Perspective This Year

It is funny the wealth of emotions and memories that are turned up this season. I got to watch How the Grinch Stole Christmas the other day. I have long tired of most of the children’s Christmas specials, but no matter how many years pass, I will never tire of that one.

I don’t really have a lot of memories of being really little. I am always amazed when someone can remember things from when they were only two or three years old. I have only snapshots, and they are few and far between. One of those snapshots was the first time I saw the Grinch. I was really small, I can’t say exactly how old, but my guess is about three (I’m sure Mom will tell me after she reads this). I was wearing my red, footie pajamas and I climbed up on my parent’s bed with my Mother. They had a tiny 10 inch Sony black and white television with bunny ears in the bedroom (high tech for 1977!). I was transfixed, and now it just isn’t Christmas if I can’t watch the Grinch. I am trying to follow my own advice and focus on these little treasures of life rather then the flotsam of the daily grind that tends to draw your focus to the negative.

I have to say that this year Christmas is off to a good start, although we can’t travel to see family in North Carolina this year; I’m looking forward to spending some quality time with my family and friends. No matter what the stress, whether finances, work or school, you always have to remember to put life in perspective. For example last Christmas I was in Africa, in my tent, alone, with food poisoning, throwing up constantly. Anything would be an improvement. All kidding aside, I sometimes have a tendency to loose that very perspective. Today I went to visit a friend of mine in the hospital. She is fighting advanced bone cancer. At this stage it is impossible to eradicate it, we can only hope for remission that might buy her a few more years. This is a very special Lady. A long time ago she threw me a lifeline… she gave me the job that got me on my feet again at a time in my life where I was feeling very desperate. It was through that job that I ran into Daniel again. If not for working on the Navy base, I might never have seen him again. This summer we will finally be getting married. Patti is a people person the likes of which I have never seen. As I’m standing by her bed, she’s telling me how she just saw my Dad a few weeks ago. It is always humbling to see fate take out someone at the top of their game… So I have to remind myself not to get lost in the difficulties of life, rather focus on the gifts of life, you never know when they might be taken away.

Whoopee!!!!

I must say I’m feeling a sense of accomplishment right now.

You see I finally have a rough draft of my dissertation… complete… COMPLETE!!!!

Sure it’s a little rough around the edges, but I have a few months to address that. Ok more then a little rough… But the point is I made my deadline (tomorrow). I really didn’t want to have to shove off another deadline. Now I get to give the conclusions to my advisor to slice and dice, and on to the revisions.

Perhaps now I can remember how to go to the gym, etc?

Holiday Fun

CHRISTMAS CAROLS FOR THE DISTURBED

1. Schizophrenia --- Do You Hear What I Hear?

2. Multiple Personality Disorder --- We Three Kings Disoriented Are

3. Dementia --- I Think I'll be Home for Christmas

4. Narcissistic --- Hark the Herald Angels Sing About Me

5. Manic --- Deck the Halls and Walls and House and Lawn and Streets and Stores and Office and Town and Cars and Buses and Trucks and Trees and....

6. Paranoid --- Santa Claus is Coming to Town to Get Me

7. Borderline Personality Disorder --- Thoughts of Roasting on an Open Fire

8. Personality Disorder --- You Better Watch Out, I'm Gonna Cry, I'm Gonna Pout, Maybe I'll Tell You Why

9. Attention Deficit Disorder --- Silent night, Holy oooh look at the Froggy - can I have a chocolate, why is France so far away?

10. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder - -- Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells , Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells

Tidbit ‘O the Day

Did you ever want to blend up a box of atomic fireballs, or perhaps some marbles, or bottle of beer into a nice smoothie… if so you should check out:

www.willitblend.com

I want one of these things! Too bad they have a hefty price tag…$400

I must be getting old

Ok, I must be getting old because phone etiquette is changing in just incomprehensible ways. When did it become ok to talk on you cell phone when you are in a public bathroom and toilets are flushing everywhere? That is just gross. I would be totally mortified if the person I was talking to figured out I was on the toilet – and frankly its not that hard to figure out!!!

Athletics goes to new levels

Welcome to the annual Rock Paper Scissors World Championship! (http://www.worldrps.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=207&Itemid=73)
“Serving the needs of decisions makers since 1918.”

Honestly I’m not sure whether to laugh or cry?

My only other commentary for the season… Why the hell are stores already putting up the Christmas decorations? Can’t we just take one holiday at a time? Please? Watching the commercialism get worse and worse every season is starting to take the warm fuzzies out of the whole thing. Right about now I really want to enjoy a nice Christmas season (when it actually gets here)! Anything would be better then last year, in Africa, alone in my tent with a horrific case of food poisoning.

Long time no blog

It’s been awhile, but this weekend I actually emerged from my office long enough to see the sun! Fancy that. Hopefully now that I've changed the address people are still reading this.

Thursday night we piled in the Jeep and took off for North Carolina. We drove through the night but it wasn’t too bad because we traded sleeping and driving about every two hours. I was happy when I was woken up for breakfast and it turned out we were in a Bojangles parking lot. Woo Hoo!! Cajun chicken and biscuits with sweet tea. Good thing I don’t actually live within driving distance of one these restaurants or the magically expanding waistline would go into overdrive.

Saturday we went to the Goodguys Show in Charlotte. Luckily the weather changed and it was a gorgeous warm day. I love North Carolina, there are still all your seasons but fall comes much later and winter checks out early. Spent all day checking out hotrods, the show was absolutely huge! We were there all day and didn’t remotely see everything. My favorite car and truck were hard to narrow down but here they are.

