born to hand jive!

oops. i forgot to celebrate the one-year anniversary of wanderlust - nd style.... i started this blog a year ago on august 23, my dad's birthday. later this week i plan on going through the highlights of the past year. until then - what has been the best part of the past year for you??

aug twitter archive

1. new poll! when was the last time you used a phone booth? http://bit.ly/3xtEM2:52 PM Aug 27th from web
2. just did @yogamazing for digestion and now tara stiles yoga for bed. then sleep with keith olbermann (in the background, not really, i wish)8:56 PM Aug 26th from web
3. another installment of "left in the wrong world" http://bit.ly/14uhRm3:00 PM Aug 26th from web
4. new segment: left (right) in the wrong (right) world http://bit.ly/afATN8:50 PM Aug 25th from web
5. i almost burnt my apt down last night http://bit.ly/QOPVS4:01 PM Aug 25th from web
6. just received dexter season 3 in the mail. now i am really happy. just hand over a bottle of wine.6:44 PM Aug 24th from web
7. i love the smell of a new yoga mat. especially in child's pose. i could stay there all day.6:34 PM Aug 23rd from web
8. what i wouldn't give to play challenge of ancient empires again. or maybe where in the world is carmen sandiego...5:17 PM Aug 23rd from web
9. its officially after midnight - happy birthday @parithed!!10:13 PM Aug 22nd from web
10. @erdynorth where was your ipod??9:38 AM Aug 22nd from web
11. quick post: friendly north dakotans & really funny short video about making wine http://wanderlust-ndstyle.b... check it out!!9:21 PM Aug 21st from web
12. @erdysouth - i meant you can BORROW it... fotc s2, that is. about to watch now with a bit of bubbly....9:19 PM Aug 21st from web
13. just bought flight of the conchords season 2. hell yeah... now i know what i'm doing all weekend. btw @erdysouth you CAN copy8:30 PM Aug 21st from web
14. happy birthday @delicateleah!! remember that time...3:22 PM Aug 19th from web
15. excellent blog about life in columbus ohio. please comment http://bit.ly/gaAp98:48 PM Aug 18th from web
16. guys here at work talking about favre and just wanting to skip training camp. say he's going to throw the ball around and then fall apart...9:53 AM Aug 18th from web
17. Just landed in chicago. On way to columbus. Wish had said goodbye to @erdysouth before i left. Am really really tired.6:26 AM Aug 16th from txt
18. Woo hoo!! Five dollar movie. At the ugly truth. Will blog about it later. Or something.9:07 PM Aug 12th from txt
19. 9pm at the main avenue bridge between fargo and moorhead: candlelight vigil for peaceful resolution of health care. Be there or be square.3:16 PM Aug 11th from txt
20. congrats to @parithed who shot a 70 today at edgewood and @erdynorth stopped by - what a great day!10:13 PM Aug 10th from web
21. last week in fargo. sad...are you cool enough to hang out with me? http://bit.ly/16Tkmg9:50 AM Aug 10th from web
22. its 8:39pm central time. has NO ONE twittered all day?? i haven't gotten a twitter in 7 hours. something is off. i don't like this.7:39 PM Aug 9th from web
23. ok i'm bored. give me something to do. i dare you...10:00 PM Aug 7th from web
24. OPP yeah you know me8:19 PM Aug 7th from web
25. check it out! w/ @erdysouth @charpie @bklavs video and thanks to @cbruels for nodak article! http://wanderlust-ndstyle.b...4:39 AM Aug 5th from web
26. totally kicked @erdysouth's ass in mancala tonight. who's on for settler's of catan at some point??8:26 PM Aug 4th from web
27. i am soooo bored. http://bit.ly/YKD3B12:24 AM Aug 4th from web
28. OH. MY GOD. megan wants a millionaire is my new favorite show. it's so horrible, it's good. agreed entourage bit the dust tonight.12:01 AM Aug 3rd from web
29. just hung out with @erdynorth and let him beat me in settlers of catan. next up: @erdysouth and @charpie tomorrow night!9:43 PM Aug 2nd from web

left in the wrong world part 7

overheard at work:
"i think obama has a larger plan for what he wants."
"hitler had a larger plan, too!"
[everyone explodes in laughter]

i have no words for how wrong this is.

lovin', touchin', squeezin'

you make me weep
i wanna die
just when you said we'd try...

