Your result for The Steampunk Style Test ...
The Ragamuffin

21% Elegant, 41% Technological, 17% Historical, 32% Adventurous and 69% Playful!

The Ragamuffin

You are the Ragamuffin, the embodiment of steampunk playfulness. Chances are, you approach the genre from a much more casual and lighthearted standpoint than most other fans. To you, there is always an element of play inherent in the genre, and you may very well enjoy fashion as much for the opportunity to dress up as for the style itself. You probably wear goggles as an accessory, and rarely as actual eye-protection. Your outfits are likely to incorporate a lot of brown or cream, and combine large boots, Victorian corsets or vests, aviator caps or bowler hats, and gypsy skirts or slacks, simply because you like them all.

On Saturday November 22, 2008 I moved to Columbus. My best buddy Joe and his father drove a Penske truck full my accumulated belongings while I followed them in my car. The drive was uneventful although Joe completely hated driving the truck and has a new found respect for truck drivers. LOL. We made it to my new place and unloaded the truck, Tony got there and helped with the large items and then we were off again to drop off the truck. I loaded Tony, Joe and Joe's dad into my car and we head back to Toledo.

Tony and I did some cleaning, went for a visit with my Lynn and drugged my sweet kittie boys. A few hours later when the drugs kicked in we took off for Columbus. The boys were hilarious all doped up on their drugs.

So the move was uneventful and I guess that I thought moving my whole life would feel different. I though maybe I'd fee some sadness at leaving Toledo or something, but nope, nothing.


And life here is going on the same. My job hasn't changed, I get to see my friends more often and participate in more of the fun activities, I have a new home with cheaper rent, I get to see Tony with less stress from driving and time constraints. Overall it seems to be a big UPS on the move.
That's really all I have to say.

Now that I'm in Columbus for the duration I can do all sorts of things with my friends here so please, lets go do stuff. :D Invites are most welcome.

I'm relocating, moving, transferring. To Columbus on November 22, 2008. It's going to be fantastic, I hope. I have a job, a home, good friends, family, school, boyfriend, etc. I haven't officially started packing yet but it's going to be interesting. I've got so much to do and feel like there's no time to do it all.

And for some reason over the last few days I've felt "off." Ive been angry and it's not something I do well. I feel like I need a hug or something to snap out of it. I don't know if it's the weather or something else. It hinders the motivation to pack. *sigh*

So yeah, I'm Columbus bound. I've gotta make a list of things to do in order to make sure everything is done in a timely manner. Over the next 2 weeks, the list will absorb all of my spare time. For now though I must go take a math quiz.

I emailed a Branch Manager from a Columbus branch today. They have a job posting up in our Talent Bank for a position that is the same as the one I currently hold here in Toledo. I asked him if the position is still open and if it is that I would like to apply. Keep your fingers crossed for me that it's open and I'm the BEST gal for the job.

I've talked to a few friends about moving to Columbus. Be it staying with them until I either find my own place, or a place I live in with roommates. The people I talk to know who they are and some of them don't even have livejournal.

I don't want to live in Toledo. I've felt that way for quite some time. My little brother left over 3 yeas ago and I wanted to go too. More recently my older brother and his wife left at the end of June. I have a few friends up here but they'll remain my friends whether I'm here or not. I want to live close to family and I have family in only 3 places; Africa, Philly, and Columbus. I can't live in Africa. I would prefer not to live in Philly. I like visiting but I'm not a huge fan of that city. And then there's Columbus. I want to continue my college education and staying in Ohio makes it easier. I have family and friends down there. And why the hell not? Does having my boyfriend in Columbus have anything to do with my preference, hell yes. Is it the main reason, nope.
I could pick any other place I wanted to but this is a sound decision at this point in my life. It's not permanent and I could always move again.

So my brother Brian told me to get off my ass and just do it already. So that's what I'm doing. Seeing what I can do. Exploring my options and moving on with my life. I'm perpetually restless but I know that in order to do the things in life that I want I have to focus on the now. And that's what I'm doing. I don't want to do it alone but I will if I have to. But I have GREAT friends and I won't be alone. Included in those friends is my boyfriend, he's one of my best friends and even when I'm mad at him the love is there. And don't forget mt cat(s). Hehehe. I'm keeping Zim no matter what, however I'm allergic to Niko and am looking to find him a good home. If anybody knows somebody who would love him ad take really good care of him please let me know. That's all for now.

Thank you to all of my friends!

Alright so I realize the best way to get help with something is to advertise my need for it.  So Tony mentions GothComing over a month ago and tells me the theme, SteamPunk.  My initial reaction: Awesome.  His: Not So Awesome.

