Movies!

I went and saw V for Vendetta yesterday. It was excellent. I don't know what I thought the movie was about, but it wasn't what I saw. For some reason I thought she was V and she was avenging someone else. I had no idea. From V's opening speeches I was transfixed by the guy. His opening monologue when he saved the girl was brilliant, I don't know if that's lifted straight from the books or from the writers of the movie, but once I picked up on it I was hooked. And now that I know that V was played by the same guy as the one who was one of the drag queens in Priscilla Queen of the Desert, I'm even more amazed. I really like Natalie Portman but I am starting to believe the reviews I've read of her being a bit wooden. I thought she was a tiny bit stiff in this too.

I watched The Interpreter last night. I had wanted to see it before and finally caught it on cable last night. I liked it too. It moved quickly and kept my interest. Up until the end, I had no idea what was going to happen. Nicole Kidman was electrifying. Just the right mix of quiet desperation and fear. I don't remember if I heard good things about the movie, but maybe that helped me to like it more.

This morning I watched Something the Lord Made. It is an HBO movie starring the brilliant Alan Rickman and quietly powerful Mos Def. Basically it chronicles the partnership between Rickman and Def as the doctor and his assistant who pioneered heart surgery. They saved blue babies through their amazing techniques. I really enjoyed it too and highly recommend it.

The Glad Game

Have any of you seen Disney's Pollyanna? I actually love it and will watch it almost every chance I can when I see it on TV. This morning I was feeling rather woe is me about all the stuff I feel like is going wrong. I've been hurt by someone I thought was a friend (I actually thought I was done being hurt by this, but clearly I was wrong) and things didn't work out quite the way I wanted on the not a thing with the wc so I was all set to write a long whinging post about how my life sucks. And then I decided to reframe it and look at the great things I do have. Basically play the Glad Game. (Really watch Pollyanna, I really am trying hard to live my life by 2 principles I learned in this movie, 1 being the glad game, the other being the quote from Lincoln, If you look for the worst in people expecting to find it, you surely will)

1 - I have great friends in Michelle and Isa and Big R, and in newer friends like The Italian Guy and Harry Potter. They accept me for who I am and don't try to have me conform to their standards. They would never talk badly about me behind my back to make themselves look better.

2 - I have a good job that allows me a lot of time outside of work to pursue the things I love to do like volunteer.

3 - I earn enough money to pay my bills and have some extras like HBO or going to the movies.

4 - I have a great Girl Scout troop. They rock and make me laugh every meeting.

5 - I have a good friendship beginning with wc. Even if nothing ever happens that I want to happen, I still enjoy talking to him and listening to his band. And who knows, maybe at one of the shows I go to I will meet someone else. :) (although I don't know if I'm evolved enough to be able to talk about a girl he is dating or wants to date with him yet... :P )

6 - I have a good apartment that is close to everything I could want and allows me to be car free. Yeah it needs to be cleaned but I really like my little space especially because it is all mine.

7 - I have great tits. Yeah, this is shallow and in the grand scheme of things doesn't mean a lot, but I like 'em and that makes me happy.

8 - I'm funny and fun. I like the simple things in life and have a good time with people around me.

I'm sure there's other things to be glad about, but these'll do for now. :)

Thing that wasn't a thing...

Well it clearly wasn't a date. CLEARLY. Before the show, we both just hung out in our offices. We kind of did our own thing. I sat in my office and wrote a blog post I didn't post, and he read. We headed over to the show together and chatted before hand. Watched the show and laughed and laughed. During intermission we chatted some more. During the 2nd half there was some actual physical contact... that is if you count 1 elbow barely touching the others as we shared the arm rest as physical contact. After the show we walked back to the offices and went our separate ways. I think I may have to face the fact that he really isn't interested. Which is really just the capper to my crappy day.

Edit: I like talking to other delusional girls. :) I just spoke with Isa who assures me that a - he's a geek boy and they are like a minimum of 10 times more difficult to be involved with than regular boys. b - I shared with her that he had knocked on my office at about 6:00 to see what time we were going to meet and I had been crying which was clear due to my red eyes so she thinks he was being respectful since he knows I've been upset and hurt and angry today. I appreciate her. :D

Was gonna....

I was going to do this fun post with pictures of what I'm wearing today because of the thing that is not a thing that I'm not excited about in a girly dumb way and that I have no hopes or expectations for... But I can't. I know I've taken pictures of myself in the tank top I'm currently wearing before (both at Disneyland and I thought in Hawai'i) but apparently I've never saved them anywhere on the net. (Either at snapfish or geocities where I store pics) so no pic of my blue tank top. So that's that. In case you care what I'm wearing to this thing that isn't a thing, I'm wearing a cute tank top that I like a lot that is kind of a faded dark blue with embroidery on it. I have a black zip up hoodie over it making it appropriate for work (to hide the dragonfly tattoo on my back if nothing else). And jeans and my little black shoes. All in all I think it is a cute, yet functional for work outfit. :)

I seem to have put my friend Isa into a pickle without meaning to. Someone I know is no longer speaking to me. It has been going on awhile and several people are actually rather surprised it is still going on. I'm not. A mind has been made up and that's that. I'm sad but getting less sad about it. However, this is the cause of Isa's pickle. She knows that since person A is not speaking to me, I am not speaking to person A (why bother obviously). She never knows how to respond when we walk past person A. I will not acknowledge the presence of person A, but person A will say hi to Isa. She gets flustered. I've told her it doesn't bother me if she wants to talk to this person and it would, in fact, be petty and ridiculous of me to 'forbid' it. We talked about it today (since we saw person A today) and I asked her if it would be easier if I just forbid her from talking to person A any time she & I were together. Apparently it would be, so I did. :) She's so silly sometimes.

