I Think I'm Addicted...

For a little over a year now, I've been experimenting with selling things online. Things ranging from photographs, hand made jewelry, old china dolls (etsy.com) to slightly damaged designer jewelry (I buy for cheap), shoes, purses, unused makeup etc. I've only been successful fairly recently and that success has come through ebay! 

   I finally signed up for my own account a little over a month ago and I've been a selling machine ever since! Well, a selling machine by my standards, anyway. Ebay isn't the best site to sell stuff (there are some extra fees when setting up to sell, and fees when you DO sell...blah, blah, blah) but it is certainly got one of the best range of people to sell to! 

   There are some things I have learned so far. I think my list would probably be a list for dummies, but oh, well. Here is my list:

1. Don't offer free shipping when you aren't selling the item for

enough money to even pay for the shipping!

2. Priority Mail is different than First Class Mail. (Priority goes faster, 

but can cost twice as much or more sometimes)

3. Do you really need to post so many pictures of your item?

On Ebay, they charge you $.15 a pic. if you have more than 1. Thinking ahead of

the cost of even posting the item takes away from your pure profit.

4. Be specific in where you ship to and your shipping rates! Someone from, oh I don't know, NORWAY could bid on & win your item that costs $8, but when you have a set

shipping rate of $4 and the cost to ship that item to Norway is at LEAST

$15, you will be in the HOLE $3. Not a good way to start out!

5. Spend a few minutes becoming familiar with your ebay account web page. 

Links like questions from potential bidders, and leaving feedback for

 people you've sold to, or bought from like to hide themselves on the page 

sometimes and can start to hurt your reputation as a seller!

Christmas Here, Already?!?

I was at Wal-Mart last night buying deoderant, bread, and Halls when I pass by the seasonal section and guess what they have out already? Christmas decorations! I know this happens every year, but every year I always think to myself "Halloween JUST ended! What is wrong with them!" Retailers just skip everything else and head straight for Christmas! What happened to Thanksgiving? The only stuff I saw that related to Thanksgiving was an endcap of leaf-designed napkins. I love Christmas, don't get me wrong! But the Christmas retailers and most of America celebrate is different from the Christmas I celebrate.
Speaking of Christmas, the Kansas City radio station, Star 102.1, just started playing Christmas music around the clock until Christmas day! I'm excited about that because I start listening to Christmas music around this time of year. Actually, I start listening to it around July, and then again in November. So, while I drive to school every morning I have more music choices to choose from!

Guess where we're going for Christmas!?!

For Christmas 2008 ("Christmas 2008" -Dad) My Uncle Joe is renting 2 beach houses at Myrtle Beach, South Carolina and is inviting the family to come, too. Well, actually if I remember correctly he's been renting a beach house at Myrtle Beach for a several years on Christmas, but this year he was able to invite us personally (at my grandma's birthday party) as well as my other relatives (who were at the birthday party, too). And we are actually able to go this year!
I always hated it when I was younger and Uncle Joe would invite us to have fun doing stuff like this with my dad's side of the family, but my parents were always too poor, too cheap, too lazy, too crazy, too busy or too whatever! I'm so glad that I'm a grown-up now! I can go on my OWN trips.
We're going to spend about a week there. He's renting the house from December 20th - 27th. We'll most likely drive down, maybe rent a car (we must travel in style!). Jay and I are going for sure (and my dad and my grandama - Mema), Jeremiah and Charlotte are maybe, hopefully going.

Charlotte and I were planning a trip on the side (while this one was panning out) to Chicago! I was having fun playing travel agent and seeing all the cool places we could go, but then the Myrtle Beach one was finalized, so we'll go to this one instead!

I'm pretty excited for Fall Break this weekend. Thrsday- Sunday! WOW! What a long weekend! What will I do with the time?

This past Saturday was my 22nd birthday! It was pretty fun! Charlotte took a photo shoot of me (for the model in me) then my mom cooked us (my family) a really good brunch (but it was really breakfast). Then at Jeremiah's parents house we carved pumpkins (my pumpkin turned out really not good) and when it got really dark we went to Gary's Berry's and "raced" through the corn maize. It was FUN! Everyone else had a date except for me, so I teamed up with Charlotte and Jeremiah. We got second place! It took us 49 minutes to get through the whole thing. The second half was the hardest. First place went to Jay and Andrea; it only took them 42 minutes for the whole thing. Jeremiah's parents only got through the first half (you are able to quit at this point if you want to), saw us come out of the end and decided to quit because they took so long on the first half! My mom and her date, Robert, took about an extra 45 minutes. After coming out of the maize, we were able to stand in line for funnel cakes, eat them, and talk a bit before my mom and Robert came out. At least they made it through the whole thing! Fun times!!