Sunday Dan went back to the car show, but not me. I went to the National Balloon Rally. Pretty cool stuff. We spent most of the day wandering about eating fattening food and putting the boys (nephews) on various rides. We (me and the boys) got our picture taken in a Cobra helicopter. I mentioned that I always wanted to learn to fly one of those things and the army officer replied “We always need more pilots…” how very recruiter of you. Becky cracked me up, “No way, she’s marrying my son!” We had some time to kill before the balloons were going to get set up. We spied a bunch of kids flying tiny kites, and got two of them and taught the boys to fly them. I forgot how much fun it is to fly a kite when there aren’t any trees around to eat it Charlie Brown Style.

There was supposed to be about 50 balloons taking off in the evening, but it was really windy that day so most of the ballooners didn’t even try to take off. That was kind of disappointing; it would have made quite a spectacle. But a few brave souls took on the wind and took off. All in all about 5 or 6 made it off the ground, but they really had to fight for it! All in all it was still really fun.


We had to face the long drive back Monday morning after stocking up on goodies only available in the south (not to mention two containers of Dan’s sisters brownies). Thanks Brandy! (Now he’ll leave me alone about the brownies for at least a week.) We picked a random Red Robin restaurant off the highway to eat dinner and the place was packed with little girls all wearing cheetah print??? While standing in a huge line at the restroom I finally had to ask what the hell was going on. “We are going to the Cheetah Girls concert.” Ok, a few minutes of silence, then the mid-aged women with no children had to ask, “What the heck are the Cheetah Girls?” Ah, another Disney Channel phenomenon. Ugh. One of the mothers quipped that for what she had paid for the tickets she ought to be seeing some one famous – I wish I had a camera for the horrified look she got from her daughter. Priceless.

Introducing Archeobot

No, don’t ask where I got that little gem… just don’t.

After my last post, I’ve found that I am just too attached to this thing to delete it. Following some suggestions I’ve tried to sanitize it of my identity so I can happily continue to blog about my sometimes ridiculous existence. Wednesday, for instance. The day of my midterm. I actually got up, and out of the house much earlier then usual. All seemed well. WRONG! Got halfway to school when the coolant light in the Saturn started blinking and the temperature spiked. Pulled in the gas station and the car was hemorrhaging coolant. Um, I don’t think topping it off is going to work, HELP!!! Poor Dan, he drove out to rescue me. He turned the car on with the hood up and a stream of fluid shot out of the engine compartment in a perfect parabolic arc. Not good. I ended up going on to school with the Jeep as he attempted to get the Saturn home, stopping ever so often to refill the tank with water. Of course the consequence of this little jaunt was that he got really behind at work and had to stay past Midnight. My hero.

The last week had totally gone by in a blur. Amazingly I’ve gotten quite a lot done. I got the first draft of my introduction chapter written. I’m nearly finished with my applications for about 12 different teaching positions. Work continues on the revisions of my paper to be submitted to the journal in a few weeks. Gave my midterm exam and got them all corrected. All and all not bad, considering. Well, I’m off to buy a ream of resume paper (now isn’t that just scintillating news).

I think I have to do it…

Well I’m finally sending out my C.V. and trying to get a job lined up for next academic year. The final push is on. But what this really means, is that I think I’m going to have to pull down this blog. I’ve really enjoyed this, it’s fun and it’s been a great way to share with my friends that are scattered across the continent. However, search committees are thorough, and I really don’t want my prospective employers seeing me on top of a pyramid of my friends at the end of a night of beer drinking, or telling stories about my less then desirable neighborhood. I hate the fact that I have to care what other people think of my blog, but after 10 years of college (and being poorer then dirt) I’m not about to take any chances. I wanted to just password protect this blog, but that is not possible. I have a myspace account, which has a blog feature. So I will probably keep blogging there for now. I have set it to be a private profile, so you will have to add me as a friend to see it. This way at least I have a little insulation from prying eyes. I hope I won’t loose the only two people who actually read this blog….Mary (I know you have an account)… Jenni…

hmmm me thinks this is going to generate some comments...

Famous Last Words

This neighborhood has been suffering a plague of roofers for the last five months. First it was just opposite my office window were I was blessed with guys throwing large objects off a three story roof while happily singing along to the radio, ROOOXXXXANNNNNE.

Then it was house on the corner, then down the hill, and now… next door. I really should have seen it coming. As the house next door was painted and renovated over the past several months we have remarked several times how what the house really needed was to have the roof done. There is no use replacing carpets if the roof leaks! We should have kept our mouths shut, because now I’m listening to the less then melodious sounds of nail guns, air compressors and large objects being hucked off the roof. I’m wondering if I should start parking on the street…

There are many nice things about working at home, if only home were somewhere else…

Things Recently Learned

Ok, well if we are on the life lessons bit again, things I recently learned include: Don’t say your life is boring – because then it will get weird.

For instance I’ve since learned that I had a hit man living across the street. Yes, I did say HIT MAN!!!! It’s always a bad sign when a reporter calls late at night to ask you if you know one of your neighbors. Unfortunately I wasn’t home to take the call. Cleverly I forgot to check the next day’s paper but Dan remembered. Turns out this guy was a hit man for a gang is Puerto Rico, was living under his brother’s name – hiding out. Only his brother was murdered last week in P.R. and now he’s busted. This is wilder then Jerry Springer. Leave it to my Dad to try and put a silver lining on the cloud “A hit man isn’t that bad, it could be worse. At least he wasn’t a serial killer, those are the worst kind.”

Then, later the yard was invaded by a skunk. There is no way out of our three foot wide back yard, it is surrounded by a (attractive) chain link fence. Well we had people over that night and there was a fire in the front yard and the skunk was afraid of the fire. This is bad, caught between a skunk and a hard place. This was also a litmus test for who had drunk the most beer. Me, I made a bee-line for inside – Dan followed. Sean and Joel are out there determined to chase the skunk away despite my dire warnings that if they got sprayed they were sleeping outside with their new little friend. Somehow by the grace of, I dunno, pure luck they didn’t get sprayed – even after cornering in the shed and throwing gravel at it to try and get it to run.

