Thursday, June 24, 2010
Not just any laundry room flood.......
A great flood came upon 526 E 13th street on the musky, damp evening of June 24, 2010. I came home from a lovely dinner with dad—stuffed like a roasted pig—and picked up the house a bit. I decided to wash my pillow from the DMB weekend, which was still waiting to be washed clean of the urine/mud/beer muck that was sure to become permanent without immediate attention. About 30 minutes later I come down to check on the laundry and to my surprise, my foot landed not on solid ground of the laundry room floor, but a small puddle of water. “Really??” I thought. Someone spilt a drink and didn’t clean it up—not that I was particularly surprised. Our lifestyle at the house is not much different than that of a gang of sloths, minus the full-coverage body hair (well, for some of us…) Sloths or not, when I reach for a dirty towel on the ground to wipe up what I thought was a spilled drink, my hand is met by a sopping wet towel which, I immediately realized, was just one of many soaking wet towels. And of many tee shirts, blankets, underwear, and dresses! I bang in the washer knob to stop the watermill, but the sound of trickling water continues as the flood empties into the air duct. I leap over the rushing stream which has picked up steam, collecting random dryer sheets and lint balls along its path to the underground oasis. I scream for Heather to help and we literally stare at one another with not a clue of what to do. Do we laugh? Do we curse our landlords? Do we sleep on the situation and decide in the morning? After considering the options internally (and lingering a bit too long on the last one), we aired on the side of practicality—we used Melissa’s clothes to mop up what we could, put the sopping wet cotton into trashbags on the porch, and took up our respective mops. For what it is worth, we got that laundry room looking spick and span. We knew that since our landlords were going to be coming over that the scene of the crime needed to be flawless. In fact, Heather and I proceeded to spend the next hour making sure the house was picked up enough so that Norm and Brian wouldn’t have a shit fit the next day. It isn’t our washer and I was only doing a load of laundry—clearly this is not our fault. But for good measure and an added kick in our own ass, we made the house look exceptionally hygienic. The clean(er) smell of the downstairs no longer resembles urine and rotting sandwich meat—a first for our humble abode on 13th. First a dead bird, now a flooded laundry room…should I be concerned that troubling predicaments continue to compound my weekly routines?????
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Grocery Shopping Nostalgia
So I am in Kroger yesterday evening, buying all of my fresh ingredients for Jaclyn’s going away supper (menu and recipes to come…), and I did a double-take to the grape counter. An enticing neon sign advertised red seedless grapes for only $2.49…what a steal! I had a slight skip in my step over to the grape basket, picked the largest bag to get my money’s worth, smiled at the thought of my bargain skills long taught to me by my mother, and placed them in my cart next to the peaches. When the 16 year old cashier rang my juicy gems over the scanner they came up $5.98!! I quickly said, “those are priced at $2.49.” Ha! I had him caught. Immediate nostalgia kicked in as I remembered how I felt as a kid when mum would argue with the cashiers. Naturally, she won every time but I was so embarrassed! Little did I know I would catch on in my adulthood……But I snapped back into reality when I realized that, alas!, I had lost this battle. He pulled out the flier and just as quickly pointed out the true price. I neglected to see the 10PT FONT that read: “per lbs”. Why must the grocery exercise such trickery in their pricing???? With rosy cheeks and a sheepish swagger, I exited the hoodwinked store and never looked back! (turns out the grapes are TOTALLY worth it…but I still hold a slight grudge to my “neighborhood Kroger.” Neighborly—psht!)
www.kygirl2010.blogspot.com
www.kygirl2010.blogspot.com
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Another forgotten childhood memory...(sigh)
While catching up on my afternoon articles, my heart literally skips a beat when my eyes fall upon the heading: “Floppy Disks are Officially Dead.” OUCH! Could it be that another childhood memory keeper has been tossed into the throw-away pile? According to this article, this seems to be exactly the case. While these old school memory holders have obviously fallen out of the mainstream about, oh, say 10 years ago, it seems too final to say that they are officially dead. I have not used a floppy disk in probably about 10 years—they just aren’t practical anymore. When I think of a good ol’ floppy, I think of our dinosaur gateway computer that took literally 10 minutes to boot up. After the “power on” noise subsided (slightly) we could open up our games of tetras and minesweep and play for no more than one hour before suppertime. We had a floppy disk holder, resembling a wall shelf for used diskettes. Here, hundreds of floppies were housed, most of which were purchased by mum for no other reason than that they were on sale (not much as changed since then…now she has moved on to other consumer goods).
