I had a pretty strong connection to my dad right away even if I didn't meet him until I was eight. I distinctly remember my parents wedding day (how many kids can say that?) and I think it was just meant to be how everything worked out. He's my dad through and through. I'm the one who would sit in the basement (his woodshop) and watch him make things out of wood. He would even give me scrap wood for me to make cool tables and things for my Barbie empire.(hey, my entire walk-in closet at that house was Barbieland. or 'a mess' if you asked my mom.) He's a fantastic wood craftsmen and I'm pretty proud of every little gift I have made by him. There's something special about holding a wooden pen made by dad.
I've (shamefully) given my dad so much hell through the years, but, you have to believe I have a huge amount of respect for the guy too. He's the one I could whine at to get my way and can be quite a teddy bear. I will always cherish how he was the one who ultimately soothed out so many stresses with the wedding. Even though it wasn't his thing to have a huge formal wedding (he would have really liked for everyone to grab a cheeseburger from the Burger King drive through, wave, and leave), he was there for me.
I have so many crazy good memories about dad. Him dressing as Santa Claus, driving through the streets of C-ville embarrassing me by yelling "WE GOT PIZZA HUT" out the open window (and honking the horn), teasing me about boys, always getting us ice cream, regaling us with tales about the dump, giving us rides on the tractor, walking through the woods, singing Elvis songs, making me watch John Wayne movies (OVER AND OVER), talking like Arnold Schwarzenegger (making t-shirts with him looking like Schwarzenegger!), all his dad-isms, ALWAYS CHANGING THE OIL ON MY CAR, and so on (this list could carry on a long time)
I know I didn't cry or get emotional when he walked this little girl down the aisle and I know I didn't cry when we had our father-daughter dance (I was sooo happy that day!) .... but today as I write these words I'm filled with tears knowing how much my dad means to me. He's bitchin, trust.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Resisting open bar.
To-Do List (ever changing)
- Laundry
* Travelling with clean clothes would be nice, dontcha think?
- Make copies of important paperwork
* Losing said important paperwork and not having copies would suck. This concludes my essay on how it would be to lose important paperwork overseas without having copies.
- Tell post office to hold mail
* I don't think the post office could start doing origami with our months worth of mail to fit it in our tiny mail box. They might go "postal." That sounded funnier in my head.
- Pay another month rent
* Shelling out money for time not spent here. Hmpf.
- Make sure change of clothes packed in carryon
* Did I tell you about the time I went to Germany and they lost my luggage? And then I had to borrow clothes from strangers because it took about a week to get it back? THAT WAS NOT FUN.
- Take care of relative's last requests for things we have to drug-mule overseas.
* It is always an adventure to carry 20 things of denture cream, vitamins, face creams, pie filling, laptops, ETC ETC.
* Sidenote: The show on Nat'l Geographic "Locked Up Abroad" is fantasticly scary.
- Get reading material
* I haven't found a good book to take along. Please suggest some in the comments. I like to read anything and everything. (from fluff books to mythology)
- Get wedding gift
* Yes, we have a wedding to go to on Saturday. Must resist open bar. Throwing up on the plane the next day would not be my (well, anyone's) idea of a great time. Oh, yeah. I also get motion sick on planes and transportational units. Alcohol increases the motion sickness. That was a mental note to myself. SELF, PAY ATTENTION.
- Email parents itinerary
* They should know what's going on, shouldn't they?
- Ask some friend to take us to the bus station on Sunday. (we take the bus from Mkee to OHare)
* Preferrably we won't ask a random stranger and end up in Tulsa OK.
- Look into registering marriage in Lebanon.
* You have to register marriage, wait 1 year, become citizen, pass go and collect $200. Take a ride on the reading rainbow and watch out for the flying monkeys.
- Make sure various items in carry on are under 3 oz.
* ...So then I can pay $8 for a bottle of water past the checkpoint. Oh, I suppose to keep the gel bombers at bay. I'll go along with this.
- Get pest control guy to take care of wasps nest
* DESTROY.
- Laundry
* Travelling with clean clothes would be nice, dontcha think?
- Make copies of important paperwork
* Losing said important paperwork and not having copies would suck. This concludes my essay on how it would be to lose important paperwork overseas without having copies.
- Tell post office to hold mail
* I don't think the post office could start doing origami with our months worth of mail to fit it in our tiny mail box. They might go "postal." That sounded funnier in my head.