As I was navigating last night for someone not familiar with my neighborhood I was marveling anew at some of the ridiculous shops in the neighborhood and wishing I could take pictures without fearing for my life. There is a home nestled into the cliff face that recently had about 50+ bathtub Virgin Marys in the front yard and all over the cliff face. I wish I had gotten a picture of that one before he was forced by the town to take them down. This is quickly followed by a small shop whose name is proudly proclaimed “STUFF – U – NEED” and the aptly named convenience store whose window is full Styrofoam heads with wigs. Cause you never know when your going to have to hit the convenience store cause you forgot your hair… I guess life is never totally boring as long as you open your eyes.

Blah, Blah, Blah

I guess that title is both figurative and literal. Not too much to report other then being another year older and feeling it (and not much wiser seeing as I drank beer and played with fire on my birthday). Other then that, nothing new is really happening, except of course feeling guilty for not posting. Frankly life’s a bit boring right now and I don’t need to inflict it on anyone else.

Life Lessons

Over dinner last night a good friend and I were swapping “Life Lessons” with much hilarity. One of her top ones: If you are walking across a sewer grate, be sure you have a good hold on your keys!

For me: Never read and walk at the same time. You think I would learn after once, twice, god knows how many times. When I first started working at the credit union (I don’t work there anymore) I was busy reading the internal memos I had just retrieved from my mail box at the same time that I was walking down the line of glass fronted offices. All I can say is “Danger Will Robinson!” Anyhow I managed to misjudge where the door was and when I tried to enter the office, I ran full force into the huge pane of glass. CLANG!!! Reverb… Of course due to my luck, all of the other member service representatives were loitering in that office, and looked up in time to see my startled face firmly connecting to the glass. So much for first impressions, they all dissolved into pools of laughter. Believe me, by the time I left three years later I hadn’t done much to improve my reputation. My manager used to beg me to please take the elevator…

So, back to the present, in the restaurant parking lot we have just finished explaining how we have both managed to fall over absolutely nothing. I turn and start walking away while looking back at her saying goodbye. When I finally get back to looking where I’m going, I’m surprised to realize that the corner of the Jeep is only about 3 inches from my nose. Hit the Brakes!!! How apropos. You can dress me up but you can’t take me out and expect that I won’t run into stuff!! We were both laughing so hard we were crying and could barely get in our cars.

The power of memory

I have only seen my mother truly cry a few times in my lifetime. But the thing that I remember most about 9-11-2000 is her voice. I was blissfully unaware of what was going on. Unusually the radio was not on. I picked up the phone and my Mother was sobbing. She, always one to talk on the phone, could only manage to get out two sentences.
“They’ve hit the world trade center. Turn on you television”
I turned on the television in time to see the second plane hit. I stood there in total shock; I couldn’t take it so I walked outside, down my front walk. I wondered how to reconcile the horror of what I had just witnessed with the beautiful sparkling sunshine, bright purple flowers against the sky, and the seeming normality of my home. I couldn’t. I was suddenly struck with the absolute silence of my usually boisterous neighborhood, even the birds were quiet.

I was supposed to teach that day, and was expected at the university. I got in the car turned over the ignition. The DJ on the radio was saying that there were 4 more planes in the air that were unaccounted for – would there be more horror? I remember the frantic fear for my Father, who I knew was traveling. I turned off the car and went back inside. My family was lucky, he was safe, and managed to rent a car to drive home from Ohio. It was the first time I, or many of my generation in this country could truly appreciate the horror of war, or more simply the starkness of terror.

Is that a… Oh God!

So yesterday felt like a marathon. Run for school, run for the office, run to class (pause) realization – Oh dammit I forgot to go to the pharmacy! Of course I realized this 10 minutes before I was supposed to start teaching. Definitely not enough time to get to the pharmacy and back to the classroom on time. Man was I mad at myself, as I would have to drive back to school just to get the prescription filled the next day!

Luckily I got through my lecture with an extra ten minutes to spare. Now mind you I’m wearing high heels, not realizing I would be running a friggin marathon that day. So I took off out of the classroom like a shot, hoping that in 20 minutes I could make it to the pharmacy and then to the next class I had to teach far across campus. Unfortunately I didn’t realize that one of my students was following me so he could find the classroom. As he put it, later “Yeah, I was following you to find the room, and then it got weird.”

“Phew, there is not line at the pharmacy, maybe I can pull this off…”
I found the back door to the health center, and figured (wrongly) that I could cut across the back way in almost a straight shot to the Math Building. Now, I haven’t used this section of campus in years, like since I was an undergraduate. So I’m running along, in my heels, on a good course and suddenly, there is a building that never used to be there blocking the way.
“Aarrgghh! Where did that come from? Detour!”
I cut through the bushes and come out on N. Eagleville road and hurry along. The building is a giant L wrapping around the corner of the block. Of course I need the other end… I figure I can go in one end and just follow the hallways around… famous last words, “Not a through entrance.”
Proving nothing at can ever be simple, back outside run across the plaza, find the stairs – I got to the classroom about 1 minute before class was supposed to start.

I actually found my entire class in the hallway.
“What the hell is going on?” The teacher in the classroom before me refuses to end his class on time, a pattern is developing here.
I stick my head in the room, “Ahem, I am supposed to be teaching?”
He actually has the audacity to say, “Ok we’ll be out in ten minutes”
I guess I shouldn’t have asked in a questioning tone, now I’m irritated “No, not in ten minutes my class is supposed to start NOW!!!!”
“Oh we’ll be out in a minute”
I don’t know who he was, and I’m kinda glad he doesn’t know who I am after that little exchange, but by this time I’m on my cell phone with scheduling getting a new room…

Consequently, my class ran over and I didn’t get everything done. Now I’m late for Beer Hour which I’m supposed to be organizing due to the absence of the normal MC, and it is across campus, again! Cursing the location of my classroom for the tenth time that day. I’m off and running again.

