Sunday, December 28, 2014

Day 6: Homebound

After spending most of the night talking to Hyman and Young or as they like to be called Hymdiesel and Youngjeezy, I had to get up at 7:30 AM to prepare to spend about a week and a half home. I made a list of things that I will need coming back to the house, packed up my laptop, charging cords, and put all my laundry into the basket by the door. I got up extra early. I did not feel like I slept because of the noise the closed vent in my room made. It was like a white noise machine and canceled the outside which was great, but I did not feel like I slept at all. I showered and got changed. When I came out, Hyman was in the hall, he wanted to troll Young by shouting, "YEAH DADDY!" at 8AM to wake her up. So mean.

I went downstairs put the recycling out in the bin since my bottled water drinking habit just filled up the recycling bucket we have in the kitchen. I drank my Suja green juice and ate my fruit in the kitchen. Apparently Hyman thought I already left, so when he was getting ready to leave, he was scared by the sight of me in the kitchen. This I found utterly hilarious since he has been scaring me all week when he comes out of the darkness. Young has scared me once in my week at the house and Hyman has scared me at least 3 times. He scares me to a point where I scream and fall to my bottom. Clearly, I have no survival skills.

I left the house with my Suja juice in my tote (it was not very delicious but I powered through since I needed the veggies and fruit). I got to the house about 10 minutes before 9AM and A's mom talked to me about the routine, snacks, and what time they would be back. They left the house around 9:30 AM and would be back around 1PM. A is two years old and really cute. She loved playing with legos, watching Disney Junior, and PBS kids on her iPad. Around 11AM, a pest control worker showed up at the house, I did not know what to do, so I called the dad, who didn't answer. Luckily Mom answered, but she had no idea what was happening. So, yeah that was the first time that has ever happened to me. But hanging out with A was a lot of fun, she was really easy going.

I left around 1PM to go home and eat my dad's homecooking since I was utterly starving. I got home by 1:50PM and no one was home but our cleaning lady, Ana. So I called up my cousin, Jonathan that I was supposed to met at 3PM to come over early since no one was home to greet me. I went over there to make these awesome shirts for our family's annual Christmas gift exchange. Jonathan and I went to Michael's and McDonalds to get supplies for the shirt. Well, the McDonalds was because we were starving. We ate at watched Christmas Carol with Jim Carey, and I fell asleep for about an hour and a half.

We started working on the shirt. It was going to say "Merry Christmas" with a picture from last year's get together. Too bad that Jonathan's printer ran out of ink. So we had to go to Target to get some printer ink; we ran into more family members at Target getting last minute gifts for each other. It was cool. Jon and I returned to his house to make three iron on shirts for him, my brother and myself. They were ironed onto bright neon green shirts.

 Jonathan with the shirt we made
2013's Family photo (I am not in it)

My favorite part of wearing these shirts besides the fact that they are bright green was that I'm not in the picture. I think Jon wants to continue this tradition of making shirts, but wants to make them for everyone next year. 

2014 Family Picture with the shirts

For dinner, I went home with my family to have Five Guys since my mom has never had it before. Sigh, it is just so good. 

I am not sure if you guys want to read about my week at home, so I might just do one big post about it since it isn't that exciting. 

Saturday, December 27, 2014

Day 5: Why Do Chipotle Patrons Touch My Hair?

I woke up around 9 and stayed in my room until about 10AM because I thought Hyman's lady friend Sarah was still in the house. I was actually a little excited for her to be around since I was going to have company throughout the day and I wanted to get to know her better. I heard that she was really shy and because I am clearly not I thought I would be able to break her of her shell and be friends. Sadly, she left around 11:30PM- 12AM the night before, I had just not heard because I was sleeping like a bear apparently.

After wondering the house for her shoes and pizza remains and coming up short, I started to cook some breakfast. I was going to make oatmeal, eggs, and bacon; but I thought I used way to much of the shared eggs. I think within the week I used 4-6 and there had been 10 before I started using them. I didn't feel right using them since I haven't contributed much to the community food which is eggs, bread, and now milk. I added the milk, but that was about it. Instead of a complex breakfast, I made udon out of laziness and curiosity, I wanted to see the taste difference if I cooked it purely on the stove top and now in the pre-packaged bowl. I liked it better stovetop way. As I was watching the Simpsons and eating, I received an email about my appointment to be fingerprinted by the Howard County Parks & Recreation Department which supports Brickz for Kids. The confirmed the appointment and provided me the address of where I need to go. I rushed to clean my pot and bowl, and rushed to shower. I didn't have time for make up or bowl drying my hair since it was 10:50 AM and the location was 20 minutes away.

