There's Gotta Be Somebody Other Than Me, Who's Ready to Write it Off Immediately

This photo has nothing to do with anything else, it's just in my friend's tattoo shop and I think it's cool.

Dear Jesus,

Thank you for the internets.

Love, Churlita

You know, back in the olden days, when I was in high school, we didn't even have any internets or Facebook. (I know. How did we live?) So, if I got mad at my sister and she wasn't home to yell at, I would just have to wait until later. Since it is physically and emotionally impossible for me to hold a grudge, I would forget by the time I saw her and all that beautiful blind fury would go to waste.

Now, though. Things are different. Because of the lovely internets, when one of my girls is pissed off at the other one, they have options. Coadster can get home, see what a mess her sister made of the living room and even though her sister is at work, Coadster can still get on Facebook and oh, say...Write something cute and quaint on Stinky's wall like:

Pick up your shit before you leave the house!!!!!!!! >:0

And Stinky can receive it right away on her phone during her break. I'm pretty sure that kind of communication is exactly why god created the internets.

Rattle of Bones, Dreams That Stick Out, a Medical Chart on the Wall

Hey, look what revealed itself. The plant I thought was a peony, was really a bleeding heart. How perfect for me. Ha!

I really went through the wringer today. I had a dermatology appointment in the morning to check out that weird spot on my lip. They asked me if I wanted them to do a full body check for skin cancer, and I figured they probably should since I was there anyway. I am Irish after all and we were not meant to grow up in Arizona, like I did. Of course, when the doctor came in looking like a younger hotter Peter Gallagher, I thought I might take it back. I'm pretty sure I was blushing throughout the whole exam. The good news is that I didn't die from embarrassment AND I don't have any signs of skin cancer. He said the thing on my lip was pretty common in outdoorsy people like myself and he gave me a list of lipbalmy/sunscreeny products.

Then I had a dentist appointment in the afternoon. I scheduled the appointment 6 months ago. My last appointment was actually the day I got approved for my home loan. Doesn't that seem more like 6 years ago, than 6 months? Anyway, once I realized I had both appointments on the same day, I figured I should just leave it and get it all over with.

I gave plasma after the dentist, but wisely decided not to run today. Even I know when to take a break...Well, sometimes, anyway.

Another angle.

So, now it's the weekend and I got all my body maintenance issues out of the way. How do I plan to spend it? I'm not sure, exactly. I have so much to do, I'm having some trouble trying to prioritizing it all.

Most of my girly type friends will be in the Quad Cities at the State Pool tournament. Right now, I think I'll run after work, and then I'll probably have a fire in the pit in my backyard. I'm pretty sure I'll open the bottle of Pinot Grigio at some point in the evening too. If anyone stops by great, and if not, that's great too. I'll be happy either way.

Saturday will be my day to try to get stuff done. I want to take care of some yard work, do some kitchen work and do some car cleaning and maintenance. If I don't have any more tempting offers, I might drink some more wine either in front of fire or in front of a movie or both.

I'll try to get as much done as I can on Sunday before Coadster's cathedral concert at St Mary's in the afternoon. And that should be more than enough for one weekend.

How about you all? Will you be drinking wine in front of a fire or doing some much needed maintenance this weekend?

All the Things I Care About (Are Packed Into One Punch)

I'm out of recent pics, so I'm recycling this one from a couple of years ago.

Wednesday's are becoming nice reprieve nights for me. Coadster goes to her dad's and Stinky is gone most of the night at rec league basketball games and then to her youth group. There was a time, before I was so house poor, that I would meet a group of friends at different restaurants around town for Supper Club on Wednesdays, but I haven't done that for many, many months.

