the BEP staff is my mobility.
It is not the lack of it that’s the problem, but my over confidence and lack of causion.
Since it is a sorting place, there is a chance that I could smash into a cart or get run-over by a fork-lift.
So we agreed that I would learn the post office annex bit by bit.
Start off small with the safe parts of the post office, then work up week by week to the hole thing.
There are a couple of tricky parts that I’ve seen today but so far it looks manageable.
So today I started off, and all most didn’t make it.
Instead of me showing up late it was the shuttle showing up late and instead of him knowing about where I was going I fortunately had the bright idea of making sure he knew before we got in the van.
He had to go in the hotel to find out.
So I got there a littlebit late but nothing too major.
(I forgot to mention that there is no bus service in that area. Larry has to get there using Metro or Accessiride or what ever that bus system is called in your area.)
Larry and his assistant gave me a quick tour of part of the post office.
During the tour we got me a visiters pass so I would be able to come in everyday.
We filled some vending machines and then Lary had one of his workers get us and himself some lunch from Wendy’s, which is right across the street but not easy to get to.
Somehow it didn’t get written down that the shuttle was supposed to pick me up at three-thirty so after half an hour of waiting in the heat I called the hotel and got it all figured out.
The driver got lost so I was waiting for at least another twenty minutes.
Tuesday things went smoothly except that Lary had me emptying out the coins in the machines that day and I had thought he’d meant the coin changers as well as the coin box.
(The coin box is where the coins go in to after the changer is full and can give out money for a while.)
He didn’t discover my mistake until the next day when he got some complaints about the machine only taking exact change.
Yesterday I had a cfan of pop explode on me while trying to fit it in to a machine.
I’ll have to be careful about that in the future, but let me tell you it’s not fun having those things explode on you.
A lot of the machines are the same ones I’ve worked with at SSB.
Some ones are different though such as the glass front pepsi machines.
(Coke needs to get on the band-wagon with that. But they won’t since most of there products are just carbon copies of pepsi’s and that wouldn’t be a good thing to display.)
At his location anyway pepsi products sell better than coke products.
At my last location, I think it was a little more even, though Marlous didn’t have any glass front machines.
(Incase you don’t know, pepsi now have glass front machines that not only allow you to see the product, but they also allow you to put more choices in there.)
My next task is to find stuff to do while waiting for my ride to come since Lary leaves an hour early before I do.
Cleaning stuff will be my biggest priority.
Some interesting difference between Lary and Marlous in reguards to there locations.
With Lary, money doesn’t seem to be a problem.
He seems to make enough, (though I’ve not asked him for an exact figure) and he’ll give away a lot of stuff for free.
Especially pop.
He keeps it in his fridge and offers people that come by his office a free drink on there way out.
The one thing he has complained about eating into his profits is plastic silverware.
The problem is that a lot of people don’t just use it for stuff they by from his machines, they use it for stuff that they bring from home.
You know how easy it is to grab up a bunch of silverware and napkins when they’re being offered to you for free.
He’s thinking of just having it with products that may require it though people won’t be happy about that.
Marlous on the otherhand has to keep her plastic silverware fully stocked.
She also sells soups and things thouse which require it more.
She also complains about having too little money as well.
It makes me wonder, could something so harmless as plastic silverware be so harmful?
Interesting, but I doubt it.
It’s just too illogical.
Current Mood: tired
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04:59 pm
[Link] |
Update.
I’m now in to the last weak of vending machine mechanics and next weak I should be starting my on the job training at a vending site.
The coffee machine is definitely the most complicated machine since it makes the coffee instead of dispensing something that’s all ready rapped.
However I’ve found it to be the most enjoyable to work on.
I seem to have a knack for machines and stuff and wish I could learn even more then what they teach.
I’m guessing I’ll get chances to learn them over time however so it’s nothing I dwell on too much.
I still don’t know if I’ll get the post-office in Duluth or not but I’m hoping I do.
It will be easier on both Dawnielle and me since neither would have to adjust to a new area and Dawnielle can still get the help that she needs for her mental stuff.
I also found out that my mom, grandma, and sister will be coming down here to help me move my things from here back to Duluth once I’m done with training.
(This time, they’re not coming uninvited.)
My OJT will be with a totally blind operator in a post-office and it looks like I’ll be able to use the hotel shuttle to get there so I won’t have to worry about taxi money.
Dawnielle is doing pretty good despite the fact I’m not there.
Going to group everyday has helped her a lot, and I’ve noticed that she seems to do better mentally if she’s on a routine or if she doesn’t get too much sleep.
She disagrees with me on it but that’s what I’ve observed.
Minnesota seems to be construction city.
They’re doing construction outside the hotel and I can feel the hotel shaking and the trucks vibrating all the way on the sixth floor.
There really isn’t anything else to talk about for now.
Oh, I should have done this earlier but I encourage you to check out a new store anoceanofsavings.net, “your online shopping mall!”
It has a ton of products, even more then the old afountainofsavings.com
A lot easier to write to let me tell you.
Oh and yes it is run by the one and only [Bad username: âsofty5310â]
My fiancé.
That reminds me, I wanted to clear up something in regards to a comment made in my last posting.
In regards to our relationship, Dawnielle and I have agreed that it would be better for us to focus on her mental illnesses right now instead of our relationship.
It was getting to be too stressful for her.
It is difficult to say where are relationship is truly at right now but we are not at a point where we’re going to be talking about marriage right after I get a job.
