Today was excellent.

I started winter semester today, which I was excited about. As much as I complain about school, I really enjoy being there. It confirms that I'm doing something with my life and planning a good future for myself.

The first class of the day was Sociology. My professor was a bit late because of a room switch. The syllabus doesn't seem too difficult; three article reviews, a take-home multiple choice part of the midterm and final and an in-class essay part for both in which you can use your lecture notes and your book. He gave us the midterm today to work on over the course of the next seven weeks, so I'll have plenty of time to work on that. My teacher is really nice and a cute old man, but his overbearing Italian accent is very hard to sort through during lecture. Half the class I thought he was speaking Italian and he rattles off stories every other second,  so out of a 45 minute lecture, I had five sentences of notes.

I had Political Science right after that, five classrooms down, and the schedule is intense. Along with a lot of reading, we have a model U.N. to prepare for and participate in with five other classes that meet at the same time we do, and a lot of quizzes and tests. My teacher is a good teacher, but pretty intense and strict, ie. four unexcused absences and you're kicked out of the class. If he sees your cellphone once, he gives you one warning and after that, you're excused from the class for the day, counting as an unexcused absence. There's a lot of work to do in that class, so that should be fun. We already have one old man in the back of the classroom that is totally anti-politics and argued with my professor almost the entire last thirty minutes. 

I had an hour and a half lunch break, so I ate a sandwich and some crackers and called my babylove. I talked to him for awhile and then my phone went nuts, so I went to my next class and so did he.

World Religion was not what I thought it would be. I thought it'd be a lot of reading, papers, and discussion and that doesn't seem to be the case. I have an older man for a professor and he loses his train of thought a whole lot. I fell asleep during the explaination of the syllabus because he was taking so long and everyone was talking through it. We took plenty of notes, but it's hard to follow him when he can't even follow himself. Everyone loves him though, we had five people standing in our class waiting to see if they could drop in. So, he must be at least halfway amazing.

Math was right after that, and boy, I was not in the mood for that. My teacher had nothing but bad reviews from other students online, but he doesn't seem that bad to me. We took two pages of notes and he gave us plenty of homework. It was the only class of the day to assign homework or even teach material for more than an hour. I was pretty tired at the end of the class.

That was it for school, so I headed off to a lady's house so she could interview me to babysit her son. I got there, stayed there for an hour and some change and got the job :) She's really nice. It's her first baby and I'm the first person to ever watch him, so she's a little nervous about that, but she was excited about how much experience I've had with babies. I'll be starting next Thursday, babysitting until 5:30/6pm every night after class and making $20ish a week. It's perfect as far as fitting in with my schedule goes and I was looking for something small. It'll pull in an extra $80 a month, so that'll be my saving money.

I also got my letter from Novi today, so that is completly over. Fin, fin, finished.

So, today was a nice day. I'm a little tired, but Theresa and I are going out to dinner around 8:30. Afterwards, I'm coming home to sleep and sleeping until 10am tomorrow, when I have to get ready for a ten hour shift.

My mom asked me how school was today, weird.

 My phone broke, again. After not being able to talk on it all night, a drive to the T-Mobile store, waiting on hold to talk to six different people for an hour and a half, and putting up with the stupid automated person they have, I got an upgraded brand spanking new phone, free of charge. Plus, overnight delivery, so it'll be here tomorrow :)

It's a Samsung Blast. I'm not too fond of the color scheme; black with red accents, but I'm sure it'll grow on me or I can find a cheap replacement color for the back. It's a smaller version of the Blackberry, so it has all the organization tools on it, which is excellent for me.

Anywho, I'm probably going to throw a party walking out of Bio tomorrow. I'm not sure how well I'll do on my final, but I'm never confident on tests. I've studied, am going to keep studying, and I have three hours tomorrow after work to study some more. 

Staying open until midnight is completely pointless. I had zero customers from 10:30-12pm. Not one person walked through the door. We have three huge signs on the front windows that say we're open until midnight now and customers were still asking me how late we were open. All anyone wanted was rock salt anyways. That's probably all I rang up all night.

