Okay, now I'm going. This is my first post while talking on the phone. Could you tell? Oh wait, this is going to be first. You gotta read the last one for this to make some sense I guess.

Please pardon this very self centered post.

First of all - how amazing is this??? Sep 25 - 1 US dollar = 1.0044 Canadian dollars!! I wish I could be working at the bank right now and listening to all the camp owners cryin the blues.

In other news, I have nothing to say but there's this pile of really old pictures in front of me so I thought I'd share some of them.

Okay, my story is done. Things sorta went downhill from here. And I had some serious bang issues going on - thanks for all your help, Jenni. Oh yeah, I wanted so share one more picture cause I find it hilarious: I guess it needs it's own post now cause it wants to post at the top.

Help! I'm a living brain donor!

Posing on my blog is actually on my to do list right now so that's what I'm doing. Let's see - I have some things rolling around in my head. First, as for my title, it is a miracle that I am even driving my car right now. How many chances does one person get to perfect DUMB!!!!???? Okay, so I think I've mentioned a couple times on here how my car has been making this clicking noise. Well, I believe it was Thursday morning on the way to work, it was clicking away loudly, after probably 3 weeks or so of clicking. I'd been meaning to take it in to get the oil changed and all that, but needed to clean it out first (only avoid embarrassment, not like they have a low against changing oil in gross cars). So on the way to work, the car was driving really bad and the oil light was coming on and suddenly I had this sickening feeling in the pit of my stomach. A little over a year ago my car was making a similar noise. Keith and Jenni were here then for my grad and Keith looked at it and figured out that I was running on practically no oil. HELLO!!!!!!!!!!!!! Why didn't I remember that ages ago? I met with my supervisor as scheduled and then made great haste to the pit stop and had it serviced. My little pep talk after that experience included the car oil changer person (he said he wasn't a mechanic) telling me that um, lady, you cannot drive your car with less then a quart of oil! The engine will explode! And somehow in the last approximately 4 months my car burned about 4 quarts of oil. Either that or leaked, but he's pretty sure it's burning oil which is more expensive to fix. whoo hoo. But he begged, even unto pleaded with me to come see him often and he will for free check my oil (I do know how to check my oil, I just forget all the time) and told me to bring in a sample of anything that's leaking from the car and he will check it and all this for free. Such a friendly guy. Okay, so if anyone ever wants to randomly comment "HEY! time to check your oil!" well, feel free.

Thursday night I also went with some friends to a parade of homes to see how the rich and famous live in this area. There were 8 recently built homes on display. It was very impressive. A couple of them had theaters in the basement. And theaters that would make you forever dissatisfied with a real theater. Big plush seats. amazing. One of the them was my doctor's house. That was weird. Oh, that's where my doctor takes a bath. odd. But seriously, I was having some remotely serious thoughts during the process. One of the was, it's neat to see, but I have no desire to live that type of life. It seems like there would just be a lot of stress involved in having the pressure of keeping up with that much stuff. I guess if you are that rich you can probably afford a lot of hired help to do a lot for you. But it still seems like a lot of hassle. All for stuff that you can't take with you when you go anyway. Another thought I had was - I've been a few places in my short (trying to convince myself) life and have seen some real poverty. I am trying to imagine if some of these people saw how some people in North America live and what their reaction might be. Utter flabergastion !?! (hey, I kinda like that word) Okay, so I'm not really ending on a profound note, it's just some thoughts I had.

There's this town I drive to on a very regular basis. There's a little farm on the way there (well, may actually, but one in particular that I am going to mention) - the other day I drove by and noticed this brown and white horse whose skin was twitching all over the place! It was so odd. My first thought was, that poor boy (or girl) is on too much epinephrine or prednisone. Well, then a few days later I drove by again and the same horse was wearing clothes (to keep his skin in place?) and he was doing this funky little dance with a white horse friend. They would jump up on their hind hooves touch noses in the air, come back down, and then repeat the process. Maybe I missed something in biology and this is totally normal, but it looked really really funny. I watched in my mirror as long as I could without hitting something/one.

It's that odd time of year right now when some feel that it's too early to turn the heat on. And it is a pain because you need the heat in the morning, but not in the afternoon (with the exception of this afternoon). But the point of my story is that our house is completely freezing right now. Yesterday morning I got up and sat at the computer absolutely freezing to death. Eventually the roommate got up and she's walking around talking about how she's sweating hot. Okay, now I admit that I tend towards coldbloodedness and I think she would admit that she tends towards hotbloodedness. Often when I'm cold she tells me to check the thermostat in an effort to prove that I and not the house am the one with the problem. And she may have a small fraction of a point at times. (reminds me of SO many conversations I heard growing up in my freezing house in Red Lake. = ) Anyway, yesterday I took her up on it and went and checked the temp in the house - SIXTY FOUR!!!!!! Who in their right mind sweats in 64 degree indoor temperature??? And this morning it was about 61 in here and is currently about 63. And I'm very very cold. I was going to post a picture of me trying to stay warm in the house, but that would take too long so if you want to, just picture a hat, scarf, mittens, and a blanket. I mean, that's not really what I look like right now, but I would be comfortable if I did. Okay, I think I'm going to stop boring you now with the temperature of my house and get ready to go to Indy. I have work training there until Tues. which I'm trilled to pieces about. I guess some aspects of it will be fun, but other's not so much. Sheldon is going to be in cincy picking up a vehicle so I'm coming back with him and we get to hang out for a short while and that will be nice. Okay, that's it for now.