Pobrefeetas

(Poor little feet) :)

Today was our annual benefits fair. I put it on and it was a rousing success, thankyouverymuch! :) I dressed up especially for the occasion. I am very happy in the dress I'm wearing, it is one of my favorites. My poor feet, though. I've been on them for the hours from 9:00 - 2 and they are unhappy campers. I also didn't eat too much today so I may be starving. :) But the vendors were thrilled. The employees enjoyed themselves. I look good to my little and big boss. What more do I need?

In other news, my potentially exciting, ok maybe not but it is kinda cool but I don't want to get my hopes up just so they end up dashed but really it could be good, or nothing at all so let's not be all girly about everything news is.. The artist formerly known as WC and I are going to a play together. I was talking last week after mission day that I saw a piece of the play during mission day and how great it was and he mentioned he wanted to see it and asked me when I was thinking of going. I told him I was going to go next week (this was Thurs last week) and he said when I made up my mind, let him know and he'd go with me. So yesterday I confirmed and we're planning for a Friday show. So while it isn't a date exactly, it is an event outside of the work place (sort of since it is on campus) and could be a step in the right direction. But I'm not excited. Ok?! :)

Dreaming of the sun...

When I was in college, the dorm I lived in had distinct sunny side and dark sides. In fact by Memorial Day the dark side of the building would still have snow in the shadows. Today, I'm looking out the high windows of the building I work in and the sky is blue and the sun is shining and I'm day dreaming about being in college again. I'm dreaming about lying on my bed on the sunny side of the dorm (all 4 years I was on the sunny side of the building) and just taking a catnap in the sun. It was usually chilly outside but in this sunny spot it was toasty and just perfect.

I need the sun. I've been sad a lot more than I like to be lately. I need to get out of that mindset.

3 Strikes we're out...

Three times in 3 years I've taken my girls camping. Three times in 3 years it has rained on Saturday. I know I live in Washington state and all but I would really REALLY love a camping trip with nice weather the whole time.

I also have to figure out how to handle this encampment director/troop leader position. The obvious and easy answer is to not be the encampment director, and after this year I am tempted to throw in the encampment director towel. I like the organizing and the putting together ideas and all that. I like to be the boss too, ;) but I really can't keep doing this to my girls. It isn't fair to them that I keep running off to do encampment stuff. I also struggle with when I am with my girls am I missing something I'm supposed to be doing for the encampment. This year, though, it did work out for us better though. One of the troops that was in an indoor unit (as opposed to our 1 wall and 3 1/2 walled cabins) left Saturday night instead of Sunday. I snuck my girls over. We slept in relative comfort (it was still a bit cold but not COLD like it was going to be).

I did have some trouble really early on Friday night. One new troop who had never been out there was really bitter about their location and their cabins. I can't totally say I blame them. Their cabins were more 'open air' than ours. Imagine a diorama box. That was their cabins. But the bottom line was they had too many people and I would've had to put them either in 2 units or in this 1 big unit. I had just arrived when they came stalking over all pissed off. The cabins were bad. They were too spread apart. They thought they were going to be all in 1 giant cabin. Blah blah blah. So I placated as best I could which wasn't at all and sent them on their way. Then a short time later, they were back and yelling all over me. My moms amuse me... they were inside the lodge and ready to come out and have my back in case I needed it. :) Later I discovered there were 2 cliques in this troop. Clique 1 was fine with it and coped and were actually VERY helpful in the kitchen and all that. Clique 2 were the bitches and not fine and not helpful and generally in the way acting all entitled. The interesting thing, they were all the same type of background (fancy private school kids, high powered moms).

I spent most of Saturday wet. It started raining in the early afternoon (I think during lunch) but we persevered. We hiked around the lake and I got soaked. Then we hiked further to look at a bird blind and I was still soaked. By the time I got my wet tennis shoes and socks off my feet were dying from being so wet the whole day. My tendon is also looking very bad today. I just couldn't boot it in the rain. All the rain ruined my favorite part about camping... the shower after camp where all this woodsmoke and out door smell just totally seeps out of my pores while I shower reminding me of camp. Not so much this time. We did campfire indoors and I just smelled of damp and must and ickyness.

The most important part, though, the kids had fun. I even heard from some of the nonbitchy moms from bitch troop that their girls enjoyed themselves and wore their sleeping outside like a badge of honor. They all really liked the painting the pots and the moms thought it was a clever idea and were, of course, pleased. So that's the best part. Oh and the volunteer I had from my employer rocked! And the quantity cook I managed to secure was also awesome. It was a good trip on the whole.

I'm off!

I have confirmation from my remaining volunteer that she's coming, and that I'm picking her up at 3:00 PM.
My cookie mom has turned over the deposit receipts and we have found the cookie money! (Thank goodness!) (Although I do have to go to the bank and convince them that there never was supposed to be a savings account and move all the money.)
I have nothing packed (but will do that in a moment.)
I have arts & crap supplies coming out my ears and ready to be put in boxes to load into the car.
I have kids who are probably bouncing off the walls on their field trip today because they're ready to go.
I have a rental car waiting for me down town.
I have activities planned... activities planned... activities planned.
I have to stop into Kinkos to print some things out (not having a printer is a tad inconvenient).
I have potentially fun and exciting news but that you're going to have to wait for next week for. ;) (Ok just cautiously optimistic news) (Well I don't know...)

I'm off! Have a good weekend one and all and I'll post a long dirty filthy camping message on Sunday.

While Joanne was away...