By the time I wrapped up my own work after Beer Hour, I still had to pick up some groceries on the way home. By now lunch has definitely worn off, the lady checking me out asked how I could shop without eating first? I countered “with a lot of restraint” of course restraint went out the window while I was stopped at a light next to Burger King. Next thing I know I was scarfing down a burger… Yet another healthy meal. Finally my very blistered feet hit the front step at 10pm.

The first thing I did was to loose the sandals in exchange for some PJs and bare feet. Second, a glass of water… Then standing at the water cooler, OH GOD WHAT IS THAT GROUND INTO THE CARPET???? It used to be a mouse. SIMBA!!!! WHAT DID YOU DO? He usually eats the whole thing and spares me. To make matters worse, Dan, in his work boots had stepped on it without noticing. Oh, God, Oh, God, Oh, God I can’t deal with this right now.

Ok, first go get the boots off him. Of course he wants to know why I want to see the bottom of his boots, and then immediately turns green. Take the boot outside, clean it up. Then I needed a few minutes of breathing to figure out how to deal with the worse one. Gloves, paper towels, cleaning solution… my poor stomach – flip-flop, GROSS!!!! All said and done, I finally wind down enough to go to bed figuring I’ve had enough of this day. Of course to top the day off I manage to drop the barrettes I’m taking out of my hair, directly into the toilet… I might have washed it recently but I STILL DON’T WANT TO STICK MY HAND IN THERE! Man, I’ve got to go to bed before anything else bad happens. I’m glad I’m staying home today.

Um, Professor?

It’s begun, all over again. I can not believe that summer is over, but just to rub it in it has rained for the majority of the last two weeks. Fall is definitely here early this year, unbelievable. Actually, what’s really unbelievable is the difference in the amount of questions in my inbox when I have 300 students, and not just 50.

What is really funny to me sometimes, is that they see me as a grown up, adult, whatever the term. I guess, despite the impending doom of another birthday, I still don’t apply those words to myself… (denial, perhaps but adults have things like children & IRA’s…) Maybe it’s because I’m still in school. But, anyway, on my way out I pass through the co-op to shortcut to the parking garage. I decided to pick up a juice for the ride and that’s when I hear a tentative “Um, Professor?” from behind me. (snicker) It seems the young student in my office earlier today lost his check card, and without six dollars they wouldn’t let him out of the parking garage. So he was trading in all the change he found in the car for bills, and still was two dollars short… So, I loaned him two bucks. Now if any of you know me, you know this is a situation I, in all my absentminded glory, might easily end up in myself. And he has absolutely no idea how lucky he was that I actually HAD two bucks to loan him! And I’m the authority figure? Again snicker.

Then we get to the elevator and he asks, “So when did you start studying anthropology?”
I replied, well I started grad school in ’99, got my masters in 2002 and hope to finish up this year”
“Oh, (pause) in 1999 I was twelve.”
Great, just great, now I feel really old…

Friends

I’ve been thinking a lot about friends lately. What helps us make friends? To keep one? To drift away? What qualifies our closeness? Is it the length of time you’ve known someone? Or what you are willing to share? Can you gain back old friends? All of these questions… I guess there really aren’t answers. I’ve just been pondering lately. Heard this little report today and it’s totally worth listening to:

The Two-Year Rule for Golden Friends

From gators to otters… What?

“I started punching the otter in the face, which I felt really bad about because it’s cute… but it was killing my dog.”
- Leah Vanon, who rescued her Labrador retriever, Jasmine, from an otter that came ashore and dragged the dog into the water in west Boca Raton, Fla. (as quoted in Newsweek)

You know it’s little tidbits like that one that will make me miss my subscription to Newsweek when it runs out.

Insomnia strikes again, up at 4:30 this morining. My neighborhood is nice and quiet at that time, it s a good time to work, so one more chapter finished three to go…

Nothing can ruin your day faster than an insurance company

There are a lot of hassles in this life that pass under the bridge only managing to minorly ruffle my feathers, and then there is insurance… We actually pay these people to deny us and make us miserable…

I’ve been a horrible insomniac all my life. And, well, not sleeping makes you a not so nice person. I’ve always resisted the idea of prescription drugs as I’ve been afraid to become addicted (easily) to sleep agents and because of all their nasty side effects such as sleep eating, and sleep driving…

I finally broke down, got a real doctor, had a physical and got samples of a non-addictive sleep medication one that works to more naturally regulate sleep cycles without just knocking you out with barbituates. Amazingly for the first time I’ve actually slept for consecutive nights in a row, and woke up without feeling like the drug had knocked me into a total stupor. I can’t even begin to articulate the toll insomnia can take on you and your productivity. So, you can imagine how I felt when I was informed my insurance won’t pay for this drug. I’m expected to pay $95.00 a month to sleep, or take another type of drug, one that just knocks you out, makes you sleepwalk and totally unproductive the next day cause you can’t wake up. So it’s either sleep not or sleep always. Great choices.

So, now I am typing this, trying with difficulty to reign in my temper while I wait for days to see if the doctor’s office can fix this mess. It just goes to show that for every good thing that happens: fun camping trips, getting productive work done, finding the perfect wedding dress – something equally shitty will happen: Truck broken (at least not on the camping trip), Saturn not so good, Insurance people suck... I often wonder “What’s next?” I guess the key to happiness is not letting the crappy moments totally overshadow the good times.

