Amani's Ramblings

Writer's Block: Jackpot

2009-02-19T23:35:33Z

If you won the lottery, what would you do with your newfound riches?

If I won the lottery, which in my state is usually a huge amount of money, the first thing I would do is use a portion of my money to pay off my church's building. I think that if someone wins that kind of cash, it is a blessing from the Lord, and I would first and foremost want to do for Him. The next thing I would do is pay off my parents' debts. That goes for my in-laws, too. They spent their entire lives sacrificing for us, so I think it would be my turn to give something back to them. Then I would pay off my student loans completely, arrange for my husband to go to college, and pay off our personal debts. After that, I think my husband and I would quit our jobs and go on a trip to tour the entire world for a year, which would cost around 25,000 USD. On our return, we would go back to work and invest what we didn't spend. :)

Been Forever...

2009-02-19T03:23:40Z

So it's been pretty well forever since I actually wrote on this thing.

I think the last time I wrote on this was after my last day at Insta Print. I went to work in a hospital for about a month, and I hated it. It was cafeteria work (foodservice, ugh), and I often had to be at work bright and ugly at 5 am. On top of that I was taking College Algebra on the web as well as Old Testament Literature. The problem? I, heh, kind of didn't know that the classes were only a MONTH long, and I had to go to bed really early for work, so I had a very hard time keeping up, especially with having to work every other weekend. I made it through, even though it was the most stressful June of my life. I passed OT Literature with a B, and I squeaked by with a C by one point in College Algebra. A C was what I had to have in order to graduate this May, so talk about cutting it close.

I wound up finding a better job in July, though, one that offered regular hours and all weekends off, which is a necessity when you're a full time college student with a full time job. The problem was that I couldn't tell this employer about being a college student because A. they wouldn't hire me if they knew I was leaving in January to do my student teaching, and B. after what happened at the other place as well as those before, I wasn't about to be open and honest about being in college. Seriously, employers in this town are douche bags.

The other job proved to be a good one, and I very much enjoyed it. I still keep in contact with the Insta Print crew, though, and I am even inviting them to my graduation party if my husband decides to throw one here. Plus, I just found out that I live across the street from Melinda's aunt, so I should be seeing her around. I told her to call me and come visit.

When I left my job at Stinson Press, it was hard to quit because I had to tell the truth as to why I was leaving. They didn't seem angry that I was leaving to do my student teaching, and in fact, when we had a bad ice storm here and my school was canceled for two weeks, they randomly called me in to work, so I got to make a little extra money. Student teaching is so hard because you don't get paid a cent, which is utter crap. You have to leave a full time paying job to move to a full time UNpaying job. I really don't know how they expect you to survive like that. My husband is certainly having a hard time supporting us on our income, and he was supposed to get a raise in January, but they keep blowing him off. I've tried to find a part time job at night, but with me student teaching, no one wants to hire me unless I go back to fast food, and the economy here in the United States is in a severe recession that doesn't seem to be getting better.

However, we are doing the best we can with everything, and I have been having tons of fun with my kids and teaching. I don't want to have to get a part time job at night if I can keep from it since it will take away from my lesson planning and grading duties (which I should be doing now LOL). I have been teaching 5th and 6th Grade reading and 5th Grade social studies. I am nearing the end of my first 7 weeks, and my second 7 weeks will be spent in 1st Grade! Omg...little kids scare me. Seriously. I'm not good with the little ones. I want to stay with the ones I have now.

Right now my big focus is not only on surviving, but on putting together my portfolio and renewing my substitute teaching certificate so I can get my foot in the door. I have phone calls to references to make and letters to collect as well as a professional portfolio to put together. And on my school breaks, I intend to also work at my old job on those days so I can scrape in extra money. I'm beginning to count down to graduation, which is May 9th. Omg...I can't wait. After that, I hope my old job will let me work during the summer for them until I can get a position.

Busy, busy, busy...

GRRRRRRRRRRR!