While Joanne was away from her desk this morning, being schooled in company rhetoric, my regular source of IM distraction (that being Joanne) was cut off and I was forced to turn to an alternate: my husband. He is not as good at it, so I spent a portion of my time drawing pictures for him in MSN Messenger. Here are a few that I couldn't bear to lose forever once I close the IM window. Also, Joanne is back now, so I can resume chatting with her.

Seinfeld imitating life

Someone I used to know used to (and probably still does) harbor dreams of playing backgammon with certain famous people. Last night while I was watching Seinfeld, Kramer went on an adventure to someplace hot & sunny (Cayman Islands I think). He ended up on a nude beach playing backgammon with Elle McPherson, naked. That made me chuckle a little bit.

I have 2 volunteers signed up from my university to help with my encampment this weekend. I just got an email from one of them. She can't go. Sigh. Now her reason is so beyond understandable and I couldn't imagine making her come given the circumstances (we recently had a student die suddenly and that was her friend and there is a memorial), but now I'm down a volunteer. Although in one respect it does help me since I have this one annoying leader who apparently did not read the pre-registration form where it says "Activity you would like to share." And the confirmation form where it says "Activity you would like to lead and share" or the 2 emails where I asked about the "Activity you would like to lead or share." And apparently she didn't listen during the conversation we had about the "Acitivity she could lead or share" where I even gave her a bunch of suggestions of "Activities she could lead or share." She emailed me yesterday when I put on the schedule "unknown activity from ..." asking if she had to lead or share an activity. She thought I just assigned her one. But now I have to do some schedule adjusting and I just did schedule adjusting. My fingers and toes are crossed that my other volunteer didn't know this girl too.

A little bliss...

Is there anything better than warmed cinnamon rolls and milk for breakfast?? (Ok so these were warmed in the microwave and are gluten free but the sentiment is still there.)

I'm old

It is official. At least according to one of my girls I'm old. On Thursday night I was sitting in my chair talking with my girls about our upcoming camping trip. One of them was petting my hair. She really likes it. (She's African-American, my hair has quite the different texture than hers.) So she's hanging out patting my hair and she says "Joanne, you have gray hairs." So now all the other girls have to check it out and I have 10 little eyes looking at my hair. She then says, "Joanne, you're OLD." in her cute little girl voice. And I say I'm 32 and she says that's younger than her mom. Then she throws her arms around me and says "Joanne, I don't want you to grow old." It was endearing and yet troubling at the same time. I had to shoo them all from my hair because by then it was freaking me out a little bit. Apparently it is time to dye again. I think I'm going to have to start going to an academy, I'm just not independently wealthy enough to go to a regular place. And since I like such strong colors, I'm unwilling to try it myself since if I screw it up it is expensive to fix.

Oops, I should've checked before I got into it...

What a great day!

Last night I went to the slumber party with the girls at the gymnastics center. It was REALLY fun. The girls had such a great time. They did a craft, and got to jump on a trampoline and work on the bars and beam. Their favorite thing was the rope that they got to swing on and fall into a foam pit. At about 11:30 we curled up in our sleeping bags on the floor (it is a mat) to watch movies. I started to doze about 1/2 way through Chicken Little. But then something happened with aliens (I don't know) and the noise startled me awake. Then the kids watched Narnia. I was lying there with my eyes shut and dozed off again for awhile, but by the end totally startled awake. Finally at the end I think I managed to sleep but not well. I really loathe sleeping in sleeping bags, especially the one I currently sleep in. It was my fathers and the flannel inside is rather thin and it is just so constricting. Plus it was HOT in the gym. So I think I eventually ended up sleeping on top of it. I took a forever nap and am now cooking jambalaya! There were these 2 snotty girls near mine who just annoyed the shit out of me. I kept having to shush them and asked them to turn off their flashlights twice. Grr. It did remind me that when I do the encampment before both of our evening activities, I'm going to do a flashlight game (like Simon Says with flashlights and then the last 'says' is turn it off and set it beside you until it is time to leave, but it gives them the opportunity to do all that silly shit they like to do with flashlights.) There's another leader with a troop near my girls' neighborhood who has a very multi-racial troop told me that she took her kids to one of these activities and it is the whitest white activity ever. She wasn't kidding. I could count probably on 1 hand the amount of kids who weren't white out of over 100 girls. (And 3 of those are mine)

Here's where I should've checked before I started. About 3/4 ths of the way through I discovered that the pot I have is not big enough for the amount of jambalaya that I am making. So I had to wash a 2nd pot and hope I pulled about 1/3rd out to cook in a 2nd pot. This is a buttload of jambalaya. I'm excited about it though, since I like it but haven't had it since V's birthday maybe 2 years ago? Or 3. I made a non-seafood kind because I don't like shrimp. I'm very excited about this dinner!

The results: Pretty dang good. The only bad part is that not all the rice absorbed water and got soft so every once in a while I find a crunchy rice piece. Otherwise I'm pleased. I'm going to have to love it since I have a ton of it. (some of it is going in the freezer).

Happy happy joy joy!

Oh happy day! I got a letter in the mail yesterday from my gluten free restaurant. They have reopened! Unfortunately they have reopened as a bakery and place for pastries so no more yummy nummy burgers or chicken strips, but the pastries are as good as ever! I stopped there today and got cinnamon rolls and muffins and cupcakes. I'm terribly excited and happy that they're back. Plus they are much closer than before and I could ride the bus even!

After that I headed to Michaels. I got my patio paint and cute little wood shapes that I'm going to glue pin backs on so they can make name tags with for the encampment. It was fun just buying all these different arts & crafts things. I can't wait for next weekend!

