~welcome to the city with no people~

kocajl@vcu.edu — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 00:36:13 GMT

Everything has been moving at breakneck speed for the past few weeks, and so far, I'm not sure if I entirely like it.
But either way, it looks like I'd better be strapped in tight for this ride.

kocajl@vcu.edu — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 01:25:47 GMT

gonna keep this short as hell since the guys are setting up a movie and I'm cooking dinner, so here goes.

Katsu: amazing! My date with Jenn was ruined though, but she seems alright now, a certain ex's ex also had a very long and interesting talk with me. Was not expecting that to happen.

IIDX party: fucking epic! Matt finally came to visit and Brendon showed up with his gf too. There were 4 bottles of Everclear, all of which was drank by the end of the night.... and Brooks fucking rocked as the DJ for the night.

Kittens: they had to go back to the SPCA because 2 of them wern't eating enough, but that's alright cause I'm supposed to be fostering another litter in a few weeks. It was also great because the day I got the kittens was also apparently my 1yr anniversry of starting at SPCA

FIRST: last weekend was the regional kickoff in DC and I got to be a safety advisor, which ended up being incredibly fun and tiring. Wetzel surprised us by showing up from London for it and I got hit on repeatedly by some highschoolers. It's always great when pickup lines include "So, I'm about to graduate..."

P.S. I wish I could stop smiling, but I just can't help it with people like you by my side.

Graduation

kocajl@vcu.edu — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 22:28:55 GMT

So, it's been a week since I graduated and since then life has been both relaxing and very busy. Graduation was really nice, they didn't put us in alphabetical order for my school group, so I got to sit with a bunch of my friends and joke around during the ceremony. Tom and Sherri sat right behind us cracking jokes too, so it was pretty hard to keep a straight face, especially with my family in the stands making faces and whistling. Part of me still really wishes that you would have come out for graduation, it would have been nice to see you in the stands too, but you didn't even like the idea when we were together... so oh well.

Now that I'm not overwhelmed with projects and finals to do and am officially done with school, every day has been filled with hanging out with people, volunteering and lots of good sleep. It's been wonderful to just spend every moment with friends and catching up with people all over the state.
This weekend is also being spent seeing my cousin, Joshua, who just got back from Iraq. He's fantastic and it feels so amazing to have him back here again, even if it is just for a few weeks before the Marines shove him back over there again. Tonight we should be heading out to some parties around town and then tomorrow it would appear the plan is snowboarding all day, just because we know he won't be getting that opportunity out in the desert.

P.S. Sorry, I haven't read any entries in over a month now, been really busy with school and figured that LJ would just be one more distraction from working. I may go back and read them at some point, but it's not likely.

P.P.S. I'm in the Herndon area for the holiday's, so if you wish to hang out, call me at 571-225-6103 or IM me at woainikitty
Chances are, if you know about this LJ, then I want to see you. So no matter who you are, if you're within 200miles from me, hit me up and I will clear some time for you <3

c'est la vie

kocajl@vcu.edu — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 17:35:04 GMT

Spent most of my morning talking with professors about my grade status since I was really worried that the hospital visit had ruined my chances at getting pretty decent grades in 3 of my 5 classes (that day I missed 2 presentations, and a test, then the next day I had a test while still doped up). My teachers gave me the pleasant surprise of saying that they see no reason for me to not finish my semester with B's (or C's in the worst case scenario) if I just study pretty hard for the finals and keep up for the next few weeks. That really helped relieve a lot of stress that I've been feeling the past few weeks... because all of my classes this semester require at least a C to pass them and I want to graduate, dammit!

Sort of sucks that my entire Thanksgiving break is going to consist of doing homework and extra credit to ensure that none of my grades slip but, that's life.

P.S. I am so friggin excited about this interview tomorrow!

P.P.S. Matt, you better call me. Or I will be sad.

kocajl@vcu.edu — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 05:19:07 GMT

2 life threatening experiences in 1 week.
Good stuff.

