Mini Road Trip

Yesterday afternoon I took off for the midde parts of Indiana.

For a while I drove between cornfields thinking how pretty Indiana farm land is. Those thoughts stopped abruptly when the road turned the gravel and began to lack proper signage. When I got close to my destination my googled directions stopped making sense any left over admiration for the landscape was swept away with a phonecall in which even the people I was trying to get to weren't quite sure of their location. It turns out that they live on a corner of their county - and it connect with another three - which confuses google...and me.

When I arrived my friend, 'Chel, apologized and reminded me that she hasn't lived in Indiana for three years. Her roommate, Sonya, pointed out that in Deleware the roads so as to avoid this sort of confusion.

We went antiquing, which mostly consisted of browsing in one shop that was already closed and another in which the old man kept us an extra half hour talking about nothing and how much we would probably like to escape him.

Dinner was comprised mainly of food that I hate. Fish and sauerkraut. And a layered salad, but I like salad. It was all delicious. The fish was Alaskan Pollock - I have no idea if it was the type or the flavoring or the fact that it was grilled over the fire, but it was so good. The 'kraut was ok because we put slivered almonds on top to kill the bite.

Afterwards we watched 'Chel's brother turn buckets into shrapnel with homemade fireworks while the rest of us gathered around a campfire with a "chimney". A campfire chimney is a hollowed out log that is placed on top of a fire. The suction makes the flames shoot out the top. It's spiffier than it sounds.

Then we burnt a huge pile of tree trimmings and that was pretty much amazing.

It was a good time. Plus, I'm pretty pleased that I was able to talk to everyone easily enough. Normally I do badly with new people, but it was fun.

Happy Birthday

Celi turned 25 this week. Sunday we celebrated with lunch. We narrowly missed having to explain to management why Robin had killed our waitress. It's just possible that the lack of rasberry syrup in her tea might not have seemed like a good enough reason for homocide.

We kept losing party goers, so Robin and I decided to continue the birthdaying on Tuesday with some cake, awesome presents and Taco Bell.

Yukon Ho!

The Yukon Song

By Bill Watterson

My tiger friend has got the sled,
And I have packed a snack.
We're all set for the trip ahead.
We're never coming back!

We're abandoing this life we've led!
So long, Mom and Pop!
We're sick of doing what you've said,
And now it's going to stop!

We're going where it snows all year,
Where life can have real meaning.
A place where we wont have to hear,
"Your room could stand some cleaning."

The Yukon is the place for us!
That's where we want to live.
Up there we'll ge to yell and cuss
And act real primitive.

We'll never have to go to school,
Forced into submission,
By monstrous, crabby teachers who'll
Make us learn addition.

We'll never have to clean a plate,
Of veggie glops and goos.
Messily we'll masticate,

Using any fork we choose!

The timber wolves will be our friends.
Well stay up late and howl,
At the moon, till nightmare ends,
Before going on the prowl.

Oh, what a life! we cannot wait,
To be in that arctic land,
Where we'll be masters of our fate,
And lead a life that's grand!

No more of parental rules!
We're heading for some snow!
Good riddance to those grown-up-ghouls!
We're leaving! Yukon Ho!

I've been really happy with the past few days of comparative warmth, so when I went over to Kiran's today I was completely ready to agree to a walk. Ours was really a treck through fields of bog and ice. Rubber boots may be the most brilliant invention ever, with them I managed to make it through our walk without getting soaked at all. Kiran had a hole in one boot and is singularly gifted at finding the deepest spots of the bog. She did not make it through the walk dry.

I really wish I'd brought my camera. I mean, I would have feared for it's safety at every second, but there was amazing light out there and some spectacular pictures just waiting to be taken.

We came back and watched August Rush. I enjoyed it while I was watching it, but you walk away feeling it's rather odd.

But, the little boy (Freddie Highmore - Finding Neverland, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) is cute and if nothing else Jonathan Rhys Meyers, who you will remember from...well, nothing, has the most amazing accent ever.

I have a magnificent lack of things to write about. I open my little blogger window and my mind goes - blank (if you've seen You've Got Mail, please imagine Kathleen Kelly saying this, it's so much better).

