Sometimes the hardest thing and the right thing are the same

I had a list of "Journal Policies" here for a while, but I realize I don't really want to be that formal with my journal. (I mean, I'm hardly that formal in real life, so why should I be that formal online??)

Most of my entries are f-locked, so if you're interested in real journal posts, comment so that I can add you back. If you're only interested in my random public ramblings, no comment necessary. Most of the public stuff are about my travels or just the aforementioned random ramblings.

And, of course, like everyone else, I love comments! It inspires me to write more and to write more frequently, so I always try to respond to all comments.

Thanks for visiting my journal, and I hope you are at least mildly entertained by the contents herein!

• 16:54 I found my sneakers! That is easily the best thing that's happened all week!!! #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

• 10:12 I got a verbal offer! #
• 15:49 Aaaaand the verbal offer is temporarily off the table. Damn HR. #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

• 12:56 Monique just called to see if I can interview tomorrow morning! OMG I'm scared! #
• 21:20 Twelve hours from now I will be done interviewing. I guess the good part is that I didn't have a ton of time to get myself all worked up! #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

• 10:26 The waiver to the hiring freeze was approved! I've been told to hurry up and make up my mind. Ack!! #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

• 11:42 I'm confused by the fact that a friend joining twitter has made me do more with twitter than I have in MONTHS #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

Someone at work just sent around a link to a free Myers-Briggs personality test online.  I think my results actually describe me very well!

I'm an ISTJ which means I'm an Inspector.  The synopsis below is from http://keirsey.com/default.aspx.

The one word that best describes Inspectors is superdependable. Whether at home or at work, Inspectors are extraordinarily persevering and dutiful, particularly when it comes to keeping an eye on the people and products they are responsible for. In their quiet way, Inspectors see to it that rules are followed, laws are respected, and standards are upheld.

Inspectors (as much as ten percent of the general population) are the true guardians of institutions. They are patient with their work and with the procedures within an institution, although not always with the unauthorized behavior of some people in that institution. Responsible to the core, Inspectors like it when people know their duties, follow the guidelines, and operate within the rules. For their part, Inspectors will see to it that goods are examined and schedules are kept, that resources will be up to standards and delivered when and where they are supposed to be. And they would prefer that everyone be this dependable. Inspectors can be hard-nosed about the need for following the rules in the workplace, and do not hesitate to report irregularities to the proper authorities. Because of this they are often misjudged as being hard-hearted, or as having ice in their veins, for people fail to see their good intentions and their vulnerability to criticism. Also, because Inspectors usually make their inspections without much flourish or fanfare, the dedication they bring to their work can go unnoticed and unappreciated.

While not as talkative as Supervisor Guardians [ESTJs], Inspectors are still highly sociable, and are likely to be involved in community service organizations, such as Sunday School, Little League, or Boy and Girl Scouting, that transmit traditional values to the young. Like all Guardians, Inspectors hold dear their family social ceremonies-weddings, birthdays, and anniversaries - although they tend to be shy if the occasion becomes too large or too public. Generally speaking, Inspectors are not comfortable with anything that gets too fancy. Their words tend to be plain and down-to-earth, not showy or high-flown; their clothes are often simple and conservative rather than of the latest fashion; and their home and work environments are usually neat, orderly, and traditional, rather than trendy or ostentatious. As for personal property, they usually choose standard items over models loaded with features, and they often try to find classics and antiques - Inspectors prefer the old-fashioned to the newfangled every time.

Queen Elizabeth II, Harry S. Truman, Warren Buffet, Queen Victoria, James K. Polk, and J.D. Rockefeller are examples of Inspector Guardians.

For real this time!

Today was a gorgeous day - about 65 degrees, bright and sunny, just a few clouds in the sky. Pat, Aimee, and I only went to one of three sessions at the conference today. This is one of those times when Aimee being lax about everything is really beneficial to me - instead of going to a class on communicating compliance, I went to Target. And instead of going to a class on some other thing that I don't even remember, I read outside by my pool and started to work on my tan a little bit. It was so relaxing!

This is the Palm Springs that I signed up for!!!!