Lately, I'm probably most happy spending Wednesdays by myself, anyway. That might change if the weather ever gets better and I tire of hibernating. But right now, my solitary evenings are exactly what I need in the middle of the week. It feels weird to have even a few hours to do with whatever I want. Yes, I did some chores and worked for a bit on the kitchen, but I also want to make sure I give myself time to read and listen to music if I can. I've got about a hundred pages left in The Sun Also Rises. It's been a quick read and such great escapism. I can't imagine a life where people spend most of their days and nights drinking and socializing. I couldn't do that every day without it making me really, really unhappy, but it sure is fun to read about. It's funny how I don't remember that they drank so much when I read it in high school. And as much of a drunken misogynist as he was reported to be, Hemingway sure could write the hell out of a novel.

Of course, as soon as I finish it, I'm moving on to Cormac McCarthy's The Road. The only book I've read of his was Blood Meridian and if The Road is anything like that, it will be about the opposite of The Sun Also Rises. I'm sure I'll be ready for it after a hundred more pages of frivolity.

Colors Your Eyes With What's Not There

Here is the jazz band playing at Coadster's concert last Saturday.

Well, kids. According to some predictions, we could have the worst blizzard we've seen in these parts in 30 years tonight and tomorrow. I guess we'll see. My girls already know they have a snow day. Me? I'm not so sure. Even if the university cancels classes, it's still usually open for business. Since I walk to work and most of the people in my office live in other towns, if we are open for business, I'll be there.

It's fine with me either way. If the planets aligned in such a way that the university actually closed for all non essential personnel, (the flood was the only time that's happened since I've worked there) I would either have to use a vacation day or one of the 5 mandatory furlough days (forced days off without pay because of our state's budget crisis) that I now have to take before July. I just prepped most of my living room to paint, except for a little taping and sanding. So, the day off would be pretty much perfectly timed for me.

If the university does stay open, the walk to work will suck, but I have every kind of outdoorsy, cold weather kind of clothes you can imagine, so it won't be dangerous for me and it will be nice to be one of the only 5 people who show up to work. It's always a fairly festive feeling (nice alliteration, huh?) in the office in these circumstances.

I'll let you know what happens tomorrow. If you're anywhere near this weather mess, be sure to stay warm and dry and don't drive if you don't have to.

I Really Don't Mind What Happens Now and Then

Stinky dumping snow on Coadster's head a few Winters ago. I can't believe it's December already.

Have you ever had one of those nights where nothing went at all like you planned, but after you thought about it, you realized it all happened as it should have? That was tonight for me.

Stinky and my friend K. and I were all going to swim laps after work. I hadn't been going to Wednesday Supper Club much in the last couple of months, and it was kind of on hiatus anyway, since one of the couples involved had a baby a few weeks ago. Well, out of the blue today I got an email saying that they were having it at the Hilltop. My friend K. decided to swim earlier than we had planned, so she could go to Supper Club and see the new baby.

Stinky and I went to swim laps, but ran into K. just as she was leaving. We chatted with her and a bunch of people I knew came in the door to take their kids to swimming lessons. When we finally made it to the desk, we were informed that the whole pool was closed for kid lessons on Mondays and Wednesdays. So, now we know. I've been getting a cold the last couple of days, so I took it as a sign to rest and get better. Stinky and I are still going to plan to swim tomorrow if I feel okay.

I had to drop Coadster off to get her show choir dress altered. While that was going on, Stinky and I stopped at the Hilltop to to order some cheap, greasy food to go and for me to keep a safe distance (because of my cold) but to at least see the new baby from afar. He was very cute, by the way. While I was ordering my food, the recently retired head of public defenders for our county came over to talk to me. It just so happened, I had a little legal question for him and he was able to give me all the information I needed. Perfect.

So, I wasn't able to do the few things I thought I was going to do, but I did exactly what I needed. Sometimes life can be weird that way if you let it.

When I got home, I was able to tackle my bedroom. Consider it unpacked, organized and cleaned. One less thing. Tomorrow night I'll be doing that to the living room.

Coming Out the Woodwork, Through the Open Door

Here is a chair and some pumpkins.

I'm sure everyone else has come up with this analogy a hundred years before me, but I was joking around with my friends on Saturday night about how much house hunting is like dating.