Sunday I found out that a friend of mine was pregnant. It's an extremely inopportune time, but I was happy for her. Monday I found out she miscarried and is taking it really hard. I never know what to say when people are hurting. Some people always know, but I have nothing.

Monday Robin and I went to Barne's & Noble and read. People complain about the large, boxy Barnes & Noble stores...but I think they feel like home. Maybe it's because they remind me of the library...with nicer books and more expensive coffee.

Tuesday evening I hung out with one my Jr. Highers. We've developed a tradition of swinging at the park. It was two degrees outside last night. We got a lot of stares from the people meeting at the senior center.

Weekend Adventures

Friday:

I went to dinner with a friend. The friend had car troubles and so we didn't get to our restaurant until 8:30 - and we still had to wait 20 minutes for a table.

Said friend always takes an eternity in the restroom. I was amusing myself by taking photos of the salt and pepper, when the waiter came up behind me and said, "Should I even ask?"

"It's probably better if you don't," I told him, but then he looked really concerned so I said it was for a photography project and that seemed to make it better. Of course there is no photography project (unless of course I entered it in the art expo to illustrate "The Glory of God"!) but it seemed less unsettling than the fact that I take photographs of everything.

Then the waiter asked me what happened to my friend. All waiters think it is their duty to comment on the length of my friend's absense, as if I don't realize how long it's been. This guy is the first one to say something to my friend. Awkward & unnessacery.

Saturday

I spent a good chunk of the day reading Od Magic, by Patricia McKillip. Excellent story. Actually, it kinda reminds me of some of the discussions Jon and I have had about the church, except for the church would have to be a school of magic and Jon would have to be a wizard and right, but there are similarities...really.

I went to RadioShack in the afternoon. My car speakers have started to die and I wanted to get a discman so I can still have tunes in the car. The salesgirl tried to sell me an MP3 player and looked at me like I was an idiot when I told her I like having the actual cds. Then she continued to try and sell me the MP3 player.

In the evening I went to see Bethy. We tried to find a Steak 'n' Shake and ended up getting lost because there were roads closed from flooding. We get lost every time I visit her. I cannot successfully navigate Ft. Wayne.

I tried to help her run some errands, but mostly we were met with disaster. I am pleased to say that we managed to get her some granola bars and some running shoes that do not look like they belong to our grandmother. The shoes were a happy coincidence. She wanted to look at Walmart and I made her go to Payless. Both places were duds. We happened to see a Shoe Carnival. Shoe Carnival is a weird little store with random sales that don't last very long at all.

Bethy found a pair of shoes she liked, but they were 20 bucks out of her price range. Well, I thought that since she managed to make her last pair hang on for five years that she deserved something she liked, so I offered to chip in the 20. In the end I chipped in nothing though, because there was some random five minute sale when we checked out and the shoes were 20 dollars off.

Sunday:

Church. Goofing Off. Church. We played charades in youth group. I wasn't thrilled.

One of the kids was taking pictures for photo team. I'm pretty sure they should warn the leaders before they do that...the other leaders seemed incredibly confused and thought the kid was just goofing off rather than on assignment.

.

Monday:

I was really tired and uncoordinated (I dropped everything) all day. And really mad at the advertisers for the number of times they changed their minds. But Robin and I went to Barnes & Noble to read and have some coffee and that was nice. I read another Patricia McKillip book, Winter Rose. I love Patricia McKillip's writing. She's amazing.

Leftovers

It's a good thing I've got a lot of residual happiness from the weekend, because this morning has done nothing to help my mood.

I forgot breakfast. I've had to make a million changes on a ton of ads. Worst, those amazing layouts I did? The printers offset the black from the color about an eight of an inch. Not professional looking at all!

That's still kinda funny though, because just as my boss finished telling one of the other guys about it, I walked in all upset, "Daaaan! Have you seen this?!" And Ray just laughed because no one else even noticed anything was off. Well, I bet the people I show my portfolio to would notice. So now my boss is going to have someone go around to the drop off points till we find one that isn't messed up so I can have a good copy for my portfolio. Have I mentioned I have the best boss ever?

