Tuesday, June 30, 2009

jun twitter archive

  1. grease and borat are both on tonight. which should i watch? gonna go with erdmann family favorite... alone in a hotel room in walhalla...
  2. RIP Michael Jackson. Sorry you ended up being so weird but when you were great, you were the greatest.
  3. jump in de line rock your body in time ok i believe you http://bit.ly/IyXdJ
  4. happy birthday @bobbann23!!! 23 on the 23rd! oh wait. you're not 23....
  5. here is my one entry #squarespace
  6. just in case it didn't count before #squarespace
  7. is today a new day for #squarespace? when does it restart? what timezone. so confusing.
  8. going to rent a movie from blockbuster (sorry netflix!) and get a milkshake from dairy queen. ahhh sunday nights in the midwest...
  9. happy fathers day, dad @parithed. golf well!
  10. why is it always that when no one is here i find a mf HUGE bug? it was like the size of a silver dollar. its ok, though. i VACUUMED it.
  11. He he. ... Wish you were here!
  12. I'm having a mimosa with mom for 1.95. That's right! Less than two dollars for bubbly goodness. Mmmmm. I love fargo prices.
  13. it's too hot to do anything. it's gonna get over 80 today. bleh #squarespace
  14. ummm... something cool. #squarespace
  15. found my phone! someone (maybe @alanmatson?) put it in the car on the passenger seat. bravo. well done.
  16. I've lost my phone. Seriously. WTF. #squarespace
  17. Happy birthday @trmenier!!! (really hope that's your handle you haven't twittered in a long time!)
  18. Cousin sara just said "you know who i love? Adam. What is that bitch doing?" @hassie
  19. At fast and the furious with cousin sara. We brought go our own vodka to mix with our pepsi. Vin is so hot.
  20. At the ho do with @parithed. Drinking pink lemonmade martinis and eatin fries. Mmmmm'..
  21. Happy birthday @rwhigginson!
  22. @erdysouth - if you tivo or dvr a show it is NOT counted in nielsen ratings. what are you recording?
  23. thanks @erdysouth for helping me pick out a new router and set it up. if this doesn't work, its official: i hate my mac
  24. back to the blog! check this out for awesome 80s movie montage. http://bit.ly/Q3f2r
  25. helping lady of the house paint her bedroom-was not meant for manual work. anyhow, can anyone suggest some podcasts for me to subscribe to?
  26. making homemade bbq chicken pizza which will NOT fall on the floor tonight and drinking martini blanco on the rocks. mmmmm...
  27. Tip of the day: do not go for a power walk after three glasses of wine and then do not bring two five sound weights.

it's always sunny in...

as my friend kevin said today, "you've become a geriatric nurse." yes, it appears i have. don't tell the ANA that i am practicing without a license. and because of that, today ended up being a completely different day than anticipated when i woke up. i jumped to action once i realized i was called on to do all sorts of things.
1) print medication list
2) make grocery list for gma
3) go get car
4) drop shower curtains off at the alterers to be hemmed
5) speed across the city to pick up grandma
6) go through grandma's fridge to check off necessary items on list
7) take grandma to dentist
8) make appoitment for self at dentist
9) take gma to lunch at culvers (which, btw, is like a mcdonalds or hardees, NOT like a village inn that i thought. gma had onion rings and a caramel milkshake which she couldn't remember the name of "those things i like." luckily i am fluent in dimentia-speak.)
10) zip through grocery store picking up groceries
11) drop gma off and unpack groceries
12) speed even faster through town to get home
13) make dinner and organize the picking up of little brother
14) eat with family
15) kick brothers' asses in whist
16) attempt to open a post office box in san fran. anyone know if i have to go to THAT post office in person to open it?? this might kill the whole idea...
17) bike ride while brother jogged next to me
18) awe at river
19) movie: the taking of pelham 123 (meant to go to transformers, but we ended up going to the wrong movie theater). whew. what a day.

