Let freedom ring. Let the white dove sing. Let the whole world know that today is a day of reckoning. Let the weak be strong; let the right be wrong.

There's been quite a lot going on, but I haven't had the desire to sit down and write it out. But here I am now.

The weather? Has been gorgeous. Freaking gorgeous. I've been going up to Lake J and walking around it (2.5 miles according to Allison) and generally enjoying the outdoors.

I've been cooking a lot (since I can't afford to go out to eat, you know) and I've made up some kickass recipes. One of them stemmed from attempting to replicate this pasta dish I used to get all the time in college. I couldn't make it taste exactly like that, but I would argue that mine is better. The first time I made it, I made it with spaghetti noodles. It was good, but I thought it might be better with smaller noodles, like macaroni. I was on the phone with MK when I made this observation and he, sweetheart he is, brought me macaroni he had frozen. I took a picture of the macaronisicle, because it made me laugh when I opened it. I managed to make the noodles mushy (I HATE when I do that, mainly because I pride myself on my al dente noodles), but it was still an awesome recipe. If I actually measured things when I cooked them, I'd share it. As it stands, though, every time I make it, it's probably a different ration of ingredients. But MK's macaroni noodles really did save my recipe.

I have to say. . .a rough as things have been, every now and again, I have an "everything's going to be OK" moment. I got an e-mail from a woman I work with within the Girl Scouts (or, who I will work with again once I get my act together and make it to another meeting) telling me about a job opening at the hospital (it's part-time). I told her I'd look into it and ended up applying. She e-mailed me later and said if I was really interested, she'd mention how awesome I am to the woman who, apparently, is conducting the hiring. So, awesome. I don't know, you know, that I'd get it, but it's nice knowing that there are people out there looking out for me.

I also have an interview at Best Buy tomorrow, which could potentially also be part-time. So really, if I had the fortune to get both of them, two part-time jobs is kind of like a full-time job, right? And even with one part-time job, that's better than none job. So I'm looking forward to (and keeping my fingers crossed for) something good to happen there. I actually think it might be coolish to work at Best Buy. Although I must say, I've decided that if someone from the paper comes in to interview people for the Grand Opening (which will be in mid-April), I absolutely will not talk to them. Karen pointed out it's a conflict of interest. Sarah points out that I don't want to help those people at all. Call me bitchy, but I've been called worse, so whatever.

Some of my money problems have been aided, and I also found out that I owe the government less than $300, rather than the $500 I originally thought I owed. Turns out, the interest I've paid on my student loans had an impact on the amount. That's just federal I owe. Initially, it showed I owed $22 to the state, but now, I'll get back $44. And that's, like, two tanks of gas. So there you go.

It's weird that the weather has been so ridiculously nice when, like, a week ago, it was freezing and snowing. I don't know if it's just North Carolina weather, which is known to be erratic, or if this is happening all over the place. I feel like I've heard from people in other parts of the country that it's happening everywhere. It's just odd to me that a week or so ago, there were Icicles That Could Kill a Man (pictured at right.)

I guess that's it for now. In short, things aren't stellar, but they could be much, much worse.