Well, I Guess You Could Call Me A Passionate Person

For you, kissing is about all about following your urges
If someone's hot, you'll go in for the kiss - end of story
You can keep any relationship hot with your steamy kisses
A total spark plug - your kisses are bound to get you in trouble

You're an Passionate Kisser

What Kind of Kisser Are You?

The Jury's In . . .

Idealist (NF)

You are a passionate, caring, and unique person.
You are good at expressing yourself and sharing your ideals.

You are the most compassionate of all types and connect with others easily.
Your heart tends to rule you. You can't make decisions without considering feelings.

You seek out other empathetic people to befriend.
Truth and authenticity matters in your friendships.

In love, you give everything you have to relationships. You fall in love easily.

At work, you crave personal expression and meaning in your career.

With others, you communicate well. You can spend all night talking with someone.

As far as your looks go, you've likely taken the time to develop your own personal style.

On weekends, you like to be with others. Charity work is also a favorite pastime of yours.

Your Personality Is

The Three Question Personality Test

Don't Call Me

I did go out last night to the KC, and had a blast. I dressed up as a Catholic school girl (Obviously. And when I got to the party I rolled up my sleeves so I didn't look like a complete nerd).

Other than the fact someone ripped the buttons right off my Merc jacket and stole my wallet, my cell phone, and even the lipstick/lipgloss I was carrying with me. Thank God they left my keys so at least I could get home.

So don't call me for a few days until I can get the whole phone thing straightened out.

I don't know how many times I've been out in town and was perfectly safe leaving my jacket on a chair somewhere. And this was a school-sponsored event! WTF?!

Wigging Out

My ex-fiance, while I don't hate him, I don't feel any real love for him either. Last year he taunted me constantly whenever we ran into each other in town, and I'm neither witty nor clever enough to come up with equally hurtful taunts (which is probably a good thing). I wanted to pull a "STFU!" domokun. (I guess you would have to see the image. It's hilarious.)
The rumor about him being in town this weekend is true. I saw his pickup at the Greens today, probably visiting with the people he used to room with.
I hope, no, I pray that I don't see him tomorrow night. I hope that he goes back to wherever he came from after his exam tomorrow. Knowing my luck, he'll be too tired/stressed to drive back and he'll go out partying tomorrow after the test. So then I have to hope that he doesn't know about the $10 (for men; it's only $8 for the ladies) all-you-can-drink costume party at the KC. And if he does, I hope that the supreme Catholicness of the building will keep him away.

The Most Productive Thing I Did Today

I finished my rosary today. I think I would have had it done yesterday, but I took the St. Michael (my patron saint who I chose at my Confirmation) medal down to have it engraved with my given names, the date I entered the Catholic faith and the motto "Semper Fidelis". I know I'm not affiliated with the Marine Corps any longer, but it is a good motto and has religious value.
I used Swarovski Austrian crystals; clear/crystal ones for the Hail Mary beads (for my birthstone) and green/emerald ones for the Our Father beads (my favourite colour).
The center is a Miraculous Mary medal and the crucifix is a Pardon Crucifix. On the back it reads: "Behold this heart which has so loved men - Father forgive them".
I was chatting with an old high school friend today about it (she is not Catholic) and she asked me about St. Michael. So, here is a website you can learn about the most kick-ass archangel out there. Don't be messing with the angel that puts the devil in his place!

The Other Most Productive Thing I Did This Summer

Here is the other quilt I made this summer, from a Civil War era pattern in "Vintage Quilts". I picked the fabrics out myself, and wished that I used more greens and cut back on the golds, but I think it turned out nicely.

Can't Sleep While I'm Medicated

My favourite professor happens to deliberately not keep up with American pop culture, and uses myself and another nerdy professor as his sources for all things that have to do with American culture. (If you don't believe me, I had to explain what a "mosh pit" is to him. Yes, this blew me away that a fellow could be alive and living in the States for 40+ years and not know what a mosh pit is.)

I don't know why, but if you can shock/surprise this guy with something supremely witty, his reaction to the supremely witty thing is priceless. Think of a grown man laughing hard enough to weep. I don't know too many men who can do that.

A couple of weeks ago, I was lamenting on my bad experiences involving creepy men at the Irish Times to this particular professor. I said to him, "What I need is to find myself a lesbian dance club in Butte, and then I won't have any of these problems anymore!". His reaction to this (knowing the ludicrousness of finding any decent dance club, much less a lesbian dance club, in Butte helps to know why this is so freakishly funny) was so intense that he said to me afterward, "Diane, I thought I had it down to where anything could come out of your mouth and it wouldn't surprise me. I was wrong."