In any case, if I need to reach back into the throw-away pile of childhood delights, I can find one of these impractical devices next to the “Saved by the Bell” re-runs, gigapets, cassette stereos, antenna TVs, and of course the perpetually cool hair scrunchies. (Mum still has not received the memo on scrunchies and their respective place in the discard pile. Old habits die hard, I guess). So here’s to you, good ol’ floppy disks—may you always be remembered in your technologically prime time of the 80’s and 90’s. Cheers!
http://www.mainstreet.com/article/smart-spending/technology/floppy-disks-are-officially-dead
In any case, if I need to reach back into the throw-away pile of childhood delights, I can find one of these impractical devices next to the “Saved by the Bell” re-runs, gigapets, cassette stereos, antenna TVs, and of course the perpetually cool hair scrunchies. (Mum still has not received the memo on scrunchies and their respective place in the discard pile. Old habits die hard, I guess). So here’s to you, good ol’ floppy disks—may you always be remembered in your technologically prime time of the 80’s and 90’s. Cheers!
http://www.mainstreet.com/article/smart-spending/technology/floppy-disks-are-officially-dead
A car wash gone wrong....VERY wrong
June 16, 2010 The smell of DEATH via 2008 Saturn Vue For the past two weeks I have been driving a mobilized pigpen. Trash on the floor, molded pennies in the cup holders (I unstuck the silver coins to pay for my Peppermint Patty—see blog from last week), dirty windows and dusty dashboard. Since I purchased my new car last August I have been relatively good about keeping it clean—I think something about the fact that I actually paid for something significant put some fire under my bum to respect the space. Clearly, this has not been the case for the past few weeks. But to get to the point of my story…
For the past week, minimum, the stench has been atrocious! I literally cannot stand the smell when I get in my car and immediately roll down the windows. I have to do this anyway, seeing as the air conditioner does not work (another testament to my laziness). But even if it was working, I would not be able to survive the sink pit without fresh air. The smell was so bad yesterday I told myself that I HAD to clean it out today. After work, I parked my car and grabbed some cleaning supplies. When I crossed over to the driver’s side back seat I reached for what I thought was a piece of trash—but stopped right before I could touch it. I cocked my head to the side and said aloud, “what the hell is that?” After closer inspection the smell hit me in the face and I realized that what I thought to be perhaps a moldy hamburger or chicken sandwich, I realized that I had a DEAD BABY BIRD under my seat!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I didn’t know whether to scream or vomit, so I did neither and walked very calmly straight into Heather’s room and said, “I have a dead bird in my car.” She jumped out of bed so quickly I stammered backward as she said, “Don’t touch it! We can’t get the bird flu. We need gloves and disinfectant!” What a good friend, to take charge of the situation on which I obviously had no handle. Picture it: vanilla scented trash bags on hands, a bowl of Ajax Orange scented anti-bacterial soapy water, and a spray bottle of kitchen/bathroom disinfectant spray. Heather was an absolute GEM! She reached into the car to grab the rotting flesh. We threw it in our Gap drawstring bag (ironically, that bag was home to a 100% Pima cotton tee with a graphic Raven print on the front…can we say foreshadowing???) We headed straight for the dumpster. It would be inappropriate to describe the smell that emanated from the bird. There are no politically correct words. Let it suffice to say that if death had a smell, my entire car died the moment we removed the bird.
