Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Long days that move quickly

This week marks 3 and a half weeks till I'll be on my way to the UK and it also begins the big final push at work for the big event we have in a week and half. So I'm at work more than normal this week and the days are long but I'm doing 5 things at once and following up on 8 different tasks so it makes the day go fast. They had 2nd interviews today for whoever is going to replace me. I wasn't part of round 2 but I was part of the first round of interviews and all the candidates were good, just some better than obviously. Whoever it is, I just hope they're trainable.

In more exciting news: I GET TO KEEP MY MACBOOK PRO! I have to pay my work for it but it's better than having to buy a new one and i like this one, even though it was my "work" computer I used it for everything.

My suitcases came today but I wasn't home so I'll hopefully get them tomorrow.

Other than that just feeling really tired from the long work days!!!

3 more weeks!!!!!

Friday, September 19, 2008

My Birthday and the Cops

So the 17th was my 25th Birthday and it was a pretty good one. I had to work but, eh, you can't win 'em all. While I was at work I got FLOWERS... more flowers. One from my work and one from Matt. Nothing brings more attention to someone than flowers and a big pink balloon. After work I headed out to BJ's with friends to celebrate. It was so much fun and I had a really great time with all of them. Emily even made me a banner! All in all it was a good birthday :)

Last night I went out on a ride along with our local PD. My sister is an LAPD cop and I've always wanted to do one just so you can understand a bit better the job that they do. And I got to do exactly that. With every stop we made from 6pm till 2am the officer I was with did his best to explain to me why they stopped someone, what the situation was, and what the next step would be. Here are some of the highlights:

Drunk Hobo:

Our first call is to a liquor store were we have a report of a homeless man drunk in public. Only wearing his 76ers basketball shorts and a wooden cross around his neck, the officers ask the man questions and we take him to the station because he has a warrant out for unpaid tickets. So the officer puts the drunk man in our car and we head back to the station. Along the way the man repeatedly tells the officer "I hate cops" and tells me "Your pretty" only to change his opinion 5 seconds later and tell me that I wasn't pretty at all. Nice guy!

The Man Who Whore Women's Panties:

We stop a man on a bike who said he was on his way home, or rather that's where he said he was going. He spoke very little english and the officers spoke very little spanish. So the officer pats him down and finds that the man had the top button of his pants undone and he's WEARING WOMEN'S UNDERWEAR!!!! We try and get his name and the reason as to why he's wearing women's panties but he doesn't understand. We log him in the system and the area in which he was in case he might be a "peeper" and it's good to have those people on file.

Meth Van

The next call later that night was for back up that one of the other officers had called us for. None of the cops have partners in the shift I was on, so they call another officer for backup once they feel it's needed. We pull up and the other officer already had two men in the back seat, they're gang members. Gang tattoos, shaved head and wearing gang attire (and in the dust on the window of their ghetto van was their gang letters... Classy). Every time we go to a call the officer told me I could come and stand next to them and listen to what was going on, unless he didn't feel it was safe, then I would stay next to the car and observe until he called me over. So on this one since the guys were already cuffed and in the car it was ok for me to come and look with them as they searched the van. The officer tells me to hold out my hand and he places what looks like a Chinese popper in my hand... But it's METH and he tells me "Just hang onto that for a sec". So now I'm holding METH in my hand and really trying not to drop it. They search the rest of the van (which was a wreck!) and find the meth pipe they had been smoking the drugs with and now we have our evidence. I give the officer back the meth and he takes them into be booked.


