04.11.22 • Visiting Friends • Willy’s Wonderland • The Babysitter • Call Back •

Corey’s friend Jesse came down this weekend and surprised Corey with his presence. Jesse lives a couple of hours away and is Corey’s best friend in the whole wide world, so it is always a delight when he comes down! However, it also means that my weekend will likely consist of too much alcohol.

Corey and Jesse’s thing has always been to have breakfast together in the mornings and evenings to drink Old Fashioneds. This time around, Jesse brought several different glass smokers, and I tried my first ever smoked Old Fashioned, and wow was it delicious!

Coincidentally, the first night Jesse was down, Davon and her boyfriend, Michael decided to pay us a surprise visit as well, which meant that I got to begin my weekend with some of the most wonderful company. I also got to show them all my balance board in real life and allow them each the chance to try it out. After all, how could I not share something that is so much fun?

I am always glad when Jesse visits. He is a genuinely good man who is easy to talk to, willing to explore new ideas and activities, and provides contagious enthusiasm through his indomitable spirit.

Last night, after watching a separate Nicolas Cage movie, Corey and I stumbled upon Willy’s Wonderland. After watching the preview, we both expected a horrendous movie, and that made both of us eager to give it a watch. Turns out, I love that movie more than I can express! It is my kind of weird, and the writing and experience of the movie is unique to almost anything else. At the end of the film, I decided it officially deserves its place in my list of all-time favorite movies, and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about the film ever since!

There is so much I’m dying to discuss about that movie, but I hate spoilers and I don’t want to ruin the film for anyone who hasn’t experienced it yet, so I came up with an idea. I’ve created a place for me to go further into detail about it here so if you’ve watched the film, please join the discussions! Click on Memberships and find the Willy’s Wonderland membership to read all of my thoughts on this film. I want to see if you’ve realized the same things I have about the film, and I want to know what your thoughts are and whether you noticed anything that maybe I didn’t.

I put the posts behind a membership to ensure there was no chance of anyone who didn’t want spoilers accidentally stumbling upon them. I wanted to create every barricade I could to give ample opportunity for anyone to watch the film before engaging in discussion. I really wanted to make the membership free, but Buy Me A Coffee wouldn’t allow me to – so I made it cost a dollar – as that is the smallest amount Buy Me A Coffee allowed me to put on it.

When you join, make sure you click the yearly option, because I’m prompted to make a monthly option and a yearly option, and I made them both cost a dollar, and I’d much rather you have to pay one dollar for the year than for the month, which is as close to free as I could possibly make it. I didn’t want this to be about money at all, I just wanted to create a space where I could talk about this film without spoiling anything for anyone who hasn’t seen it yet, so I did all I could with the tools that I have!

Originally, my idea was to set up a password required to access the posts, a password I intended to provide in this post, but that option doesn’t exist. I just want to tell you my password idea. The password was going to be animatroniccc.

Anyway, if you watched Willy’s Wonderland, please please please click the link, get the membership, and engage in the discussion. I am dying to talk about some of my thoughts about the movie, and I need someone to share this with!

Speaking of movies that are my kind of weird that I initially expected to be bad, another one I’ve stumbled upon is The Babysitter. It’s on Netflix, and if you haven’t watched it, I highly recommend that you do.

The way it looks, I feel like it’s more common for people to expect it to be slapstick and poorly acted and I feel like it’s likely that most wouldn’t give it a chance. In fact, the reason why I watched it in the first place was because I found myself in one of those nights where it was one or two in the morning, and sleep didn’t look like it was going to be in my immediate future. I decided to pick a movie that was going to be terrible just to have something to pay loose attention to while I tried to ready my mind for sleep.

I picked The Babysitter when I passed it by on Netflix because I was expecting a Scary Movie-esque film that was predictable, provided no substance, and was aimed at young teens. I expected something that I would care very little for – if at all. To my surprise, the confusing unique aspect of every moment of that movie captivated me and I was glued to my screen the entire way through. I can say confidently that I have never seen a movie that is anything like that one. Seriously, it is so different from everything. If you haven’t – give it a chance, I highly suspect you won’t regret it.

Guess what?! Aaaah!! Today at exactly 4:48 PM, the employer at the job I went into an interview for on Thursday gave me a call! He asked if I was still interested in the position, and informed me that they were working on an offer for me, and I could expect to receive the offer via email by tomorrow. Aaaah!

I did it! They like me!

I’m feeling so many things… I’m so curious about who else applied for the position, and how many of them were more experienced in the field than I am. I’m so excited to begin a new chapter, but I’m also incredibly nervous about it! I’m grateful that I’ve had this time to just be myself for a while, but I am looking forward to having a routine again. Gosh, I hope I love it there…

I wonder how many times I will refresh my inbox between now and receiving their email!

