Brixey Banter

I'm official!!

No more ARE exams!

I just found out that I passed my last exam! I am an official passer of the ARE - now just filling out all that damn paperwork!

I rock.

Third time's a charm!

I pass General Structures!

Thank God!

Another failure.

I failed site planning.

Again.

Suck.

Building Planning! Passed!

My poor legs are like a couple of jelly rolls today. Ugh.

All day Saturday, Jessica and I walked and walked and walked around NYC. We saw practically everything there is to see in Midtown...and then some. We walked from the Empire State Building area to the Flatiron Building area and back and then into Times Square and over to Rockefeller Center and then back to Columbus Circle. After that, we took the subway down to Chinatown and made our way over to Little Italy for dinner and finally ended up in the Bowery at the Bowery Ballroom and saw Mobius Band and Page France, both of which were pretty good.

Sunday we slept in until 10 and then we got lunch before I left on the 12:13 train back home. When I got back, I had to walk the 10 minutes back in the sprinkling rain...very pleasant but a bit cool. It's been raining ever since. Today it's a steady, crappy rain. Ugh. All I want to do is go back to bed and possibly read a little. Work has been a bit of a headache for both Ben and I today just trying to figure crap out...I still love the job and the project but it's really complicated and sometimes, even just dreaming about it, gives me a migraine.

Over the weekend, I began reading "Fluke: Or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings" by Christopher Moore. If you have never read a book by Mr. Moore, which I must admit I never have, then you will be very much surprised. It's a terribly funny book but it's freakin' crazy! It starts out totally normal and then just goes on the deep of weird and wholly unbelievable, although quite entertaining. I really like it but woah! I wasn't prepared for it's kookiness. It's quite a 360 degree circle after "On The Beach." I'll probably finish it tonight and be wickedly fucked up in the head for a bit. Oh well.

I found out via email, and not yet confirmed 100% due to peaking through the envelope instead of opening said envelope, that I have, in fact, passed Building Planning! If that is correct, then I only have two of those nasty little buggers left (tests). Woo! Then I will be a licensed architect! In Missouri, of course, not New Jersey.

So apparently I am quite the matchable little lady. I have had so many matches on eharmony that I am oozing young men between the ages of 27 and 36 out my ears. Ugh. I have been having to take their info home and look through it at night. It's so overwhelming! I'm not sure if I'm really into it yet or not but I guess only time will tell.

Well, I guess that's about all that's going on in my over-the-top exciting life! No volleyball tonight since it's only like 62 degrees and gross and rainy and feeling like fall. Ugh.

Laters! (pics of the weekend are next, including the wooden escalator at Macys and me without a stitch of makeup on).

ARE HELL

I flunked general structures.

Again.

Life sucks.

GS test is done.

The test is over...

I don't think it was early as painful if someone had taken pliers and pulled out each and every one of my fingernails, but maybe...it was a close call.

I meant to study lots last night, but what's the point really? If you don't have it by the night before, y'ain't gonna get it...so after about an hour of studying, I just simply fell asleep on the couch...with a Venus on my chest.

It was so nice to leave the test today and feel a huge burden being lifted off my chest...even if I flunked it, I still feel good knowing that I will have 6 more months to take the next three (which I'm hoping to be done with by the weekend of April 6th, when I go with Rusty to the horse races in Hot Springs) exams. I'm hoping these next three are much less painful and therefore will require only one attempt...leaving only the one...if I did flunk it.

I did much better than last time...I know that for sure. I was able to reason through a bunch of them and actually use my head...I think that the last time I took it I just wasn't familiar enough with what I needed to learn...We'll see. You just never know on those tests...at least this time I didn't walk out KNOWING that I flunked...just hoping that I didn't.

Well, I had better go...I've been pretty useless today...

Oh...speaking of which, I had lunch at the Capitol with Fe today courtesy of the March of Dimes. Those MOD people know good food. :)

MEP - Mastered!

Woo hoo!

I passed Mechanical & Electrical Systems!

And it only took them less than two weeks to get the notice to me!! Yay! 

4 down, 5 to go!

Breathe in you are strong all the barriers are gone

Wow. What a weekend!

So Friday night was boring Carrie night because I studied for 3.5 hours. Then at 9 pm I quit studying and watched She's The Man. I have to admit, it was pretty cute. I laughed out loud (snorted) a few times.

Saturday. Test Day. I got up around 9 am when Mom called doing her guilt trip "You're still in bed?" to which I always reply "No." as if she's not going to know that I have sleep still heavy in my voice.

Anyway, I got up and cleaned the kitchen, minus the floor. Then I showered and ran some errands. I studied for another hour and a half then went to Jeff City to take the test. I was early but she had a spot for me so I got to take it early. It crashed twice during the testing.

It was a hard test. I only say that because I felt like most of the stuff on it wasn't in my 7 study guides. WTF??

