It's my birthday!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm 24!!!!!!!!!!

We're having a barbeque tonight that I have to get ready for!!!!!

Be back later!!!!

*dances off*

Why are bra's so fucking expensive? If you're anything like me, i.e. poor and poorer, then maybe you feel my pain. I am one of those people who have one or two bras that I switch between and a few older ones lying around that can be used if need. I can't be bothered and usually don't have the money to have a dizzying array of underwire, push up, lace, non padded or strapless material floating around my drawers.

I go a long time between buying new bras because it's one of those things I just DON'T think about. I'd rather spend my money on video games or electronics or something other than bras. The last time I bought a decent one (we're excluding any novelty bras that I pick up from Wal-Mart for $6.00 because they're cute and have matching underwear) was not this past Christmas, but the one before. Pick your jaws up off the floor - I live by myself and you can't eat bras for dinner!

Those Christmas bras had about seen their day - they were all stretched out and falling off my shoulders. The twins were obviously telling me it was time to get some support for them or something because I just could not live with it ANY.MORE!

I wandered into Victoria's Secret tonight to look around. My thought was that maybe if I got an idea of what I wanted, I could come back in a few days and make a final decision about whether it was really WORTH.IT to spend $45 on a bra. The saleswoman was a fucking pro though. She got me to tell her what I was looking for and talked me into a measurement, since I've never formally measured myself. I was so fed up with my bra that I stood in the middle of that store and let some strange woman wrap a measuring tape around my boobs.

Skip to me feeling like I was going to drop dead when she said she thought I was either a C or a D. I mean, I know I've gained a little weight but what?! Since I've had them, they've always been B's, just average and I was okay with that. But a D? Are you kidding me? I looked at her like she was insane and let her gather up both sizes and usher me into a dressing.

Skip ahead again to a sigh of relief when I realized a C cup fit perfectly. I have no problem with D cup or bigger - who doesn't like big boobies (well, most people like them on others but I can't imagine they'd be comfortable for the individual the bigger they get)? I would have a problem with them on me because D cups don't mean big boobies - they mean Kristy is getting fat. I'm already a little upset that my chest size went up from high school, but I attribute that to getting older not bigger (or at least my mind tells me this).

I speak of gaining weight like it's a horrible thing. It's not really. I'm not fat. I'm pretty happy with the way I look - I could look better but I don't obsess over it. My lifestyle has changed since I got out of school and I've never been one to make it a point to exercise so the walking across campus when I WAS in school was the best non-obvious exercise I could get. When I got out of school, I lost that and I never got on a track of exercising. I'm just now learning to eat healthy and attempt to create a lifestyle where I'm healthy and happy with myself.

Now that I've digressed, let's get back to bras. I ended up falling in love with the Body by Victoria bra. It's smooth and thin enough to where it doesn't look like I have tissue stuffed in my shirt. It's comfortable enough to where I don't even feel like I'm wearing a bra. And everything stays where it it should be - straps and boobs!

Ten minutes in the dressing room were spent mulling over whether I should buy it or not. I had a $10 coupon for my birthday, which would bring the bra down to $30, not too bad. I sort of had the money - it was in the account and was allotted for some bills, but could be shuffled around if neccessary. I just didn't know if I wanted to spend that kind of money on a bra, considering I could get a full set for $6.00 from Wal-Mart.

Then I remembered that a few years back, like in high school, I had bought another bra from Victoria's Secret. I spent about forty bucks on that one at the time. And while I don't wear it all the time anymore because it is slightly stretched out - it is about seven or eight years old - it still fits me better than the bras I bought from $18 a little over a year ago. And I still love the pattern and the feel of it when I can maneuver it to fit properly for a short while.

So I guess I went back to my whole philosophy that I'd rather spend more money on something that will not only last longer but that I will wear longer than to spend less on something that I will wear out or get sick of wearing in six months or so.

Yes, I bought the bra. And while I'm sure I'm going to wear the shit out of it, I just going to have to work on getting rid of this buyer's remorse. Because how can I attest to being so poor, which I honestly and truly am, and spend $30 on a bra? There are some neccessities that warrant shuffling money around. I'm jus going to chalk it as a birthday present to myself - who better to splurge on lingerie for than yourself?