The fingerprinting process took about 20 minutes, LaShae was really nice to me and we talked during the whole process. She told me that the results would be sent within the next couple of weeks.

After I had time to kill since it was only about 12PM, so I thought going to Bed, Bath & Beyond to look for oatmeal containers would be a good idea. The BB&B closest to my house in Severn is the one attached to Arundel Mills Mall. Wow, was it packed on Friday at noon. I could barely find parking, and the mall was so crowded. I ended up getting a container, scooper, and a candle for the kitchen. Sadly, the container does not even fit all the oatmeal that I have.

I started to wonder around the mall since I wanted to go to the Disney store. I haven't been in one for about 2 years, I didn't know which direction it was in so I thought it would be good exercise to walk around the whole circle that is Arundel Mills. I got suckered into talking to the Dead Sea Deja Vu II kiosk people. The guy was really nice, I don't remember where he is from but I know it is French and English speaking country. The company sent him to Arundel since he has been doing so well within the company. He has "expertise in skin care and health." He was a nice guy, I love/ hate the scrub products since they make me feel disgustingly dirty when my dead skin comes off. He told me to never use make up, I replied that I had to or I would look like a child. I am awful at these high pressure sales situations. I am terrible at saying no since I don't want to hurt people's feelings, and I am so easily conned. I am definitely the person calling into QVC or infomercials to get the newest and most innovative product. This sales associate was practically giving the product away to me since the price went from $200 per product to $100 for 4 products he used on me. I kept telling him that I could not since I could barely afford groceries and I did not have a paying job. He finally let me walk away when I promised to come back after I get a paying job and asked for his business card.

After that 20 minute encounter, I avoided all kiosks and almost all human interaction after that. The longer I stayed in the mall the more I realized I had no money to purchase any of the things that I wanted. But I wanted to circle back to my BB&B entrance. I was in the mall for about 2 hours, I didn't have to be back to the area for another 3 and couldn't stand being in the mall area, so I went home.

When I got home Young was already home from work, I was ecstatic for company. I said, "Young?" I didn't realize that she was trying to nap, but asked her if she wanted to watch Ultimate Spiderman. She did! We talked and snacked on Honeynut Chex and Cheez Its for about an hour and a half. I started to get sleep and offered for us to take naps and watch again after I get back from my dinner plans. She seemed down for it and sleepy too.

I took about an hour nap before my cousin called me to make plans for me to come over on Saturday around 3PM after I babysit and go home for Christmas week. I looked at the time it was around 4:30 and meet time was 5PM. It only takes about 8 minutes to get there so I took my time getting out of the door. I was meeting my college roommate of three years, Kathleen to catch up since I hadn't seen her since August/ September time. She was stuck in traffic so I didn't mind waiting. When we are together we reminisce, tell jokes, and talk for hours; this is the second time we have stayed at a restaurant until close. She is also currently living in a similar situation: in house with two other roommates (her's are just both female), the house owner is passive aggressive, and she gets along with both of them. We are paying around the same amount too. Somewhere in the middle of the dinner rush and our conversation, someone in line started to lean on the booth I was sitting on and leaning on my head. From their extra weight my head started to go forward, I started busting out laughing and Kathleen made jokes about how he wants to touch my hair. I wish I could say this is the first time someone has done this to me at this exactly Chipotle, but I cannot. Apparently people love my hair here and want to touch it.

I had been craving fruit and veggies since I moved in, so I went to Safeway to pick up a fruit cup, Suja juice, Chewy bars, and two boxes of Honey Nut Chex since Young and Hyman seemed to like ti so much. It is pretty sweet that 1. I found the Safeway (not Shoppers) and 2. that it is open 24 hours.