We decided on this about a month ago and I’d completely forgotten to mention it.
So in regards to the last comment made by [Bad username: âkathryn1920â] I am well aware of what I’d be getting myself into if I were to marry Dawnielle right now.
I should know, I’ve only lived with her for the past couple of years and so far we’ve done ok, though some people tend to disagree with that.
The reason why I’m not mentioning any names is because they’ve kept themselves anonymous so I don’t know who they are, and even if I did, well, it would depend on how well I know them as to whether I’d mention there name or not and whether they’d stated there opinion publicly or privately.
Other then that, things are going good.
Assuming that none of us melt in this terrible heat we’re having right now, I will write to you next weak with updates on the on the job training.
TTYL
Current Location: In my Hotel room
Current Mood: good
Current Music: Construction
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08:17 pm
[Link] | Oh boy, what a week this has been?
The week before last went ok.
Dawnielle was doing ok mentally but didn't really recover until the last day I was home.
I think she would have recovered soon if Stormy hadn't have died but there was nothing that could be done about that.
During that weak we went to our first movie together by ourselves and that was exciting.
Dawnielle wanted to see a movie called "Lake house" but the Duluth theeaters didn't have it so we saw a movie called "Cars" instead.
It was a good movie and we can't wait for it to come out!
We also went to Dawnielle's counseling appointment and Pam gave us the Crisis number for Dawnielle to call if she felt suicidal.
On Sunday when I left, Dawnielle went right back to where she was mentally when I came home the week before.
The next day she called the number.
I knew she was going to call the number but stupid me forgot to plug my cell phone in the night before and so I didn't know what happend until afterwards.
I knew she was going to call the number but I didn't know what happened after that until I got back to the hotel.
I got a voicemail from her saying the the crisis team had picked her up and that was all I knew until Dave my Arhms worker called me and told me that he'd heard that Dawnielle was in the hospital.
He gave me the number and what ward she was in and I was relieved to find out a few minutes later that she was fine and all that.
Dawnielle was first going to see if Shelly would authorize her staying with me in the cities while I finished training.
On the one hand I liked the idea since it would be nice to see Dawnielle all the time and she would do better mentally.
But on the other hand she would be bored out of her mind and she's supposed to be a big girl.
However she's going to a group class everyday so that will help.
She's out the hospital now and doing vary well.
I still came home since I felt it was important that she not be alone this weekend and I just found out that we don't have class until Wednesday.
I'm relieved to see that she's doing ok for now but I'm woried about what will happen wen I leave.
Only time will tell.
Current Location: Home
Current Mood: good
Current Music: People on Ventrillo
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09:09 pm
[Link] |
It looks like I got back in time.
I haven't starte3d working on the second week of yes but it is going to be worked on this weekend.
I found out from Edd that he was planning for us to have next Friday off since he had some things to do.
As a result he said it was pointless for us to have class on Thursday since I would be traveling back up there just for one class.
So I'm not comming back home til next Sunday.
Now I will be here for a week and after Dawnielle's entries I think that's a good thing.
It will give her a longer period of time to relax with someone else around and helping her not feel lonely.
I tried doing an all nighter last night because I wasn't tired and I didn't want to go to bed so late that I probably wouldn't hear my alarm. I ended up sleeping for a few hours and I tried sleeping on the bus, but the driver haunked his horn after leaving every bus stop and that kept waking me up. We stopped for a break and I was able to get some food which helped increase my energy levels.
I will update on how things turn out.
TTYL.
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11:17 pm
[Link] |
Documentary on Yes.
My apologise for not updating these past few weeks.
These past few weeks have been eventful but the hardest part has been putting in to words.
First of all the easy stuff.
Vending machine mechanics has been a blast.
It's nothing difficult to begin with but I feel like I could comprehend more complicated stuff if I had too.
I've worked on coin-changers, bill accepters, bill changers, pop machines, and we're currently working on snack machines.
Now to the hard parts.
If you've all ready heard about me and Dawnielle relationship wise then you know pretty much everything and you will find the documentary about yes more interesting.
If you haven't heard, then
( click here. )
Now I will write about yes for anyone who wants to read it.
This will be done in a serial form.
This entry will have the first week, then another entry will have the next week and so on.
At the wnd I will post it as onebig thing but for now this will do since it's how I'm writing it.
( here goes! )
See you all next week.
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12:00 am
[Link] |
These quizzes can be surprisingly accurate.
| What Your Soul Really Looks Like | 
You are a warm hearted and open minded person. It's easy for you to forgive and forget.
You are not a very grounded person. You prefer dreams to reality. For you, it's all about possibilities.
You believe that people see you as larger than life and important. While this is true, they also think you're a bit full of yourself.
Your near future is all about change, but in very small steps. The end of the journey looks far, but it's much closer than you realize.
For you, love is all about caring and comfort. You couldn't fall in love with someone you didn't trust. |
Or share this Blogthing with a direct link:
http://www.blogthings.com/insidetheroomofyoursoulquiz/
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02:02 pm
[Link] |
Happy birthday to me?
My day so far.
I wake up in the morning and am glad that I am home and have an angel-cakies next to me in stead of a hundred miles away.
She's still sleeping but it's sunny outside so it musn't be too early.
Get up, use restroom, check time, see that it's just past eight and go to bed again.
Dawnielle wakes up.
We get up a bit later and take showers.