However after attending DragonCon he decides that it IS awesome.  Sadly, I can't attend GothComing on such short notice for my work schedule AND short notice for costume making.  But I'm making one anyway b/c I want one!  Tony is going to GothComing and making stuff for that and also for later.

I was thinking we could do a dress SteamPunk thing for Crystal Ball though so I'm gonna hafta start now as my time to work on something like this is limited in general and I'm going to need help and the times my potential helpers will most likely be limited as well.  Crystal Ball might not be a SteamPunk theme but either way I want my costume so work must be done.  :)  I super excited about this b/c I love doing crafty type stuff and this gives me a focus for it with unlimited ideas!

Tony and I went thrifting Saturday and got a LOT of great stuff.  I picked out some great stuff, for him.  I even got a dress for myself that needs some mods and a gun too!  The gun will help me focus and give me a procedural task to complete for when I'm frustrated with my outfit and feel like I have no focus.

So yeah...help me please.  Anybody. Everybody.

So here's the emotional blog, I'll start with the details first.  My older brother Brian and his wife Kristy leave for Africa on the 17th of this month.  Brian (whom I also call B) is not just my brother, he is also one of my best friends and my most prominent male role model.  His wife, my sister by marriage is one of the most amazing people I have ever had the pleasure to meet and is therefore also one of my best friends.  Being the people that they are, they joined the Peace Corps.  B has his degree in Social Studies education and Kristy's degree is in Environmental Science, they will both be teaching with their degrees while in Africa.  They still aren't sure where exactly in Mauritania (west Africa) they'll be but we do know they'll be gone for 27 months.  SIGH.

Currently I am in Philadelphia with B visiting Jeremiah and his girlfriend Kelly.  B and Kristy have been packing, selling, giving away, moving everything they own for weeks.  They gave up their apartment at the end of May and moved into my apartment.  Yesterday the three of us packed up the last of their belongings and headed East.  We dropped Kristy off in Akron to catch a plane to visit her sister in Colorado, then B and I continued our drive to Philadelphia.  10 hours in the damn car!!!!    B and Kristy are leaving their respective vacation places on the 17th to meet up with each other and the rest of the Peace Corps volunteers, a few days after that they are off to Africa. 

I know they aren't dying, that they might even be coming back to the United States after their tour in Africa.  For all I know they'll love being in Africa and never want to come back.  They may even decide to sign up for another tour in another country.  It's over 2 years from now so you never know.  But here's the thing, I may or may not be able to communicate with them at all or not very often depending on their location.  Email is an option and they intend to get cell phones but it'll be international long distance.  And what happens when I need that physical comfort or need to share joy?  I tell them mostly everything, that's the closeness we have.  When something in my life happens, I share it with them.  Happy moments, sad ones, etc.  They've helped me through break ups, joys of school, their life's moments, etc.  It's one thing to not see a person b/c one or both of you are busy but it's another thing entirely to not be ABLE to see them.  I cried when we left Kristy at the airport, and I had  to help.  They'll take such good care of each other and will do such amazing things for the community while they're there.  And it's completely selfish of me to be thinking about my needs here but that's not just it.  I'm worried about them, their health and safety.  And I'll be leaving Philly Sunday the 15th in order to leave B here to have one-on-one time with Jeremiah our youngest brother.  The drive home will suck.  And knowing it'll be quite some time before I see them again I might just be a bit of an emotional wreck for a few days afterwards.  I'll be in Columbus.  Tony, David and all my other lovely friends will help keep me distracted.  Plus my sister and step-mom live in Columbus too so I'll have family too.  I'm an emotional person, I can't help it.  So any of my C-bus friends reading this, any emotional support, distractions, etc will be most welcome.  Well, it's time to end this blog and spend some more time with B, Jeremiah (my little bro) and his girlie Kelly. 

So it's been ages since I've blogged.  Reason being, I don't have the internet at home. *gasp*  It's shocking I know, but it only serves as yet another distraction when I'm in the midst of a school semester and yet one of many excuses not to do my homework.  I buckle down when I'm set up at the computer lab b/c I wanna get outta there.  Ridiculous I know, but it works so I'm sticking with it.  So on to the blog.  Duh.


Marcon.  My first con.  It was a great weekend.  I'm not quite sure if it was the con or the incredible company, but either way I'm happy with the weekend. 
   Thursday: What an incredibly AWFUL day.  3 hours of sleep b/c I went and hung out with the guys (matt and miles) Wednesday night.  Followed by a TWELVE hour work day.  YUCK!  Meeting from 8am-11:00am, off to my branch for a few hours and then off to another branch to finish my day.  Took forever to get outta there, branch managers seem to be over paid and under-informed about their jobs.  And then of course a nice drive to Columbus.  Honestly I don't mind the drive, it's the people in the other cars that I mind.  I get to Tony and David's place and act like a cranky child.  *sigh*  It happens, I apologized.