P.S. I really wish I knew what they put in that IV, cause my dreams that night were incredibly exciting and colorful.

P.P.S. for all of you who were not there in Richmond when they announced Obama had won, here's a nice video a fellow VCU student posted

I am never going to forget that night.

Dream a little dream

kocajl@vcu.edu — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 08:04:32 GMT

Another day, another night of trying not to sleep. Because every time that I allow myself to dream, they always become nightmares with him as the main villain.
Last night he helped someone rape me, the night before that, he beat me and left me for dead. Every night, a new horrible fate. It's been over a week since these started, and instead of running out of ideas, he seems to actually be becoming more imaginative in ways to make my dreams hell.

P.S. 5 x 0 still equals 0, no matter how you look at it.

kocajl@vcu.edu — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 23:50:54 GMT

This past week has been amazing and confusing, uplifting and crushing.

For starters, last Tuesday my professor helped prove that rejection does indeed temporarily affect your IQ... because I got a 61 on the test I took the day after Mark dumped me, even though I've been doing great in the class otherwise. There goes the Dean’s List.
Then Thursday morning my car broke so I had to call AAA, and the mechanic that came to fix my car ended up asking me out. He's nice, but I'm certainly not looking for anything right now, but it is nice to have a new friend. The Roanoke guys came up for a concert that night too and next thing I knew I was moshing and swing dancing to some of the best music to come to Richmond in ages, it was insane, uplifting, and incredibly invigorating. It also left me tired, covered in spilled alcohol and longing to dance more. But unfortunately instead it was time to go home, play games and drink lots, which just helped me calm down a little, but did not get rid of my surge of energy.

Friday: bars with Kat and Kriston, as well as Rocky Horror and a night of weird ass movies with my girls. We also saw a falcon on campus kill and fly away with a squirrel. Amazing. <3

Saturday: Colin came down from B-more, we hit a huge ass kegger costume party that ended up having over 200 people show up and I did not stop drinking until 3am when Colin finally dragged me away from a bedroom where me and some people ended up in drinking Absinthe. They had run out of liquor downstairs, so I drunkenly went upstairs with the guys that live there and just drank their private stock with them. All I remember from up there is that some guy just walked in said "who wants to fuck?" and I responded "Link does!" then he cringed and left. I spent the rest of the night harassing the guy dressed as Link about how he wasn't good enough for the drunken man to have sex with. He seemed genuinely upset about this.
We left shortly after someone outside decided to start shooting and Colin got sleepy.

Sunday: Colin and I hit up Belle then spent three hours driving around Richmond and discovering new and amazing places that I did not even know existed. We also accidentally interrupted a police drug bust while looking at a closed down school, but I can honestly say that that’s the most people I have ever seen in handcuffs at one time.

I’m not going to get into the crushing stuff, because enough people already know about them by now, and I don’t feel like thinking about it too much since I am in class right now.

P.S. If you cut out my tongue, I'll split your dick. But it's ok, because then you can get out of any ticket for the rest of your life.

P.P.S. Who knew that Mt. Zion was in Richmond overlooking a ghetto?

kocajl@vcu.edu — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 00:07:18 GMT

back from AUSA, back to school.
The con was amazing, till sunday.
When we woke up that morning, Mark broke up with me.

P.S. I know it's incredibly stupid, but it hurt to have to change my status on facebook.

kocajl@vcu.edu — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 14:30:04 GMT

Incredibly Weird Dream:
I went to a party and Mark just left me there without a word, so these other guys cheered me up and I ended up leaving with this really sweet fat guy who wore green suits.

There was a strange blackness slowly taking over the planet.
Stuff that looked like sea foam was corrosive and destroying everything it touched
I traveled home to find that my city was dark, windy and somehow turning sideways.... there were cosplayers there too.

