pointless update #826...

       so it's been a while. what have you all been up to? hopefully all's well. nothing really new or exciting going on here, hence my lack of posts. in fact, things have been pretty much exactly the same. yup.

       except i'm considering trashing my book. i haven't worked on it seriously since spring break. looked at it tonight and it was bad. almost painful. after two and a half years, the wishing well might not be. i'm not making a decision yet because external influences might be playing a part. but right now i'm just not feeling it.

       and i bought a wii. it makes me happy. i hardly play it, but it brings other people into my room and it's fun. i've never owned a gaming system before. i don't have many games for it yet, so it'll be better once i get a couple. guitar hero three comes out in october! and super smash bros. brawl in december. haha. and i'm getting zelda this week.

       the novelty of the candy factory has officially worn off. it's a job. parts of it i still like. but parts of it are kinda driving me crazy. for now the paycheck is keeping me where i am. it's nice to have a paycheck.

       i'm tired. i'm going to bed. let me know how everything's going. i'm bad about getting around to everyone, i know, and i'm sorry. and there aren't that many to "get around to." i usually just get on at bad times. erg. i love you guys. i'll be around eventually.

random hairiness...

       checking xanga and facebook has become part of my morning routine recently--a pretty dangerous addition, i think, when i could be sucked easily into an interesting post or become too curious about who said what to whom (facebook stalker style) and make myself late for work. i like to allow myself a lot of time in the mornings, though, so i have time to wake up. i don't like to be rushed.

       funny story. well, not so much funny (haha) as funny (rolling eyes). yesterday was hot and humid, see? extremely. heat index was around 110 or so. anyway, my hair is a bit wavy in places and almost kinda curly in others (not quite), but in that kind of heat it all goes poofy and i look like a mushroom head. so i haven't had a haircut since about april and it's getting kinda shaggy and i was going crazy yesterday, so last night i made the (stupid?) decision to cut it myself. yeah. this is where you can laugh. i did a little research online to figure out how it was done and combined that with my many observations of how risa has cut my hair, then said a big prayer and set to work. it took me over two hours, but i think i finally got it to look somewhat decent. there are a couple places that are a little uneven, but they're not obvious (and i'll probably fix it tonight), and i might have cut it a little close, but it's not that bad, i hope. we'll see today when i walk into work if people start laughing. 

       we're running the ganache today that we made yesterday. he didn't get the teas/flavorings i had hoped for, so it's not as good as i'd like but it's not bad either. i'm a little nervous about it all getting sucked into the enrobing machine and wasting hundreds of dollars worth of chocolate. we'll see what happens. have a good one, all. later.

too tired to think of a titillating title...

       i gave plasma today for what will hopefully be the second to last time. as a result i'm pretty drained, physically and emotionally, so i'll try to refrain from talking about all of the crazy/scary things going on in my head at the moment. hopefully that will spare me some dignity. i said some. i'm just ready to have friends around again. and i need a gym membership so i can find a little self-confidence again.

       i've mentioned that i've been developing a line of artisan chocolates. so yesterday we ran a test of one of my ganaches. i made a chai ganache, which was pretty much awesome. the test went well, but we still have to refine it some for making it on a large scale. when mike (the owner) tasted it, his eyes got big and he kept saying "this is really good." so today i gave him the report i'd been working on and now he wants us to start making as many as 15 flavors for the line. i gave him a list of flavors i've been working on already, but we still have a few spots to fill. he's going to be ordering what we need, including a couple food-grade airbrushes to paint the chocolates, which i was pretty surprised about but super-stoked. i had included that in the report, but i figured it wouldn't be a step we'd take for a while. but we're going all out. so after all of this, i hope it works! some of the flavors i've been working on include chai, earl grey tea, lavender honey, mayan chocolate, mocha, then of course the old favorites like mint, amaretto, raspberry, etc. i think we're going to start production sometime next week. i'm excited.

       there was something else that i was going to talk about, but now i can't remember what. oh, well. i need to get to bed. another big day tomorrow. later.

ransom notes keep falling out your mouth...

       everything's so strange now. while i love the job, i really hate the full-time thing. just don't have time for anything anymore. i feel like i'm beginning to get used to it, though, finding a sort of routine. it kinda scares me, though, that i'm missing something. i feel like i'm missing something. suddenly friendships, writing, church--in short all of those things that are most important to me--aren't priorities anymore. and my best friend is my co-worker, kris, who i've known for not quite two weeks (but is eerily very much like me). my life is that job. i don't much care for that thought.

       i'm not going to explain the title, but you'll probably be able to pick up on the source and extrapolate the situation. it is a good song. i'm just tired of excuses and run-around and hearing one thing and seeing another. i'm mostly referring to one situation, which i'm not going to explain but which i've mentioned before, but it's also generally applicable. for example, yesterday was supposed to be the final check-out for our duplex (she found a couple very minor things in the first check-out that she wanted fixed and which were fixed), but she didn't show up. i had taken a long lunch break to meet the lady, even called her fifteen minutes before to confirm, which she did, then she didn't show up. after waiting a half-hour i called her (left a message) and said that i had to get back to work and was leaving. she called when i was half-way back to work and asked if i was still there and could we get on with it. well, she's holding $800 ransom, so i had to be nice. i didn't want to be. but i didn't go back. she's going to "get back with me."

       it's been a while now since i've finished it--last sunday night, actually--but harry potter (as a series) is my new favorite book. surprised? haha. of course not. but it was amazing. and all you people who said that rowling was doing the devil's work can join him. last time i checked, the devil doesn't use scripture as the centerpiece of his work. and i've seen only good come of this. that right there is the greatest tell. kris asked me when i was going to read it again. i told her it'd be a while. but now it's in my mind and i want to read it again. haha.

       well, i need to get ready for work. to borrow from synthia, later on, lonely xanga journal.

the candy factory chronicles...

       day one: i love this job. i seriously love this job. the morning started with a brief explanation of the back rooms and how to determine what needs to be made and what to keep an eye on. then i met up with kris, the other confectioner, and she began to familiarize me with the equipment by jumping straight in. we started with the chocolate covered strawberries. these were a little scary. mine looked slightly mutated at first, but i kinda got the hang of it as i went along and they started to look like strawberries. then we did raspberries. mine were a little over-large, but a little extra chocolate can't hurt. i think i was more worried about my stuff than she was. the fruits were the most difficult because they kept rolling around and dripping everywhere. the chocolate covered grahams and oreas and pretzels were easy, but then we did katys, which are my favorite so far. wow, those things are amazing. they're like large turtles. i ate one with lunch and another later in the afternoon had a little drip, so we had to be picky, of course. then kris left me. haha. i was all by myself for about two hours on my first day. made about ten pouds of katys, though. haha. now i'm tired and my feet feel a little like mush, but i'm happy. i really think i'm going to love it here. oh, and they're already asking me to start developing the artisan chocolates.

       so i keep checking amazon.com to make sure everything's fine with my order. don't want anything to go wrong. haha. so excited.

       well, i'm going to go unwind some. later.