As I am an avid lover of Harry Potter I thought I should say yay to Harry for today. Today marks the tenth anniversary of the downfall of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. The infamous battle took place on May 2, 1998 from what I just discovered on Mugglenet.com and J.K. Rowling's site. (It's not like there were dates in the book so, who knew!) So here's to ten years without Voldie! :)

So my sister went to the hospital this afternoon because she started having contractions. But they aren't strong enough to get her dilated yet so she got sent back home until they get stronger which could happen pretty much any second now. Her doctor sounded confident that she would most likely go into labor this weekend so at this point we are all just kind of waiting around. Who knows--He may be a stubborn little boy and decide to stay nestled in a ca-coon of liquidy fun for a few more days. I hope not. Than again, I also hope he decides not to grace us with his presence at 3 or 4 in the morning...I'll be very cranky and rather tired and my excitement level will be at suck... Anyways, I'll keep you posted on little Baby Owen's arrival.

I am bored. I have had very few and I mean very few phone calls and it has been nice, don't get me wrong, it just makes the day go by so much slower when its practically dead. So I am searching the internet for fun things to read to waste my time here.

I think I have strep. My throat is very red and sore and starting to almost close up on me a little making it difficult to swallow, and well breathe. Good times.

I was disappointed in last nights psych episode, and I am also very sad to hear that this next one is the season finale already. But last night ended with sadness all around for Shawn and Gus and for Shawn and his dad. I don't like it when they have tension between them. :( It just isn't right.

I'm gonna go read some Harry Potter that I brought with me so I may pass away the dwindling minutes that I have left to await dwindle-ism.

I love the snow. Except when I have to drive in it. Then it becomes enemy number 1 while my pedal to the metal right foot becomes enemy number 2 because it refuses to let me drive at a safe speed in weather that is deemed hazardous.

So I am trying to be more productive since last week was the biggest waste of a week ever. I am catching up on things and making everything go back to normal. *patsshoulder*

I am writing again. Like really writing. Like pages are developing out of my words instead of incoherent scribbled lines on random pages of a notebook. It feels good. Scary, but good.

I finished reading(a few weeks ago) the last book in the Gemma Doyle Trilogy by Libba Bray and I was very pleased with the ending. I felt a sense of completion, which seeing as it was the final book I should have, but I actually felt like it ended the right way. I am not describing this very well but what I am trying to say is with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows I didn't feel as though the series ended securely, like it didn't feel as though it was over. I just accepted it as such because mentally I knew it was. But with TSFT I didn't have to accept the ending, I believed it. Very good writing on Mrs. Bray's part. I expect many more great things from her.

*HAPPY 27TH BIRTHDAY JUSTIN!*

Okay so I finally got off my ass yesterday and got things taken care of. I cleaned my room, returned the movies, packed, did laundry, and took care of my webster crap. I didn't finish everything on my list, but it's a start! At least I am up and moving. Right now I am down visiting my friend at MSU and we are waiting for Psych to start again at midnight. Come monday I hope to be a little more productive, well, with everything.

horribly. I feel sick and congested and I have a major headache from my sinuses that will not go away for the life of me. I am dead tired because I am a dumb ass and procrastinated again and was up till five writing my paper then up at 6 for work. Today has just sucked. The U.S. Women's soccer team play at 3:55 a.m. and I will be up to watch them later so feel free to call or comment then, I will be up. So I can't believe the way Psych ended last friday = amazing!! I am just so sad that I have to wait till January to see my lovely boys again. I finally got to see Resident Evil 2 and I am now up to date on the series and cannot wait till friday for Resident Evil 3. It looks awesome! and Ali Larter is in it and I love her so I am super excited.

