It's the 23rd of December and how fast December seems to have gone by. All the while I'm not sure if I should be more excited about Christmas Eve or Christmas Day itself ^_^. Christmas Eve is pay day and both myself and Katherine have been counting out the money that we've saved and it's really really motivating to find out that we're well on our way to reaching our goal. Just the thought of that from the moment Katherine called me up to tell me- has been stuck in my mind and is enough to get me terribly excited.

Christmas shopping this year has been pretty tight and we had such a time looking for "Ugg Boots" for my sister. Now the fatal mistake of asking a fifteen year old girl what she'd like for Christmas is once she comes up with something she's pretty set on the idea, this meant that unless I was ready to accept disappointment I had to find her these boots. Had I went shopping on my own around the Loop mall I would have had no idea where to look... luckily for me, Katherine was with me and she lead the expedition to find these boots in all the shoe shops.

I think we went to seven different stores until eventually I sat down on the floor in one of the shoe shops and told Katherine "I can't do this anymore".... just when I was ready to give up she gave me that one final push and we found the perfect "uggs". Hopefully my sister doesn't go about reading this otherwise it'll kind of ruin the surprise but that was the highlight of this years shopping fiasco.

Last night after Katherine and Audrey got off work I joined up with them and we decided to go have some dinner before walking around Sea World to look at the Penguins and meeting James for coffee. Seeing as we had about five hours to kill we decided to go eat at TGI Friday's because it was close enough to Sea World and gave us plenty of time to be at The Loop (a shopping centre) by 10pm. 

Now every time we go to TGI Friday's we always have some sort of weird experience- last time it was the creepy guy who would keep saying "No" to everything we ordered followed by insane laughter. This time there was a guy taking photos of everyone at the table (see the photo I took of his photo on the below) and just after he took our photo he looked at me and said

Photo taking guy: You live locally here right? I've seen you somewhere

Immediately I awkwardly replied with a very awkward "Yes" to his question of whether or not I live locally- he then let us be and then we ate our dinner.

When he came back to show us the photo he blurted out

Photo taking guy: You work at the Geek Squad right? in Davenport?

David: Yes... how do you know that?

Photo taking guy: Oh that's my local Best Buy and I bought Bioshock from you on Black Friday

As pretty exciting as it was to be recognised by some random man miles away from anywhere I work I began to remember that Black Friday was a month ago and I rung him up for a game and commented "Wow, I really love this game and $5 too... that's a good deal!" How on earth does he remember me is beyond me... but it was a month ago!!

This post was originally written and conceived on Saturday December 19th at 3:15pm

Here I am at the Dodge car dealership waiting and watching the guys work on my Dad's truck. They've got KT Tunstall playing in the background and my dad promised WiFi... there is no WiFi :( so you'll have to forgive me as I write a rough draft of this and by the time I get home I'll be able to upload this post to my blog. Car Dealerships seem to be a very sterile place and the lounge where I am sat is smack bang in the middle of the showroom. There's a giant Christmas tree and I look pretty off sat in the middle with my laptop whipped out. (At this point the Television on the wall was playing ads for GMC... I'm sure that's bad product placement. Sort of like putting an ad for Target on the TVs in Best Buy)

Every time I've been in a dealership I'm reminded of the Seinfeld episode of the same name. One of my favourite episodes, Jerry is out to buy a brand new car from David Puddy (who just got a job at as a car salesman and is no longer a grease monkey- "I don't care much for that term") and George is stuck in the waiting lounge trying to buy food out of the vending machine. His Twix (and there are none here!) doesn't quite "vend" all the way out and the mechanic comes along next eats his Twix. Rest assured this is followed by hijinks as George tries to get the mechanic to reimburse him his Twix money. Kramer in the meanwhile is off test driving one of the cars and seeing how far he can get without having to change gas.