so yes, a part of the day was spent with gma. her dentures began hurting her last week so we made an appointment with dr. jay to have them looked at. i took her to the family dentist, which my family has been seeing for 20 years. my gma goes there and so does my aunt and her family. dentures scare me. i'm afraid of just having GUMS in my mouth. and no teeth. its kind of freaky. and i dont understand how a sore can just DEVELOP all of a sudden after wearing dentures for 40 years. does this mean gums continue to grow? what if your gums overgrew? eek. i have to stop this train of thought. but dental health is very important. everyone should go to the dentist at least twice a year. i love the dentist. if i had dental insurance, i would go more often. ahh, the perils of being unemployed.

im thinking of coming up with a new word for it. unemployed sounds... something. ahhh the perils of being ... differntly occupied? assiduous? laborious? sabbaticalized? i'll work on that.

anyway, grandma had a lot on her mind today. so much so, she forgot to have me fix her phone when i was there. apparently she pulled out the cord or something and it wasn't working. she did remember the more important broken item, the tv. after being told, "only your mother knows how to fix that" i disproved her theory and fixed it. i think she presses too many buttons on her remote and gets the inputs to change. then she can't change it back, so she thinks her tv is broken. that was about noon today. then after dinner around 7, she calls the house to ask my mom to stop by tomorrow to fix her phone and tv. the phone has been broken for a few days, the tv a few hours. luckily, my super-smart brother, homie, pointed out that he was going in that general direction to visit a friend and offered to stop by and help fix things. that was really helpful for us. homie called from the lobby to get buzzed in and had to explain how the buzzing process works. meanwhile, at the homestead, mom and i found a basic remote online that we ordered for her. hopefully this will help her desire to push unneccessary [tv] buttons. don't get me started on other types of buttons. :)

i got to spend some quality time with player. we went for a jog/bike ride and then to see pelham 123. we tried to see the transformers, but i looked at the time of one theater and we ended up going to the other theater in town. good flick, i say. enjoyable action. player is in town for work and so i dropped him off at his hotel room and then came home. now i shall hit the sack...

Sunday, June 28, 2009

who'll stop the rain

my ankles are swollen. is this a result of driving long hours in a car? i wonder whats going on... bizarre.

so yes. i have returned. to make a long story short (for now), i spent last night in walhalla, north dakota. i've taken some great pictures and plan on posting them soon. i took my grandma up north to see her friends from high school (60+ years they have been friends). it was a fun trip, but slightly tiring. more to come on that.

to summarize my evening other than that: i got home around 6pm or so, right as my father was pulling into the garage after a long day of golfing. we went inside and sat down to talk to my mom. all of a sudden, my parents ran outside to pull the cushions off of the deck furniture and put the awning up. it was an instant downpour. i think they saw something on tv or ... i guess i'm not sure. i didn't even notice it happening. blue skies that instantly turned gray. i was on the computer and it turned off - we lost power for about 20 seconds. after a minute or two, i said that i was going to go check my room which is on the east side of the house. we thought the rain was coming from the northwest and i didnt think it would be moving into my room. in my room, the rain had started to come in so i shut the windows. i went across the hall to the other room, on the side of the building where the rain was slamming against the house. the floor was wet 2 feet from the windows. the bedspread was wet and everything was soaked. it had been raining for not even 5 minutes. i closed the windows then called for help downstairs. i went to the bathroom and my parents room to close those windows. water was everywhere. then there was hail and gushing winds. it was insane how quickly it happened. and just as fast, it was gone. no more rain. the clouds opened up and everything was normal.

we decided to go out for a drink and dinner and ended up at a bennigans. initially we were going to go to mexican village but noticed on our drive there that the stop lights were out. i didnt really pay much attention to it until we got to the restaurant and a line of 15 people was waiting to be seated - the restaurant had no power and couldn't seat anyone. they had been out of power since we lost power - over 15 minutes, but ours came back on. we decided not to wait and headed to moorhead for dinner.

we ended up playing one of those trivia games that sports bars have where you punch your answers into a game box and play against others. it was really fun! i took second in the first round and totally kicked butt in the second round. if i knew more about (read: was more interested in) sports, i totally would've rocked the casbah. well, maybe. my dad is excellent at trivia. he knew what an ocelot was.

