Last night, as I was getting up to get ready for bed, one of my feet got tangled in the power cord for my laptop, and I ended up pulling the laptop down and disconnecting my portable hard drive.

That's not the bad part. The laptop's fine, as is the drive.

The bad part? My Zune was on the stool I'd been sitting on. The laptop hit the screen. Now when I turn it on, I get nothing but black lines. I can still hear music, but the monitor isn't showing jack.

Oh, and it gets better. How? A.) I bought it a year ago as of last month but I lost my receipt, so B.) it's out of its original warranty and C.) I STUPIDLY did not buy the extended warranty offered by Office Max and D.) even if I had, I don't know if they would have covered the damage because E.) Harry (the Zune) is a 30GB first generation model and F.) they don't make those anymore.

F. My. Life.

Last night I went with my mom to this place to get snowcones, and we took Pepper with us. Once I'd placed our order, I went back to the car so that I could let Pepper out to do her business. I walked with her over to this little grassy spot, and I stood still while she waited to find a place to presumably do her business... when I felt something crawling on my legs.

Basically, I stepped into a nest and I GOT BITTEN BY FIRE ANTS. AUUUUGH. That's the second time!

Okay. I have gotten over most of my "Zac Efron is a Force of Potential Pretty Boy Evil" rage because of A.) 17 Again, in which he was insanely charming and B.) he got a haircut and is making it work really well. But still, I will never get rid of the "zac efron must be stopped" tag because I will probably still find time to use it. LIKE NOW.

ANYWAY, THAT IS NOT WHAT I CAME TO POST. I came to post this picture of Chuck Bass Ed Westwick--and he's kind of a two-face guy. Like, sometimes he has that whole smoldering thing going for him and then the next minute he's just kind of weird-looking. I don't know how to explain it. ( But damn, sometimes he looks so dapper it's ridiculous. )

Also, ( here's another poster for '500 Days of Summer', which looks entirely too cute. )

WHOA, WAIT. I got a letter from my college's branch of Sigma Alpha Lambda, and they want me to become a member. I feel... surprised, because while my GPA's been in the good range, I never thought I'd be eligible for, oh, something like this.

Yesterday when I got off work, I was at Marshall's, and as I was looking at shoes on the clearance racks, I spotted these black stacked heels with cork soles and pink and white flowers on the toe. And then I saw that they were Prada and I was stunned, since I never expected to be within touching distance of anything Prada ever in my life. And they were my size!

So I tried them on, and was able to walk with them. I didn't buy them because A.) I thought they were cute, but just okay, and B.) even though they were clearance, they were still $200.

Anyway. Here are two Lost related pictures to discuss: ( So, discuss! )

The 65 Most Romantic Movie Couples. I am genuinely surprised that about half of that list has some of my favorite movie couples ever in it. Aww. :]

Oh. My. God. On Primetime Crime tonight, they are talking about Melanie (the girl who I went to high school with who was murdered about two years ago). I knew the pictures from the promos seemed familiar. God.

Dear Sonic: Your Cherry Limeade Chiller is most satisfactory. Please make it a regular menu choice--or not, since I've had three in the past 48 hours. But bring it around once in a while, if you would be so kind.

Always, Candice

Unrelated: heeeeeeee.

Dear f-list, I come to you with a question. Is it just me, or does Shia LaBeouf sometimes look like he could be Lee Pace's little brother?

( Photos for comparison. )

Once a week, I swear that I get asked the same question by customers:

"So, is everything 50% off?"

In the shoe department at the store I work at, any of the shoes that end in 88 cents instead of 99 cents are 50% off of the price shown on the label. So if the shoe is $59.88, it's going to be about $30 plus tax. All of the shoes that are 50% off are marked with a yellow flag label on the display that says "CLEARANCE 50% OFF OF PRICE". We have to mark the boxes of the clearance shoe with yellow and white stickers with the price on them so that we (and the customers, presumably) will know that these boxes hold the half price shoes.

And yet, at least once a week, someone comes in and asks me (or one of my coworkers) if everything in the department is 50% off. They do that because they don't take the five seconds to read the signs, I'm convinced. Because if everything in our department was half off, we would be ransacked.

And tonight, we closed early for a Saturday (at seven instead of nine), and I swear, there was a guy there looking for socks for ten minutes after the other customers had left. And they all left at, uh, 7:10 or so.

