"I'm winning, and I don't intend on losing again."

Guys! I'm a winner!

The oh-so lovely Lauren from The Blog You're About to Read (Go read it. Right now. You won't be disappointed.) has found it in her big heart to share with me the Versatile Blogger Award, and I'm beyond honored. Every time I hear the word versatile, I'm immediately reminded of Natalie Portman, and who wouldn't want to be associated with such a gifted human being??

Gaahhh... She's SO versatile!

Anyway, in receiving this award

This one.

I am required to 1) Link back to the person who gave it to me.
                         2) Share seven facts about myself.
                         3) Pass it on to several other deserving bloggers.

The facts, in no particular order:

• I'm Polish. My great grandparents migrated to America from Poland. (Wow, this is really hard to just think of random things about yourself that you deem worth sharing.)
• I'm obsessed with shoes. Not fancy, girly shoes, but (white) tennis shoes, Converse and Rocket Dogs.
• I'm also obsessed with female singer/songwriters. 
• I love pulling pranks on my family members.
• I could eat chicken and/or eggs every single day and never get sick of them. 
• I love to drive. I've even considered becoming a trucker. 
• I don't particularly want children. If God or my husband decide otherwise, so be it, but it's definitely not a goal of mine.

More deserving people/blogs:

Apfelicious Amplifications
All is Fair in Love and War
the Tsaritsa sez
ChunkyKnubbyNavel
Seeking to Understand (This is my attempt at getting her to blog more. For the love of everything, I hope it works.)


30 DAY MUSIC CHALLENGE
Click here to see the entire list.

Day 23 – A song that you want to play at your wedding:

I'm not the stereotypical girl who's dreamt of her perfect wedding day since the age of 5, and who has every single detail all planned out. But I am a girl. And I have thought about certain things I'd like to have at my wedding, including what music I'd like to have played. I'm also very fickle, though, so just because I want it now doesn't necessarily mean that I'll want it when that day comes.

I heard a song by Sade a while ago, and I immediately thought "This would be the perfect song to have my first dance to as a married couple!" And then I found out that Dave Navarro and Carmen Electra had the same idea. -_-
Regardless, it's a beautiful song. I think I'd like my first dance as a married woman to have some sort of significance to it, though, not just something that I hear and think "Oooh, I liiiike this!" So, I guess I'll just say that this would make a great wedding song for someone else... (Sorry, I tend to talk in figure 8s. (Like talking in circles, but more random.))

"We are family. I got all my sisters with me."

"Sometimes I think we were supposed to be twins."

This is a quote from my sister Jessie, who happens to be 4.5 years younger than me. She's on crack, but that's why I love her. I know what she meant, though. We're so similar with regards to our little quirks and sense of humor. It's still hard to believe sometimes, because the two of us were mortal enemies when we were younger. If we got into a fight my mom would make us sit by each other on the couch, bodies touching, for extended periods of time. And if we were in big trouble we had to hug! Haha! Now we're super close. Well, not that "I tell you ever aspect of my personal life" close, but more like "We're sitting in complete silence and randomly burst out into song at the exact same moment, the same part of the song, and both take it up an octave" kind of close. Because we do that. A lot. I like to quote her frequently on my Twitter. She cracks me up so often, I just couldn't deprive the world my 70+ followers of her fabulous humor.

Jessie and I may have very similar personalities, but when it comes to looks we couldn't be more polar opposite. Jessie is a tall, skinny, cute brunette, and I am a short, fat, blonde who has the potential to be cute if I shrunk to half my size. I have tiny ankles, though, and Jessie has cankles, so I've got that going for me.

I'm not really that fat, nor do I look like a penguin, in real life.

My littlest sister, Melissa, and I have only started to get close again recently. From the time she was born, up until about the age of 4, we were attached at the hip. We used to watch marathons of Friday the 13th together when I would babysit. (And the award for Best Babysitter goes to...) She grew up and became that textbook bratty little sister, among other things that I won't get into, and it really wrecked our relationship.

Unlike Jessie and I, she and I are more similar in looks than personality. She doesn't have cankles either, so hooray for us. We've got a lot of patching up to do, but we've made a start and that's what really matters. My favorite thing to do with Melissa is make her laugh. She doesn't do it often, so it's a real accomplishment when you can break through that plaster mold she refers to as her face. Jessie and I together can really get her going. Good times are had by all.

A rare picture of the three of us getting along.

The three of us may not have always been best friends, and we may never be, but we have built substantially on our relationships this past year, and everyone's lives much greater because of it.

30 DAY MUSIC CHALLENGE

Click here to see the entire list.

Day 8 - A song that you know all the words to:

During 8th/9th grade, I was more than obsessed with The Miseduaction of Lauryn Hill, specifically the song Everything is Everything. I would lock myself in my bedroom and practice the song's rap over and over and over. I would even try to remember where to take big breaths so I didn't mess up anything. To this day I remember ever single word of the song, and I even still try sometimes to rap it as perfectly as possible. (And actually, I'm not too shabby, if I say so myself. You know, for a white girl.) I still remember when the video premiered on TRL,

and Carson stating that it was some sort of amazing, ground-breaking piece of work. Not so ground-breaking anymore, but great nonetheless.

