красная головка

Wouldja rather?

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 20:32:34 GMT

Spartans or ninjas?
Werewolves or Zombies?
Naughty or Nice?

Let your preference be known at:
wouldja_rather

A question a day keeps the boredom at bay.

PS

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 18:46:15 GMT

O-BAMA 0-8!

Going to the chapel and we're gonna get married

Thu, 08 Nov 2007 18:40:08 GMT

No, not me, but apparently everyone I know... people I didn't even know had boyfriends are getting married within the next year. Craziness! I do love a good wedding, though!

No update on the Pandamobile; the transmission shop has been awful about getting back to me. Jeremy is going to call them today and be like, "Look, you have my girlfriend's car and we want to know what you're doing to it, when it's going to be ready, and that it's not going to be --

(break, 25 minutes later)

Yeah, so Jeremy called and the guy is talking about electrical shorts and shit and it doesn't sound like they've actually done any work on my car in almost a week. I'm going down there because the only thing wrong with my car was that it wouldn't shift out and if they didn't know anything about electrical they should have said so and they should have never taken the job to do something involving an ELECTRICAL SENSOR. While Jerry played a small part in this by sending the car over without my go ahead, I don't blame him because he did what he thought was right by me. He really did think this guy was going to fix it. But now, he has engendered my wrath, and hell hath no fury...

SO.

The shop is on Summer (which I did not know, and had I known I would never have sent it there) and so I'm going to go up there in about half an hour and ask them to show me exactly what is wrong with my car and tell them that if they fucked my car up, they're paying for the dealership to fix it. And if they want me to get a lawyer, then I'm more than happy to get a lawyer.

Meg Smash.

And I can't believe I'm your man and I get to kiss you baby just because I can

Thu, 25 Oct 2007 17:17:11 GMT

I have an addiction. To Michael Buble. I know, it's awful, I'm going to have to go to rehab. And by go to rehab, I mean buy his CDs including his Christmas album because it will make me happy like my old Rat Pack Christmas CD did.

I'm definitely going a little nutters. I'm really depressed most of the time, I find myself so consumed by thoughts of leaving Memphis that I can't focus on my work, I generally just want to stay at home in bed and watch movies. And listen to Michael Buble because he makes me dancy and happy.

My car STILL isn't ready, and if you want to know the whole deal with that, here it goes...

Sept 30- I'm in the accident with crazy racist lady. Jeremy and his dad drive me home, I joke about getting a pimped out Caddy with 24'' chrome spinners

Oct 13- The shop starts work on my car, tells me it will be 10 days. The estimate is for $2600.

Oct 19- The shop calls and says they're going to have to order another part after all because the original has no more structural integrity, I OK another $200-50 on the estimate.

Oct 21- I call to check in, he tells me Tuesday, Wednesday morning at the latest. I get the final number and go, "Wait, that's higher than it ought to be." I call back to find out that he's actually gone ahead and put on a headlamp that I told him not to because Jeremy and I could do it for $50-75 cheaper.

Oct 24- I call in the morning and he tells me it's actually going to be later in the afternoon and I tell him that really sucks because I have class and work and I had already gotten a ride arranged. I take the night off work and get Lauren to drag me to the bank so I can get a cashiers check because, guess what, he doesn't take personal checks, only cash or cashiers checks. Because I'm going to walkin to fucking Frazier with $1500 in cash on me.

Later Oct 24- I call at 515 to find out they close at 5. Jerry makes more apologies, explains that there are other cars in front of me. I tell him I used to work at a shop, I can appreciate that there are other cars they're making more money on, but I took the night off work because he told me this morning the car would be ready. He promises it'll be ready tomorrow.

Oct 25- I haven't heard from him, but mom called and yelled at him about the fact that I can't get to work if I don't have a car. He says he'll put me in a rental, but that's not very helpful since I don't have extra money to put gas in the rental as I spent my extra money taking cabs all day Tuesday thinking I'd have my car back the next day and wouldn't have to spend another $50 on food and that sort of thing because I can't get back to my apartment.

So yeah, needless to say, I'm pretty pissed. I appreciate that he has the insurance company breathing down his back, but what he doesn't seem to understand is that it's the same insurance company I have and it's the same insurance company that recommended him after the first wreck. Well, his shop rather, as he is the new owner apparently. I can call and complain about the shop and the insurance company will listen; they won't care I didn't call something in because my car isn't covered so it won't seem strange that the car would be there without them knowing.

I spent about half an hour looking for my Latin folder last night and can't find it. It's gone. Vanished. That would be about half a semester's worth of work in there that I now have to magically re-do. Kenny's upset with me, and I would be, too. I was late to begin with and now I'm even worse off. The worst part is that I had kinda caught up and would have finished the rest of it today and it wouldn't have been a big deal, but now I'm right back where I started. Why do I even try?

It seems that the only thing going right at the moment is Jeremy, who is so amazing I really don't deserve him. He's taken me home after work every night even though it means coming all the way from Southaven back to the airport three hours after his shift ends, then in to midtown, and then back to Southaven. It's an entire extra hour's driving for him. He also went and picked up a battery for me since even though they put in a headlamp I didn't ask for, they neglected to put in a BATTERY that I didn't ask for. I mean, if you're going to put in anything I said I'd take care of... the car hasn't been turned over in almost a month!

But yeah, Jeremy

Broken record

Mon, 01 Oct 2007 03:37:42 GMT

i'm driving on airways towards the airport and this woman is slowing down to get in the turn lane and i'm like, "well i'll go ahead and get over in to the middle lane since that's where i need to be"

she decided to slow down too fast and a truck three times my size decided he wanted to be in my lane

so it was either get hit by the truck and end up dead or in the hospital or hit the woman and risk totaling my car

we didn't call the po; it would have taken all day-- she had a suspended license and the car wasn't hers, my insurance doesn't cover my car, so i would have gotten a ticket for rear ending her and had to go fight it in court plus my insurance would have gone up and i would have had points off my license

the end

Comments

I am fine; it's all going to be getting my muscles to relax. I have no appetite, and I am pissed at her and the situation. It's never nice when you have to take the sort of verbal abuse that I had to take from this woman. It was angry and racist and profane.

For those of you who don't live in Memphis, this is not a surprising event. That's why I'm taking it so well. Probably around 60% of this city shouldn't be driving, if not because they just can't, because they don't have a valid license or insurance. I'll probably not hear from this woman because supposedly it's her boyfriend's car and he has insurance, but I couldn't get the information out of her.

Also, I don't have to wake up at 630a tomorrow to get the oil changed.

Hard Day's Night

Wed, 29 Nov 2006 22:46:46 GMT

Well, life at the airport continues to be exciting and exhausting all at once. I worked the counter for like 11 hours on Monday and it was exhausting. They have some OT available next week but they only need counter the days I could work and I don't know if I'm really up for that... we'll see what this paycheck looks like, I suppose.

On that note, I decided not to take day trades and OT next Wed/Thu/Fri and trek down to the big TX. I'll be in Houston on Wed and, I think, Austin on Thursday night, then fly back on Friday. It all depends on whether or not I hear back from certain people, I might just be flying down to Houston for a day and then deciding to go somewhere else. I'll come back to Atlanta the week of the 20th, I think, and try to stay until Friday so I can go to Birdi's and see people-- I need to check with Airtran about flight availability, though.

Right now I'm drinking Cranberry Pomegranate juice and it's very yummy. Just had a shower, which was nice, it kind of calmed me down. People have been irritating me a lot lately, and I'm not sure why. I just find myself getting really pissed at folks who don't use proper English-- and I'm not saying everyone has to speak super cool English major English, but we are all taught the same language in elementary school and we should use it. None of this "I done waited" bullshit, I want proper verb tenses! I would also like to not have to listen to some high pitched girl screaming at her boyfriend who stopped in to visit her when she was cleaning the apartment next door (it's empty now, so they're working on it) about how she "don't care about no dumb ass nigger" or something similar that made me roll my eyes and ask why I couldn't have quiet for fifteen minutes while I ate. Slang makes me sick. Euphamisms and colloquialisms are one thing, but slang really irritates me.

I'm also basically baffled by young black individuals who are well educated and whose families have obviously done a lot to separate themselves from the lower classes (much like middle class white families like my own), and yet they don't speak proper English and consistently say things like "losin up" instead of "loosen up". It just doesn't make sense to me. YOU HAVE AN EDUCATION. USE IT. And that applies to any ethnicity, it just so happens the person I'm speaking with at the moment is black-- it drives me up the wall when anyone does it.

Of course, he just thinks I'm being an asshole and that I should (as I said earlier) "losin up".

I'm also pissed about this, and I'm going to LJ cut because I feel the need to respond to every section of HB1, otherwise known as

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT

To amend Chapter 12 of Title 16 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to crimes against public health and morals, so as to make certain findings of fact; to define certain terms; to provide that any abortion shall be unlawful; to provide a penalty; to provide for severance; to provide an effective date; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes.

Crimes against public health. You know, not that overpopulation is a crime against public health. Just ask China. As for providing for severance... that seems a little ironic, don't you think? Though it is nice they care about our moral health as well as our public health. But what about personal physical and mental wellbeing? Does that count, too?

BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF GEORGIA:

SECTION 1.
Chapter 12 of Title 16 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to crimes against public health and morals, is amended by revising Article 5, relating to abortion, in its entirety as follows:

ʺARTICLE 5

16-12-140.
(a) The State of Georgia has the duty to protect all innocent life from the moment of conception until natural death. We know that life begins at conception. After three decades of legal human abortion, it is now abundantly clear that the practice has negatively impacted the people of this state in many ways, including economic, health, physical, psychological, emotional, and medical well-being. These, too, are areas of legitimate concern and duty of the state. The General Assembly therefore makes the following findings of fact:
The State of Georgia, I thought, had the duty to protect all innocent life period-- I suppose that's implied by the "until natural death" part. I do wonder, though, how they propose to take care of even more "lives" when they can't even take care of the ones currently residing in its own borders... According to the 2005 census, 9,072,576 people reside in Georgia; that's almost 33% of the US population right there. Now, this is a 10% rise since the previous census in 2000 so maybe they already started calculating fetuses in to this equation but I think not. For these 9,072,576 people, the median income is $42,421 which is just under the national average-- the percentage below poverty level, however, is at a beautiful 13.3% which is almost a full percentage point above the national poverty level of 12.5%. In 2000, almost 20% of Georgians were uninsured, and I'll all but guarantee you that number has at the very least stayed the same. Also, just to toss it out, the projected population is 363,584,435 by July of 2030(PDF).

