The Inmates Run the Asylum

For once I decided not to wait months to use a gift card and used the Amazon gift card I got from Aunt Jo today. After some trial and error, I managed to score four items for 25 bucks.

The thing I'm most excited for?

The Monkees Present CD.

After this, I will only need the Changes CD and my Monkees CD album cover collage will be done. I'm not counting Best ofs, Missing Links, foreign issues, or anything else like that (though I do collect those). The collage is just the 14 albums the Monkees themselves released.

You have no idea how excited this makes me.

I imagine this is how those people with Beiber fever feel if their fever is low grade.

For the most part, I like my job. The best part (of any job, usually) is the regular income. I get paid every week. And after going nearly three years not buying anything so I could funnel all of my money to the barest necessities and bills, I admit I've been spending.

I haven't gone overboard or anything. I bought a couple of baseball cards (the Beard Twins are together again!), a pencil sharpener, and a plushy Cubs baseball guy and some Cubs postcards for my cube at work.

It's been light and fun, but it's time to get down to some serious budgeting.

Naturally, I've got my bills. Then I've got the replenishable necessities (shampoo, conditioner, gas, etc.). Then I've got the necessities that I've worn out and need to replace (socks, underwear, clothes, shoes, etc). Then I need to rebuild my savings. And finally, I've got the goodies that I want.

Do you know what all this means?

Spreadsheets and math and planning! Yay!

This girl knows how to have a good time.

I actually am excited to be doing this. I've always liked budgeting.

I figure I should probably post something since it's been a few days, but I really haven't been doing anything interesting and Pete is trying to use the enter key as a pillow.

The weatherman is taunting us saying that it's going to be in the 70's this week. So who knows? Interesting stuff might happen.

Hopefully not too interesting though. I don't think my old heart could take it.

Man, I love Hettie.

Anyway, in today's paper was a special section devoted to a Cutest Kid contest. And there are some damn cute kids in there.

However, out of 307 kids there were:

-5 Cadens/Kadens
-3 Haydens
-2 Braydens
-2 Jaydens
and 1 Aydan.

There were also:

-4 Madisons/Maddisons
-3 Haileys
-3 McKenzies/McKensis
-2 Adelynns
-2 Jaydas/Jayda's (yes, with the apostrophe)
as well as a Jaylin and a Jaylah.

And in the "I feel sorry for those children" category:

-Heaven'Lee
-Quailo
-Treasure
-Linkon

And I get shit for the names I like.

Guess I just ain't trendy.

I spent three hours in Walmart today because I had to talk to everyone and get caught up on the gossip.

I knew this would happen and actually made sure I had no other obligations this afternoon.

Still, I should probably go more often. I'll never have a truly quick trip, but it could be quicker.

( Just a few Castle comments )

In other non-TV news, there really isn't any. I really kind of have no life. And I'm okay with that.

Except it makes it kind of challenging to post every day.

Please note how I have yet to back down from the challege.

I got my new FOID card today. For those of you not a resident of Illinois, FOID stands for Firearms Owner Identification and it's required in Illinois if you have a gun or ammunition. Now, I don't own a gun, but my dad does. At last count, we had fourteen in the house (this isn't counting the ones that are just here to be fixed or cleaned). So it makes perfect sense for me to have a FOID card just in case.

My card expired November first so back in October, I filled out a new application and took a new picture. The picture taking was heinous because of all of the picture requirements (size, style, etc) and if they don't like it, they'll reject you application and make you do it all over again. After a couple of hours of trial and error, I thought I finally had the picture just right and sent off the app.

Fast forward to today when I get my new FOID card and see that they didn't like the picture I sent with my app so they just used the one from my driver's license (they're digitally taken and stored). Fine. Except that picture was taken about two years ago when I was at least 25 pounds heavier and MY HAIR WAS LONG. Like to the middle of my back long while now it's usually barely touching my shoulders. That's a significant difference.

I have no idea how they could have looked at the picture I sent in and not seen that my hair is much different now. Or did they just look at it and go, "Don't like this pic. We'll just use her license picture. Oh, she got her hair cut. Oh well. Close enough."

Did I mention that FOID cards are issued through the Illinois State Police? Yeah. This really reassures me of their observational skills and dedication to accuracy.

The only good thing about it is that in reusing the license picture, it maintains my goal of making sure all of my ID pics look like mug shots. I know some people try to look good for their ID shots. I try to look as though I've just been arrested for some horrible crime, yet didn't get any blood on me.

It makes up for the fact that I wasn't allowed to use a mug shot for my senior pic in high school.