Friday/Saturday:  Slept late(for me that is, as the weekend progressed it got later and later.)  Watched my 2 hour season finale of Grey's Anatomy.  Yep, I'm one of those, can't help it.  Then off to get my nails did.  It's one of my girly vices/indugences, I have so few that it's okay to indulge that one.  :)  Then off to the con for David's play.  Girls fed me drinks during the play.  : D  Thanks to Beth, Cora, and Jeannie for intoxicating me!  Bounced around the con with Tony, without Tony, by myself, with random company, etc.
Honestly that's pretty much how both Friday and Saturday went.  Wondering with folks and being fed random drinks.  Went to some interesting panels and some incredibly lame ones.  Watched the masquerade and watched some of my friends parade around in practically no clothing (hehehe) and also watched CJ, Lisa, and crew win awards!  Which they completely deserved!!  "macrame" panel was fun!  Then off to the Buffy sing-a-long.  And more room parties with drinks.  I honestly didn't drink that much during the weekend, wasn't really in the mood.

Sunday:  Slept in while Tony went to claim his 1st place award for playing Munchkin!  Woke up for Asian Festival with Tony and David.  GOOD FOOD!  Met up with Cora and Gabe, shopped and then off to the grocery store to pick up food for Game Night.  At Game Night I played some Wii Fitness...Tony is great with a virtual hula hoop.  Then we played Munchkin and I totally WON, b/c just like with Beth, first game is time to be nice to the Noobz so they come back for more.  Then you can crush them!  We also played Apples To Apples which I now officially love.  Very fun game!  Home from Game Night and then it was time to introduce Beth to Munchkin...she won, this time.  :P

Monday:  Slept in, surprise!  Got up and and got ready to go see Tony's mom and meet his sister.  Mind you he's been "preparing" me for this meeting.  Warning me how terrible his sister is and reminding me that she hasn't like any of his girlfriends.  Really makes me wanna meet a person.  His mom told her to be nice.  But honestly it wasn't that bad.  She saved all her attitude for Tony.  LOL.  Then we went to see the new Indiana Jones movie.  I was let down.  It wasn't awful but it wasn't what I was expecting/hoping for.  Then to the grocery store.  I gotta tell you, we have SO much fun at the grocery store together that it's ridiculous.  I can see us being this freaking cute with each other through our relationship and well into old age. 

Tuesday wasn't so fun at all.  I got up super early to get ready to drive straight to work.  I've worked all week cept Thursday.  Discussing Thursday leads to another topic, for another blog and a different day.  My brother and his wife are leaving for Africa soon, it makes me both happy and sad.  But another time.

As we age, the desire to become more true to ourselves battles with the need to "be" an adult. For most of us that is.

Friends come and go throughout life and for a variety of reasons. Fights, moves, change in lifestyle, etc. Making friends gets harder as you get older, part of that is b/c you have higher expectations of people. With that said, the reason for this blog.

I love my friends, I miss some of them dearly, and if I do choose to call you my friend I take that very seriously. HOWEVER, this is MY life. I make the decisions about what I do, when I do it, the things I allow to be known about me, etc. Any relationship a person enters into goes through what some call the "honeymoon" period. Where everything is good, you wanna spend all your time together, you may even slack on obligations and other friends. THEN THE HONEYMOON PERIOD ENDS!!!!!

Anybody who knows me should know that I don't like loose dead ends, I prefer simplicity and will cut away what needs to be removed for the better. The thing about me cutting loose ends, is that I WILL tell somebody when they are a loose end. If have NOT done so, I still consider you my friend.

There are things I will not tolerate from anybody though, especially my friends. I have a future ahead of me that involves spending large quantities of time focused on SCHOOL. I'm not a big partier but when I do it, I do it well though. Nothing will interfere in this or change these things for long.
Also, as a new edition my boyfriend lives just over 2 hours away from me and the ONLY time we get for us is weekends. Currently while we are freshly an US the time will be quite considerable therefore most of my weekends are reserved for US. We do take turns visiting each other so please feel free to invite US to do things. I am completely capable of spending time without him (and vice versa), and I am very aware of the fact that we may at times have to relinquish our weekends together for other obligations, which we are both very willing to do.So if you call me during the weekend and I'm in Columbus, most likely my phone is dead or nowhere near me b/c the people I spend most of my time with in Columbus are Tony and his friends or Scharell and Lisa (step-sister and step-mom.)

That's really all I had to say. I miss some of my dear friends. And as lame as this sounds, I used to hold top friends positions in some of my friends lives and no longer do which brings me just a brief pang of sadness. Nothing too drastic just the knowledge that my place in their lives no longer holds the same weight or position it once did. But I am a big girl and deal with life as such. I know that I've made comment to these friends about my desire to hang out, even if it is sitting around the house being tired grown-ups, but such is life.