You know? How you have to decide if you want something shiny and new or older and with a little more character? When you first start looking, you're worried that someone is going to be able to offer up more than you and you'll get rejected. It's okay, though. Like everything else, it's all about timing and maybe it wasn't meant to be, or else maybe things will fall through with the other buyer, and the house you want will become available to you a little later...When you're both ready.

If your offer does get accepted, it's not like you're free and clear. Hell no. There are dates scheduled for inspections. And in those series of meetings, you have to figure out if those are corner cracks that come from settling and can be lived with, or if there's something fundamentally wrong with the foundation and you need to run away screaming, before you waste anymore time and energy on something that will only cause you pain and heartbreak in the end.

Finally, after all is said and done, you want to find something that you can live with and feel an emotional attachment to. Of course, even then there are no guarantees. At some point, after you put years of money and time into it, you might outgrow your house and you'll both be on the market again.

Everybody All Around Me. Shakin' Hands and Sayin' Howdy

Here are some people at the beach. A place where I'd like to be right now.

So, you know how I'm kind of socially retarded, right? Well, today it seemed like everyone else was even weirder than me. I was in an alternate universe, where I was the normal person...Okay, I won't go that far, but there were people walking around the planet who made me look almost normal.

The minute I stepped on campus, I realized the Gideon bible guys were out in full force. They are generally nice, polite, older gentleman in suits. I've worked at this particular institute of higher learning for many, many years, so I know the drill. I take the first little green book offered me, and wave it at all the other guys trying to give me the same thing.

When I got up to my building, I noticed a guy standing in front, looking toward the sky. At first I thought he might be looking for the hawk that used to fly around the museum across the street, but he was looking past it. I approached two other women who work in my building and asked, "So, is that guy just trying to see how many people he can make look up this morning?"

"No. Margaret said she asked him what he was doing and he told her he was looking for the moon so he could see Jupiter. If he wanted to see all that, you'd think he would have started a little earlier...Like before sunrise," one of my co-workers replied

* * *

I think I've told you that after lunch I walk across the street with a little red shopping basket to pick-up all of our afternoon computer print-outs. Well, today I noticed a car politely waiting for me to cross the street. I didn't pay much attention to it, until the driver yelled out the window, "City High cross country! Wooooo!" I looked up and realized the guy was my friend and co-worker T-Rip's boyfriend and he was referring to my Facebook status update. Then I remembered that I saw a Facebook reminder for him too.

"Hey! Happy birthday, M!" I said. As I walked into the other building, I wondered if we would have said anything to each other besides hi, if Facebook didn't exist.

* * *

Finally. Today when I was running, two. Count 'em, two different guys I didn't know held up their hands so we could high-five each other as we passed. What the hell is that? I'm all for waving and saying hi, to fellow runners, but I have no desire whatsoever to slap their sweaty palms against mine. You know? I'd like to issue a no contact order between me and passing runners I don't know from here on out.

Soooo, how was your day?

For useless Twisting of Our Then New Technology

Here is some roadwork.

Do you ever find yourself searching for something on the web? You stalk people on Facebook, peruse blogs, Google shit you don't really care about. You're not even sure what you want. A connection, a sign, the answer to a question you don't even know how to ask? You find yourself frustrated, because out of your hundreds of Facebook "friends", there isn't one who has posted any new photos or had a witty comment thread that went on for hours and stopped making sense about fifteen comments ago.

You are aware that you are a stalker. A voyeur into other people's lives. Not for any scary or violent reasons, you're just nosy. You want to know what other people do, what they think, how they feel about everything. Why not? You put your life out there for public view. It's only fair.

Because you've had this conversation with your friends, especially your single friends, you know you're not alone. No one bats an eye when someone talks about their web stalking habits. Okay, some people do....But you don't. Isn't it only natural? Before the web, there were neighbors and communities spreading the word about people's lives. You chalk it up to the human fear of living in a vacuum.

Friday Night and Everyone's Moving

I love this photo. V. looks like the bat leader of the dog pack.