I expected finding a job to take a lot longer and to provide many more challenges, but boy am I relieved for the way everything turned out. The place I had my fingers crossed for the most was who called me in for an interview, and who is working on an offer to send me! My goodness, I’m counting my blessings. I have so many questions and uncertainties that I am dying to get answers for. I hope I am successful, and I hope I learn a lot. I can’t believe it’s all happening…

04.13.22 • Last Night’s Dream • Job Updates •

Last night, I had such an innocent, pure dream where Corey stood up for me for the most mundane thing, and I woke up warm and fuzzy after Corey came to my defense in my dream, so I just wanted to share that dream here really quick.

I had a dream that Corey and I were in a city, though I’m not certain which city we were in. We were in separate vehicles, and though I’m not sure why, I know that I was following Corey home.

Corey had to stop for gas and so we pulled into a gas station. Across from the gas station was a McDonald’s, and I was feeling hungry, so I decided to go through the drive-thru while he fuelled up. The girl at the drive-thru window was incredibly friendly and helpful.

I had a whole bunch of keychains on my backpack in my dream. Among them, I had a crystal Tinkerbell keychain, some Looney Tunes keychains, and four or five keychains that were tiny lego pieces – three per keychain – and they were detachable so you could build little legos as you got bored, and then reattach them to your keychain when you were done.

The girl at the window asked me if she could have one of my lego keychains, stating that she had a nephew that would love it. I agreed and began trying to detach one of the keychains from my backpack, but as I tried, it got stuck on another keychain and while I struggled, the girl at the window had all my food and the debit machine ready to hand to me. She offered to continue with removing the keychain while I organized and paid for my food, to which I agreed.

I made my way back over to Corey at the gas station, and when I looked down at my backpack, I realized that the girl at the window had stolen all of my keychains! I was very sad about it, and I explained what had happened to Corey. Unimpressed, Corey jumped on the opportunity to stand up for me.

I watched as he jumped into his truck, and pulled through the drive-thru, stopping at the window. He parked and refused to leave the drive-thru until the girl at the window returned all of my keychains, including the one I allowed her to have; Corey claiming “she didn’t deserve it anymore.”

…That was it. That was my whole dream – Corey standing up for me and getting my keychains back after the drive-thru girl stole them from me! So dumb, but the first thing I did when I got up this morning was tell Corey that he was, quote, “so nice to me” in my dream.

Yesterday, I received another call about the job I applied for. I was told that my offer letter would be sent by email right away, and they asked if after I received it, if I would call them so they could explain it to me. When I received it, I saw that the offer was um… lower than I anticipated, and when I called back, they explained that due to my small amount of experience, the executives saw taking me on as a bit of a risk which reflected in the number I was offered. They also explained that they chose me because they like my self-assuredness and my care and compassion for others. (Aw!) I asked if there was any flexibility in the initial number. They said they would contact the executives and email me a counteroffer… Ever since I’ve been waiting on that email ever since. It’s killing me!

They seem open to renegotiating my wage after probation, and possibly also after the six months – showing me that there is room to move up after I’ve proven my worth, and they offer a lot of room for growth and opportunity within the company, and overall, I am excited about working not only with that company but also within that field, so at this point, I’ve pretty much decided I’m going to accept upon that next email, but boy… It could come at any time now! I don’t think I’ve ever refreshed my inbox so frequently in my life before… I’m starting to get nervous all over again!

04.15.22 • Kia Updates • Job Updates • Balance Board •

You’re right, Caillou; each day I have had enough.

I booked an appointment to get my Kia looked at – as per the head gasket issue – and also to know whether anything else was wrong with the car that I should address before selling it – provided I didn’t get terrible, horrible, no good very bad news about the head gasket. My appointment was today, and I rose bright and early, enjoyed a tea, and decided then to go start my Kia before getting dressed to give it some time to warm up a little since – sigh – it snowed.

When I turned my key… nothing happened. Damn it. Of course. Of course!

With my Kia, the battery has always randomly had bad days and good days. It has sat for three months in the frozen winter and started right up. It has sat for a couple of hours in a mildly cold climate – nope! That’s how it’s always been… (Addressing that is on my list of things to do before selling it. I’m pretty sure a clean-up will fix that particular issue.)

Of course, that happened today… Suddenly, my gentle, happy morning and expectation to arrive on time turned into a definite future of arriving late. Damn it.

Corey boosted me, and then because I’m dumb and didn’t think to check yesterday, he realized I’m out of gas.

Damn it!

Had to get gas… I wasn’t positive I would make it with the amount of fuel left in my tank… Had to get gas.