Date of death?

Michelle & I were talking yesterday about dying and if you had the chance to know the exact date you were going to die, would you want to know the date. My answer was no. As in hell no. So this prompted further discussion of course. Michelle is very organized, she would totally want to know. I think I would always feel like that was hanging over me and prevent me from really enjoying life. She then asked if I wouldn't want to change anything about my life if I knew I was going to die next year. I thought about it, and realized that there isn't really anything I would want to change. I would maybe travel more and see the destinations I wouldn't ever get to see. But I would also pull back a lot from people who know me and I wouldn't get involved with new people because of the loss (both to me and them).


So the question du jour is: Would you want to know when you were going to die?

Challenge extended

Imagine hearing that in the voice of Ross from friends.

In case you've never noticed, I have a link on the blogroll for Donors Choose which I think is an awesome website. Teachers write proposals for activities that they think will help their classrooms and then people can go in and donate part or all of the money to do the project. Today I got an email from a fellow blogger who pointed me to Donors Choose blogger challenge to the word out about Donors Choose. So I've set up a blog challenge. I'm hoping that some of you readers will join me in contributing to 2 projects I felt I had a connection to. As y'all know how much I love my adventures, one I could relate to was a bird watching field trip. The other one is bringing some hands on science to kindergarteners. They'll be getting snow in North Carolina!

Help Public School Kids by Funding my Challenge at DonorsChoose

So you know if you want, but you don't have to, but it would be good karma maybe. :)

Drowning

Apparently my dreams are trying to tell me something. I had a dream in which I was drowning... several times. Like I'd catch my breath or pull myself out of the water and then somehow I'd end up drowning again. And then at one point, I was reading a book about the ocean and it morphed into like a giant imax screen and it was drowning me.

Drowning: To dream that you are drowning, signifies that you are overwhelmed by emotions or repressed issues that is coming back to haunt you. You may be proceeding too quickly in trying to discover your unconscious thoughts. If you drown to death, your relationship will fail or you will suffer major business losses. If your survive the drowning, then your relationship will be rescued by some intervention. You will rise to a higher position of wealth and honor.

Exhausted

I never realized how tiring it is being 'on' all the time but damn today I was and it wiped me out. The morning started early enough - 5:30 and then I was out of my apartment by 6:50 to catch a bus downtown to a class. Luckily I allowed for extra time as the damn Chinese president's visit was causing major traffic malfunctions and I had to change busses downtown (which normally I wouldn't since the bus I was on would go all the way to where I needed to go) and a trek that would've taken me about 30 minutes to walk took me 50 minutes by bus. So that kind of sucked. Got a ride to work with my boss headed straight to an interview. Then orientation. Then lunch. Then about 45 min at my desk and then another interview. And on and on. I was in meetings for +5 hours of my 7.5 hour workday. AND we didn't find a good payroll candidate so I may have to go through this all over again. Sigh.

I can't believe I'm saying this...

But I really hope my recent bout of irrational irratibility is because of PMS and not heretofore unexpressed bile, vitriol and bitterness. PMS at least has an end date.


In other thoughts, what are you looking for?

I'm so vain... I probably think this song is about me.

I'm wearing a skirt I particularly love. I FEEL really good when I wear it. It makes me incredibly happy. Hence I act a little more frou frouey and I like to be told I'm cute. I mean who doesn't like to be told they're cute? :) So at lunch today, Isa points out that my skirt makes my ass look good. That's nice. :) Oh and the italian guy (student, so hands off) said I looked good. Sometimes it doesn't take much to make me happy. :)

Spring Goals!

I walked to work this morning for the first time in a long time. I discovered 2 things... 1 - The boot paired with my Dansko dress shoes (to wear with a dress not the other pair) doesn't work well because the heel is too high on the dress shoes and that bugs. 2 - I miss walking to work. It is such a great time to clear my head and since it is GORGEOUS out lately I want to get back into it. So I decided to make a new list of goals. But before I can do that, I wanted to look at my New Year's goals to see how I did and see if they needed to be added to or changed or incorporated. They were:
1 - Less judgemental. I'm still working on that but I feel much better about my judgementalness. I definitely think I've made some strides.
2 - Yoga - I had a class, but then it finished. I want to find a new class better add this to new goals list.
3 - Meal planning. I was doing it but now I'm not and I want to get back into it so better add it to new goals list. :)
4 - WC. Oh please who was I kidding with that goal? ;) Not added to new list. Patience will win out I'm sure. (Or not if I meet someone else then I do and it is bye bye WC.)

SPRING GOALS:

1. Find a yoga class. There are a ton of them around me I just have to sign up and go.
2. Go back to the gym. I went the week before I went on vacation then went on vacation and then got sick. I need to go back and since it is so light so early in the AM it will be easier now I think. Plus more students are not going to the gym because we're getting towards mid terms.
3. Meal Plan. I must do this to save money.
4. Save money. I have a weird budgeting system where I use only $500 for everything else (besides bills) for the month (includes groceries). I want to cut that back to $400/month or $100/week. It seems like that should be easy to do but somehow it isn't.
5. Walk to and from work. I already walk home most days (in the boot thank you very much). I am going to start walking in the AM too. I miss it and I didn't realize how much until this morning.
6. SUNDAY ADVENTURES! I miss Sunday adventures. I am going to start doing them again. Unfortunately they are almost out for this month as I have the brownie overnight this weekend and camping next weekend (which is a Sunday adventure of sorts.) But in May I have 3 Sundays free and I will find an adventure for each of them.

I think these are all doable. Most were stuff I was doing before and got out of the habit of. I'm excited! :)

What if...