The river current sucked my friend under, so we tried to use hard drives to get the river to let him go, instead, we got a boat. The same boat that had been tattooed on my friends arm.

Everything was just a game. There were constant scenes of me, a small smart kid and the fat guy from the party playing various board games.You needed to land on the green guy (can't remember his name) to stay up on the board. If you landed on anyone else, you fell to your doom. But usually the green guy would save you and put you on a table away from your friends and all I remember from there was that it was terrifying at that table.

While traveling to get away from the darkness, I was leaping over fences with a sick dog and then a man said he was going to puke if I got my dog near him.
We jumped over his fence anyways.
He puked all over the place, and then told me to save everyone.

Then a strange man went past a group of us running away from the darkness saying "Ellen" as he went. Then there was a flashback to how this guy is actually a robot and Ellen was a girl from one of my companions childhood that said robot had abducted, so my friend went running after him..... then the dog next door started howling and woke me up =(

I wish the dog would shut up already, because I really want to see how this thing ends.

P.S. Oktoberfest = totally awesome

Blackout

kocajl@vcu.edu — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 21:21:07 GMT

This is my 5th year here in Richmond and I had never seen such a huge blackout, the streets, buildings, even the parking garages were just dead. People were crowding the streets because they all classes were canceled. Ambulances and cops were racing everywhere, because people around her apparently do not understand that out lights mean a four way stop.
So, after cautiously driving through campus, parking in an oddly dim parking lot and seeing people stuck in the deck elevator (they have a glass wall on one side), I headed across the street and saw the commons were even dark.... maybe my test would be canceled? Nope. 2 buildings somehow managed to keep power, one of them being where my test was being held. Damn.

But either way, it was very odd to walk around a dark campus, this didn't even happen when the whole campus flooded 4 years go, so I'm really interested in finding out what caused it.

P.S. I've been sleeping a lot more lately and feeling nausea in the mornings, it's starting to get quite annoying.

In a world, where movie previews sounded fucking cool...

kocajl@vcu.edu — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 13:56:39 GMT

Well, sadly that won't be happening anymore, Don LaFontaine aka the voice over on nearly every movie preview the last 4 decades, died Monday.
I honestly don't think movies will be quite the same now without his historic baritone. His voice had the power to not only captivate a whole audience, but also somehow make any movie seem watchable.

RIP Dan LaFontaine

This article has a lot of really good samples of his work, in case you still aren't certain who he is.
http://www.aintitcool.com/node/38150

To the "anonymous" commenter:

kocajl@vcu.edu — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 02:55:50 GMT

I actually did try to e-mail your old address since you claimed that none of your info changed, but it said that that doesn't exist anymore, and I am not entirely sure that I remember your number correctly... cause, ya know, it's been six years and all, and I don't want to phone some poor random person.

Anyways, just let me know how you want to do this now... I have already given you my e-mail address/SN/phone number in a previous post, so I suppose the ball is now in your court.

kocajl@vcu.edu — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 15:35:39 GMT

I don't feel like writing a huge entry about what happened the past few days, so here goes a quick synopsis.

Thursday: Meredith and I went bowling, and after 2hrs of scores getting progressively lower and our humor getting more childish, Mark showed up. Then he kicked our asses and we all went home. I forgot he used to work at a bowling alley

Friday: ate at an amazing Indian restaurant called Supper of India over at Worldgate. I highly recommend it to anyone, it was just so good. Then we saw Tropic Thunder, which was absolutely fabulous and has been the topic of quite a few conversations since then, also, I have a new found crush on Robert Downey Jr and was surprised at Tom Cruise actually being good. Muthafucka can dance!
After watching tv with my folks for a bit, Mark and I headed over to Jenn's "MDF2" party, where Mark and I worked out all the issues we were having (yay!) and proved that Mark wasn't drunk yet, through science, of course. There are some utterly fantastic pics from that night, including one where Mark apparently flipped over and put his hand in my crotch, so it looks quite a bit like we're doing dirty things in our sleep. It made me giggle.
Oh yea, I also learned that you shouldn't eat limes that have been sitting on the table all day, no matter how yummy them may appear