Anyway.

Reply to this meme by yelling "Words!" and I will give you five words that remind me of you. Then post them in your LJ and explain what they mean to you.

austen gave me: Mariah Carey, Lost, YA literature, Pirates of the Caribbean, and sneakers.

( And so I talk about those things. )

According to the little counter in my profile, my LJ's birthday/anniversary will be in 44 days. Right now, I have 2464 posts. If I could get to 2500 in those 44 days, it would be kind of awesome. I think I'm going to try that.

Every year on Independence Day, I feel compelled to watch the movie. I love big budget disaster movies, and I love watching Will Smith scream at a dead alien in the middle of the desert. I know they're scientifically improbable... but I love watching things go boom even though the idea of them doing so scares me in real life (example: I was insanely paranoid after I saw Deep Impact for the first time. I still love that movie but it freaks me out like crazy). So I'm also psyched about 2012, which is directed by the same guy who did both Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow. I have no idea why it's coming out near Thanksgiving, but YAAAAAAY BIG MOVIE WITH THE SISTINE CHAPEL FALLING DOWN AND FLAMING SPACE DEBRIS!!!

Um, anyway. Here's America the Beautiful, as sung by Ray Charles. It's the version that plays during the 4th of July game part in The Sandlot. That scene is one of my favorites in a movie. Also, every time I think about that song I think about The Westing Game.

It's almost 11:30, and I am helping to make macaroni and cheese. Such is my life, people.

There is good news, though: I have four pills left and I will be done with my antibiotics. YAAAAAY FINALLY. I have managed to forget to take them at least four times in the past two days, though. I hate that, when you get to the final round of antibiotics and you tend to kind of... not remember that you have to finish them out completely.

Over on Tumblr, dailycuteboy is going to be the death of me. ( I do not know why I am cutting this, but, yeah. )

I'm taking this from giventofly37:

This is not meant to be a 'trite' list. It's not meant to be a substitute for your favorite movies or books or fandoms. It can combine all of those things, if you truly -love- them, but the list is meant to be created with substance. It should involve not only the things that you love now, but the things you've loved since childhood, the things that have endeared themselves to you throughout your life. Things that provide structure for who you are. Try to make them as personal and relevant as possible. Really, this is the only rule.

And so, here's my list.