I made it safe and sound to Philly on Monday.  The drive was incredible and LONG.  I thought I was good without any hitches in my journey until I got closer to actual downtown Philly where I found myself stuck in ass to elbows traffic.  It amazes me that although these folks drive in this area daily they still have no concept of how to properly drive or maneuver in their own damn city.

Monday I arrived at The Alley sometime around 6:30pm-6:45pm mostly due to lack of parking and traffic.  I seriously spent about an hour in traffic and circling the blocks for a place to park.  Two best parts of my drive; amazing music and LOVELY weather.  I had my windows down and no jacket on.  Shortly after i arrived I was fed Isa Bella's Pizza and vodka.  YUMMY!

Tuesday I hung around the shop a large portion of the day just to recuperate from both the drive and my Sunday on the slopes. (On Sunday Tony, David and I met some of their friends up at Mad River for some snowboarding.)  Back to Tuesday, I hung out at the shop and napped a bit in etween strolling to the parking meter to insert quarters in order to avoid a monstrous ticket.  And because the weather was still so delightful after Kelly got home from school we took my adorable nephew Zodiak for a walk.  Zodiak is a one year old Japanese Chin, and he happens to be adorable!  After the walk and Jeremiah finished with all his clients the three of us drove to China Town for food and shopping.  I picked up some bamboo plants for myself, my Lynn, and my Tony; along with some other random purchases.

Lappy Toppy is about to die so I'll be wrapping up this pot and continuing with more later b/c I'm too lazy to get up and grab the charger now.  More later!

Well, as I anxiously await this day to end and then the next I'm reflecting on myself and my life.  What am I doing, where am I going, what have I done, where have I been, what do I want, how will I get it, when will it all happen, why am I here (literally, why am I in TOLEDO of all places), where will I go, etc.  This contemplation is frustrating as my mind has a tendency to raise all the time as it is.

This Friday I leave for Columbus straight from work so I can hang out with my sister and my Tony.  Gothing it up at Outland with my sister is going to be a blast!  My buddy Matt will already be in Columbus with his pal shopping for guns so they are heading up the club as well.  It's bound to be fun.  Tony said he intends to surprise me at the club, it's not really much of a surprise since he already spilled the beans but I'm thrilled none the less.  Saturday I'm breaking a rule made to myself a long time ago and attending Rocky Horror Picture Show.  The rule was something I made for reasons that no longer exist so I feel ok with the change.  Besides, rues were made to be broken.  ;)
As for Sunday, that's causing an internal battle.  I want to go snowboarding with Tony and his friends but I don't want to make myself sore for the drive to Philly.  This vacation was taken for my Philly trip and now that Tony is part of my life it's an added bonus that I can use this time to see him as well.  If I do go snowboarding, most likely I'll head to Philly Monday/Tuesday at about midnight or 1am.  BUT if I don't go boarding I'll head out Sunday/Monday at about 1am.  Dilemma.

And then there's the way I feel about Tony. I adore him.  I enjoy his company and his conversation.  We've got this great connection that I revel in.  But there's this other female he has a deep intellectual and most likely emotional connection with as well.  She may live in another country and possibly never have the opportunity to actually meet/see him.  But love isn't about the physical and I couldn't handle it if he was sincerely in love with or thought he could be with her. 
---For me, I could handle it if my significant other had a random one night stand with a girl more so then if they had a deep emotional and intellectual relationship with another girl.  Especially if he confided in her or had a better connection with her then myself.  I may be the one he spends his time with but if the rest of him wants to be with or IS with her, then what's the point?---

Back to the specifics of Tony though.  He lives 2 hours away and honestly with his schedule and mine, weekends are the only time we can spend any quality time with each other.  He's got this issue with his tendency towards serial monogamy but not b/c he's a player or anything like that.  I however care about him and if we continue our "relationship" the way it is, I want the monogamy and commitment.  But I also don't want to lose the beauty of what we have.  And sometimes labels and titles can ruin a perfectly good relationship either b/c of your own reasons or b/c of the pressure from other people and their expectations that are linked to the title itself.
And it's new, Tony and I.  Our level of communication has streamlined us through probably 4 months worth of dating for the average couple.  And there's only so much you can build on with a person via communication.  Sex aside, the physical click, sparks, connection etc is INCREDIBLY important.  And as trusting as I am with him, and OH am I so very open with him, I still feel this apprehension.  Apprehension that I will not let get the better of me.  I enjoy how I feel about him and him about me. 

The pessimist in me hangs out in the background holding it's effects close to everything no matter how hard I strive to dampen it.
And now another BIG SIGH.  Too much swirling in my head.  Not all worries, just possibilities, maybes, might have beens, etc.