Domino - A review

Tonight I watched Domino. Really I had no idea what to expect, but I don't think this was it. Probably the last thing I expected was to see 2 former stars of Beverly Hills 90210, but there they were, the former Steve Sanders and David Silver. Their roles actually cracked me up. There were more twists and turns than I could've imagined and it is really fascinating in an abstract way to see how groups of people with no trust for each other or anyone really interact. (Yeah yeah I know this was a movie.) I really enjoyed it and given the dark mood I've been in it is good for me to watch things get blown up. The opening scenes were a little visceral. All in all I enjoyed it except for 1 little part. The crux of the scam is because of this little girl who is the granddaughter of a character. The daughter is a minor as well. The granddaughter needs a surgery which is not covered by health insurance. The problem is that the dependent child of a person's dependent child is coverable by health insurance. (Yeah, I'm a tiny bit of a geek like that, it is the reason I never watched John Q.)

Angry

I grew up in an angry household. My mother, a total loon, spent quite a bit of time angry, over something, over nothing it didn't matter. In fact part of our meltdown at Christmas was her irrational anger. Hence, I am rarely angry. I avoid it like the plague (I'm well aware of how unhealthy that is). I am angry right now and I hate it. I will stop being angry soon (I hope). But right now my whole person is tense and damn I hate it.

If only...

Given the week I've had so far, if only some of this were true:

Pisces
Quickie: A new person will become a force in your life, even if their role is ambiguous now.

Overview: And the hits just keep on coming! These days, you can do no wrong. Even your mistakes end up looking like strokes of improvised genius. Enjoy this sweet period of success and store up points for the future.

Daily singles love (by Astrology.com) Somebody who's been blending in with the wallpaper could suddenly stand out now. Try looking at those around you from a fresh perspective -- the one you've been seeking could be right there.

Daily extended (by Astrology.com) You've never been famous for saying anything that might deliberately hurt someone -- not if there's a kindler, gentler way to do it. Words can be weapons, and you know that first-hand. Whether there's lint on their lapel, a run in their stocking or they just so happen to be wearing something that does, indeed, look less than flattering for their body's structure -- if they ask, you'll find a gentle way to let them know, and they'll love you for it. If it's business and there's a meeting coming up soon, better be sure you also say it quickly. (There's a certain irony here)

Help! I'm trapped in my industrial undergarment

This morning I decided I wanted to wear my absolute favorite dress. I very rarely wear it because it is one of about 3 articles of clothes I actually follow the washing instructions on and it is dry clean only. (I know I could buy Dryel or one of those but our dryers at the apartment have 1 cycle, hot so I don't know if that would work with that.) I've been complimented on it several times which makes me happy and just wearing it actually makes me happy. :)

So this morning I go to put on my 'foundation garment' (For those of you who are fellow fat chicks, you know what I'm talking about, you force all the fat into something like a sausage casing to make your dress fall prettily.) For some reason I opted for the over the head method and got stuck in it. I'm standing in my bedroom arms flailing above my head because I can't move. I'm sure I looked like one of those inflatable guys you see in front of like car sales places. (I think SNL or Mad TV did a skit where the woman married one of those guys, it was funny). It was quite the drama for 7:00 in the morning. Ultimately I ended up changing out of that and just wearing regular stuff because once I had it on properly it was just a little too clausterphobic for me.

Speed dating redux

So I just got an email saying that there will be another round of Speed Dating on April 22. Well this post just became moot because I just remembered something I'm doing April 22nd but I was going to ask y'all if I should go. I was going to ask public opinion if I should try it again. The good was that speed dating was fun! The bad part a - nothing ever happened with my 1 match, which was also fine because he was weirdly religious and much more so than I could ever handle. The bad part b - many of the guys I chatted with said that they'd done it there before which would get weird if I ended up talking to the same guys. Now I have actually been absolved of any decision making thanks to the girls and our already planned and paid for activity of going to the gymnastics place and sleep over and earn the gymnastics badge.

You ever have that dream...