I hope I feel tons better by Friday and for Saturday which I could not be more excited about!!! Plus Wicked tickets go on sale this weekend and we just bought our Blues tickets for the season opener and the Detroit Red Wings game in November. Our seats are great and I hope the Blues have a great season this year. My Rent tickets came in the mail the other day!!! I am glad I decided to get tickets. I have a busy next few months it seems like, with the Corbin Blu concert saturday, blues game and rent in October, blues game in november and wicked in december. I have spent A LOT of money in the past two weeks than I think I have ever spent in my life. About time I enjoy all the money I slaved for over the summer, but I still think spending all this money will bite me in the ass someday. Well see. Maybe I need to start budgeting myself after next weekend. I should look into that. But I am off to fill my head with more medicine and try to do some of my homework for tomorrow before taking a nap before the world cup match at 4 a.m.. Damn time zones!!!

For some reason, I am in a really big harry potter mood. I don't know why, but I am, so I think I am going to go finish my homework then either watch a movie or read one of the books. Or maybe go on youtube and watch funny hp videos. The FutureSex/LoveShow was amazing of course and he looked so damn fine last night. Harry Potter and Justin make me happy! but i have to back to work tomorrow and that depresses me greatly...

Okay so I am currently at work and so bored it isn't even funny. I have not written in a long time so I am going to take this time to let out a lot of things that have been bugging me for, or have just really been on my mind awhile. (This may be long and seeing as my computer knowledge is rather limited and I cannot make a link to this, I apologize that is will be massively long.) Okay so first things first... Harry Potter= LoVe!!! I was so happy with the 5th movie that words cannot describe my glee! I cried of course because my beloved died. But I was so impressed with the acting in this film. They have improved greatly, not anything worth an oscar, but I can actually watch the movies and not laugh at them. I am so thankful that David Yates will be directing the sixth movie, and I hope the seventh as well. Now, as for the final book (and to not give away spoilers still) I am pleased. That is the only word that I think I can use, not because I think anything is wrong with the book, but because its still hard to accept the fact that it's over. It's the end. An end that I never wanted to have happen, but knew that it had to. When you have such strong feelings and connections with characters and a world like Harry Potter its bittersweet to have it complete. People can sit and say that they are just books, but in many ways they aren't. I am not stupid... I know that they are just pages with words, but those pages hold within them so much more than any book ever written. I began reading because of these books, because of the way they made me feel when following the trio in dangerous adventures at Hogwarts, or seeing innocent people dying defending good. Books make people feel things when reading, thats a writers goal. But J.K. Rowling has completely surpassed that level of just capturing a reading, she has brought them into the lives and world of some of the most fascinating people ever created. I wanna do that. I wanna be able to do what she has done to millions upon milllions of people. I wanna be able to connect to kids and adults a like just through writing. I know I am not doing a very good job of describing why harry potter has affected me so, but I am not afriad to say that I am completely enraptured by it. I have been given the chance to follow these characters for ten years now, and become a part of them, watch them grow up and watch even some of them die. I guess I am writing all of this because my mind is subconsciously drifting me towards the next issue on my mind which is writing itself...
Name: Erica Nicole Olliges
College: Webster University
Major: English with an emphasis in Creative Writing
Intent with Major: Author, or editior at publishing firm
Odds of Happening: *laughter ensues* Never.
