"Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny." -- unknown

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results - Albert Einstein

..my apartment...
2001-01-28 - 16:12:26

I did five, yes FIVE, loads of laundry yesterday. I kicked some ass and took some names, tieing up that washer/dryer for many hours. Though I can say that I walked down and checked on things every 35 minutes or so, that's about how long the dryer takes. I swept, did dishes, went through my cloths and picked out the ones I don't want anymore. I'm gonna bag those fellas up and drop em off at Goodwill tommorrow or the next day. I went through all the misc mail and things laying around my apartment. I found a coupla bills and paid them. The rest I tossed out. I cleaned the stove top, the door of my toaster oven, the counter top area in my little kitchen, and a few other odds n ends. I got all my books in or near my bookcase. I fear that it's gotten to small and I need a bigger one, but I've had this bookcase for as long as I can remember. I'm told my grandfather made it. It's a nice dark oak wood with small 1/2 inch tiles on the top. The top of the bookcase holds one speaker and a glass chess set from Mexico. It matches my entertainment centers almost perfectly.

I like dark wood and black type furniture. I dunno why I do, but I do. I have what I call my entertainment center, but that's not really what it is. I'll try to describe it. Orginally, it was meant to be a piece of bedroom furniture. It came in sections. There are four 'endtable' type parts. Each is about three foot high, two and half feet deep and three foot across. Two of them have three pull out drawers each and the other two have swing out doors ahd a shelf inside. Its meant that the drawer pieces go on the bottem and the cupboard type ones go on top. There are two bridges that are about three and half feet long. So the first level would go, from left to right, a piece with the drawers, the bridge and then the other drawer piece, making it about nine and half feet long. The second level/layer would sit right on top. The bottem bridge was meant to be a desk and orginally there was matching chair. The whole thing is made of dark oak, I think. I know it's ungodly heavy to move. Currently, I use the cupboards and bridge as an entertainment center holding my TV, 2 vcrs (one of which is broken, I think), my stereo/CD player and two CD stands. The two drawer pieces, I have no idea what better to call them, are in the bedroom on either side of my bed. The missing bridge currently sits in a closet, unused. It's versitle. It looks nice. I like them. My couch is one of those black metal futon things that can fold flat to make a bed. The cushion itself is a lightish shade of green, which is ugly enough, but that is hidden by the slip that covers the cushion. It is the color pattern of the slip that is truely hidious. Its a plaid mix of green, yellow, blue and red. I know it's ugly. I didn't buy it. My mother did, atleast I know where my sense of style comes from. I'd like a plain black one, to match the black of the frame, but I havn't found one. To be honest, I've only looked once or twice, but still I didn't find one. My computer desk is a light fake wood thing with a black metal frame. I put it together myself, bought from Walmart. I followed the directions, well mostly. It looks decent, but you can tell it's kinda cheap. I don't think I put it togther quite right, cause it wobbles a bit to much, atleast it seems that way to me. As long as it doens't collapse it can wobble all it wants.

What else do I have in here...Oh, there's on old style glass water bottle from a water cooler next to my entertainment center that I'm collecting change in. Behind the bottel is an authentic Irish walking stick. I can say the proper name for it, but I can't even hope to spell it. On one end or my futon is a black light stand with three lights. On the other end is a dump old tv stand that was left here by the previous tenant. It's old and battered and on wheels, but it's the prefect hieght for an endtable. So, I covered with a black sheet, placed a nice lamp that has a black and white marble type design to it and it looks pretty darn nice. In the kithcen area, the former tenant also left a 'kitchen table'. I put it in the quotes 'cause its a piece of junk, it matches the tv stand in that respect. It wobbles and is covered witha fake plastic wood covering with several pieces chipped off. It works excellent as a holder for my toaster oven and misc junk. It's also works as a decent place under which to put my trash can, it't out of the way under the table, yet easy to toss things into. Some other kitchen things I own include, a microwave, electric can opener and matching toaster (both of which were my grandmothers, I'm scared to use either seeing as they are both atleast 20 years old), a wooden knife holder, a few pots and pans, a wok (in which I do most of my cooking, I love my wok), and a wide array of plates, cups and such. Sitting next to computer table is a largish cooler that holds a mish-mash of things I want to keep, though I'm not sure why. Next to that is an bass and matching amp, both seldom used. In the bedroom there is also alittle lamp/magizine holder and a nice black fuzzy chair. It used to be my favorite chair to read in, but currently it holds my jackets. My bed is queen-sized. I bought it cause of the headboard/footboard, lord knows I don't need a queensized bed. The design of the head/foot board is black metal half circles, I don't really know how to explain it better, but each one as a diameter of about two feet. I like my bed, though it was an impluse buy and I probably shoulda put it off till was in a more permant type place. Moving that big ass matress and bedspring sucks. The elevator is to small in this building so we had to carry the boxspring up four flights of stairs, the same with the metal futon. The matress we were able to bend and cram into the elevator, thankfully.