(1) Justice Blackmun, writing for the majority in Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973), wrote: 'when those trained in the respective disciplines of medicine, philosophy, and theology are unable to arrive at any consensus, the judiciary, at this point in the development of man´s knowledge, is not in a position to speculate as to the answer [to the question of when life begins].' Now, 30 years later, the General Assembly knows the answer to that difficult question, and that answer is life begins at the moment of conception;
You know, they keep saying that and I keep asking them to show me how they know that and I just haven't seen any evidence. Unless you count sites like this, and it is on the internet so it must be true...

(2) A fetus is a person for all purposes under the laws of this state from the moment of conception;
Then let's charge it with loitering. Stealing. Vagrancy. Tell it to get a job. You see where I'm going with this. Joey will understand: WWKD? What Would Kant Do?

(3) Even if the answer to the question of when life begins were unclear, the Georgia Constitution, at Article I, Section I, Paragraph II, provides: 'Protection to person and property is the paramount duty of government and shall be impartial and complete. No person shall be denied the equal protection of the laws.' Because a fetus is a person, constitutional protection attaches at the moment of conception. It is therefore the duty of the General Assembly to protect the innocent life that is currently being taken;
This doesn't even cover what it starts out to cover. It seems to want to provide a legal, ethical, or moral (but hey, they're all the same, right?) solution to those who don't believe life begins at conception. I don't know about you, but I'm still not convinced...

(4) As a direct result of three decades of legalized abortion on demand, the nation has seen a dramatic rise in the incidence of child abuse and a dramatic weakening of family ties, with the infamous Roe v. Wade decision pitting mothers against their children and women against men;
Now, I'm not going to argue with the fact that it seems child abuse and domestic violence incidences have risen, but I will take issue with the fact that they say the rates have risen and not the rates of reporting. The Family Violence Prevention Fund reports(PDF) that it looks like women are more willing and able to report these incidences than in the past. Roe v. Wade was a decision handed down in 1973, over 30 years ago-- women have come a long way since then in asserting their independence and the lawn in assisting that independence. Family ties have weakened, but not because of abortion; hell, even Forbes had an article about divorce rates rising! As for mothers against their children, I'm not sure how that works. And women against men... well, I know men who are of the "pro life" stance who would beat their wives if they found out they were considering an abortion, but no worries, those women can't get away from the other ten children anyway.

(5) Studies of the three decades since Roe v. Wade have revealed that women have been deeply wounded psychologically, with one researcher reporting that 81 percent of the women who have had an abortion had a preoccupation with an aborted child, 54 percent had nightmares, 35 percent had perceived visitation with an aborted child, and 96 percent felt their abortion had taken a human life;
One: ALWAYS cite your sources. Jeez. I knew that when I was in high school. Two: Ask any doctor. Yes, there are women who suffer these things after an abortion, it's not a pleasant thing. Most of these women also don't want to get an abortion-- they're stuck between a rock and a hard place. I'm not sure I would feel I'd taken a life with an abortion, but I would be sad for the potential of a life, the potential for someone who might change the world. That being said, the potential alone does not grant someone the status of a person.

(6) Studies have shown that women who have had an abortion require psychological treatment of such symptoms as nervous disorders, sleep disturbances, and deep regrets, with 25 percent of one test group of women who have had abortions visiting a psychiatrist while only 3 percent of a control group did so;
See above. Also see this from Planned Parenthood: Risks and Side Effects

(7) Another random study showed that at least 19 percent of women who have had an abortion suffered from diagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder, with 50 percent suffering from many, but not all, symptoms of that disorder, and 20 to 40 percent of the women studied showed moderate to high levels of stress and avoidance behavior relative to their abortion experience;
Aaand see above again. Doctors do tell them these things. They also recommend seeing a psychologist or psychiatrist afterwards.

(8) Approximately 60 percent of women who have had an abortion and who reported post-abortion trauma also reported suicidal tendencies with 28 percent actually attempting suicide, of whom half attempted suicide two or more times;
(9) Abortion results in increased tobacco smoking, and women who have had an abortion are twice as likely to become heavy smokers and suffer the corresponding health problems as women who have never had an abortion;
I'm sorry, but this just seems a little silly to me seeing as one of the side effects of not having an abortion when you really honest to god need one is DEATH. Really, as much as lung cancer sucks, if I can get my life together to maybe have a kid before I spiral downwards in to the oblivion, I probably won't start smoking. Or maybe I'll stop. Who knows?

(10) Abortion is linked to alcohol and drug abuse, with a two-fold increase in the risk of alcohol abuse among women who have had an abortion and a significant increase in drug abuse;
(11) Most couples find abortion to be an event which shatters their relationship, causing chronic marital troubles and divorce;
Did you also know the same thing happens to couples who lose a child due to miscarriage or death at any age? Funny how that happens. Maybe we should just make death in general illegal. Oh, you know what else is funny? GA supports the death penalty... just sayin

(12) Abortion exploits women, treating them and their children as mere property, and abortion is contrary to feminist values, and the great suffragette Susan B. Anthony referred to abortion as 'child murder';
Now, no offense to Susan B., she's a cool lady and I like what she did for our half of the species, buuuut I didn't ask for her opinion. Nor do I appreciate a party who didn't want women to vote using a quote from one of the suffragettes to make their case. It's just wrong. Also, she was a proponent of women having equal rights. If one were to say that abortion exploits women by being allowed, wouldn't disallowing the same thing still treat them as property? Like, saying that you could shoe a certain kind of horse and couldn't another. The horse doesn't have any say either way, he just either gets the shoe or has to limp around town for a while until Mr. Ed shows up and chats up congress.

(13) Thirty years of abortion on demand have resulted in an increase in breast cancer, and a study has shown that women who had an abortion in the first trimester of pregnancy before experiencing a full-term pregnancy may be at increased risk for breast cancer;
You know, a lot of things say that such and such is the reason for the rise in breast cancer, and honestly they think that frequent periods are a cause of breast cancer, so screw you guys me and my breasteses are going to be ok with an abortion because one of the other things that causes it is part of our natural process, asshole.

(14) The practice of abortion has had a profound detrimental effect on the health and well-being of the citizens of this state as well as the health of the economy; and
See, you're not listening to me on that whole population growth thing. What are you going to do when these women have all these babies and YOU have to insure them? It's just not working, GA, just not working at all.

(15) The practice of abortion has caused the citizens of this state an inestimable amount economically including, but not limited to, the costs and tax burden of having to care for individuals and their families for the conditions cited above, as well as a significant reduction of the tax base and of the availability of workers, entrepreneurs, teachers, employees, and employers that would have significantly contributed to the prosperity of this state.
Yep, because sending women home to stay with the children doesn't cost us any of these things-- nor does state sponsored day care or medical programs for the children of people who couldn't afford to have children but had to because a certain procedure was illegal.

(b) As used in this Code section, the term:
(1) 'Abortion' means the intentional termination of human pregnancy with an intention other than to produce a live birth or to remove a dead fetus; provided, however, that if a physician makes a medically justified effort to save the lives of both the mother and the fetus and the fetus does not survive, such action shall not be an abortion. Such term does not include a naturally occurring expulsion of a fetus known medically as a 'spontaneous abortion' and popularly as a 'miscarriage' so long as there is no human involvement whatsoever in the causation of such event.
You know, this actually soothes my nerves a little bit-- as long as non-human pregnancies can be performed, the race will survive. We win! Also, what about 'miscarriage' is popular? And what if a man throws his wife down the stairs? Do we charge him with assault and abortion?

(2) 'Fetus' means a person at any point of development from and including the moment of conception through the moment of birth. Such term includes all medical or popular designations of an unborn child from the moment of conception such as zygote, embryo, homunculus, and similar terms.
OK, I can live with this definition.

(c) The practice of abortion is contrary to the health and well-being of the citizens of this state and to the state itself and is illegal in this state in all instances.
(d) Any person performing an abortion in this state shall be guilty of a felony and, upon conviction, shall be punished as provided in subsection (d) of Code Section 16-5-1. The license of any physician indicted for an alleged violation of this Code section shall be suspended until resolution of the matter. The license of any physician convicted of a violation of this Code section shall be permanently revoked. The provisions of this Code section shall be in addition to any other provisions relating to the killing of a fetus or any other person.ʺ
SECTION 2.
If any portion of this Act is found to be unconstitutional by the courts, the remaining portions of this Act shall remain in full force and effect.
Say what?

SECTION 3.
This Act shall become effective upon its approval by the Governor or upon its becoming law without such approval.

SECTION 4.
All laws and parts of laws in conflict with this Act are repealed.

And, while I have your attention, I'd like to briefly quote the Abortion Surveillance report from the CDC.

Interpretation: From 1990 through 1997, the number of legal induced abortions gradually declined. In 1998 and in 1999, the number of abortions continued to decrease when comparing the same 48 reporting areas. In 1998, as in previous years, deaths related to legal induced abortions occurred rarely.

Public Health Action: Abortion surveillance in the United States should continue so that trends and characteristics of women who obtain legal induced abortions can be examined and efforts to prevent unintended pregnancy can be enhanced.

For those of you who don't know, the CDC is headquartered in Atlanta. You know, the capitol of Georgia.

Clue

Wed, 22 Nov 2006 03:54:34 GMT

I've decided I need to own more Mel Brooks movies. In fact, I need to own at least one Mel Brooks movie to begin with.

I'm back in Atlanta for a few days and had a lot of fun on my flight back in-- the supervisor at AirTran is awesome and bumped me up to business first and I ran in to Eva Krug and the flight attendant told her she could sit with me in business first and it was glorious!

Ate a whole lot upon getting home, which greatly improved my mood, and watched some Spin City and Law and Order and A&E mysteries and chatted with Emily. Then I went and spent *shudder* $50 at CVS and took my mom to dinner at Ru San's.

Now, I watch SVU and drink soda water with lemon and eat pretzels. Yum. More later, I suppose.

OK, and the fucked up child on SVU just set the lady cop's apartment on fire.

I coulda been a contender!

Sat, 18 Nov 2006 04:47:43 GMT

No, I'm not dead!

I am, however, so freakin' behind on LJ that I'm not really going to bother going over the last two weeks of friends entries, so if something important happened then leave it in the comments...

Basically, I've been working and watching movies and sleeping. I went to Atlanta and saw Emily and Clare and had some Raging Burrito and my first Raging 'Rita and saw Luke *pauses to think of doing dirty things to Luke* and generally had a blast.