Okay so I am pretty sure I set myself too high of goals to achieve in life. I have been thinking lately about my writing, about my skills, (or the lack thereof) and I can't help but think that maybve I have chosen the worng major. Maybe I just chose that major because becoming an author is a dream of mine, but in retrospect not something I can do. When I speak this nagging fear out loud to friends of mine from Webster (who are all seniors this year and I curse them to the ground for leaving me) they try to use the excuse for my poor writing that I am still young and need to have more experiences in my life and that I have just begun learning how to prefect my skills. But I wonder if its actually possible to perfect something that, well, isn't there to begin with. Did I just try to follow my dreams without actually considering if I had the capabilities to achieve such a career? No. No, I didn't. And so now here I sit at work, hating every minute of it because my job sucks, I am studying to become something that I have no chance of successfully becoming, and have no clue in the world what I am going to do with my life now. I have no desire to work in a cubical, or sit in an office to be yelled at constantly by clients who think they're greater than shit and better than me. In a way they are. They have the 3 million dollar homes, the golden retreiver, the hot cars and SUVs, the kids. They have everything, except service the second they snap their fingers. So what now? No profession that I know I could get into do I want to be into. The business world isn't for me, customer service isn't for me not because I am not good at it but because I hate it with a passion. So I have pretty much come to the conclusion that my life is going to full of hate because I will never be satisfied in whatever career I set into. Maybe that's just the Gemini in me. The twin. When one side of me is satisfied, the other must flip-flop its mind. I am very much a Gemini. I am so happy with the direction that my life is going...
My florida vacation was wonderful and I miss the beach terribly. I want to be in the ocean again. I want to smell the salt, even taste it. It was one of the most relaxing vacations ever, and I honestly had one the best times of my life with my family. Playing with my nieces in the sand and watching Claire experience the ocean for the first time (and get clobbered by a wave too) and just sitting out on the deck eating seafood, listening to the waves, and feeling the wind against bare skin. I wanna be back there with everyone again. (On a side note--2009 Harry potter Theme Park!! cannot wait for vacation again!)
Transformers was an amazing movie and I have a new love for Shia Lebouaf. He is a wonderful actor and will go far in his career, and I secretly wish my car was an autobot-- Bumblebee to be exact. He's so adorable, like a new puppy, only really big and not furry.
My sister Jen is pregnant and is due March 7th, 2008. I am super excited to have a baby back in the family. I miss being able to hold them and rock them and feed them. Claire is 3 1/2 so its been about 2 years sisnce we've had a little, little one and I cannot wait. They already have the names picked out too: if it's a girl Paige Kathryn Rooks, and if it's a boy Owen William Rooks. I like the name Owen, but too bad we don't have boys in the family so the name will never be used.
Tyler and Andrea broke up--- he's an asshole. That's all I have to say about that. Andrea deserves much better anyways.
So the next best thing that has been eating at me is the fact that school hasn't started yet and I am already behind. The preresiquites for my Jane Austen Contexts class specifically said that ALL 6 of her novels needed to be read before classes began.---- I have read 0. Yeah for another year of suffering when I promised myself that I would change and get my work done on time and be the student that I once was. So much for the goals I make for myself.
So I got to see The Lion King at The Fox and it was spectacular!!! The way they make the puppets move and how they are intertwined and made was just beautiful. I have tickets to see The Muny to see their production of Les Miz. I am rather excited b/c I have heard good things thus far about the production. (and I have 7th row seats!) Wicked is coming to The Fox in December and I am totally going with my aunt sharon and we are going to try to get the best seats available at any price! i am soo excited!
All in all my summer has been pretty amazing. I have had ups and many downs during it, but I have rather enjoyed the ups. My friends have were back in town (except morgan who I should hit repeatedly for leaving this summer) and I got to spend tons of fun times with them. I'm gonna miss the two numbnuts when they leave. My vacation was awesome, I made a lot of money (at a horrible price for my job), and I got to enjoy the magic of Harry Potter one last time.
To keep myself happy until winter break, I have a few more things to look forward to this year like FutureSex/LoveShow on HBO (JtLove!), and the release of the final book in the Libba Bray series. It was originally due out in September, but has gotten pushed back to December, but I'm still excited. Plus the ber months are almost here... I love Fall.
Okay so this post is already pretty long, and even though I have like a hundred more things swifting through my mind, I must go and finish up work and go home to my girls and play with Bailey. I don't know what's going on with me, but I just feel sound. Not content, or happy, or angry or sad, but sound. I have gotten things off my mind. That's the only way to describe it.