While in the shower it I wonder what the date is and then it hits me, today's my birthday.
Siknce last night the fact that today is my birthday was completely driven from my mind.
But when you get let off at the wrong bus stop at ten-thirty at night and your left wondering around in the dark with your fiance not knowing where your going then such things become unimportant, replaced by, how to flag a car down since nobody's walking around, knock on someones door? Call our neighbor and say, we're lost and we think we know where we are but we're not sure, should we just stop wondering around and sleep on the grass?
I thought that I knew the way back to our apartment but I did not.
After nearly an hour somebody finally stopped and helped us get back to our place.
We got lucky they stopped too because there was an insodent where a guy had gotten beaten up in the part of town after ours by a couple of kids and the driver didn't know if we were the kids who did it or not since they were supposed to have come this way.
Needless to say we were glad to be back indoors.
Yesterday was the last day of my on the job training.
I did okay on most things.
I'm good with costumers, good at showing up on time, but didn't do so well in working hard and initiative.
But over all I passed.
Now I move on to vending machine mechanics.
Not much else really to talk about.
I will talk a little bit more about my experiences later on but I am going to get caught up on my friends page.
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06:49 pm
[Link] |
This is the last one for now I promise
More ineteresting results
| You Are 27 Years Old | 
Under 12: You are a kid at heart. You still have an optimistic life view - and you look at the world with awe.
13-19: You are a teenager at heart. You question authority and are still trying to find your place in this world.
20-29: You are a twentysomething at heart. You feel excited about what's to come... love, work, and new experiences.
30-39: You are a thirtysomething at heart. You've had a taste of success and true love, but you want more!
40+: You are a mature adult. You've been through most of the ups and downs of life already. Now you get to sit back and relax. |
Or share this Blogthing with a direct link:
http://www.blogthings.com/whatagequiz/
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06:40 pm
[Link] |
Interesting Prediction
| Your Deadly Sins | | Sloth: 100% | Envy:
80% | | Gluttony: 40% | | Wrath: 20% | Greed:
0% | | Lust: 0% | | Pride: 0% | Chance
You'll Go to Hell: 34% | | You will die with your hand down your underwear, watching Star Trek. |
Or share this Blogthing with a direct link:
http://www.blogthings.com/howsinfulareyouquiz/
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06:29 pm
[Link] |
I like these results.
| You Are a Chocolate Chip Cookie | 
Traditional and conservative, most people find you comforting.
You're friendly and easy to get to know. This makes you very popular - without even trying! |
Or share this Blogthing with a direct link:
http://www.blogthings.com/whatkindofcookieareyouquiz/
|
12:55 pm
[Link] |
This Past Weak
This past weak has been uneventful for the most part except for Monday and Tuesday.
But I'll start with going back to Sunday.
I was still tired and didn't feel like doing mush.
Cheryl and Melissa came over and took me to Target to get Matildia some food and Litter.
Them comming over reminded me of the times when Cheryl came over a lot: Some of those turning into some wild adventures like the Cheryl Dawnielle and I went to Target and after that we decided to go to Taco Bell.
The events surrounding that are written in an earlier entry but if you ever come to Duluth whether you blind or Sighted, I don't reccomend you try to get there by walking.
Then there were times Dawnielle and I went with Cheryl and Melissa to there bowling league, (Phone psts exist for that as well as getting the cursed engagement ring.), the time we walked from our house to K-mart, the times I would run into Cheryl downtown, (this included the time when we met a guy on the bus and he reacted negatively to Cheryl saying he was hot.) and talks about how much it sucked for her being single and she hated Melissa and Cory and all that.
Times have changed since then, the surprising thing is that Cheryl and Melissa get along now and she has a boyfriend..
And instead of me being in Duluth looking for a receptionist job I'm in the cities working towards going into business for myself and Dawnielle is in WA visiting her family of all people.
My oh my the times ara changin.
On Monday I got to the Grayhound station on time only to find the bus was an hour late and I didn't get back the hotel til after nine.
Tuesday I was lucky the my Marlous is a nice person.
I called the cab company and told them where I wanted to go and all that.
The cab arrives on time but the driver ends up taking close to fifteen minutes just to find the address I gave him.
He even asked me how empire was spelled.
(The street is Empire Drive.)
Along the way he even stopped to ask for directions.
I ended up arriving ten nimutes later then I normally would have.
Since then that hasn't been a problem but I managed to get instructions on how to get there just incase it should happen again.
This weak I got to see a little bit more of the vending side of her business but it really wasn't anything I hadn't seen before thanks to my earlier job shadow.
She felt bad about not teaching me more about it and starting tomorrow she is going to teach more about how to keep the machines clean and all that.
The only new thing I really learned was what the inside of a combo machine looks like.
(A combo machine is a machine that is designed to sell two different things like candy and pop in one machine.)
I also get to take a more active part in the ordering process for more product.
Now to the thing that irritates me the most.
I can't stand people that like to do exact change.
Here's what I mean.
I sell somebody something for 3.25.
They give me a five dollar bill and then want to give me the quarter instead of me giving back the seventy-five sents.
That would be fine except that they don't have the change ready, they have to dig in there purse to fine the exact change.
And that twenty-five is in the form of two dimes and a nickel slowing the process down even more.
This happened twice last weak and my mom does the same thing too irritating me to no end.
It would go a lot faster if I just gave them back change but they feel the need to do exact change slowing things down and really bad if you have another customer behind them..