I think I did okay on it, but who knows in that kind of situation.

After the test, I called Farrah on my way back. They were still 2 hours away so I decided to catch the 5 pm showing of The Last Kiss. I'm so glad I did. Although it's not getting fabulous reviews at Rotten Tomatoes (and I understand why) I thought it was a fabulous movie! Of course, that might be because I love Zach Braff, but whatever. I loved that it was real. It was much like real life and real emotions, real actions and reactions. Plus, Zach plays a 29 year old architect and how cool is that. I'm a 29 year old architect!!! He obviously had passed all his exams...

The movie ended around 7 pm and I went home and changed for our night out on the town. I met up with Farrah and Gus at her house (their?). Their coworker, Suthie, was there with his new girlfriend, Jada. We ended up meeting up with a bunch more of their coworkers at TK Brothers, a sports bar. I had been before and wasn't really into it much, but we had a lot of fun once we got there. Someone (me?) drank too much by the time we left. Oops.

So here's the juicy part. There was this super cute bartender. Cute! I was all flirty and so was he. When I got my bill, there was his name and phone number on the top of it. Later, when our little group went to Trops (most of which I don't remember) Farrah called his number. After he had given me his, I gave him my business card with my number on it too. :)

Trops closed and we went to Farrah's where I slept like a log and had dreams about DUIs and me driving and having a haunted house. Weird. I left at 11 am and went home and was super duper lazy.

At 4:30, CBT (cute bartender) called and was going to work. He asked me out for tonight and said I could come visit him if I wanted. At 9 I finally worked up the courage, took a shower, and stayed up there until midnight. I can't help it, he's hot. Plus, the more we talked, the more I realized he's really cool and quite mature...plus he likes cats. That always helps.

So today is our big bid opening in Hannibal. It starts at 4 pm, but my boss wants to leave at 1:15. He's meeting with some guy to talk about hunting up there. Sweet. I'm so tired...

I'd better go finish my windows. Long day ahead.

Friday = Plumbing, Electrical, Mechanical, Vertical Transportation, Human Comfort, etc

Friday.

The day I review it all. Hello ARE test. Here I come.

Last night was unusual for me. I was sitting here going through old posts putting them into categories because I didn't want to go home and study and what better way to waste time than to play with the blog? Well, I got a phone call around 5:30 from my mother's first cousin. She was in town for a college course and did I want to have dinner with her?

Well of course I did! Regardless of the fact that she was staying at a hotel and no female I know likes to eat alone in a strange city...so I gave her directions to my office so that we could meet up. Neither of us have seen each in other in many, many years so I was afraid we wouldn't recognize each other!

Anyway, right after I got off the phone with her I realized that it was Twilight Festival downtown. It is something that occurs every Thursday in June and September in "The District" as they now call the downtown Columbia area. It brings out all the street musicians, high school kids and drunk, young professionals. Most of the stores stay open late to bring in larger crowds who normally wouldn't go in the stores. There are all kinds of tables set up with people giving information (Democratic, Republican, Habitat, Humane Society, etc). It's kind of fun. But very busy!

So after talking her into a parking spot (yes, the lots are all full during Twilight Fest) we met up and went to dinner at Addison's. As usual, it was very good and I had a nice big ole Summer Wheat that really helped out my stress levels from studying. For a smidgeon in time, I "dated" one of the owners there. I haven't seen him since we never attempted to make contact after a while. He came over and said "hi" and politely asked where I had been since I had dropped off the face of the planet. Very congenial.

Anyway, it was a nice dinner. Thelma is super bright and super fun. She's very talkative and I'm sure I talked too much! Imagine that! It was a nice break amidst my studying.

After that we went our separate ways, mine being home. I read through acoustics then fell asleep on the couch. Hmmm...

The kitties are totally into chasing each other around the house now. The couch is home base and they run all around it having great balls of fun. Literally hair balls everywhere.

I woke up this morning to the sound of a kitty clawing (only one has front claws!) something and I yelled "Ida! What are you doing?" in a stern voice to let her know she was in trouble and in fact she was scratching on her scratching post. Good kitty...too bad I got onto her!

Anyway, more studying to be had tonight. My test is at 2:30 tomorrow. I'm sure I've said that like a dozen times. After that I'm meeting up with Farrah and Gus for some good ole drinkin'. Woo hoo!

I'm hoping to see The Last Kiss this weekend. Although The Black Dahlia, Hollywoodland and Crank are still high up on my list...might be a double matinee for me on Sunday. I deserve it!

We have a bid opening in Hannibal on Monday so we won't get back into town until at least 7 pm...no movies that night!

Better go...I'm being bad and drinking a giant Mtn. Dew from Big Soda. I haven't eat lunch and for some reason am not in the least big hungry. Probably nerves.

Catch you all on Monday!