Quick post before work:

If I could go back in time to when I first entered high school and remember that feeling of wanting to make something of myself I would. I would redo all four years just to feel that feeling again, just once. At the place where I am now in my life, it makes me wonder about everything I have done up to this point in time. I am questioning parts of me that I never thought I would need to question. What if everything I did in high school was a lie? What if I just made an alter-ego during those years to go in place of the real me? I think I did. I think I really screwed up. Now I am just paying for it. Slowly but surely my walls will crumble around me... it just sucks to not have a hard hat to keep me safe from the damage.

Political Science... has a nice ring to it. Law school after that. Maybe.

Question the questions and answers will answer... or something like that.

I realize this post is random and full of codes and stupidness in some places so please feel free to ignore this random ranting on not much of anything that deems important to any other human mind but my own. However, I thank you greatly for reading if you just sat and read this entire babble. Your patienece is greatly appreciated.

Off to work now to listen to people bitch about how our service sucks even though their the dumbasses who cut their own wire doing yard work knowing perfectly well that their dog's invisible fence is right there and now they can't get it fixed for another week but god forbid they take their dog outside on a freakin leash. The world will end!!! whatever...

I just don't know what is wrong with me again. At the moments where i am trusted with amounts of responsibilities is where I used to be at my best. I used to work hard and try to prove myself capable of being a responsible young woman. I have lost that part of me. I am feeling as if I lack the drive necessary to become a functioning adult. Honestly. I am missing something, some sort of desire or will, a desire and will that I once held so dear to me growing up in high school. That passion for wanting to be responsible is something that I prided myself in and now I have lost that. I've lost a lot things really... and I don't think I'll ever get them back. I need to write this out but I don't have the time right now, I never do.

"I take a breathe,
Close my eyes;
Guilt surronds me,
As I become my lies."

1) he's manipulative
2) selfish in bed
3) a cheater
4) he makes me feel unworthy
5) he's too old for me
6) a liar
7) too invovled in his "culture" of the world
8) tries to turn every issue into a personal debate
9) uses me
10)when around his friends and we are on the phone, i'm the "it's just a friend" response
11)doesn't compromise
12)turns everything sexual
13)he says that i am "a very sexual person... i'm a natural"<--- seriously? wtf?
14)pretends to be innocent
15)one minute is confessing his need to be with me, the next is telling me he shouldn't have said that and doesn't mean it.

1) I love the way i look in my new shirt i bought for the justin timberlake concert.
2) I love my ability to love my family and friends.
3) I love my ability to get lost when driving to new places. U turns are my friends.
4) I love my obsessive crush on justin timberlake.
5) I love my tan.
6) I love my ability to hate self-centered bitches.
7) I love my ability to choose friends that care about me. (with the exception of one- K.F.)
8) I love my ability to drink an entire 6 pk of Budlight and still be sober. <--- true story
9) I love my ability to write what i feel.
10)I love my lack of self-confidence.
11)I love my ditzy moments.
12)I love my desire to conform.
13)I love my fear of spiders.
14)I love my desire to know about life after death.
15)I love the way I pronounce Breakfast.