Friendly Chipmunks and Freezing Weather

There is really nothing better then a three day weekend, that is until Monday rolls around. To celebrate Dan’s 30th birthday and my friend Kelli’s birthday, we took off for a weekend of camping in the White Mountains. Because little Miss Last Minute (meaning me) was planning this little getaway only a few days before departure we ended up in a family campground. It was really nice, just really congested. I’m more accustomed to the kind of camping where there is No. One. There. We aren’t totally loud people, but it’s a pain to pay attention to “quiet hours.”

Our first morning we were visited by an extremely friendly and brave little chipmunk, who definitely likes bagel. After some crumbs to whet his appetite he actually started taking them out of my hand.

We went to the Flume (Franconia Notch, NH) in the afternoon. There you walk though a very tight notch through which a river runs, in the late fall they have to take the walkways out to accommodate the massive rush of water in the spring. I visited there with my parents as a child and I was curious to see if it was as impressive as the lingering childhood impressions I amazingly retained (I can’t remember a lot!). I remembered the water being a lot more ferocious, and the walks being a lot higher up, but I think that might have a lot to do with scale, I’m not 3 feet tall anymore ;o) It is really beautiful up there, it was so nice to get away. Of course the other view was three “ladies” who had definitely been men in a previous decade.

We actually managed to go through 2 loads of firewood in as many evenings, primarily because Sean and Dan stayed up all night till they burned through it all (pyros). I knew it would be considerably cooler up there, especially after fleeing a horrendous heat wave in CT, but it got seriously cold up there on our second night. I was freezing, the next morning I asked the office what the temperature got down to - 39°! No Wonder!

I can’t wait to go camping again, I’m already trying to pick a new location, South.

Recent exploits

Well the blogger is still being squirley about posting photos, so you'll just have to wait for them later and an update on this past weekend...

So, Its been a long while since I’ve updated this thing. Guess I’m slipping a little bit. But I’ll try and use my usual generic excuse that I’ve been really busy. Doing what? You might ask. Well I officially finished another chapter of my thesis and handed it in! Woo Hoo!!!! That made time for a weekend of car shows.

The guys from the shop took the Swift VW to the Funkmaster Flex car show in Hartford on Saturday. We checked that out in the afternoon. There were some good cars, but the music was pretty unbearable. However the car did win best VW!! Rockin. Matt found new “models” from the Gold Club to help promote the shop

The next day was the Swift car show at the speed bowl. That meant getting up at 6 am on the weekend, not something I prefer but I got over it. Laci and I helped with registration and then wandered around all day. Here are a few pics of the car (and trophy).

Spent the next day recuperating from the weekend. We went to see Clerks II and I have to say that has been the highlight of my last two weeks! That movie rocks, I think I need to go again.

The rest of the week passed in a blur of errands and rather failed attempts at drafting the figures for my next chapter. Friday morning I was up early and heading to Rochester NY for A &T’s wedding. Of course we lit it up a bit on Friday night. We decided to check out the night life and ended up at Daisy Dukes, who’s claim to fame (other then being a country western bar in Rochester) was a mechanical bull. And yes, for the record I did ride it and I have the tee shirt to prove it, and unfortunately the video that T took… It was really a hysterical thing to watch. If you were a pretty girl, and scantily clad, the guy controlling the bull took it real easy. If you were dumb enough to do it in a skirt he would toss you off so your skirt was sure to go over your head. Finally if you were a guy, he sent you flying into the wall ASAP. Poor M had to go to the chiropractor in the morning before the wedding. At least the groom didn’t get messed up too bad. We all had bruises and scrapes!

The wedding was of course gorgeous and they had a rockin band. We danced till late and then had a nightcap in the hotel bar before finally falling asleep. By the time we got home I was so exhausted I could barely move, of course that meant it’s time for a heat wave… So now I’m back in the office, melting. The weather forecast calls for 100 degrees today with a heat index making it feel like 110. Yippee, it’s like I’m back in Africa except with about 100% humidity.

Update

Still wilting… its 97° in the shade and my house is an oven. I may actually cave in and go to school to work tomorrow where I can find some AC. I don’t usually like AC but the heat has gotten bad enough to inspire the stupids. I ended up closing the file for my current chapter this morning without saving my changes. So much for a mornings worth of work! I think I’m going to give up and go outside. Dan’s washing his car, which means he’s guaranteed to try and hit me with the hose. Bring it on!

Momma Said Knock You Out!

This is such a classic photo, I think it should be preserved for posterity. Ok, so not only is Bush making a totally unflattering face in this picture, but leave it to the New York Times to put it on the front page of their online edition! But the question I really have… Is Blair really just talking to him, looks to me like he’s finally ready to knock him out!!! Funny stuff, diplomacy is. (Yes that was a Yoda grammatical moment and I’m not changing it!).

I just have to say I’m really lovin my 2nd story, landlocked office not that the temperature is supposed to hit 105° today. Mouse it totally knocked out from the heat, but heaven forbid she should take up a little less space on the desk. All my stuff (and me) are crammed in a corner. Speaking of knocked out, Dan is finally sleeping after his marathon week getting the Swift VW ready for Waterfest. The last time he was home, and had more then a short nap was Wednesday! Either he thrives on that kind of situation or he’s an alien! He had air conditioning in there so, my guess is he'll probably sleep till about 4 pm... any bets?

These four walls

Its seems all my social time is compacted into the weekends now. Friday was the Swift Motersports car show at Sailfest. Man was I glad we went on Friday and not the next day, when an 89 old man freaked out and drove through the crowed hitting 27 people right in front of the Swift booth! Eeek!

Of course the Ortiz – Shamrock fight seemed like a letdown after all the hype. Shamrock was down in just a minute and a half – I was hoping it would last longer. Anyone who talks that much shit shouldn’t have got off that easy!