A New Star Trek Movie!?!?

So, I was browsing online and I come across this picture of the guy who plays Syler on Heros and I'm like, "Why does Spock look all young?" Then I clicked on the link and sure enough! They are making a new Star Trek movie with a bunch of young "pretty" people! It looks like a Sci-Fi channel movie. But, maybe it's a real movie. It's supposed to come out next summer (2009).

Bad Eyes

Ever wonder what it's like to have bad vision? This is pretty much what it's like... We're learning about the eye in my psychology class right now, so it's been on my mind. Plus Charlotte's husband, Jeremiah, spent the summer working in Alaska to save money so he could get Lasik (but he can't because his PUPILS are TOO BIG!). And I just ordered another box of contacts! So, eyes have been the reoccuring theme lately. Every once and a while on the way to or back from school (when I'm NOT driving) I'll take my glasses off and just look everywhere... of course I can't see anything, not even things that are in the car with me. I noticed that staring at headlights without my glasses make me more scared of running into them. Even though the light coming from the headlight isn't that big to a 20/20 vision person, to a blind person THE'RE HUGE! And since every car has 2 headlights, it seems scarier because it looks like twice as many cars! Then I put my glasses back on and I calm down. I kind of prefer seeing with my glasses on; I get a headache when seeing without my glasses for too long.

On Vacation

So, it's been awhile since I've written anything!
This is my life right now.......

I'm hanging out with weirdo-looking blue frogs and flying in planes with them! Just kidding (only about the plane part)! I've been going to school ALL THE TIME! 19 hours and I barely have enough time for sleep! And when Baby doesn't get any sleep she looks like this.....

A scary sight, huh? Well, actually it's not that bad. Even though I look and FEEL like that, I'm actually quite funny! My brain gets let loose and I respond to questions like this:

"Kezia, where did you get those scissors?"

"From my box. Where did you get your face..... from the trash?!"

or

"Wow, Kezia this is a good pizza sandwhich! Good thing you chose for us to come eat here."

(in reference to my large boobs)

"Ya, that's because Baby's got ESPN!"

By the way for those of you that don't know what I'm talking about when I call myself 'Baby', that is what my sister Charlotte and I call each other. We commute to school together (an hour and a half each way, 5 days a week) and old kid nick names ends up popping into our conversations when we talk to each other and about other family members. When I was little (since I'm the baby of the family) everyone called me 'baby' instead of my real name for the first few years of my life. Other nick names we use are 'Cha-cha' -- in reference to Charlotte, 'Ta-ta' -- in reference to Krista.... and so on.

I now have about 50 nick names! So, I've gotten used to people calling me whatever they want and I'll pretty much respond. Especially since my first name, Kezia, isn't the most common name in the world. People have trouble remembering it and/or trouble pronouncing it.

Some things my other siblings are doing:

Krista is going to drive a school bus... WATCH OUT EVERYONE! KRISTA'S DRIVING A BUS! At least this job we have convinced her to keep, so GO KRISTA!

And as far as me and school..... let's just say I'm glad the weeks are flying by (they have been flying by so quickly!!) because if I allowed myself to slow down I think I might EXPLODE! I know that may seen contradictory, but I'm on a pretty good roll with my grades and everything right now and if I slow down, I'll just get lazy and not do as well.

It's like I'm rolling down a hill! I can't just STOP rolling! It would be harder to stop than to just keep going!

Can you imagine rolling down THIS hill??? -->

Today, I got off work and came over to visit Krista, Jay and Will as usual. I then, as usual, stole one of their computers to get online and check my email, upload stuff to my blog etc. During all of this, Jay was making dinner and Krista and Will went shopping for some food, seeing as it was a very nice day today; lots of sunshine (so much sunshine it got REALLY warm inside the store at work today). Sunshine around these parts is rare. ANYWAY, when dinner was ready Krista cattle-called everyone to the dinner table to eat. I yelled, "Hang on a second!" I wasn't quite done with uploading all of my pictures. When I was done, I joined everyone in the kitchen. It was an unusual sight! The kitchen was clean and everyone was sitting down and eating at the table with a song from "Oh, Brother, Where Art Thou" playing in the background. As I began eating, Krista and I started singing along with the song and before we all knew it, we were all singing in harmony to the song. It was pretty fun! It was so fun, I ran to get my camera to video it.

That was a VERY long explination of why this video is so funny and cool, but in case you are forgetting, you're in Kezia Wonderland, so everything is a bit off kilter here!

Billy's Cruise to Alaska!