with that, i am going to finish iron chef on the dvr and then head to bed. 'night.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

dream a little dream of me

ugh. rush rush rush is all i’ve done today. my mom woke me out of a deep slumber at 9:50 to take her to work. i couldn’t believe i had slept so long. i was in the middle of a dream with the guy from samantha who and men in trees. his wife had died and he still had her wedding ring in his pocket. it turns out his best friend had been having an affair with her before she died, so the best friend was upset, too, but he couldn’t tell his friend, this actor guy, why (i think he wasn’t an actor in my dream). then there was something about an aquarium and we were on a boat or in a tunnel or something looking at fish. and the guy was upset so i kept having to give him hugs. which is funny. i’m not really a huggy person.

so i hopped out of bed and drove mom to work. then i had to get ready because i had to work at 10:45. i had some fish and an orange for breakfast and tried to drink a lot of fluids. i got to work 3 minutes late, but you get a 10 min grace period so it was ok. i was sitting there with the needle in my arm and the machine kept stopping even though i was squeezing the ball. i thought for sure this was going to be another one of those times where i got a hematoma. the girl had to call a supervisor over and they kept adjusting the vein. it never did feel 100% comfortable, but maybe it was because i knew something might be wrong. they also turned down the speed of the machine, which meant i would have to be there longer than usual. so i finally finished and so far, no bruise, which is a good sign i guess. i was trying to think of something healthy to eat for lunch and i saw a qdoba on the way home. it never really hit me that they had one here. so i stopped, but of course no drive thru, so that took long, too. is it just me or is qdoba perceived to be healthier than taco bell? anyway, i rushed home and ate my lunch. then i left to pick up my grandma for her hair appointment. i called her on the way and she asked me to pick her up a strawberry milkshake because she hadn’t eaten. so i stopped to do that and then it turns out that the two streets i need to take to get to her place are closed for construction. which means i have to go WAY out of my way to get to her house. i called her and asked her to come downstairs and meet me. then i called the salon and told them we would be a little late. she was sitting outside when i pulled up. we got on the road and luckily i’m smart and took the highway to the mall. it cut our time in half and we ended up being only 10 min late for her appointment. i’m AMAZED at how fast we were. we would’ve been slightly faster except that i couldn’t find a parking spot close enough. my grandma has had her left hip replaced twice, and its always sore. so i tried to park close so she didn’t have to walk far. once we get out of the car, she shows me that she brought her handicap parking sticker. of course she tells me AFTER we’ve parked. so now i’m sitting in the salon, breathing for the first time today. i hope she takes a long time with the haircut.

tonight my little brother, player, is in town. i think i’ll take him and homie and homie’s girlfriend out to eat. i’ll invite my parents, as well. then us youngin’s are gonna go see the hangover, i think. i really want to see it and i’ve been putting it off because the local movie theater sends out a weekly email with coupons to see movies for only $5. homie and i have been waiting for the hangover to be the weekly movie. it hasn’t been yet. i’m not sure i can wait much longer.

it looks like i won’t get a chance to ride my bike for a while, which is fine because my bum is a bit sore. tomorrow i am taking my grandma to walhalla, which is where she and my mom are from. my gma’s friends since like 5th grade are in town and she wants to see them. we’re staying at the walhalla inn which i think is the only hotel/motel in walhalla. i’m actually looking forward to going because i’d like to see my grandfather’s gravestone. it’ll probably be the last time i ever head up there. unless there is a funeral. hmmm... morbid thought. new subject.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

"i myself AM strange and unusual"

i love it when i find out i'm smarter than i thought i was. yesterday, i was watching beetlejuice, a movie i loved growing up but haven't seen in 15+ years (it came out 21 years ago in 1988), and as the movie started, i thought to myself, "wow, this looks an awful lot like a tim burton movie." and i completely wrote off the thought - i figured it was his style but really didn't think he had made it. then as the credits role, i discover he DID make it. i guess i assumed tim burton's work started with big fish or something. within the past ten years (when big fish was made) is probably the only time when i started paying attention to directors. love it! (that i figured out it was a tim burton movie without knowing) after i discovered beetlejuice was by tim burton, and i saw winona ryder in her goth-glory in beetlejuice, i thought, "i bet edward scissorhands is, too." and of course it is! bravo to me.