I tryed to get one person who tryed it to just let me give them back the exact change but they found a quarter and put it on the counter without me knowing it and messed up my change count when I did find out.
Other than that things are going fine.
Dawnielle is on her way home today and I will be going back home for next weekend.
TTYL
Current Mood: happy
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02:07 pm
[Link] | For my amusement I did this, I don't know how it get's it's results but here goes anyway.
| American Cities That Best Fit You:: | | 65% Austin | 65%
Denver | | 55% Las Vegas | | 55% Miami | | 50% Atlanta |
Current Mood: good
|
01:48 pm
[Link] |
This past week.
This past weekend was uneventful save for Dawnielle going home, I barely got any sleep on Thursday and was constantly woken up on Friday whenever I tried to sleep.
But Saturday and Sunday were relaxing and I was ready to tackle Monday.
Monday I got up at around 5-30 in the morning and met my mobility teacher down in the hotel lobby at six.
We went over the route and dispite the fact that it sounds complicated it isn't that bad.
To get there from the hotel you take a bus into downtown St. Paul.
You get off the bus, cross a street, turn right, go to the end of that block and cross another street before catching a second bus to take you the rest of the way.
When you get there you have to cross two more streets getting you to the other side of the block before going down a sidewalk to a curb.This more complicated and it would be easier for me to discribe what I'm doing during a phonepost then on here.
I learned the inside of the building well enough to learn how to get to the snackbar where I would be working, and to the restrooms.
I spent most of the day going over the route and needless to say I was tired when I got home.
The worst part is that it takes an hour to get there and another hour to get home.
Getting there isn't so bad, but the buses are not air-condictioned so when it get's hot, your spending nearly an hour on two different stuffy buses that are crowded.
Today I started the actual training.
My teacher went with me to make sure I got there OK.
I had a couple of questionable crossings but they should improve as time goes on.
Now I will go into the more interesting parts, the location.
(New comers to my journal, you may want to go back through my journal to march to read about my job shadow experience in Duluth.)
Instead of a college it is a state retirment building.
It handles people who are looking for retirment plans and benefits and all that other stuff.
I think the building has other offices as well but that is it's main function.
It has vending machines as well as being a behind the counter location.
The owner there has had experiences training other students their before so this was not a new experience for her.
On like Lake Superior college she does not have any employees.
I got there ontime this morning and she showed me some of her vending machines.
She does not keep the machines by the snack bar filled that much with the exception of the candy machine and a section of the coke machine which is used for water bottles.
But even her candy machine did require much work since it was all most fully loaded when we opened it.
Her sales come more from behind the counter then anything else.
From the counter products consist of an assortment of pastries and doughnuts, two soup selections per day, cold sandwiches, frozen pizza's which he cooks for you, ice creams, juice, water, pop, and milk.
There is also a self-serve coffee pot and a free water machine
After the vending machines I got to sit behind the counter and try a couple of her breakfast sandwiches.
She had a canadian Bacon, egg and cheese, and a sausage egg and cheese on an english muffin.
Half an hour later I got my first real customer interaction.
Needless to say I was nervous bu I handled it just fine.
I went on helping customers through out the day until we closed up at 1-30.
I did the bus route just fine going home (no street crossings.)
Then my mobility teacher told me that Shelly had called and wanted a progress report on how I was doing.
She'd told her that there were a couple of spots that needed some work and that I should probably take a cab there and take the bus back.
(Great confidence builder.)
The logic behind this reasoning is that it would be cheaper for the state to pay for my cab everyday then pay for my mobility teacher.
So the agreement was that I would take a taxi in the morning and for the next couple of days my mobility teacher would make sure I got home OK by following part of the way.
The good sides , I do get to leave later, in the morningss and I get an extra two-hundred dollars.
The bad side is that I think that I could have done it with just a little more work, I was all most their and then stopped just short of the last turn to the finishline.
If it wasn't for the fact that I needed the extra sleep I might have tryed taking the bus by my self.
So Wednesday morning found me in a cab.
That day I got to hold the fort down while Marlous went to fill the machines upstairs.
I put some silverwhere out as well as helped a couple of customers.
That day I messed up a littlebit on the change making but I improved as the day went on.
Thursday I helped fill vending machines and I had less mess ups that day with change making.
I went to Grayhound in the afternoon and got a ticket to come home.
Over all I still like the vending business, but I can't wait to have my own.
Now I am home for the weekend.
The house is a mess, our router is having some problems, but the animals are doing fine and Judies been looking after them for us.
I'm sorry I haven't been on hear much but I've been too tired to update.
TTYL
Current Mood: good
Current Music: The birds
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08:11 pm
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A brief update.
Today I got to go to the location I'll be working at.
It will mainly be behind the counter stuff and vary little vending machines.
Nothing wrong with that, though I have to be there at seven in the morning.
So now my schedule is 7-00 to 1-30 everyday insted of 9-30 to 3-00 everyday.
Oh well, gota get used to it now so I can do it for my own business if I have to.
I start training there on Tuesday since I'll be doing mobility on Monday.
Her location is a snacbar which sells, pastries, soups, sandwiches, etc.
She also has a hallway with vending machines.
I don't know anything else beyond that since we just talked about the things I'd be learning there.
These include, change making, more book-keeping, sanitation, costumer service, and various things like that.
I might get a chance to go grocery shopping tomorrow and then I should have a relaxing weekend.