Tonight was one of those crazy, rush around nights in the Churlish household. I got home from work, dropped Coadster's soccer jersey off at her game, went running, came home, picked up Stinky, went to Coadster's game, took the girls for some greasy, crappy fast food, got gas and a few groceries to last until Sunday and made it home with a half hour to spare until I had to take Coadster to jazz choir rehearsal at nine. Whew!

Here are some peonies coming up by a headstone. It's so very "beginning and end of the cycle", isn't it?

So, what's on tap for the weekend, you ask?...Or maybe you didn't, but I'm gonna tell you anyway. Sadly, I have to work the entire Friday tomorrow. I put in my vacation requests for the next two months, so in May I'll work half days on the 1st and the 15th. (Coadster's 17th birthday. Eek!) Then get Memorial day off. In June I always take the the two days off after the girls' last day of school. This year those days fall on a Friday and Monday. Perfect. Then I'll take three more days off at the end of June. I kind of like breaking my week of vacation up so that I get at least one day off every week in June.

Friday night Coadster's going to the free concert of the band, Motion City Soundtrack at the student union for Riverfest and Stinky is going to see the Hannah Montana movie and then either sleepover at a friend's house or have that friend sleep at our house. Me? I'm planning on driving Stinky and her friend to their movie, but then just staying home and drinking a beer and watching a movie on my own. It's what I've been fantasizing about doing all week. That's how lame I am.

Saturday, I'll do practical stuff like recycling, and helping Coadster study for her AP government exam and get all of our bike maintenance done. Then I'll go grab a beer with my friend G. Rumor has it that my girl crush will be in town for a bachelorette party, so I'll try to hook up with her at some point too. You can bet your sweet ass, I won't forget my camera this time around.

Sooooo, what are all you all's plans? Will you get to do the thing you've been fantasizing about all week? (Please feel free not to go into any detail)

Lookin' in the Sun For Another Overload

Here is the top of a door at McBride Hall.

So, I don't have a lot to blog about. This weekend, I decided I'd try to be healthier in general in a lot of different ways. I wanted to slow things down, and relax and try to get more sleep. I also thought I'd try to be more physically healthy, by eating better and getting more exercise. So, what this means is that I am boring as hell right now.

Like last night, the girls were in and out of my house briefly, and so I spent most of the night listening to music by myself and making potato leek soup and hummus. Bo-Riiiiing! (well, too read about, but wonderfully relaxing to do) Then today I brought my camera to work and was all ready, but never saw the unicyclist. Damn.

The most exciting thing I've done in a couple of days took place this evening when I walked to the Co-op to buy some really good bread to go with the soup and hummus, and took a detour through this alley to see what was behind some of the downtown buildings. No, I didn't uncover a hidden city of gnomes or anything, but I've lived in this town on and off for 25 years and never explored this area before.

I decided to look up during my tour and this is what I saw. A broken window.

These duct looking things. I think you know how much I like to take pictures of weird industrial looking shit. This little section of alley was like a back lot, exposing all the tubes and wires of the quaint downtown facades. It was so cool.

Don't you think this frantic mess of wires has to be violating about a million different city codes?

So, that ends my dorky back alley tour of Iowa City. Come back tomorrow, when I photograph underneath railroad bridges...Just kidding. I don't think I want to make a huge effort to go trolling for hobos right now, since my goal was to try and be more healthy.

You're Always Dancing Down the Street

I think this is the back of the Biology Building.

Hey, today was a good day and let me tell you why:

1.) The weather was amazing. It got into the 50's. I ran in shorts. I'm positive it will snow again this year, but I doubt we'll have to experience 20 below zero temps for the rest of the season. We are dangerously close to Spring and not a minute too soon.

2.) Along the same lines, I just got my gas and electric bill and it was $70 cheaper than last month. Just think of all the things I could do with 70 dollars.

3.) I went to supper club for the first time in a hundred million years and it was so fun. We talked a lot about movies and I got some great suggestions for films I apparently HAVE to see. The best thing was, that one of the couples who attend aren't able to have children, and decided to be foster parents for a while. Well, they were actually able to adopt a newborn they were fostering. She's is absolutely gorgeous and they are amazing parents. I almost got a little teary seeing their new family.