I'm still completely in love with Continental/ExpressJet and I still hate mono. Though the good news is that it looks like it might be on its way out. I'm cleared to do bins 30 bags or less says my doctor and my spleen never really got swollen at all.

Officiating is going well and I'm impressing everyone, which of course I'm all about. I got to see Joe Dominey who is the craziest and coolest mother in the league; he's Laredo's radio guy but used to work for Memphis. He has a bit of a temper and almost hit me with a chair last year because when he gets angry he kicks things, though never people. When he's not angry he's a really cool guy, he stood there and chatted with me about what I want to do, told me I didn't want to work in hockey and I assured him that it wouldn't be for long if at all because I'd rather work with nonprofits, etc, etc. Basically, he's good people. Just, you know, don't piss him off.

I've also accomplished a new high with the hockey players who think I'm hot-- the backup goalie ran in to the boards tonight during warmups while he was checking me out. He's been working his way up to it and finally did it tonight; it was pretty amusing. The Kings also had a super quality giveaway-- a hunting vest. That's right, a hunting vest.

Only in Mississippi.

I also figured out that with my days off, I can go down and see my Grandaddy and my Aunt Anne and Uncle Lou! Yay!

I think that's really about it for now. I'm healthy again, I love work, I love officiating, and we're teetering on the edge of me going back to Rhodes next semester. If I don't go back next semester, I think I'll just stick around post-graduation next year and wait until December to job hunt in Austin. I mean, if I keep the job at XJT, I have a way to get to Austin for interviews and such, so I can keep working at XJT and try to find a job in Austin as long as I need to! I mean, yeah, the whole apartment thing is tricky, but whatever. I'll work it out.

And with that, I bid you adieu. I'll try to keep up better from now on since I have a semblance of a schedule and I don't want to just come home and sleep so much anymore.

Ciao!

Transporter 2

Tue, 31 Oct 2006 01:30:28 GMT

I have been... remiss in my livejournal posting. I've just been so busy I seriously almost can't see straight.

I actually was so tired last week I couldn't see straight...

anyway, the airline job is going well-- I like my coworkers and they like me, I generally like my supervisors, and most of the crews that come through are pretty cool. Though I did have an asshole pilot today who decided that I was the cleaning crew standing there in my ramp clothes dripping with sweat dragging gate checks up to the jetway.

The flight attendants are generally nicer than the rest of the inflight crew-- first officers are second nicest and pilots are the least likely to be amicable. I'm not sure what it is, but they're pilots and therefore they are better than EVERYONE MUAHAHAHAHA.

I got to marshal out a plane today, ride on the baggage tug, load bags in the bin, unload bags from the bin, chock the plane, and do all sorts of fun rampy things. The woman teaching me on the ramp is Crystal who is a pro, she's really waesome and I like her a lot-- she's really in to ramp and is actually as good as she thinks she is and thinks everyone should be as good as her.

We didn't have a flight until like 930 today so we sat in ops and watched a few movies and napped and ate breakfast and all sorts of fun things. I watched the last half of Transporter 2 (which, of course, I've seen), King Arthur (well, most-- I napped through a good bit of it because I just couldn't wrap my head around it all), and we watched bits and pieces of Tokyo Drift (Emily, I thought of you. Gaijin.) during lunch. Our EWR crew was delayed like four hours so they came and hung out with us in ops and snacked and we talked about the flight attendants in training who missed an observation flight yesterday which is a BIG FUCKING DEAL. Today they were most likely on a plane back home.

My sick is getting better, but my throat is not. It keeps swelling up so that it hurts even to drink water, which sucks because I had to drink like a gallon of it today on the ramp it was so damn hot throwing bags in the damn bin.

//

OK, so I went to bed without posting this last night so here's the rest of it...

//

I went to the doctor and my lymph nodes were ridiculously swollen. They were like, "You lived with this for four days? WTF?" So they gave me prednisone to help with the swelling and baby hydrocodone to help with the pain since it was really really painful to even breathe my throat was so swollen. I had blood taken for a CBC and a mono test, so both of my arms are bandaided and I had to go spend the money to get a smoothie to make sure I didn't pass out.

Megan and the No Good Very Bad Horrible Day

On my way home this morning, I almost died. I was driving from the airport and someone tried to force me in to oncoming traffic. I honked my horn and he still continued and then did force me in to oncoming traffic. I was incredibly lucky to have an early shift because if it had been later, there would have been cars for me to run in to. It really shook me up a little more than most things because I was feeling like shit, and then it got worse later because three other people tried to kill me with their cars and acted like it was my fault.

Needless to say it hasn't been an awesome day.

Anyway, that's about all I've been up to. I quit Bosco's and I've gone part time at the airport, so I'll have more time to catch up on LJ and my comics and my life in general and hopefully go home a couple times. I also need to figure out all the details for Scott's wedding, which is looking less feasible than I originally thought which is really sad 'cause I wanna go.

Everything will work out, though. And it looks like it shouldn't be too hard for me to day trade some shifts so I can go to mardi gras because I actually have a really great line and as of now I can pick up shifts for people who have a not so awesome line and most folks there will be happy to pay you back by picking up for you later on.

OK, I'm gonna finish my quesadilla and go back and fall asleep in front of another movie (or at least make myself try to-- which is why I don't think I have mono) and call my mom later on.

ciao for now, more soon I promise.

Toe Pick!

Sun, 15 Oct 2006 03:46:14 GMT

I realize that's been used as a subject before, but I'm so ridiculously pissed I can't even say anymore... I mean just wow. I want to take a toe pick to someone's face.

So last season, we all remember my constant battle to get on the radio, do interviews, be more involved in media relations type stuff. Jim put me on the air for a total of four minutes the last two games and I was excited and it was all good because I was like, "Yeah, OK, he takes a while to warm up to sharing the air, that's fine I'll move up next season." Then I'm ousted.

Met new interns last night, sweet kids who have no clue about hockey, but they like soccer so they'll catch on quick. I ran like a bat out of hell last night because it was late and I needed sleep, but tonight I stuck around and finished up my stuff instead of leavin it for Ron and I turned around and saw something remarkable.

Right in front of my face, Jim was handing the new guy (yes, as in male) the minicorder and mic and asking him what questions he'd come up with. New guy, for the record, never seen a hockey game before last night. I couldn't believe it. I looked at the new guy, and looked at Jim and he saw me and I shook my head and did the, "Well, ain't that an interesting situation?" look and Jim turned around and walked away. I ran in to Joey, my blue haired buddy from last season, and told him what happened and he was like, "Wow... that's... I don't even know what to say about that... fucked up."

I'm so pissed about it right now all I can do is try to process it, you know? I'm like to punch someone in the face or ream them out one way or another, maybe even sue, but I just can't even believe I'm seeing this in action right in front of my face. I have nothing to say to Jim about this, nothing at all, but I intend to write the league an editorial about this and about women in hockey and the need to support it. Even fucking football will toss in an idiotic or clever blonde to cover the game every now and again-- half the time they do better than the dumb ex players fucking around in the studio.

/rant

Off to bed after quesadilla and milk. Mmmm.

The Bad and the Beautiful

Mon, 09 Oct 2006 19:13:53 GMT

Haven't I been saying this for a while now?

At least people are finally picking up on it.

Perhaps that means that it'll only take them five years to figure out that the fact that we have government sponsored murder (and this time I'm referring to the war in Iraq) today and every day for the past how many years now? will effect people-- fourth school shooting in two weeks! WHATTHEFUCK?

I'm sure there are more interesting things to say here, but I'm just too lazy to say them.

Back in Memphis, hopefully getting my shit out of S-K's way tomorrow. It would appear (and I feel really bad about this now) that I just take my cargo space for granted since she had to make three trips down? Some of it probably is trash, but anyway. I need to clear the rest of the shit out of my car before I do that.

I also need to find someone to cover my shift tomorrow night so I'm not getting home three hours before I have to get up for my first airport shift on Wednesday morning... blah.

*kicks Mac in face*

But, I do have the last two discs of Firefly to look forward to, and I'll convince myself one of these days that I can live without my computer for a couple days so Matthill can fix the soundymajoowhatever.

And hopefully my uniform will be at the airport on Wednesday so I don't have to look like shit because none of my dress clothes fit properly because they're all hand me downs type outfits. Rather, I got them at dumpster dive so I didn't actually try them on but I didn't want to toss them either because they're really nice pants.

OK, gonna go watch Sin City Director's Cut and munch on some apples-- yaaay Easy Way!

Oh, and Ziggy loses his balls tomorrow!

Oh yeah, alright, take it easy baby, make it last-make it last all night!

Wed, 04 Oct 2006 15:56:21 GMT

I think I can get away with that, I mean she does sing it in Silence of the Lambs.

Also, if I'm taking LJ on its word, then it is Matthill's birthday, so... Happy Birthday Matt Hill!

Training is... training. I'm not going to talk about it right now beceause I need to mix things up because I'm about to fall asleep sitting here listening to the rest of the class read off fare calc lines. I just did mine flawlessly, of course ;o)

So, I bring you... a new Top Ten Time! This week's "Best Moves EVAR" is brought to you by Humpday-- giving people an ongoing reason to get drunk for years.

1. Bride's parents decide to give her "the talk" a little too late.... I mean, why else would they have driven all damn day?

2. Proof that ignoring air traffic control is ALWAYS a good idea. Though I have to give major props to Embraer for making such a sturdy plane-- fly ExpressJet!

3. Hiring the man who would put the headline, "SEX SCANDAL in front of the neocnoservative Rebupblican name. They're stealing our gig!

4. Because civilians and nuclear power always mix!

5. a href="http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/09/20/panda.bite.ap/index.html">Because drunk people and large semi-carnivorous animals always mix!

aaand I've returned

6. One of the worst pension scams ever. Yeah, I know it was a lame joke, but I'm just amused that usually other people knowingly collect on the pension of someone they continue to let other people believe is alive. Not a dead guy who nobody knows is dead still collecting on pension... yeah.

7. And people thought women couldn't match up to men in the workplace...

Jackass

Sun, 01 Oct 2006 17:34:24 GMT

It's also the shuttle runs late and pisses everyone off day at Holiday Inn. My roommate got down there at 545. I got down there at 615, at which point we were refused entry to a shuttle. "Airport only." We then waited until 645a, at which point we were again refused a ride, and at which point me and Lori went in and threw a fucking fit and got at least half of us on the bus. We had to leave some flight attendants behind, which sucked because it was their last day.