Thank you to everyone who congradulated me on passing the book-keeping.
Your kind words help a lot.
TTYL
Current Mood: happy
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07:18 pm
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Thank god I'm done with book-keeping!
Finely it’s over, no more book-keeping for the Present.
I managed to finish it and pass the test so I’m quite happy about that.
Now it’s on to OJT (on the job training.) after that vending machine mechanics.
I am looking forward to both though I had a scary moment this morning when my mobility teacher calls and says “It looks like the route is not accessible and you may have to take a taxy part of the way.”
Mobility teachers around here have no idea’s on how to come up with ways other then the most expensive.
(The person who has this job takes Metro mobility, the special bus system.)
Fortunately there is another route that my instructer knew about and from what I’ve heard it is more accessible.
Tomorrow I get to see the place that I’ll be at,I will let you know what it is like and next week I will hopefully have some more detailed entries then this one.
TTYL
Current Mood: happy
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12:46 am
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This past day
Just seven more entries and I will be at a hundred entries.
I will admit it’s prompted me to update a little bit more but going through my journal yesterday made me appreciate the nostalgic value of livejournal.
I have read about things that I had forgotten about for one reason or another.
But enough about the past save for one thing.
[Bad username: âsofty5310â] asked if I would write about my version of experiences at the yes program.
I shall do that though it will be a while before you guys will see it.
I also have more stuff to do on my Minnesota documentary and hopefully I’ll find the time to do it.
But let’s talk about today.
Last night was a rare bad night for me.
I had three cups of coffee with breakfast and later that day I had two glasses of coke.
Because I wasn’t tired the caffeine stayed in my system making it nearly impossible to sleep.
Then when I did come close to drifting off I would get interrupted by something such as the phone, or my celphone battery dying.
I eventually got to sleep but when I woke up I felt even more tired then when I went to sleep and I felt like I didn’t get any rest.
I was amazed that I was able to stay focused during class today and somehow managed to not only input numbers that made sense, but make some progress with the cash received, and cash paid out ledger.
That is the easy stuff but it was good enough for my teacher.
I tried to set up excel on my computer but I’m having some issues which are not jaws related at this point but more related to the program.
I’d almost forgotten that I had mobility afterwards and at first I was dreading it since I was so tired.
But it was actually a relief to be active instead of sitting.
My mobility teacher was late because she’d gotten caught in traffic and hadn’t planned well when she would leave to come get me.
When she finally got there we practiced the street crossing by SSB, which I would use if I took the bus there, and which I still use to get to McDonalds for lunch everyday.
It started raining on us and getting real windy.
We went back to the hotel and were about to practice some street crossings there but it rained harder and colder so we decided to call it a day.
She took me to the Harvard Market (which is a local convenience store.) so I could get some things like frozen dinners until I could get to a grocery store.
And now I want to harp on skype for just a minute.
They now have it so that anyone in the us who has skype can use it to call any phone in the US or Canada for free until the end of the year.
(note, sip Phone and Gizmo Project have better rates to the US after the skype promotion ends.)
This would be fine except for the fact that I’d just bought ten dollars worth of calling credit from Skype the other day for out-bound calls to the US.
Brandon’s excited about this because of the fact he doesn’t have a cell phone and the hotel has lousy calling rates.
Not much else to tell for this entry.
I’m going to bed so goodnight and I will talk to you all later.
Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Acappella (The Group)
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10:08 pm
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This past week.
This past week has been nothing but bookkeeping.
Edd and I finally figured out how we would do things using Microsoft excel and thank god, I finally understand what I’m doing now.
I got a little behind the rest of the class but I’m just about caught up.
I’m too the point where I have to do my own numbers and figure out how to keep my business from going under.
To give you an idea of what I’m working with, the scenario is that I’ve got a counter location in St. Paul that is a behind the counter location.
It just has the State sales tax rate of 6.5 percent and 30 percent of my sales are non-taxable.
(These can be things like clothes, cot meds, etc.)
A vending route in Minneapolis where everything is taxable but not only do I have the state sales tax rate but an additional city tax rate of 0.5 percent.
And then a third vending route in an eleven-block zone around the Target center in Minneapolis.
(The Target center is an auditorium like the DECC in Duluth.)
Everything is taxable there as well but that zone not only has the state and city tax rate but it also has an additional 0.25 percent.
(In theory a route like that could exist but doesn’t at this time. From my understanding though those sales tax rates are accurate.)
We have to figure out total sales tax for a month: profit and loss: cash paid out for merchandise, business, rent, operational charge, personal withdrawal, etc.
I’ll bore you to tears if I get into more of it, and there is way more then that.
Outside of business life Dawnielle’s and my relationship seems to be on stable ground for the present.
I didn’t get a chance to come home this past weekend do to money constraints and possible timing ones so I gave Dawnielle some spending money for WA.
My mother gave us both some money to so that should help.
In competition news Dawnielle has to deal with to different people who like me.
Kathryn and Hank.
(It’s an odd coincidence that Kathryn’s last name is Hanks and I also have a friend named Hank. If hank were a little more normal I’d say that maybe they’d be meant for each other. They wouldn’t be to far away too, one in WA and another in CO. Interesting.)
Hank has his foot fetishes and is still in denial about his sexual preferences.
(Both Dawnielle and I have told him what we think and doesn’t believe us.)
If I was to write about some more about this stuff I’d probably have to put a disclaimer on this entry to protect it from kids and the week minded.