Discussing a recent asshole in my life, I mentioned addressing the fellow as "Most Honourable Recent Asshole" (in a pseudo-Asian-sage voice, with a little bow) which this professor also got a kick out of. Nerdy humor. Because we're stuck in the Museum Lab all day long, day after day and week after bloody week. And it gets to us. (Note: There's something strange about knowing the night security guards by name and being able to chat them up when they make their rounds of Museum building)

The thing I know for certain that I will always laugh at is the scene in Office Space where Samir asks his coworkers about the fax machine: "Why does it say 'paper jam' when there is no paper jam? I swear to God, one of these days, I just kick this piece of shit out the window." There is something so truly hilariously tragic on that piece of celluloid that I will never tire of. Maybe you just have to be in Samir's shoes to truly take advantage of the joy.

Endnote: I've totally fallen for Michael Buble's voice. Any fellow who can sing like that gets an A grade in my book. Maybe it's the "Sinatra of the new millenium" thing or whatever, but ever since I heard him sing the Spiderman theme in the theater I thought he was one of the coolest living vocalists around. Plus, he has a version of "Sway" floating around somewhere (I think the soundtrack to Las Vegas). And I dig that song.

All Sorts of Things Have Been Afoot

I realized that my blogging has mostly been covering the insanity that is my love life, and decided to discuss more uplifting things (and the insanity as well).

I've been battling a mystery plague which I've discovered is just a cold today. So, I stocked up on Cold-Eeze (Yes, it really does work!), Robitussin and Tylenol today. (They say they make a Robitussin for everything, but it's not true! My symptoms are either not completely covered, or I have to take something that includes stuff for symptoms I don't have!) Because of the yuckiness, I think I'm going to skip the Irish Times' Pimp 'n' Ho party Friday night and just go to the Knights of Columbus Halloween Party Saturday night.

My friend Dan thinks my purple toe separators (for pedicures) are cute. (He's straight, too, ladies! Too bad he has a girlfriend already!)

I made pumpkin muffins for RCIA tonight. I made some alterations to the recipe. I used a can of Libby's pumpkin puree instead of pureeing a pumpkin myself, and changed the spice amounts. I used:

• 2 teaspoons of cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon of nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon of allspice
• 1/3 teaspoon of cloves

I cheated a bit when I mixed everything together. I wanted to only dirty one bowl (because I'm lazy), so I mixed the pumpkin mixture first, then added, in this order, the sugar, the salt and spices, the baking soda and powder, and the flour, one cup at a time. The recipe lies: you can actually make 24 normal sized muffins with this recipe, so while the first batch (my oven can only hold one muffin tin at a time) was baking, I added a couple handfuls of semi-sweet chocolate chips to the batter. I couldn't find miniature chocolate chips, but with Ghirardelli chocolate, who cares?

My new Dr. Marten Mary Janes came in yesterday (that I've been waiting two months for!), so I think I'm going to dress up as a Catholic school girl (green minikilt, white shirt, black skinny tie, white socks and Mary Janes. Haven't decided on fishnets or not. Since it's always cold in Butte for Halloween, I'm going to wear my Harrington jacket with a Fred Perry "badge" pin as well. Details, people. Details.) for Halloween even though I have several other characters I could go as.

I have a high probability of running into my ex-fiance this weekend, as I heard a rumor he'll be in town for the EIT exam. Knowing him, he'll probably want to go boozing after the test on Saturday, and hopefully will stay at the Vu and not venture near the KC. (As he's staunchly anti-Catholic, but maybe he's too slow to figure out the connection to the KC) Not that running into him would be a big deal, since we've been apart longer now than we were together, but I just have the feeling he'll want to start arguing over the dead relationship again. Or at least say some not-nice things to me. I'm not very good at dreaming up not-nice things to say on-the-fly (which is probably a good thing), but I do have some juicy things I could say that would be embarassing for him. Like the fact I overheard he lives in either San Francisco or Sacramento now (and, being a complete homophobe, must just rile him), and that I heard he was so proud about his internship at Micron (in his own words, keeping hot and cold water lines separated and how that's, like, the most important thing in the world to do).

Typing Bytes

Made it down to the Clinique counter at Herberger's today to check out their new line of "Black Honey" products. For the uninitiated, "black honey" is the color of a particular lipcolor that is absolutely divine. If you don't believe me, check out Liv Tyler's lips in the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. One of the frivolous items I dumped some money on is the nail polish set in "black honey"; one is a plain, matte color and the other has coppery sparkles in it. Quite possibly, it's the perfect Halloween nail color.