[to preemptively explain the subject line, i provide the following]


i've woken up this morning with new resolve: i MUST find a job. and soon. partially because i find myself wasting the day doing nothing, partly because i would like to make some money again, and mostly because my mom told me last night, "hey stupid girl, get a job because i took the first week off of september since you told me that's when you were moving to chicago." i had forgotten about that. now i feel a bit of a time constraint, and that's good. i need pressure to do things and to do them well. so, for anyone out there, do not let me not apply for jobs. turn the pressure on - full throttle! i hope to make some progress on the job front today. i talked to my friend from high school last night and she said i could use her address, so i am going to do that. i also found this interesting article about finding what one wants to do vs. what one can do vs. what one can be paid to do. check it out here and then follow the link for the original post if you want - it caught my attention because its a venn diagram, which i love.

so that's the new plan: find a job. and be more healthy. i've been reading a lot of articles and listening to podcasts and once i read this article, i realized - she's right! it IS cool to be healthy again. like, thats the hip thing these days. organic, recycling, exercising, slow food, less consumption. these are all themes of the day. it's kind of partly the 80s all over again (from a health standpoint - NOT the consumptionism). i feel like in the 90s people were grungy and wore baggy clothes and ate crappy doritos and didn't really care about their impact on the environment. and now, today, it's the COOL thing to do that. wish i could get my family involved. i heard yesterday that something like 80% of all plastic water bottles are thrown out each year and that in total, americans put 800 BILLION plastic water bottles into landfills. that's just horrible people. THINK about it. it makes me feel ill so i'm going to stop thinking about it. but people, seriously. recycle. please. does anyone worry about what happens when the landfills are full? i do.

and finally, on to happier subjects - or at least more humorous ones. i read this other article (last article link of the day, i promise, i think) about celebrities getting a second chance and it made me laugh. in case you didn't know, i really really dislike tom cruise and scientology. i quit watching my name is earl because i found out that the lead guy - jason whats-his-name - is a scientologist. i didn't actually love the show, either, but just seemed to end up watching it every now and then. i dont have the time nor care enough to go and ban all scientologists, but i'm particularly against tom cruise. mostly because i think he's crazy and he just has good PR people who hide it. and he doesn't use his fame for good. scientology is BAD. i'm all for freedom of religion, but its NOT a religion. it's a CULT. and i warn you all to stay away from it. ironically, when i lived in california, i lived 2 blocks away from the scientology "building" (what is it? a church? a temple? a cult house?). i always wanted to throw eggs at it, which is the same feeling when i walk downtown in fargo past the super right-wing radio station, but i didnt (and i won't) because above all else, i am a passificst. and throwing eggs would draw attention to them and i wouldn't want that. for some reason, this reminds me of my other goal today: write united a letter about my missing luggage from my trip last month. i should for sure get that done. today. ok, off to be productive.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

lighten up!

i can't sleep. and i don't understand why. it's 7:20am and already i've taken my mom to work and cleaned my bedroom. usually i'm asleep until at least 9:30. maybe it has to do with sleeping until 12:45 yesterday. but i went on two bike rides for a total of nearly 3 hours, so i would think that would tire me out. bleh.

in any case, it's a birthday today!
happy birthday, b! (the picture is from cake wrecks, which is a great blog you should check out)

it's not too horrible not sleeping - i didn't realize that there are hours of saved by the bell on tnt at this hour. it's funny to watch something i used to love long ago. who's ready for the sbtb reunion on jimmy fallon? i can't wait. i bet it'll be great. can't wait to see what a train wreck screech is. right now all the episodes are from the summer when they work at the beach. these are sans-tori, so they're not bad.