Anyway, to my point- this is nothing like that! My only true vision of car dealerships in America is entirely based around that single episode of Seinfeld and I'm sort of disappointed there's none of it around. No vending machines, no coffee pots or anything of that nature! Instead there's fancy art on the wall, a child's play centre tucked away in the very corner and lots and lots of posters of how dangerous it can truly be if your vehicle hasn't been serviced. I'm not even sure how long an oil change takes and last time I dropped the other car off here they did not call me or tell me that it was done... the whole situation is terribly awkward for me. I'll give it another ten minutes then I'll go check and see how progress is going. (Edit at 3:40pm: They've only just pulled it into the garage and it's on it's stilt things)

On my way here I stopped by JC Pennys and Zales to see Katherine and Audrey. With six days left til' Christmas I can tell you that the shopping malls are incredibly busy and driving through those car parks are crazy. Luckily I didn't hit anyone! Success! My plan to sneak up on Katherine however, was not as successful. It was pretty flawed from the start as she saw me coming in the distance... ^_^ After a hug and a little chat whilst I tried to look like a customer she gave me her schedule and there's a lot of 1am shifts! Now this does mean she gets a lovely sleep in during the mornings and I know she loves her sleep ins but I know what it's like to work until late at night (or early in the morning in this case) and it's pretty dull. Luckily we both have Monday off so I better get planning on what we're going to do for our anniversary. Any thoughts anyone?

So here I am on my day off, it's 11am in the morning and I'm watching Star Wars Episode IV whilst working on some Java and sparing a little moment to do some blogging. To sum it up... this morning has been very geeky! Truth is- Star Wars isn't even on tv right now, I was watching Mickey Blue Eyes which has always been a hilarious favourite of mine but I find myself watching it whenever it's on (and movie channels over here play the same movies over and over again). About ten minutes in I decided that I wanted to watch Star Wars- a concious decision that meant I had to get up, walk downstairs, walk back upstairs to the cinema room, sort out all of my DVDs until eventually I found it and then return to my room to put it on. All of the while I could have continued to be nice and warm under my duvet working away.

(Picture is unrelated - but was found to be topic of a particular conversation ^_^)

At 12.30pm I've got to take the truck to the Dodge service centre in Kissimmee to have the oil changed. I'm also going to take this opportunity to surprise Katherine at work so I better get finished writing, shower and shave before I head out. The main reason for this post is because I'm feeling a large amount of guilt right now- whilst at work the other day I took the job of opening all the receiving boxes with the trusty box cutter (box slasher as Vince calls it). Sometime during the box opening I was called out to the front desk to help customers so I pocketed the cutter. It wasn't until I arrived home did I realise I never took it out again and now every time I leave the house I can't help looking at the cutter which reads in thick Sharpie writing "Property of Geek Squad". If anyone from the Geek Squad is reading this then I promise I'll bring it back! I promise! Whilst I have it at my house though I might take advantage and open up some boxes. ^_^

Edit: "You're all clear kid, now let's blow this thing and go home!" *PEOWW!*

It's going on 2am in the morning and as I wait for my washing machine to finish I figured it was an absolutely perfect time to post a new update and today has been one of those long and busy days for me. My interview was pretty interesting but I sort of came out feeling a little bit down and with a little less self-confidence, I am the first of four people to be interviewed for a position that doesn't open until January so it does mean I will indeed have to sit around twiddling my thumbs nervously wondering if I have a position or not... I really don't want to disappoint Katherine or my family but it's hard not to get a little worked up about it. I went into the first interview pretty much knowing I'd be safe and that I got along with the staff but this time I've got to accept that there are three other people who are probably in the same boat as I am and are probably more experienced than I am so it's all fair game.