I know my blog hasn’t been that interesting lately, but it’s hard to observe and photograph amusing things to post when you never leave the house! I guess I shouldn’t complain, I’m actually getting a lot of writing done, so you’ll just have to wait for more interesting stuff until I’m liberated from my office!

Of course my neighborhood is still a source of amusement – or annoyance depending on the moment. There are at least two major construction projects going on behind my house. It was interesting when the roofing project began. The guys were throwing large heavy objects off the roof (3 floors up!) and into the dumpster, and every time they did it a thunderous clap of sound resulted. Now anyone who knows me, knows I’m a bit highstrung, you might even say jumpy. Well I’m glad they are done stripping the roof because lost as I was in concentration, every time they tossed something off that roof I jumped a foot. Heart failure here I come… Yesterday took the cake. They usually listen to the Wolf, a classic rock station. One of the guys likes to sing along but yesterday they were experiencing some technical difficulties and the radio cut out in the middle of “Roxaaane….” and the resulting construction worker falsetto finishing the song on his own was absolutely hysterical. Amusing from the burly construction worker point of view, he chooses to sing only the really warbly parts of the songs, like the “whoa – oh – oh – a” part of “With or Without You” by U2 this morning.

Just to return to an old topic. I just want to know how it is that the constructions workers can listen to the Wolf crystal clear, less then 100 m from my window, but can I listen to it? That would be a no… And, it’s not because my stereo sucks, I think I’m just the anti-radio repelling the good radio waves with my mere presence.

Ah the joys of summer

Today we actually woke up in the presence of the sun. I was beginning to wonder if we needed to start building the proverbial ark. Forecast for today, sunny and 85! I’ll take it! Except I have to go up to the University – I’d much rather go to the beach.

Recent adventure include: I attempted to drive to my friend Meghan’s house for a pre-4th of July shindig. On the way I managed to get caught in a freak storm, the rain wind and lightening was the worst I’ve ever been caught it. Had to get off the road and wait it out while having a complete panic attack because I realized I’d left the window behind my desk open. If a storm like this hit home… kiss the laptop goodbye. This is just the sort of time when you realize that you are far, far too attached to you computer, and the consequence of loosing could be earth shattering. (bye, bye dissertation!) Not that I’m not smart enough to have it backed up elsewhere, but that whole day’s work wasn’t backed up. I used to tease my fellow student about his paranoia regarding this sort of thing, now I must admit I’m eating crow! I finally managed to get Dan on the phone and persuaded him to leave work and go home and close the windows. He had fun informing me that it never even rained in Norwich and he apparently thought I was nuts. Touché!

I actually spent most of the actual holiday at work at my desk. I finally knocked off mid-afternoon and to go over to mom’s and hit the beach. Except that little storm cloud keeps following me around. The weak sun we had in the morning vaporized and the rain rolled in. Good thing we had the top down on the Jeep…

On a good note, between dodging the storms, holiday obligations and wedding shower gift preparation I have finally managed to get another chapter in my thesis finished. Phew, only five more to go…

Current Mood:

How to know your library book hasn’t been checked out in a really long time… like decades

So I ventured into the sub-basement of the library yesterday to fish out an old archaeology text. When I got to the check out desk I figured I might encounter some difficulties. Yep, the electronic scanner thingy wouldn’t pick it up. It hadn’t been checked out in so long that it was actually several decades behind the technological times. Look what I found in the front cover… (Dad you should recognize this…)

Buying Peace of Mind

Today Warren Buffett signed away 31 Billion dollars of his 44 Billion dollar fortune to charity. Yes, that is Billion with a B. While listening to the story on NPR I had just a few thoughts…

He said in essence, that money made from society should be returned to society.

When asked what his kids thought about his giving away all their inheritance he said didn’t believe in inherited dynastic wealth, and he believed they needed to make their own fortunes not be given them.

Both of these are great sentiments in my book, but I’d be more then happy to inherit over TEN billion dollars – I think there is still some dynasty there… they don’t have to start with my checking account balance.

Finally, it was said that Mr. Buffett had arranged his life so he didn’t have to sit in boring meetings and didn’t spend ANY time with people he didn’t like or didn’t want to talk to.

Ok, number three is what really got me. Can you imagine life without having to call the phone company to get the mistake on your bill fixed? To never have to deal with an automated menu on a company’s customer service line or the CSA who doesn’t speak English? To not have to be bothered making a trillion, unhelpful if not tearful phone calls to the university when they withheld too much tax just to be told I absolutely can’t have that money till next year? To not have to listen to the neighbors screaming at each other while you are trying to concentrate?

The list goes on, and on, and on as you can imagine. That one sentence, uttered so unconsciously struck me nearly dumb. For a few silent minutes I imagined my life with all of those things gone… They say money doesn’t buy you happiness, and I firmly do believe that, I’m a pretty well grounded person and I like to think I know what is important in life. But today I learned what money does buy you… its sanity.

Catcapades

The most amusing thing to happen over the last few days took place last night. Well Daniel might not have found it quite so amusing.

My cats are usually pretty good, they are both chow hounds but usually remain out of trouble in the kitchen, except if fish or shrimp are involved.

I’ve just begun cooking fish more often, and apparently Mouse has become aware of this. So last night I leisurely ate my dinner in front of the tube and she sat with her nose about two inches from the plate at rapt attention the whole time. Now I’m not a miser here – I did give her some. However I didn’t notice her disappear after I finished and sat back to watch the remaining half an hour of my program before cleaning up.

I had innocently left Daniel’s plate in its usual spot on the kitchen counter awaiting his return. Now normally they don’t do anything bad, but much to my dismay when I went to clean up there was only about a 2 inch square piece of fish remaining on the plate (the alfredo noodles with artichoke hearts were totally untouched). I’ve definitely learned my lesson – don’t trust them around the broiled sea creatures!