i started working again last week and i think i'll go in today. after that, i need to organize my two bedrooms upstairs and then make invitations for my cousin's bridal shower which is a month away. i should really apply for more jobs, but its such a big process, its easy to feel overwhelmed. i applied for my first job last week - woo hoo! and to celebrate, i went to get sushi for myself. initially, i called bubby to approve my sushi dinner. he poo-pooed it and said i needed to apply for another job before i deserved sushi. i was really upset. bubby is my justifier and he wasn't doing it! any time i need to decide to get something or not, i call him and we talk it out. he made me feel guilty for only applying to one job, but i finally got him to see my way, albeit he wasn't 100% convinced. i got there, to the irish bar that makes the best sushi in town, and the waitress said it would take 45minutes to an hour. i had nothing to do, so i decided to wait. i sat at the bar and listened to some podcasts on my ipod. after over an hour, i was looking around to find a waitress so see how long it would be when an older guy sat down next to me. he had a really red face, so i assumed he was drunk and didn't really pay attention to me. he just sat there staring at me and finally i said, "did you want to talk to me?" he did, so i took my headphones out. he explained that he was the owner and something about some guy quitting (i think the japanese guy - he wasn't there and i've never been there when he wasn't) and so they're still trying to work out the kinks. apparently they ran out of rice and it takes 45 minutes to cook new rice. he apologized and asked if, instead of waiting another hour, i wouldn't mind taking a $25 gift certificate. i was like, "score! free sushi!" and said calmly, "i think that would be a fair trade." and then i thought, "now i really will apply for another job before i get my sushi!" of course, that didn't end up happening - i didn't get a chance to find another job to apply to last week. but i did get sushi on friday night. it was delicious. and i don't feel one bit bad about free sushi. mmmmm... i have leftover edamame. how long does that last in the fridge, do you think?

Sunday, June 14, 2009

a midsummer night's dream

1) happy birthday, higgi in the morning!! (a) yes, i know you spell it higgy, i dont care, it's higgI to me and b) i think that since this will be posted sunday morning, people should note that your bday is actually, saturday, june 13 - this means our anniversary is the 21st, of course)

2) for everyone else - how was/is YOUR evening?
a) fun
b) unexpected
c) slightly bizarre
d) all of the above

for me - it was d. all of the above.

i spent the day on the move: groceries for gma, lunch on the go, gma's house, bed bath and beyond, hobby lobby, etc. grandma was talkative today. in fact, i dare say she did not stop talking for more than 47 seconds after any other person closed her mouth. and i am not feeling well, so i was very tired and exhausted all day. i could hardly keep up with grandma. any time she said something, i had to ask her to repeat herself because 1) i was not prepared for her to speak - i need to mentally get ready to hear sometimes and 2) i can't believe some of the things she was saying. i would try to speak and she wouldn't hear me or believe me, so she didn't hear me. so for those instances where she was speaking first, unfortunately, due to her memory loss, half the time, she couldn't repeat what she was saying to me. so it was a day full of two one-sided conversations. if i said something, she might ask me what i said but not wait for me to respond. it was a vicious cycle. and my poor mom spent the day picking up after her. so there is mom cleaning and me and grandma speaking TO each other. not necessarily WITH each other.

after a few hours, we moved on and went shopping. and i LOVE love LOVE household shopping. we found some great curtains. nice. i love matching things. and yet, it made me tired. so tired, i asked mom to drive home. normally, when we go out, i drive because i'm a bit of a control freak when it comes to things like that. i'm all about speed and efficiency. i said to my mom, "you can drive, but please, please, try to drive near the speed limit." normally she drives something like 10 miles under the speed limit. this is fine on the highway when you're trying to save gas (read: not really), but rather annoying when the speed limit is 25 in downtown fargo and therefore the car is going 15 mph. its hard to understand the need for un-speed.

in any case, i dont know how long it took us to get home because i slept most of the way. maybe i need to eat more meat and get more protein and therefore more energy.