But the weekend was good. It feels like forever since the Link has done anything. In the end I thought 27 Dresses was a little bit lame, but it was a ton of fun to hang out with all the girls and to see the infamous bridesmaid pantsuit. I wish I had a photo of us all dressed up, but we forgot to get one. The only picture taken was of all of us at the restaurant.

And Sunday I accidentally found a really hillariously cute shirt for my roommate's dog. I've been threatening to buy that dog clothing since Robin first mentioned wanting a dog and when I saw the little shirt in Wal-Mart I knew that it was the perfect time to carry out my promise. Picture's will follow soon.

Giving Thanks

I can't go into a lot of detail here, but one of my best friends that I grew up with got clean recently. We didn't know about it because of some tragic things that happened afterwards, but I talked to her on the phone yesterday and she sounded so like old self. I know she can't be the same, she's been through hell...but...it's more than I've been able to hope for recently and the best thing I can think to be thankful for this year.

Thicker Than Water

On Sunday everyone had to be back in Indiana by the afternoon for various events. Mine was a not-so-progressive dinner with the youth group.
We couldn't get enough families to sign up - so we played games and had dinner at the church before driving to a Jr. Higher's home, where his parent's had prepared some pretty tasty desserts to top off our evening.

Each of us leaders piled some Jr. Highers into our itty, we-don't-have-kids-yet vehicles. My group claimed they couldn't breathe because they were so crowded. When we arrived at the house a back door handle got ripped off in their desperation to be released. Fine workmanship.
Chevy must be proud.

In Jr. High it is a measure of one's coolness that they can quote the latest music and movies. Actually, for some people this never changes. But while some of the girls were happily rattling off material from PG type programing, two sisters had to sing the "We're not allowed" anthem.
The tune hasn't changed from when I was a kid. It still makes everyone cringe. The kids who can't do what most people are - the kids who don't understand why anyone wouldn't be allowed to say, "Shut-up!" Adults who are silently grateful that they never have to sing that song again.

I understand why parents place restrictions on what their children can say/do/watch. When I was in college the awfulness of what was shown on television made Ashleigh and I decided we weren't going to let our children watch anything but TVLand, Nick at Night, and the news. Sometimes not the news.

On the other hand, explaining my parents' rules to my friends was like trying shove a basketball through a strainer - it didn't even make sense to try.
More resourceful than I was, the girl sitting next to me confided that she uses the rules to shock her friends. When life gives you lemons...

I assured the girl that my parents had the same rules for me when I was at home.

There's a bond between people who have been in the same situation. Especially when they've been through a trauma: cancer patients, people who have experienced the loss of a loved one, math students - the survival bond is always strong.

I think this accounts for the fact that after my comment the girl's face lit up and she notified her sister that, "She had the same rules as we do! She's family!" Her sister looked a bit confused - but it's like meeting someone in another country and finding out they're from your hometown. Instant friend. Instant family.

In my...Chevy?

The care I give my car can only be accurately termed neglect. When mechanics hear how often I change my oil their looks of disgust rival the kinds of looks I might receive for leaving a child unattended for the same length of time.

That’s why when I was at Auto Zone the other day I didn’t feel compelled to tell the clerk exactly how long I’ve been driving around without an oil cap, pouring oil into the tank as needed.

I think it’s been about a month since I first lost that cap. The front of my car was covered in oil and bugs and the man glanced at me warily, "Is this from your car?" There wasn’t a point in denying it since as soon as he popped the hood he would risk drowning in the oil that would pour off of it. I thought about offering him some paper towels, but then I thought that a professional like him probably knew what he was doing. I’m pleased to say that he’s recovering nicely.

I also bought new windshield wipers since the ones on my car have never worked. It’s much less of an adventure to drive in the rain now, but I’m enjoying the novelty of seeing the road.

Yesterday one of my co-workers informed me that my tire was flat. Her tone indicated that anyone who lets their car get a flat tire probably also sacrifices cats at midnight, but one of my other co-workers confessed that she had a flat just the other day, and not only was her tire flat, but she’d broken the rim. I’m glad to know I’m not the only non-cat-sacrificer who gets flats, but I was a little worried about the rim of my tire. Forget money, I don’t have the time to get new tires.

