"There's this picture of me straight up chillin' with some raccoons on the couch."

that was an actual sentence that someone said to me today. it was a true sentence. and it was serious. i laughed pretty freaking hard. "straight up chillin with some raccoons." how many times do you think you'll hear that again in your lifetime? think about it. yeah, now it's funny.

anyways.

today was a good day. busy as always. i walked downstairs to go to work and as soon as i stepped in the door i hear, "hi julie!" it was the 18 month old. she was eating a banana. it was very cute.

things were pretty normal, i suppose. speaking of the 18 month old. omg, it was so funny. we were all at the dinner table, and of course she's got food all over her face. and her mom was feeding her little sister food. and she turns to her mom and yells, "I NEED A WIPE!" only, she can't really say the 'w' sound, so it sounded like this, "I NEED A YIPE!" we were all laughing really hard. and so her mom would say, "what do you need?" "I NEED A YIPE!!!" it was really funny.

and after her bath, she runs into the staff office, and me, courtney and jamie are all sitting in there. and she turns to each of us and says, "hi julie! hi courtney! hi jamie!" and so we all say hello back. and then she says, "i need some milk!" so then her mom brings her in her sippy cup with milk. and she's walking around all sassy with the cup. and finally she goes over to the couch and says, "i'm gonna get up here. i'm gonna lay down on this pillow." and so, she climbs onto the couch, lays down on the pillow and says, "goodnight!" and so we all say goodnight. and then her mom says, "let's go to your crib!" so, she gets off the couch and says, "goodnight! see you in the morning!"

her verbal skills are cr-azy. she can say anything. she's sooooo adorable.

and the newborn baby was pretty cranky tonight. his mom called me down twice to her room to try and get him back to sleep. after the second time, i came back upstairs, made supper and had just sat down to watch Heroes, when she called me down again because he was cranky.

and he was pretty cranky. or, he was being a little 'fussmuffin' as i like to say. it took us awhile to calm him back down. i think he might have had a little upset belly. but finally i got him to sleep, rocking him. but the minute i put him in his bassinet, he woke up again. so, i stood there for like, 10 minutes rocking the bassinet. his mom had climbed back into bed and was asleep.

ah well.

and then! to top it all off, i came back upstairs and who was asleep in the spot where i was sitting? Miss Ruby Tuesday. and i had no way of knowing if she ate any of my supper. she probably did because i had yogurt and a chicken salad sandwich. and i had already given her a little yogurt. it was raspberry flavored. she loved it.

OH! i have to tell you about the tv survey!!!!! nobody reminded me, but i remembered on my own!!!!

SO! member how a few weeks ago i got that random tv survey by the Nielsen people? and they sent me $2 as a thank you for doing the survey. which was like, one question.

WELL.

i got this huge freaking envelope from them in the mail the other day and i thought, "oh geeze, what the heck is this?" i thought it would be the totally boring results from the survey. but, it was not.

it was a tv diary that they want me to keep starting THURSDAY, OCTOBER 29 and going until NEXT WEDNESDAY. and it's super specific. like,

1. write down all the members of your household, their genders, ages, and how many hours a week they work
2. next to the appropriate time (in fifteen minute increments) write the program you watched, the channel you watched it on, how long you watched it for, and WHO in your household watched it.
3. if the tv is on in the house, but no one is watching it, check the correct box.

and it's like, alllllll this super specific information. and, i feel kind of bad, because something i must have written in the first survey made them believe that i could actually watch tv. and, i can't.

ok, here's what i think happened: in the first survey the question was, "is there a working tv in your home?" and i debated it. because, 'yes' there is a working television set, but 'no' i cannot watch tv on it. so, i checked yes. and i think that was the problem.

so, i can't decide what to do. i mean, there's an option that says, 'no tv was watched during this time.' but, i feel bad checking that option. i think i'll bring the diary home with me this weekend and maybe do it then.

but! here's the best part. and also the part that makes me feel guilty about not doing the diary.

so, the first time i got $2. member how freaking excited i was? FREE $2. well. folks. THIS TIME. guess how much they sent in that envelope. i bet you'll never guess.

THIRTY DOLLARS. $30. for those of you playing at home, that's a $20 bill and a $10 bill.