I scrubbed like a mad woman who just murdered her husband and while the smell did subside, this morning I still rolled down my windows first thing. I think it is safe to say that this morning’s smell could be partially attributed to my mentally scarred mind, and part the lingering smell of bird corpse. Then my mind started racing: how long had the bird been entombed in my heat box? How in the WORLD did it get there? Was it a slow and painful death? There is no telling the amount of germs that are swimming in my car and it makes me sick to think that I am sitting in them!!! Can germs spread through evaporated flesh?? I will never know the fate of my stinky friend and, quite frankly, I did not lose sleep over it last night. What I do know is that I am going to have my car professionally scrubbed…maybe twice, just in case!!!!
For the past week, minimum, the stench has been atrocious! I literally cannot stand the smell when I get in my car and immediately roll down the windows. I have to do this anyway, seeing as the air conditioner does not work (another testament to my laziness). But even if it was working, I would not be able to survive the sink pit without fresh air. The smell was so bad yesterday I told myself that I HAD to clean it out today. After work, I parked my car and grabbed some cleaning supplies. When I crossed over to the driver’s side back seat I reached for what I thought was a piece of trash—but stopped right before I could touch it. I cocked my head to the side and said aloud, “what the hell is that?” After closer inspection the smell hit me in the face and I realized that what I thought to be perhaps a moldy hamburger or chicken sandwich, I realized that I had a DEAD BABY BIRD under my seat!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I didn’t know whether to scream or vomit, so I did neither and walked very calmly straight into Heather’s room and said, “I have a dead bird in my car.” She jumped out of bed so quickly I stammered backward as she said, “Don’t touch it! We can’t get the bird flu. We need gloves and disinfectant!” What a good friend, to take charge of the situation on which I obviously had no handle. Picture it: vanilla scented trash bags on hands, a bowl of Ajax Orange scented anti-bacterial soapy water, and a spray bottle of kitchen/bathroom disinfectant spray. Heather was an absolute GEM! She reached into the car to grab the rotting flesh. We threw it in our Gap drawstring bag (ironically, that bag was home to a 100% Pima cotton tee with a graphic Raven print on the front…can we say foreshadowing???) We headed straight for the dumpster. It would be inappropriate to describe the smell that emanated from the bird. There are no politically correct words. Let it suffice to say that if death had a smell, my entire car died the moment we removed the bird.
I scrubbed like a mad woman who just murdered her husband and while the smell did subside, this morning I still rolled down my windows first thing. I think it is safe to say that this morning’s smell could be partially attributed to my mentally scarred mind, and part the lingering smell of bird corpse. Then my mind started racing: how long had the bird been entombed in my heat box? How in the WORLD did it get there? Was it a slow and painful death? There is no telling the amount of germs that are swimming in my car and it makes me sick to think that I am sitting in them!!! Can germs spread through evaporated flesh?? I will never know the fate of my stinky friend and, quite frankly, I did not lose sleep over it last night. What I do know is that I am going to have my car professionally scrubbed…maybe twice, just in case!!!!
Monday, June 14, 2010
Is the chocolate bar REALLY worth it??
How pitiful is this…I finished my lunch at home, which was pretty good. A green salad with cucumbers and tomato, a can of tuna salad right in the middle with FF Italian dressing drizzle. DELIGHT! But my sweet tooth kicks in (naturally) and after scouring all of the cupboards for something to satisfy, I dashed to the Jr. Foods for a Peppermint Patty. No bills—only change. The depth of my change wallet is deceiving, however. First of al, they are $1.09 for one! The nervous cramps come on as I approach the counter. I dump out my change purse and after exhausting all of my $0.60 silver coins, I turn to the pennies. I fall short 6 cents of the $1.16 total. Puppy eyes to the cashier = engaged! She let me have the chocolate delight and I told her she was an angel who just satisfied my desirous craving! I might have an addiction…
An "angry" Obama? Give me a break!!
Fareed Zakaria of CNN wrote an article today entitles: “Obama caves in to media frenzy over BP.” I absolutely agree with his expressed opinions89. There is no reason why, in the face of a huge crisis like this that the President should let down his guard and show emotion. He is succumbing to the public and media opinions which, ultimately, are going to effect his reelection in 2012. There is another article from today that talks about how public sentiment is sometimes viewed as more influential than the Presidential accomplishments over the first term. Obama’s list of successes can be as lengthy as the Constitution, but if the public has an overwhelmingly negative view of the President then votes simply will not generate favorably.