4.) After supper club, I met my friend S. at George's. A few years back, a guy we knew sold his life over the internet and wrote a book about it. Part of what he sold were experiences. At one point, he wanted to sell the experience of drinking a beer and eating a cheeseburger at George's with my friend S., but ebay won't let you sell people, so they had to nix that. I'm the lucky girl who got to drink a beer at George's with my friend S. while she ate a cheeseburger without having to bid on her. We had a great talk and laughed a lot.

5.) My iPod was so good to me on my run today. Here is what I can remember of the songs it played:

a) "My Best Friend's Girlfriend" - The Cars
b) "Yellow Moon" - The Neville Brothers
c) an East Indian song who's name I can't remember, but it's great to run to.
d) "Pressure Drop" - Toots and the Maytals
e) "Roll With Me Henry" - Etta James
f) "The Theme from Sanford and Son" - Quincy Jones
g) "Rock and Roll" - The Velvet Underground
h) "Magic Man" - Heart

Now, off to bed with me.

You Tell Me What You Want and I'll Tell You What You Get

I think I'm finally getting slammed by that cold. I've been putting it off forever and kinda, sorta almost getting it, but it looks like I've finally succumbed to it. So, this will be a mostly photo post. I figure the fewer words I use, the less chance I have of saying something stupid or making any more typos than I normally do.

I decided to take you on another lunch date with me. I like to go on an adventure for a half hour during my break, so I feel like I'm doing more in the day than just allowing my soul to be sucked through the beige cubicle walls.

Today I walked out of my building and heard drums and singing. I tend to follow the music whenever possible, and I found The American Indian Student Association members whooping it up behind my building.

I also thought I'd take a little different walking route than the last time you and I lunched together. Lucky for all of us I did, because I found this guy out on the Pentacrest or rePentacrest as some used to like to call it.

Here are some students listening to why they deserve hell and putting their book learnin' to use by trying to philosphically prove that a judgmental god cannot exist...Or at least one of them was, anyway.

This guy turned out to be the laziest fire and brimstone preacher I've ever seen. He would yell and point and judge, all while sitting on his pious ass.

Instead of going downtown, I wandered behind the Old Capitol for some peace and quiet. Apparently, I was done having an adventure for the day. Here is a guy enjoying what could be the last warm day of the year.

Here is the top of the Old Capitol. It was only a few short years ago, when I stood outside of my office and watched it burn. I also made some snide comments about how long it took the firemen to go two blocks to fight it. I remember one of the temps laughing at me and saying, "Wow. I've never met anyone who actually heckled firefighters before." Yeah, well. I'm special that way.

There were some nice red leaves looking West from the veranda.

And, finally, on my way back I looked down the street to see what kind of progress they were making on cleaning up the flood. The road is still closed, as you can tell from the orange plastic fencing. I wonder how long it will take for them to fix everything they can still fix?

Do You Realize - That You Have the Most Beautiful Face

The Saturday Scavenger Hunt Word was chosen by Laura B. at My Boring Life blog. Her word was face. I'm recycling this photo of me and Coadster for it. it is from when Coadster was a baby and all you could see on her face were her cheeks. Poor Coadster inherited my big cheeks, which I inherited from my mom. She was such a skinny little baby, but if she was bundled up, people thought she was chubby because of her prominent cheeks.

I used to hate my cheeks, when I was younger, because they made me look like I was 12 when I was 18. Now, though? Like most other things about me, I've grown to accept them and even like them. I'm sure when I get older and people start describing me as looking, "Angela Lansbury jowly," I might go back to resenting them, but for now, I got 'em, they're mine, I might as well like them.

Once when I was walking through the downstairs of Gabes, a drunk guy was standing in front of me and staring at my chest. Like many drunk people, he spoke before he thought and said, "Wow. You have really big..." And then caught himself. He looked up at my face and finished, "...Cheeks."

"Nice catch," I said.