ALASKA!! It's a cruise ship! Since my whole family came up to Alaska to work for the summer, why can't Billy come along, too?!? Billy wanted to to take a cruise ship up here, but...... that was a lot of money for a puppet. So, my mom sent him in a priority mail box full of lots of food!! My mom also made him a 'tourist outfit' so he would "blend in." We took him out for his first tour of Skagway the other day. He got to see a cruise ship, and some Fireweed flowers, and he got to call his mom on a payphone! Pretty exciting for a puppet!

Billy also gave us a tour of the nearby flowers; what they're called and the history of them. Of course his descriptions didn't make any sense, but then again, NOTHING Billy says never really makes sense. That's why he's so funny! Here is a video of that.....

(right, a very artistic picture of Billy and his fresh-picked yellow flower tucked behind his ear.)

Billy's outfit consisted of a 'hand-made' Hawaiian shirt, sunglasses and a red visor hat. We walked from Krista, Will, and Jay's house, through the ally and down State Street to 1st Avenue. We were walking on the sidewalk so, we were able to look at lots of flowers, weeds, and really tall grass! We also saw 4 cruise ships docked and Billy even got his picture taken with them. Jay filled in as his 'vacation buddy.' They posed for pictures together in front of the cruise ships!

"It's a cruise ship!"

"Hey!"

"Yummy yellow flower thingies!"
When we got to 1st Avenue, we walked towards Alaska Shirt Company (where Charlotte and Jeremiah work) and got a picture in front of the building! Right on the side of the building were 2 payphones! Billy thought while he was there he might as well call his mom to tell her all of the exciting things he saw in Alaska! Here's a video of part of the conversation before I ran out of battery juice...

After talking to mom on the phone, we went into Shirt Co. and talked to Charlotte and Jeremiah while they were stocking. We couldn't record anything inside the store due to merchandise rules; not to mention my batteries were dead. It cheered up their day a little to have a visit from "Tour Guide Billy Baloney!"

Jay's Webcam

Jay got a new computer and we had fun playing with his webcam!

So, are people really stupid and ignorant or do they just forget their brains at home while they go on vacation?

Whatever the answer, people are stupid nontheless. Skagway is not a difficult town to find your way around in! It's 5 blocks wide and 25 blocks long and all of the streets are straight. But, all the tourists need to know is a 2 by 8 block radius! The Skagway newspaper has a section in it dedicated to stupid questions/comments made by tourists. A few of my favorites include...

A gentleman walked into Jewell Gardens (a restaurant/pretty gardens just outside of Skagway) housing break room and asked the location of the "seal show." He explained that he had been told to walk accross the bridge and there would be a seal show. "Where is it?" He was directed to the foot bridge a mile to the south and told to look out for them at Yakutania Point.

A tourist asked a bartender at the Elks, what kind of "spider" was hanging on the wall. The bartender looked up at the handsome wall mount of a creature from the depths of Taiya Inlet, and said, "That's an Alaskan King Crab Spider."

From tourists visiting Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau, AK:

"What happens to the white color when the snow melts?"

"How do you tell the difference between a fresh salmon and a smoked salmon?"

"Can you fish through the glacier?"

A very blonde and young tourist came into the shop where I work and asked my brother, Jay,

"Excuse me, where can I find a moose?"

(more stupid tourist comments to come soon!)

So I was thinkin'....

Thinking doesn't happen to me very often, but when I think REALLY hard, smart things come out! Imagine that! So, I've been thinking about my life and what I want to do with it and I've come to a conclusion... I'm going to have fun with my life and I'm going to try to accomplish EVERYTHING I want to do. You know those depressed people who always say,
"I HATE my life! I'm fat, I'm poor, I either too hot, too cold, too crazy or too depressed!... I know what I need! A new car! (or) A sweet, chocolately, buttery, creamy, crunchy piece of nautiness that if I consume enough of I will become bigger than a Sumo Wrestler! Then I will be happy."
Whatever they THINK they NEED to make themselves "happy" is just DUMB to me! To live life to the fullest in Kezia words is enjoying every minute of it. No matter what your doing: working at Wal-Mart, going to school, traveling, having fun with friends, WHATEVER! Life will become happer day by day. Always encourage yourself to think positive! Look on the bright side of things. Time flies by fast; better to enjoy every minute of it! If your always waiting for something else to happen to you, your life will fly by and all you'll have left of your life is a bunch of wishes.... and maybe a kitchen full of desserts. Hmm.... I think I'll have a cookie.
Like Jack Johnson says in his song "Dreams Be Dreams"
"Don't let your dreams be dreams,
you know this livin's not so hard as it seems
Don't let your Dreams be Dreams..."