On a side note, we won't even go into my panty collection, since I probably have enough underwear to clothe the state of Rhode Island. I was folding clothes one time and Steve began counting my underwear and he got up to 65 pairs before he stopped. In my defense, I don't buy all the underwear from Victoria's Secret - I pick it up here and there, from Wal-Mart, cheap $3 novelty pieces from Deb or Rave or even from Victoria's Secret when they're having their semi-annual sale and I can buy their underwear for $4 or $5 dollars. Some people collect stamps - I collect underwear.

Ah well, bills will get paid and bras will come and go. But living on a budget like mine, buyer's remorse will never go away. Sometimes I even get it after grocery shopping! I mean, did I really need that can of squirt cheese?

I said bra a lot in this entry - and boobies ... I wonder how many porn hits I'm going to get for this one.

The man is at the Phillies game, having a guys' night out, so I called it an early night and came home to get some work done that I normally don't do on the weekends because I'm out and about. I should have sorted some laundry and done the dishes but I spent the evening surfing the net for inspiration. I want to change some things around here, spring cleaning, you know, and I just spent hours and hours sitting around surfing, getting nothing done.

We've had fairly quiet weekends the past two weeks. Just a trip to Cecil County and Atlantic City then nothing but laying around and relaxing. It's been a rather lazy time around here, partly because both Steve and I have been exhausted and partly because we're both poor as hell.

I had to pay my $91 tax bill this week, which sucked! I'm still bitter about that shit because if the stupid payroll wouldn't have been fucked up, then I would've gotten an awesome amount back. I did manage to get the mp3 player Steve found in a returned rental car working so that was an accomplishment for me. Now it's just a matter of getting it back to him. *grins*

Steve, being the lovely boyfriend that he is, did some major work to my car this week. He inspected it, rotated the tires, changed the oil, replaced the bulbs that illuminated the license plate and aimed my headlights. He also washed my car on Saturday when he totally didn't have to! I love him for that! Well, I love him all the time but the things like that make me love him even more.

So this starts another week and I need to find the motivation to get organized this week. Start going through things, weed out stuff and just get rid of some of this junk.

Oh, and by the way, my birthday is Saturday! I'll be 24 years old! :-) Any gifts, presents or well wishes you want to send my way are more than welcome. Now I must get to bed because tomorrow is another Monday morning and I'm grumpy on Monday mornings.

I never really planned to take a break. I just could not find the time or the motivation to sit down and update. The layout was bothering me - well, not the layout itself, because it was one of my favorites, but the fact that I hadn't changed it in forever. But guess what? I copied this one. *grins* I copied off of myself because the last setup was something that grew on me. So I just changed the colors, pictures and fonts and voila!

Work has consumed most of my time in the past month. It's not that I'm working so late, it's just that I'm working so much that I have nothing left when I get home. I just want to sit on the couch and watch TV all night, which probably accounts for my big fat ass. Maybe I exaggerate, but being a couch potato certainly isn't helping the whole Weight Watchers situation. Weekends are another story. As the weather gets warmer, we spend a lot of weekends out and about. The only time I have to clean this place up is on Saturdays when Steve is working. I miss having him around on Saturdays but it does give me a chance to get shit done.

Let me see if I can give you a quick update of what's been going on in the past month. Most of it is weekends because that's when I really have a life. I'll start from the most recent because it's the most exciting.

Yesterday I had a great day! I won quite a bit of money in the NCAA basketball pool. I've been a Carolina fan since I was young and they pulled through and brought home a championship and some extra cash for me. It was a blessing because I needed the money to pay bills. I lost two pounds at weigh-in, which was great because I just started getting back on the program. I got to play about eight lottery scratch off tickets in a row because I kept winning. And I found out that my contract date is up on my cell phone tomorrow so I can FINALLY go and upgrade my crappy cell phone for free because Verizon has the new every two program and they give you a $100 credit towards a new phone. Sweeet!!

The bad part about yesterday is what happened in the evening. We were in Steve's bedroom and his dad yells from downstairs "Call 911, the neighbors house is on fire!". Both Steve and I get up, run outside, and run over to where the house was (it was actually two doors down). We went to the back because we saw the fire glowing through the kitchen window. At that time, it looked like a small oven fire and there was only some smoke filtering out of the windows. The guy came running out of the house and his dog followed but when the guy turned back to shut the door his dog actually ran back into the house so he was in there for a good thirty seconds or so getting the dog. Once both of them were out safely, Steve asked if anyone else was in the house and thankfully, there wasn't. By then, the fire had busted the kitched windows out and was licking the window panes in the living room. Steve's dad had called 911 while we were running outside. So we just sort of stood in the street and waited for the fire department, watching the house burn, and I tell you it went up so fast. Within in a manner of ten minutes the house was engulfed in flames and they were burning the roof of the porch. It was really, really sad. I couldn't even imagine what it would be like to stand there and watch your whole life go up into flames. I was upset watching and it wasn't even my place. Eventually the fire department got there and it was like watching a movie - they kicked the front door in and the flames came shooting out. They kneeled on the porch and were trying to get the water on and the porch was coming down around them as they were doing it. They finally got the flames extinguished in the lower level of the house and started working on the second floor and the roof. They were cutting holes to put out the patches of the fire in the roof and the walls.