I also went to Garden of Beadin' to get some sterling silver wire to make "bows" for my new rosary. Bows are these wire fasteners that are supposed to be much stronger than using jump rings to attach the center and the crucifix. And since I'm about fed up with jump rings (not that they fall apart on me but it's hell trying to get them to close and look nice), I decided to give the wire bows a shot. I ended up buying the fixings to make some pale blue/green chandelier earrings (except for the earwires; I'll need to get those later) as well. As if I didn't have better things to do.

My mom is doing good; the day after she got back from Taiwan, Dad took her up to Idaho because he had a V.A. appointment. Of course they don't bother to tell me and so I was up half the night worrying about them.

Didn't go to dance tonight (there's a free social dance class at the Scandia Thursday nights) because my knees are bugging me for some reason. So the cardio has been limited to w-a-l-k-i-n-g on the treadmill and the stationary bike.

RCIA will be a lot of fun this go around. I think I'm going to try and make Pumpkin Muffins for next week.

The dinner at the Handleys' went well. Mrs. Handley sure can cook.

Random Thoughts. And Get Yourself Some Confession.

Well, for the most part, my weekend was thoroughly unproductive. Friday, I went to confession, which was, and always has been for me, completely liberating. I don't know exactly how to describe the sensation of confessing your sins and receiving absolution for them. All I know is that it works. Get yourself some.

Saturday I slept, pretty much all day. Same with Sunday, except for that little bit when I went to Mass. I think I did laundry Sunday as well.

Mom's going to be home today. Her plane comes into Las Vegas at 2030 tonight.

I got some help with my homework for Process Instrumentation & Control today. So that will be finished for tomorrow.

My paper due tomorrow (my fantasy vacation, apparently, is a pilgrimage to Rome) won't be too difficult to grind out.

Dinner with the Handley family Wednesday night will be lovely.

And because Katy got tagged, I thought it would be interesting to post this (since I have little else to babble about), here goes:

Ten Years Ago: I was 12, attending Red Rock 6th Grade Center (was it called Red Rock? I don't know; all I remember is they tore it down the year after)

Five Years Ago: I was 17, attending my senior year at Cedar City High School. I knew already that I was going to be attending Montana Tech and had major senioritis (but ironically, didn't start skipping class until college).

One Year Ago: I had just gotten dumped by the Lieutenant I dated from Malmstrom in one of the worst ways possible. Huh. I had also just started RCIA as well.

Five Snacks: Spinach & Artichoke Dip, Homemade Chex Mix, Grasshopper cookies, those Laughing Cow Swiss Cheese wedges, and Haagen Daaz Ice Cream (any flavor, preferably strawberry or peaches 'n cream)

Five Songs I Know All The Words To: Finnegan's Wake, the Gloria at Mass (God I'm a nerd), Amazing Grace (only two verses), I'm Goin' Up a Yonder, Adeste Fidelis (first verse only)

Five Things I Would Do With $100 Million: Pay off all my debts (and my parents' debts too), Build a nice house, Get a dog, Buy some nice duds and invest the rest.

Five Things I Would Never Wear: Those jeans with the bleaching in "that" place. Those poncho things that are so popular. A burlap sack. "Body" jewelry (those funky temporary tattoo things that are like little rhinestones?). Any clothes bought at Wal-Mart.

Five Favorite TV Shows: Law & Order: SVU. Conan O'Brian. Perry Mason. Emeril Live. Becker.

Five Biggest Joys: Going to Confession. Going to Mass. Giving/Receiving Hugs. Sleeping. Eating Great Food.

Five Favorite Toys: Computer. Cell Phone. iPod. That rubber ball from Hess Corp. that lights up when you throw it. Resident Evil 4.

Random Stuff

Dad finished his guided hunt, and brought back the heart and liver of his buffalo for me. The liver had to be cut into thirds to fit into the cooler, and I gave the heart and one-third of the liver to Mrs. Handley. (I don't know how to cook heart and would have probably botched the thing; besides, the Handleys' are a family and there's no way I could have eaten the entire heart by myself, since I don't know any friends adventurous enough to try it out) Dad should be up again in a few weeks to retrieve the meat, and probably the hide and skull as well.

So now I have a LOT of fresh buffalo liver sitting in my freezer.

I'm having second thoughts about cheerleading. There's only one football game they will be cheering at, and with the way my schedule is, I'm busy three evenings out of the week, which makes it difficult to try and work in practices. Not only that, but women are. . .women.

It looks like my photo shoot with the photographer in Missoula should be sometime soon, which is exciting for me. It'll be nice to do something artsy that's non-school related. Not that Tech is particularly artsy about anything. Plus, in 20 years or so it'll be nice to remember that I used to be a total dish.