Saturday: all of us went to IHOP, where I stole Jenn's ice cream and got her addicted to Cooking Mama again.
After Mark and I dropped off everyone else, we decided to head home... after a trip to the pool. Mark was very impressed with the community center and finally agreed that my job seems pretty kickass, bout damn time!
That night Dom and Matt convinced me to go to their party, but they forgot to mention that Jimmy was there, and drunk, so I got to have him yell at me and do that pathetic angry face of his while he trashed talked me and my friends.

Sunday: Tera aka the girl Jimmy was mostly talking shit about, invited me to the MAYHEM festival to thank me for helping her. We ran into some of his "friends" there, and they made me promise to not tell him they were there, cause they're all avoiding that jackass too. The absolute show stealer was Disturbbed, dear god not only did they sound amazing and have a great interaction with the audience, but they also brought up a little girl from the audience and told her to cover her ears whenever the bad words come. It was cute.
Slipknot was eh, except I gotta give them props since one of them had 2 broken feet and the other a horribly sprained ankle, so at the end of the show one had to get into a wheelchair and the other had to be carried off by his band mates. Got to respect people that put their work first like that. This was also Tera's first rock concert, so she was dressed all preppy, and had no idea what a mosh pit, crowd surfing or even devil horns were, so I spent most of my day teaching her and trying to coax her into trying to mosh.

Monday: went to MD, had lots of fun with the guys and played lots of Cooking Mama

Tuesday: Prdel's stitches got really infected so we took her to the vet, where they said they were gonna have to put her under and operate. My mom broke down a bit, I think it was just too close to JJ for this to happen to another pet...

Wow, this was still really long even though I skipped over a lot of stuff...

P.S. It was really odd being at the Nissan Pavilion again, I hadn't been there since the whole Ozzfest incident back in HS

Holy Crap!

kocajl@vcu.edu — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 23:42:11 GMT

One week till I go back to Richmond for classes. Somehow it feels like my summer has both barely begun and dragged on at the same time.

P.S. I stopped by the teen center to pick up my movies and all the kids faces literally just lit up and they screamed "Jen's back!" It was incredibly sweet and I already miss having to put up with them everyday, except Andrianna clinging to me nonstop.

Random Little Secret

kocajl@vcu.edu — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 04:15:53 GMT

It still brings a smile to my face whenever I listen to one of the cd's my old HS bf gave me.

Also, I sometimes wonder what he's up to nowadays

kocajl@vcu.edu — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 03:21:20 GMT

Well my weekend ended up not being nearly as bad as I for some reason was expecting it to be. For starters, I got paid on friday to go to Kings Dominion and have a ton of fun with all my kids and there's really nothing quite like getting paid to go on roller coasters.

Then on Saturday Mark came down to help celebrate my birthday slightly early and after giving me a bottle of my favorite tequila, because my boyfriend knows the way to my heart is through my liver, we went and picked up Jesse and headed to Dave and Busters. The bartender was sweet, she bought me a shot for my birthday and the bartender that my friends and I had last week asked Colin if any of the guys there were my boyfriend because he liked me... I still wish he'd asked Mark instead, that would have just been priceless.
Anyways, 6hrs, many shots and far too many rounds of trivia later, I got an adorable teddy bear thanks to all the guys and we headed out with most of our group. I say most because we lost my friends Devon and Max and I didn't even fully realize it until we were a few miles down the road. Oops.
Sadly though, Jesse forgot that he had promised to be our DD was too drunk to drive, so poor Mark had to step up and be all responsible.