I spent most of my lunch break swearing at my car, and occasionally the people around me, under my breath. For whatever reason Firestone has seen fit to recess the air valve-nozzle-thing so that one must reach through the hubcap to twist off the cap. If the cap does not want to come off you’re out of luck. You will probably cut off the tip of your finger before you get anywhere with that cap.

But eventually I got things all worked out and was amazed at how high my car sits off the ground when there’s actual air in the tires (it’s a much smoother ride too!). I was still worried about that rim, but my tired hasn’t flattened out since yesterday afternoon so I think it’s ok.

I think that since my car has come through all of this trauma so well I owe it some kind of reward. Maybe I’ll take it to one of those automated car washes. My car would like that.

Eye of the beholder...

The woman who owns this loveseat and matching couch didn't think it was so bad. But people online voted it ugly enough to fly it and its owner to New York to be on the Regis & Kelly show.

If you have a couch to cover up or disguise you can do what Christina Stefano did an try SureFit - though for most people the covers aren't going to be much of an improvement.

So we went to Lowe's today to buy a fridge and check out paint samples.

We're pretty much basing our living room color scheme around these lamps that Robin bought at Pier1. Two walls are going to be a medium-light aqua and two are going to be a very, very pale tan. It will be amazing.

I also think we need new light fixtures. The two upstairs bedrooms have lights like in the center photo. The left photo if the living room and in the downstairs bedroom is Ugly Betty (right). If we can't get Robin's bed up the staircase of doom, that's where she'll be.

I also think we should get a new shower head...because this one looks like it was made out of a tin can.

Every five years or so my parents try to do something nice for their anniversary.

It never works.

First my brother broke his wrist playing soccer (and didn't realize it for a good 24 hours) and the parents have to take him to the hospital today to get a cast instead of leaving for Tennessee. Plus they'll be doing it in a rental car, since some kid ran his car into theirs.

But mostly we're just glad that Daniel didn't hit either his head or his wrist in the crash (which wasn't bad - aside from some bruises everyone in our car was fine, the other guy's girlfriend hit her head on the windshield, but probably she just needed stitches).

On the headache front, he does have chronic migranes. The doctor told my mother that MRIs are just for anxious parents - but given our family's history of tumors and especially braintumors she told the doctor she would go ahead and be an anxious parent, thanks.
Daniel also has a slight heart murmer and possibly some kind of syndrom associated with it...involves being tall and thin and having big hand and feet and having a heart murmer, but the tall and thing thing runs in the family...though it skips a person here and there...so we're not worried much.

On the more cheerful front Robin and I get to start moving tommorow. And I got a raise! I didn't think I would, so I'm pretty phsyched. I also talked my boss into re-checking about getting company health insurance - which would be amazing.

These are the little things that keep me happy. That and going to the mall.

...looking for adventure...

Months ago I was shopping and saw a beautiful bed that doesn't go with any of my furniture, so I couldn't justify buying it (especially as somewhere I think I have a bed). On the other hand somebody should own the beautiful bed. So when I heard that Robin was looking for a bed I told her about it and she quickly placed her order.

Which is how I found myself trying to keep various boxes of iron rods and such from flying off/out of Robin's SUV. The long pieces were put through the windows so that a bit was sticking out each side and there was tape over the open end, which the salesperson had assured me was crap and probably would not hold up. One of the large flat boxes fit in the cargo area, but the other was tied to the roof with twine. Initially it seemed that we'd done a good job securing the roof box, but after a few minutes we each had an arm out our windows trying to keep it from flying away.

I think we might had looked a little bit silly.

Home on the Range

I love my drive home. Its so peaceful and pretty. The light only hits the fields that way twice a day and I love it.

Yesterday I pulled out of the parking lot behind a dump truck with some kind oddly hanging leather tarp attatched to a pole or something. It was practically falling off the truck and as the truck turned the corner I thought, "I wonder what that is, if I didn't know better I'd think - oh, sick.". Friends, the truck was full to the brim with dead cows. There was a lot of smoke pouring out of the truck so they were all gray, but they were very definitely cows.

