The Aftermath

First off, I have too damn many accounts, and too many passwords. Your password must lock up Fort Knox, so please make sure it's 352,352 characters long with at least 10 symbols and 5.5 numbers.

So, after some discussion and websearching, I decided against Thailand. Aside from the cons I put up, I did forget to list one more: political unrest. Forget North Korea, let's go prancing into a potential civil war zone!

Which leaves me where I am now: Northwest Arkansas, also known to most people as the middle of nowhere. Let me tell you, we are not in the middle of nowhere. There is a McDonalds, Dollar General, and Sonic within walking distance... all the essentials (oh, and a grocery store and gas station, but who needs those?). Just because there are cows, horses, and chickens on my walking route (not the one through the cemetery but the one down the gravel road) does not mean that Pea Ridge isn't still 25 minutes away from three decent towns and a city.

My favorite thing about Arkansas? Average speed limit is 45 mph. If they didn't want me going 60 mph around sharp curves, then why do they set the speed limit at 55 mph? And 540 is 70 mph, meaning it takes about 10 minutes to get to Rogers or Bella Vista once I hope on (after passing all the horse farms).

But I've decided there's three things to watch out for on AR roads (and none of them are surprisingly roadkill). Know your hazards! 1. Old people. They are everywhere. They thrive in this area like no other and they all drive old people cars. Easy to spot and get out of the way because they drive 20 mph under the speed limit and make crazy turns. 2. Disabled people. See that handy little blue sticker? Back up and give them some space. They are prone to coming to a dead stop in the middle of the road to make a turn. Halfway through the turn is when they decide to put on their blinker. 3. Methheads tweaking. These guys are pretty easy to spot. That would be the big, ugly truck swerving wildly and weaving in and out of traffic. Less common than the other two hazards, these are the most dangerous of all, especially if you're in a little Subaru. Avoid them and hope they don't intend to play monster truck.

Okay, enough joking around. Once I decided, I leapt into action... well, as much leaping and jumping as I'm prone to. Okay, I messed around on Facebook and went to the United Way website, but I'm going!

So far I've filled out a few applications, made a few inquires, and have an interview on Monday at 10 am for volunteer tutoring with the area's Boys and Girls Club. Still looking into substitute teaching (stop laughing Rob!) but I'd rather have a solid job even if it's only part time after school care. I haven't applied to PetSmart or PetCo yet because I'm hoping to only do that on the weekends if at all. There's enough churches around here that it might be better to work at a church school for 2 or 3 hours and make $20-30 and have my Saturdays free.

On a completely unrelated note, one of my stories I post online has over 1,000 readers. Another story has over 600 readers. I think that's pretty impressive personally. Considering my mom called the story a "soap opera" and asked why I wasn't writing professional soaps. Total, I've had over 2, 000 visitors to my fanfiction. Now if only I could get that kind of traffic going on my Hubpages account. I might get more than $.73 from Google for my writing.

I miss my rat Twister a lot but Shadow is thrilled that I'm with her all. day. long. She's such a funny dog. She gallops around the house at full speed and crashes into things at least once a day (usually in the evenings). I took her to Petsmart with me the other day and the cashier gave her some liver treats. Mmm, gross. She liked them a lot though, so I guess I need to invest in some liver treats.

Well, I think that's enough for a blog, right? Sorry no pictures of BFN because the camera only takes pictures of fish (no, really, it only does macro shots-- the motor is broken).