"I know. I wasn't sure how I was going to get out of that one without getting slapped. Thank god, you have big cheeks."

I'm pretty thankful I have them too. Although, I don't know how Coadster feels about hers...How do all of you feel about the most prominent feature on your face?

Do This, Don't Do That, Can't You Read the Signs

This Saturday Scavenger Hunt word was chosen by the Alien. His word was dull. I wasn't sure how to photograph that, so I chose signs. Most signs tend to be boring. Don't do this, come see that, here's where this is, there's where you should be going, blah, blah blah. So, here are some photos of some dull signs or posters.

The top one was leftover from a flood benefit this Summer.


This one is another no skateboarding sign around my office. Of course, this one was made less dull by the giant penis that was drawn onto the skateboarding figure. I've been looking at skateboarders a little differently lately...

I went home on Friday and both the girls were getting ready to leave for the football game in Cedar Rapids. I got them on their way and went running. I was still pretty exhausted and feeling like I might be getting a cold, so I only ran a four mile route.

Here is a sign from a building on campus.

I had a date with my couch for the rest of the evening. I ate leftover fajitas and watched American Gangster. I know I'm probably the last person on the planet to see it, but I really liked it.

Lastly, this is the lettering on a bus.

The girls got home around 10'ish. Stinky went with another friend to her new boyfriend's house to meet his parents and play Rockband. Coadster stayed with me, since I think I was actually glued to my couch at that point. We ate chocolate and popcorn and I had exactly two beers and we got under a gigantic comforter and watched a girl movie.

Some might think of that as a very dull Friday night, but it was just what I needed.

But I Don't Care, I Care, I Really Don't Care

Here is a blurry photo of a guy walking out of an alley while smoking a ciggie.

So, my goal tonight is to get to bed as early as possible. I'm exhausted. Tonight was nice and mellow. I ran six miles, made dinner, got Coadster to her jazz choir rehearsal and spent some time talking to Stinky.

This weekend looks like it could be so much more mellow than last. Thank god. The girls will both be busy. Coadster is doing some volunteering for the animal shelter at some point, and going to the high school football game in a neighboring town with some friends on Friday night. She thinks she's talked me into volunteering for another thing on Sunday, but I told her we'd see.

On Saturday Coadster is going to Homecoming at the other high school in town and Stinky is going to a friend's Quinceanera.

Here is a picture of the biology building East. Right?

Me? Right now I don't have a lot of plans. Of course, I'm always open to going out if people call me or text me, but right now, I have no real plans. I'm going to run as much as possible. The weather has been amazing. It's cooled down enough for me to go back into hibernation mode, so that means I'm also planning on making soup and hummus and maybe chili and cornbread, and watching movies and I'm on another loading CD's into my computer mood. Today I uploaded a bizarre mix of Queen, Pavement, East Indian dance music and some surf guitar by The Ventures. Nothing makes me happier than the "Hawaii Five-O Theme Song."

How about all y'all? Will you be out dranking, or home watching movies and listening to a bizarre mix of music?

You're Gonna Drive Me to Drinkin'

First I want to say how sad I was to hear of Jerry Reed's passing. Let me just reveal another weird thing about me - I love trucker songs and I loved Smokey and the Bandit. I'm sure it's because I was at a very impressionable age when all that trucker/CB shit was everywhere in the 70's. I'm also pretty sure it didn't help that Greg Evigan looked the way he did in BJ and the Bear when I was in junior high. Anyway, what was I saying? Oh yeah. Trucker hits. Jerry Reed's death..."East Bound and Down" is one of my favorite trucker hits, right up there with Dave Dudley's "Six Days on the Road" and I'm sorry he's gone now.

My girls walking past a sculpture in Salt Lake City.

Now on to my riveting (cough) life:

So, you know how much I love Stinky, right? If you're a parent, you probably also understand how she drives me to drinking too. This weekend, was no exception. She wanted money to go to the catholic school's Fall fun festival thing. I told her what chores she could do, for how much money and after procrastinating, she finally got most of her chores done, with the promise to finish up when she got home. I only had a twenty, so I told her to give me the other half back. Apparently, she decided to use all of it and just do that many more chores without asking me. Bad decision.