Interview aside, I've found myself taking sentimental value to everything as of late... from ticket stubs to mail that isn't even mine ^_^. If you take a look through my wallet and fish through my i.d and Sea World tickets you'll find a cinema stub from August 14th 2009, just over four months ago from the time myself and Katherine went to see The Time Traveller's Wife on it's day of release. It's sentimental to me because even though the film couldn't hold up to how the book made us feel, it was such a memorable date for the both of us that I could probably describe in great detail from the very moment I saw Katherine that night to the second I dropped her off home. I also great big smile when I found the ticket stubs to Step Brothers that I saw well over a year ago with Steve and Lewis when they came out out to visit me.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with all this stuff. If I framed it I'm sure I'd get funny looks from people and they'd all ask "Why on earth do you have ticket stubs on the wall?" Maybe I could create a scrapbook and sell it off when I'm incredibly famous some day.

Anyway... it's going to be another quick post... my laundry is done and I need to fall asleep and catch up on some dreaming ^_^

I woke up an hour early for work. I thought I went in at 10am but upon checking my schedule I found out that I should have had an extra hour in bed ^_^ Since I've showered and shaved and got changed I figured I'd spend the time being semi-constructive. I'm fed up with all these papers, wrappers and clothes that are in my car so I went out this morning about 8.40am and starting cleaning it all up. I managed to fill one huge bin bag!! That's a lot more rubbish than I was expecting and it's not that it was all over the place... they we're hidden amongst the dashboard, under the seats and in the boot. I brushed up most of the sand and wiped off all the stains that somehow appeared on the passenger door- generally speaking it looks a lot better now!

About ten minutes ago I got a text from Katherine telling me she's arrived at her job and that's she's about to go in and start the day. That's pretty exciting! I'm really proud of her and I hope she has a fantastic first day!!

Well that's it for now. I'm off to work!

I, or should I say "we" have been engaged for almost a month now and engaged life has exciting prospects on the horizon... both myself and Katherine have started our hard work earning money and looking for proper jobs. We've both had interviews and Katherine starts her seasonal job at JC Penny tomorrow whilst I try and hog as many hours as I can at the Geek Squad putting aside money for our wedding and having a little money on the side to buy Christmas presents this month. (every hour counts). Katherine applied to loads of places this past couple of weeks including retail stores, hospitals, receptionist spots so even though JC Penny's doesn't sound too exciting to her it really means a lot and I was incredibly excited to hear about her interview and see her that day. The bottom line is she doesn't need to work, she's almost done with University and she's earning money on the side doing her data entry job... it's remarkable to know that she's doing it for us and to money towards our future... the same way I'm doing.

My interview on Thursday will be my second with the same company... a little more elaborate job being a Technology Sales Representative. I'm hoping the money out shadows the driving distance and the actual job itself because right now I'm still a little stuck on deciding whether or not I should accept if they offer me anything or hold out for something better/something I enjoy doing more (I don't want to be picky but this is a career path for me and I'm not sure if I could do something better than another sales job). Either way, it's all working towards our start right now and I'm excited to know by Christmas Eve I will have banked $750 and our goal is $450 a month... I want to exceed that in every bit.

Hard work asides I absolutely love my fiancée, not a day goes by where we're not planning, talking about how we're going to accomplish our future and constantly reassuring each other with words and actions of how much we truly care for each other. With our dates being a little less frequent we've had to make each one count... we've been to Hollywood Studios, Manny's and just the other day we got to go out to Sea World for an incredibly lovely evening. Here's the video:

There's about 15 minute more of penguin footage that didn't make it into the video so look out for that in the future! ^_^

I haven't made a good you tube video in a while and that's mainly because my Internet is really rubbish right now but I did manage to upload some hidden gems I found on my video camera from before my time here in the United States. Including this video of myself and Steve ( totally49 ) singing karoke maybe filmed almost 2 years ago!

I should really get back to tinkering with website work to earn that little bit more cash. I hope you're all having a wonderful December and are starting to get into the Christmas spirit- there's only 10 days to go after all.