Where you're slipping and falling and then your body gets weird and you wake up because it feels like you really literally fell? You know what I mean? I do it periodically, usually when I'm just falling asleep and it totally pisses me off because then it wakes me up. I'm always stumbling off a curb when I have these dreams. I just read on MSN what that's about:

Sleep starts
One moment you’re drifting off to la-la land, and the next instant—whoa!—you’re dropping off a cliff. Sleep experts believe the brain sometimes gets the wrong message from the body during the transition into sleep, and associates the lack of muscle tension with being in midair. Arms and legs then jerk suddenly as they would to break a fall. Not yet realizing the body is simply at rest, the brain also instantaneously conjures a story to account for the sudden jump, and that’s why we picture ourselves falling, slipping or missing a stair.

Hops Brewfest

Subtitled yet another post about why Joanne is going to end up single with 40 cats. Part 2 (or 3 or 4) of a series.

So this weekend was the spring equinox brewfest down at the Seattle Center. Since Isa and I were signed up to be volunteers tonight, we went last night to get in for free and get our 6 tastes. We got there around 8:30 and left at about 10:10. We had a few tastes, but she doesn't love beer and I can only have cider. I did get to try Wyder's raspberry cider which I had wanted to try in the past but never had. I like it but I think I like Pear and Apple better. But I digress, there weren't a lot of people there and all the boys were watching a basketball game on TV so we didn't get too much flirt on.

Tonight we headed down to do our shift. We do the little orientation and whatever and Isa and I get sent over to one section to do pouring. The guy at that section doesn't need us so we go back to the volunteer table. The volunteer chick struggles for a few minutes and then determines maybe we could go over and help out at the front door. But we need to wait about 10 minutes, so we wander around for a little while and then she introduces us to Joe, but he isn't ready yet, so we wander around some more. We're standing around, just people watching and whatever. This guy comes over to me and touches my arm and we talk about volunteering. He was just coming off shift and we talked about which shift was better to volunteer for and how I would have to put up with drunks. So rather than doing the smart thing like introducing myself and chatting with him, we just stand there awkwardly for a few minutes and then he leaves. Sigh. And he was my type too, and in a reasonable age bracket. So then we go over to help Joe but he doesn't really need us. We go back to volunteer lady and she has us go and take down signs outside but that takes all of 5 minutes and we're done so now what. She gives us each a beer cup and 6 more tickets and sends us on our merry way. We drink a couple of tastes and then leave because Isa is tired.

Riding the ducks

I want to ride the ducks here in Seattle. I keep thinking having a GS troop is a good excuse, now if I can only conform the tour to fit a badge. :)

Last night we were learning about simple machines (inclined plane, wedge, screw, lever etc.). So we talked about the different types and then went outside and ran around like maniacs but also looked for simple machines in our regular world. It was more fun than I anticipated. We watched the fountain for awhile. I think when the sun is up later, as part of one of our badges I'll take the girls up to the fountain area and have them draw. As we were coming back to the office, we walked past the reflecting pool. There were 2 ducks hanging out in it. We watched them for awhile and talked about ducks. Next week we are going to do Rube Goldberg drawings. That should be fun too. Well it will be fun for kids who actually like to do stuff. For the one who whines that she can't do anything it will not be fun. (Which means it will not be fun for me either but whatev)

On the way home I dropped off another box of cookies to needle exchange volunteers. (Different ones than last time). This time I managed to offer him cookies without sounding like an idiot and the guy was really happy and thought it was cool. :) We chatted for a few minutes. All was nice with the world. :)

Carbon footprint

So I was watching TV and BP ran an ad about what is your carbon footprint. I went to their site and took the test. Apparently mine is only 4 tonnes of co2 per year. The average in the US is 18 tonnes per year. Living in a teeny tiny apartment with water for heat and no car plus mandatory recycling laws significantly affects my footprint.

In other thoughts, what should I do with the Girls tomorrow night? I really should know that by now.