You open up a new post window all prepared to type and find you have nothing to say?

Yummy!

As if I needed a reason to see X-Men The Last Stand, I found this guy on MSN's page about the movie. Daniel Cudmore is his name. He may have just beat out Heath Ledger as my Hollywood boyfriend.

Saturday Night Live is not good.

I'm watching SNL because Pearl Jam is the musical guest. I am having a hard time actually staying awake (clearly a sign I'm old.). But so far, 40 minutes into the episode, all I can think with each skit I've seen is, "Is it done yet?" Sadly the answer always was no.

An adventure dreaded...

I have to go to Wal-Mart. I haven't been into a Wal-Mart in 3 years. BUT as much as I don't want to go to Wal-Mart, I do need what they have and it will be cheaper to get it there than at a fancy schmancy craft store. (And honestly of the craft stores on my list Wal-Mart is closer). And on to why I have to go to Wal-Mart.

As one of the projects for the Encampment, I bought 3 inch flower pots. The girls are going to paint them and we'll pack them together with some potting soil and seeds and they can give them to their mother or other special person for Mother's day. (Or keep them I've got no opinion.) I went online to discover that painting terra cotta is not nearly as easy as I apparently wanted to believe it is and it has to be sealed first and then polyed after and on and on.... OR... I can use Patio Paint. And where can I find Patio Paint? Wal-Mart. I'm really excited about this craft. And actually I'm getting really excited about the whole encampment. We've got some hikes, we have field games we have all sorts of arts & crafts. I'm hoping a good time is had by all.

Quantity cook

I have found one! My encampment is now falling together! I am so excited I can hardly speak. Everything is working out and that is exactly what I needed to happen.

Peculiar day.

So I spent much of my day off just reading. Lying in bed reading. Sitting on the sofa reading. Reading. And watching TV. :) I watched Days of Our Lives so now I know what is going on and won't have to watch again for another 4 - 5 months. (side note, there is this really really terrible commercial going on on TV right now that is one of those craptastic local kind. But I digress. And a 2nd digression, I'm watching 28 days right now and this one scene has been edited out that doesn't make a lot of sense to me. The scene where they are making wishes and in the original the gay one asks for his foreskin back, but in the edited version he asks for the Abba box set. That's weird. I wouldn't have thought foreskin would be something so controversial.)ANYWAY...

I headed out to catch the bus to run multiple errands. I've gotten really lazy about using the flexcar lately so I was on the bus. Bought the ferrets new treats and headed over to Target. I had a few things to pick up. I'm barely in the front door when I run into our current student worker. We chat and then proceed to shop together. She is quite the talker. Which is good, actually, because I am quite not the talker. We were talking about eating and she was hungry, as was I so we ended up going to get dinner together. We chatted over dinner, hit the Cold Stone for some ice cream and then she dropped me home. (That was nice, not having to ride the bus. :) I feel sad for her a little bit. She doesn't have a lot of friends. I don't but I'm okay with that, I would rather do things alone. She wouldn't. (Ok it was the 4th mention of not having people to hang out with today that made me say oh we should go to dinner.)

Die

Somehow watching Days of Our Lives reminded me of this. I had a dream last night that someone choked me. And I died. And my tongue turned black and protruded out of my mouth. That's fucking creepy.

Die: To dream that you die in your dream, symbolizes inner changes, transformation, self-discovery and positive development that is happening within you or in your life. Although such a dreams may bring about feelings of fear and anxiety, it is no cause for alarm and is often considered a positive symbol. Dreams of experiencing your own death usually means that big changes are ahead for you. You are moving on to new beginnings and leaving the past behind. These changes does not necessarily imply a negative turn of events. Metaphorically, dying can be seen as an end or a termination to your old ways and habits. So, dying does not always mean a physical death, but an ending of something.

On a negative note, to dream that you die may represent involvement in deeply painful relationships or unhealthy, destructive behaviors. You may feeling depressed or feel strangled by a situation or person in your waking life. Perhaps your mind is preoccupied with someone who is terminally ill or dying. Alternatively, you may be trying to get out of some obligation, responsibility or other situation.

Strangulation: To dream that you or someone else is being strangled, denotes that you are repressing or denying a vital aspect of your expression.

Tongue: To see your own tongue in your dream, signifies the things you say and express. You may have said too much or you may need to express yourself.

Black: Black symbolizes the unknown, unconscious, danger, mystery, darkness, death, mourning, hate or malice. (Although I don't know that the color black applies to this dream since I think my mind incorporated the black tongue because I've seen that on TV when someone is strangled.)

Worlds collide!

From 1998 - 1999 I taught 6th grade in the town I grew up in. I was a terrible teacher. Well wait, I'm not a terrible teacher, I'm a terrible horrible classroom manager. But I digress. While on My Space tonight, I was at my high school's My Space page. And on the front page in their little classified area was a person looking for an apartment. I recognized the name and clicked on it. It was one of the kids I taught. He graduated in 2005. Holy crap. I feel weird about this.

Ok so I went through class of 2005 and found at least 1 more of my students. The kid I had to kick out of my class due to my inability to control him. I really liked him, but there was no way I could cope with the combination of him and several of the others. It bummed me out a little.

I wish...

That like pizza or Chinese food delivery there was chocolate delivery. I'm sitting here thinking how fabulous a Cadbury egg would taste right now. (Or maybe some ice cream.)

Another benefit to working for a college...