How come nobody has brought this to my attention? Steve?! ( totally49 )



Something tells me I'm not going to need my PlayStation 3 when I move but put this on my list for next Christmas... I can listen and sing in the car until then :)

On Friday, April the 24th I submitted a blog post entitled "Can't Stop Feeling" where I discussed the differences between the English and American way of telling the time after a roudy discussion with Vince and Izzy. I would like to retract this post! Since then I believe I've taught some Americans the way of time telling and they certainly write to me now rather than just writing me. They put u's in their favourites and pronounce it "zebrah" (I have audible proof of the latter). Anyway... American... English... as long as we're not French then I'm a happy Davie.

United States of America... consider this an apology... do you accept? (waiting for Barack Obama, an avid reader of my journal to comment on this post)

So this will be my first thanksgiving stateside and therefore my first thanksgiving evarrr! Last year I was back in the UK for a bit so missed out on turkeys and such and most likely spent the day at Chiquitos asking Gibbo if he preffered the waitress over Tina (waitress!)

Although my schedule isn't going to be any different today I've tried to explain to a few people some of the holidays we have in England rather than thanksgiving, namely Bonfire Night. I could've explained it a little better- a day when we make a little man out of straw and burn him on a fire does sound sort of unbelieveable and similar to something straight out of The Wicker Man (which is even more like Eyam where they now burn a giant wooden rat). Remember remember the 5th of November and all that jazz.

Even though I don't quite know the tradition of thanksgiving I get to relax and have some lazy time off work which is pretty sweet considering I have to be up at 3am for work tomorrow. (I see no point in sleeping to be honest) Heck I didn't even know a 3am existed!

Speaking of new experiences I got to try a place called Cici's pizza with Vince and Raquel which people say is delicious. Now don't get me wrong, I like pizza but not in that quantity- it's the same premise as the pizza hut buffet in which you have your third slice and you feel terribly sick. It was at this point they tried to feed me macaroni and cheese pizza which didn't sit well with me and I didn't even eat it!

All turned out alright though, I didn't hurl and we got to meet up with the very loverly Alex at city walk to see Bond (although I swear the last time I saw that movie I saw Daniel Craig's arse... Where did it go?)

At any rate, wish me luck for tomorrow. I'll snap piccies.

Cheers!

No, I have no pictures of my laundry room, no amusing pictures of chocolate bars or anything similar to my previous high caliber posts I love to rant on about. Instead it's going to be mostly all talk.

With no work today and nothing big to be working on for University I'm deciding to take the time in writing a new entry- inspired partially by a 10am showing of 'Shaun of the Dead' on Comedy Central. Naturally that film is hiiiiiilarious as ever but why bother showing it that early on in the day? For a film that contains an incredible amount of gore and profanity it doesn't quite have the same effect edited... intact I don't recall seeing a single zombie. (exageration for dramatic purposes)

Its 3am in the funking morning, funking Sunday and I have to be at funking work in 3 funking hours!

However it did make me want a Cornetto!

Sticking with the same subject of tv I keep seeing adverts for High School Music 3 and they drive me insane- I could be watching period dramas then it suddenly breaks to an all dining and all dancing trailers

I recall very little singing and dancing at Tapton, very little.

The soundtrack page on iTunes scares me also. Can I not escape it? I bet Adam and Aaron are watching it as I type- their mouths quietly singing along to the same repetitive music whilst I sit here listening to Bob Marley.

Dont worry about a thing 'cause every little thing is gonna be alright

Despite not being back on my gold account I took the opportunity to download the new 360 update and create my avatar. Little Davie loves to play Sonic the hedgehog 2!

Ever since deciding to upgrade my Go Phone to my new iPhone (aptly named Deckard for geek reference) I've been waiting for a LiveJournal application so I can post no matter where I am. Alas! LiveJournal.app made it's wonderful return so now I can type with my mini keyboard no matter where I am. You lucky buggers!

I've even included a picture (despite it not being the format I would have liked) so if you do have the iPhone I highly reccommend it!

It's been a long time since I've had the chance to post but seeing as I started working on my final year of University stuff earlier this month I find it only fitting to start again (look at it as my return from summer break)

Posted via LiveJournal.app.