Okay so I am finally writing after like a month in a half of silence and it is about time. I have so much to say and I don't even know where to begin!
My last post consisted of me freaking out and hating college, which is I still do, but my grades were not as bad as I thought they were going to turn out. I am going to work harder this next semester though to bring up my GPA. However, I am very nervous about my Creative Writing class because it will either make me or break me...
My friends came home from college and that would be one reason why I have not been on the internet in like forever, but why be on the internet when I could be surronded by the four most amazing people in the world whom I love dearly? Yep... my thought exactly... We got together at every chance we could and watched Queer as Folk the majority of the time or played a lot of Apples to Apples... I LOVE QaF!!! Brian is one of the most sexiest, smartest, gay man in the world-- if only he existed in real life. We also realized that we have common love for the Disney Channel... it's true and I am proud of it, lol. I love my friends... they keep my smiling, laughing, and true to myself. I don't think I have ever met a group of girls who I feel the most comfortable with in the world. I can talk to them about anything, i can by myself, and I know that they are always there. They mean the world to me.
One night while we were congergated at Sammie's house Justin Timberlake was hosting SNL. It the night of the infamous 'Dick in the Box'skit. I tell ya, he is the most amazing man in the world. Who can look hot while dancing as a cup of soup? Justin can, that's who. The concert is offically 59 days, 22 hours, and some odd minutes away!!! It seems so close, but yet so so far away still. I can not wait to see him in concert with my best friends and my sister. I wouldn't want to share that awesome moment with anyone else... ALSO!! He broke up with Cameron!! I could not be more excited; however, I could be very upset if he even tried to go back out with Britney Spears. First off, she doesn't deserve him. Second, she is messed up bad right now being a dumbass and has way too much baggage for him. Third, Justin is too good for her. He needs someone like, like... Jessica Alba or Kate Hudson... girls who are pretty and smart and decent. I love him!!! <3 <3 <3 My friends and I saw Alpha Dog with his beautifulness in it and Justin did an amazing job. I was very impressed with his performance and I though the movie was intense and stimulating. I can't wait to see it again very soon. Justin is now offically a triple threat! He deserves it...
Christmas was great with the family... My parents suprised me with a new computer desk and bookshelf randomly by setting it up while I was out of the house and coming home to a new room. It was lovely, except for the part where my parents found items that they were not pleased to find... thats what they get for not giving me notice to hide personal items, lol. My parents like to play the 'If I dont see it, then it isn't real or it isn't going on' game. Now it's real I guess, lol. So yes I also got my lovely new feather down comforter that I wanted, the final book in the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series which was amazing by the way, and my nieces loved getting hermit crabs from me for christmas. I bought all the dvd's i wanted because I didn't get them for christmas but aw well. My family and I planned our vaction to Florida in June. We are renting a Townhouse for the entire 11 of us... I can't wait to be on the beach with my family!!! I also can't wait for Tina and Bob's wedding in June!!! It is gonna be so beautiful...
I am also happy to write that I have put my two weeks in at my horrible job so that I can start working as a Groom Tech to learn how to become a Dog Groomer. I am very nervous and yet excited at the sametime to see what the future holds for me in this new career move.
I have sooo much more that I want to write; however, I must stop here because this is getting to be very long and I need to go to bed because school starts tomorrow morning... yay...

~Love and Peace~
'Rock the Timber'

I haven't written in a long while but that would be because I have been eaten alive by my homework and teachers! Yes... it's true... not really... but it could be... So anyways I would just like to take the time to pose the question of when did we grow up into a world that thrives on deadlines, an over abundance of work, and an overload of reading that only an insanely fast reader from like outer space could read and yet still comprehend? Did I miss the day that said 'hey! guess what? You now get to suffer the wrath of God by being stressed out of your mind and never sleeping! Congratulations! We call this step in your life Adulthood: The College Phase! Good Luck!' I must have because I have been bombarded by God's earthly demons in the form of what we call teachers or professors or whatever. I am sooooo sick of being busy and busy and never sleeping anymore, and feeling like I am a complete and total failure because I can not keep up with the demanding ways of higher education. I feel like I am being mocked, or punished, or something... I don't know but what I do know is that I do not like the person who I am and who I have become over the past few months... I am not myself... I am an altered erica... an erica of desperation, procrastination, and fear. The worries of life once again knock upon my door of contentment... damn them...

the two happy notes of this dreadful message: A) My friends are coming into town for thanksgiving!
B) Justin Timberlake Concert/Roadtrip is in 115 days...