Pretty interesting night. The officers were really nice and the officer that I rode around with all night was really awesome. Just an average guy, who could be your worst enemy or the nicest guy depending on the call and the people who where involved. I didn't think they would let me be so involved with the calls, but obviously they were and I never thought that the night would have me holding meth in my hand for 20 minutes. I'm tired now but it was totally worth it.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

One month and counting

Today is September 16th, a month from today I will be on a plain bound for London. And weirdly enough one day from tomorrow, September 17th (MY BIRTHDAY), I'll be in Southampton starting a new life that I am so excited for! But with all this excitement comes stress and I haven't been doing anything about it! Bad I know!!!! So after having a headache (ok maybe a small migraine) for the past two days and no relief from any medication; I went home from work early, had a really good chat with Matt and tried to relax for the rest of the evening. While doing so I read up on how to deal with some of my stress (yeah for the internet). I took a nice long shower (baths aren't my thing), had some fruit, watched one of my favorite shows with Emily, and wrote out what i needed to do for work and for moving to get it out of my brain and onto paper where I can see it. If i write it down, see that it's something that needs to get done I'll worry about it less and do it sooner, instead of thinking about it and letting those thoughts keeping me up at night. I also need to remember as each day that goes by I can only do so much and to take everything and everyday one at a time.

Speaking of, time for some sleep!!

(TOMORROW IS MY BIRTHDAY!!!!)

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Sorted...

My stuff that is. In my room sits 3 different piles of "stuff". Clothes to be donated to the Salvation Army, random stuff that I no longer want that is to be donated to the Salvation Army and lastly the 3 (soon to be 4, and one of which is shoes haha) boxes that will ship my personal belongings to the UK in the upcoming weeks. I'm trying not to make them so heavy and I think the 4th box will help with that. My room looks very empty but it feels really good to get that ALL sorted out. Only thing left to sort out is where to store my 3 boxes of stuff that I want to keep but don't want to take with me. Shipping is expensive and I'd like to avoid shipping unwanted boxes for the time being.

Glad to get that out of the way!

Time for sleep!

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Running out of Time!!! My Schedule for the Next 5 Weeks!

Spent tonight out with some friends from school and realized I'm really running out if time to see people before I leave, and as far as tonight goes, I may not see some of those people before I leave because of how busy I will be and I may not get the opportunity. So I thought that I would post my schedule for all to see so that if you are free and I am free and we can get together just hit me up and we can get lunch, dinner, drinks, coffee, whatever!!! And there are lots of people to say goodbye to so hopefully I can make time for everyone :)

Weekdays: All pretty much the same, I work 9 till 6 and get an hour for lunch and then I'm free after work most nights. Osnly weekdays at the moment that are off the table at the 18th and 19th of Sept.

Wednesdays is girls night at the house and we watch Bones & Project Runway and have a little wine as well, so if that sounds good to you than you can come on over (girls only obviously lol)

This weekend I'm pretty open, I do have more sorting out of my "stuff" to do but no big plans.

Sept 19th & 20th I will be going up to the Camarillo area to say my goodbyes to the people up there. I'm leaving noonish on Saturday and coming home Sunday evening

Sept 26th-28th Spending the weekend with TERRI in Fullerton. We will probably be taking a trip to DTF Friday or Saturday night with the roomies so if you want to come along let me know :)

Oct 3rd & 4th: This is the day before and the day of our big event at work that I'm in charge of.... so needless to say no fun for me those days :(

OCTOBER 10TH!!!!! This is a FRIDAY NIGHT and I will be having my "Going Away" party that night. Don't know what all the plans are but it will involve a awesome night of karaoke at Dirty Nellies in Costa Mesa around 9:30 pm. We'll be reserving a group of tables so their will be room for lots of people. The place is really awesome even if you don't like karaoke. It's an Irish pub and it will be a fun night I PROMISE you that!! If you can make it let me know.

Oct 11th & 12th. Pretty open and my last "free" weekend.

After that I'll be free to hang out until the 14th. I'll need all day on the 15th to pack and get organizes cause I will be leaving the next day!

So there you have it, my busy and ever growing schedule. If you want to get together before I leave let me know. If I don't call you to hang out PLEASE don't be offended there are just lots of people to see and it's best if you tell me when you are free and we can get together :) Email me if you do: carter.kat@gmail.com

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

my little silver car!