Beautiful handwriting, spending rainy days curled up in bed with a comfortable blanket and a good book, Snoopy and all things Peanuts related, a good story, Pepsi, North Carolina, riding/driving in the car with the windows rolled down and the radio up on a beautiful day, cherry popsicles and lollipops, listening to my dad's stories, puppies, the feeling you get when you go to a concert and realize that the person whose voice you've heard over the radio or on a CD or whatever is really there, Mike Rowe's asides, Stevie Wonder, riding a bike on a clear afternoon, bowling with friends, the feeling you have when you walk out of a theater after seeing a good movie, people with green eyes, Mariah Carey's "Always Be My Baby", fresh pineapple, dictionaries, swing sets, warm (but not hot) spring/summer/fall days, the first day of fall when you can wear a jacket, overcast gray days, breaking in a new pair of shoes, "Singin' in the Rain", oranges, the French language, Christmas Eve services, anything cinnamon-scented, the few seconds of crackling silence before a record starts to play, walking through the rain with an umbrella, Heatwave's "Always and Forever", knowing that a new episode of a favorite TV show is coming on that night, getting a good grade (or at least a grade that is much, much better than you'd expect it to be), huddling around a campfire, writing on the first page of a new journal, frozen lemonade, Hawaii, going on an adventure (or feeling like everything has the potential to be an adventure), "Waltz of the Flowers" from the Nutcracker suite, the sound of both of my grandmother's laughter, Oxford commas, red dresses, TV Tropes, laughing at some stupid thing that someone's just told you, fangirling someone/something and being stupid about it but just being caught up in the moment, the hymn "Total Praise", clean dog smell, watching people who are good at what they love doing it and being happy doing so, Moulin Rouge, great smiles, beach air, socks that are warm from the dryer, laughing with my mom, blue blue blue blue, rereading old journals, songs from Disney movies (especially "Beauty and the Beast", "Part of Your World", "I Wanna Be Like You", "Ev'rybody Wants to Be a Cat", "A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes", and "Why Should I Worry"), songs about unrequited love, the British spelling of the word "enamored", the version of "I Only Have Eyes for You" that Frank Sinatra did with Count Basie, New Wave, the teachers who believed in me and encouraged me, Immaculata Catholic, boys with nice hair, Topher Grace, listening to the Spice Girls, stickers, wandering around Barnes and Noble or Borders, new textbook smell, old-school R&B, having a great hair day, dark denim jeans so dark blue they're almost black, looking at baby pictures of my brother (he was a cute kid, what happened?), my beat-up Ford Windstar, slow dancing with someone you like, a perfectly made pizza, rosaries (even though I don't remember how to pray with one and I'm not Catholic), the Christmas season, the beginning of summer, Lost, making weird faces in front of the mirror, remembering my favorite things from when I was a kid, stuffed animals, looking at gorgeous dresses, Halloween, decorating a Christmas tree, giving someone a great present and then getting a great one in return, making little kids smile, getting a good night's sleep, walking through an airport, a great pen, LJ, writing a character and really feeling like you get them for the first time, Snarkfest, Durham, being in a new place, Franz Ferdinand's "40'", getting mail, Lloyd Dobler, "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You" from 10 Things I Hate About You, men with great shoulders, slip on sneakers, when people clap at movies, spinning and spinning on a merry-go-round, laughing so hard that you cry, when my hair is perfectly smooth and soft, 11/4/08, knowing that I am a textbook Sagittarius but not taking that too seriously, a long phone conversation, pine trees, the mountains, watching a sunrise while standing around or lying in bed, the term "BAMF", guys with six packs, getting reblogged on Tumblr, Bath and Body Works' apple body spray, fleece blankets, Christmas music making everything better, being so happy that you can't stop smiling, getting a compliment from a customer after a long day and when your feet are killing you, "Summer Breeze", full orchestras on songs, that feeling you get in your chest when you see someone or something that is so beautiful that you don't know what to say, hearing a song that makes you remember a really good moment, blowing bubbles and having popsicles, ballet, daydreaming that you're the girlfriend of your current favorite celebrity of the moment, eating the blue M&Ms last, one hit wonders whose songs make you smile, magazines you can't stop leafing through, crying when a movie or a book is that good, Friday nights where you don't have to do anything, going to concerts, collecting quotes, the feeling of relief I get whenever I leave a therapy session, and waking up after a perfect night of sleep and feeling like the day is going to be excellent. Among so many other things.

Man, what a long day that was.

I was at the Cowboys Stadium from about 6:15 to 5:30 that afternoon. The wait was long but we had fun at parts--there were people standing in the lobby having a sing-off, and there were tons of really awesome singers and everyone was just having so much fun. There was some church group out there while everyone was waiting to be let in and they were attempting to save everyone's mortal souls, which just irked me because I don't need someone telling me about the status of my soul. That's my business and God's, TYVM.

And in the process, I managed to get kind of congested, I spent $11 on food, saw quite a few ridiculously hot and talented guys (who got cut), spilled water on the corners of my journal in my bag (THE INK RAN EVERYWHERE ON SOME PAGES. I am a little depressed about it) and I ran into a bunch of people I knew from high school, including one of the security staff at the stadium. Fun!

It was awesome/weird to see the entire Michael Jackson videography on MTV last night. It's part of the reason why I didn't go to sleep 'til about 1 A.M., because it hit me whenever I logged off last night that maybe MTV had this epiphany that, well, once upon a time they used to be about showing music videos.

Finally: OMG YAAAAAY! I find it oddly charming that ONTD seems to mostly like Topher.

Honestly, whenever Grady (one of the guys in footwear) came up to me and said "Michael Jackson died," my first thought was dude, this is just like that time where someone swore that CNN.com said that Chris Tucker died.

Relatedly: there is a picture of me as a baby with my cousins, and we are all wearing Thriller jackets and sunglasses.

Seriously, I'm going to bed. I'm going to try and wake up at 5 so I can get a good spot in line tomorrow.

Even though I loved my previous layout like craaaaazy, I changed it. Et voila! I just need to change the body font color, since it is a little too light for me to read.

Two other things:

1. I have cling wrap around my left wrist to keep the wrist band from getting wet when I go to take a shower. I hate cling wrap with a passion, by the way.

2. I just found out today that The Brothers Bloom is playing at the theater up the street from me. EEEEEEEEEE FINALLY I CAN GO SEE IT.