Do you know what you can’t do while fuelling your car? Leave it running.

Guess as to whether or not it died again at the pump.

Yup, sure did!

Corey met me at the gas station, and a very kind bystander helped him move my car away from the pumps so he could boost me again. Finally, I was on my way! I arrived a whole fifteen minutes late! Damn it!

The mechanic informed me that there was nothing wrong with my head gasket, which felt like a real win. Suddenly, I’m back on track to selling this car! I cannot tell you how happy that makes me – seriously. I’m banking on a best-case scenario with this whole ordeal. The mechanic suggested a few things to look at before selling – because I want to sell a reliable car to the next buyer if it’s within my control, and because I would like to get as much money as I can for it. So, my to-do list is the battery, an oil change, cleaning out the air filter… I’m also looking for a fairly cheap set of summers to throw on it because the ones I was using last season are at their bitter end. I might make a few other adjustments from there, but we’ll see how it goes after I tackle that shortlist. One step closer! It’ll be so relieving to see this car drive away from me. Soon, I hope…

I received the counteroffer email from that job yesterday evening…. [drumroll] and I accepted! Eek! My official start date is next Wednesday. Aaaaah! A whole new flood of nerves has definitely consumed me. I’m doing everything I can in preparation and I’ve been determined to continue with the online courses related to information technology that I’ve been taking online to equip myself to the best of my ability. I plan to stay with these courses and take on more throughout the future because I truly do want a well-rounded, in-depth, and vast amount of knowledge in the IT field. There is so much about it that gets me excited, and there’s so much I’m dying to learn! Also, my new employers are right – I am less knowledgeable and experienced than others applying within the field, and I want to do everything in my power to make sure that that isn’t the case in the shortest time frame I can manage. To new chapters, learning new things, and self-development!

The job requires a driver’s abstract and a police report, and it seems that they only accept either black or khaki-colored pants, of which I don’t have an abundance – unless you count leggings, so sometime before Wednesday, with a long weekend in the midst, I have to cross those things off my ever-growing to-do list.

I’m doing things… Look at me do things!

I’ve also been making some balance board progress! I wanted to see how long I could stay on the board without touching the ground – since I started with being unable to keep it balanced for no more than a few short seconds – and I put this video together:

Today, Corey was out with his friends. In the evening, his friends followed him back home and played Oculus with us for a while, which was a lot of fun! They are incredible company; they’re great conversationalists and they’re genuine, humble, and kind people. I’ve liked getting to know them!

When Corey came home, he also brought with him… a larger cylinder for my balance board! His friend happened to have some pipes laying around, and he was kind enough to allow Corey to have one so he could surprise me with it.

I was pretty nervous to try out a larger cylinder… Especially since it is so significantly larger than the one I had been using. I learned very quickly that it is much more difficult to get onto the balance board with the larger cylinder, but it is far easier to stay on and move around on it once you’re able to get on! So… My suspicions were correct after all! I think that going forward, I’ll likely alternate between both of them as they both provide me with different types of challenges, but I think I’m going to be far more enthusiastic about using the larger one… At least for the next little while! I can’t believe how different it feels. I’m curious to know if every size would offer such different experiences.

I think the smaller one will help me practice more particular stances and motions to keep me from touching the ground, and the larger one will allow me more practice for trying new things on the board and getting comfortable with staying on it for long periods. I’m very happy!

I also have a video of my first attempt getting on the board with the larger cylinder, and um… I think you will be able to tell right away just how much harder it is to get on in the first place. It was a bit scary!

Ever since getting the larger cylinder, I can’t pass my balance board without getting on it for a few minutes. I’ve had a few other scary moments, but right away, I was able to stay on the board for much longer than the records I set with the smaller cylinder. I’m so excited to see how talented I can become on this board! I still can’t believe how much fun it is…

Anyway, I should probably wrap up here! Until next week. Thanks for following my journey, friends! Also, really quick one last time – Go watch Willy’s Wonderland if you haven’t seen it yet, and if/once you have, please please please join my discussion about it! There’s so much I want to talk about, and I really want to talk with people who have seen it and who love it as much as I do, because there’s so much to dive into! I’m still thinking about it every day…

Again, you can find what I wrote about the movie here, in the Willy’s Wonderland membership.

BRB - gonna go stand on my balance board & watch Willy's Wonderland! Share on X
While you’re here, why don’t you stay a while and take a look around? Perhaps you would like to read a deeper post about my life, or maybe you’d like to dive into a more complicated subject that will inspire you to ponder, or just maybe – you fancy a fictional read. Whatever your poison, I’m sure you’ll find something for you here, there’s lots to explore!