We get random days off. Tomorrow is Good Friday so my university has given everyone the day off. What to do with my 3 day weekend. Up until yesterday, I was going to go to Michelle's in CA and go to her mom's birthday party and all that jazz. Then I logged into the America West site (where people with flight benefits go) and discovred that I could leave Seattle. I may even be so lucky as to get to California, but coming home wasn't going to happen. All the flights from Phoenix or Las Vegas to Seattle on Sunday and Monday were over booked, by several people. So I will stay here. Now what to do what to do... Unfortunately it is going to be raining at least all day Friday and quite possibly the rest of the weekend so any sort of adventuring where I'm outside is not in the stars. I am working on a new book, science fiction (or science fantasy more accurately since the sci fi nerds are all over the difference between the 2). I could read for the whole weekend. I think some cleaning will be happening. I need to take the recyclables out. I got my new recycling bags in the mail recently and I like them. They aren't as stiff sided as I expected and I'm wondering if there'll be a note on the door to the garage from the trash nazi about just throwing the recyclables in the bin without them being bagged. (She's frequently leaving notes about no lids on the bottles and this 1 bin is for cardboard only [whatever] which I frequently throw other stuff in there and on and on...) Ooh and I could play my new computer game. Oh and I have to go to the library for new books and to return old ones. Looks like I can fill the weekend. I wonder if something interesting is playing at the movies... :)

So much to say, and yet not much to say.

Just a few thoughts for a Wednesday...

1 - I'm losing my voice off and on. My throat doesn't really hurt but speaking is just weird. And sometimes my throat gets this really dry pocket where I try to speak but no words come out. If I cough I can speak again. When will this be done?

2 - I went out with some friends I hadn't seen in awhile last night. It was fun in a phew I'm glad I don't do this too frequently kind of way. Actually it was really good to see some people that I really like, including my gay pothead bartending husband. (Not really my husband). Apparently he has found himself a husband which is very good for him. He's a good guy and I'm glad he has found someone. We played darts. I suck at it now that I don't play too often.

3. I may have found a quantity cook for my encampment. I'm so happy I could cry, although now I'm waiting to hear from council if it will be okay that her food handler's permit is expired. With my luck, it probably isn't. So then I'll have to negotiate if I have someone with a food handler's permit in the kitchen even though that person isn't a quantity cook with the quantity cook will that work. I'm going to be optimistic.

4. Artist formerly known as work crush brought in some Reeses peanut butter cups to replenish the stash he is frequently consuming. I think there has been some flirting going on. Isa says there is when she witnesses our interactions.

5. I keep trying to not wear the boot for the tendon figuring it should be better by now, right? I keep getting smacked down by tendon and having to put it on. I need to just wear it consistantly and not try to push things. But I'm so sick of that being a problem too.

6. It was raining this morning, but now it is sunny! Yay for sunny!

Oh my eyes!

Tonight I was agonizing over what to have for dinner and Michelle gave me a great suggestion. BBQ beef. She emailed me her recipe which is divine. DIVINE I say! (Seriously, you should ask her for it.) I hit the grocery store on the way home and rediscovered an important fact. Buying food when you're a singleton kind of sucks. In general I don't eat or use onions and celery so the fact I have to buy a whole onion or a whole bundle of celery kind of sucks. Luckily in the organic foods area, I can buy 1 stalk of celery. (A whopping 15 cents.) I also bought an onion. I haven't cut an onion in years and it is still killing my eyes. But I did discover I can cut up the entire thing and freeze it for use in the future. Very nice. :)

Dream of late

This morning I had a dream where I was visiting my family. My back itched for some reason and I couldn't reach it to scratch it. My mom offered to put some itch stuff on it but I couldn't raise my shirt to have her do it because of my tattoo that she doesn't know about. So I went into the bathroom to see if I could pull up my shirt in a way she wouldn't see the dragonfly and there was a 2nd tattoo lower on my back than my regular one. (More towards the middle). I can't remember what it was but then later in the dream I had this idea that I was going to get a Jiminy Cricket tattooed on my shoulder but kind of up my neck so you could see his face when I was wearing a t-shirt because he was my conscience and that way I'd remember to do good things.

Tattoo: To dream that you have tattoos, signifies that some urgent and difficult business will call you away from your home for an extended period of time. It may also signal a new stage in your life. (hmm a new stage with wc?) :)

Itch: To dream that you have an itch, refers to sexual urges. Alternatively, you may have been anticipating to do something for a long time. (Ok getting weird. Let's hope it is the alternative meaning)

Scratch: To dream that you are scratching yourself, symbolizes a minor irritation or frustration. Perhaps something that began as minor may have the potential to become worse. Or that somebody may have hit a sore spot in you. (Hmm since it was my mom doing it perhaps she is the minor irritation. :) )

Secret: To dream that you or someone has a secret, represents hidden power. It suggests that something needs to emerge from your unconscious.

Cricket: To see crickets in your dream, represents introspection. You are seeking guidance. (Interesting, of course there was no entry for Jiminy Cricket but he was acting as my conscience so to know that crickets themselves mean introspection I find kind of interesting).

Mirror: To see your own reflection in the mirror, suggests that you are pondering thoughts about your inner self. The reflection in the mirror is how you perceive yourself or how you want others to see you. You may be contemplating on strengthening and changing aspects of your character. (I wish I could remember what that 2nd tattoo was of. I think it might be significant in terms of this. I think it was square shaped like a flag or something.)

3 Good Books

I've recently finished a whole glut of reading and thought I'd share in case any of y'all were looking for something good to read:

The Ha-Ha by David King: I found this book to be excellent. Basically it is about a guy who came back from Viet Nam with a massive head injury that has screwed up the language center of his brain so he cannot speak, read or write. He lives in a house with 3 other people but they all kind of do their own thing. Then he gets a call from a woman who was a girl friend before Viet Nam but now just mostly uses him and she needs him to care for her son while she is in rehab. He takes the kid in and blah blah blah Hallmark moment kind of thing. But what really makes the book is that although it is kind of a Hallmark type story, at the same time it isn't. You really get a sense of the guy's frustration at being unable to communicate even though his brain is still fully functioning. A fabulous read and I think I only spent like 2 evenings on it (evenings until 1 AM because I was so hooked).