These issues also tie in with the stigma of an angry black man, which Obama is subject to all of the time. (A great article by John Blake of CNN, published June 9 has great insight on this). So there seems to be a paradox here. While the public is demanding more emotion and displays of anger, doing so increases the likelihood of accusations of an angry black man. This image would place Obama on the same level of Malcolm X, for example. Talk about the Debbie downer for the polls in 2012. Zakaria’s article notes that there have been more meetings on the Gulf disaster than on the Afghanistan crisis. I agree with him that this is insane. Redundant meetings for media clips make room for accusations from abroad that America is neglecting to address other, arguably more important, issues. We cannot afford to do this during the time of a world-wide economic crisis, Middle Eastern wars and conflict, trading relations, and everything else that the President has previously pushed on his agenda.
While I trust that Obama knows what he is doing, it is concerning to me that his demeanor toward recent public opinion is not reflective of the President I voted for two years ago. 2008 Obama is level headed, communicative, driven by common sense, and an effective representation of America that has improved international relationships and gained the trust of foreign leaders which we previously were denied in the past presidency. For what my opinion is worth, I believe that Obama needs to stop conceding to the emotional demands of a public who is not in any position to make Presidential decisions. To those who believe Obama needs to adopt a negative Nancy persona: STOP IT! Let him do his job effectively. Speak up and express your opinions on the issues, not on how the President of the United States should appear to the public.
Bottom line: he knows what he is doing. No matter your political affiliation, we need to investigate and critically analyze what our public officials are doing. I understand that we cannot put all of our faith in political leaders blindly. But focusing on the anger of Obama and any public official for that matter is a waste of time and deflects attention from the hard line issues. Grow up America—this isn’t a playground tiff.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/06/08/rage.obama/index.html?hpt=C2 (‘Angry Black Man’)
http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/06/10/zakaria.obama.media.frenzy/index.html (Zakaria article)
http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/06/14/zelizer.crisis.leadership/index.html (Julian Zelizer)
These issues also tie in with the stigma of an angry black man, which Obama is subject to all of the time. (A great article by John Blake of CNN, published June 9 has great insight on this). So there seems to be a paradox here. While the public is demanding more emotion and displays of anger, doing so increases the likelihood of accusations of an angry black man. This image would place Obama on the same level of Malcolm X, for example. Talk about the Debbie downer for the polls in 2012. Zakaria’s article notes that there have been more meetings on the Gulf disaster than on the Afghanistan crisis. I agree with him that this is insane. Redundant meetings for media clips make room for accusations from abroad that America is neglecting to address other, arguably more important, issues. We cannot afford to do this during the time of a world-wide economic crisis, Middle Eastern wars and conflict, trading relations, and everything else that the President has previously pushed on his agenda.
While I trust that Obama knows what he is doing, it is concerning to me that his demeanor toward recent public opinion is not reflective of the President I voted for two years ago. 2008 Obama is level headed, communicative, driven by common sense, and an effective representation of America that has improved international relationships and gained the trust of foreign leaders which we previously were denied in the past presidency. For what my opinion is worth, I believe that Obama needs to stop conceding to the emotional demands of a public who is not in any position to make Presidential decisions. To those who believe Obama needs to adopt a negative Nancy persona: STOP IT! Let him do his job effectively. Speak up and express your opinions on the issues, not on how the President of the United States should appear to the public.