I have no idea why there were so many dead cows or where the truck could possibly have been taking them. It was going the wrong direction for McDonald's. Normally I speed down the country roads like some kind of tidal wave is racing my car, but yesterday evening I was pretty sedate with 45 mph so that the massive carcus swaying on top of the load would go back to being some unidentiable gray object.

I thought that any second it would turn down a side road and I could be free of its gruesome presence, but I was wrong. I drove halfway home behind that thing before pulling into a gas station. I didn't need gas, I just needed something to do that would put a lot of traffic and many miles between my chevy and the bovine hearse.


Today we're finishing up a publication and needed pictures of school children playing on the playground so I went to a local school, signed in and started shooting (sounds awful even when you know you're talking about photos doesn't it?). One of the teachers stopped me and asked why I was there (even though I clearly had a vistor's badge!) I explained (our publications are well known around her and the schools pay us to put in pictures of the kids) and she detained me for several minutes asking what the requirements were.

Requirements? Um...that they be at the school? Oh, for us to use the picture? Um...none that I know of. Oh you have to have their parent sign something before you put it on the itnernet? Well maybe that's because its the internet. Finally she said she guessed it must be ok if I'd signed in. Ya think?

But the kids were adorable. One of the girl glares at me, "Who are you and what are you doing taking my picture?", "My name is Melody and I work for a magazine." Immediately I have about twelve girls screaming "A magazine! A magazine! I'm going to be in a magazine! Me! Me!" Hillarious. I really hope one of those pictures turned out well because the girls were so phsyched about it.

Another girl kinda followed me around shyly for a while. I never know what to do with the shy kids. They might want their picture taken, and be too shy to ask or they might be traumatized by the idea. You never know till you take the shot.

This little girl finally got up the nerve to ask me to take her photo and immediately had four friends who also wanted to be in the picture. I'm pretty sure they're backlit.
Then there were some Amish kids. Well, there were a lot of Amish kids, but Amish kids are even touchier than shy kids because they may well want their picture taken but do their parent's? A lot of the parent's do, but a lot the parents and the kids feel guilty about it because they're not supposed to want to have their picture taken.

If I'd taken them in a public setting I'd post them here, cuz I know I got some good shots, but give nthe whole teacher run-in and the fact that even though public schools are ~gasp~ public, they're amazingly closed...I'll just let you imagine the cuteness. Or you could pick up the September issue.

Stream of Consciousness

I’m trying to decide what I should do tonight. I should be packing, but I have to tell you that sounds pretty lame right now. On the other hand, the end of August is rapidly approaching. On the other hand, I work better under pressure.

Now, another possibility is calling someone up and asking them to hang out. This hinges on said person’s availabilty, but I think I have at least one friend that would be available to do nothing with me.

The final possibilty is to commandeer Robin’s living room (mine being absent furnishings) and polish off my, er, Robin’s chic-lit novel while watching television and drawing. And eating. Eating is probably an important part of any of these scenarios.

Oh, and I have to go to the grocery, because I didn’t go yesterday and I need to replace the food I ate out of Robin’s freezer (don’t worry Robin, just the Dijorno’s pizza, I’m doing you a favor, that thing was freezer-burnt to hell). Plus, I don’t have any food of my own (hence my theft of the pizza).

Quite frankly scenario three is probably going to win as I am feeling both lazy and anti-social.
I think the youth leader seminar/retreat is happening this weekend. I’m excited to have our college leaders back, they’re a lot of fun. I was really impressed with them last year...smarter than the average college freshman...more mature too.

Speaking of college, my youngest sister is back in school this year. I feel bad for Holly, but at least she has that killer job at Chase. My sister is the poster child for a good work ethic.

Bethy’s still trying to figure out how to make her dreams of having a school yearbook come true, now that she’s hurdled the obstical of actually being at school. I want to have her and a few friends over for a weekend or something...so they can get away from campus, only one or two of them have family close by. And then Bethy can bake her own chocolate chip cookies!