It's pretty gross outside with the ice. I wish snow would throw itself into the mix. It'd be a little more bearable :)

I am not looking forward to working until midnight and then working again at 7am. Boo that.

I'm selling my books back Wednesday. I should get a lot of cash, as I spent $140 for the Bio book I've opened once. They better use it next semester, I hate when they update things and you have random schoolbooks taking up space.

I want to play Pictionary.

I just finished my research paper. What a load off my shoulders. I have my works cited page left, as it's what I dread most out of writing a paper, but I'm sick of looking at it. It'll take me fifteen minutes tops anywho, so tomorrow.

I found out I only have the lab part of my bio exam Thursday, which is half the test I usually have. Our lecture isn't until Tuesday,so that gives me some time this weekend to buckle down and really crack the book open.

After I present my composition tomorrow, Spanish class will be done. I have a simple quiz instead of a final, so that's nice. I also don't have a final in Comp, just the paper I just finished. So one final for me this semester, sounds good.

Sergio and I have studied together the past two days. I study so much better with him around, for some reason. I trust his opinion more than I trust my own, which comes in handy when writing papers and practicing my composition that I present tomorrow.
Seeing him more than usual wasn't too bad either :)

Work has been a little easier to deal with lately. Kirk and I are getting along a little more everyday. He really surprised me today when he told me to write up whoever didn't do what they were supposed to in photo this weekend while I was off. I wrote up two people and it felt nice to put my foot down and have someone stand behind me, for once.

Home is home. I haven't been here much with all the homework I've been squeezing in. Julia really liked her comforter set, she finally got the last piece in the mail today. I got a $20 gift card out of her present for it being shipped late, so woot.

I want to go to the Rockettes. I didn't go last year, boo.

Welp, bedtime.

So I forgot that being full-time means I get paid 8 hours at regular rate every holiday, regardless of whether I work or not. If I do work, I get that 8 hours at regular rate plus however many hours I work at time and a half.

Veteran's Day I worked 10 hours for time and a half + 8 hours at regular rate. 
Thanksgiving I'll work 6 hours for time and a half + 8 hours at regular rate.


I love having full-time benefits and holidays!
I'll probably pee my pants on Friday when I get my check, and the Friday after that.

P.s. This also means, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, I'll get paid 8 hours a day for not being there and get paid 55 hours that week too. Shoot.

My family party on Saturday:

Rocco and myself with a creepster smile.


One of my three cakes.


My last year as a teenager.


Told you. Alyssa is a baking machine. We still have so much cake upstairs.


Sergio thought I'd look better with cake on my nose.


Yapping my jaws and being happy.


I'm probably the worst cake-cutter ever.


My ten year old cousin bought me this doll because she said it reminded her of Sergio. I don't see how, but she's ten and has a creative mind, lol.


My grandma bought me a season of Law & Order: SVU. Julia and I have been watching marathons of it lately and we were both excited.


Baby.


My sisters:


And my momma:


Sergio and I went to a gala dinner for his CBS organization at Wayne State. It was really fancy and nice and we ate really good food. 
I got cold, so being the gentlemen Sergio is, he gave me his coat.


On Sunday, Sergio and I drove to St.Clair Shores to go to church with my grandpa. We stopped at Meijers beforehand to get some cough drops for my poor coughing babykins. He gave me my presents! He bought me a doodle bear because my mom never let me have one when I was younger (they were too messy, apparently). It had glitter and stickers and all kinds of stuff, probably the messiest one, lol :) He bought me an 8-ball too because I've never had one. We bought cough drops and drove to church. My grandpa had a birthday party for me at his house after church:


I had another cake there.
My mom's arm looks crazy in this picture.


We weren't sure what everyone was doing, so I sang a fast version of "Happy Birthday" to myself to get everyone started.


Love love lovey love.


