Potpourri

I've been out of the groove for the past week or so and am now just getting back in. Hopefully I'll be a little better at updating LG&E.

L. and I had tons of fun at Rusty's place. We crammed a lot into our four days in Mooresville! On Saturday we visited Lowe's Motor Speedway and took a tour. While we were checking out the track some people were out doing laps on it, and you really get a rush of adrenaline when they drive by where you're standing. I can see why Rusty likes it! In the evening we went to Rusty's church and then out for dinner. We went back to her place and I crashed since I had been up since 4:30 that morning.

On Sunday we bought tickets for a luxury home tour. Most of the homes were awesome, but one in particular was the most incredible house I've ever been in. It was $3.2 million, although in York it would cost twice that. The first thing you notice when you walk in the door is a big plate of glass (etched with grapes, no less) in the floor that looks down into the wine cellar. That's the point when I knew this wasn't a typical York County McMansion. The house boasted a walk-in beer cave (it's exactly what it sounds like), a hot tub with a lowered edge that allowed water to cascade into the pool below, and a fireplace and big-screen TV in the master bathroom above the jacuzzi tub. I don't know about you all, but I would be afraid that the TV would fall off the wall and into the tub, electrocuting me. The sinks in all the bathrooms were gorgeous and one of the bathrooms had pebbles inlaid in the floor which looked nice but hurt my feet. The kitchen, of course, was awesome and it had one of those faucets on the wall behind the stovetop that you can use to fill pots. The attention to detail in this house was incredible. I must say, however, that the decor was HIDEOUS!! Apparently you can't buy taste.

That night we had dinner at Chili's (no, I didn't get Awesome Blossom with extra awesome) with Rusty's friend Vanessa. She's British and I could listen to her read the phone book. We headed over to Sonic where I got a chocolate malt which is my favorite sweet food after tiramisu. When we got home from that we sat outside and shot the shit for a couple hours and learned that L. is a quarter Jewish, which Rusty and I think is cool, but she doesn't. If I had to belong to a religion, it would be Judaism. I'd want to be a ethnic Jew though, not just a convert. I definitely have the guilt part down and I love the Old Testament God; he was such a bastard.

On Monday we went to a race shop where they work on the cars that are used in NASCAR. It was much cleaner and quieter than my garage, and they probably don't forget to put the oil cap back on when they change the oil like mine did. After checking that out, we drove to Charlotte, which is the cleanest, nicest city I've even visited. It seems like everything is more well cared for south of the Mason-Dixon line. I loved the tree-lined freeways and the flowers planted in the median down there. Up here our median is usually a concrete barrier. If we have grass in the median it's covered in trash. Flowers? Forget about it. I don't know how they would have the manpower to take care of things though, considering we have more roads per square mile than any other state and you can tell because they're crap. If you were driving down I-83 with your eyes closed you'd be able tell when you crossed the Maryland line because the bumpiness stops. Anyway, I digress. Back to Charlotte. We checked out the Panthers' stadium and even though football is probably the last sport I would ever want to watch, even after curling, it was sort of cool to see the field. I was amazed at how small it was (that's what she said!).

On Tuesday we went to Rusty's school and got to meet her class. I would have like to have more time with them, but unfortunately they had a boring-ass orientation for 6th grade. I wish those little bastards luck; 6th grade was the worst year of my life. I couldn't be around 10- and 11-year-olds all day; they would drive me up the wall! Most of them were cute though. After school we headed straight to the airport, where security went through my bag of dirty underwear, and started our less than one hour journey home. It's pretty amazing that sometimes it takes me longer to drive to work than it took us to fly to Charlotte.

I can't forget the most important part of our trip! We ate a lot of good, fattening food, and I ingested more sugar in four days in sweet tea form than I ingest in a year at home. I majorly need to detox!

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I almost got pulled over this morning going more than 90. I was passing some dumbass on the right. Luckily I knew to look for cops in this particular spot and as soon as I saw the top of those lights I slammed on the brakes. The dumbass was in the passing lane going about 75 which should have gotten him pulled over for A. speeding and B. driving in the left lane without intending to pass someone, but of course he didn't. There's no justice in the world.

I should probably be more cognizant of how I drive. I watched Murderball yesterday, and while those men are amazing, I would rather die than be paralyzed. I don't have the strength, physically or mentally, to deal with that. It's really disconcerting that one moment can change the course of your life forever. I almost cried at the end when the rugby team was explaining the game to the wounded vets. Damn PMS!

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Speaking of wounded vets, Laura Bush said on the Today Show that concerning the war in Iraq, no one is suffering more than she and George. What. The. Fuck?!?!?!?! I'm sorry, but haven't 3,300 American soldiers died? Haven't over 20,000 Americans been injured? What about Iraqis who have died? Here's what this source says about total deaths (US and non-US) from the war: "Counting all civilians, military, contractors, insurgents, and non-Iraqi civilians, at least 70,000; to as many as 655,000+ total excess deaths due to the war (second Lancet survey of mortality)." Hey, Mrs. Bush. How about sending your daughters to Iraq, having one of them die and one lose her legs, and then you can tell the American public that your suffering is worse than theirs. Furthermore, there has been little to no outcry about this. I first read it in a little blurb in our paper. When John Kerry "insulted" (one of my feet is in the camp that he was trying to insult Bush but didn't get it out quite right) the troops it was plastered all over every media outlet.