I heart Weekends

It's been a pretty intense weekend of garage saling and dress shopping. I kicked it off Thursday by shopping at Maurice's, where they have given in to the temptation to make all their dresses in patterns mimicking an acid trip and wound it up Saturday evening at Windsor, where the sale girls take you captive and trap you in the fitting room, bringing back dress after dress until you buy something (it's true, I never would have made it out alive otherwise!).

In between dress shopping, Robin and went garage saling. She found a couch, now all we have to do is figure out how to get it to her house!
We also stopped by the farmer's market. I've always meant to go, but I've never actually been.
There was someone selling beautiful flowers. Robin bought some...they're gracing her largest sauce pan.


After finding a dress Katie and went over to the Flat Top grill...I'm not a big stir fry fan, but it was fun to be able to make my own.

wedding bells and vacation days

Debbie, the girl who was my best friend between the ages of 5 and 12, is getting married. She met the guy on e-harmony or some other such site and apparently they are blissfully happy. All is well.

I never got an actual invite. That's ok...most of my friends that have gotten married...I haven't been invited to their weddings and really she means for me to come...I'm invited to dinner with the rest of my family after the wedding...so I can only assume that I'm invited to the wedding itself (especially as my mother, who keeps in better touch with Debbie than I do, keeps insisting that I am). That's fine. Although, frankly, sitting down to dinner with friends after you've just gotten married sounds a little lame - even if I am one of those friends. Don't expect me to be hanging around if I get married.

In anycase, this is all periferal to the fact that she has placed this lovely event early on a Friday afternoon! I'm sorry, what? The happiest day of your life to be shared by all you love and you place it when most people are still only dreaming about clocking out?

Gee, I'd've done something more than a card but I don't have any money because I skipped out on work!

Not that it upsets me or anything.

My Love Affair with Monday

This morning I had about four shots of espresso. Normally that just keeps me from nodding off at my desk, but I must have been better rested than I thought because today I cannot sit still, which is probably why I have so many random thoughts running through my head this morning.

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First of all, I love Mondays. On Monday the week is new. I have’t screwed anything up yet. I haven’t snapped at my coworkers, yet. I have yet to forget my lunch every single day and I have not been led astray by the candy dish. Yet. I still believe that this week I will give work my best shot. Because it’s Monday it is so much harder to be apathetic, even when I felt that way all last week, except for Monday. On Monday, too, all my work goes quickly. I don’t care much for Tuesday, the novelty of my job has definitely worn off, but Monday is great. I just think you should know.

Also, I think I'm developing a phobia of going to the hair dresser. See, growing up I didn't cut my hair much and when I did my mom cut it straight across, no layers. This is fine when you wear your hair in pigtails or braids every single day, but you can see how that to change when I got older. That was fine too, my hairstylist loved me and I could walk in and say, "I don't know what I want, it should be this length, make it pretty."
In college I cut my hair very short, much to the approval of almost everyone I'd ever met and a few people I didn't even know (it's true) and the dismay of my boyfriend-at-the-time who really likes long hair (but seriously it didn't look good). That was easy because of Lucky Magazine's hair guide...but since then styles have changed and Lucky has yet to put out anything of equal or greater value.
The first stylist I tried here in Indiana cut my hair very nicely...oh a couple of times, but I've since discovered that though I bring the same picture with me each time, the original cut is never recreated.
I got tired of ineffectually attempting to straighten my hair, which hovers indistinctly between being straight and wavy, so I told my latest hairstylist I just wanted to wash the style and go. She completely misread that as, "Please scrunch my hair and try to sell me expensive hair care products, punctuate with uncomfortable small talk."

Which leads me to rant number three. I hate telling people I graduated from Grace. Invariably it leads them to believe that then is an appropriate time to tell me that they think 1) Grace is the devil, 2) All Gracies are pricks, 3) They would have never survived there because they are much too cool for that. Thank-you. I am glad to know of your disdain. I'll cherish it always.

For the record, I liked being at Grace. I liked a great majority of the people (and I don't even like people). I liked my classes. I liked chapel. I barely noticed the rules, much less felt compelled to break any of them.

