*crimson-ivory

So a few days ago, I came home from work, and sat down and got on the computer. La-di-da, I'm in a happy mood. Whatever. My Dad toddles over to the kitchen cabinet (where we keep medicines and bandaids, etc.) and starts rummaging through, looking for something. I go "Dad, what are you looking for?" He says "umm.. Do we have anything for burns?" I said "I don't think so, but let me check." I looked around a bit and then went back to what I was doing, since we didn't have anything. After a few minutes, a realization came over me 'My Dad doesn't cook.. how the hell did he burn himself?' So I walk over to his room and ask him. He didn't seem to think it was a big deal "Oh, I burnt my lips and nose because I tried to smoke." (My Dad is on oxygen.) "You WHAT?!" I told him, in the most rational tone that I could muster up "Dad, that really upsets me." and I just walked away. What the hell do you say to that?!

My Dad lit his FACE ON FIRE because he is a MORON!

It's really a miracle that he didn't blow up the house! And Darryl, who was sleeping in the next room over!

It was bad enough when he wouldn't quit smoking when he got Emphysema, 16 or 17 years ago. All those years, he just kept smoking. And now, a few months ago, after multiple hospital visits, they put him on oxygen. And he STILL continues to smoke! It really blows my mind! And even though he continues to smoke, I still couldn't believe he tried to while his oxygen was on.... he told me later that he 'forgot' that it was on. WTF?! That's not something that is okay to forget!

Good GOD I need to move!!

Sometimes, when I'm at work, very tired and frustrated, I go to the bathroom for a minute to go, of course, and also to just get away from everything. I go to sit down and, because I'm so tired, I don't bother to hover (I do normally do because toilet seats are quite icky.) I just sit, right on the damn toilet, and quickly realize that the person in here before me was an inconsiderate hoverer!!! Does this piss anybody else off? I mean really, are they lazy, or do they think it's funny? Gargh!

Check out this club. They're new and I just joined them: =CallMeOriginal

I was at first upset that dA decided to change what seemed to be a great system, but after using v6 more, I love it! I think I'll be online a lot more with v6 since it makes everything so much easier. I especially love the new message center!! It makes me look at the new deviations everyone has posted, which was a problem for me before (looking through everything before was just too annoying for my lazy self.. so I never did lol!) I've got 335 deviations to go through, and hopefully I'll be done by the end of the week . I've been missing out on some great art though, so I'm glad the new system makes it so easy for me to view it all.

I've been thinking about cleaning out my gallery some, too. If something really sucks and I haven't scrapped it, please tell me! I want to start focusing more on the quality of my work.

Yay we should be moving soon! So that Darryl will be closer to his job. I'm kinda sad since I signed up too late this year to get any FAFSA money for college, but maybe I'll take a few classes second semester in Hagerstown or something, just to get started. And then next year I'll hopefully get some grants and if that's not enough, I'll take out a loan. I think I'm going to start by getting my associates degree in graphic design, and maybe pick up a certificate in photography. I have to get into college! It's driving me nuts not having anything to study or work on. For God's sake I get bored and read Wikipedia I mean of course I have art and retouching to take up some time, but I feel like I'm not getting anywhere with it, no matter how much I improve (which, by the way, you should check out my most recent retouching, I'm quite proud of it.) I think once I get a professional website I might start getting some work, and of course promoting myself. Unfortunately that's all too expensive for me at the moment. Right now I have to save up money for moving . You have no idea how excited I am about that. My parents' house sucks! Horribly. You all who know me personally know what I'm talking about.

So anyway... Yay!

Woo I had a blast in Europe! We went to London, Paris, through Germany, and then to Switzerland. I have to say, London is the most awesome place I've ever been to . I really think that the people in Europe are just so much more attractive than most Americans. I can't tell you why, but it really seems that way. People in London seemed pretty nice, too, which honestly surprised me for such a big city.

Paris, on the other hand... I really don't think that the French like Americans, it's really not an exaggeration. I think it's very narrow-minded of them but whatever. When we were on the subway, they would get in their little groups and laugh and blatantly be talking about us. It was SO rude and unnecessary. Don't get me wrong, the landmarks are beautiful and the Eiffel Tower was awesome, but it's also a very dirty city in my opinion, especially compared to London.

Switzerland was GORGEOUS, and everyone seemed pretty nice. Every morning I woke up, I just couldn't believe the view out the window. It was just surreal. I felt like it was just a giant mural and the mountains weren't even there. Just breathtaking. The only bad part was the WALKING! Everything is hills there, just up and down, and when you walk a mile downhill, it's almost as tiring as going up. I really learned to appreciate flat ground . We went white water rafting, it was the most amazing thing! I want to take some trips to West Virginia now to go again, I think I'm an addict! Definitely an adrenaline rush. Our guide was a little dumb though, and missed two GIANT rocks that we ran right into. Thank God we weren't going fast enough to flip, but I was scared! I really thought we would. It was a Level 4 section. One part of the river was a 6, and we had to get the boats out, go 5 minutes farther down the river, and get back in. Apparently it's illegal to raft commercially on Level 6. There is a 'high risk of fatality' lol.

I might post some of the better pictures on here, we'll see I do have some posted on flickr though, if you're curious, and I plan on eventually posting them all (that's going to take a while... I took 1,200 lol.) Here's the URL: [link] .

I started reading The Host by Stephenie Meyer. I was kinda disappointed when it came out because I was looking forward to the new book in her Twilight series, but The Host is still good, even better than I expected.

I want to make a news feature on political and social art, so if you have anything you'd like featured let me know and I'll check it out.

Woooo!

I turned 19 last Thursday on the 12th!! Woo! I can't believe I only have one more year to be a 'teenager' so I have got to make the most of it!

Yay! My girl scout troop has been planning this trip for two years now and finally we're leaving next week! We're going to Switzerland, England and France, and passing through Germany. I'm SOOOO excited!!

I'm going to be bringing 4 4GB cards for my camera, and each one holds 519 photos in FINE JPEG, so I hope that 2,000+ photos is enough!!

I'm trying to make sure I pack everything I need but I know I'll forget something lol. Oh well.

Man, getting currency sucks; I really feel like I've lost so much money since the USD is worth so little right now. I have to spend twice as much to get that many pounds. It sucks .