Kathryn, well she’s a different situation.
I have all wayss known that if I was single that she’d want to go out with me.
I had hoped with time getting to know me as a friend would change her mind slightly (A lot of people see me as more of a brotherly type person more than anything else.)
During the past couple of weeks I’d noticed when I was on skype with her and Dawnielle if I said “Angelcakies” referring to only Dawnielle Kathryn would respond.
Getting annoyed by it I asked her why she did that and was bold enough to suggest that she wanted me to call her that.
Her answer was yes.
According to her she was hoping that I would call her that if we ever went out.
I had to explain to her that Angel and anything relating to it was term strictly meant for Dawnielle and if anything should happen to us and I were to call someone else that then it would lose it’s meaning.
Dawnielle being referred to as an angel is something that I think of in the real sense more so then a term of endearment.
No she’s not perfect but who is.
I occasionally will allow myself to wonder if god is since he and only he proclaims it, but he says he knows what he’s doing and humanity has survived this long so who am I to doubt him.
She went on to say that if she had a boyfriend that she would call him Angel-cakies and Angel cakes.
(those names fit Dawnielle and don’t ask me to describe how. I have no idea what I would use for a term of endearment for Kathryn.)
I told her that most guys would not like that but she said she’d do it anyway since she’s sure that most of them wouldn’t mind.
(She could never call him that in public.)
Other then that there isn’t anything much to update about.
I will be coming home to a lonely house in a couple of weeks and I will feel a taste of the loneliness that Dawnielle is feeling right now.
I will update before then.
TTYL!
Current Mood: accomplished
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07:47 pm
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the story of my life this past weekend.
It will be said when I die that overall, he was a selfish man.
He thought he was doing the right thing and look what it cost him.
Any devil’s advicate would say at this point, “But what about the alturnative? What would happen if he gave into the demands and the pressures of others who feel that they are right.”
Who knows what the first person would say, I don’t.
But that’s life, who knows what will happen.
But let’s go back to last weekend.
Really things started going bad on Tuesday.
I had hoped that coming home for an extra amount of days make things better in the long run.
Yes I would be gone again but at least both Dawnielle and I got to see each other.
But I’m afraid now that it might have done more harm then good.
I made too much of an effort to make Dawnielle happy when I was there that I made it worse for her when I left.
Doing some of the housework was just for my benefit since I didn’t have much else to do and a different type of work would make me feel better.
Some of it was to make Dawnielle happy as well.
And I was further motivated by the fact that some of it was my mess that I left before going to the cities.
Then the added stress of the prospect of going home to her parents especially in reguards to the pets.
Then on Friday things got even worse.
My computer was crashing around my ears and I was caught off guard.
It had some problems doing some error checking because of some program writing to windows.
Then Friday skype stopped working as well as aim and outlook express.
I ended up having to download nod32 on my computer and do a virus scan.
The first run through it didn’t find anything.
Then the next day it found something but when I deleted the virus it disrupted my internet knocking me offline.
I also went searching through my windows file and deleted files from old programs that should have been on there.
So I was internetless for the entire weekend but it didn’t bother me since I was tired after doing book-keeping stuff with excel all week.
Then yesterday, Dawnielle asked me “What if I don’t like Minnesota? Will you through away everything that we’ve worked for.” My response, I don’t know.
For me it will depend on how things go such as the vending business and all that.
Will it be time for me to start something knew business wise or what.
What will things be like with her family and mine.
Will I still like Minnesota.
All these are questions that I don’t know the answer too.
Re current plan is for me to get settled in a business, help Dawnielle get her’s started, move to a better location, if it’s good enough settle down and have kids and not move unless something comes along that really is better, but hopefully that won’t have to be a facter until they’ve grown up and moved out.
So if Dawnielle doesn’t like it here or if I don’t then there’s kids to consider as well.
Then we talked about the pet’s.
It boils down to that I should stop my training just so I can be with them all the time so she can go home.
That’s all well and good, but what does it solve in the long run.
What is to say that a more drastic situation won’t occur until I’m doing training again, should I stop again.
I feel like although it will be more taxing I’m gonna have to start coming home every weekend just to e with and play with the pet’s.
Apart from the money concerns I don’t mind this idea since it will give me a break from hotel life.
I’m probably gonna have to start coming home every weekend just to keep Dawnielle from going insane.
I feel like that Dawnielle’s and Dawnielle’s side alone should only be taken into consideration, knowone stops to look at my side.
Dawnielle can’t handle school or a full time job so it’s all upon my shoulder to get on the right track and then to help her along.
Her family may have similar goals but I have nothing to convince me that they are aware of where Dawnielle is mentally.
If anyone understands the best out of them it’s her mom since she has known the most about Dawnielle’s mental situation.
So what can I do.
I don’t just have Dawnielle to look after but there is also myself.
I’ve got to do something with my life and stay afloat.
Otherwise I could have stayed at home in the first place and never moved out.
No thank you.
When it comes to Dawnielle’s side of things I can completely understand the way she feels.
She’s ran into many brick walls, not just here but in her life as well.
Therefore it’s harder for her to have an optimistic outlook on the future then me.
It would be easy for Dawnielle to go home and me to continue on withmy life, but neither of us really want that, though if she did do that she could probably still find happiness with her friends, and her ex boyfriend who I sure still wants her.