- Pay another month rent
* Shelling out money for time not spent here. Hmpf.
- Make sure change of clothes packed in carryon
* Did I tell you about the time I went to Germany and they lost my luggage? And then I had to borrow clothes from strangers because it took about a week to get it back? THAT WAS NOT FUN.
- Take care of relative's last requests for things we have to drug-mule overseas.
* It is always an adventure to carry 20 things of denture cream, vitamins, face creams, pie filling, laptops, ETC ETC.
* Sidenote: The show on Nat'l Geographic "Locked Up Abroad" is fantasticly scary.
- Get reading material
* I haven't found a good book to take along. Please suggest some in the comments. I like to read anything and everything. (from fluff books to mythology)
- Get wedding gift
* Yes, we have a wedding to go to on Saturday. Must resist open bar. Throwing up on the plane the next day would not be my (well, anyone's) idea of a great time. Oh, yeah. I also get motion sick on planes and transportational units. Alcohol increases the motion sickness. That was a mental note to myself. SELF, PAY ATTENTION.
- Email parents itinerary
* They should know what's going on, shouldn't they?
- Ask some friend to take us to the bus station on Sunday. (we take the bus from Mkee to OHare)
* Preferrably we won't ask a random stranger and end up in Tulsa OK.
- Look into registering marriage in Lebanon.
* You have to register marriage, wait 1 year, become citizen, pass go and collect $200. Take a ride on the reading rainbow and watch out for the flying monkeys.
- Make sure various items in carry on are under 3 oz.
* ...So then I can pay $8 for a bottle of water past the checkpoint. Oh, I suppose to keep the gel bombers at bay. I'll go along with this.
- Get pest control guy to take care of wasps nest
* DESTROY.
Monday, June 9, 2008
Really? I haven't mentioned this in the last 20 seconds?
In one week I will be in London-town napping off a long flight and preparing for boardage of a plane to Lebanon. This creates a massive to-do list for this week which includes fun things like "get reading material" and not fun things like "tell apt. office we have a wasps nest on our balcony." The list is long. I generally like to-do lists though. Keeps my brain focused. Otherwise I'm all "OOH SHINY."
Hi, in one week I will be in London-town. Did I mention that yet? Oh. Ok. Well, you can perceive my excitement. Excitement over travelling. In one week. To exciting places. Not that there hasn't been excitement around here. How many ways can it rain? I'm reminded of Forrest Gump quote, "One day it started raining, and it didn't quit for four months. We been through every kind of rain there is. Little bitty stingin' rain... and big ol' fat rain. Rain that flew in sideways. And sometimes rain even seemed to come straight up from underneath."
Friday's rain:
- Downpour in the early afternoon
- No interruption of my plans
- Tornado sirens going off in late afternoon, but no weather here at the apt. to warrant concern. I don't even think we had a drop when there were actual sirens going off.
- I still put laundry in in the basement in case I would have been cooped up down there. Might as well be productively safe?
Saturday's rain:
- sunburned by the pool in the morning
- in the immense humidity discover our central air is broken
- crazy fast moving storm.
- sirens go on, then off. then on. of- no, on. off? WHAT?
- listening to news on TV "at 124th report of funnel." Am reminded HELLO, I LIVE ON 124TH. have N tell me he thinks this is all "cool." I am decidedly anti-scary weather.
- Rains on and off the rest of the night.
Sunday's rain:
- Go out in the morning to a park. The park that is now a lake. Pretty darn freaky to see submerged playground equipment.
- Make eye appt. for N.
- 10 mins before appt skies break open and shower FURY upon the lands. The N still convincing me to head out with him. Um. No. Cancel appt.
- Storms on and off. Scary lightning. I hide out at computer to subside fears.
- Go to open window at night when rain stopped and have window completely break out of its sill. Add "fix window" on to-do list.
The greatest part of all of this were the TV weather reports. I'm not going to turn the seriousness of a tornado into a laughing matter, but c'mon, they were simply fantasticly crazy. ALL WEATHER ALL THE TIME. WE GOT EVERYONE IN THE STATION RIGHT NOW FOR YOU FOLKS. WE'RE GOING TO BE ON THIS FOR THE REST OF YOUR DAY. Lots of that. This was putting all their degrees to use(but things I could find out for myself on this thing called "the internet").