After that I wanted something light so I went with:
Confessions of Supermom by Melanie Lynn Hauser: This was a fun book. A divorced mother of 2 hits her head after mixing a bunch of cleaning chemicals and ends up with super powers. A spongelike material on her right hand and the ability to squirt cleaning solution out of a finger. She begins cleaning up her town. Of course she ends up with an archnemesis in Lex & Patty Osborne (an homage to Superman and Spiderman perhaps? Lex Luthor and Harry Osborne) who run a local food manufacturing plant. It is funny and sweet and rather a light read.

Finally I just finished:
If You Could See Me Now by Celia Ahearn: Another cute book based in the fantastical not necessarily reality. The main character, Elizabeth, is raising her sister's son and works as an interior designer. The nephew develops an imaginary friend named Ivan. As you read you realize that Ivan's world really does exist and that imaginary friends appear to those who need them, frequently children because their minds are open to the possibility. Eventually they disappear again because their purpose to the children is finished. Except eventually Elizabeth can see him and she thinks he is a real person. And she falls for him, and he falls for her. It ends in the way it needs to but I thought it was a great book and I enjoyed every minute, especially the believing in something fantastical.

Currently I've just started the Jasper Fforde books that I couldn't find in the library last year. I'm only on like Chapter 1 of the first book but I'll let you know how I like it when I finish.

Joanne & Big R's weekend of FUN!

What a fabulous weekend I have had!

Saturday: Big R, Curly hair, me and Boston all went to House of Hong for Dim Sum. Well I didn't have Dim Sum because I can't eat most of those little things so I just had Mongolian Beef. I LOVE Mongolian Beef. So then we headed to Alki. Unfortunately it was rainy so we didn't do much. Just got coffee and that's about it. After that we headed to Target. It was such a nice evening. I cooked a roast beef (although I over cooked it slightly) and a baked potato (unfortunately I undercooked it slightly). Watched some Fraggle Rock and life was glorious.

Sunday: Did my usual Sunday morning activities but then Big R called and we were off on a Sunday adventure. We went shopping, first to Factoria but then that Target didn't have what I wanted so we went to Issaquah. I've never been there. We shopped and shopped and that was nice. I got a new computer game and a dvd. The babies are now proud owners of new treats. Then we drove around Issaquah and he showed me where he grew up. After that we drove back to Seattle and then headed over to Alki for supper. We went to Pepper Dock for hamburgers and they were totally what I didn't know that I wanted. After that we walked up and down the boardwalk and watched the waves and talked. There were a lot of kids there and families and that was cute. There was this guy who had a remote controlled glider and we watched him. It was glorious. I think I could totally live out there. The sun was shining and the air was cool. We headed back to the car and discovered much to Big R's chagrin that he had left the lights on. Sigh, dead battery. So we sat and waited for AAA to come, but we talked the whole time. It was just so fun. (Now if only he was straight. :P ) Life is good.

And then I found the body...

One of my souveniers from Disneyland was a keyring with the ears and a 50th anniversary thing on one part and a tinkerbell on it. Yesterday when I got to work I discovered a very sad thing. Just a head on my keyring. She lost her body. So you can imagine my joy when I got home and there was a little gold body in the hall in front of my door. Yay. Now we'll see if Krazy Glue can really bond anything instantly.

I am very excited about tomorrow. I am going to have a Sunday adventure with Big R and the Italian Guy and Curly Haired (she's new) from the cult. (They really aren't the cult of the virgins any more since one virgin has left the cult and one has become a non-virgin so now the non's outnumber the virgins.) We're going to Alkai Beach and wandering around. I haven't been there and have wanted to for awhile. I'm going to take lots of pictures! :) Apparently Big R is planning on roller blading. I don't think I'm quite that adventurous. :)

Then Sunday, I am going shopping! YAY! Michelle gave me a gift card for my birthday and I fully intend to spend it frivolously. Double Yay!

Quantity cook

What I wouldn't give for a Quantity cook for my encampment. We have 2 pages worth of people to contact. I have emailed way more on that list than I care to think about. They should be thrilled I'm emailing, doesn't put them on the spot. If my latest round doesn't net me any results, I'm going to have to resort to calling. I HATE to call people.

*In order to cook meals at the Girl Scout properties a person has to be specially trained by the Girl Scouts. For the encampment the Service Unit provides 4 meals and the girls cook their own meal on Sat night. If I have to readjust so that everyone cooks their own meals, this will be a big problem.

Alarming!

Today my office is getting an alarm system. Sometimes I think that I missed my true calling in life. I totally should've been one of those people who works with wires and putting crap together. I'm fascinated by it all. My office holds confidential information. Tons of confidential information. Because of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, (known as HIPAA to you) my office files need to be more secure. We tried initially to get fire king file cabinets (really serious filing cabinets, difficult if not impossible to get into and fireproofed.) However, we discovered that my office (that hangs over the bookstore) would not support the weight of them. (Roughly 1500 each empty). The office would fall off the edge. It totally makes me laugh to think of that. So in compromise, I get an alarm system and the guys are in today putting it in. I'm not going to get anything done today because this is just too fascinating for words. And I checked, Michelle, no loud alarm noise will sound if I accidentally set it off, BUT public safety will come running with large flashlights bared.

