feeling chaotic and disconnected (translation: this post will be long and potentially disconnected like my mind)

So I realized I haven't posted in almost 2 weeks, but honestly this last week was one of the craziest of my life. Here's a quick recap to be followed immediately by short anecdotes and moving sagas.

• My last day of work was the 22nd
• The next day (Thursday) I went to the zoo with Rachelle, Ben, and Jon followed by a picnic in the park, and seeing "Hairspray"
• My birthday was awesome! (Thank you notes should be winging their way toward their intended recipients this week)
• I packed
• I moved
• I'm still unpacking and trying to make order of complete moving chaos

So after I finished work, I was able to take a couple of days and relax and hang out with friends and I started hardcore packing on Tuesday (mind that's only 2 days before I left--I cut it kind of short). The first order of update business: my birthday. My birthday was on a Sunday this year and normally I go on some kind of shopping trip for the occasion, so this year the shopping excursion happened on the preceding Friday. It was a little more low key than in previous years; I went to Bed, Bath, and Beyond and treated myself to a dock for my iPod, went to the Sketcher's store and bought the pair of shoes I've been coveting for months and months, and went to Forever 21, leaving that store with 3 new items of cute clothing. It was most successful!

My actual birthday day was pretty mellow and laid back. I slept in a little bit, had my signature Froot Loops for my birthday breakfast, and then the day got a little more interesting. Rachelle was asked by a lady in our stake to come and ask questions as an investigator to the Relief Society (which I thought overall the whole situation was weird), but it went over okay--better than I thought! Then I headed over to my friend Chris's house because it was his farewell and such so I stopped by to say bye and to chat for a while. We had my birthday dinner, cake, and just hung out for the rest of the day. I received many exciting presents, a few of which came from fellow bloggers! Thanks so much! I'll be sending out thank you cards this week. One of the funny things though was Grandma made the wrong cake; I always have yellow cake with white fluffy frosting but much to my surprise when Mom passed me my piece of cake it was chocolate! I love chocolate cake so it wasn't a big deal and I didn't say anything, but I did think it was funny. :)

I started packing only a few days before I left so it was a busy few days but I got most of it (after making my new bed last night, I realized I left my blanket at home--I expect a package to be coming soon with odds and ends I left behind). We drove out to Provo on Thursday and settled into the hotel and then headed over to my new apartment and boy was I in for a surprise. I honestly don't know what I was thinking six months ago. We really didn't look too closely on anything--this is probably the smallest room ever and the smallest apartment. Good grief. The only way to have the beds in the room is to have them bunked and the bunk beds that were there when I first brought in my stuff were completely dysfunctional. The lower bunk (the one I'm sleeping on) had only about 2 feet in between the mattress and the top bunk so it was like a cave and I would probably have gotten a concussion getting in and out everyday. Fortunately Mom, being the concerned parent, called the landlord and voiced her concerns, so last night they brought in a new bed so now I will no longer have to dwell in a cave. I wish I would have taken a picture because I don't know if I can convey the retardedness of this bed.

The past couple of days have been so busy and so chaotic I've almost lost my mind a few times. I've woken up early and then proceeded to run errands, unpack, try and figure out how to fit everything in the room, and start things off with the new roommates on a good note. I wasn't sure how things would pan out with the new roommates (Julie and Stacy, both juniors), but after a good dinner and conversation with them tonight, I don't think we'll have any major problems. I just want to get settled enough to start normal life. Katelyn and I still have a lot to do with the room, but we'll work on it tomorrow and hopefully it will be fully functional by the time classes start.

In regards to my work schedule, I only wanted to work 15 hours this week, because working 20 last year was just too hard, but Nan (my boss) said that she needed everyone to work 20. My thoughts after that were to keep this job until I could find another one that would let me work less. However when Nan started plugging in my hours according to when she needed me and my own school schedule, it ended up I'm only working 17, so that's a good hour compromise and I have Tuesdays and Thursdays completely off. We'll see how it goes when I actually start, but it's looking good and I definitely didn't want to look for a new job.

So today I found out I left my camera cord at home, so that should be back to me with my blanket hopefully later this week. Point being, I can't upload pictures right now, but I'll do that ASAP!

P.S.--An additional housesitting compensation update: when I got my check in the mail a couple days later, she gave me $150 instead of the $50 I asked for--score! With that extra (I called again just to make sure she didn't misunderstand), I feel like she wasn't offended or anything by my phone call--all is well!