Poor Dan, he came around 10 pm hungry only to find the cat ate his dinner…. Poor guy ended up with a bowl of cereal. But Simba got the remaining bit of fish (happy cat!)

He is hysterical for some of the positions he get in to sleep. He is totally enamored with cushy blue pillows we have on the couch. They are filled with tiny synthetic pellets and feel really neat (wow, nice adjective). Dan caught this pose recently…

Class Dismissed

I guess it’s time that I updated. I wish I could say I’d been on vacation, or some other fun reason for not updating but alas that would not be the case. But I am happy to report that I survived teaching the summer class and actually managed to get all their papers and exams graded and I even posted their grades. My motivation you ask? Being able to say I’m really finished and not having to spend a chunk of a well deserved weekend grading. We are supposed to go see the Blue Angels at the airshow.

I often feel like this part of CT is stuck in radio purgatory. I grew up listening to WBRU which I love, and which absolutely will not come in here. Then there was a few months of excitement when a Boston alt rock station (WFNX) broadcasted locally until I woke up one morning to sports talk radio. Let me repeat that sports..talk..radio.. THAT CRAP SUCKS!!!! Leaving essentially the oldies station from the casino which might be nice except that it really doesn’t come in either, odd since I can actually see the casino from my house, and the jammin’ hip hop station (I don’t think so). Recently I bought a cord to connect my computer to my stereo out of desperation to listen to my itunes, but today I finally had a revelation… yeah I know I’m slow. Both my favorite stations are streaming online! Sweet! So, now as long as I’m near a computer I can listen, I’m a total music junkie. Of course this doesn’t help in the car, but I guess you can’t have everything.

However, as I’ve been listening and writing the weather report may mean a weekend inside not enjoying all the things I meant to by getting all my grading done :o(

Murphy’s Law 101

Following the beaver incident I’ve started to carry the camera around a lot more. Consequently absolutely freakin nothing of any interest what-so-ever has happened!! Of course. So folks nothing new to report…

My Cat Will Beat Up Your Bear...

Ok, this is WAY cooler then anything I'm likely to observe today, so I just have to share. From http://www.gothamist.com/ via my friend Floyd...



"This week might not have been the best week for small dogs but fat felines should certainly be proud of their kind. Why? Well look at that picture above. That's Jack the cat protecting his owners yard in West Milford, New Jersey from a visiting black bear.
When the bear first came into the yard Jack went after him and scared him up a tree. After fifteen minutes the bear finally got the balls to come back down, only to be chased up another tree minutes later. Finally, worried for the safety of their 15-pound-pussy Jack's owners called him back into the house and the bear went away. Not exactly New York news, but still, how cool is that cat? "'

Heh heh heh, you said beaver…

I managed to catch a horrible cold, lost my voice and everything. So I had to cancel class yesterday and I’ve been moping around the house for several days. I made it up to school today to teach and I was walking back to my car after making it through 2.5 hours of class (and thankful it was over) when I gave a start… Was that a beaver? or the biggest woodchuck on the planet? What? Where? In the middle of campus?

Yep, yes it was. So I stopped for a few minutes and was watching the big guy chew on a handy wooden post that was there to tag some sort of fancy ornamental tree. Then I looked left and this really eager beaver (Yes! How often do you get to say that for real?) was waddling readily towards the roach coach. It totally didn’t care that there were a few people waiting in line. In fact I think one guy in a suit was a little freaked out about this because he started stomping his foot on the pavement (grumpy). About 20 seconds later two toasted bread ends came sailing out of the roach coach. Apparently she was just waiting for her daily lunch!!! Typically I didn’t have the camera along, it’s too bulky for my purse, but I managed a few somewhat blurry shots with my camera phone of a beaver messily eating toast! What else can I say? It totally made my day!

Gentlemen Start Your Engines!

Guess how I spent my weekend? Yep you guessed it (actually probably not) at the Dover International Speedway, cheering on Dale Jr. and Jimmie Johnson!! It was a total blast. Talk about the power of sound…. amazing it vibrated the entire stadium which was huge. It was fun on so many levels, just getting away from the house, getting to hang out with some new friends, Pat and Roxanne (I managed to avoid singing the song to her though), finally getting to see some serious race cars, and doing a lot of fun people watching. We had awesome seats right near the start/finish line and pit boxes.

Of course, Yours Truly, had to throw a bit fat monkey wrench into the plans by leaving the memory card for the digital camera in the friggin car at the park-and-ride!!! (What degree am I getting?) So no pictures cause I suck! Dan keeps teasing me that I’m not going to tell anyone where I was over the weekend, but honestly I’m ready to go again. BIG FUN! I might just end up a Nascar fan yet.

A Hairy Ordeal

Ok, time to admit it. I got a perm. Ok, I said it, I feel much better now. Imagine I have been so traumatized by this simple decision for weeks before and a few days after…. As I was growing up I always had the straightest hair, pin straight, and flat. So Mom gave me a series of not so good home perms, trying to give my hair some body. No perm really ever made me happy all I wanted was naturally curly hair.

So year later, after having uber-short hair for years I decided to grow it out. Mostly for Dan – short hair is so easy to deal with. Anyhow it grew back in half curly - half straight. OK, now what? No matter what I did it didn’t look good. After about a year of prodding I let my hairdresser talk me into getting the top permed to “match.”

The first few days it was out of control, and I was scared. I didn’t tell anyone I knew, if fact I saw Kier in town right after it was finished. But I was too chicken to yell out and get his attention. Now a week later it’s mellowed a bit and is starting to look nice. I even updated my picture online. We’ll just have to see from here. If it sucks – I’m shaving it off!!

Cheeky Little Bugger...