We got there late and had to eat breakfast in class, but luckily our instructor was too surprised that the shuttles wouldn't pick us up that we didn't have lectures about eating at the computers.

Yesterday I learned how to check a passenger in, how to check the seating charts on our flights and other flights, and how to change ticket status. I chatted with alana the whole time, so I now have boarding passes for Moll Flanders and Ponce De Leon. Moll also checked a bag, so I have a bag tag for her.

Lunch was McAllisters, I had a chicken salad on a croissant, and we bitched some more about not having cokes and other such drinks provided for us with lunch.

Came back, slept for like four hours before Tonya and Brandi called and then went up and watched TV with them for a while. Went down, got dinner, went out to the pool to chill with the big group of XJTs out there. One kid was already so drunk he couldn't see straight. We tried to give him some Sunny D (they were making fake screwdrivers), and he spilled it on himself. We tried to give him Chex Mix and he only got like one in five pieces in his mouth. He told me I was like the hottest redhead ever and asked me to marry him, and was OK with being second best. We went to take him back to his room and it turns out he couldn't even walk. He's a hefty boy, so it took three guys to take him up to his room and when they got there he couldn't even sit on his bed he was so drunk. They put him on his stomach and got the hell out. Jason from MEM took his room key and went back to check on him later; he was still alive, and apparently puked all over the place.

Hung out with Glenn, who's 41 and ex-Navy from Gulfport. He was a fireman down there after Katrina. It's really interesting how the every-day language has changed after Katrina happened; like, those of us who live down here can say "after the storm" and everyone knows exactly what you're talking about. We all had the same experiences at the same time, whether you got the brunt of the storm or the outskirts-- it's something that affected the entire SE and TX.

After a while, we all ehaded in, and Joseph and I watched Stealth (otherwise known as the best worst movie ever) and then I tooled around on the net for a while and went to bed.

Then, at 530, there was a fire alarm in my dream. Turns out there was a fire alarm in real life. That we totally would have missed if Jackie (my roommate) hadn't already been up. It was hella loud once you got out of your room, but there's no flashing light or buzzy thing inside the rooms, only in the hallway.

A lot of the XJT people weren't out there, probably didn't hear it, but the ones of us who were didn't look too happy. The hotel also wouldn't tell us what was wrong, but it was obvious there wasn't an actual fire because they were still inside and nobody was running around with urgency (not unlike possums). They eventually let us back in and I went to sleep for like another five hours and life was good. Except for the sneezing.

Brent came and picked me up for a day wandering around Houston. We went to Good(e?) Company BBQ which was delish, and I started sneezing like a maniac. We went to the Zoo and I got even more miserable. For some reason when I walked out of my room I was like, "Nah, I don't need to grab more than one Tylenol Allergy Sinus, I'll be fine!" Famous last words. Brent's had a cold/sinusy thing and so we were both stniffling and nose blowing and coughing all night. It was pretty funny. One of us would sniff and the other would cough and then the other would cough and the second would sniff. Houston agrees with neither of us.

We went to Walgreens, to where I had transferred my NuvaRing (I had been trying to get it the past few days and nobody in the area of the hotel had it in stock), and the pharmacist lady was like, "Yeah, it doesn't renew until tomorrow, so if you come back at mindight it should be fine." We took that in stride and went on for lunch and then zoo. After the zoo, we went to the "world's largest liquor store" oka Spec's. It really had some fabulous amazing things, including small bottles of vodka/gin, etc. I don't mean the shooters, I mean enough to make a couple drinks but not large bottles. It was beautiful, amazing. I fell in love. We then went back to his house where we watched some sporadic news, and talked about what's been going on in the area post-Katrina. For those of you who don't know, crime jumped 70%.

Decided to go see a movie and went for Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby which wasn't necessarily funny overall, but had some really awesome lines.

"El Diablo!"
"What does that mean?"
"It's Spanish for a fightin' chicken!"

The deadbeat dad was great.

We go have Greek food and I start to get nauseous; by the way, Edwards Cinema in Houston actually gives you your money's worth in concessions. I got a medium popcorn and a medium slushee and they were I shit you not the equivalent of a large anywhere else. It was ridonkulous.

We go to Walgreens at about half after midnight and they're like, "Nope, no can do." I get fed up and decide to just get the damn thing full price and my expresspay won't go through.

I go back to stay at Brent's house, where his mother continues to be overwhelmingly kind. She's my new addition to the mom hall of heroes. She out-Martha Stewart's Martha Stewart and she'd probably make her cry and then take her out with a shotgun. She's awesome, basically.

We go back to Walgreens this morning, get the perscription and here I am, still sneezing and thinking that I might want to take a nap and let the Tylenol Allergy Sinus do its job so that I'm a functioning human being later today.

Ciao for now, more as things arise, I'm sure.

A bowl of petunias which were very surprised

Fri, 29 Sep 2006 01:44:56 GMT

CSI time!

Today we learned bookinb procedures and how to find flights and see how many seats are left and that sort of thing. We booked fake flights and so I sent myself to a couple of fun destinations, then booked a flight for Don Quixote and Sancho Panza to Spain and one for Engelbert Humperdink to London.

I figured it all out in about 20 minutes so the instructor gave me codes to play around with and I helped out people in the class. This poor woman next to me didn't get it at all. The computers were really old, and by really old I mean they were running on Windows 2000, but they still operate on that ctrl+alt+del to sign in. Well, they told us to do that and sign on and someone had already signed on to her computer and the program (SHARES) through which we operate is already open. She's sitting there trying to log in to the system through SHARES and not through Windows. I told her that she could exit out of SHARES because she was already logged in to Windows and she didn't know how to exit a program. Eep. She's like 60, and apparently doesn't do the whole

OMGKIDNAPPINGDRAMACSI

computer thing very well. I explained most everything to her the best I could, and I think she kinda was getting it by the time we left class. I hope she picks it up because otherwise she won't pass and she'll be out of a job.

Came home and watched some fun A&E true crime, found out that my roommate's grandfather was a detective/police photographer in NY in the 30's which is totally badass. She said he had run ins with all the big gangsters of the time, and they had some really cool photo albums of the stuff he dealt with.

(Wow, so Texas... I love you but how awesomely special is your local news? A Galveston cop raped a woman in his squad car while he was on duty and a man in Sugarland claims he's Jesus resurrected...)

I left a message for Jess in case I could figure out how to change my tickets to spend next weekend in Austin, and she's going home this weekend! So tomorrow after class, we're going to jet off to Austin until Sunday!

Holy crap, Showtime came out with another awesome show, it looks like. It's called "Dexter" and it's about a serial killer who works for the police. The catch song? Sympathy for the Devil by The Rolling Stones. You are DAMN right I'll watch any show with that song behind it.

OK, I'm going to go down and get my brownie a la mode, try to make myself eat despite the fact that I'm nauseous out of reason thanks to the ratty CVS up the street not having my NuvaRing, then watch Shark, shower and shave, try to give Wes a call and give Jess a call as well.

You know I'm excited about Austin, MAN am I excited about Austin!

That's because you don't have a Prada bag!

Thu, 28 Sep 2006 04:36:38 GMT

Scary Stories (Series) by Alvin Schwartz
Daddy's Roommate by Michael Willhoite
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Harry Potter (Series) by J.K. Rowling
Forever by Judy Blume
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
Alice (Series) by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman
My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger (hated it)
The Giver by Lois Lowry
It's Perfectly Normal by Robie Harris
Goosebumps (Series) by R.L. Stine fuck yes
A Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Newton Peck
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Sex by Madonna
Earth's Children (Series) by Jean M. Auel
The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
Go Ask Alice by Anonymous
Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers
In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak
The Stupids (Series) by Harry Allard
The Witches by Roald Dahl
The New Joy of Gay Sex by Charles Silverstein
Anastasia Krupnik (Series) by Lois Lowry
The Goats by Brock Cole
Kaffir Boy by Mark Mathabane
Blubber by Judy Blume
Killing Mr. Griffin by Lois Duncan
Halloween ABC by Eve Merriam
We All Fall Down by Robert Cormier
Final Exit by Derek Humphry
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
What's Happening to my Body? Book for Girls: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Daughters by Lynda Madaras
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Beloved by Toni Morrison
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
The Pigman by Paul Zindel
Bumps in the Night by Harry Allard
Deenie by Judy Blume
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
Annie on my Mind by Nancy Garden
The Boy Who Lost His Face by Louis Sachar
Cross Your Fingers, Spit in Your Hat by Alvin Schwartz
A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Sleeping Beauty Trilogy by A.N. Roquelaure
Asking About Sex and Growing Up by Joanna Cole
Cujo by Stephen King
James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
The Anarchist Cookbook by William Powell
Boys and Sex by Wardell Pomeroy
Ordinary People by Judith Guest
American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
What's Happening to my Body? Book for Boys: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Sons by Lynda Madaras
Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume
Crazy Lady by Jane Conly
Athletic Shorts by Chris Crutcher
Fade by Robert Cormier
Guess What? by Mem Fox
The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende
The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline Cooney
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Native Son by Richard Wright
Women on Top: How Real Life Has Changed Women's Fantasies by Nancy Friday
Curses, Hexes and Spells by Daniel Cohen
Jack by A.M. Homes
Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo A. Anaya
Where Did I Come From? by Peter Mayle
Carrie by Stephen King
Tiger Eyes by Judy Blume
On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer
Arizona Kid by Ron Koertge
Family Secrets by Norma Klein
Mommy Laid An Egg by Babette Cole
The Dead Zone by Stephen King
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
Always Running by Luis Rodriguez
Private Parts by Howard Stern
Where's Waldo? by Martin Hanford
Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene
Little Black Sambo by Helen Bannerman
Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
Running Loose by Chris Crutcher
Sex Education by Jenny Davis
The Drowning of Stephen Jones by Bette Greene
Girls and Sex by Wardell Pomeroy
How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell
View from the Cherry Tree by Willo Davis Roberts
The Headless Cupid by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
The Terrorist by Caroline Cooney
Jump Ship to Freedom by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier

Total of 35. Thank goodness my parents were hippies ;o)

Training Day 3/Houston Day 4:

Last day of class today was kind of ridiculous. The instructors continued to be not instructive, and people continued to be ridiculously stupid which was to be expected.