Ferretus interacticus

I have been remiss in buying Tess her very favorite treat ever. She didn't get any last week because I ran out and then was out of town and I keep forgetting to buy her more so finally today I get her a bag of raisins. I go one step better and buy a bag of mixed raisins. So I'm sitting on the sofa and she would get a raisin and hide it then come back for another one. She does this several times and I notice that Rigby is a bit of a sneaky snake. She goes into Tess's hiding space and takes the raisin out and eats it. If I were Tess I would totally bitch-slap her, but Tess is a bit more meek. (Oh who am I kidding, I'm totally Tess. :P)

Everywhere Else

I've lumped all the other places we went to into one post since I didn't have a lot of pics of those places. For one thing, we only went to those places for 1 day and by Friday I was sick and exhausted and taking pictures was the last thing on my mind.

We stalked Snoopy to get this pic. This one made my sister happy. :)
Shamu! Jump shamu jump!
Elephant is getting a penny pressed. My sister loves these a lot. She gets tons of them wherever we go. I like them because they are inexpensive and cute little souveniers.
The penguin encounter! They are so cute!
Favorite niece (who is under 15 which is what I referred to her as) and favorite nephew feeding the bat rays. There were several places to feed animals and we fed squid to the bat rays which was really cool. They would come up to you in the water and slap with their wings splashing us with water. The sea gulls are really aggressive. While my niece was trying to feed the seals, a gull grabbed a fish right out of her hand. It startled her and cracked my nephew and I up. It was hysterical. She also tossed a fish to a seal and a gull swooped down and grabbed it out of the air.
Elephant is a musher!
Elephant was trying to decide where we were going. She studied the map at Sea World.
A rare moment of peace between my niece and nephew. They spent much of the trip picking on each other and then running behind a grown up for protection. It was enough to make me a little bit crazy.
The new baby panda at the San Diego Zoo! So cute. Apparently they are taught early on by their mommas to climb trees so that if threatened they can climb out of the way. They can go up to smaller and higher branches than their predators and be safe. My mom was thrilled to get to see the pandas.

Disneyland (part 2)

Space Mountain at night. I was pleased with the way some of my night shots turned out since I turned off the flash. I balanced the camera on a rail by the monorail where we were waiting to catch a monorail back to Downtown Disney to go to the Simba parking lot. This was one gripey thing my dad complained about, quite a bit actually. He has difficulty with mobility and at their home he uses a scooter. They didn't end up bringing it because of the weight of the van when packed with all their crap (seriously... 3 suitcases between my parents, just my parents! This doesn't even take into consideration the somewhere in the neighborhood of 5 cases of soda, 2 or 3 cases of juice and at least 1 case of snapple and 1 case of water. It isn't like we were going on a trek in the Andes for 6 months although you'd think we were with that much beverage). So the Simba parking lot is where our car got directed and that is on the other side of Downtown Disney which is a long ass walk for someone with mobility issues. As we walked he just bitched more and more about it, so I flagged down a passing security guard and asked if we could get some help. He was really helpful and got us a wheelchair to use until we got to the gate. He told us that we should use the monorail in the evening.

They redid the castle for the 50th. I really liked how it looked.

Pops and mom eating a beignet in New Orleans Square. (Yes my dad really does look like Grizzly Adams, or sometimes Santa depending. Although for this trip he did go and get his pony tail cut off so we should all be thrilled. I'm sure my mom was. He's looked like this at least since I was in college because one of the first things that Michelle said to me when she met him was "You never told me your dad was Gentle Ben.")

Another one of my night shots taken from the monorail. This is of the Matterhorn. I like the spookiness of the mountain.

Me and my idol Mary Poppins. Oh and my niece. I wonder if Mary can straighten my niece out.

My sis, nephew and niece waiting to go on autopia the first time. We rode it twice the first day.

Niece and my favorite Princess Belle. I got a pic with her but I think it is on my sister's camera.

My niece and the wicked queen from Snow White. My older sister loved all the villians.

Another one of my night shots without the flash on. I managed to take many cool pics of the fireworks. They were all taken with me just holding the camera. I was pleased with how well some of them came out since you have to be very still because the camera lens is open longer for the extra light.

Disneyland! (Part 1)

This is my niece driving a car at autopia. I swear I am now suffering from whiplash thanks to her creative driving skills.