2008-05-06T04:51:18Z

Omg you would not believe what happened to me today! *FUME!*

I had this lady come in that used to be me and Jesse's landlord before we bought our house. Her name is Ronda. Well, I don't know if you remember me telling you this, but we had to sue her to get our deposit out of her when we were trying to move into our new house because she tried to keep it. So anyway, this civil suit was three years ago, and WHO do you think shows up today at MY work at Insta Print? Ronda does.

Christy my supervisor happened to be up front and Ronda came in and very snottily asked Christy for me. I did not recognize her, and I passed that along to Christy on my way up front so Christy stuck around with me up there. Well with out any explanation or any kind of clue what was going on, Ronda DEMANDS that I get a paper and pen and starts going, "YOU need to write this down!" And when she told me who she was, I looked up at her because I was gonna ask her wth she wanted out of me. And then she got VERY belligerent and hateful and was all, "Yeah, you remember me don't you? I was your former landlord that YOU sued for YOUR deposit that YOU didn't deserve and I PAID you but it's still on my credit report that I OWE you and YOU need to walk your ass up the three blocks to the courthouse and SIGN an affidavit saying that I PAID you RIGHT NOW."

I was was not only shocked at the way that she verbally attacked me but I was FURIOUS. And I must have had that look I get on my face when I'm about to hit someone because Christy got REALLLLLLY pissed and told her, "Excuse me, but I don't know who you are, but you need to leave and settle this after hours." In a nutshell, Christy kicked her out. As Ronda was leavingm I turned around and said, "You know what? How DARE you come up to my workplace and jump down my throat when all you had to do is ASK for my help!!!!!!" Dude, I was so f***ing mad that my face was red and I had to take a time out to call Jesse and calm down.

So I clock out for a few minutes to call Jesse, and I told him that Ronda came up to see me and what went on. He had to leav in a hurry b/c he was getting another call, and I found out later it was her. Well she actually wound up being nice to him for whatever reason, but then again, she is really two faced. So he called me back and I told him that he shouldn't do anything for her because of the way that she verbally abused me at MY workplace in front of my supervisor and co-workers. When I came back in, Christy asked me if I thought she was going to come back, and I told her that I wasn't sure and then I apologized for what happened and explained to her that Jesse and I had sued Ronda three years ago. I told Christy, "Hun, she is not right in the head." (Which she isn't) So Christy showed me where the panic button was and told me that if she came in again not to hesitate to hit the panic button and the police would be down in a matter of seconds and they would escort her out. Jesse called her and tried to get it out of her what she did and she KNEW she was wrong but she wouldn't admit it. She just keeps saying, "I can't beleive this is three years later.." along with a lot of silences. She's pissed that Jesse told her call me and she did NOT want to admit she was wrong (in her twisted mind she probably thinks she ISN'T wrong).

Well she wound up calling me and you could tell it was a forced apology. But I told her, "Well, I appreciate you doing the adult thing which is a contrast to the manner in which you acted earlier today." Then I told her, "You know, if you would have just came in and ASKED me to help you out, I would have gladly gotten off work and cleared that up for you, but you chose to act like a psycho and verbally abuse me at MY place of employment." I told her, "I accept your apology, but you need to think before you act and speak. Don't you EVER do that to me again." And then I told her that Jesse signed whatever it was she wanted us to sign and I hung up on her.

Omg I wanted to kill her. In fact, I was GOING to start kickin her butt! I think Christy knew I was about to knock her out b/c I was pretty red in the face and I was white knuckling the counter. That and i had that LOOK. So yeah, I had a little bit of drama today (which never happens), but I think I know now who actually DOES hate my guts, and I never thought I had really anyone who didn't like me. I get along with pretty much everyone. :|

So yeah quite a bit of drama today, and I NEVER get drama (not that I want it).

It's Official!