Other amusing highlights:
- They let people call in with what they are experiencing. "UHH Richard we have a car in the median and the people, the people look OK, but we have EMT on the scene. Wait, no one is moving really quickly. I think the people just have a broken-down car. We're not seeing any rain here at this point."
- The weather people kept being handed pieces of paper on-air with updates. It was all about how fast the weather person could read the paper, process it, and get the information out with out fumbling all over the words. It was like seeing a brain melt.
- I should have turned the live weather reports into a drinking game.
* phrase "super cell" = sip of beer
* phrase "take cover" = yell out "TO THE BATCAVE"
* funnel cloud spotted = take a shot & head to basement
* >50 mph wind = shake up a good martini
...etc
So besides weather antics, and a to-do list, I've only really had to keep my brain calm from the excitement of travelling. Because I'll be on a plane in a week... have I mentioned that?
Hi, in one week I will be in London-town. Did I mention that yet? Oh. Ok. Well, you can perceive my excitement. Excitement over travelling. In one week. To exciting places. Not that there hasn't been excitement around here. How many ways can it rain? I'm reminded of Forrest Gump quote, "One day it started raining, and it didn't quit for four months. We been through every kind of rain there is. Little bitty stingin' rain... and big ol' fat rain. Rain that flew in sideways. And sometimes rain even seemed to come straight up from underneath."
Friday's rain:
- Downpour in the early afternoon
- No interruption of my plans
- Tornado sirens going off in late afternoon, but no weather here at the apt. to warrant concern. I don't even think we had a drop when there were actual sirens going off.
- I still put laundry in in the basement in case I would have been cooped up down there. Might as well be productively safe?
Saturday's rain:
- sunburned by the pool in the morning
- in the immense humidity discover our central air is broken
- crazy fast moving storm.
- sirens go on, then off. then on. of- no, on. off? WHAT?
- listening to news on TV "at 124th report of funnel." Am reminded HELLO, I LIVE ON 124TH. have N tell me he thinks this is all "cool." I am decidedly anti-scary weather.
- Rains on and off the rest of the night.
Sunday's rain:
- Go out in the morning to a park. The park that is now a lake. Pretty darn freaky to see submerged playground equipment.
- Make eye appt. for N.
- 10 mins before appt skies break open and shower FURY upon the lands. The N still convincing me to head out with him. Um. No. Cancel appt.
- Storms on and off. Scary lightning. I hide out at computer to subside fears.
- Go to open window at night when rain stopped and have window completely break out of its sill. Add "fix window" on to-do list.
The greatest part of all of this were the TV weather reports. I'm not going to turn the seriousness of a tornado into a laughing matter, but c'mon, they were simply fantasticly crazy. ALL WEATHER ALL THE TIME. WE GOT EVERYONE IN THE STATION RIGHT NOW FOR YOU FOLKS. WE'RE GOING TO BE ON THIS FOR THE REST OF YOUR DAY. Lots of that. This was putting all their degrees to use(but things I could find out for myself on this thing called "the internet").
Other amusing highlights:
- They let people call in with what they are experiencing. "UHH Richard we have a car in the median and the people, the people look OK, but we have EMT on the scene. Wait, no one is moving really quickly. I think the people just have a broken-down car. We're not seeing any rain here at this point."
- The weather people kept being handed pieces of paper on-air with updates. It was all about how fast the weather person could read the paper, process it, and get the information out with out fumbling all over the words. It was like seeing a brain melt.
- I should have turned the live weather reports into a drinking game.
* phrase "super cell" = sip of beer
* phrase "take cover" = yell out "TO THE BATCAVE"
* funnel cloud spotted = take a shot & head to basement
* >50 mph wind = shake up a good martini
...etc
So besides weather antics, and a to-do list, I've only really had to keep my brain calm from the excitement of travelling. Because I'll be on a plane in a week... have I mentioned that?
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Cast away the clouds....