after getting home, i had to get ready to go out. my dad is very social and always wants to go out to bars and out to eat. but we have different type of bars where we like to go, so i never really go out with him. he invited me out specifically to the "ho do" which is a bar i like to go to. so we headed out and had drinks and some appetizers. it was fun. then we went to fort knox down the street where we could sit outside. after a bit, cousin sara came to pick me up and we went to a movie at the cheap theater ($3 on the weekend). we saw fast and the furious or is THE fast and the furious? i think that's how they distinguished the two. i love vin diesel and my cousin loves paul walker, so it was win-win. and not bad, actually. lots of high action and hot guys. can't go wrong. we brought along some of our own drinks in a traveling flask and decided to get a drink after the movie. we went to a bar right next to the movie theater called o'learys or something like that. it was a young crowd and i told my cousin, "if i say 'spaghetti' it means i have seen someone from high school and want to leave." for some reason i have this real aversion to seeing my high school classmates when i'm not mentally prepared for it (which is never). she thought it was funny because her roommate, who is also from fargo (but the south side, i'm from the north) never wants to see people she knows from high school either. my cousin said "it must be a fargo thing."

i can't remember why, but my cousin decided she wanted to go downtown. so we headed back to fargo. oh right. she had two free beers at the bismarck. i've never actually been to the bismarck, a sort-of dive bar in downtown fargo. jonny lang used to play there 15 years ago. we have our beer and headed to a more upscale bar. but first, my cousin wanted to go to this one bar - i forget the name - to see a boy. so we head in and are literally walking out the back door when some guy grabs my arm. "hey! what's your name?" i instantly recognized his face as someone i went to high school with. "danielle" i replied. then he wanted to know my last name so i told him. "i thought so," he said. "we went to high school together." i asked him his first name which allowed me to pick out his last name. "krueger?" "yeah. see you in a month!" he replied. "oh, i'm not going." "i can't blame you." and with that he walked off. at least it was brief. not horribly painful, but very very bizarre.

after that, we tried to go back to the ho do, but for some reason their doors were locked. i hate doing that - tugging on all doors while people inside watch you and see you have to walk off, dejected. we weren't exactly ready to be done for the night, so we went to the grocery store and got some ice cream. then we drove around north fargo and looked at big houses and tried to find this house of a boy my cousin likes. we found it, it's only a few blocks from my place. so then she dropped me off and now i'm ready to hit the sack....

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

rock the casbah

well. another non-accomplishing day. on a grand scale, of course. it's not like i sat around doing nothing all day (which would've been just fine with me, but noooooo). my mom stayed home from work (for like the 2nd time in 20 years - who does that??) sick with some head cold. she kept whining and whining because she's in pain so i helped her paint her bedroom a little bit. i don't mind painting, but i only like it when 1) there are two massively different colors so you can easily see the new paint sliding off the paint brush and 2) in big chunks. this isn't paint by number, people! i'm not painting a picture to take home for mother's day. i have no patience for small painting. i'd much rather wave a magic wand (read: pay someone else) and have the paint magically appear in tiny nooks and crannies. but i really do like a pretty painted wall. everyone apartment i have ever lived in has "had" to maintain white walls. it's nice to add a splash of color. i definitely recommend it, especially if you can get someone else to do it.

at one point, i had to go to the store to get some more paint. and this is weird to me: the store, on the outside says "ace hardware" but when you go inside, there is a handwritten sign at the register that says "make checks payable to tooltime." which i instantly thought was a joke. ha ha. tool time. tim allen. detroit. home improvement. ha ha good one. but then i saw an actual sign that said something about tool time. huh?? anyway, apparently there is a tool time in fargo. more to the point. so i go to the store and tell the guy i want "breadstick" color. he looks at me incredulously because i didn't have the paint sample, i just knew the color. "we changed our provider, so the color has changed," he says to me. "ok, but i was just here." "yeah, but we changed." i looked around. nothing had changed in the 3 days since i had been there. "i was here two days ago." "oh" was all he replied. so he finds breadstick in the system and prints the label. i walk around doing nothing and then get the paint and go. when i get home, my mom is like, "this looks grayer." i tish tished her and told her it looked fine. it wasn't until she had painted 5 panels that we realized - it really was NOT the same color. i looked at the lid - it read breadstick and the same paint swab number as the other can. BUT the "color proportions" or whatever they are were TOTALLY different. how does that change? i really don't get how someone could screw that up. so i'll have to go back tomorrow to get it fixed.