"Turkey for me, turkey for you, let's eat the turkey in my big brown shoe."

                                                   HAVE A HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

See, I like dogs too.

Eat lots of turkey, take a nice long nap, and if you're feeling particularly adventurous mix your corn with your mashed potatoes. You'll never look back.


30 DAY MUSIC CHALLENGE
Click here to see the entire list.

Day 4 - A song that makes you sad:

I'm currently obsessed with the song Airplanes by Local Natives. It's about the writer's grandfather who died before the writer was born. My paternal grandfather died of a heart attack when my dad was just 4 years old, and listening to this song really makes me realize how much I'm missing out on by having never met him. As the song says, though, "I bet when I leave my body for the sky, the wait will be worth it."

"What's in your head, in your head? Zombie, zombie, zombie."

My entire family and I are obsessed with The Walking Dead. We make absolute sure that we watch it every Sunday night. I'm actually quite surprised because my dad and one of my sisters, J, are giant scaredy cats.



J usually watches the Disney Channel until she falls asleep after watching something scary, but tonight she felt the need to sleep on the couch. I, being the serial pranker that I am, could not pass up this golden opportunity.

My family is also obsessed with Halloween, so we have countless masks stored in totes in our basement. I decided to grab the best zombie-like mask that we had to scare the crap out of her, and I knew just the one that would do the trick.



She was facing the back of the couch, so after putting the mask on, I got my face as close to hers as possible. It took a minute, but after smacking the couch cushion a few times she finally woke up. It took her a second to realize what was going on, but I could tell the exact moment it registered. Her eyes grew ten times their normal size and she screamed like a woman being mugged in a dark alley who had forgotten her rape whistle at home. What happened next, though, was something that I never could have anticipated in 1000 years. She socked me in the face! My sister, the biggest wuss on the planet, punched me square in the upper lip. It didn't really do much damage, but I almost wish that it did. Can you imagine?

"Hey, why the fat lip?"
"I scared the bejeezus out of J and she punched me."

It'd make one of the greatest stories. I always say if an experience can leave you with a great story then it was not in vain.


30 DAY MUSIC CHALLENGE
Click here to see the entire list.

Day 3 - A song that makes you happy:

A lot of songs make me happy, but one that always puts a smile on my face is Young Folks by Peter, Bjorn and John. The whistling is just so darn infectious.

"I wished on the lidded blue flames under your brow, and baby I wished for you."

30 DAY MUSIC CHALLENGE
Click here to see the entire list.

Day 2 - Your least favorite song:

I don't know what it is, but it kills me to have to hear or sing Happy Birthday. I'm always that one person standing in the background, moving my lips hoping that no one will realize that I'm not actually singing. When it's my birthday I have to threaten everyone so they don't sing it. The stupid song gives anxiety or something. My whole body tenses up and I want to hide under a rock. There's probably some horrible experience associated with my hatred, but I'll keep it in the depths of my mind if I can get away with things the way I have for the past 25 years.

"Oh, you're going to sing Happy Birthday? But I have to go to the bathroom REAL bad!"
"...to youuuuu."
"Aw, bummer! Sorry I missed it."
NOT!




Ok, this makes it a bit more bearable.

"S-T-A-R-I-N-G, I can't stop staring."

When you live in a small town and work with the public, you get to know certain customers very well. I couldn't even begin to count how many people come through where I work on a daily basis. You'd think that they would buy themselves a carton of cigs and save ten bucks and a lot of wasted time, but whatever.

Some customers you build a great rapport with.


"Oh hey Pat! I see you're stoned again. Here's two treats for your dog since he probably has the munchies, too!"

And other customers have the special ability to make you cringe from a mile away. One particular customer skeeves me out more than any other, and I do everything humanly possible to get her moving on as quickly as possible. It all started a few weeks ago when I noticed her staring at my boobs. That, in and of itself, wasn't particularly alarming. I have large boobs. Where it started to get creepy, though, is when she started looking rapid fire between the Marges (large and in charge) and my eyes. Did she think that if she looked at my eyes every couple of seconds I wouldn't notice she was copping a glance the rest of the time?

I really hate that word, but I couldn't resist. This is awesome.

After she left, I told my coworker what had happened and we laughed for a while over it. I partially excused it, because, like I said, I have large boobs. Maybe they just caught her off guard, and she couldn't help herself. The next time she came through I made a conscious effort to try to catch her doing it again, and let me tell you, Helen Keller (too soon?) would have caught her. She was doing the same rapid fire thing again, and there was nothing I could do about it. I wanted to be like "Take your freaking Basics and get the eff out of here!" but that would be bad for business, I'd probably get fired, and then I'd have absolutely no hope of ever buying another vehicle, or moving out of my parents' basement, for that matter. But I digress. Instead, I put on my best forced smile



and told her to have a great day.

