OMG!!! Let me just tell you how annoying hotels can be!! So there are three/four of us in one hotel room, as is very normal for AMUN gettogethers. We were issued four keys, which we kept in our possession and never claimed lost or anything. So we got back from our meeting this afternoon only to find out that not only did our keys not work, none of the keys from our group worked. The hotel apparently randomly changes the security codes on the doors for customer protection. Okay, this makes it very very annoying to have to change keys around, especially if in our case, only two of the four of us were present to test our keys and replace them. But the most idiotic part of it was that the hotel didn’t even ask us for our names. They gave us new keys to our room without even verifying that we were residents in the room. Literally, i walked up to the desk and said (now four times today) “I need a key to room 222.” And all four times they gave me a key without question!!!! Dude, at one point I had to leave my laptop in here or risk one of the drivers in our group to potentially drive away to ohio or wisconsin with it. What is the point of changing security codes randomly for customer protection if they don’t care who they hand out the new keys to? Anyways, this kind of moronic behavior should be voiced. And what consierge doesn’t know the approximate price for a taxi to the airport or how long it takes for one to arrive? Isn’t that what they are there to know?… oh yeah all of this is going in my debrief you AMUN folks!! ggeeesssshhh!

On better notes, official MD meetings are over, but in AMUN togetherness, we had a blast with our kickball tournament and the barbeque at the L’s. We got a lot of work done, and we’ve got a lot of work ahead of me, but it’s going to be really awesome in HG this year if I can really buckle down and get my portal up and functional again. For those of you who don’t know the acronyms AMUN, HG, and portal, its my non-profit I work for, my department (Home Government) and a webportal… but then thats probably getting a little past what you may or may not want to know about…

More later!

contemplating moronic behaviors

For those of you who may have met me during travels, or those with whom I volunteer with, ya’lls know that I get rather violently air sick on flights… on my weeklong trip to chicago in november, I actually take the train from baltimore to chicago, which is about an eighteen to twenty hour train ride. Usually for memorial day and labor day, i simply drive the eleven hours to chicago (or in this case i would have driven to champaign if I could have gotten off of work) to avoid an airplane. My motion sickness also extends to cars if I’m not physically driving them, so when i go on trips, i usually drive the entire way. Anyways, I survived not one, but two flights in very small planes yesterday evening. The first from Baltimore to Chicago went moderately well; the central part of the trip was at least smooth and I even opened up my eyes to look outside! The site was rather breathtaking… I could see the large cumulus clouds below, and wisps of transparent clouds just swept by under the plane… The wisps were moving at a good speed too, so it was interesting to watch them. They looked more like tiny bits of fog rather than actual clouds, but then again, that is what fog is. Off in the distance I saw this huge rocklike mountain of a cloud which looked more like a spaceship or flying machine from an anime rather than an actual cloud. And as we landed, we watched the glowing red sun set over Chicago. The second trip from chicago to champaign wasn’t that great. Fortunately I ran into another AMUN staffer in Chicago and we flew together… she got to see first hand that I actually do turn green on an airplane. But I didn’t regurgitate anything in two flights!! That is a definate good step. Alas, there will be more updates as I attempt to renew my interest for blogging…
Read on People!! Read On!

AMUN happehness

How many of you know out there that Memorial Day was created in the aftermath of the US Civil War? Or that Memorial Day was created to memorialize all those who died in the internal conflict, to re-unify the country in the late 1860s and 1870s? My coworkers often call me the living encyclopedia at work, maybe because I take five minutes and research something that might be of interest to people. In fact, according to some of the sites I’ve visited, there is a big movement to reinstill the importance of Memorial Day rather than a holiday for the beginning of summer.
Rather than a massive copy-paste mess, I’ve simply included some decent links that will help you to remember the holiday as it was supposed to be.

• US Memorial Day.org
• History Channel Minisite: Memorial Day

So on Monday, celebrate those who have fought for us, and remember those who died in that struggle. You don’t have to support a war in order to support the troops and honor the fallen. If you see a military veteran or active serviceman, thank him or her.

Do you dare IM Me?::


somber and respectful

What I am going deaf listening to::
Keep Holding On ~ Avril Lavigne

I am finally, after over a year and a half of waiting, samantilles on LiveJournal. For those of you who may not know, I had my blog hacked into from a then fourteen year old girl who attempted to commit identity theft against me, and when caught in the act, acted viciously to destroy my blog, robbing me of my precious username which I had had on LJ for over five years. Not only did she delete my blog there and move it to an undisclosed name (for which she tried to steal my permanent status on LJ) but she deleted my entire friends list, many of whom I had only known on LJ, and have since sadly lost touch with. I started this blog as a replacement for my lost samantilles account, feeling hopelessly lost without my username… afterall, in the internet world, a rose by any other name is exactly something else entirely. At least for me a username is a key part of one’s identity, and I’ve had the username samantilles since I was fourteen (yeah, thats twelve years going by the same username, cuz i’m just that darned cool like that!) I’ve been rather upset for the past year and a half waiting for the username to be properly purged by LJ management to reassume the name, knowing all along the day I don’t check it is the day someone else might have the chance to snatch it up… but alas it is mine once more!!!! Oh happy day!!!

Oh, and by the way, congratulations George Lucas on Star Wars!! Thirty years ago today, Star Wars was released into the theatres, May 25, 1977. I have been a fan since 1992. Thank You George!!

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Relieved, estatic, joyous, and just plain ole happy to be samantilles once more *g*

It may not seem like it, but I am still here… The only way I make it through the days these days is to make detailed to do lists, and unfortunately, “Updating blog” has not been on that list… I’m in the middle of major reorganization to my entire life, from career to my house, so its been a bit emotional, and very very busy. There is always something more to do, and never enough time… Today I spent about seven hours working out an organization system for books that i have to put in the attic for now *sniffweep* I’m estatic i’m getting organized, i’m sad that i have to put them somewhere that I don’t have immediate access to… *pout*

So, anyways, this week’s todo schedule includes updating blogs on a few of these topics:

• My new living space (including pictures!!)
• new job search (yeah, no really good news there folks)
• Ralph Lauren
• Complaints on my self censorship
• Hopefully a “Learn something new” post, and maybe a new vocabulary word or two
• My classes!!!

Some things I will not be talking about:

• How my job is going currently
• Going out with my coworkers
• family relations

Lets just say that my self-censorship leaves me on the prudent side, given that I may say something which I feel at the time and may wish later that I hadn’t been so public with my thoughts. For those of you registered peeps, I might have an extra post in there about that.

Anyways, I WILL update… I WILL update… I WILL update (if I keep telling myself that, I might actually do it.

Do you dare IM Me?::


Drained from overworking

What I am going deaf listening to::
Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You ~ Bobby Darin