Song can be heard here
Close up our umbrellas
Walk around until we don't remember
What it was that made our years so dark
There's music in the park
Take a look around
Seems we've cast away the cloud
To which we once were bound
Let's take this day and run
Our season has begun
Skies are clear so far
Have a little more faith in me
Open my arms wide
Tell you come on in
There's just enough room here inside
For you to settle in
I don't care where you've been
Grateful for the view
Raise the blinds
And let the morning sunshine filter through
No storms to relive
Let go and forgive
Skies are clear so far
Have a little more faith in me
Close up our umbrellas
Walk around until we don't remember
What it was that made our years so dark
There's music in the park
Take a look around
Seems we've cast away the cloud
To which we once were bound
Let's take this day and run
Our season has begun
Skies are clear so far
Have a little more faith in me
Open my arms wide
Tell you come on in
There's just enough room here inside
For you to settle in
I don't care where you've been
Grateful for the view
Raise the blinds
And let the morning sunshine filter through
No storms to relive
Let go and forgive
Skies are clear so far
Have a little more faith in me
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Major WTF-AGE
I had a dream last night that I was working back at my high school job, Mills Fleet Farm. Every customer that came through my line had a problem with their order and the POS (haha, "point of sale" - funniest supervisory abbreviation ever) kept yelling at me. At one point I had to ring up some bulk candy and they kept telling me to hit the "potatoes" button to ring up the bulk candy. POTATOES! (Even though there was clearly a "raisins" button in my dream.) After that, I kept the cash drawer open too long while a person counted out 35 cents in change and the whole computer systems froze.
Then a guy came through the line to rob me and I broke his arm across the counter...but..by the power of he-man and all things strange... he turned into a giraffe. Giraffe you say? Yes, I say. Giraffe. As I called 911 I had everyone yelling at me that I killed a giraffe. I had to explain to the 911 person that a giraffe just robbed the store and I killed it.
I don't remember how that was resolved in my dream, because I believe people kept coming through the line after that and everything was normal. (remember previous mentions of 'major continuity issues' in my dreams?) The last part I remember was when I couldn't get gloves to ring through, so the customer comes behind the counter to try scanning himself. I kept yelling at him, "Sir, sir, you can't be behind here!!! Please return to the other side of the counter!!"
And he didn't turn into anything. Thank the mighty giraffes!
________________________________________
UPDATE
Looked up meaning of giraffes in a dream:
Giraffe
To see a giraffe in your dream, suggests that you need to consider the overall picture. Take a broader view on your life and where it is headed.
To dream that you are riding a giraffe, represents your desire to stand up amongst the crowd. You want attention, but aren't getting it.
So I killed my broader view on life for attention? Hmmm....
Then a guy came through the line to rob me and I broke his arm across the counter...but..by the power of he-man and all things strange... he turned into a giraffe. Giraffe you say? Yes, I say. Giraffe. As I called 911 I had everyone yelling at me that I killed a giraffe. I had to explain to the 911 person that a giraffe just robbed the store and I killed it.
I don't remember how that was resolved in my dream, because I believe people kept coming through the line after that and everything was normal. (remember previous mentions of 'major continuity issues' in my dreams?) The last part I remember was when I couldn't get gloves to ring through, so the customer comes behind the counter to try scanning himself. I kept yelling at him, "Sir, sir, you can't be behind here!!! Please return to the other side of the counter!!"
And he didn't turn into anything. Thank the mighty giraffes!
________________________________________
UPDATE
Looked up meaning of giraffes in a dream:
Giraffe
To see a giraffe in your dream, suggests that you need to consider the overall picture. Take a broader view on your life and where it is headed.
To dream that you are riding a giraffe, represents your desire to stand up amongst the crowd. You want attention, but aren't getting it.
So I killed my broader view on life for attention? Hmmm....
Friday, June 6, 2008
Ahem.
All day long on Fridays I keep wanting to post more and more videos. Could really clutter this place up. SO, I decided to create my own music blog. I'll post videos, links, lyrics, pictures, and anything that relates to what kind of music I'm listening to.
Check it out:
http://sfoofiemusic.blogspot.com/
I've added a snazzy fun poll to the right hand side, so make sure you vote and check back often. That is, if you like really random music. Cuz that's what I like.
Check it out:
http://sfoofiemusic.blogspot.com/
I've added a snazzy fun poll to the right hand side, so make sure you vote and check back often. That is, if you like really random music. Cuz that's what I like.
Extra special bonus Jukebox Friday
Then I got to thinking about cousins graduating, The Child graduating 8th grade, my little brother graduating 8th grade, summer on the way, people leaving on vacations, needing a pick-me-up, dancing, and cute pandas. So, I love this song & I love pandas. Perfect combination.
Rusted Root, Send Me On My Way
Rusted Root, Send Me On My Way
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