Just posted my car for sale on craigslist (search 2004 scion and you should find it). I'm so sad to have to sell my car. I know it's for something better, but I love my car! It was my first, and only, car. It took me to the beach on hot summer days when I still lived in Camarillo and it took me off to College (and back) 3 TIMES, each time with more and more stuff in it. It even left me with a nice little scar on the top of my head from the first time I moved into the dorms at CSUF. Talk about an excellent way to make a first impression!

Anyways, It's a good little car and I will miss it!

I've already had someone call me and I'm sure I'll get more calls in the upcoming days once I put the "For Sale" signs in the windows of the car. The person who called first was really weird though... don't want some weird/strange person to have my car... We'll see what happens!

Monday, September 8, 2008

runnin around

So this weekends been errand running and clearing out stuff in my room. I got my international driving license, which wasn't as hard to get as I thought. Just filling out paper work and taking a photo, and then it was done and I already have it, no waiting for it in the mail... unlike other documents I need. LIKE MY PASSPORT! Never go to CVS to get your passport photos done. They don't know what the requirements are and just take pictures without anything that tells them what they should look like to be accepted by the passport office. On Saturday my paper work got sent back to me and now I have to send it again. I have 5 and a half weeks left and it takes 4 weeks to get my passport... that makes me worry just a bit. Time is on my side though, hopefully it will all be okay!!!

In the clearing out department of my journey, I've taken lots of old clothes out of my drawers and closet tonight. Anything that i haven't worn in the past 6 months, and clothes that aren't "seasonal" got tossed in the donations bag, same went for shoes... that made me a little sad. But now that I feel like I have no clothes I really have to resist the urge to buy more clothes (or shoes), and If I do they HAVE to be; proper shoes for everyday wearing and walking (that means no Vans or Chucks), warm clothes cause it will be coming up on winter when I arrive in the UK, and a suit for interviews.

I apologize to matt now for the amount of clothes and shoes that will be coming with me BUT it could have been much worse!

I'm realizing that I have little to no time now and things have to get done NOW. No more time to put things off or "wait till later" just looking at a calendar make me SO nervous! I think I'll post my car for sale tomorrow.

Friday, September 5, 2008

Up, Up and Away!

Well soon anyways!!! I bought my plane ticket today, and now I can check that off of my "to-do" list! I'll be taking a non-stop flight from LAX at 6 pm on the 16th of October and arriving at LHR (London Heathrow) at 12:25 pm the next day. So that put an exciting start to my day... but so did these!



Today is Matt and mine's 1st anniversary! I got these while I was at work today and it put a very big smile on my face!! I can't believe it's been a year! Who would have thought, a year ago today, I would be buying a plane ticket and getting ready to make the move to the UK?? Life's very unpredictable sometimes, but when it works in your favor there's nothing wrong with that!

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Listing the room for rent

Just listed the room for rent on Craigslist. If you or anyone you know might be interested than let me know :)

Here is the link!!!

http://orangecounty.craigslist.org/roo/826389748.html

Ta!

Impatient!

UGH! I just want it to be Friday so I can buy stuff that I need!!! I'm a really impulsive person so when i think of something that needs to be done or want to do, I usually want to do it right then and there... but all the things I want or need to do cost money, which i won't have till Friday. There are other things that I could do like cleaning out my closet, getting rid of "stuff" and cleaning out my room... But none of that is fun so I'll put that off till later HAHA, like this weekend.

And all of my things on my "to-do" list are keeping up at night so it will be beneficial to my sleep pattern to get some of it done!

The word is pretty much out now and more and more people are hearing my news and giving me lots of support.

So far so GOOD!

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Time is already flying!

With a month and 16 days to go I'm realizing even more just how much stuff I have to do!! But... having the personality that I do a "To-Do" list is now firmly posted on my wall. It's pretty long at the moment and I'm sure I'll add more too it as I get more and more ready to leave but it will feel VERY good to cross things off as they get done! Hopefully next weekend I can get started on some of those things...

One month and 16 days to go...

Kat