My mother, father, niece and nephew heading into the abyss at the Matterhorn.

I have always loved this statue in Disneyland and Disney World. Darn random stoppers in the way. You'd think they wanted to take pictures or something. :)

For my birthday Isa gave me this cute little stuffed elephant. You will see Elephant in a number of pictures as she travelled all around So Cal with me. Here she is waiting to go on the Matterhorn.

Here she is making a wish in the fountain. It is a tradition for me that I make one every time I go.

Me and Eeyore. I always related to him best of the Pooh characters. Eeyore was probably a middle child.

Nephew, my pops and Cinderella at our princess lunch on my birthday. We had many of the princesses show up to wish me a happy birthday. :)

Favorite nephew in front of a statue in Toontown.

Vacay Pics

I'm going to have to break these up into multiple posts because otherwise this will be the giantest post ever. I had a rather good time on vacation. This was startling for many reasons, not the least of which was the Great American White Trash fight of 05. But I think the combination of the happiest place on Earth as well as the fact that we were going non-stop for 5 days straight helped us to not be bad in each others' presence. That and that since I was in control of much of the trip it was much smoother for me. Apparently 5 adults and 1 child are completely incapable of making a decision so frequently the task fell to 1 person, me. For example, when we were in Sea World I pretty much came up with the entire schedule of when we would watch what shows and where we went next. Also, since I'd been to Disneyland before, they just followed me wherever I wanted to go. It's rare that I get to be the boss of anything. :) So on with the pics and little odd descriptors that KTP loves so much.. :)

My sister booked me to fly first class. She failed to mention, however, that when flying first class on buddy passes you have to be dressed fancy. I clearly am not dressed fancy. So no first class for me. Also, I got pulled aside at airport security because of the boot. They took a little cloth looking thing and swabbed the boot, my tennis shoe and my hands to make sure there were no explosives involved with me. I fretted a tiny bit because I had ridden the bus part of the way to get to the airport. God knows what you could pick up on the bus. :) (A whole other side story... I'm on the bus in plenty of time to get to the airport with no problems. As I hit the sodo district (southern, industrial Seattle) I realize that the citypass I need to get into the attractions is on the door of my fridge. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. I get off the bus in a construction area. I call for a cab but they won't send a cab to just a street corner without a business address. Fuck fuck fuck. I get on a different bus. Luckily I get off at the library and across the street is a hotel with *drum roll please* a taxi cab waiting outside. I grab it and we go to my apartment then to the airport. I was totally stressed the whole time.)

Elephant & I flying. Even though I couldn't be fancy and fly first class, since nobody was flying Saturday night (tip, Sat nights are great to fly) I had an entire row all to myself. That was nice. Of course my sister doubted the brilliance of Michelle and had me fly into Santa Ana (John Wayne) which bit me in the ass because we were over 45 minutes late to arrive. Sigh. Really, never doubt Michelle is a good lesson to learn.

I'm back!

I survived the vacation. I did not end up an alcoholic. I'm sick as hell thanks to my sister. I have now contaminated everyone on 2 airplanes. I'll post more when I'm not thinking of dying. And I'll post pictures! :)

Edit: I can tell I'm really sick because a stupid Wal-Mart commercial just made me cry.

Another GAFM Update

Per Joanne's latest field report: Still no casualties. The rain wasn't that bad. Very busy with fun activities. No time for melodramatic flare-ups. Minimal getting lost while driving.

Update on the GAFM

For those of you who are worried about how Joanne and her sanity are holding up on the Great American Family Vacation, I just received this message from her:

"So far, so good. I haven't killed anyone yet."