Dawnielle suggested having my grandma come down for three weeks while she’s at home but I don’t know about that.
For one thing she would have complete access to our mail, and for another, I don’t think she’d be as good with the pet’s.
By the grase of god I will have to come up with extra money and probably indefinitely, because if it means sacrificing food money for Dawnielle’s sanity, then I will do that.
Today by playing around with my network connection I got my computer back online, and things are back to normal.
It took two virus scann’s but Everything seems to be fixed now.
Thank god.
Current Mood: crappy
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07:50 pm
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Back to the cities.
This last weekend was over all a good weekend.
I did a lot of housework for Dawnielle since it was her birthday and I couldn't stand a dirty house.
Monday would have perfect except that I found out from our landlord that my check for march has bounced.
I was quite surprised to since it looked like it had gone through (Overdrawing me but I don't remember if it was my fault or not) only to have it come back the following week but I didn't think much of it since I was expecting money from the state for around that same amount.
I also figured that if it had bounced he would have told me then so he could get his money sooner. (it would have been better for me to find out sooner then later since he would have gotten his money since the state money came later on.)
Oh well, notmuch I can do about it now except get him his money, some how.
I made dinner for Dawnielle on Tuesday before I left and I wish I could have had some because it smelled and sounded like it was good.
I did Drum sticks with a seasoning on them.
(Sorry, if you want the secret ingredience you're going to have to ask.)
I got back to the hotel with no problems, the only annoying thing that happened in my absence was that someone nicly pealed of the braille label to my door identifying the room as mine.
It's easy enough to find from the elavator, more tricky comming from the laundry room since I go past more doors.
Today I got to tour Blind Inc.
It's pretty cool actually.
They teach you a lot of skills besides your basics.
They teach you how to use a barbecue grill, how to mow the lawn, how to so, general life skills, different mobility tricks, shop class, seminars on blindness issues, the list goes on and on.
It's similar to the OTC in Seattle but with hired expectations.
Brandon came with me and afterwards we were going to go somewhere and have dinner but he decided against it at the last minute.
I came home, had some dinner, and now I'm updating.
TTYL
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05:49 pm
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todfay.
Today it was cold, windy and wet, (no wonder Dawnielle's dad wants her to move to the cities, it's warmer there.) Dawnielle and I went to the mall after she decided to stay here after all. We went to the grill and boy do I miss there food! I was tempted to get seconds but I don't have that kind of money or stomach.
The most amazing thing was how little we got lost. I was able to get us from the grill, to Wallgreens, and to Clares without getting majorly lost.
Dawnielle got this hurshey's chocolate chat-stick which smells like real hershey's chocolate.
We got Synabon and came home and she's now playing with Stormy.
I've got housework to do so I will talk to you later.
Current Mood: good
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10:31 am
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I will die of old age before the year is out.
This past week proved to be vary tiring.
First off Dawnielle and Linda came to the Mall of America.
It was fine, but I wish Linda would have been satisfied seeing the mall one day then exploring the cities the next day, especially since there's a potential of us moving there and it would be beneficial for Dawnielle to see what they were like.
I don't know my way around well enough to do it myself but Linda has a nack for exploring so I thought I was disappointed.
The first day at the mall was fine except for the fact that Linda was sick and Dawnielle was miserrable because she'd forgotten her meds and Linda had been sick all weekend.
Monday after class I met them at the mall and we went on the log ride and the roller-coaster.
Then Linda went on the log ride again, then Dawnielle went on the roller-coaster.
Later I found out from Dawnielle that Linda was borring like that all day, shopping at stores that she could have shopped at at WA.
The only advantiage though (Which she didn't find out til later) is that here, clothes aren't taxable.
We had dinner at the Rainforest Cafee and went home.
Dawnielle got to meet Brandon and that was a disaster, he tried hitting on her for the most part but I'll get into that later.
In training we're getting into the book-keeping.
I'm using excel which helps but it get's tiring plugging in numbers day after day after day.
It won't be so bad when it's my money but right now it's tiring.
I found out that there's a Grayhound station closer to me and that I can use the hotel shuttle to get there.
That makes life easier.
I also got some grocery shopping done so I don't have to eat out all the time.
I was originally planning on coming home for Dawnielle's birthday weekend but Edd our trainer needed friday off to catch up on paper work and then next week we've got two other students coming in to finish training they'd missed in the past so he wanted Monday and Tuesday to catch them up.
So I decided to come home for the weekend since I could come home Friday and leave Tuesday.
Comming home is proving to be a disaster.
First off I grabbed the wrong Envelope on the way out my hotel thinking it was my ticket.
As a result I had to by another ticket to get there and another ticket to get home.
Hopefully I can get a refund on the originals.
I got home only to find that there is construction infront of the Grayhound station making it impossible to get to the bus stop.
Somebody gave me a ride fortunately, but I'm not amused that I have to take a twelve dollar cab ride just to get back there.
I got home Dawnielle and I were excited to see each other and all that was great.
I ended up getting Dawnielle some groceries from the convinence store since she doesn't have any money.
I also did some cleaning and a dumpster run.
Yesterday I moved Quazi's pen bacl to where it was, (it had been moved because of the bed) as well as move the bed to it's original place, move quazi's old cage out the bedroom, moved the little TV off the big freezdr and into the bedroom, cooked dinner, and today it's mopping the floor time.
Dawnielle also wants o go to the Grill and Fidgures again and we'll probably end up doing that even though I didn't want to do anything to expensive.