My grandpa:


After my party, Sergio took me to the movies in Sterling Heights to see Bella, because that was the only movie theater showing it. It was an amazing movie and I cried through half of it. It was the best movie I have seen in a long time. We got to the theater a little early, because I always overestimate time and Sergio let me, because it was my birthday :) Usually he corrects me on time estimation.


After the movie, we went to Max & Erma's. It was really good food, with amazing banana cream pie.

Anywho, that was my birthday :)

American Gangster comes out on Friday. Denzel Washington is my favorite actor and I am pumped to see him in a new movie. 

I had my review today at work. It didn't go badly. I didn't get too loud, but my points were made. Tomorrow is our photo shoot and it's going to be nuts. It's from 1-4, I work from 12-5. We're taking free pictures of the kids and hopefully it's a really good turn out. I'm dressing up in my bee costume and painting my face.

I pulled a muscle lifting a hay bale today, so I didn't go to school. It was killing me and in my back. Sergio came over to see me after school, which was sweet of him. I love when he surprises me.

I can't wait until Friday evening and Saturday, when I have a day off. I have a rough draft of my research paper due Thursday, although I just got an e-mail from my teacher that we're not having class on Thursday, so I'm not sure what is going on. I asked him about the paper being due Thursday, I haven't gotten an e-mail back yet. That'd be nice not to have class on Thursday and it would give me more time to work on this research paper.

No one even reads this anymore.

I need an apartment. I'm done with this nonsense.

El fin.

Guess who's 19 today?!


That's me!

Today was quite eventful.

It started off with my complimentary session with my gym's new personal trainer. OUCH. She walked me through an hour long workout and assessment and showed me exercises I can and will be doing at home. It helped a lot having someone to actually show me the right way to do certain exercises, the order to do them in, and the proper stretches that come along with each one. Although my muscles were aching when I walked out of the place, I felt good about myself. Now that I know what I'm doing and I'm actually on a rotation workout for the week, I'm confident this weight will start slipping off of me. I've been doing really well with my diet, not eating fast food, drinking pop, eating candy. I cut out something that I usually eat every week, so that I'm not rapidly changing my diet. It's best to do it little at a time, I'm told. I've also gotten into the habit of eating breakfast, which kickstarts your metabolism and helps you burn calories twice as fast.

I took my Spanish test, and aced it. I drove to Wayne State to grab my credit card from Sergio and I spent a little time with him, which was nice, because I miss him a lot during the day.

I ran some errands and then went to the dentist to get my Invisalign liners put on. I was pretty scared going into it. They hadn't explained much to me and my dental assistant wasn't the woman I usually have. I could barely understand what she was saying, and she didn't say much. They had me lay down and started pouring some purple liquid into my mouth without letting me know what was going on, so that freaked me out a bit. Come to find out, one of my bottom teeth is so bent backwards that they had to build a square on it to help it brace against the liners. They put them on, and the plastic feels really weird. I can't really talk correctly, but they said that'll go away in a few days. I have to wear them constantly, minus eating. I put on a new set every two weeks to help move my teeth. They're not too uncomfortable, and they're pretty invisible. I'd recommend them over regular braces anyday. I've seen the pain that comes from those brackets.

I came home and my fam was leaving for Sears and Kohl's, so I hopped in the car and went with them. My mom bought me a dress shirt and a little sweater and my sisters both got winter clothes. It was a good time to be out with my fam, it hasn't happened in awhile. My sisters and I sang Bonnie Tyler on the top of our lungs to some random man walking by.

I don't have comp tomorrow, so I'll have some time to catch up on homework. My comp teacher is nuts and wants us to read an entire book by next Tuesday. A 340 page book in a week, on my birthday weekend. Pft.

Speaking of this weekend:
Friday = hanging out/working out with Sergio :)
Saturday = my birthday party at noon, maybe a fancy dinner at Wayne for Sergio's organization, CBS
Sunday = my birthday !!!!!!, church with my grandpa, my birthday party at my grandpa's, and plans with Sergio <3