2008-05-02T22:46:28Z

Well it is official. Amani will now be an employee at the hospital here in town. First thing Monday morning, I plan to put in my two weeks notice and do the rest of my hiring paperwork. I go in for orientation on May 19th (which lasts all day =__= ), and I got my badge today. I had a heck of a time getting my immunization records because I had to get them from my school back in Illinois, but the great news is NO SHOTS! Or bloodwork. Seriously, folks, I hate needles, and I went through rings of fire to get that immunization record because I'll be damned if they are going to get blood out of me! _{plus it doesn't help that I have a panic attack and start hyperventalating and passing out when I have to go through that}

After I get off work on Monday, I have to do more paperwork in the cafeteria (which is where I am going to work) and find out when I will be coming in for training and how much I'll get paid. I am hoping for a pay raise out of this. Getting up at 5 am is going to be a pain, but I figure it's only for 7 months and I think I can handle that. I hope my boss will be okay with this - well, she'll have to be really. We're pretty hectic at work right now, but being cut left me no choice but to find something else. I think she'll understand, though. So yeah...wish me loads of luck on that route.

On a side note, my classes have been completed for the semester, and I get about a month of goofing off time before I have to take my 2 summer classes. I would say that those should be a bit more relaxed, but one of the classes is College Algebra, and number 1: I HATE math. Number 2: I'm dyslexic in math and Number 3: I've taken this stupid class THREE TIMES already and dropped every time! But I HAVE to pass it this time around or I can't graduate next May. No pressure there, huh? At least my new work schedule will allow me to hit the math lab and get a tutor. Old Testament Literature shouldn't be a problem, though - I go to church, so I can get loads of help from the church members.

Not much else happening in the life of Amani, folks. I'm just glad that I will soon be getting a steady paycheck again.

School's Out! (for now)

2008-05-02T02:13:26Z

Well I finished my Hannibal-LaGrange classes on Monday night and made good grades in all of them. Boy, am I releived! I finally get about a month of goofing off time before I have to begin my 2 classes in the summer. *SIGH* So much for summer vacation, but at least I'll be graduating this time next year, so I can have all the summers off that I want as a teacher! YAY!

I've looked at other people's LJ accounts on here, and some of them are awesomely designed! Where do I find that kind of stuff so I can change my layout??

Anyway, not much else going on. Been looking for a job and I'm about to get one at the hospital, but I've had to jump through rings of fire to get the hiring process going. They asked for my immunization records so I have to bring that tomorrow and show them my arm where I got my TB screening. I haven't turned colors so I'm good. XD I'm fairly certain I'll have to get shots, though *SHUDDERS*. I hate needles. D= Least my tetanus is still good. I'm looking forward to the full time work again after having my hours cut at work over a month ago, but I am not looking forward to losing a lot of my weekends. :(

Wish me luck! :)

HOWDY THERE!

2008-04-30T02:47:58Z

Well, I finally broke down and did it - I signed up for an LJ account. Most people who know me can find me hanging out on Deviant Art where I am known under the same user name: Amani-Ishikawa. I finally decided to get an LJ because 1. many people I know have one and 2. I can rant about what I want and who I want and set it to private! LOL

I will tell you that I do rant and while I am not naturally a Negative Nancy, I am quite human and I get pissed. I often resort to a journal as a means of blowing off some steam, which I do quite frequently on DA, and here lately, I have found that could be a bad thing when mentioning names and such. Nowadays, you have to watch your bum since a lot of employers search for prospective employees on sites like these to see what they write and whether they have questionable pics on their page. I think this is low and a complete invasion of privacy, but hey, this is America - we only live in an ILLUSION of freedom of expression.

As for personality...well...I enjoy writing stories, especially fanfiction, and I love to fly. My husband is a pilot, and I'm, well, getting there. I am a supermega fan of Pirates of the Caribbean, and my favorite character is James Norrington (as if you couldn't tell from my icon XD). I'm a video game nerd and a complete Final Fantasy 7 shipper. I love Cid Highwind, but I HATE the Cid/Shera pairing. That pairing is the most awful pairing that makes me want to eat nails. D=< Speaking of which, getting into an argument with me is usually a bad idea when it comes to this topic, so don't even try! You will never change me mind mate! XD

Other fandoms: Star Trek: Enterprise. This has to be the most underappreciated ST series ever made and I wish so much it could have had more than 4 seasons. Commander Trip Tucker is my fave character, but Jonathan Archer and Malcolm Reed are awesome, too. *DROOLZ*

With that said, I am signing off. DON'T FORGET TO FRIEND ME! I love making friends. =)