When she told me what she did, I was pretty ticked. She hadn't even finished the chores she was supposed to do for the first ten dollars. I told her that now she had to clean the whole house, and she was grounded from hanging out with her friends until they were done. Stinky and I did go to that movie, but she said she'd get everything done when she got home. She didn't.

Here is a photo of Coadster looking at me and Stinky refusing to turn around.

What she did instead was try to get everything done after school on Tuesday, before she went to a volleyball tournament. What that meant for me, was a phone call the second I was getting off work. She was crying and told me that she was trying to mop the kitchen floor, but held the mop up too high and broke the light fixture and some of the glass hit her in the shoulder and she was bleeding. Great. I walk to work and it takes me about twenty minutes or so to get home. I asked her if she thought she needed stitches, but she said it wasn't that bad, it just hurt. Her dad lives a couple blocks away, so she called him and he came over to help her clean up all the glass from the light fixture. By the time I got home, it was all cleaned up and the bleeding had stopped. I have no idea what she was doing to have to hit the light, and I probably don't want to know either.

So, yeah. I've been through this boundary pushing stuff before with Coadster. It sucks to have to be on them all the time, but I know things would be much worse if I didn't. Just last week I was talking to Coadster about it and I said for the thousandth time, "My job isn't to be your friend. My job is to make sure you guys are safe, and that you grow up to be decent people."

Coadster said, "Good. I think those moms who try to be all cool, are kind of creepy."

"Well, you'll never have to worry about that with me. I've never been cool, and I don't plan to start anytime soon," I assured her.

"I know. I doubt you could be cool if you tried."

"Um, thanks...I think."

This Will be the End Today of the Wanted Man, Wanted Man

Here is a picture looking up at a building in the financial district in San Francisco.

You know how I was going to update you about the creepy professor? Well, there's nothing to update. They still haven't found him. The police think his body is somewhere in Hickory Hill Park, but some people think he took off and staged things to make it look like he killed himself there. Hmmmmm.

I'm going to try to be merciful and make this as short as possible tonight. As of August 18th, I've been working for my particular institution for 11 years. Weird, huh? Until I was 26 years old, I'd never lived in any town for over 4 years in a row. I've lived in Iowa City ever since I was 26 - which just happens to be the age I had Coadster. One thing I'll say about having kids, they sure are grounding.

Anyway, as far as I can tell, 11 is the magic year at our institution when I get my vacation bumped up to almost 4 extra hours a month. It's finally starting to add up. So much so, in fact, that I'm giving myself a little treat this weekend. I've decided to take Friday off. Normally, I save my vacation days to do things with the girls, but we've spent tons of time together in the last month. So, I'm taking a "get out of jail free card" day tomorrow. Yippee!

The bad thing is that my XBox is dead (it's giving me the circle of red lights). I talked to FMDM about it tonight and he said I should just call the XBox people and they'll give me stuff to send it in, and then probably give me a new one. Maybe not wasting hours playing Galaga or Beautiful Katamari is a blessing in disguise. Who knows? I might actually get something done tomorrow...But don't go holding your breath.

Okay. I hope you all have great weekends, and that your gaming devices of choice are all working at full capacity and I also hope you don't have anyone in your town go missing along with their high powered rifle.

That's Just a Little Bit More Than the Law Will Allow

Here are some flowers up against a wall.

As seems to be the usual for my Wednesday evening post, it's late and I'm tired, so this will be quick. Tonight is my childless night and so I did my supper club gig at Shakespeare's with some girls and had a great talk and ate greasy food and drank a soda. All of which were wonderful.

