Today's rambling: Takes some work!
Written on Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2002 at 10:06 p.m.
while feeling a bit

I finished my paper diary last night. I think that was the 5th or 6th diary I've gone through, and I always feel wistful when I end each one, as though I've just finished reading a book and now I can think back on everything that happened between the first page and the last. Actually, it probably seems sort of silly but I always end my diaries with something like, "And so this is the end of yet another chapter of my life," blah blah. This last diary, in particular, felt like some kind of novel. Most of it was just me going on about Geoff, but there were some really pivotal moments of my life captured in those pages. Those same moments were also written in this diary, I know, but for some reason my paper diaries are always more important to me. I guess that's because I tend to talk about more private things in there than I do here.

It was sort of funny going back and reading through some of my entries. I started this diary just a week or so after "Tuesday's Humiliation" (that day last year when I tried asking Geoff out and ended up getting embarrassed by Kirsten instead), and so those first few entries were all about me trying to get over my awkwardness...and then finding out he hadn't even noticed what had happened with Kirsten anyway! X_X It's sort of funny how things have such dire importance when they happen, but when you look back at them later they're just amusing. Oh well, at least I refrained from writing "Mrs. Amber [insert last name here]" in any of my more recent diaries, LOL! Whenever I read over my diaries from junior high, I just want to cringe and scribble out all that stuff. But I guess that's something most young girls go through, hehehe... :P

I'm not even sure if Jason put me on the schedule for any days this week. Most likely, I won't actually have to work until NEXT week, but I forgot to call in today so I'll have to wake up with Mom and call tomorrow morning. I spent about...4 hours or so fixing up just ONE of Charlie's two 55-gallon tanks. It was pure insanity! Part of it was due to the fact that he's decided to put in two kinds of filtration: undergravel filtering, and then that 'hook-over-the-side' type of filtration that most people use. The filter was this huge, complicated mess of plastic, and it took me at least 15 minutes just to figure out how to make it work! And then the lid didn't have a slot wide enough to fit around the thing, so Mom had to take a knife and carve some of the plastic away. >_< Too much of a pain, but the filter itself is kinda neat. Instead of having to put in a heater somewhere else in the tank, you can pop a heating device right into the filter! Of course, it takes a special kind of heater which is sold separately, but you'd have to buy a separate heater anyway! Hehe...sorry, I just love rambling about aquarium stuff.

The tank isn't as well-planted as I usually like aquariums to be, since he'd only bought a few packages of really tall plants (and I prefer to have plants of varying heights), but it's still really pretty. Now we just have to let the water cycle for a few days, and then fish can be added! I never used to cycle tanks, but after I read about it I decided it made sense. I don't cycle for nearly as long as everyone says you should, though. Just two or three days. And I still don't worry about testing ph levels and water hardness and all that stuff, because I've never done so in the 10+ years I've kept fish and I've never had a problem. Maybe if I started keeping more exotic varieties of fish I'd start periodically checking, but some fish hobbyists do those tests religiously. How relaxing is it to keep fish when you're constantly checking and adjusting things??

My gerbils are so obviously happy in their new tanks that I've already told Mom that Charlie can keep them. I'm so jealous because the three girls all climb up onto your arm when you stick your hand in the tank, and that was one of the things I'd always wanted to get them to do. Unfortunately, I just never spent enough time with them! They're better off with him, so it doesn't really pain me too much to let him keep them. And Mom says he really enjoys having them, so he probably won't mind keeping them, either. :P Famous last words, probably, lol!

Ah well, I think I've gotten out everything I wanted to say. This stuff didn't exactly fit in with my rant in the last entry, so I just decided to write another one! Part of me hopes that I won't have to work tomorrow, but at the same time I wouldn't mind getting in to tease Geoff about his Christmas shopping tomorrow. *chuckles*