They were there for a good three hours and seeing how Steve's street is pretty much a dead end, I couldn't go anywhere because the fire trucks were blocking the street. Someone said fourteen companies showed up. It was quite a spectacle and really, really sad to watch. No one is hurt though but it's going to take quite a while for him to pick up the pieces. This was the one time I didn't have my camera though and I'm kicking myself for it. However, there is apparently this kid who runs around our area taking pictures of local incidents and HE got pictures, so if you want to check them out, here you go: House Fire Pictures.

4/1 - 4/3 Friday night we gathered at a local bar for a going away party for a girlfriend of mine. She was leaving our work to go someplace else for a much better opportunity and we all wanted to wish her well. The food was great, a lot of people showed up and we danced and drank and had a lot of fun. It's always fun going out with people from work.

Saturday we had a surprise party to go to for one of the guys' Steve works with. It was at a bar right down the street from mine and again, they had awesome food, free drinks and great people. We laughed and drank and talked and stayed almost all night.

Sunday night was Wrestlemania and we did our usualy and gathered over at Buff's house to drink and watch it. Steve and everyone else started doing Jager Bombs so by the end of the night, everyone was wired, including my boyfriend who is usually ready to pass out by the time he gets drunk enough. From what I see, Red Bull agrees with him because I have never seen him talk to so much or be so goofy as I did that night. It was rather hilarious except for him talking for a good forty five minutes straight as we were trying to go to bed since we had to work the next day and it was already one am. That fucker took off on Monday too!

3/25 - 3/27 Our big plan for this weekend was to go to Atlantic City on Saturday night since Sunday was Easter and we all had off. We headed out around eleven, me driving, and got there around midnight. We drove around looking for hookers and Steve was hanging out the window singing/screaming Roxanne, When Doves Cry and Bohemian Rhapsody up and down the strip. I was laughing so hard I thought I was going to pee my pants. Then we spent ten minutes looking for the parking garage for the Tropicana. We headed inside to have some "dinner" at Hooters. By then, Steve was bombed, so I had to be careful what I drank because he was supposed to drive home but I knew there was no way that was happening. After Hooters, the boys decided they wanted to WALK to the Wild Wild West casino and Kristin and I were like 'You've got to be kidding'. When we had parked, we had assumed that we were going to stay in the Tropicana so we didn't bring our jackets in and it was freezing. So we did the 'cold girl' walk down the boardwalk and by the time we got to Ceasar's, we said 'Fuck this' and just walked in there. Now don't make fun because the Wild Wild West has to be at least a mile or two from the Tropicana which is a long ass walk with no jacket and boots.

We kept losing everybody in Caesar's and I played a little bit of video poker, but by then, I was so frustrated, I just wanted to head home. It was four in the morning when we headed out and I ended up driving home. I had to pull over by the airport because I couldn't even keep my eyes open. I think we got home and got into bed around 6am and I'll tell you, I have never felt as exhausted as I did then. I couldn't even walk; my knees kept buckling and I barely made it into the bathroom to take my contacts out.

Easter Sunday was spent sleeping until around noon then heading to Steve's parents. I sat on the couch in a daze and dozed off until Steve told me to go lay in his bed. Twenty minutes later, he came up to get me for dinner, to which I ate a small helping of then fell back asleep on the couch only to be awoke again by Steve who told me to go back up to his bed to sleep. I pretty much laid around there until around 9 or so then went home. Rather low key day after such a long night.

3/18 - 3/20 Friday we went to Cecil County Dragstrip to hang out, drink beer and watch a friend of Steve's brother race his new 2005 Mustang GT. He did okay and the car is beautiful. Rather exciting because we got to see quite a few fast cars and loud engines! :-)

Saturday we had a bowling party for Steve's work. Free beer, free bowling, who can complain? Everybody kept telling me to drink more and I'd bowl better - HA! I sucked but I had a lot of fun and got drunk so who cares.