Ramble, ramble

There's a pile of things I should be doing right now but after working all day and dashing to 4 different stores after work (taking advantage of Monday night football and actually getting some stuff done around here!), I'm very tired and just want to sit down a bit, if it's all right with you. Let's see, where to start - I mention very little about work on here, because, well, I really shouldn't. But I just gotta vent a little, in very general terms. Overall, I do enjoy my job (with the exception of last week and some random not so pleasant moments) and it's much better than my last one. My biggest gripe right now is that we are held entirely responsible for things that are entirely out of our control. THAT is oh so frustrating! It's because people in Indy who sit in plush little offices decide what we are capable of doing, it all looks good on paper, so that's what we have to do. These people have of course never spent one day doing our job. I think I learned the difference between a goal and a desire back when I was 14 or so - a goal you have the power to bring about, a desire you don't. In my job, a whole bunch of desires are our yearly goals. I can really get going and rant and rave about it with a lot of theatrics, but it's all sort of lost on here. So I guess I'm done.

I had a nice weekend if I remember correctly. Saturday morning I went out for breakfast with a little pile of friends and that was fun. Saturday evening - oh my. Okay, way back when, my roommate and another friend bought season tickets to the round barn theater at Amish Acres. Okay, I hear some of you laughing. The performers are not Amish. Actually, very little of it has to do with the Amish - the theater at least. Well, the friend who bought the tickets moved away and gave me her tickets. So I've been going with Bethany to random plays there. The one before this one was a complete bust, but at least it was short. The one on Saturday was, well, let's see - the acting was passable, the story line, not so much, and it was LONG! And the seats weren't very comfortable. And there were points were I wanted to grab the small children sitting in my row and cover their eyes! I felt sort of uncultured that a play could not hold my attention, but it's true, I would have rather been at a football, basketball, or baseball game any day (I didn't include hockey because that's a given). At least in those cases it's perfectly acceptable to jump out of your seat and scream at the top of your lungs and drink a lot of alcohol - all of which I really FELT like doing at this play. Well, we get to watch another one on Friday but this one is supposed to be really good. Here's to hopin...

After what seems like years of having cordless phones with a fully charged battery life of about 15 minutes, I finally got new batteries tonight. I'm quite excited about this, but have yet to make sure they are the right ones. Oh and I didn't realize how expensive those little guys are.

So I mentioned dashing all over after work running errands - got home and realized I forgot something - hate that! Then I remembered that I might need to go out again anyway because, well, I arrived home from work to a very very irritated and disgruntled roommate who could not unlock her car. The clicker wouldn't work and she couldn't find the key. So I scooped her up and carried her out to my car and delivered her to her job. So yeah, anyway, that was a pointless story which has no exciting ending. The clicking in the hood of my car continues to intensify. Well, I think that pretty much sums it up for now. I'm so tired I could... um... sleep I guess. I stayed up too late this weekend but was unable to sleep in even a tiny bit - so annoying. But to end on a happy note - there are no more Mondays for an entire week. Addios.

Because you should always listen to the big sister

You wanted some new news Jenni? Well, my car has been giving off this really ominous sounding clicking noise somewhere toward the front. It needs a well check here soon anyway, but until then I'm relying on my never-fail solution of turning up the stereo. And other than that, I've discovered that left unattended in the shower, a bar of Dove soap will totally disintegrate in about a week. It's bizarre! And expensive. That's all I've got.

Quick lunch break update...

I know only Jesus can make me perfectly happy, but something else in my life has been coming pretty close lately - Kraft Dinner! I don't know why I like that stuff so much, but I do and it makes me feel like I'm still 10. Anyway, I had some for supper last night and it was so stupendous in all it's slippery goodness. So I have to blast through this really fast so without further ado - some people have been asking about the bee and the drugs and reactions and all that - I'm feeling much better - thanks for your concern. I stopped the steroids and had no more issues after that but it still took awhile to feel normal again - probably around Saturday I started feeling a bit like myself again. So now I just need other excuses to be jumpy, nervous, hyper, and irritable. Did anyone do anything exciting for the long weekend? I personally had a wonderful long weekend and getting back to work has been quite a drag. I guess I spent most of it socializing with friends and it was a blast. Saturday I went out on the boat with some friends and that was great. Went swimming, played cards, relaxed (it was perfect except for the 6 or so occasions when a bee would fly into the boat and buzz around in a threatening manner), and then went back to their place and ate some really good Thai food and played Clue, which I haven't played fro probably 20 years and I felt like an idiot. I mean, I knew it was Mrs. Scarlet with the rope, but I hadn't exactly narrowed down the room by the time someone knew the answer. Sunday I spent more time with a swell friend and we went to watch "Hairspray" in the evening which was amusing, but John Travolta playing a woman is just revolting no matter how you slice it. Monday was a nice lazy day with the exception of an attempted bike ride in incredibly hot weather. I didn't realize how hot it was till I got outside. My friend and I were going to bike to this trail but the trail was probably about 6 miles away and about 4 miles into the trip, I was ready to pass out. So we sat outside a gas station drinking a lot of blue Gatorade and then biked home - ended up being 8.25 miles instead of, um, more than that. And then we ended the weekend with pizza and a movie and I really don't watch movies that much, I just wanted to clarify that... So that was my fabulous weekend. Gotta run.