i'm in a rather good mood right now. quite giddy, in fact. i rather like living alone and having a place to myself and hearing journey in the car on the way home from a cute indie flick - (500) days of summer - go see. it was mignon. i love seeing movies by myself - it always puts me in a good mood. it would've been even better if it had been at a refurbished old 1920s art deco movie theater, but i guess amc will do for middle america.

today has been pleasantly productive even though i have done nothing. i think i was hung over this morning, which is funny because i accidentally got drunk last night. at least i think i did - i think i went to bed before i was really drunk, but i definitely had a headache all morning. which means i slept through my drunkness, which kind of sucks - thats half the fun of drinking! i had two glasses of wine to finish this bottle i had open (can't let it sit too long or it'll go bad). then my friend, kevy-wevy skyped me and so i took out these two mini bottles of champagne and had those - one for me and one for him since we couldn't have it together. and then we were having such a good time chatting, i had the other two that were left in the fridge. i went to watch the weeds comic con panel and i fell asleep on the couch but awoke a few minutes later with a jolt and i felt ill because i startled myself so. i promptly put myself to bed. then this morning i realized how much i accidentally drunk. woops.

i was craving a sandwich that i used to get in boston all that time at cosi, and i knew there was one nearbyish, so i decided to walk there. its 1.4 miles away, which isn't very far. i figured that would be my workout for today. i set out and of course, there are no sidewalks to walk on. so i walked a mile and a half on grass, which is about my least favorite thing to do in the world. and this wasn't like nice, football field grass where you hope the cute quarterback will kiss you on. this was thorny and gross side of the highway grass that you see in scary movies before someone's head is thrown out of a car. i was worried i was going to get hit by a flying head. i dont understand this phenomenon of building a city without sidewalks. its horrible! and get this: while i was walking, i passed NUMEROUS BUS STOPS. how the hell do you get to a bus stop without a sidewalk?? and when i would get to the intersections of major roads, they would have the crosswalks painted and grooved curbs and buttons to push to get the walk sign, but no. no sidewalks to get TO the crosswalks! how silly is that??!! urban planners are ruining america! it means that people are not talking to their neighbors. people are not going for healthy walks. if you don't have a car, you're actually discouraged from getting around. horrible.

this is the conversation i had with my dear friend, shad, on the way home from cosi and this is also why i am in such a good mood tonight. i feel like i'm helping people. or helping people to help people. which means that i am, somehow indirectly, helping people. the end people, i mean. my friend shad is very important in vermont and he needs contacts back in nodak to kick some certain legislator's butt in gear (will explain more later) and my friend kj's husband is just the guy to do that! so i put everyone in contact and that means i'm helping! i'm making a difference! (well, assuming THOSE people actually go out and make a difference. this contingency difference-making is kind of hard now that i think about it...)

in any case, bravo to all my important friends. the wheel in the sky keeps on turning. i don't know where i will be tomorrow...

wait. yes i do. i will be at work. which i would like to comment on for a second. i was talking to my left half the other day and i was kind of doing this exasperated "ugh - ohio" thing which is my new mantra, and she said something like, "well, what do you expect? this is the midwest." and it really made me think. i've spent all weekend thinking about it, in fact. she is right, but she is not totally. i'm surprised by everything i see out here for a few reasons. 1) i don't know a lot of people in north dakota who are HARD-CORE in to politics and conservatism. people are pretty laid-back and respectful of each other. 2) which is not at all the vibe i am getting from people at work. what you hear in left in the wrong world is a phrase or two of twenty and thirty minute tirades about the government and "fucking liberals." kj brought up a good point, can you imagine if we said "fucking conservatives?" they would not put up with that at all. so point 3) is the fact that these people at work, while i understand a good debate and the natural ability and desire to question the government, are waaaay beyond that point. they have a new person in the room - there are only 12 people in the room and i am clearly NEW and do NOT know any of them - and they feel they can spout their beliefs so violently and without fault. i've never been one to talk politics at work, especially when you are around people who do not agree or who you do not even know you. 4) my last point is that i should admit i have been a bit naive - i truly believed that violent, gun-toting, abortion-doctor killing, hypocrytical uneducated conservatives were not really real. seeing people like this on the news was always, for me, kind of like watching a movie - fine, sure it's mostly believable, but that's not really what happens. and now i know i'm wrong.