I got back to the house around 11PM, Young scared the crap out of me, and then we went upstairs to bother Hyman. Hyman was napping off his food coma and drinks from his holiday party and I was telling them about the man who was touching my hair at Chipotle. We migrated to the kitchen island and started talking (mostly me) about engagement rings, my college roommate's living situation, hemorrhoids, and dating situations. Hyman was making notes of everything I would hate in a man so he could "troll." He wants to tell the potential suitor that I really love everything I hate like a naked guy in only socks. Just why? But this conversation lead to me admitting to him how I was scared the night before of possibly hearing him and his lady friend having sex and how I didn't know how to react to the situation. But since he is going to troll me, I thought him I am going to get those New Year's popper and make a since like "YOU GOT IT IN!" and high five him and then girl the next morning. He did not like the idea. We stayed up until about 2AM talking but Hyman had to work the next day and I had to babysit at 9AM, so we went to bed.

What are some good troll/ prank ideas for housemates? I need ideas!

Friday, December 26, 2014

Day 4: All I Hear Are Ghosts


The day started off with me making my bed and having plans to cook about a pound of maple bacon and cleaning the kitchen. I remember my mom talking to me the night before about how she feels it is unfair how much I clean here at my new place compared to cleaning at home. I completely understand why she feels this way, but if I don't clean here no one will. If I don't clean at home, our cleaning lady or my parents will; yes this is a spoiled point of view but this is how I am thinking.

I completely made a mess of the kitchen when I cooked my bacon. I was trying to figure out how to place the bacon fat into another place to go into the trash, but I stupidly used a styrofoam bowl, which I thought would hold up for some reason. The bottom of the bowl was melted through. So, there was fat and grease everywhere in the kitchen. It took me about a half an hour to cook and clean up the bacon but about an hour to clean the kitchen. I honestly don't mind cleaning. I feel like I am rearranging things in the kitchen and I am worry that they will not like it. The house smell like straight syrup for the rest of the day, I used the exhaust and everything. I definitely need to get a candle for the kitchen or open a window when I am making that bacon.

Both Young and Hyman are so nice to me, I am scared they won't be honest with me to spare my feelings. I hope they will be honest about how I am trying to insert myself into their house and their lives right now.

After cleaning the kitchen, I heard these voices coming from the basement where Young's room is. I thought it was a neighbor's TV being really loud, but as I was sweeping downstairs, the voices were louder. My initial reaction: Ghosts are in the house. So, I snapped myself being scared to Young. She later explained to me that her laptop might have turned on when she accidentally touched the screen. These are the thoughts in my mind: ghosts. I am not atypical thinking person. I also thought this is later in the night when I was changing to go to bed, and I could hear muffled voices. My first reaction was: GHOSTS! But when I really thought about it, it was Hyman talking on the phone I guess.

I vacuumed my room, which really helped since I will like my hair is everywhere. I feel like my room is a lot cleaner. I really need lately.

Then I did some yoga for beginners. I forgot how serious yoga is, it is all about breathing, but wow right now a day later. I am sore. Super sore. I will keep doing yoga once a day. But I wish Fitbit would track yoga better, it said that I was not active yesterday even though I did yoga for 40 minutes and walked up 18 flights of stairs.

I was offered an interview to babysit for a family in Severn. I searched the address it was 2 minutes away, which was amazing. I was really excited and hoped that I was start building up families around here. I met them after I trained for Brickz For Kids, which I feel more confident about after training with Judy. She had more control over the children and it was a larger group than the day before. She seemed really sweet and loved the fact that I had a lot of questions about the program. She is 19 years old and was about to call herself old until I mentioned how I was 25. She just found out that she is pregnant and seems really excited about having her baby. It was awesome talking her and seeing how long she has been with the program.

The family was really nice and wanted me to start on Saturday. This makes me sad since I wanted to come home home to Germantown home on Friday night to eat my dad's food. Money will always win out in my mind since I am poor. So, I will be going home a day later than I thought. This makes me really sad, but I have to go what I have to do.

Thursday, December 25, 2014

Day 3: Eating Like a Poor College Student


I woke up and started to clean my bathroom since... well I blew it up. It was disgusting. But I gave it a good scrub and deep cleaning, under the toilet rim and in my shower. It was super satisfying to shower in my bathroom. I felt clean and the place felt super clean.