Afterwards, I came back and changed, then went to The Galleria with Tonya, Joseph, and Tonya's roommate (whose name I can't remember). It was ridiculous. The line from this is in reference to tonight when I held in my hands a $2k Prada Bag, the most expensive thing I've ever held in my life. There's a Gucci, a Prada, an A|X, a Louis Vuitton-- when I say rich people's mall, I mean rich people's mall...

We decided that The Cheesecake Factory was in order for dinner and Tonya treated all of us! I had herb encrusted salmon with sauteed asparagus in a lemon cream sauce, mashed garlic potatoes, and "Steak Diane" which were really nice little steak medallions with peppercorns and sauteed mushrooms and onions.

God it was amazing.

Then I had lemon raspberry cheesecake for dessert.

I need to take a shower but I think I'm too lazy... hm.

I'm also curious as to why more of Faulkner's books didn't make an appearance on that list. *ponders*

Taking a shower tomorrow afternoon, I think. I'm pooped and I have to be at training at 7a tomorrow morning. I did tell them, though, that I can't understand a damn word Julia says and I may need to trade classes with someone... and they're very nice about it, so hopefully being in a smaller classroom will help, but since I doubt it, at least they're not like, "You got to be flexible, man!"

My job is termed an ASA - Airline Service Agent - or CSA - Customer Service Agent. Job duties range from booking flights and manning the ticket counter to ensure proper flight check in and baggage check, to assisting with boarding the plane (including scanning boarding passes, positioning the jetway ramp, and communicating with inflight crew), to loading the baggage on to the planes, cleaning the planes, flushing the lavatories, marshalling the planes for takeoff and landing/parking, and ensuring that everything is taken care of on part of the airport crew before the plane continues to its next destination.

It doesn't really seem like a lot at first, but we are essentially just as responsible for the safety of every single person in the air as TSA is. If we miss something in a baggage claim, what we qualify as a dangerous good, reactions can occur that will take the aircraft down. If we don't properly load the baggage, we can damage the plane or cause injury/death of crew and passengers.

Basically, for being a simple "agent" the airline puts pretty much all their trust in us. We also work for CAL, Continental Airline, in a sense-- we're qualified to work both ExpressJet aircraft as well as CAL (nicknamed Big Cal) aircraft.

We also watched a video of a cat obsessed with flushing a toilet.

Concrete Jungle

Tue, 26 Sep 2006 22:23:19 GMT

I'm in Houston, at a Holiday Inn, with a fairly nice but also fairly neurotic roommate.

Mid-afternoon in the airport isn’t always the most amazing time and place to be—people are finishing up a week of business and are generally resigned to khakis and watching Sunday afternoon football at the sports bar in the terminal. My flight to Houston was schedule for ten after one, and like the Wednesday morning flight the previous week, the terminal was empty, though at least more lively than the five am flight of Wednesday. There were a few girls my age chatting on cell phones wearing Ole Miss shirts, a couple of happy businessmen glad to be going back to sunny Texas after a rainy weekend in Memphis, and a couple who seemed more to belong on an airline that actually had a first class, rather than on the plane Wes refers to as a “lawn dart” where they would be forced to mingle with the middle classes. The woman was thin, emaciated to the point of disbelief, and the manner in which she masticated the soft bagel and cream cheese was disturbing to everyone else in the terminal. Were it a red eye flight, there is no doubt yours truly would have thought her to be a vampire incarnate—it was certainly a more pleasing thought than knowing that she was, indeed, a real woman with her husband waiting for a mid afternoon flight to Houston. Standing, the full scope of her being was exposed. Everything from her dull black, yet perfectly tailored, jacket, to her oddly (but perfectly) tailored black pants with faux pockets and belt, right down to the glistening patent leather pumps with the open toe on her alabaster feet. I’ve never met anyone, even in the Irish family from which I come, who had skin I would describe as alabaster; it’s a designation resigned to film noir and Dashiell Hammet novels. This woman had alabaster skin. Her cropped hair created a teased out crown around her head. The color matched a fire engine red I had in high school, though I certainly was never deluded enough to think it was anything other than a fun temporary color, destined to fade in to mere glints in the sunlight. My guess is she spends more time in the salon than she does at the snack bar. Her husband was not as remarkable. Wearing a jacket that teased at being Houndstooth or Tweed, it was actually just a patterned poly blend. Khakis that were cuffed, and too short when he sat down, with black socks and brown loafers. He didn’t care much for what was going on around him; he instead engrossed himself in a book on forming the perfect golf swing. I know this because I’m currently sitting next to him on the plane. She has just taken three sips of a Diet Coke on ice and refused the rest, while he seems to be doing his best to ignore her and focus on showing up everyone else the next time he takes a trip to Augusta. Dave Pelz’s Short Game Bible, the book says on the cover, and he’s devouring every word in it, running his fingers over the diagrams in an effort to make perfect without practice.

Behind me, as in the terminal, is a family of three—mother and two daughters. The seat behind the frightening Chanel couple is the mother and the youngest daughter who is four and very energetic about it. She curled up and napped the first 20 minutes of the flight, and is now watching a Disney movie (which, I can’t tell) with a huge smile on her face. She resembles her mother, except that her hair is wavy and blonde while mama’s is quite curly and the same reddish auburn color classic to American Irish individuals. Mama has a round face, small glasses, and a warm personality. They travel often, perhaps the family of an airline employee (as the older daughter seems to know quite a bit more than the average ten year old about planes), and the oldest daughter says they have been to Guam (a Continental hub), Japan, and several places in Europe, but their “home is in Houston.” From the terminal, I listen to her counting the people, noticing them, and talking to her mother and the people around her about traveling and anything else that comes to mind. She reminds me of myself when I was her age and I can’t help but smile at her as she hands Brandon her own ticket to get on the plane. I’m reading Agatha Christie’s Nemesis, which isn’t my favorite Christie novel, but a Christie novel nonetheless. I start thinking about how old I was when I first started getting in to the mystery novels, and how much I loved Poirot. Nemesis, for those of you unfamiliar with the stories, is a Miss Marple. I never really cared much for her but it is, as I said, a Christie novel nonetheless. Thirty minutes in to the flight, after listening to her speak with her mother and sister, and performing an almost perfect imitation of the pilot I decide that this young lady deserves an Agatha Christie novel. She says something, though I of course can’t remember now, only fifteen minutes later, and I turn to her mother and say, “She reminds me of me when I was her age.” Her mother laughs, very amused, because she knows the same thing my mother knows—that this girl will never stop talking. “Have you seen the new commercial where the dad is trying to put his daughter in the back seat and she won’t stop talking? Your brother and I saw it the other night and I said, ‘That, Casey, is what your sister was like at that age. You couldn’t get her to shut up.’” says my mother the other day. I turn and ask the girl behind me how old she is. “Ten.” Does she like reading? “Oh, yes.” But does she know who Agatha Christie is? “Of course!” Turns out she’s an Agatha Christie fan as well, and hasn’t read Nemesis. Since I’ve read it before and can’t get myself too stoked about it this time, I decide that she should have the book. I pass Nemesis back to her and ask if she’s read that one. She hasn’t. Her mother is tickled pink. “Have you just finished it?” I say that yes, I have, and I’ve read it thousands of times. I loved to read when I was her age and I couldn’t have enough new books. “Sounds about right!” she laughs. The flight attendant came by with the Diet Coke Vampira is currently neglecting and made a note of the Agatha Christie. “The girl in the seat in front of me just gave it to me to read!” she said, very pleased with her new acquisition. I realize that all things we do have a certain amount of selfishness in them, no matter how selfless they are. I also realize that this was the most selfish selfless thing I’ve ever done. Though it may just be that I’m too much of a snob to allow a young girl who likes to read the opportunity to pass an Agatha Christie novel by.

I like having a computer with a semi-long lasting battery.

On the shuttle to the Holiday Inn, I ran in to Joseph, my buddy from Wednesday working out of Daytona Beach. There were a couple other guys on the bus, one going to be an agent like the two of us, one going to be a first officer. We all seem to get along well enough, so it's not going to be like inflight v. ground crew-- though that would be a sweet battle, I'm sure.

We checked in, the two agents on the bus ended up together and I'm with a woman named Jackie who's really nice, but slightly strange. I got here after her and she'd already put her own sheets on the bed and put the remote control in a ziploc bag. She's 40-50 and has moved around a lot, born in NY and then grew up in Florida, so she's got strange fashion sense (for example, today she wore black pants with a shiny silver and black striped shirt and a black vest-- basically, kinda stuck in the 90's) and literally lives out of her suitcase from habit.

She's very overly nice, keeps offering me the space on the desk or the chair if I need it, but I really am fine-- everything's set up as it should be since I don't have nearly as much stuff as everyone else so it all fits in like two drawers total.

Dinner isn't bad; it's at the hotel restaurant which is supposedly the last of some chain restaurant in Houston. The service is ok, but the waitresses get a tip no matter what so they're a little lazy sometimes. I got a Muffaletta sandwich and some soup for dinner and some yummy hot rolls. Ate with Joseph and his roommate Ronnie, who really is a country boy-- black kid from Alexandria, LA.

Came back, watched Despearte Housewives, and went to bed. The shower sucks.

Apparently I could have taken Amy's duffel bag in addition to the little suitcase I borrowed. To think I was worried about overpacking-- I was the only person there with less than three bags total-- my AOII black bag, my computer bag, and the medium sized suitcase that was the size of most people's carryons.

Terra, our perky instructor/introductor to ExpressJet, comes in and almost leads us in an XJT cheer. I get the feeling that the only thing keeping her from doing so was the lack thereof. She was very nice, but overused the word "phenomenal" like nobody's business. Seriously. I didn't count the first part of the day, but she used the word over 30 times in the second half of the day. I estimate a total of 50 appearances of the word "phenomenal" in reference to the job, benefits, people, and XJT in general. We met the President/CEO, Jim Ream, who cursed and told funny stories "because when you get old you tell stories." We also met Chuck (whose last name I can't remember) who is the VP Ops or something like that. He told a somewhat amusing joke at the end of his little shpiel.

"Three women sit in a spa, two are technologically advanced and the third is not so much caught up. Sitting there, the first woman's wrist starts buzzing. 'Oh, don't worry' she says 'it's just my new pager-- latest technology.' The second woman, a few moments later, starts talking in to her wrist. 'Newest technology here, actually, a phone in my wrist!' The third woman, embarassed, excuses herself to the restroom. She's trying to figure out what she can do to possibly impress these women who are so much fancier than she is. Suddenly, she turns around, grabs a strip of toilet paper off the roll, sticks it between her butt cheeks and walks back in. The first two women are completely wierded out when she walks back in, but unphased she simply says, 'Oh, don't worry about that, I'm just getting a fax.'"