so while i understand that left half was correct in her assessment of "what did you expect? this is the midwest?" and people in the midwest are more conservative... she was also wrong because people in the midwest are supposed to be more tolerant and respectful of each other. i truly believe that if i were to say anything that contradicts with some of these people's beliefs (in my office, specifically), it could become a hostile working enviornment. when i sit there and hear what they are talking about, my stomach starts to get warm and my cheeks turn red. that is how upset i get. sometimes i just sit there and try to remember what they are saying for more fodder for entertainment, sometimes it is so upsetting i have to leave the room. i have started bringing my ipod and wearing the headphones so i am not tempted to start an argument. and believe me, i'm tempted. the unfortunate part is that i am not mentally able to point out all of their ridiculous arguments - i'm just not smart enough. and that frustrates me. and as i pointed out to kj the other day, "i'm a polarizing person, so i don't want to bring anything up." while i know this is true about me, i didn't really realize that other people saw it, too. that is, until kj said, "i know, thats what i love about you." !! i guess i'm not as good at hiding that as i thought.

so, for now, i shall be content to put together people who do good work (and release my work frustrations to you, my dear readers). from hundreds of miles away, i am pleased with that bit of doing. and from one polarizing person to the next - i'm going to get ready for bed and listen to a bit of journey.

it's been a mystery
but still they try to see
why something good can hurt so bad.........

left in the wrong world part 6

i was surprised when i heard my coworkers have this discussion, completely out of the blue:

"do you know who would be the perfect republican ticket in 2012? Hanity / palin. I’m gonna order a hanity / palin bumper sticker."

left in the wrong world part 5

bumper sticker i drove behind:

ENDANGERED SPECIES
god-fearing pro-choice
right-wing conservative
republican

if only this were true...

left in the wrong world part 4

all i see online are good words about senator kennedy. not at work in central ohio:

coworker said to me yesterday, “wasn’t kennedy anti-military?”
i was like, “i have no idea.” which i don’t. but i cant imagine that’s true.
“i think he was and they’re burying him in arlington. that’s despicable.”
all i could reply was, “i know not of such things.”

i looked it up and he is eligible to be buried in arlington because he served from '51-'53.

what do you think of phone booths? (mc avail) poll archive

cool history - keep them around	4 (40%)
keep only if we had the london red booths	4 (40%)
who cares? i've got a cell phone	1 (10%)
this is a stupid poll	2 (20%)
other (comment)	0 (0%)

Votes so far: 10
Poll closed

demented and sad, but social

This morning I read this article on new york city, the largest city in the US, has only 4 phone booths left. FOUR. Isn’t that incredible? I wonder when the first one was installed…

I have many memories of phone booths. Nooo, not like THAT. What I was thinking about is the first time I went to new york – I was a freshman in college and I met three friends there for thanksgiving – all from north Dakota. I was very bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. I KNEW that people could tell I was not from there and that I had no big city experience (living on campus in boston for 2 months does not count as city experience). So before my trip, I went to express (where I also worked) and bought a purse that had a zipper and a lock so that no one could pick pocket me. My friends were meeting me from DC and Philadelphia. I just now realized that none of them knew each other. Funny. Anyway, we were walking near times square and we wanted to use the phone (this is pre-cell phone days of course) and we found a pay phone. Before my friend, shad, went in the phone booth, I sprayed it with disinfectant that I had bought purposefully for the trip. I sprayed the whole booth. I was very proud of myself. And to think there are only 4 left. Probably not the one I sprayed down.

My other thought of phone booths is living in france. Since it was so expensive to set up a landline and even more expensive to call the US from a cell phone, I used to buy phone cards and walk down the street to the phone booth and call my parents. So old school. I spent HOURS in phone booths in france. I think they are still fairly prevalent over there… the thing with phone booths in france is, though, you have to buy a phone card before you can use them. You can’t put money in them – it has to be a card. This can be rather annoying if you don’t have a card or don’t realize whats going on. And you most often can’t use a credit card – it’s a specific carte telephonique that you have to get.

When lisa and meat came to the US a few years ago, they couldn’t figure out how to use the American pay phones. They bitched to me for hours about it the next time I saw them. They were like, “money?! You can ONLY use QUARTERS?!” I couldn’t figure out how they couldn’t figure out how to use the phones. I think it has to do with dialing the “1” first. To this day, they think French phones are easier. Silly Europeans.

left in the wrong world part 3

in honor of yesterday's passing of senator ted kennedy, i overheard this crass remark:

"They put him up there on a pedestal like he was some great figure or something."

sigh.