]The grill is fine but fidgures is pricy, and Dawnielle's uner the miss conception that just because I have two hundred extra dollars I've got it made.
In some ways perhaps, but that two hundred dollars includes helping Dawnielle out when she needs it and it covers Restaurants (about seven to nine dollars a night.) I'd do with out lunch as well but book-keeping requires concentration and food helps that process.
Grocery shopping helps, but I can't stock up much either because of limited spaces.
But last night things came apart.
It started with the Burgerville sauce.
We had burgers with it and it made Dawnielle miss home.
It didn't have that affect on me because I haven't gotten that attached to Burgerville, and they don't have them in the Seattle area.
Then we were going to watch a movie but Dawnielle couldn't figure out how to transition from the cable tv to the VCR and she wouldn't even let me help.
Then she talked about missing Washington and then decided that she's going to go home by herself and that's that.
Nevermind that things are starting to go good for her here, or that I'm trying to make both of our lives better she doesn't care anymore.
In some respects I should be happy.
Now I don't have to be reminded of how depressing no money can be and it will be easier for me to deal with it.
But in reality I'm not.
Dawnielle and I have been through a lot together despite the fact that she looks at things negatively I still love her.
But I still feel like inorder to have a productive relationship it's better for us to remain here.
I've expressed my reasons as to why I can't go home in my previous entry and I won't go into it again.
But it makes me sad that I come home to spend a nice relaxing weekend with Dawnielle, only to have things fall apart unexpectedly.
It hurts to think that no matter what I do it won't be good enough.
She wants her family and her friends.
Linda who after this visit I'm somewhat surprised that she still misses her instead of being releaved she'g gone, and Voni who is a cool person, but she and Dawnielle rarely talk.
In the end, it's life that she can't deal with.
She can't deal with unknowns, and as much as it hurts, I don't blaim her.
Maybe it is best that I do this alone, I'm willing to except the risks of dealing with smaller towns then this and she's not, even though a couple of years ago I truly believe that she would have loved it.
She'll mostlikely end up sacrifising her independance but may her family will let her start her own home business with coastal or whatever.
But whatever happens she will have to find happiness with what she;s got.
Maybe she'll change her mind and give here anothyer try before it's too late, maybr not.
But alas this is hard on me too.
She thinks she has life so hard when in reality it's her who has it easy.
She get's to play with kids two day's a week, she get's to go to two groups, she's in a completely familiar enviroment.
I on the otherhad am in a strange city which I barely know anything about, and I sit from day to day plugging in numbers and dealing with the stress of all this as well.
Maybe I deserve it for being so inflexable, but I want my own life and independence.
And that is something important to me.
Current Mood: miserable
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12:44 pm
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Mall of America, part one.
My appologees to people in advance because this phonepost got cut off.
but here is the stuff I did from that big mall.
Enjoy!!
Current Mood: tired
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05:24 pm
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Voice Post
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02:57 pm
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Reflection's on the cities, and life itself.
Well first of all my appology's to anyone who could not hear the phone post yesterday.
It wasn't anything important, just me being bord.
Second, here's the long awaited big update I've been promising.
It's about seven word pages long.
(Note, each day is put in to a separate cut so that way if you don't want to read the whole thing you can come back to it later.
Once you click on a day you will be able to keep reading unless you come back to it later.)
It is currently Sunday April 9, 2006. Time, 1337
I could of course backdate this entry and maybe I will after everyone has had a chance to read it.
It has been an entire week since I last did any kind of updating.
So I’ll start with a recapping of events on Sunday and do things on a day-by-day bases.
( ”Sunday” )
( ”Monday” )
( ”Tuesday” )
( ”Wednesday” )
( ”Thursday” )
( ”Friday )
( ”The )
( ”Next )
Current Mood: good
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03:14 pm
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Voice Post
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11:55 pm
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some quick thoughts.
It is official, I'm back on the net and boy does it feel good!
It was a rough time getting on there but it's been working just fine for over a day now so I feel confident that it's all good.
These past few weeks have been interesting and stressful in ways that I'm sure you can imagine.
The most disturbing thing is that one thing I've not been able to escape from is death of all things.
I wrote about Kayleen diing a couple of weaks ago.
Since then I've learned of a friend of Dawnielle's and stephanies who died in a car crash back in March, and this past weekend I learned that one of my friends mom died of old age.
I didn't know his mom well but I did know her though it has been years since I last talked to her.
Oh how things change.
I should write about my life in Florida one of these years.
I say years cause I know I won't get around to it for a while unless popular demand says that I should.
I mention Florida because the friend I mentioned was someone I knew from Florida back when I lived there.
Dawnielle is comming here this weekend! We're gonna see that big mall, the Mall of America.
It is an exciting place but there more to the Cities then just that mall.
But I will talk about that this weekend.
Hope everyone is doing well.
I have been keeping up with my friends page for the most part and so I think I'm back on track with everyone's lives.
Talk to you all later.
Bye.
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12:03 pm
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I'm still internetless
I wish that I would have gone with my inicial instinct and taken Dawnielles computer with me instead of mine.
Then I would have been online and that would be that.
But know I'm currently stuck using other computers for anything i want to do online and I can't do everything that i want to do partially cause of time constraints and because it's not my computer..
Things are going fine otherwise.
I will give everyone a big update later on but for now I don't have the means of doing that.
TTYL
Current Location: SSB
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