The day was interesting enough, and it seems that XJT (ExpressJet) actually knows what it's doing-- their board and owners and officials all have been in the industry for years and they understand that people don't like being kept in the dark regarding airplanes. They want to keep customers updated, even if it's just saying, "Well, we're just sitting here, even though we don't know why they won't let us take off..." that as long as you tell people what's going on, they don't mind so much.

We also have decent benefits and I think (not that I know much about it) pretty good insurance for not a whole lot of moneys.

Came back, had dinner, and chilled out watching TV for a while-- including a special viewing of my favorite Family Guy episode that just happened to be on! Wheefun. "I feel so deliciously white trash! Mommy, I want a mullet!"

Oh, and lunch was provided by Rosa's Mexicano, which was some pretty good Mexican food served by a cute little Mexican lady who called everyone mami or papi.

Here you go, mami! Hasta luego!

We didn't have to be there until 9 today (8 yesterday) which was good because I didn't sleep well and could use the extra time. Got down there and made coffee, got on the bus, and went to the training center. Got there about 830 with time to eat breakfast, watched the news (btw, you can carry liquids less than 3oz and those bought past the security checkpoints on planes now), and then went back for class.

They've given us so much candy and food over the past day and a half, or two, I don't even know what to do with myself.

We went over safety regulations, Hazmat procedures, dangerous goods and their transport on our aircraft, and then took a lunch break. We had Brisket Bob today, which was quite yummy and I'm still full, talked about how much we hated the state of politics at the moment, and I had several women my mother's age tell me they liked how I thought-- including one who rode in a motorcade with John Kerry.

After lunch, we went over marshaling procedures (using the orange wands), using the ramp and other equipment around the aircraft, and what would burn and possibly maim us.

We took a break and found our schedule for the next week and a half, and I got the morning shift which is good. It sucks I have to wake up at 530, but I'm out at 230 and I don't have to be there from 3-1030. The downside? I have the slow lady. It's this woman's first time teaching training and she can't speak, she doesn't enunciate so she sounds like she's drunk, and she can't read, and she doesn't actually teach, she just reads straight off the power point slides... yeah.

Anyway, whatever, I got the shift I wanted and that's all that matters.

Now I'm back at the hotel just chilling out. Oh, and I found my drivers license.

I think I might see what I can do about coming to Austin next weekend. I'll call Mac and tell him I won't be back until Sunday night and just take my $12.50 flight in and see Swiggett and Thomas (assuming I can still steal the couch) and Wes and just kind of enjoy the city a little bit, then head on back to Memphis. We'll see.

*yawn* I'm tired and this tv has wierd sound on it... hope you guys have enjoyed this little update, more later. Since apparently the internet works now...

My jungle love

Fri, 22 Sep 2006 01:47:15 GMT

He just wanted to say hi's all

Also, I would like to note that I'm not cool with Chavez calling our president the devil. Yeah, OK, I agree that he's a sick man and not fit for the job, but what the hell kind of leader are you if you stoop to the tactics of an administration that threatens to "blow [Pakistan] back to the stoneage"?

I'm not saying that everyone shouldn't have the right to free speech, but the problem with that right is that people say stupid shit. I wish we had "stupid" censors that would weed out all the kool fuckaz who think they speek l337 bcuz they 4get sum letterz and rite thingz xtreme n shit. People who visit the country and use their (sometimes) temporary pass to say stupid things instaed of something that means anything to the rest of the world. Like, Chavez proposed a new heated oil plan. Do we know what that means or what the plan was? No. Because he went and said something stupid and bellicose. I'm not saying you have to speak proper English, or even ENglish at all, but you shouldn't open your mouth if all you're going to do is spew shit that will take up people's precious time and the spot of something important on the front page of CNN.

I'm thoroughly convinced that if Bush hadn't started this war, if Chavez weren't an idiot, if Armitage wasn't an idiot, if all the leaders of the world weren't complete fucking idiots who talked out of their asses all the time, we would actually know what the fuck is going on in Darfur. But, who cares about genocide when the FBI/CIA/Dept of Homeland Security missed Osama Bin Laden again? Psh.

I don't care if you're a Democrat or a Republican or a Tory or Whig or whateverthefuck other political alignments you have; you have to agree that some things are important and some aren't. People are important, and therefore trying to stop ethnic cleansing in Darfur (I'll stick with that example) is important. Yeah, great, we didn't find bin Laden again-- I say don't tell us that until you actually find him. Let us hear about something important for a change. I don't really give a shit if Lindsey Lohan got blasted by another studio rep (well, I find it amusing, but that's what I have The Superficial for), I'd rather not be the last country in the world to know about Darfur and even though I love his silky voice and smooth looks, I don't want to have to find out about it from George Clooney.

So there.

/rant

I just had to get that off my chest. And, as a treat, you get another fun link to Oddly Enough-- this time, we discover we find out why Rockwell always felt like someone was watching him.

Forrest Gump

Thu, 21 Sep 2006 22:33:46 GMT

Some Southerners are pretty skeptical of horoscopes and the people that
read them. If we are to ever fully understand all the star signs and the
people they represent, we need symbols that all true Southerners
understand: See the list below:

OKRA (Dec 22 - Jan 20): Are tough on the outside but tender on the inside.
Okras have tremendous influence. An older Okra can look back over his life
and see the seeds of his influence everywhere.
You can do something good each day if you try.

CHITLIN (Jan 21 - Feb 19): Chitlins come from humble backgrounds. A
Chitlin, however, will make something of himself if he is motivated and has
lots of seasoning. In dealing with Chitlins, be careful
- they may surprise you. They can erupt like Vesuvius. Chitlins are best
with Catfish and Okra.

BOLL WEEVIL (Feb 20 - March 20): You have an overwhelming curiosity.
You're unsatisfied with the surface of things, and you feel the need to
bore deep into the interior of everything. Needless to say, you are very
intense and driven as if you had some inner hunger. You love to stay busy
and tend to work too much. Nobody in their right mind is going to marry
you, so don't worry about it.

MOON PIE (March 21 - April 20): You're the type that spends a lot of time
on the front porch. A cinch to recognize the physical appearance of Moon
Pies. Big and round are the key words here. You should marry anybody who
you can get remotely interested in the idea. It's not going to be easy.
You always have a big smile and are happy. This might be the year to think
about aerobics. Maybe not.

POSSUM (April 21 - May 21): When confronted with life's difficulties,
possums have a marked tendency to withdraw and develop a
don't-bother-me-about-it attitude. Sometimes you become so withdrawn,
people actually think you're dead. This strategy is probably not
psychologically healthy but seems to work for you. You are a rare breed.
Most folks love to watch you work and play. You are a night person and
mind your own business.

CRAWFISH (May 22 - June 21): Crawfish is a water sign. If you work in an
office, you're hanging around the water cooler. Crawfish prefer the beach
to the mountains, the pool to the golf course, and the bathtub to the
living room. You tend not to be particularly attractive physically, but you
have very, very good heads.

COLLARDS (June 22 - July 23): Collards have a genius for communication.
They love to get in the melting pot of life and share their essence with
the essence of those around them. Collards make good social workers,
psychologists, and baseball managers. As far as your personal life goes, if
you are Collards, stay away from Crawfish. It just won't work. Save
yourself a lot of heartache.

CATFISH (July 24 - Aug 23): Catfish are traditionalists in matters of the
heart, although one's whiskers may cause problems for loved ones.
You Catfish are never easy people to understand.
You run fast. You work and play hard. Even though you prefer the muddy
bottoms to the clear surface of life, you are liked by most. Above all
else, Catfish should stay away from Moon Pies.

GRITS (Aug 24 - Sept 23): Your highest aim is to be with others like
yourself. You like to huddle together with a big crowd of other Grits. You
love to travel though, so maybe you should think about joining a club.
Where do you like to go? Anywhere they have cheese, gravy, bacon, butter,
or eggs and a good time. If you can go somewhere where they have all these
things; that serves you well. You are pure in heart.

BOILED PEANUTS (Sept 24 - Oct 23): You have a passionate desire to help
your fellow man.
Unfortunately, those who know you best, your friends and loved ones, may
find that your personality is much too salty, and their criticism will
affect you deeply because you are really much softer than you appear. You
should go right ahead and marry anybody you want to because in a certain
way, yours is a charmed life. On the road of life, you can be sure that
people will always pull over and stop for you.

BUTTER BEAN (Oct 24 - Nov 22): Always invite a Butter Bean to a party
because Butter Beans get along well with everybody. You, as a Butter Bean,
should be proud. You've grown on the vine of life, and you feel at home no
matter what the setting. You can sit next to anybody. However, you, too,
shouldn't have anything to do with Moon Pies.

ARMADILLO (Nov 23 - Dec 21): You have a tendency to develop a tough
exterior, but you are actually quite gentle and kind inside. A good evening
for you--old friends, a fire, some roots, fruit, worms, and insects. You
are a throwback. You're not concerned with today's fashions and trends.
You're not concerned with anything about today. You're almost prehistoric
in your interests and behavior patterns. You probably want to marry another
Armadillo, but a Possum is another somewhat kinky mating possibility.

I'm a chitlin.

Yesterday, wandering around the Bushport, we were instructed to find Bubba's Seafood. We promptly started quoting Forrest Gump.

I'm pretty upset right now because I may or may not get to go to the NHL game tonight and I won't be able to officiate, which really pisses me off. Like, it's not their fault, it's the NHL's fault. And the fact that I don't have a phone. The NHL didn't contact them until Tuesday and I was in Houston all day yesterday and they didn't get my name (which they had to have yesterday at noon) and so I can't officiate. I think one of the off ice guys might have an extra ticket, I'm calling Ron in about 10 minutes, so it'll be fun to go even, maybe see Nate (the cutie in my icon) and Lynn while I'm there.

If not, I guess I'll call Dill and maybe do something, but given how that's turned out recently... well, she'll end up with something else she forgot she had to do. And I know how that goes, but I really wanted to see her yesterday and I took an earlier flight back and everything, I don't know. Yesterday just sucked.

Speaking of which, a rundown of yesterday:

Tuesday, got up at 9 and went and dealt with a lot of apartment stuff.

Got back in town about 1, got a pizza, and went to S-K's to do laundry. Hung out there for a while and napped for about an hour, hour and a half while the laundry went.