Sunday, my stepdad came into visit. He took me out for cheese fries and then we spent the afternoon installing my 200GB hard drive. After he left, I headed over to Steve's brothers to hang out, watch TV and eat some pizza.

3/11 - 3/13 Hung out at Steve's brothers house both on Friday and Saturday night. Played XBox, watched some movies, drank some beer, the usual. That Sunday we went to the Pet Expo in Fort Washington to check out what they had. It was small, okay - a bit unimpressive. Steve was a bit disappointed with the lack of reptile stuff. I liked seeing all the dogs and the whole bird section they had. It was a rather low key weekend.

3/4 - 3/6 Nothing too exciting this weekend either. Everybody had an inch to go to Atlantic City but nobody wanted to drive, so we went to Delaware Park instead, which is really a horse race track but has slot machines. I was quite buzzed by the time we got down there but we didn't stay long, so on the way home, everyone decided we should go into Philly and drive around, see if any hookers were out. I fell asleep, Steve fell asleep and since we were about the only ones who knew the city, I woke up not knowing where the hell we were and having to pee like crazy. We stopped at three different gas stations and let me tell you, finding a place with bathrooms at 2 in the morning in Philadelphia is impossible. I couldn't hold it any more and in my drunken state, I saw parking spaces on the side of a street with a bunch of bushes and a park next to it so I screamed at Buff to pull over, got out, booked across knee deep snow, squatted and peed really quick, then ran back to the car. The whole thing took about thirty seconds and I still couldn't tell exactly where in Philadelphia I peed. LOL

That's about it. The CEO of our bank retired this month so there will be some changes going on around work. Hopefully for the better.

To close it all up, movies I've seen in the past month:
Sin City: Wonderful, visually stunning, great acting, loved it! Tons of gratuitous violence and nudity. I was mesmerized by the way it was shot and directed as well. Worth the movie ticket!
Guess Who: Saw only part of this movie as it was a midnight movie and I fell asleep. The parts I saw were pretty funny. Steve liked it and I didn't think he would. Guess I'll have to rent it.
Hostage: Storyline was good, Bruce Willis was good. Could have been more violent and more along the lines of Die Hard. But overall, I'd watch it again - don't know if I'd actually BUY the DVD though.
The Jacket: first time I've seen Adrian Brody - thought he was pretty good. Storyline was engaging and fresh. Keira Knightly is not very good as a drunk though. And everything made sense up until the ending so if someone has seen it, could you please clear up what happened.
Ladder 49: good storyline, good acting. I liked the way it kept taking you back to his life and then back into the present. But the end was depressing as hell. I was bawling! Who the hell wants a sad ending these days? What a way to being the room down!
After the Sunset: fairly good, nice rental/time waster. Woody Harrelson and Pierce Brosnan are funny together. Not one of Salma Hayek's best performances. Pierce should keep his shirt on - he's not looking very James Bondish in this film. Storyline is quick with a nice twist at the end. Again, I'd watch it a second time but not sure if I'd buy it.

So I definitely need to go to bed and apologize for the huge bulk of info I just threw at you, but that's what happens when I go away for a month. At least I tried to keep it visually appealing so you could read it quickly.

I'll try to update a bit more this month. I'v got to run to the mall tomorrow then do some cleaning. Oh, and my birthday is coming up ... April 23 ... gifts and money will be accepted ... or just well wishes if you prefer.

Thanks for sticking around!

I didn't get a chance to work on the new layout tonight like I wanted. I had to go to Delaware for cheap gas ... and thus ended up at Steve's, which means I didn't get home until just now. And if I start coding now, I'll never go to bed which means I'll be in a horrible mood tomorrow.

I did, however, have a wonderful day and an exciting night. But I want to give a full update of what's been going on since I was gone so I'll save that for tomorrow. My goal for tomorrow night is to have the layout up as well as a new update entry. Don't expect anything fabulous - I'm lacking inspiration again so you're going to have to take what you can get.

I'm still around though - not dead. Just sort of took an unplanned break from the net while I got my shit together around here. Check back soon.

Now I'm going to watch The Shield and go to bed. Thank god they replay it at eleven.

Testing something out here ... working on a new layout and I need text in the entry body to see how it looks. Guess I should update more, huh?

I left my camera at a friend's house. I feel lost without it.