except...

i don't have a car. i drove the car to the ... what are those places called? automotive repair store? too long. the shop. yeah, i took the car into the shop. it didn't overheat during the 1/2 mile drive there. always a good sign. except now it's like an episode of house. we don't know what's wrong, so we (read: the mechanic) has to diagnose the problem. i told him all about the symptoms and he wrote down everything i said! it must've been a really big deal. he called at the end of the day and isn't sure what's wrong with it. they're going to drive it tomorrow to see if they can recreate the problem. i'm pretty sure i know what happened. some CIA or FBI agent has confused me with a rogue agent and they are trying to "disappear" me by having me die in a burning car - at my own hand maybe. they could also make it look like an accident. or not. and it didn't work! i'm too smart for them. i have outwitted them once again! or - i have outwitted them for the first time and will again! (someday) i'm pretty sure there is some curse or something about me driving because the other day i was in the car with homie and we were waiting in the drive thru and the car started to overheat. i was like, "wtf! why is every car i'm in overheating??" so we took it to jiffy lube and got an oil change and all is well. once again defeated the enemy! but we have no idea where he will strike next. denim denim denim.

before it got dark, i took out my newly souped-up bike for a ride. i rode all the way to longfellow and then made my way back a long way. i couldn't belive how far i had ridden and in such time. i totally rock the casbah! and i'm sure i looked hot in my bike helmet. i have decided to take the baskets (paniers) off my bike until i actually need them. tomorrow i plan to go to the post office and i will actually need them. i might ride up to the grocery store, as well. just so i can use the baskets. don't worry. they aren't dorky baskets. i make them work. i'm about to fall asleep.

back to life back to reality

this morning i woke up feeling discombobulated. and the feeling didn't change for most of the day. i felt there were a million things i needed to do, but i didn't know where to start. first, let me say happy birthday to my dear friend, molly. hope she's having a good one. i tried texting her, but it never went through, which is so odd. i have to try calling later.

i was planning my day and making lists of what to do when my grandma called and asked for a ride home. she has spent the last two days with her sister, my great aunt, and wanted to head back to her apartment. this was expected, but i didn't know when she would want to leave, so i add that to my list but had to change things around a bit.

my aunt's apartment is just across the river in moorhead, mn. i drove there and parked. as i walked in, i looked into the dining room and saw her sitting there so i went to get her. we went upstairs to get my grandma. she suffers from chronic headaches, so she didn't want to go to lunch downstairs. i packed up her suitcase and we were about to leave when she spilled her pop everywhere. she must've forgotten that she had an open can in her hand and she turned her hand to pick up somethig and the soda came out of the can. everywhere. so i got down on my hands and knees and spent about 10 minutes cleaning it up. i kept trying to tell them not to move so it wouldn't go everywhere, but... it didn't work.

we're finally ready to leave and my grandma can't find her purse, which has her keys in it. we look all over the apartment and found it - it was under my aunt's dresser. i didn't ask.

fargo and moorhead are both gridded cities and its possible to take just two roads to get the 10 miles or so from my aunt's house to my grandma's. so my gma and i set off down the one street in moorhead which will take us to the cross street that my grandma lives on across the river. about halfway there, i realize that the road might not be open because they were doing construction around my gma's apartment because of the flood. this would mean another 20 minutes out of my way to drive back and cross the river on the highway. luckily, the road was open (just barely - a small strip of street was carved out for people to drive).

the original plan was that i would take my grandma to get groceries, but since she had such a bad headache, she didn't want to go. she asked if i would get them on tuesday for her. this is kind of really out of my way, but i felt bad so i agreed. i dropped her off and started to head home to pick up my mom from work. my mom said i should've told gma that i would get groceries for her and drop them off - otherwise "you'll be over there every day." yes! she did get me. i was suckered.