 I got accepted into Graduate School!  Sweet!

I got a ticket in the mail for running a red light from one of those red-light traffic cams!  WTF man!?  $75 bucks!  Can I dispute that?!

Just so you know I'm not making up the awesomeness of this event, AOL recently ranked Terror Behind the Walls as the #1 Haunted House in the country!

If you're up in Philly in October and have a chance to go, don't hesitate, it's worth the lines and the wait and the cost.

Today is a sad day for malt beverage drinkers everywhere - MillerCoors has decided to discontinue its beverage Zima.

For those of you who have read about my road trip you will know instantly that I am being more sarcastic about the sad loss of Zima than I have been about anything else.  Zima might just be one of the most foul beverages that I have ever consumed.  I don't know who could possibly enjoy this stuff.  I mean, maybe if I was already completely bombed and feeling sick and I needed something to make me vomit to feel better, then I might enjoy Zima.

I applaud you, MillerCoors, for finally taking this disgrace of a beverage off your production line.

Yuck.

1) A sense of humor, honesty, ability to trust and be trusted, ability to be foul and un-PC without being awful.

2) Ability to make me feel comfortable sharing things about myself - it makes me know that they accept me for who I am.

I've finally posted all of the photos from my trip to Alaska with my mom.

Enjoy!

http://web.mac.com/midnightpicnic/Site/Alaska_May_2008/Alaska_May_2008.html

As promised, Alaska photos are posted. If you go back to each day's post I've added the entire album for each day to that post. So that's the unabridged version, and it has no photo titles or comments. If you want the abridged version, which will have information and photo titles, etc., you have to wait just a little bit longer, but I promise it's coming soon. The abridged and unabridged are also different in another way - the unabridged ones on each day are pictures that I took on my camera, and the ones in the abridged commented version are from mom's camera (mostly). So while we did take a lot of the same pictures, there will be some differences. I highly recommend taking a look at the full versions on every day to get the full effect of the trip.

I just cut violetambition's hair! Like chopped five inches off! It looks awesome and I'm way proud of myself!

Sunday was the last day of our trip and, despite our tiredness, we tried to make it count. We got up after a poor night of sleep due to the fact that we could hear everything in the surrounding areas (doors slamming, people running down the short hallway, outside noises, etc.) and went down to breakfast. Mom will tell you that that was the best meal she had on the entire trip, but then I think I enjoyed the food on the cruise much more than she did.

After breakfast we hopped on a bus down to Granville Island where we picked up the hop-on-hop-off bus around the city. Sadly this bus tour was less than we had hoped, and we did not time it well. The audio on the tour was a pre-recorded track and it was just dry and boring. We had hoped it would be like the Big Bus tour we took in London which was awesome, but alas... As for timing, it would have been better if we had done that when we first got to Vancouver.  It was informative enough that we could have planned our time in Vancouver better based on the sights we saw on the bus.  Either way we still got a good view of the city.

One of the stops on the bus tour was located in Stanley Park, where we got off at the Vancouver Aquarium.  The Aquarium was tiny compared to others that I've been to but it was still really neat.  After walking through the aquarium, we watched the dolphin show from windows underground, and then watched a beluga whale show (those suckers are *fat*!!), and then watched the otters playing and floating and swimming around.  One of the coolest things at this aquarium was the "big fish" tank (a large tank full of *large* fish, not just a large tank full of small fish).  Of course, now I don't remember the names of the fish, but a couple of the fish in there were easily 12-15 feet long and must have weighed 200 pounds!

After the aquarium, we hopped back on the bus and just toured the rest of the city.  Next time I go to Vancouver I'd spend some time in the Robson Street Shopping District, more time in Stanley Park proper, and probably some time on Granville Island.  But finishing up with the bus was a good way to wind down the trip.