After cleaning it was breakfast time, so I cooked my ground turkey and made myself a oatmeal pasta bowl. It was great, but looked like a mushed mess.

I came up to my room to blog, put my face on, and get ready for my training. I went to an Elementary school as part of my new position as a Teacher for Brickz for Kids. I am really excited about the job. I just did not feel that confident about myself and the position. The person I trained with did not seem to like our boss and did not have control of the children. I was worried that it would all be like that, and I do not do well with chaos.

I went there from about 2:45 util 5:00PM, I was so hungry when I got home that I sat and watched CSI:NY as a crushed a half bag of carrots, greek yogurt, and cottage cheese.

I came up to my room and hung out solo for a while until my housemates came home around 6-7PM. We all had dinner together. They had their leftovers and I had a bowl of honeynut chex with almond milk. Hyman made a comment about my cereal and offered me some of his food, it made me feel like I was so poor. Haha. But I know it was out of a good place, but it kicked me into a new place that I should be eating better. I am eating like I am a poor person. I don't really eat any veggies with my meals. I am eating them as a snack. That is not how my meals should be going.

I guess for me it is conflicting since I will only be here for a week. I want to make the most of my food so I am trying to make sure that I don't get anything that will spoil or that I can finish in a week.


My idea is to start planning for a week, making sure that I plan all my meal and all the ingredients for the week. This is my first step to becoming an independent adult: planning and buying my groceries for the week.


What are some recipes or weekly planning tips anyone can give me? It would really help me out a lot. I was looking into Rachael Ray's 3 meals in a day recipes. But I am just worried about starving. 

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Day 2: Getting My Frak Together

Yesterday was a day full of... confusion and a mess.

I woke up from very little sleep due to a tow truck honking and honking at people. I went to bed at 2AM and woke up at 8AM. I think that it is going to take me some time to get used to the noises in the neighborhood. I might have to get ear plugs because last night was awful too, getting very little to no sleep.

I started off my day realizing that I have little to no food, and no food that would work well together. So, I had to eat instant noodles.

I spent couple hours looking online and playing around until about 11AM. I went in search of my furniture that I ordered online. I got a 4 cube organizer and a desk. They were super heavy, since I was already there I got moisturizer, batteries, body wash, and night cream. I really needed to get toilet bowl cleaner, and bathroom cleaning supplies, which I totally forgot about. I hate going to Walmart since it is always super crowded and full of WT's. So, I wish there was a Target closer to me.

After Walmart, I went to Shoppers down the shopping plaza, I thought my roommates shopped there all the time. So I thought it would be a great place for me to get some food. It was not... there was little to no food that I wanted, it lacked variety. But I managed to get some essentials: almond milk, cheese, pasta sauce, cherry tomatoes, carrots, yogurt dip, cottage cheese, cereal, pizza rolls, and greek yogurt.

I came home put the groceries away, and start to build my 4 cube organizer shelf. It took me about 20 minutes to get the parts out of the box, only to see that there was no instructions. So I had to call Walmart Customer Service for them to email the a PDF of the instructions. I put it together... kind of... there was two screws that would just not fit in the holes, they were a little off so I decided not to put them in..

I waited for my housemates to come home. I had a little snack of carrots with yogurt dip and some pizza rolls, while enjoying season 4 of CSI: NY. Young didn't come home until about 5, when she came up to my room to see how I was doing. So I asked her if she wanted to hang out by going to Target. She was down, so we spent about an hour touring Target. The trip helped establish my infinite love for Target, and how it was definitely worth the trip.

I got my cleaning supplies, Cheez Its, Velveeta Shells & Cheese, and Telestrations for my housemates. Young (my female housemate) got a bird, some organizer baskets, and a candle. We came home to enjoy some dinner. She had a nice dinner, while I was too lazy to cook so I had Velveeta Shells & Cheese with pizza rolls.

After dinner, we loaded up the Netflix to watch Marvel's The Avengers, which Young has never seen. Before we started the movie, Hyman came home to show off his "ugly" sweater which was pretty nice and eat dinner as we watched the movie. Young was really into the movie which was hilarious. The movie is pretty amazing anyways, and hilarious. Here are it's funniest moments via Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXdYlKu3qZ0 

It was our first house bonding activity with me now that I moved in and it seemed to go well. I think they might not be ready how much time I suck up, and how needy I am.