along the way, i was listening to a podcast with my headphones on and noticed every time i accelerated, i thought i heard a ticking noise. i took out my headphones and realized that yes, there was a noise everytime i put the pedal to the metal. "ok, make sure to let dad know." and i disregarded it. about a mile later, i look down and all of a sudden the oil light turned red, started beeping, and then the engine switch flipped to H: HOT. this was not good. i know NOTHING about cars (hardly know how to drive them), so i pulled over as soon as i could. smoke was pouring out of the engine. i turned off the car and called my dad. the engine was STILL making noise. he told me he was coming to check it out and so i waited. after about 30 seconds, i realized the car might explode, so i took everything out of it that i could and stood across the parking lot from it. after about 10-15 minutes it stopped smoking and didn't blow up in my face. zaz!

my old man came (i love that expression! it's so leave it to beaver) and put some antifreeze or something in the car. we agreed he would drive the car home and i would drive his suv. i just decided not to drive it again, although he is convinced it will be fine. this meant i couldn't finish anything that was on my list today. i convinced my brother, homie, to take me to best buy so that i could get a new router (this just MIGHT fix my macbook - it doesn't work at my parents house) and come back and set it up for me. i'm typing on my macbook in my bedroom and so far, so good. its fixed!

so yeah, today was a complete wash (except for the router), but at least i didn't die in a firey car.

oh! but i need some things from you guys. 1) what podcasts would you suggest i subscribe to? i need some new media to consume and 2) crap i forgot.

Sunday, June 7, 2009

crystal blue persuasion

i returned and saw under the sun
that the race is not to the swift
nor the battle to the strong
[something] ne the yet bread to the wise
nor yet riches to men of understanding
nor yet favor to met of skill
but time and chance happeneth to them all
mwahahaha.... yes, i did just [attempt to] quote the bible. or is it the bible? i have no idea, actually. i assume it is, but have to admit i do not know. it popped into my head just now as i was about to sit down to write my first ramble in quite some time. i was hoping for some quotation about returning to stand out at me, and that's what i came up with. surprisingly, i know two bible versus by heart. the one above and the other one includes this:
i will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and fur-ious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. and you will know my name is the lord when i lay my vengeance upon thee.
yes, it is true that both bible verses that i know are from cds - the latter from the pulp fiction soundtrack (EXCELLENT) and the former - can you guess from where? if you guessed color me badd's second album, time and chance, you are correct! yes, the group that sang "i wanna sex you up" also quotes the bible. or some other religious-sounding book. its all the same to me. ANYWAY... what was i going to say? oh right! back to blogging! i unintentionally took some time off during my vacation and have been back for the past week, but i have been oddly busy. it takes a lot of time and dedication to catch up on all my recorded shows - my dvr was 97% full when i got back. whew! but i persisted and am now down to less than 30% (some of which has been added after my return). i have also been running errands and just... i dont even know. keeping busy or something.

and i was inspired to get back into the swing of things by this article about people who start blogs and then stop. and i shall not stop! errr... at least not yet. maybe once i have a job again and am a respectable human being. until then, ramble on i shall! so, for those of you who keep coming back, thank you. and in the coming days and weeks you can expect fun stories from my vacation, exploits from fargo, and hearing about my [dreaded] job search. you read right. i am going to attempt to find a job that is not selling part of my body. (which reminds me i have to start again tomorrow...)

and for some sunday funday stuff, here s a video that i really enjoyed

admittedly, i was turned on to it by this article on boing boing. AND i was SHOCKED because they didn't mention mannequin in the article and i noticed it right away. which just tells everyone that i watch waaay toooo many movies. and maybe too much tv. but i would never admit to that.

with that, i shall end. i am off to have some homemade chili (sans maize, merde!), finish painting a bedroom, warm my feet, drink some martini bianco (mmmm) and ... maybe i'll be ambitious and re-start reading the book i started on vacation and haven't finished yet. but that souds like a lot. and it's sunday. i hate sundays. but that's for another time. a bientot!!