We caught a bus back to the hotel, a taxi to the airport, and then chilled out at the airport for several hours before our flight from Vancouver to Vegas.  Once we got off the plane in Vegas I turned on my phone and had a message from my stepmom saying that she was going to be on our same flight from Vegas to Philadelphia!!  I had no idea that Vegas was such a huge middle point for flying across the continent!  Evidently she had been visiting my step sister in Portland for the weekend and was catching the same redeye back to the East Coast.  So we caught up with each other, shared some pictures from our respective vacations, and then the plane was there and we parted ways.  I just think it is so bizarre that I knew someone on both flights that went through Vegas on this trip!  What are the odds?!?!

Anyway, after an uneventful flight (thankfully), we got back to mom's house around 8:30 Monday morning, and I just turned right around and got in my car to come back to Maryland.  I was fine for most of the trip but was exhausted by the end.  Now all that remains is for me to get my butt in gear and organize the photos.  When all was said and done, I had 400+ photos on my camera and mom had 200+ so unless you want to see all of those (there are a LOT of repeats and a LOT of glaciers and mountains!) you'll have to wait until I get organized. :)

Thanks for sticking with us on our trip, I hope you enjoyed hearing about it as much as we enjoyed living it!

• 10:52 We won 86 dollars at bingo yesterday! Oh and hi from Vancouver! #
• 15:56 Visiting Van Dusen Botanical Gardens - it is absolutely gorgeous! #
• 15:59 I am so ready to be home! #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

We disembarked from the ship at around 10 am, make it safely through customs, and were at our hotel by 10:45. From there, we walked about 20 blocks (that’s right, walked) south to the Van Dusen Botanical Gardens. I had never been to a botanical gardens before, and this is supposed to be the best one (out of a few) in Vancouver. It really was quite beautiful. I know I’ve used that descriptor a lot, so maybe I need to invest in a thesaurus, but it really was beautiful. We saw rhododendron, lilacs, birch, goldenchain, flowering onions, magnolia, azaleas, monkey puzzle trees, and a non-blooming rose garden. I think the magnolia and azaleas were the most impressive. Some of these flowers were individually the size of my palm and in groups of ten or fifteen. I didn’t plan on taking pictures of the flowers (I mean, once you’ve seen a flower, you’ve seen a flower), but I took a ton of pictures.

There was a cute little restaurant at the Botanical Gardens (the name of which I don’t remember), that we ended up having lunch at, and mom wanted me to mention that it was the best meal she’s had on the entire trip. Mine was just okay… they put diced onions in the burger and I’m not a huge fan of onions, but it was satisfying anyway.

After the Botanical Gardens, we walked the 20 miles back to the hotel here we came upstairs and somehow fell asleep until someone from maintenance came up to fix our TV remote (which remains unfixed).

We spent the rest of the afternoon/evening in Gastown, one of the waterfront districts of Vancouver. We took the elevator up to the scenic, panoramic view at the top of the Harbor Tower, and then headed into “downtown” Gastown for dinner at The Spaghetti Factory. It was a really relaxing evening; just what I needed after a long few days.

Tomorrow we’re planning on taking a hop-on-hop-off bus around the city, and visiting the Vancouver Aquarium. I’ve heard good things about the aquarium, so I’m excited.

Both mom and I are really looking forward to going home tomorrow, I know I’m still way exhausted, and am just ready to be home again.

Friday was our last day on the boat, so we tried to take full advantage of that. I say that we tried, because I’m not sure we succeeded… we were really tired!

We started off the day losing one hour, we had traveled into a new time zone so we had to set our clocks forward an hour. So when I met mom for breakfast at the Lido Deck Buffet at 9:30, we quickly learned that it was 10:30 and we had already missed one of the activities we wanted to do that day.

After that little surprise, we went down to play the penultimate game of Bingo the ship offered. I won’t bore you with all the Bingo details, but I will tell you that we won one game! Sadly, someone else got bingo at the same time and we had to share the winnings with someone else, but we still won 86 bucks! I’ll spare you the details of afternoon Bingo also, since we didn’t win.

Aside from Bingo, we didn’t really do much until the team trivia challenge in the evening. We played with two older gentlemen, against four other random passengers, and somehow ended up winning in the overtime, tie-breaking question! What was our prize, you ask? Why, a beautiful, black, Princess Cruises document holder. That’s right. You can keep your jealousy at bay.