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I'm going back to my psychiatrist this Thursday. I don't think I ever mentioned this, but about a year and a half ago I went and was put on Wellbutrin. I was happy for the first time in ages, had no desire to smoke, and had no appetite (I know that's not a good side effect, but I was fine with it.). Life was good. But life's not allowed to be good, so my body decided to give me hives that made me want to kill myself. I had them in my throat, on the bottom of my feet, my thighs were one big, red welt; it was horrible. My doctor asked me if I wanted to try something else, but at the time I didn't because I was afraid of having another reaction. For some reason I've been in a pretty bad depression since about the beginning of this year, so I decided I should try meds again. I know it's the easy way out, but it's not like I haven't tried therapy and self-talk and all that other stuff. Therapy doesn't help me. My insight is good and I don't need to be told obvious things. I know that if I hate my job I should get a new one or if I'm unhappy about my weight I should eat better and exercise more. I don't need to pay to be told those things. I have a couple minor situational things going on and I'm hoping this will help me deal with them better. I've been in a really dark place for the past couple of months. That sounds a lot more melodramatic than it is, but I'm tired of being on the verge of tears all the time, having no motivation to do even the things I like, and feeling like I want to die.

Huzzah!

I'm a little late, but congratulations to the Hershey Bears for winning the East Division Semifinal! If they win the Calder Cup this year, it will be the first time a team has won it 2 years in a row since 1990.

Office Musings

I meant to write about last week's Office episode a week ago, but I shunned all you ignorant sluts. I've decided to unshun you temporarily so I can share my thoughts. Normally I wouldn't bother, but last week's episode was excellent from start to finish. I would even call it the best episode of the season. There were several great Daryl moments (LOVE Daryl), Jim and Pam were getting along and not being all angst-y, Ryan and Kelly's relationship didn't annoy the hell out of me, the seeds of doubt were sown in Karen's mind, we learned that Dwight's biggest fear is wolves, Toby gave a riveting safety training (even though he always screws up everything in his life), and Creed eats a potato without noticing and pees outside. I'm excited for the rest of the episodes this season!

Reshun!

I'm Leavin' on a Jetplane...

...but I do know when I'll be back again.

As you may have read on Rusty's blog, L. and I are going to visit her this Saturday through Tuesday. I'm so excited! I have all my clothes packed (after sitting around thinking about how stressed I was about having to pack I decided to get off my ass and do it), my 3-oz. or less bottles of gels and liquids are in their FAA-approved quart-sized baggie, my anal-retentive list of things I need to pack is saved on my computer with the things that have been packed marked off, my confirmation page is lying under my work bag so I can take it to work on Friday and do online check-in, the 10-day weather forecast has been checked (10 degrees warmer than it will be in York--woo hoo!), and I'm pretty much ready to go!

I'm looking forward to getting a tour of the racetrack, riding around in Rusty's new pimp mobile, drinking sweet tea and eating fried pickles and hush puppies (mmm...hush puppies *drool*), meeting Rusty's students, looking at expensive houses that I'll never afford, and going to the movie theater where you put your own unknown liquid referred to inaccurately as butter on your popcorn.

There is one catch though: I have to pick L. up at 5:30 A.M. on Saturday--boo!!!

I hope everyone has a good weekend!

Only in America

It makes perfect sense to me that a counseling agency would have to make provisions for people who have disabilities such as being blind or deaf. Those are obviously legitimate disabilities that people can't change. According to PA law (and I'm sure all the other states) we also have to provide an interpreter for people who don't speak English. "That's not so bad," you say. But take into consideration that the rate we have to pay an interpreter per hour is more than what Medical Assistance pays us for an hour of counseling, so essentially we're paying to treat these people. Plus, if a client doesn't show up, we still get charged for the hour, but we are legally not allowed to charge Medical Assistance clients a no-show fee.

We could be sued for refusing to treat these people; in fact, we could be sued for telling them that we don't have any Spanish-speaking counselors and referring them somewhere that does. Not speaking English isn't a disability. If you choose to live here and not learn our language, that's your prerogative, but don't expect to receive services that we have to pay for. We're a non-profit and we're in the red. Try going to France and expecting the same treatment.

80s Flashback

These videos were on Entertainment Weekly's Pop Watch blog. A multimedia artist uses people to make the classic aracde games Space Invaders and Pole Position. I can't explain it well, so just watch.

Easter

Good Friday

Graphic content

Maundy Thursday

Does anyone know what a jaded, faded, faded, jaded, jaded mandarin is?

Fun fact: Peter (Paul Thomas) went on to be a porn star making and directing hundreds of movies. Highlights of his filmography include Pizza Girls, We Deliver; Caught from Behind 2: the Sequel; Stiff Competition; Fantasex Island; Oral Majority; Furburgers; and Erotic Explosions 5.

Five Minutes to Kill (Yourself)

Check out this hilarious game at Adult Swim's website. You're an office worker who is trying to get out of a meeting so you talk to your coworkers and use items in the office to try to kill yourself during the five-minute time limit.

I Don't Want Your Blood Money!

This is Rusty's favorite. We're both in love with this movie and I have good memories of the two of us watching and singing. Well, she was singing and I was "singing."

Noooooo!!!!!!!

This is unacceptable.

*Hurls Disintegration across the room.*

A Special Treat

This doesn't fit in chronologically, but since it's one of my favorites (and also Dim's), and there isn't another song for today, I decided to post it.

My Temple Should Be a House of Prayer

That voice gives me chills.

Palm Sunday

In honor of my yearly tradition of watching Jesus Christ, Superstar, I'll be posting clips all week.