If that makes me a prick, so be it, but at least I didn't go just because it was easy. At least I didn't go because mummy and daddikins threatened to revoke my car and pocket money if I didn't do it. At least I didn't spend the entire time whining that I was expected to meet a standard I agreed to meet. I'm sorry I'm not bloody cool enough, just cut my hair so I can pay the exorbitant bill.

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Moving on to actual events, this morning I was driving to work and I noticed something odd on the side of the road. It turned out to be a lady learning inside some sort of small covered cart (about knee high). The lady turned out to be Rosie Swale of Pope Wales. She’s walking around the world for cancer. She has this great accent and she never stops talking. It’s times like that I wish I had a pocket recorder. We met her because she met Delilah who thought that we might know of a harness shop where she could get a new harness made. None of the harness shops around here make people harnesses, but she’s out buying the parts right now and then some guy is going to sew them together for her. Meanwhile, her cart, Charlie, is parked outside our offices and people have been coming buy to take pictures (a local paper did a story on her).
Rosie’s been through Eastern Europe, Russia, Siberia, Alaska, Canada, and the upper plain states of the U,S.
You can check out her site at http://www.rosiesaroundtheworld.co.uk/.

Edit: She came back and I got some more pictures of her taking off. It was a lot of fun. I got to run up the highway and take pictures of her coming down the road. My job is really odd sometimes, but quirkiness can be a good thing.

So comforting...

Mon Jul 2, 6:48 PM ETPORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - A fire ravaged a marketplace in Haiti's capital,prompting a protest march Monday by hundreds of street vendors who accusedthe city government of setting the blaze to remove them from the area.The fire began Sunday night near Port-Au-Prince's cathedral, destroyingmerchandise including fruit, radios and televisions."We knew the mayor wanted to clean up this area and move the marketplace,but they never told us what day we should move," vendor Julio Alexis said.City officials did not immediately return calls for comment or make a publicstatement. Haitian police firing shots in the air broke up the demonstrationSome vendors said their sales at the market were their only source of income "Nothing remains," said TV repairman Philippe Audosit.People scrounged through the market's ruins Monday for aluminum and zincroofs, under the watch of police and U.N. soldiers.More than 80 percent of the 8.7 million residents live in poverty in Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere

Yup. That's where my little brother is. Very good.

At Random

...and God bless mommy, and daddy, and all the people who work in customer service and thank-you that I'm not one of them. Amen.

I hated working customer service. Sometimes my current job is frustrating, but this morning I was reminded of how awful work used to be. We screwed up some lady's ad...well, we didn't run it and the publication's already gone to press.

Our office manager had to call the lady and inform her that the ad would not run. It turns out that the lady was pretty nice about it since we gave her money back and offered to run the ad for free in a different publication, but that does not negate the initial fear and trepidation that one has to go to when calling. You never know if a customer is going be kind or eat you for dinner.

It's good times in the office right now, because no one else is here. I have the radio cranked up and Avril's admonishing some guy to ditch his girlfriend for her. I thought Avril was married.

Don't those songs get old? I mean, you can never have too many love songs because nearly everyone is in love (or thinks they are) at some point in their life, but how many girls are there who are actively trying to steal someone else's boyfriend?

I do know a lot of girls who like these songs...but they're not usually girls who could be singing about how the other girl is so ugly and stupid. Not without being openly mocked anyway.

I'm visiting the family this weekend, and because my boss is amazing and gives us our birthday's off I get to leave tonight. We had everything planned out, but unexpected things keep happening, so I don't really know what we're doing at all.

My little brother is flying out for Haiti on Friday, it'll be fun to see him off on his first mission trip. We might go to Jungle Jim's after and pick up some goodies. Huzzah for international groceries!

Saturday we were going to go to the creation museum, but I got an invite yesterday to go to a friend's baby-shower, so I'll probably spend Sat. picking up a gift and then mingling with a bunch of people I don't know (we had mutual friends in high school, but almost none of them live in the area anymore, but if Tracie comes with her baby, I will be completely psyched).

Sunday is all the joy of going to my parent's church. In high school I stopped coming to youth group after having been heavily involved in it for the past 5 years...and for three months no one noticed. Awkward.

But I hear the new preacher is good.