I always start my morning out with my cup of coffee at my desk clicking away on the computer. Mouse of course joins me, finding whatever space she can in the middle of my desk directly in front of the window. But now we have a new morning friend. It’s this totally cheeky blue jay, who I like to call Stan. Stan has visited the last few days and has taken to tormenting Mouse. He sits on the branch of the pine tree just a few feet from the window and caws at her. If she doesn’t react enough he flies straight at the window (straight at her head) and then veers off at the last second. He keeps this up for over a half a hour each morning. Its great fun for him (and me) but I think she’s pissed.

As for Simba well all you can say about his highness is spoiled, spoiled, spoiled…. I haven’t had the heart to discourage him from invading the guest bedroom yet, hence the absolute carpet of cat hair on the bedspread, Ugh. Glad I have a new washing machine…

'nuff said

Part of the reason I wanted to do this blog was to have a chance to record the humorous and weird that I manage to observe. For instance I just went outside to get my CD case from the car and noticed that it is 90 degrees in the shade!! So much for the weatherman. Well my neighbor was yelling at a kid, aged maybe 7 or 8, who was sitting in a dark blue sedan, with the windows up!!
Get out of that car!!” She yelled. The little boy gets out & is covering his face at this point. She follows with
“You play outside or come in the house, but don’t sit it that car, ok?” She is a bit calmer now.
“Why?” the little one asks.
“Because your ass will die!”
Ghetto logic?

Went to a great BBQ at Rich & Laci’s house for Memorial Day, got to hang out with some new friends. Not a big volleyball fan myself, but it was pretty amusing to watch the game between bubble blowing and one-on-one baseball with Kendra. Discovered that the dog, Orco, likes to eat watermelon. He even daintily nibbles it off the rind with his front teeth, I’ll post the picture later. Who would have thought it? I’m sure he would have preferred my burger.

Slab 'O Beef

So yesterday, after watching Dan work at it for about two hours, I actually chipped in a started helping clean up the yard. We are still fighting off the evil purple weed that Don’s wife infested the yard with many years ago. After realizing that about half of the rose bushes were in fact dead, and we couldn’t find a rake anywhere, it was off to Home Depot. We came home two rakes richer plus a bunch of really pretty marigolds. Kenneth came by and lent a hand for a while – but it was dinner that was really the highlight. Now I’ve never been to Fuddruckers before so this was an all new experience. I just got a classic combo, but Dan and Ken, well they had half the cow, each…. I’ve never seen a 1 lb. hamburger before (not counting the bun, toppings & fries), let alone contemplating eating one. But they rose to the challenge well & managed to polish them off pretty well. Although I think Kenneth was struggling a bit, seeing as how he had already eaten dinner!

A Sticky Situation....

Things are a bit slow around here. Maybe we can just break it up with a quick trip to Walmart. I need to go but I just can’t face it. As if any trip to the superstore wasn’t trying enough, all the choices, the crazy people, now if you are living in the Midwest you also have to “watch your back,” why you might ask? Well, perhaps it’s better put as watch where you sit or you might fall victim to the serial toilet seat super-gluer and find yourself banging on a wall trying to get help. There but for the grace of god go I…. oh boy am I going to examine every seat in the public restrooms I go to from now on. Can you imagine (you’d probably rather not!)? I was dutifully working out on the elliptical trainer at the gym when I heard this little gem & I had to take care not to fall off I was laughing so hard. I just had to share.

This is it....

Thank God for weekends, I can do nothing and as opposed to the weekday, not feel too overly guilty about it. Spent a few hours messing around with the computer as usual, itunes, my space and any other silliness, now my very own blog….

At least the highlight of the day was sushi, mmmm sushi.

So, most of you already know that Dan and I are engaged. Well it seems the eternal engagement may actually come to an end in the foreseeable future! We have settled on a date, 16 June 2007. So were putting it off at least another year, but we’re getting there. Seems there are some of you who I haven’t seen in so long, you’ve never even seen the ring. So here it is.

Learning this whole blog thing...

Well, seeing as how I love to procrastinate on the computer and everyone is always mad at me that I don’t stay in touch, perhaps I should give this bogging thing a go….
So here it is, I’m gonna give it a shot, but I’m not really going to tell anyone yet, until I see if I can actually keep it up.
Kudos to my old friend Mary for the idea (even if she doesn’t know it).

So what’s been going on with me for the last month?

Well I enjoyed a conference in scenic Puerto Rico. Scenic and WARM!!!! It was awesome if not hugely expensive 8 F**** bucks for a beer you’ve got to be kidding me. But at least when the conference to too much to bear (or you couldn’t feel your feet anymore from the out of control air conditioning. Why do they do that?) you could walk out the door and sit on the beach. Now that’s my idea of paradise (just make sure the pina coladas cost less).


Dan graduated from NE Tech, Whoo Hoo!!!! Who’s the man! He even got to wear the hat! We had a great party, barbeque and beers. Got to hang out with family and friends. Pretty cool even if we didn’t have enough chairs….. oops.

Dan & I took Kenneth to get his latest tattoo, while waiting I got inspired (to do more then just e-mail his mom a picture of him getting it done). Thought I would get it somewhere not so painful, but of course Dan thought that was wussing out. Suns look better on the ankle bone. He of course is right, so I took the challenge... Holy crap that hurt, getting better now, at least my ankle isn’t puffed up to twice the size anymore.

Spent the last two weeks frantically preparing to teach a course on human forensic osteology. Despite the workload it was awesome to teach. I got to teach people how to identify sex, age, ancestry of skeletons and look at trauma. It was a blast, especially the last laboratory, we got to look at the gruesome stuff – so I got the usual “oh, gross!” but really it was fascinated revulsion. For once it was really nice to actually teach something that holds people’s attention (instead of hearing the usual snores….).