Went to work at 6, got off at 11, went back to S-K's to do more laundry. Left her place at 3 to come back and take a shower and find my passport.

Left my place at 4 to be at B's at 430 to be at the airport at 5 to take the shuttle to be there at 530.

Checked in to my flight, went and napped in the terminal. Brandon switched my seat so I'd have a row to myself. Got on the plane at 640 and promptly went to sleep.

It was cold-- did you know they're still doing that goddamn, "You can't even take your mascara on the plane with you." bullshit? Cause they are.

Got to Houston at about 830, then proceded to the training center where I filled out like five trees worth of paperwork and took a couple drug tests and had my fingerprints taken and put on file. Apparently the machine doesn't like my fingerprints, so hey, maybe I won't have to worry about the ones I left at that murder scene last week.

When we were done with the paperwork, we had to go back to the airport for drug testing. The directions sent us BACK through security, and to the clinic through several convoluded directions that ended up being completely incorrect. "Look for Bubba's Seafood" which prompted the Forrest Gump jokes. It was Bubba's Bar and Grill which was disappointing. If we'd gone through the double doors, we would have evacuated the entire airport, it was a single door that a couple of airline employees were nice enough to point out to us.

Jase, one of my fellow Memphis trainees, was amused that we had to go through all this and then pick up a phone, and while he was joking around saying "Where are the diamonds?" someone actually answered in the clinic and heard him. It was amusing.

Went, peed in a cup, had to handle the cup and the subesequent tubes in to which my urine was split, and then witnessed one of the nurses spill the remaining sample of Jase's out on to the FLOOR and she wasn't worried. WTF?

Apparently the test not only shows pot and coke, but angel dust and PCP as well. Which means I'm fucked... or something. Who knows.

They also had some amusing posters on the wall, including one that proclaimed alcoholism as an equal opportunity disease.

We left, decided to try and catch the 330 flights back to our respective hometowns (Josh was with us, he's from Daytona) and flew back to Memphis.

Got back about 5, Dill picked me up and took me back here. I came in and talked to a couple people for a bit, then went in to watch a movie. Started Harold and Kumar go to Whitecastle, then fell asleep. And didn't wake up until 1045 this morning. At which point I went to work.

I'm still hungry, they didn't give us lunch yesterday, so all I've had in the past 24 hours is an egg sandwich I made and some Doritos I found in the vending machine at the clinic.

Anyway, that sums up my past 72 hours, hope you've enjoyed. Now, to call the off ice guys and see if I get to go to the game...

Edit:

Well, the NHL officially can bite my ass. I'm not going to the game and, as I thought, Dill doesn't have the time (and I'm not bitching, I know there's stuff to do, I was a junior last year, it's a bitch of a year), and I have nothing to do tonight except sit around and feel sorry for myself again. I need to find a new hobby.

Pirates of the Caribbean

Wed, 20 Sep 2006 06:26:26 GMT

Funny stuff, this-- in the first rendition (during which I was hiding on Windfall Island), Adam was the naval officer. In the second, where I hide away on the Island of Doom, it's Erin.

Your LiveJournal Pirate Crew
LiveJournal Username
Fifteen men on a dead man's chest!
Cutlass or pistol?
What is the name of your pirate ship?
Where is your secret pirate base?
What kind of loot do you prefer?
What do you and your crew prefer to be called?
Parrot or monkey?
Argh!

Your capable first mate	tactlessoracle
Your bumbling cabin boy with a heart of gold	jessakitty33
The aloof, yet honorable, pirate with a mysterious past	tactlessoracle
Is always the first one into the fray	ikaramazov
Is the naval officer who ruthlessly pursues your ship	annabellebandit
Is the comical pirate who is always drunk on grog	frigid_pink
Is currently in Davy Jones's locker	tyekit
The amount of money you make as a pirate	$141,540


This Fun Quiz created by Lynn at BlogQuiz.Net

Check out Technology News updated every minute at NewsDump

Even if Emily is a big enough twit to try and pop up a few times ;o)

Working on laundry at S-K's, and I kinda sorta want to shoot myself. I have to be at Brandon's in three hours to go fly to Houston for paperwork that will likely not happen because I didn't get the following until about an hour ago because they sent it at 4...

· You will fill out paperwork (see the attached)

o Take a drug test (You must take your drug test before departing Houston)

o Get finger printed for an FBI background check

o Please bring two forms of government issued identification for finger print and drug test

· After the orientation, proceed to the Terminal of your departing flight.

o If you do not have a return ticket, proceed to the main ticket counter (outside of security)

o Present your Driver’s License and Record Locator number (see above)

YOU MUST BRING COPIES OF: (We will keep whatever you bring, so make sure you bring copies we can keep – not just the original document)

q Clean copy of current resume

q Driver’s License and 2 clean copies of Driver’s License

q Social Security Card and 2 clean copies of Social Security Card (if you have misplaced yours, please order a new one and bring in the receipt)

q Copy of High School Diploma or GED (Transcripts may be substituted)

q Copies of transcripts from College or Trade Schools (diplomas are not accepted for these schools) (Unofficial copies of transcripts are accepted)

q Copies of tax returns and W-2s (1-800-829-1040 to request tax returns)**See Note Below**

q Complete name, address and current phone number for all schools attended from High School forward and the dates of attendance complete with month and year.

q Complete residence history for last 10 years – street address, city, state, zip code and month and year resided.

q Complete employment history for last 10 years – Company name, address, phone number, Supervisor’s name (*HR Dept can be used) brief job description and the month and year of employment.

Information required of some applicants:

q Copy of DD214 (* long form indicates discharge type) If you served in the US Military, you must provide a copy of your DD214.

q Copy of INS “Green Card”

**Tax & W-2 Forms: These forms are used to verify any unemployment gaps greater than 6 months and account for any former employer who is no longer in business. If you have verified your previous employer’s numbers and contact personnel for our verification, you do not need to provide any tax forms for that time frame.

Now, this is all fine and dandy but there's a problem...

I DON'T HAVE ANY OF THIS SHIT.

I have my drivers license, but none of the other stuff. And yeah whatever you should have it, but I've never had to have it before and if I did have it, it would be with my mom. I haven't gotten a chance to get together all my paperwork from Atlanta (medical records, official papers, etc) yet which is why I don't have this shit with me. Also, the state of GA sucks because I ought to have a copy of my birth certificate and never got one. Fuckers.

So I start flipping out and Brandon's like, "Umm, you need that for every job you have..." and I'm like, "Ummm, no I haven't."

After I freaked out for a while and he finally got the point that I really honestly have never had to have more than my license and a student ID to prove I live here and exist as an American and conceded that it was kind of ridiculous for them to expect me to have all that shit together in less than 24 hours anyway. Less than 13 if you consider the fact that they suggest you arrive 2 hours ahead of time and the flight is at 645, which would put me there at 445 which is 12 hours and 50 minutes after I received the e-mail from the training guy.

Anyway, I've finally calmed down, after much bawling and feeling like a general fuckwit, and am going to try to be excited about going and optimistic that I can find my passport and that they won't kick me out and send me back to Memphis.

I get back at about 530 tomorrow and will hopefully get some ice cream with Dill and take my computer up to Bosco's so Matthill can fix it and then I shall perhaps make Dill sit and watch some Firefly with me because Matthill rocks my world and burned the first half of the Firefly DVDs for me! Whoooooeee!

Soo yes, trying to stay awake, rambling on LJ, wishing there were other people out there trying to stay awake even though they'll look like shit because of it.

Going to go steal some S-K food, check on the laundry sitch and hopefully finish up soon so I can go home and take a shower and (hopefully) find my passport so I don't get laughed out of Houston tomorrow...

Catch Me if You Can

Tue, 19 Sep 2006 07:46:46 GMT

Came home from work where I wanted to stick my car key through Chelsea's forehead until I told Mac that he needed to send her home or I couldn't guarantee her safety, plopped down, ate leftover linguine and watched the title movie with Zac and Amy. I really love those two, living with them is such awesomeness I can't even say. I obviously can't put it in to words properly either. Gooooo English Major!

Went to see my new girly doctor this morning. He was really nice, quick and precise, though it kinda wierded me out more that he was/had to be super uber careful about the physical. Like, I know there are laws, and that procedure is very, "This is what I'm doing now..." and all that, but I've been to so many gynos and had so many pelvics I think I could perform one on myself if I bent that way. And, you know, knew what I was supposed to be looking for. He also used the all inclusive "we" quite a bit, but I decided to try and move past that. After all, it can't be any wierder to an outside observer than walking in on your patient in paper gown trying to correct the typos in the article on the wall... I'm also a little intrigued by the thought of an obstetrics and gynocological facility offering cosmetic surgery. I mean, it's all harmless skin stuff for scars and major blemishes and that sort of thing, but all I could think of was people having vagina lifts.

"Boyfriend tired of the same old labia? Give him something new with a beauty mark!"

It's like tattooed eyeliner. But for your vagoo.

(if you don't get that reference, read Least I Could Do-- it's my favorite)

Hi, my name is Meg and I'm wierd.

Anywhoo, bitchy nurse lady who was pissed about having On The Border for lunch "again" pricked me for the blood sample right on a spot I think I had a splinter or something on last night because it hurt like hell and still does. I also had a completely wierd weekend and then spent three hours sitting in a freezing cold drs office only to walk out in to cold rain which put me in a choice mood, so I totally forgot to run shit down to the old apartment and instead watched Syriana (which would have been good if it had been 20 minutes shorter, even without a plot) and spaced out.

Saw Joey and Dill briefly, left them to do their catching up, realized just how much shit I have to do before I leave for Houston on Wednesday.

The plan is as follows:

Wake up early (obviously, as it is currently 240a) and go down to the CC apartment offices. Talk to them about the plan, then get the rest of my shit out of the place.

Noonish, head back. Go steal S-K's laundry maker because I have NO CLEAN CLOTHES LEFT. It's kind of ridiculous. I also need to figure out what the fuck happened to my socks; they've all disappeared and I haven't been washing them (don't wear them that often, haven't done laundry in a while) so I'm a bit confused as to where they've run off to.

Work at six I think? Well, work either way. Then come home and get my shit together to be at the airport ass crack early on Wednesday to go to Houston for the day. Come back, maybe get Dill to pick me up and then come have ice cream (since B is taking me because airport parking is a fucking scam).

Thursday is when things get exciting. There's a Blue Jackets/Preds exhibition game in Memphis that night. I know, not awesome teams, I'd rather see the Thrashers and the Habs or the Sens or even the Pens, but whatever. The awesome thing is that I MIGHT BE OFFICIATING!!!!!!