Bottom line: he knows what he is doing. No matter your political affiliation, we need to investigate and critically analyze what our public officials are doing. I understand that we cannot put all of our faith in political leaders blindly. But focusing on the anger of Obama and any public official for that matter is a waste of time and deflects attention from the hard line issues. Grow up America—this isn’t a playground tiff.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/06/08/rage.obama/index.html?hpt=C2 (‘Angry Black Man’)
http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/06/10/zakaria.obama.media.frenzy/index.html (Zakaria article)
http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/06/14/zelizer.crisis.leadership/index.html (Julian Zelizer)
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Carvel: "This is not an incident, this is a catastrophe"
What is going on in the world today?? A question that is way easier asked than answered. As I sit at my dining room table, surrounded by unaddressed thank you notes and blank sheets of stationary just screaming to be inked, the three remaining pieces of my large Pizza Hut Supreme Pizza, my second glass of wine in hand and I immediately am regreting switching to the cheaper bottle. What a girl to do when she runs out of the Bogle Merlot?? Start in on the Livingston, apparently. Nevertheless, the warm tinge of rouge on my throat and the sound of summer rain on the porch brings me back home, to a place where I can be truly thankful for what I have and the people who surround me. Best friends, incredible family, endless opportunities for my future, and TONS of untold delights for my life all lay right in front of my eyes. And yet, there is so much more going on in the world at right this second.
What are these things otuside of my seemingly euphoric reality? Turn on CNN and you will see. Natalie Holloway's "murderer who got away" is arrested for charges of killing a young 21 year old. Funny how it happens to be 5 years to the day that Ms. Holloway's life was taken. Not so coincidential, if you ask me. THE Blanch Deverough suffered a stroke and died early this morning. Who would have thought that the sexy, perpetual "50something" would ever leave us? I grew up watching the Golden Girls and it's funny to think how I was so naive and didn't catch all of the sexual innuendos and undertones. Funny how time changes perspective, isn't it? Obama met with the governor of Arizona to discuss the most bogus bill passed since No Child Left Behind (please allow the state-to-national comparison). The law opens the doors for abuse of power via racial profiling and what is even scarier than the Arizona legislature passing this bill in the first place is that it creates great potential for 50 other states to follow suit. This has the same consequences as the Texas textbook rewriting controversy. Replacing "slavetrade" with North Atlantic Triangle and "Imperialism" with Expansionism wipes out two posts of US history that continue to shape our society, inculcate of our youth to conform to norms and abide by the status quo. It doesn't help that a huge percentage of textbooks in the nation come out of the Texas manufacturing plants. So what happens when the 18 year old Texan goes to college outside of her state only to find words like "slave trade" and "imperialism" to which she has never been exposed! The ripple effect is the issue here--more so than the actual event
The same goes for this sickening oil slick spreading millions of gallons across our ocean. I am watching the live camera right now of what is hapening down under and my jaw literally just drops. This is actually happening. Right now, this pump is shooting oil resembling a rocket ship. Will this cap fix it? No, it won't. Because the point of the cap isnt to fix the problem--it is to curb it until August when the relief wells are expected to be dug. August. It's June 3rd and while I hate to wish away the weeks of sweet summer and sunshine, August cannot come quick enough. This isn't going to stop once the oil stops flowing. Wildlife is dead. Livelihoods are destroyed. No check from BP can fix the intangibles that have been forever affected by this "slip up". Carvel was right--this isn't an "incident", this is a catastrophe and should be treated as such by everyone involved. I have never really had anything that I seriously considered effecting my children's generation. Of course, September 11th, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, global warming--these are all really important, life changing things that I obviously think about and I am aware that they will affect future generations. But for some reason, this spewing oil is bothering me more so than any other catastrophe I have experienced. Is it the fact that I can watch what is happening on the TV? Maybe. Is it because I hear the testimonies of fisherman and "ordinary" people who have lost everything? Perhaps, but not so much because the personal recollections are heard in other events too. This spill is physically apparent, every day. We have a countdown and a timeline of how much over how many days we are losing. And if this cap doesn't help, we can only keep moving down the line of plans to B, C, D, etc... But all of the time it takes to move down this ladder we are killing our environment, people, animals, careers, trust in government and companies, money is being lost. Those who think they are not affected are dead wrong (pun intended). This is a huge deal and it will never go away. After all of the tar and oil is cleared up, the problem persists.