After that, I headed down to the Dublin where I had my two beers and hung out with some funny guys and my friend J., who I love. I can't remember how, but we got on the subject of how we refer to our private girl or boy parts (you know how you do that in bars sometimes). The owner said he called his a pecker and I told him I thought that was non-threatening and pretty tame. Most of the guys agreed that they usually used the term cock because that was a little more sexy. J. and I were joking about calling our girl parts cooches. The boys seemed to like that term, although Scooter, the bartender said he had a hard time calling it a cooter because it made him think of The Dukes of Hazzard. I definitely had to agree with him. Imagining someone calling it a "C-c-cooter" is sooo not sexy.

Well, kids. I think it's time to end this quaint little bed time story and call it a night (or whatever you feel comfortable calling it). The end.

To Make a Mountain of Your Life is Just a Choice

This is what I see when I look up from my desk. My cubicle neighbor's plant is fast encroaching. I fully expect to be strangled by it at my desk one of these days when I'm not paying attention.

And what of today, you ask? Today there was some bad juju floating around here. I woke up and had all kinds of little inconveniences. The girls were at their dad's house and they both forgot stuff that I had to look for with their direction over the phone. The things weren't where they thought they were. Then I had to stop and get some kind of breakfast item at the store on the way for the goodbye party for one of our temps. The walk to work pretty much sucked too. The strap to my very old and very most favorite bag kept breaking and then I'd stop and fix it and then it would break again and I'd have to put down the grocery bag of coffee cake stuff and fix it and start again...You get the picture.

This is part of the building where I work my magic inputting things into a computer.

So, I figured I was having a bad day, and thought I might be able to wallow a little in my pissyness. But then everyone else who worked in my building was having it way worse. One woman started crying (I'm still not sure why) and had to go home. Another woman had strep and had to stay home, and someone else just finished her temp hours and had to leave for good with no other real prospects. Ouch.

And then...And then I ran into my friend T. on my way home from work and she had a couple of really shitty things happen to her too.

Here's my building from another angle, just in case that other photo wasn't working for you.

After work, I stopped at the Co-op and saw a bunch of wonderful people I hadn't hung out with in forever. One was going to a cook out and we talked about the fact that her birthday was coming up. Another woman told me she was pregnant and due in August and then I saw a couple I know. The girl had this totally adorable skirt on and when I told her how cute I thought it was, she said it was bad for blowing up in the wind. Her boyfriend walked behind her and seemed pretty happy with the clothing mishap.

I went to Coadster's soccer game and one of her teammates thought I was Coadster's sister - which gave me the double bonus of having a high school kid think I was young enough to be my daughter's sister and then seeing the look of horror and disbelief on Coadster's face in reaction to her friend's statement.

Coadster's team didn't win their game, but they did tie and they were happy about that. Looking back at all the bad and the good of today, I feel like I kind of tied too, and after seeing what happened to everyone else, I was also pretty happy with it.

I Heard You Singing, You Sounded Brave

Here is my friend W.'s dog wearing a Western shirt and with a bunch of different people's hands and feet in her face.

So, for not having any plans, last night turned out rather well. As usual, I trucked a bunch of junior high kids around, and then I let them off downtown where they were going to meet some more friends and dine at Panchero's and then go to the student union and see a free performance by a band called Quiet Drive.

I then met my friends' K., S., and H. and H.'s house where they were drinking tequila. I abstained, because I knew I had more driving of junior high kids planned for later and now when I think about drinking tequila, I hear my friend Rory's voice in my head saying, "You always take a wrong turn at tequila." After a little bit, we went to the Picador to see Jon Langford and Sally Timms of the Mekons perform for free. Free is good and their show was excellent. It was more acoustic than punk and Sally not only played a ukulele, but this accordion looking thing, and I'm not sure what you'd call it. Anyway, it sounded great and I am a big fan of using less ordinary intruments. You know, play a mandolin, or xylophone, or a zither or cowbell and I'm all in. It's just that I've seen a lot of live music in my life, and so much of it is guitar, bass and drums. It's just nice to see something different.

The show ended before 11, just as my daughter's show was finishing up, so it was perfect timing. The rest of the night included me picking up kids, taking them home and then watching a movie until I fell asleep. Again, not a bad night at all.