T - 8 hours and counting

Until I head out for the Great American Family Vacation that may kill me. Actually that's a bad attitude to have going in. Until I head out for the Great American Family Vacation. I have to think positive and practice all the breathing and yoga I learned in the last 3 months (oh and pack the rum). Also I may swim in the mornings since the parks themselves do not open up until like 9 or 10. Currently laundry is washing and I am searching for a flexcar for the 3 hours between 9 & 12. That is easier said than done I'm afraid, but I need to get ferret treats for the kits while I'm gone and I think I need a new suitcase. I could easily go down to Ross for one, but the ferret treats are kind of hard to come by in this neighborhood. All the pet stores around me are so speciesist. I may also pick up a book at Target (where I'm going for the suitcase) since the book that I had from the library that I was going to take with me is missing the first 35 pages. I guess I shall have to point that out to the library since no one else has seen fit to do so. Blargh! I think I'm just going down to Ross. Sorry kittens. Aha! Success. One I have never known about but it is 6 blocks up the road. I guess the kit will get mallow treats after all. (Yes I leave the kits by themselves while I'm on vacay. I'm a bad pet owner. Seriously they are rather self sufficient. I just get treats to hide in the apartment for them while I'm gone.)

Word cloud

This is kind of nifty. I found the link on Poppy's site and ran it for this blog. I kind of dig the results.

Obviously I'm easily entertained. :) But clearly I don't swear nearly as much as I think I do.

Food indecision

I'm having the worst time with food decisions lately. I can't make up my mind about what I want to eat. When I finally do put food into my mouth it doesn't taste good and I have the added bonus of it upsetting my stomach. Today's lunch hit an all time low, tater tots & salad. The salad completely threw my stomach out of whack (Green stuff? What is this green stuff you are consuming?!)

So I hit the grocery store tonight figuring something there would inspire me. Not so much. When I'm in this funk, I tend to buy weird shit. Usually I buy a lot of processed stuff because I want food that requires little thought & work. As a concession to the fact that I have to eat lunch this week, I picked up taquitos. While in the frozen foods section, sausage spoke to me. Well sausage and those hashbrown patties, but those can't be microwaved so I only bought sausage. I'm thinking sausage and cheese in a tortilla for breakfast might not be too bad.

So then I figured teriyaki wouldn't be too bad for dinner. I go in and they're out of chicken breasts. They're in the same building as a large grocery store, are you kidding me? (Yes I realize they have a meat supplier who probably charges a lot less than QFC would but still...) I head over to my taco place (which I now know for certain is actually gluten free except the flour tortillas because well obviously). I'm studying the menu vigorously (as though I don't order the same thing every freaking time) and ask the guy about enchiladas because those actually sound good. He tells me they aren't worth the money really (same guy I ALWAYS have) and asks me if I've made up my mind. Here's where I get all embarrassing. I confess that I'm having terrible food indecision and that I have no idea what to eat. He kind of chuckles at me and I confess that I just have to eat the usual because I have food issues today. He laughed. And then I told him that they had to be good to get me out of this food funk. And they actually were. :) I don't know if it'll get me out of my food funk, but they were good tacos.

Weekend of volunteerism

Saturday: It was the first weekend of Girl Scout Cookie sales. Only 2 of my girls showed up. :( But we had a good time selling cookies and I think we did really well cookiewise. I'm not sure what we have left but we are definitely not in the same place we were last year. We are only going to do 2 site sales because I'm on vacation the 3rd week, but that's okay. We're not saving up for anything big. We had so much money last year that we got tto do some other activities with the girls on the troop's dime. There was a funny little incident where a woman asked if we could make change for a 20 and my little one announced rather loudly that we could make change for anything. So this older gentleman comes up and talks about 'thugs ears' and the neighborhood we were in isn't safe blah blah blah. It is true, this Walgreens is in a less nice part of town, but one of my kids knew about 1/2 the people going in so this was not an entirely unknown area to us. So then later my other girl points out that nobody else batted an eyelash when little girl 1 said that out loud so then she says "He must have noticed because he has thug's ears." Totally cracked all of us up. We cleared out 5 cases of cookies so that's good I think.