Sunday was interesting. My grandparents came over, partially for my birthday and partially to see how the kitten we took in from their neighborhood was doing. GramGram made us all an amazing lunch and some yummy summer time cake then Mark and I headed over to Alexandria to see the other Jenn. She tricked us into going to the mall, but made up for it by coming with us to CCR aka VA's 'classiest' strip club, where the food is surprisingly good and decently priced. It was really entertaining too because I kept having to make Mark move because his head got in the way of me staring at the strippers while he was eating. There were sadly not nearly as many attractive dancers this time around though, although that was probably partially our fault for going early on a Sunday... not exactly prime-time in the strip club world.

Oh yea, and today the kids at my camp somehow found out my bday is tomorrow and all decided to sing to me. It was really cheesy, but sort of cute too.

P.S. It takes all the fun out of being stealthy about taking a glass from a restaurant when the put it in a box for you.

kocajl@vcu.edu — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 16:44:32 GMT

So the plan for the weekend (in case I somehow forgot to call/IM/text you) is:
Dave and Busters at White Flint Mall at 6pm then a couple of parties in Fairfax.

Sunday: Jenn and I are going to attempt to get our tattoos and then we are taking advantage of the VA tax free weekend.
Also, a few of us are hitting the 11pm Dark Knight showing at Udvar Hazy's IMAX. Tickets are 12.50 and you can buy em here: http://purchase.tickets.com/buy/TicketPurchase

Hit me up if you care to join. Love y'all!

kocajl@vcu.edu — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 03:51:50 GMT

Well damn, I went from having no idea what to do for my birthday weekend because I had no plans, to having no idea because people suggested too many things.

- Jenn thinks we should all go to 6 Flags on sunday to celebrate.
- A few of the guys suggested Dave and Busters so I could get drunk and kick their asses at trivia, plus Mark would have PIU.
- The Fairfax guys want me to come out to some parties, including one on saturday at a farm with lots of animals, and that just sounds killer.
- Colin really wants me and Mark to go check out some new abandoned sites he found last weekend for his next project.
- Then David reminded me we're supposed to go on our "journey" this weekend... but that would just be me and him for the whole weekend.

Stupid people wanting to do stuff with me all at once.

P.S. Summer Fun is a great camp for kids, even if the occasional youngster looses a finger or two... I mean, that happens at every state run camp, right?

kocajl@vcu.edu — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 03:10:28 GMT

Have I mentioned lately how much I fucking love my job? I just got paid for 12hrs of watching movies and going white water rafting.

P.S. Our guide was totally a crab person. We're on to them.

Somethings Gotta Give

kocajl@vcu.edu — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 02:30:24 GMT

The camp that I work at is great. I love the kids, my coworkers and I mesh really well, we seem to learn something new everyday (i.e. if you have asthma, inhalers are handy) and the activities never leave me bored. But there are some huge problems that come with it... for starters, the camp does not end till 5pm (sometimes later) and I have class at 5pm.... 30mins away.
This has been a real pain from the start since it means that we have to either get back from our trips really early, I have to be late to class or I need to skip work all together on those days. We have tried our best to get back in time for me to drive to class, but all but one time I have been late so far, and while I didn't think much of it since my last ASL teacher was very understanding, my new teacher told me today that if I am late one more time, I fail. I'm sort of iffy on whether or not I truly care though, because this teacher is pretty bad and due to her copious amounts of homework and projects, she has actually made me fall behind in my other class... but I still need this damn course to graduate in December, so it is not a matter that can be taken lightly.

All of the stress and hectic nature of taking 2 summer classes, working full time, and trying to have a social life has also lead me to forget to take my medication on several occasions, and just trust me when I say that it's bad to have someone who has panic attacks and ADHD to forget their meds. Hyper/spastic/moody counselors do not make good counselors; not to mention I'm sure it's a pain for Mark when I act weirder then normal.

So basically: my work is making me late to class, which is making me fail that, but that class is making me fail my other course, and all of them combined is making me forget my meds, which just makes the cycle more devastating because I can't focus/get organized/control myself.