YEAH. wow, right? i could not believe it. i just won thirty bucks, basically for doing nothing. ACTUALLY, more like, thirty-two bucks. now, maybe $32 doesn't seem like a lot of money to you, but to a member of the lower middle class such as i, it's like winning the lottery.

i like having these Neilsen people as my friends. i should keep them around.

but also, i kind of hope that i'm the only person they are asking to take this survey. because, i also don't like to think that they have say, 10,000 surveys out in this country, all with $30 in them. because that's way too much money just to have laying around. PLUS postage both ways.

soooo, yeah. that's part 2 of my tv survey. if i turn in the completed survey ontime, i wonder what my next gift will be!?!? as Veronica would say, "......A PONY?!!?"

aAAAAHHHHHHHH five more hours of work and then i'm on mini-vacation!!!!! known as two days off. man, it's hard working 7 days a week. 16.5 hours a day. i shouldn't complain. i bet lots of people in this country who don't get sent 30 free dollars have to work waaaay harder than i do for waaaayyyy longer hours.

oh! speaking of Veronica Mars. last night, i had a dream about Duncan and Lily Kane. they are two characters on the tv show. Duncan is Veronica's ex-boyfriend. and Lily is his sister, Veronica's best friend, who was murdered. i can't remember what the dream was about. only that they were there. weird.

ok. i have to tidy up the apartment a little bit. and i know i should do it tonight because i'll never wake up in time to do it in the morning. my plan is to leave here at 11.

oh. here's another thing that happened at work tonight.

so, one of the residents was for some reason, showing off her bottle of shampoo. it was Herbal Essences. it was a kind of fancy bottle with swirly looking shampoo. and she wanted to show us how the shampoo looked, not in the bottle. so, she squeezed some out onto her hand.

and then, she had this huge glob of shampoo in her hands. and what does she do? start playing with it. and it's gross. and then she decides to smear a tiny bit on Jamie's cheek, and on my cheek. great! it smelled really good, actually.

and, i was basically holding the newborn all night, so i kind of forgot about the shampoo on my cheek. and it dried up and everything. and then i totally forgot about it.

UNTIL. like, a couple hours later, the mom of the newborn says, "um, what's the matter with your cheek? and i'm like, "what do you mean?" and she says, "there's a bright red spot." and, sure enough, there was a bright red spot where the shampoo was. and the bright red spot, slowly turned into a bright red cheek. which slowly turned into a slightly swollen, bright red cheek. awesome.

it's all better now. but, it was crazy. i was like, "awesome. my face is gonna swell up." but, just one side. and just a little. and, like i said, it's all better now.

what have i learned from this? that i am glad to spend the extra money on my Burt's Bees shampoo that is 97% natural and not totally full of strange chemicals that i am allergic to. same with conditioner.

except when i create my own Vomditioner. on the day that Jason Schwartzman gets married.

it kind of sucks that anytime i think of "jason schwartzman married" i will think of the word "vomditioner."

OH! and something freaking else. MY EFFING EARRING IS DRIVING ME INSANE. so, for like, a week, my earring finally stopped hurting. this was last week. and i was so happy. 'finally!' i thought, 'my earring will stop hurting!" i think this everytime my earring stops hurting. and then everytime it starts again i think, 'DAMN YOU EARRING. I HATE YOU.'

so, tonight, when i couldn't stand my ear hurting any longer, i finally went into the bathroom and checked it out. and lo and behold, there is another freaking tiny blister RIGHT under my earring back. i was so mad.

WHY WHY WHY can't it just get better and STOP being crazy and START being normal. i have had this piercing almost 9 months. for realz. why is my body rejecting this piercing?!?!

maybe i'm allergic to the metal. what kind of metal is this?

i mean, there was a period of time where i was cleaning it with the ear cleaner like, 4 times a day.

ok. so, i just took a long feeding break. it's currently 4:36am. i have to go to bed soon. forget the "tidying." that very quickly turned into, "where can i throw stuff so it looks cleaner?" yeah. happens a lot around here.

anyways. the feeding went well. he was a hungry boy. ate 3.5 ounces! and, he only had one really good burp, so i told his mom,

JULIE: If he wakes up fussy, first check his diaper, and then I would try burping him some more, because he might have another burp.
MOM: Or I could call you.
JULIE: Or you could try those things first!
MOM: And then I can call you?
JULIE: .....Yes.
MOM: When he cries 'mama,' I cry 'Julie!'

i thought that was funny. he cries mama. i cry julie. i think the baby likes me.

ok. maybe i'll just try to pack my clothes tonight. so that in the morning, i will just throw things around so it looks cleaner.

oh man. Ruby Tuesday is so cute right now. i wish you could see.

wait a sec. i think there's a way to send photos from my phone to the blog. i think i set it up when i set up the telephone blogging. um, hold on. the photo will probably appear in the entry above this. i'm gonna try it.

ok! so, goodnight. i don't know when i'll talk to you next. i'll be cooped up inside watching tv and filling out my tv diary until next wednesday.

happy friday!!!!! have a great weekend.


<3!