Sunday: Sunday was the Firefighter Stair Climb at the Bank of America Tower. I have done this the past 3 years. In years past, I did the registration table. Encouraged by Isa and her roommate, I decided to sign up for equipment removal. You get a lot more interaction with the guys and it seemed like a good change of pace. Holy crap it was hard work. Those tanks they carry weigh A LOT! Basically the guys fully uniform up and put on oxygen masks. They then run up all 69 flights of stairs to the top of the Bank of America Tower... Some of them twice. They do this to raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma society. (Which is the reason I first signed up to do this as Leukemia is what my sister had.) Working at the top was so amazing. These guys would come off the stairs, some of them exhausted and barely able to move, and it was my job to strip firefighters. ;) Ok really I pulled their helmet off and gloves and helped with their coats. And then I carried all their gear for them over to the first stop where they sat and caught their breath and waited for buddies all that.

I'm really glad I did it. I really felt like an important part of the process and the way some of them would thank you... It was just a nice feeling. I was called an angel by the guy whose water got spilled and I went and fetched him another one. And I'd get choked up by the guy who had ribbons with people's names on it that he was racing for or the guy who had a picture of a little girl pinned to his sleeve. And then at the very end was a woman with her team who had just walked up the stairs... no full gear. From the turban on her head, you knew why she was climbing. It was very intense. One guy collapsed at the finish line and they had to get medics for him. I got some strange guy's sweat in one of my ears as I was taking his jacket and it spattered. But it was all very good to do.

So after the climb was done, Isa's roommate gave me a ride home and I showered and put on clean clothes and the boot (I had done without it all day yesterday something I'm regretting slightly today). Then we headed down to Fados. It was crowded but we found coworker and coworker's roommate. We sat with them the whole evening and just had a really good time flirting with the firefighters. I smacked more straight guy ass than I have in a long time. :) There were several who were very cute (several who am I kidding, almost all of them were hot). I flirted a lot and got flirted with.* It was very nice. :) I got a whole lot drunker than I thought I would. I think it was mostly because I had only 2 little pieces of chicken and a small bowl of left over Chinese food & rice to eat all day long. I did keep drinking water both during the climb and at the bar so I'm not hung over today. As I was walking out of the bar this guy was out there and he asked me what happened to my foot. I told him I have Achilles tendonitis in my Achilles tendon which made them laugh a lot. I also called one of them cute which also made them laugh. Isa was drunker than I've ever seen her which was kind of funny. This morning she apologized for anything she may have done and keeps asking our coworker if she was too obnoxious. It was an incredibly good time and I'm totally doing it again next year.

*The married guy that was heavily flirting with me had early on identified himself as married (as though the wedding ring wouldn't have tipped me off) but said "If I weren't married... I'm not going to finish that sentence." And I said "If you weren't married... I'm not going to finish the sentence either, but you are and I don't cheat so there you go." He was actually very sweet talking about his wife and how when you know you know and he spent a lot of time having fun and when he met her he realized she was the one he wanted to change with.

incohetent

Holy crap I'm drunk and typing this one handed because the other is currently on ice. I will be able to post more about my weekend of volunteering in the am when I am less drunk, (although I'll be more hung over then). Is it bad that I am drunk at 10:45 on a Sunday?

My fingers are on ice because 3 of them got slammed in a car door. You can tell how drunk you are by your reaction when you have 3 fingers caught in a car door. If you just say open the door while laughing but you have tears running down your face... you are druhuhunk. I'll let you figure out how I reacted. :)

I had a good time at Fado's. I was flirted with by straight men. Unfortunately several of them were married straight men, rendering them almost useless. (Except for the slight ego boost to flirting with attractive firefighters part.) :)

I'll post more in the am because I am tired now.

And the debate rages on.

I went with Big R & Isa last night to a Town Hall debate between Ron Sims and the Reverend Ken Hutcherson over Gay Rights. The Rev. Hutcherson is the pastor at a large church in Redmond and is opposed to the comparison of gay rights to the civil rights movement of the African Americans. The basis for his argument is of course the Bible and the fallacy that gays choose to be gay and that he did not choose to be black. It was somewhat interesting watching them debate, though, because Ron Sims is also an ordained minister so the challenge there is how does Ron Sims reconcile his Baptist beliefs with his political wranglings. The question was asked, and not answered which was one thing that bugged me about Mr. Sims, he didn't answer several of the questions. At least he didn't answer them in the context that the question was being asked.