My roommate mentioned I should somehow record or save all my crazy antics for the Great Satire. This is the reason why I must go on these crazy antics: to experience and preserve the insanity for others' amusement.

Today

I had a test today in Process Instrumentation & Control, which I think went all right. I forgot some of the funky acronyms (they just dream shit up for those anyway) for the diagram problem, but the RTD and thermocouple problems I'm fairly certain I did right. I also think I got the tank problem right as well.

I had an interview with Computer Compliance after the test, which went well. They sound hungry for software people. I should have a second interview with them sometime in the next couple of weeks. They have clients like Pfizer, even though their corporate office is out of Bozeman. I'm not sure I'd like to live and work in Bozeman, but hey, it's a job, and it'll get me some of that much needed experience.

Update

I just received a phone call from my mother, who is doing good. She should be back in the States on the 17th or so. She also mentioned she bought another pretty scarf (in burgandy, the rich, fall version of the red J is so fond of me wearing) for me, and that the family business she went over there for is almost wrapped up. The next time the Tech bookstore has a sale, I can pick up some shirts for my cousins. It would certainly be interesting if a Tech alum saw a couple guys wearing Digger shirts halfway around the world.

The Rest of the Story

For some reason today I've been dealing with a lot of stress.

In the background I've been dealing with the untimely death of my dog. While not technically a person, she was a good companion and a highlight of my visits to my parents.

This morning I realize that my interview with Micron was supposed to be in Bozeman tomorrow morning, instead of in Butte whenever. So I made some phone calls and got that taken care of.

You're going to need some backstory for this one. Friday evening, right before my date-that-didn't-happen, Janice and I get a knock on the door. It's the woman who lives below us, and her friend (who I've never met). Apparently, this woman's friend accidentally locked them out of their apartment, and they needed a ride downtown to where the woman's husband was having an interview to get the husband's key to get back in. Janice was just getting ready to leave for her date-that-didn't-happen (for entirely different reasons), and she said that she could take one of them down in the mini-pickup she drives. The women decided they wanted to stay together, and so I offered that Janice drive my Jeep. Janice said she was afraid to drive my Jeep. The friend wanted to know if the women could borrow my Jeep, which I didn't want to, because let's face it, I don't let just anybody I know drive my Jeep. And I, obviously, couldn't leave the apartment because I still thought I had a date. The girls make a phone call from our place and then wait for someone else to take them downtown.

This morning I see my downstairs neighbor before my first class, and ask him if his wife got back into their apartment OK. He gets all fussy and says, "Yeah, no thanks to you!" and storms off. So apparently, they have no other neighbors, AND they expect Janice and myself to drop everything we're doing to cater to them whenever they have a mini-emergency. If I didn't have plans, I would have been more than happy to take the women downtown. And it's not like Janice and I didn't try to help them out.

As I told my mentor-professor, I need to find a lesbian dance club in Butte (like one exists!) to hang out at, just so I can keep myself out of trouble with the men. I think it's starting to get to the point where mein prof will expect me to say just about any quirky thing, which means I'm getting predictable. Must push the boundaries of normalcy further out!!!!!!

The Sweet Ones Always Die

Little Taipei. I saved her from an animal shelter a week after some sick bastard murdered Lai-Foo (Lucky Comes, in Chinese), my white wolf mix.
Turns out another sick bastard ran over her sometime this weekend. Dad wouldn't tell me exactly when. I know Dad blames himself because he let her loose to get some exercise, and she insisted on chasing some cars. Dad called her to come back, and she didn't listen. Dad later heard her barking, but didn't go to check on her. When she wasn't home the next morning, he went looking for her and found her.
I don't know why anyone would want to hurt an animal. Even the arrogant dogs and cats in Butte I slow down for, and make sure I don't hit.
Yet another reason I'm so insanely frustrated with the sheep-farming bastards in Utah.
Taipei was probably the smartest little dog I've had the pleasure to know. She was too smart, in fact, because sometimes she wouldn't perform commands when you asked her to. But she knew how to sit, to lie down, roll over, shake hands. Taipei would come (most of the time) to you when you called for her. She was a little ball of energy that loved to run. If I was home more often and ran a little better, she would have been the perfect running companion. She was always happy to see me, and always afraid of strangers. Taipei loved attention, and she loved to play. She had a sweet personality; I've never known her to dare bite a person, even in play.
Dad wants to get me another dog when my parents find another house and settle in, but I honestly don't know when I'll be settled enough to get a dog. I don't even know what kind of dog I'd like. Jack Russells are fairly smart, and make good running companions. And even something like an Australian Cattle Dog would be nice. Mutts are fine, too.