i'm not good luck after all

well, it's over. how sad...spying on baseball games will have to continue next season.

what now? the red wings! =D the leafs are playing them at the joe louis arena december 9. there are tickets for $22 and $27, but they seem to be sold out. darn.

josh groban's new album is available for preorder from walmart's music downloads website, but wouldn't you know it, my visa check card didn't work there. now i'm ordering from amazon, where i'll pay $3 more for two fewer tracks and it'll arrive two days after release date.

some good news: you can hear josh's london performance on bbc radio 2. just click "listen to the latest fnimn programme", fast forward about an hour and you'll be on cloud nine. the first song is admittedly a little shaky, but he's great after that!

in other news: i joined the church i attend here and officially became a member last sunday. i now hold dual membership with citadel and jaffray. i actually should've joined the previous sunday, but i was stubborn, and finally i think God said stop dilly-dallying. just obey. do you think God would say dilly-dally? anyhow, i had been resistant to the idea of membership at first b/c i'd only be here for a couple of years and didn't want to take membership lightly. but i felt like it was something i needed to do. and now i'm singing in a special choir they're having the week before thanksgiving! it also crossed my mind today for the very first time that i could stay in detroit longer than my 2 years of school. coming into the program i hadn't considered staying behind afterwards to do a clinical fellowship year (required for american certification), but now it's a possibility that i have to consider. lots to pray about.

i saw a tigers game (well, sort of)

tonight was game 1 of the 2006 world series: detroit tigers vs. st. louis cardinals. along with dozens of other people who could not afford actual tickets, i got to see the game from the top of a parking structure adjacent to comerica park! i went with an old friend who's also studying in the detroit area and we had a lot of fun. although our view of the field was partially obstructed by the humongous scoreboard, we could see most of the outfield and 1st and 2nd base. at first i sat on the ledge of the parking structure to get a better view, but i almost got kicked out for it so i came down and my friend found a garbage can for me to stand on. it was great. later on, i upgraded to an abandoned milk crate. the tigers lost tonight, but it's only the first game. there's hope yet. plus, i'm in the city and i'm good luck for the tigers. the last time they won the world series was 1984, the year of my birth. that's gotta count for something, right? =D

bed bug update

i think i really do have bed bugs. YUCK. i read the memo my friend received, and although the presence of bed bugs has nothing to do with cleanliness (my room happens to be quite clean), i made myself more vulnerable to them by placing my mattress directly on the floor. i erroneously thought: "i'm only going to be here a couple of years, i don't want to bother with buying/moving a bed frame."

so i notified the front desk today and they've sprayed something on and around my bed. but they're not going to do anything else unless i find that the problem persists. in other words, they'll call pest control if i continue to get bites. but i don't really feel like testing out the mattress...! who wants to sleep on a mattress that's potentially bug-infested?? i've been sleeping on a fold-out cot for the past few days that's happily bug free. i'd really rather not go back to the mattress until i know the bugs are gone...

my lucky day

today i was torn between volunteering for an event with WSSLHA (wayne state speech-language-hearing association) and helping to clean the church building that citadel of faith rents. citadel won out for a couple of reasons. first, i've been thinking about serving there and since i can't tithe or offer very much, i can at least give my time. second, i'll be volunteering with WSSLHA later this month anyway at a station along the multiple sclerosis marathon route.

after spot cleaning chairs and sweeping floors all morning, i came back to the apartment and in my mail i found a $10 coupon off any purchase over $50 at office max. this was perfect b/c i've been looking for a digital voice recorder so i can record clinical sessions and take speech/language samples. i was with my friend who gives me a ride to church when i got the coupon and she offered to take me to an office max. she's such a sweetheart.

mapquest led us to a closed down office max and we spent half an hour looking for another one, but we finally got there and i found a digital voice recorder with pc link for 69.99. BUT it was sold out and discontinued. the sales guy asked me if i wanted the display model. i asked him how much of a discount i would get. he said "normally we give 10%...but i'll take it down to $50". SWEET! will he still honour the coupon? YES!!! needless to say, i was very pleased. the sales guy was awesome, photocopying a manual for me, replacing the missing USB cable with a brand new one, putting in AAA batteries, etc. so i got a top of the line recorder for almost half the original price and the cherry on top was the excellent service. check it out:


then we went to meijer to pick up some groceries and we got free detroit tiger bandanas. woohoo! then i came home and watched them win the american league championship =D

help?

when i first woke up with a couple of itchy bites on my arms and feet, i washed all my sheets and sprayed the mattress with febreze. everything was great for about two weeks and then i got itchy again. this is so gross...*whimper*

have you ever had bed bugs? what do you do? apparently there was an outbreak in my building and a friend on the 10th floor got a memo about it, but not me! great...*scratch* well i don't know if i actually have real bed bugs. real bed bugs are big enough to see, according to wikipedia, but i haven't seen any scurrying about my mattress (thank heavens).

i've changed the sheets again and it's working for now, but something has to be done!

to help keep my mind off of creepy crawlies, i've been spending a lot of time on facebook. i joined recently and reconnecting with people from mac has brought high school rushing back to me. what a blast from the past.

fourth time's a charm

after 3 failed attempts and more than 1.5 hours of walking, i finally got my hair cut! googlemaps found 10 or so hair salons within a mile (not kilometre) of my zip (not postal) code, only ONE of which actually exists. my hair now goes to my shoulders and is one length--no more layers! i also have side bangs and i don't know what to do with them. the last time i had bangs i think i was in grade 3 (almost said "3rd grade") and they went straight across my forehead. now they keep falling in my face and i've had only mild success replicating the slight curl the stylist applied to angle them out of my eyes.

in case you haven't caught on, i'm trying to fight off the american english that's seeping into my system. i can't escape! it's everywhere!! i must confess i've been leaving out the u in words like "behaviour". but on an exam i wrote last week, i decided to leave it in and i now wonder if my professor noticed.