Rev. Hutcherson also brought up a couple of points that I honestly have a difficult time reconciling in my own mind. One is that if you are a person whose belief happens to go against the current tide, you're a hate monger or an ist or whatever and your beliefs aren't worth someone elses because they're 'wrong'. Those who were opposed to war in the early months after September 11th can certainly understand what that feels like since during that time Patriotism was running high. If you were against war, you were against America. It is funny how quickly we forget this fact. So what I have to believe is that it is his right to believe this way and not necessarily my duty to 'correct' his thoughts, this guy's mind is not changing. It is my duty, though, to fight for what I believe to be right and hope I can convince a few on the fence people along the way.

Another point Rev. Hutcherson brought up was that democracy is I believe something, I get enough people to support my beliefs, I'm going to force my beliefs onto you, whether you believe them or not. The audience booed him for this statement, but I don't know that he is entirely wrong. If you look at the smoking ban in the state. There were a lot of people with a belief (based on medical science, I supported the bill) and we managed to get enough support and we pushed our belief onto another group. Now, are smokers an oppressed minority, not really. They're definitely not a protected class. :) But his argument was that democracy is flawed in this respect. Mr. Sims countered, of course, that's the whole point of civil rights. You can't trust the rights of a minority to the majority. Which I also agree with.

Some other random notes of the evening:

In a debate setting it is counterproductive for the opposing group to shout at the person speaking. It just makes that side look bad. And this guy behind me embodied that so much because he shouted the whole time and was quite rude.

I never like the way the gays hiss when something gets said that they don't like. It just annoys me.

Wednesday evening cheese

I'm watching the Karate Kid 2 on ABC family channel this evening. When I was younger (and still now) it was my favorite of the Karate Kid movies. I don't even think I've ever seen all of Karatie Kid #3. I remember the first time I watched it. It was after I had already been to Okinawa, Japan. As I watched part of the movie with Kadena Air Base and Naha, I thought that's totally not right. As part of my trip, we had been to both Naha and Kadena Air Base. I think that was one of my first times really understanding the difference between movies & real life. You know when you're a kid you know that movies are pretend, but I don't think you really get it. It didn't diminish my love for the movie though. I always loved the Japanese dancing. That's my favorite part.

I also really dug the tea ceremony.

Speaking a different language...

I always find it so funny to listen to people speak in their own language and then hear them drop in a phrase or word that is distinctly English. I had 2 employees from Vietnam in my office doing some paperwork. One got called on the radio and he answered in Vietnamese and then I heard very distinctly "Benefits office" and then the rest. It made me chuckle inside a little.

This is kind of fun in a twisted way...

I've been looking for airline tickets for the vacation from hell. My sister may be getting me flight benefits with her airline, but I'm feeling a bit of anxiety over the fact that I haven't heard from her that yay she did get a ticket so I'm scoping the fares out. I have absolutely no comprehension about how airlines come up with their rates. I also find it funny (or freaky) that the airlines in the worst shape have the most outrageous fares. It is no wonder no one will fly Delta when the best rate I could get with 3 stops was 400 bucks. If I wanted only 2 stops it jacked the price to over 900 bucks. And these seats were all coach. WHAT?! Continental airlines still apparently serves you food (which I typically can't eat because of the whole gluten free thing) but they want almost 700 bucks and 13 hours. Why 13 hours one may wonder. Because apparently in order to fly Continental you have to fly into a hub (which is typical). Their hub options... Houston Texas (which brings the trip down to only 9 hours but jacks the price up to almost 900 bucks) or... Newark. On what planet is it at all logical to send a person on the west coast to the east coast just to bring them back to the west coast. It just gets better as I scroll down their page. For over 2k, I can fly to Hawaii and back to LAX or for over 3k I can fly to Houston to San Diego to LAX. This flight I'm looking for is a 2 hour and 45 minute flight. Maybe these prices exist to remind me that really relatively speaking $360 isn't that bad for a flight to LAX. (Or maybe it is another sign from above I shouldn't go on this trip.) And although priceline seems like it could be a good idea, I just don't know if I can give up the control they want me to to get that 40% discount by naming my own price.