Clearly, something has to give in order for me to get my life back on track. Right now it looks like it has to be work, because I definitely want to graduate and need the classes to do so. Also, if I quit work I could go to MD and Richmond more often to harass people, and possibly have a tiny bit of a social life again, but I love my job so much and don't want to just give it up. It's especially difficult to think about leaving because, quite honestly, I do not think that Rico could handle the responsibilities if me or Tia ever left.

Dammit. I don't fucking know what to do.

P.S. Our new kitten likes to French kiss me, and it sort of creeps me out.

May Sum Up

kocajl@vcu.edu — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 22:07:55 GMT

Now that the month is finally over, I am going to follow my mother's example and list everything bad that happened, just to get it out there and off my chest. It has seemed to really pick her back up after all of this, so lets see what it does for me.

- Failed my first class ever
- Justin's 2 day business trip turned into 2 weeks of him being trapped out there.
- My parent's basement flooded
- Richmond house flooded 2x
- Dad got rid of our pool
- Mike fell in the fire
- The tree fell on the power lines
- Jet ski took on water
- Justin got badly burned from the flare
- The sailboat broke when Wetzel flipped it
- Jon Boat engine broke, resulting in them getting towed in
- Scott still won't talk to me
- My Dad underwent surgery
- We lost JJ
- Mike tried to commit suicide
- The Pontiac and 525 both broke
- Cried in public a few times
- Josh (my cousin) got sent to Iraq
- Nick broke the lease on his room
- Dustin moved
- Dan got raided, might go to jail for a few years
- Had to go to the doctor for yet another emergency
- Made an ass of myself at Joan's

Well, I think that's about it. It's been one hell of a month, and it is one that I am not particularly sad to see go.

P.S. One major plus side to this month has been that now that I live in Herndon for the summer, I get to see Mark and harass my MD boys more often.

kocajl@vcu.edu — Thu, 29 May 2008 04:42:32 GMT

Thank you for not only giving me 18 years of happiness and amazing memories, but for putting up with all the horrible and stupid things I did to you as a child.
I remember throwing you down a spiral staircase because someone (probably Justin) told me cats could fly, then once I thought you needed a haircut... turned out whiskers are quite important and cats walk funny when you cut them. How was a 5 year old supposed to know?
You also taught me that cats do not like dryers, but it does make them surprisingly fluffy. But that one was your own fault for falling asleep in the laundry.

You will be incredibly missed and it is going to be very odd without you, especially since I literally can not remember anything from before you came along. Also, I am a little disappointed, because as a kid I really did almost think that you might be immortal after you survived all the dumb stuff I did.

JJ, you certainly had more then the fabled 9 lives, and I will always love you.

R.I.P. JJ
5/17/1990 - 5/28/2008

P.S. God, you better stock up on mice. JJ has a fierce appetite for those little buggers.

:edit:
I found these pictures in my old photobucket account and felt it was too good not to post

That's JJ probably about 15yrs ago

about 2 years ago at the beach

kocajl@vcu.edu — Thu, 22 May 2008 17:01:15 GMT

A bit of respect was gained last night for the state of Maryland, because I have found a place that carries my favorite Tequila, and it's just a tiny bit more convenient then flying to Vegas to get it.
It should also be noted that this store has a kitty cat running around in it and cashiers that flirt by claiming someone's ID is fake, quite the entertaining place.

Also, I'm not sure what was worse...being ignored, or being used to try and make a situation less awkward.
Either way though, crying in public is fucking lame.

kocajl@vcu.edu — Mon, 12 May 2008 00:07:20 GMT

I'm really not sure how I got to be so lucky, or if I even deserve it.
But either way, I am so very grateful.

kocajl@vcu.edu — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 03:45:05 GMT

oh yea, so I'm alive and stuff.
Forgot I even had this thing for quite awhile honestly.

I may start to post again, we shall see. Mostly depends on how bored I get.