Whenever she comes through, now, I do this weird "lock my arms in front of my boobs so she can't look" thing, but it doesn't matter. So, if you drive a very large teal and white van, smoke Basics, and notice me running away when you approach the drive-thru window, QUIT STARING AT MY BOOBS! You are a Creepy McCreeperson. I think I'll just make my coworkers wait on her from now on.

"Will you ever use common sense? It comes pretty cheap."

A lot of things have been getting under my skin lately. Some might blame it on PMS,


but I like to blame it on the idiocy of others.


One of the main sources of my stress and irritation comes from my place of employment. Not the job itself, (it's fairly stress-free) but with the ignorance of the customers that I am frequently subjected to. When you work closely with the public you realize just how many people are actually lacking in the common sense department. I work at a drive-thru convenience store, where we also make pizzas. There is a display window in the drive-thru where we keep the pizza that we sell by the slice, and where we also keep our orders. Keep in mind that this window, and all of its contents, are clearly visible. On an average day, this is how a transaction might go down...

Me: "Hi."
Customer: "..."
Me: "What can I do for you?"
Customer: "... ...I had a pizza order."
Me: "What was the name on it?"
My Internal Monologue: "There are four pizza boxes in the window! Who do I look like, Miss Cleo?! I CAN'T READ YOUR MIND!"



The following is an actual conversation that I had with an elderly gentleman customer...

Customer: "Give me a case of Busch Light."
Me: "Okay, It's going to be $21.20."
Customer: "How much?"
Me: "$21.20."
Customer: "How much?"
Me, louder: "$21.20."
Customer: "You don't have to raise your voice!"
My Inner Monologue: "Um, clearly I do when I have to tell you THREE FREAKING TIMES what the total is!"

And one more actual conversation, had between a coworker and one "extra special" customer...

Customer, while staring at our display case that houses every type of Arizona we sell: "I'll have an Arizona."
Coworker: "Which kind?"
Customer: "Arizona."
Coworker: "Which kind? We have like 20 different flavors."
Customer: "ARIZONA!"

So as you can see, a lot of the customers that we deal with aren't playing with a full deck. Isolated incidents can be funny, but when it happens every day, several times a day, any hilarity that may have ensued is lost. Maybe this is a lesson from the Lord in appreciating the things that He's blessed me with. I just wish that I could learn it in a way that wasn't so exasperating. *sigh*

"With my feet on the dash, the world doesn't matter."

I sold my van (No, I'm not a soccer mom.) today. Peace out, Sandy.

Since my job sucks and I don't get any hours, which equals no money, I haven't been able to drive my van since spring. The lack of money meant not being able to pay for insurance and tags. It's sucked. I LOVE to drive. Luckily, my cousin and her husband were gracious enough to let me store the ol' gal out at his shop. A few weeks ago, "D" went to move the van  to mow where it had been sitting, and found that it wouldn't start. The battery was dead, but when he hooked the van up to the computer about 5 million things that were wrong with the engine also showed up. Basically, I was screwed. On top of trying to save money to get tags and to be able to pay for insurance, I was now going to have to save up to fix the umpteen things that were wrong. And truthfully, it wasn't even worth it.

I've been putting off going out to clean all of my crap out of it (I used my van as a closet, garbage can, CD/DVD rack, etc... It kind of looked like this.) until today when the cousin let me know that their truck officially took a crap and she wanted to buy Sandy. I had been planning on taking it to the junk yard, but it's now going to good use, plus they gave me $100 more than the junk yard would have. A win/win situation, really. Except for the fact that I am that much further away from ever owning a vehicle again.
After replacing the battery and getting the beast up and running again tonight, "D" brought it over so I could clean all of my junk, and not-junk, out of it. As I approached the giant heap of metal I actually started to get a little verklempt.



I've had so many memorable moments in that thing (late night fast food trips, aimlessly driving for hours, driving over 45 miles just to spend a few hours with my best friend, beach trips, helping move a friend to Kansas...) and the thought of not being able to make more is a bit sad for me. Then I had a moment of clarity and realized that making more memories such as the aforementioned would mean having friends like the ones I had when those were made. And that, my dears, is something that I never want to endure again for the rest of my life.

I was attempting to share my life with people who hold very different morals (or lack thereof) as I do, and that just can't ever work out. Long story short, I had a blow up with the queen bee of our group, and everyone else kind of followed her lead. I was ostracized, but it was for the best. I quit doing the things I knew I shouldn't have been doing, and consequently strengthened my relationship with the Lord. I know that I am not perfect, nor will I ever be, but I can be released from the pressure of trying to live a double life that I knew I shouldn't have been living. It felt like a 1,000 pound weight had been lifted from my shoulders. Of course, there has been quite a few downfalls to losing most of your friends. I don't do much of anything, other than watch TV, listen to music, surf the web, and go to work. It's quite depressing, and it's definitely time to change that.

In getting rid of the van tonight, I feel like I was putting the final piece of the letting-go puzzle into place. All of the memories that I associate with that heap are leaving along with it. I'm starting a  new chapter in my new life. A new-new beginning.

So now I can quit being Emo Stacey,


and start being more of a "Woo hoo, I appreciate life!" kind of Stacey.


It's only for the good of mankind.