Let's see...on the walls of my livingroom and kitch I have two paitings. One is 'Scream' by Edward Munch, which is over the bookcase, and other is 'Swans Reflecting Elephants' by Salvidore Dali, which is over the futon. I like 'Scream' better and want to replace the Dali with either the melting clocks one or 'Starry night' by Van Gough. Above the entertainment center and between the two windows behind the entertainment center is my clock. It's a light wood, not as dark as I'd like it to be, but oh well. Hanging next to my computer desk is a 'AAA Approved 1995 sign' that certifies my apartment as 'inspected and approved by the American Automobile Association in 1995 and featured in that year's TourBook', which is odd cause in 1995 was living in PA and not here. Actaully I got that sign when I worked at a hotel in 1997. I think it adds just a touch of respect to the place. There's a plaque near the hallway that leads back to the bathroom and bed room. The plaque is of my Scottish Clan and has the Clan Motto, 'Pro Liberiate' (for freedom) and our Tartan, a nice red and black with a thin yellow strip. I rather like plaids, but for the hidious one on the futon's slip. My bedspread and sheets are a dark plaid of black, blue, some white and one other color, pleasing to my eye. Scattered about the apartment I have a largish collection of 'things'. Pet rocks, marble bulls, a woven bastket, a glass pyramid, a 'yardbird' (which is some scrap metal someone decided to weld together and paint, I rather like it), a cat in the hat hat, and many other nick-nacks.

I think that basically describes my home. I'm trying to think if I've missed anything major. I don't think I have and I don't recall how I got off on this tangent. What I need to do today is bag up the cloths I don't want and locate a copy of college transcripts. I have a meet this Wedensday for my MBA. I need to choose by then which focus I want. It's either MIS or Health Care Admin. I think I'm leaning toward Health Care. There's going to be a huge demand for people to run hospitals, nursing homes, personal care homes, ect as the nations population grows older. It's a field where, I think, I will get more of the feeling that I'm doing something that matters. I will be a part, not directly, of helping people. I will doing something that helps or enables people to get help. I like the thought of that. I know, in large part, what the life of a personal care home manager is like. My mother does that. She is on call 24/7, you have to be. Any time day or night something can go wrong. I see her get attachted to some of the patients and now and then she comes home sad. The people in her facility are older, but able to take care of themselves. Sometimes though, well eventaully all of them do, they take a turn for the worse and are rushed to a hospital or moved to a facility that is better equiped to handle the needs they have. Sometimes though, they just die. A heart attack or a stroke. I know loves the people she works with. Sometimes we will stop by on the way home from shopping or whatever, she will want to pop in and just check on things. We go in with her and she smiles at everyone, saying 'Hi' and asking how they are. She knows all the patients names, I think her place holds 140 people. It's really like an apartment for people who need just alittle help getting along. They have a sun patio, activities planned for them, three meals a day and other things. Kinda like an all included resort, but not nearly so fancy. Now that my brother and I are out of the house, she bought a dog to have someone/thing to take care of at home. She takes Sunny, her dog, to work and the Old People, that's what we call em..they are not patients, love Sunny. Sunny zips up and down the hallways, sniffing here and there, getting all sorts of pets. The only place Sunny can't go is the dining room. The MIS degree, while it would pay more I imagine, seems to me not to fix the feeling of not doing something 'meaningful' unless I worked for a company who did something 'meaningful' There's no garuntee I could get a job there, so it seems I should opted for the degree who puts into an industry whose very nature offers what I'm looking for.

Well, I think it's time I found that transcript. I hope I still have a copy. If not I dunno how I can get one to me by Wedensday.