What a great day!

To be happy about today:

1. The sun is shining which always makes me happy.
2. I got the confirmation for the Brownies overnight at a gymnastics studio. The activities the girls will be doing are so cool! The girls will get to jump on a trampoline, do a giant obstacle course and use other real gymnastics equipment. And then we sleep over and have breakfast in the morning. Of course since quiet time is from midnight to 3 AM with full lights out at 3, the next day is going to be a bit rough, but that's okay.
3. I am making enchiladas for dinner. I LOVE enchiladas for dinner. Plus that means I'll have stock again and I've been out for a few weeks. I'm going to make them a little differently though. I'm going with more like an enchilada lasagne type of thing. Tortillas in the bottom of the pan, sauce and meat and cheese then tortillas and then sauce and cheese.
4. I got my first volunteer response for the encampment. A girl who has experience with Girl Scouts. That's very exciting. (Yes I've gone back to just using it, KTP was right, I'm being overly cautious since there are probably a bazillion links when one googles Girl Scouts)
5. Comcast has a new on screen thingie so that I can now delete from my channel list all the channels I hate. I love that!

Ok the less exciting things:

1. I believe I definitely have Isa's sickness. I opened my mouth twice today to talk and couldn't squeak out a word. My throat is getting worse. :(
2. I can't find a quantity cook to cook the meals for the encampment. That was the biggest pain in the ass 2 years ago and apparently will be the biggest pain this year. Luckily, I have email addresses though so I feel a little better about emailing the people so they can think about it and not be on the spot.

Whispering

Ok I know this is weird, but whispering kind of freaks me out. You can imagine, then, my consternation when I picked up the phone to a guy whispering. He was talking to someone while waiting for me to pick up the phone but it jarred me a tiny bit.

Happy Feet

(Photo by Dan DeLong of the Seattle PI)

On Broadway we have these feet embedded into the ground that portray dance steps. I find them really fun and silly and cool. Apparently they've been there for about 27 years which is also very cool to me. Here's the article all about them. I remember when I first visited here and walked up Broadway with V. I thought they were so fun and got V to try one of the dances with me. I think I got confused by them, but I remember wondering about them and where they came from. Now I know. :) I think I'll know the right guy for me if he's willing to dance the feet with me. (Well besides V who is gay).

Unkind

I was unkind to someone today and that bothers me. However I'm also stubborn so this creates a bit of a problem for me. I don't like to be unkind, if I can avoid it, however I'm really unwilling to make up for this unkindness. Perhaps I can balance it with being kind to someone else that I don't want to be kind to. Oh hell, I already do that. :)

In unrelated news, my throat is starting to hurt. If I'm getting a different sickness now that I'm mostly over the sickness of last week I'm going to be unhappy. Very very unhappy.

April fools

Last year, I had the best April Fool's gag ever. I'll never top it which is why I didn't try this year. (Ok I had an idea but forgot to do it.) (Really I WILL brag about this one forever because I think it is honestly the only time I've been able to fool anyone. I'm terrible at thinking them up and terrible with execution.)

This year I got my leg pulled and it was so funny I have to share. It is from Flexcar. It took me 3 reads to realize it was a joke.


We're diversifying our fleet! We've heard you members: you want far more spacious vehicles and far more of 'em. So we're pleased to announce the conversion of the Flexcar fleet to ripe-banana-colored H3s, effective April 1. Operation Hybrids-to-Hummers (H2H) will take place overnight utilizing next-generation, military-issue Parking Space Expansion Devices (P-SEDs) and an estimated million gallons of Cloak-Curb© paint.
We hope our members will be patient during the transition from the new Smartcards to the still newer GasGuzz cards, which will entitle you to triple the fuel credit limit. And remember to carpool; with so much seating the H3s promise dramatic improvement in the Flexcar fleet's fuel efficiency.
Comments? Send them to aprilfools@flexcar.com.

Oh so sad...

I rented The Brothers Grimm for the weekend. I love me some Heath Ledger so I was looking forward to this. I got about 1/2 way through before I realized I was not paying any attention and that this was not a good movie. It was mostly boring and strangely difficult to follow. I think this is the first Heath Ledger movie I've watched that I really actively disliked and actually didn't watch the whole way through. (I didn't love Brokeback Mountain but I didn't totally hate it either.)

Also, completely unrelated, I made banana nut muffins this afternoon and they turned out FABULOUS! I think I finally have the mystery of how to make them taste good and still be gluten free figured out. Whee!

Busy day busy day

This morning I had to take Tess to the vet. Unfortunately Dr. Dan (who is not the vet I like, I think I like the woman better) confirmed what I already knew. Tess has Adrenal Disease. (Fairly common in ferrets, tumors on the adrenal gland). Now she'll be going once a month for shots like Baxter did. If it isn't one thing, it is another with pets. And I just realized that in June she'll have lived with me for a year. So she really isn't 4 no matter what I think. (She was between 4 & 5 they weren't sure when I adopted her.) So if what happened with Bax is any indication we've got about a year or so of time left. That's a good amount still to hang with the fuzzy bunny. :)

This afternoon I took a nap and then went to a barbecue with my friends Isa, Big R & Isa's former roommates. (She moved out this month). I played ball with her dog for like an hour. That was very fun, I really like playing with the dog. The funny thing is, though, that the dog usually hates me. I can't be around without the dog barking its fool head off at me. But towards the end of the evening after we had played she actually let me pet her so I thought oh look we're doing well. In the car, though, bark bark bark. She's a scrappy little thing, though and it is nice to play with a dog. Especially a dog I don't have to clean up after. :D

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.