I also got an e-mail today from my off ice buddies and I get an official CHL sweater and jacket. Ohhh yeah, talk about hawtt. That's like hott and hawt mixed together to indicate more sexiness than you know what to do with.

Anyway, I'm going to stop talking about how much shit I have to do in the next three days and GO DO IT!

Oh, and if you happen to find $15 floating around, let me know, because I really could use some Starbucks and that was also the only money I had left until I get paid again and Amy has a chance to deposit the check... yeeeah.

Running Scared

Mon, 18 Sep 2006 05:13:46 GMT

"Makes Kill Bill look like Sesame Street" -Pete Hammond, Maxim

Which is why I never take the Maxim movie reviews seriously.

That's off the front of the Running Scared box. I think in order to make a movie that would make Kill Bill look like Sesame Street you would have to create something that nobody would produce. Especially if you weren't Quentin Tarantino. Now, granted I've only seen like the first 15 minutes thanks to Molly Powers, but I think it's safe to say that if (as I've heard) the movie only gets more violent from there... well, yeah.

I think I just figured out why I like Kayleigh so much (from Serenity)-- she's the perfectly balanced female characters according to female archetypes. Traditionally in the movies, women are either overly sensitive or overly agressive-- there is no in betewen. That is to say, either they act like "women" or they act like "men"-- those who aren't overly agressive in a violent manner are overly agressive sexually. Kaleigh is one of the few characters that acts in a normal fashion. She wants to get laid, just like any woman, but she's not overly agressive about it. She's also a warrior of sorts, she can hold her own in a battle, and she knows her way around a ship-- but she doesn't feel an absence of pain. She feels emotion when people are hurt, when people disappear, and at what we would consider to be appropriate times for any human being to show emotion. I'm also a fan of the fact that she says, "Been months since I had anything 'twixt my nethers weren't run on batteries!"

Anyone car to help out on a bulk order of "Joss Whedon is my Master Now" shirts? This is just such a great movie! Whoooo!

I also wouldn't mind being Anara. She kicks ass, as well.

Basically, Joss does well with not leaving a trace of an over mysoginized world, which is part of why the girl geek slike him as much as the boy geeks who like exploding things.

What to watch next?

And yes, you guys get alllll my fun rambling around LJ because I can. So there.

I think we're gonna go for the new Manchurian Candidate. I oughtta just go alphabetically instead of torturing myself like this, but whatev. At the moment, I'm just tryin to see the ones that'll look best on Joey's big ass tv ;o)

Now, to eat my linguine with balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt, pepper, it's gonna be greeeaaat.

More rambling later maybe?

Edit:

I decided that I'd watch Swordfish instead because it's HD and won't play on Amy's DVD player

Serenity

Sun, 17 Sep 2006 22:17:37 GMT

I forgot how much this movie rocks.

I got a lot done on re-doing the philanthropy notebook for Kelsey last night; I'm a couple days late and she's in LC right now (no doubt they all think I'm a bigger fucking bitch than they already do) but I know she'll actually be able to use the binder instead of just wandering around going, "Hello? Does anyone know what I'm supposed to be doing here? No? Fuck." because that's kinda what I was doing last semester.

Looked up and became an expert on AOII Foundation, am going to apply for a scholarship this year. I mean, technically we're supposed to have a girl apply for a scholarship every year and apply for a mini grant annually (at least one), so there.

I want to be River Tam, talk about bitchin.

Plans are to clean up Joey's place a bit, see if there aren't things I can put in order that will do something for him that won't screw up the Joey order of things. Probably put up the dishes, dust a few things, anything that might give him another ten minutes or so in his day; junior year's a fuckin' bitch, I shit you not.

Not really up for working tonight, especially since it decided to rain during the amount of time I was going to go down to Southaven and get the resto fo my GODDAMN STUFF. I would really like the rest of my clothes, and my dance shoes so I don't have to wear ballet flats without padding to work; and now I'll have to do it before/after girly doctor stuff tomorrow instead of going to steal S-K's laundry maker. Grr.

So it's September 17th, which means that there are 13 days left in September. 13 days and I'm going to start the fuck over.

OK, I suppose I should go get all black'd out for Bosco's. Wheeesundaynight. Hopefuly Jenna will be working tonight so I won't have to deal with one of the teenagers all by myself. They drive me up the wall. I just want to take their cell phones and... well, make something up. I'm sure you'll do juuuust fine.

Happy Endings

Sun, 17 Sep 2006 04:15:48 GMT

Yaaay! I got Joey's DVD player/TV to like me! I mean, I'm still fucked if I want to watch cable, I have no idea what I did, but I'm apparently technologically inept. C'est la vie.

I'm watching "Happy Endings" which is completely everything I'd hoped for up until now.

Laura Dern! Whoee!

How is it that Maggie Gyllenhal looks fucking adorable no matter waht she does with her hair? Seriously, I wish I could go from like long and curly to pixie cut and look that damn adorable. Grr.

And she can sing. WTF?

Work was better tonight, not everyone was so stressed, but I got patronized like a motherfucker by Crystal. I like Crystal, she's sweet, but I wanted to smack her! She acted like I was the one running the list last night and when I accidentally double sat Katrina tonight (which she didn't mind, for the record) she went off on this whole condescending tirade about how I can tell whether or not a server is ready for another table. Then, she did the same thing to me when she was running the list tonight that Barbara did last night which is why Matt ended up apparently getting like triple sat. Now, I know Bosco's is like all hard core or whatever with the rules about making the rounds and the amount of time you're supposed to spend with each table, but if you have made it to the rank of server and you're any kind of good server (which I understand Matt to be) then you're not going to be too flustered about leaving someone for like thirty seconds too long.

Maybe I'm like a superserver or something, but I have been sat with six tables of six or more people all at once and I got them all taken care of and nobody minded because, hey, obviously we're busy!

I don't know, it just seems to me like Bosco's, for the most part, seems to assume its waitstaff is incompotent. In fact, it seems they just assume everyone's incompotent. Is it just me or does assuming your staff is incompotent hurt productivity?

OK, enough bitching. I think I'm going to go watch the rest of the movie, chill out and stuff. nd stuff.

Damnit, now I want a sub sandwich.

Animal House

Sat, 16 Sep 2006 06:13:08 GMT

So I have to say that sometimes, these people make it hard to make them look bad-- I mean, you know the saying that there's no publicity that's bad publicity? David McMenemy is one of those guys that kinda makes you wonder where that saying came from...

Tonight was kind of a stressful night at work, I'm not sure what the deal was but everyone was completely on edge. Matthill even got pissy, and Matt's (from what I can tell) a pretty chill guy. People also are just stupid. Like, really, what the hell? Does the fact that we work at a restaurant suggest that we are the stupidest people ever? That's what I thought.

1. There were a fucking assload of reservations. By assload I mean that there were 2 for 530, and like 4 for between 630-7. Six, six total parties with a total of about 50+ people. People called at fucking FIVE O'CLOCK to make reservations for that night. I mean, what the hell? They also walked in with parties of 10 and were kind of upset when we didn't automatically have a table ready for them.

2. Some guy calls at 5 to get a reservation for a party of 10. We tell him we can't take any more reservations tonight and he's like, "Well what's the wait goign to be like at 10 for the patio?" "Sir, we don't know... it's hard to tell." "You can't even give me an estimate? Why not? Come on!" He like yelled at Lauren for five minutes because he was a stupid ass.

3. Interestingly enough, though, Lauren is a dance teacher. Lauren is the girl who reminds me exactly of Gwen. Yeah. Crazy wierd shit.

OK, I'm stuffed full of Indian food now, so I'm going to watch a movie, damnit.

Guh. Have to go deal with apartment bullshit tomorrow morning and then work a double. As in, I'll get there at 1130 and work through until about 1130. At least I'll have some bitchin' overtime on my next paycheck.

Anyone know if you can cash a money order at the PO?

Firewall

Fri, 15 Sep 2006 20:43:07 GMT

Oh, LJ, how I have neglected thee...

I'm watching Million Dollar Listing on Bravo and being a twit and logging Joey out of his LJ so that I can update mine because my wireless is being a jackass and won't log on to anything in the freakin' building, not even Joey's!

Then again, it could just be that Joey's wireless is being a twit, as well becuse it does that from time to time.

Anyway, Million Dollar Listing is a lot of fun as well as absolutely ludicrous-- these people are insane. They expect hundreds of thousands of dollars for houses that are nice and all, but geeeeez not that nice.

There's a guy here named Peter Deep, and he's one of those crazy liberal nuts that we all hate and he wants to sell his house and move to Mexico so that he can get away from Bush (who apparently called him a massive sinner) and I'm like, "If you can afford the flying down to the Puerto Vallerto every other week and all that, then just get yourself a fucking cottage in the hills with the $899k the real estate lady wants to get you and live with it!"

I mean, guh. I'm sorry. I'm here just hoping that my next paycheck is $600 and this guy's bitching about how he doesn't want to sell for less than $950k.

What. thefuck.

Anyway, I got to hang out with Joey and Dill briefly last night and that made me very very happy. I miss those two, they're my best friends here. Now I just have to see S-K and my life will be happy indeed!

I've also noticed that I'm not so much sad about not having classes. I mean, most of my classes this year were a formality anyway, and I'm sure I'll like them when I get back and all, but I like having a job and feeling like the grown up I'm trying to be. In a couple months I'll have enough money to pay my mom back some, pay off some of my credit cards and try to get my credit back in order, and I'll have the opportunity to go places I've not gotten to go.

It's sad that my trips back to Atlanta are going to be only iffy, but there are more important things right now-- I say that even though I despise saying that because the most important thing to me always has been and always will be my friends.

Oh, no, the poor liberal crazy doesn't want $850k. My heart is breaking.

Ha! He ended up getting $889 and the guy who bought it was like, "This is great-- it's worth more but since he wouldn't do anything with the interior, I got it for much cheaper!"

This is why you listen to your real estate agents...

*sigh* Two more weeks and this month is over. I know I keep saying that I'll be OK if I can "just make it through this month" and I've been saying that for the past year and a half, but I really think it might be true this time. There will be a little shaky stuff happening at the first part of next month, but then I'll be OK. There will be hockey, and winter, and more money to go do things and have a little fun-- for once, I agree that I am in serious need of some having fun.

Maybe more later, but for now I'm going to go work on the philanthropy stuff for Kelsey Dean.