And here I find myself, still among my stationary and ink pens, wine glass (now empty) and purple lips from the cheap elixer that has certainly made my warm bed and PJs sound way more appealing than usual. And so I will go to bed, and wake up in the morning to a hot shower, hot pot of coffee and PB& J toast, hope that the fire alarm won't go off from the still ingering burnt plastic on our front burner, and then spend the next 8 hours at work. Nothing out of my ordinary routine on tomorrow's agenda--but the world outside continues to change paths and take on new faces. It is our job as humans to keep up, because if we don't we will become blind to the changes in our own routines that are perpetually caused by the disarray of the world around us.
What are these things otuside of my seemingly euphoric reality? Turn on CNN and you will see. Natalie Holloway's "murderer who got away" is arrested for charges of killing a young 21 year old. Funny how it happens to be 5 years to the day that Ms. Holloway's life was taken. Not so coincidential, if you ask me. THE Blanch Deverough suffered a stroke and died early this morning. Who would have thought that the sexy, perpetual "50something" would ever leave us? I grew up watching the Golden Girls and it's funny to think how I was so naive and didn't catch all of the sexual innuendos and undertones. Funny how time changes perspective, isn't it? Obama met with the governor of Arizona to discuss the most bogus bill passed since No Child Left Behind (please allow the state-to-national comparison). The law opens the doors for abuse of power via racial profiling and what is even scarier than the Arizona legislature passing this bill in the first place is that it creates great potential for 50 other states to follow suit. This has the same consequences as the Texas textbook rewriting controversy. Replacing "slavetrade" with North Atlantic Triangle and "Imperialism" with Expansionism wipes out two posts of US history that continue to shape our society, inculcate of our youth to conform to norms and abide by the status quo. It doesn't help that a huge percentage of textbooks in the nation come out of the Texas manufacturing plants. So what happens when the 18 year old Texan goes to college outside of her state only to find words like "slave trade" and "imperialism" to which she has never been exposed! The ripple effect is the issue here--more so than the actual event
The same goes for this sickening oil slick spreading millions of gallons across our ocean. I am watching the live camera right now of what is hapening down under and my jaw literally just drops. This is actually happening. Right now, this pump is shooting oil resembling a rocket ship. Will this cap fix it? No, it won't. Because the point of the cap isnt to fix the problem--it is to curb it until August when the relief wells are expected to be dug. August. It's June 3rd and while I hate to wish away the weeks of sweet summer and sunshine, August cannot come quick enough. This isn't going to stop once the oil stops flowing. Wildlife is dead. Livelihoods are destroyed. No check from BP can fix the intangibles that have been forever affected by this "slip up". Carvel was right--this isn't an "incident", this is a catastrophe and should be treated as such by everyone involved. I have never really had anything that I seriously considered effecting my children's generation. Of course, September 11th, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, global warming--these are all really important, life changing things that I obviously think about and I am aware that they will affect future generations. But for some reason, this spewing oil is bothering me more so than any other catastrophe I have experienced. Is it the fact that I can watch what is happening on the TV? Maybe. Is it because I hear the testimonies of fisherman and "ordinary" people who have lost everything? Perhaps, but not so much because the personal recollections are heard in other events too. This spill is physically apparent, every day. We have a countdown and a timeline of how much over how many days we are losing. And if this cap doesn't help, we can only keep moving down the line of plans to B, C, D, etc... But all of the time it takes to move down this ladder we are killing our environment, people, animals, careers, trust in government and companies, money is being lost. Those who think they are not affected are dead wrong (pun intended). This is a huge deal and it will never go away. After all of the tar and oil is cleared up, the problem persists.
And here I find myself, still among my stationary and ink pens, wine glass (now empty) and purple lips from the cheap elixer that has certainly made my warm bed and PJs sound way more appealing than usual. And so I will go to bed, and wake up in the morning to a hot shower, hot pot of coffee and PB& J toast, hope that the fire alarm won't go off from the still ingering burnt plastic on our front burner, and then spend the next 8 hours at work. Nothing out of my ordinary routine on tomorrow's agenda--but the world outside continues to change paths and take on new faces. It is our job as humans to keep up, because if we don't we will become blind to the changes in our own routines that are perpetually caused by the disarray of the world around us.
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