~Love and Peace~

Quick post about boys... why do we like them so much??? I am completely head over heels for this guy, but I feel like we are playing a game of green light, red light. One minute we are great together, laughing, talking, getting close, but then the next day I get the 'I want you to be a close friend of mine and I don't want to lose you or mess things up by fooling around.' I don't always know what he wants. If all he wants is to be friends, that's fine, I just don't want to be led on one day and then not the next. I care about him... a lot. And I too don't want to mess things up. I would much rather be close friends with him, than nothing at all. I just hope I can learn to hide my feelings away...
~Love and Peace~

Okay quick post once again but I just have to announce my extreme excitement because WE HAVE JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE TICKETS!!!!!! I am so flippin excited as I am so sure that you cannot tell so I am telling you. But OMG!!! I can't contain myself! This week is the most horrible week right now but these tickets have given me a glimmer of light in my dark days right now! AHH! I HEART JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE!!! Plus, it's an entire roadtrip with seven of us! This is gonna be awesome!!! Okay must return to the week of hell...
~Love and Peace~

Okay just a quick post because well I don't have a lot of time, but I had to express my feelings about this horrible information that my ears have heard. (Or rather that my eyes have read)Ryan Phillippe and Reese Witherspoon have announced their separation... I don't even know what to say... they were the cutest, most perfect couple ever and I was hoping that they would last forever. I am seriously devastated to read such news of one of the greatest couples. I hope each of them the best of luck and pray they get back together soon before the divorce papers are filed and final.

Okay so my sister and I went to the movies tonight to see "The Prestige" with Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman. I absolutely LOVED IT!!! It was a mind thriller, but yet completely entertaining at the sametime. I got really pissed though because it was like the last 15 minutes of the movie and the projector broke in our theatre. So this lady came in and told us that we could switch to a new movie or just get a comp ticket for another time to see any show. My sister and I were livid. We had to know the ending!!! It's that kind of movie! So she and I went walking around and we tried to get into "Saw III" however it was literally complpetely full! People were sitting on the steps! It was nuts and my sister and I got to see the first ten minutes which were horrifyingly amazing, but then we decided to slip into the movie "The Flags of Our Fathers" and wait for the next Prestige movie to come on and we were going to go back in for the last part that we did not get to see. So we watched the majority of "The Flags..." before we switched theatres again to finally see how it ended and it was worth it. I love this movie and can't wait to see it again. It just sucks that we had to go through all that. However, my sister and I pretty much got our money back and saw a full movie and more than half of one so all in all it was a fun night lol. But anyways... GO SEE THE PRESTIGE!!!
~Love and Peace~

So I went to Saint Elizabeth Academy for my lovely high school education. My junior was pretty horrible, but I got involved with the spring musical that was being directed by the new music teacher. Her name was Ms. Poynter and she scared the shit out of me. She was intimidating and authoritative, but I did the musical anyways. I became Ms. P's assistant director on the play and had the most amazing time of my life. Ms. Poynter and I have been great friends ever since. I have left that high school behind and Ms. P and I talk pretty much everyday and see each other about every weekend. She is one of my best friends. Until a few days ago she was still a teacher at S.E.A and a damn fine good one. Unfortunately, Ms. P has resigned from her job there because of the principal and her fucked up ways. She has been harassing Ms. P and trying to find any excuse to get her fired, so Ms. P left instead. When she went in to hand the principal her resignation, the principal told her "Thank You." Who seriously says that? One of my main problems with Ms. P leaving S.E.A. is that she is one out of the two teachers there who keep the school going. The principal was threatened by her and to be honest she should have been. If it weren't for Ms. P's superior chorus, the award winning chorus who sang at Powell Hall, the school would not gain any attention. By losing Ms. P, S.E.A. is going to fail. They are going to lose enrollment and the school will have to close. Only 200 kids attend there now, and yes that is with all four classes. It is a small school, and it's now a fucked school because it is being run by a complete incompetent dumb-ass. That's the part that upsets me. I hate to see that school fall, but to be honest I'd rather see it down then have Mrs. Geldmacker as principal. I am so happy for Ms. P though because she is now free from the tyrant and can go on to bigger and better things.
~Love and Peace~