But I ended the night with some Adventure time, bed time routine and facetime with my mom. I hit the hay around 11-11:30PM, and it didn't feel like it was enough.

Day 2 was wayyy better than my first day, way less embarrassing. What will day 3 have for me?

Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Day 1: Moving In and Making My Mark

Yesterday was my first day on my own after moving out of my parent's house to a room in my friend's townhouse. I am renting a room from his house, while I am in graduate school.

This is the first time I have moved out of my parent's house and not into a dorm.

Already it has been an experience of firsts, at the age of 25, I feel as though there should be less of these... But I had a coupe of minor ones and a couple of disgusting big ones.

My dad was unable to help me move to my new room yesterday, which was the first time my dad was not around to help me move. That broke my heart a little, but I understand that his work is important. I had to set up a bed frame a couple of times because I just did not understand how to do it. Every time I thought, "I got this!" I didn't have it. It was too small. I had to adjust it 3 times.

Saying goodbye to my brother and my mom was sad, I almost cried. I am making it seem as though I am moving states away. (Please know I moved 40 minutes away from my house.) I am just super dependent on my parents and my brother.

After coming home from dinner, I was having tummy problems, and I blew up my bathroom... I clogged the toilet my FIRST day. Sigh... I spent about 30 minutes or more trying to plunge a toilet for the first time. It got to a point where my new roommate offered to help and demanded that he come in and help me. No amount of embarrassment in my life can ever top this. None. At. All. I wanted to die, but luckily he was really nice about it. Am I going to avoid him today? You bet I am.

First day in new place with people I have never lived with went... awful in my mind. But the plus side to this whole situation is that I now know how to use a plunger correctly.

I don't think they will want to keep me around for another week. Anyone want to take me in? I promise not to kill the toilet. Just kidding. Hopefully...

I can't wait for day two...

Monday, December 22, 2014

Say Goodbye to Princess Life

I wanted to chronicle my life living away from my parents and on my own. This is the first time I am living outside of my parents and not in a form room. To me, this is one o the biggest steps that I have ever taken. I rely heavily on my parents and brother for everything because I am needy and a princess at home. Most people become independent when they are 18 or right after they graduate college. I am 25 and I moved to be closer to school. So here is a little about me, and how I am going to start being more an adult and less of a princess.


After I graduated from college, I moved back home to start working full time. I was an overnight mental health specialist at a behavior facility for young adults between the ages of 9 to 17 years old. I worked Tuesday to Saturday from 11 PM to 7:30 AM. I hated this job. The hours were awful, I never saw the sun, and I never had any weekends. This job also did not have holidays off for overnight staff so I rang in the new year there. That was a low point. Another was getting bed bug bites from a unit I was watching one night, the fire and pain I felt was unbearable. I started looking for jobs, any job to get out of there. I could not stand being there anymore nor could I stand the depression I was feeling. This was from missing out on holidays, vacations, and hang outs with friends and family. 

I got two more full time jobs after this awful job, they were great for me: 15 minutes from my house, day hours, and within my range of experience. My coworkers for the most part have been great to work with and fun. They were all around my age. I started to realize that I wanted to work with a younger population and went to work for a preschool within my company. This ignited a desire to be a teacher to enrich the lives of young children. I wanted to work as a public school teacher, I started to research how I can go about that without going back to undergraduate school for another 4 years. I found a couple of graduate programs which allow you to gain a teaching license within 2 years. I started to apply to these programs. 

I got into the MAT: ECE Program at UMBC to start in Spring 2015. I am really excited about this program and making new friends. To be closer to school, I moved to Severn into a friend's house. They are working full time in jobs close to the house. This will be my chronicle of living with them. The house owner is Hyman, he is about 28. He reminds me of Frank Grimes from the Simpsons. Same eyebrows and everything. He has retired from the Army, loves being independent, and trolls almost everyone. He does seems to enjoy our housemate time together and does not like missing out on jokes. My other housemate is Young, she is one of my sorority sisters. She love anime, comics (Marvel mostly, Spiderman, especially), and fashion. She does cook in the house so the kitchen will start being her domain and mine soon. 

I wanted for you all, the readers, to learn a little more about me and how I am becoming independent.